“Psst! I’m over here, the one with the devilish sense of humor and the big mouth that doesn’t know when to shut itself. And by entering your country, I’ve just painted a big red target on my back. So you may as well just take me now, toss me into the slammer, and forget about me. Because I won’t last a day in your new, ‘sacred’ environment.”

That would have been me, 30 years ago, if Vladimir Putin had been President of Russia when I was living and working there, during that summer of 1993. Or if I were idiotic enough to go back today, even for a brief visit. Because now, another new law is about to be added to the mega-volume of new, ever-more-restrictive edicts being issued by His Majesty, Tsar Vladimir (as I assume he wishes to be addressed these days).

You see, I committed a heinous crime; I made a joke out loud. I referred to him as “Mad King Vlad from Leningrad.” But I had signed the mandatory loyalty oath on entering the country, and some rat fink (not sure how that translates into Russian) turned me in. My bad. I’m guilty as shit. Slap on the cuffs.

*. *. *

This is all in my imagination, of course; I’m actually safe and sound, right here in the U.S. of A. But the reason for this bad, bad dream is real enough. Because yesterday I read that “Russia’s interior ministry has prepared draft legislation that would force foreigners to sign a ‘loyalty agreement’ forbidding them from criticising official policy, discrediting Soviet military history, or contravening traditional family values.” [Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly, Reuters, Nov. 29, 2023.]

According to a report from the TASS state news agency, the draft legislation would prohibit a foreigner entering Russia from “interfering with the activities of public authorities of the Russian Federation, discrediting in any form the foreign and domestic state policy of the Russian Federation, public authorities and their officials.” It would also include clauses about “morality, family, ‘propaganda about non-traditional sexual relations’ and history . . . [as well as] distorting the historical truth about the feat of the Soviet people in the defence of the Fatherland and its contribution to the victory over fascism.”

Further, “The Kremlin said earlier this month that some measure of censorship was needed as Russian troops were fighting in Ukraine, and cautioned those who wanted to criticise the military to think carefully before they did.” [Reuters, Nov. 29, 2023.]

Well, that seems to cover just about everything but the weather . . . and you should probably be careful what you say about that as well, because what the draft law doesn’t state (as far as I know) is precisely what constitutes those various violations. And I’m not really fond of things that are left wide open to someone else’s interpretation.

As of this writing, the new law — it’s not clear what they’re going to name it — is not in effect, as it has not yet been presented to Putin for signature. But . . .

Yes, there’s that Russian “but” again. And it’s a big one.

But . . . it seems to be well on its way to his desk. As clarified in the Reuters report, in order for the draft to become law, it first has to be introduced to the State Duma, then go through a committee review and “several readings” (by whom, is also unclear), before it can be presented to Putin for signature. The Chairman of the Duma’s CIS* Affairs Committee (the rough equivalent of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee) has said that the draft law was “well advanced” and “being worked on” by the Ministry of the Interior, “the government,” the presidential administration, and by his own committee.

[* CIS: Commonwealth of Independent States.]

The Reuters report also quotes one Leonid Kalashnikov as having told Interfax that “[t]he draft law on the so-called ‘loyalty agreement’ with migrants entering the Russian Federation is in a high degree of readiness” . . . though “some details of the proposed law were still to be worked out.”

It was not clear to me whether this Kalashnikov (yes, the same name as the famous Russian rifle) and the Chairman of the CIS Affairs Committee are one and the same person. So, of course, I looked him up on the Duma’s website, and they are indeed just one man. And here he is, hopefully not in what would be considered one of his more cheerful moments:

Kalashnikov, age 60, is a deputy in the 7th State Duma representing the CPSU: the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Of course, it’s now called the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, though still somehow known by its old initials. Some things just refuse to die.

And not incidentally, he is under U.S. and other sanctions, and is further considered a “politically exposed person” — an individual who is or has been in a prominent position and may be subject to coercion or other illegal abuse. So, clearly a guy in the know, though probably not one you’d want to do business with, or bring home to meet the family. Would you?

Naahhh . . . probably not.

All in all, it appears that this draft law will have little difficulty passing muster and being submitted to His Excellency . . . His Majesty? . . . His Holiness . . . or whatever Putin calls himself these days. And you know he has his pen already poised to sign off on it, since it was most likely his idea in the first place.

