Tip o' the shliapa* to Laura for passing along this wonderful and basically accurate summary of Soviet history:
*It means "hat," people. Minds out of the gutter please.
Showing posts with label russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label russia. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Tuesday, November 08, 2011
The Only Contest in which Judges are Reduced to Tears by Contestants
Babushkas, breaking out of their stereotype as Russia's solid, stolid backbone, go fashion forward, per this item in the Washington Post. No word on how the winner placed in the Berating Youth category.
Don't be fooled, though. These ladies will still spear your kidneys with a sack of potatoes if you don't move through the Metro doors fast enough. And ladies, if you sit on a park bench in cold weather, be prepared to learn how that will make you sterile. Frankly, with the eventual dying out of the babushkas, one wonders how the country will function given their omnipresence.
That contest reminded me a bit of this contest among Britain's finest:
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Read This, and You'll Want a Drink. Or Perhaps Not.
The Russian government is encountering some resistance in its attempts to reclassify beer as an alcoholic beverage. Sounds as if the encouragement of beer as the mongoose to kill the cobra of vodka has backfired, though not as badly as the metaphors in this sentence.
At any rate, the goal of reducing alcohol consumption by half within the next decade or so sounds impossible, but not when alcohol is the driving force behind the projected 20% decline in the Russian population by 2050. That's almost half your goal right there!
Lest you think this is some reflection of the Putin-Medvedev thugocracy*, this kind of demographic disaster has been underway since the Soviet period, as anyone who has encountered the work of Murray Feshbach will attest. I took his course in Soviet Demography twenty years ago and the section on the Soviet medical system, which is largely unchanged and probably worse except for the upper strata of society, was the most depressing two hours I have spent in a classroom.
Na zdrovie!
*I was going to use the term "kleptocracy" but I get the sense that Putin at least is keeping his personal share of his country's wealth inside the borders so he can enjoy it in situ.
At any rate, the goal of reducing alcohol consumption by half within the next decade or so sounds impossible, but not when alcohol is the driving force behind the projected 20% decline in the Russian population by 2050. That's almost half your goal right there!
Lest you think this is some reflection of the Putin-Medvedev thugocracy*, this kind of demographic disaster has been underway since the Soviet period, as anyone who has encountered the work of Murray Feshbach will attest. I took his course in Soviet Demography twenty years ago and the section on the Soviet medical system, which is largely unchanged and probably worse except for the upper strata of society, was the most depressing two hours I have spent in a classroom.
Na zdrovie!
*I was going to use the term "kleptocracy" but I get the sense that Putin at least is keeping his personal share of his country's wealth inside the borders so he can enjoy it in situ.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Friday, January 01, 2010
S Novym godom!
Happy New Year from all of us here at Potpourri for $500. I hope the year ahead brings more good than bad your way.
Had blogging been available 24 years ago JJV and I could have liveblogged from the Astoria Hotel in then-Leningrad. OK, to be honest my liveblogging would have tailed off before midnight, but JJV would have kept the entries coming.
I look forward to seeing what my co-contributors can come up with in the coming year. For my part I hope a layout update is in the near future, as I have pulled the trigger on a couple of gift certificates for tools and scenery items. A man can dream...
Had blogging been available 24 years ago JJV and I could have liveblogged from the Astoria Hotel in then-Leningrad. OK, to be honest my liveblogging would have tailed off before midnight, but JJV would have kept the entries coming.
I look forward to seeing what my co-contributors can come up with in the coming year. For my part I hope a layout update is in the near future, as I have pulled the trigger on a couple of gift certificates for tools and scenery items. A man can dream...
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Vladimir Ilyich Illin'
My contact in the world of Eastern Orthodoxy, known only as The Late Fr. Orestes, passed along this BBC report of a bomb attack on the statue of Lenin outside Finland Station in St. Petersburg. The dateline was April 1 which, along with the tipster's proclivities, led me to think it was a joke, but apparently it is true.
The explosion revealed a series of increasingly smaller Lenins inside. Sorry, that's the best I can come up with. That and, based on the accompanying picture, the usual jokes about the stuffed cabbage at the Kremlin cafeteria:
The explosion revealed a series of increasingly smaller Lenins inside. Sorry, that's the best I can come up with. That and, based on the accompanying picture, the usual jokes about the stuffed cabbage at the Kremlin cafeteria:
Monday, December 08, 2008
Boris and Gleb Would Be Proud
Ed. Note - My contact in the world of Eastern Orthodoxy, known only as The Late Fr. Orestes, submitted this obituary of Patriarch Alexei of Moscow, who died last Friday. Readers will be wise to consider his words carefully, especially the bit about St. Panteleimon. Note also that he refrains from mentioning that the Venetians also led the Fourth Crusade in 1204, which culminated in the capture and sack of Constantinople.
---
The death of Patriarch Alexei signals the end of an era for the Russian Orthodox Church. He led the Church in its rebirth following the fall of communism and symbolized what was to be a new chapter in the church’s history following 75 years of persecution under the Communist Regime. Yet, his past was tainted by ties to the former Soviet Government and possibly links with the KGB. For those of you who are real church junkies, you might recall his KGB name as Colonel Drozdov.
His Holiness was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1929. At that time, Latvia was an independent country. His parents were pious Orthodox Christians and raised him in the faith. His Holiness climbed the ecclesial ladder with great speed. Before long, he was the Metropolitan of Leningrad, a rank equal to that of a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. He had some very influential friends at that time as well. The mayor of Leningrad, Boris Yeltsin, was one of them. It was little wonder that Mr. Yeltsin, along with the Holy Spirit, made Alexei’s rise to the Patriarchal Throne inevitable.