I loved my time in Russia. I will always be grateful for having had the opportunity . . . when it was presented to me, 30 years ago. But today? Hell, no! It took a modicum of courage back then; today it requires complete and absolute lunacy. Stay away! Are you hearing me? Unless you’re suicidal, don’t go! They’re arresting people right and left over there. Please . . . if you must travel abroad, go to Italy, or Japan, or Australia. There are so many beautiful places in this world where the people are lovely and the food is good and the laws do not require you to remain mute and stay inside the box. Try one of those. I’m begging you . . .

*. *. *

So, while I have no further need to travel to Russia . . . nor any desire to do so, in the current environment . . . a lot of people do, for a number of reasons: diplomats from around the world, various other government representatives, journalists, the few remaining foreign business reps, and perhaps even a stray (and seriously misguided) do-gooder from an NGO or a religious organization. I wish them the best of luck, and I have one word of advice to offer them: DON’T. If you have any choice at all, for God’s sake . . . DON’T!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/1/23

You’re probably laughing right now; I did too, when I read today’s news flash. But it’s not a joke. I don’t think Vladimir Putin knows how to crack jokes about such serious matters as zero . . . no, negative . . . population growth. Russia’s in trouble, people. Like that other Wicked Witch — you know, the one from the West — Russia is melting!

Well . . . shrinking, actually. But close enough for government work. (“Melting” sounds too much like the global warming thing, which is a whole other really serious issue and not the one we’re talking about today.)

In Russia’s case, it took more than tossing a bucket of water at a Witch to start the process; it took an entire war (or “special military operation,” in Putin parlance), and the resultant deployment of around 300,000 Russian troops (of whom an estimated 50,000 have died), for Mr. Putin to become fully aware of the problem. Those losses, together with the “Flight of the Draft-Dodgers” and others — a total of another 900,000 or so people — have taken a serious bite out of Russia’s workforce since February of 2022. Not to mention the inevitable reduction in the birth rate.

So on November 28th, Putin again appeared on the big — really big — screen before the 15th World Russian People’s Congress at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, where he urged Russian women to get busy and start popping out babies as quickly as possible:

“Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, had seven, eight, or even more children. Let us preserve and revive these excellent traditions. Large families must become the norm, a way of life for all of Russia’s people. The family is not just the foundation of the state and society, it is a spiritual phenomenon, a source of morality.

“Preserving and increasing the population of Russia is our goal for the coming decades and even generations ahead. This is the future of the Russian world, the millennium-old, eternal Russia.”

*. *. *

Wow! Get crankin’, folks. Let the orgy begin!

Granted, the decline in Russia’s population is not new. Since the start of Putin’s reign some 24 years ago, he has offered “a range of government incentives for those who have children, including payouts for families who have more than one child.” But, in a country already suffering from the effects of massive inflation, as well as the impact from more recent sanctions imposed since the start of the war against Ukraine, it appears that these incentives have fallen far short of their goal. According to Rosstat, Russia’s federal statistics service, the country’s population as of January 1st of this year stood at 146,447,424 — lower than it was in 1999 when Putin first became president. [Tom Porter, Business Insider, Nov. 29, 2023.] For purposes of comparison, the population of the United States on January 1st was 334,233,854 — a slight increase of about 1/2% over the previous year.

So now Putin is trying a different tactic: appealing to the patriotic, moral, and spiritual values held dear by this generation’s grandparents and great-grandparents. Yeah . . . good luck with that one, Vlad. I can’t wait to see how it goes over with all of those already overworked, underpaid, physically and emotionally exhausted couples who are now being told they’re nothing more than baby-making machines for the state. Forget about making love; it’s now just a manufacturing process.

*. *. *

You say you want my personal opinion on this vital matter? Okay, here it is:

That’s gonna take one hell of a lot of vodka!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/29/23

In 1949, just half a year before his death, George Orwell’s novel “1984” was published. Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic, known for his political opposition to totalitarianism and his support of democratic socialism. Any adult who hasn’t heard of “1984” and its infamous, larger-than-life “Big Brother” must have been living in a bunker. For those who would like to catch up, it is best described as a “dystopian novel” satirizing life in a totalitarian state (obviously patterned after the Soviet Union). It has become an award-winning classic, and if it isn’t required reading in our high schools, it should be (in my opinion). (The paperback costs less than $10 on Amazon. Don’t bother watching the movie, though; it’s terrible.)