Church and state have always been close allies in Russia. For those of you who have read the Chronicles of St. Nestor, and if you doubt their veracity may an icon of St. Panteleimon fall on your head, you will remember it was Vladimir the Great who encouraged his envoys to travel throughout the world searching of the one, true God. They found that God in Constantinople and with this new faith, a future basis by which to declare Russia as the Third Rome.
No matter what you think of His Holiness, he gave his all to the church. He fought tirelessly to have churches reopened, repaired, and returned back to their rightful owner. Young men and women openly embraced the Orthodox faith. Seminaries, monasteries and convents have sprung up throughout this vast country adding thousands to their ranks.
After years of negotiation, he reunited the Church of Russia with the Russian Church Abroad, and made inroads into reuniting the Old Believers with the Church. He worked with other faiths as well, but had little patience with sects and cults. His cautious negotiations with the Roman Catholic Church were especially important as everyone remembers it was the Venetian soldiers who abandoned their post and allowed the Ottoman Turks to breach the walls of Constantinople on 23 May 1453, ushering in a bleak period for Orthodoxy.
He truly loved God and served the liturgy like an angel. I had an opportunity to serve with His Holiness in 1999, and it was one of the most inspirational moments in my life. His kindness and words of encouragement revealed a truly human side to a man who holds as much power as the Tsar, I mean President of Russia.
The next Patriarch of Russia will be elected sometime in May of next year. I’m placing my vote on the young, intelligent, talented, pious, and soft-spoken Bishop of Budapest, Hilarion (Alfeyev). He holds a PhD from Oxford, speaks nearly a dozen languages fluently, and he is a brilliant scholar who can hold his own with either Pope or Patriarch. Whether or not the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church agree with me is the topic of another posting all together.
In the meantime, may God grant eternal rest to the soul of his servant, Alexei, and may his memory be eternal. Vichnaya jemu, pam’jat.
---
The death of Patriarch Alexei signals the end of an era for the Russian Orthodox Church. He led the Church in its rebirth following the fall of communism and symbolized what was to be a new chapter in the church’s history following 75 years of persecution under the Communist Regime. Yet, his past was tainted by ties to the former Soviet Government and possibly links with the KGB. For those of you who are real church junkies, you might recall his KGB name as Colonel Drozdov.
His Holiness was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1929. At that time, Latvia was an independent country. His parents were pious Orthodox Christians and raised him in the faith. His Holiness climbed the ecclesial ladder with great speed. Before long, he was the Metropolitan of Leningrad, a rank equal to that of a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. He had some very influential friends at that time as well. The mayor of Leningrad, Boris Yeltsin, was one of them. It was little wonder that Mr. Yeltsin, along with the Holy Spirit, made Alexei’s rise to the Patriarchal Throne inevitable.
Church and state have always been close allies in Russia. For those of you who have read the Chronicles of St. Nestor, and if you doubt their veracity may an icon of St. Panteleimon fall on your head, you will remember it was Vladimir the Great who encouraged his envoys to travel throughout the world searching of the one, true God. They found that God in Constantinople and with this new faith, a future basis by which to declare Russia as the Third Rome.
No matter what you think of His Holiness, he gave his all to the church. He fought tirelessly to have churches reopened, repaired, and returned back to their rightful owner. Young men and women openly embraced the Orthodox faith. Seminaries, monasteries and convents have sprung up throughout this vast country adding thousands to their ranks.
After years of negotiation, he reunited the Church of Russia with the Russian Church Abroad, and made inroads into reuniting the Old Believers with the Church. He worked with other faiths as well, but had little patience with sects and cults. His cautious negotiations with the Roman Catholic Church were especially important as everyone remembers it was the Venetian soldiers who abandoned their post and allowed the Ottoman Turks to breach the walls of Constantinople on 23 May 1453, ushering in a bleak period for Orthodoxy.
He truly loved God and served the liturgy like an angel. I had an opportunity to serve with His Holiness in 1999, and it was one of the most inspirational moments in my life. His kindness and words of encouragement revealed a truly human side to a man who holds as much power as the Tsar, I mean President of Russia.
The next Patriarch of Russia will be elected sometime in May of next year. I’m placing my vote on the young, intelligent, talented, pious, and soft-spoken Bishop of Budapest, Hilarion (Alfeyev). He holds a PhD from Oxford, speaks nearly a dozen languages fluently, and he is a brilliant scholar who can hold his own with either Pope or Patriarch. Whether or not the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church agree with me is the topic of another posting all together.
In the meantime, may God grant eternal rest to the soul of his servant, Alexei, and may his memory be eternal. Vichnaya jemu, pam’jat.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
From Russia with Strict Ideological Correctness
My contact in the world of Eastern Orthodoxy notes the unsurprising reaction of Russian Communists to the casting of a Ukrainian in the latest Bond film.
Among other terms the Communists occur to Olga Kurylenko as "Wanton Daughter of unclean Ukraine and deserter of the Slavic world." Tell us how you really feel, comrades. I guess the whole Dale Carnegie craze has run its course over there.
Update 11/12: In comments, JJV reminds me that he was the one who tipped me off to this. Mea maxima culpa. I think I was thrown off by the "wanton daughter" bit which sounded like it could have been lifted from some trans-Carpathian jeremiad.
Among other terms the Communists occur to Olga Kurylenko as "Wanton Daughter of unclean Ukraine and deserter of the Slavic world." Tell us how you really feel, comrades. I guess the whole Dale Carnegie craze has run its course over there.
Update 11/12: In comments, JJV reminds me that he was the one who tipped me off to this. Mea maxima culpa. I think I was thrown off by the "wanton daughter" bit which sounded like it could have been lifted from some trans-Carpathian jeremiad.
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