So why am I promoting this 75-year-old novel by a long-deceased writer? I’m not, actually. But I was reminded of it the other day when I was researching information on a particular Russian government ministry and stumbled across one I didn’t know existed: the Ministry of Enlightenment of the Russian Federation. And I gasped. Literally gasped, out loud, for two reasons. First, although there was no “Ministry of Enlightenment” in Orwell’s novel, the principal focus of the book was on the forced dissemination of the government’s lies and propaganda under the guise of enlightenment. And second, the last such ministry in the real world of which I am aware was the “Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda,” created by Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany in 1933 and headed by Joseph Goebbels until the war’s end in 1945. (There may, of course, be others by different names in other countries that are not as well known).

See why I gasped? Because Orwell’s prescience has extended, not just to 1984, but into yet another century. Russia now has one of those real-life ministries, established in 2018, passing along the teachings and the mandates of a virtual clone of Orwell’s Big Brother: none other than Vladimir Putin himself.

Interestingly, if you do a Google search of “Russian Ministry of Enlightenment,” what pops up is the Ministry of Education. And when I double-checked the Russian words for “enlightenment” and “education” — because my Russian language skills are less than perfect and really rusty — I found a cute little translational word play. The most commonly-used Russian word for education is obrazovaniye. But the Ministry of Education is described online as the Ministry of Prosvescheniya — Ministry of Enlightenment, according to the word’s principal usage. However, Prosvescheniye also has a secondary meaning. You guessed it: it’s “education.”

Confused? I’d be shocked if you weren’t. It’s a fine distinction, so just take my word for it: while not technically incorrect, it appears that the word Prosvescheniye was intentionally used in the creation of the new (2018) Ministry to muddy the waters. It would have been so easy to avoid confusion by naming it the Ministerstvo Obrazovaniya, which does not have a dual meaning.

(By the way, the different word endings (“e” and “a”) are not typos; they have to do with the Russian grammatical cases, and you really don’t want me trying to explain those!)

But . . .

As I’ve said before, in Russia there is always a “but.”

But in any event, my point is that Russia already had a Ministry of Education, long before 2018. I know, because I met with Dr. Kezina, then the head of that Ministry, in Moscow, way back in 1993. A highly intelligent, competent woman with a strong personality and direct manner, I found her to be very impressive; she was not a figment of my imagination. She and her Ministry were very real. *

* NOTE: The Ministry existed, under various names, from the early days of the USSR. Until 1946, it was known as the People’s Commissariat for Education — in Russian, the Narodniy Kommissariat Prosvescheniya, or its acronym, Narkompros. Note that the word used for “Education” was the word whose principal definition is “Enlightenment” — Prosvescheniya. Was Vladimir Putin’s chosen naming of the new (2018) Ministry a coincidence, or was it an intentional homage to Narkompros?

So, why the need for a second institution, purportedly with the same or similar functions? Or perhaps it’s just a restructuring of the original Ministry of Education. But in either case, why cloak it under a misleading name?

Although not widely publicized, there has been an awareness of this development in Russia at least since early 2022. On March 3rd of that year, it was reported:

“Russia has a ‘Ministry of Enlightenment’ and it is as dystopian as it sounds.

’The ministry is basically the country’s answer to the ministry of education and the Kyiv Independent today drew people’s attention to its existence when it revealed something the ministry is planning today.

“On Facebook, the ministry announced it is holding a virtual lesson for children to explain why the war on Ukraine is necessary and about the ‘danger’ of Nato [sic] today.

[Quoting from the Ministry’s Facebook post about the lesson]:

‘At the All-Russian Open Lesson, schoolchildren will be told why the liberation mission in Ukraine is a necessity.

The broadcast will take place tomorrow, March 3 in the community of the Ministry of Enlightenment starting at 12 o’clock Moscow time.

Viewers will be told the background of today’s events: about the danger NATO represents to our country, why Russia stood up for the protection of the civilians of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and will also help to figure out how to distinguish the truth from lies in the huge stream of information, photos and videos that are flooding the internet today.

You can use the materials on the broadcast website to conduct such an open lesson in your classroom, in the institute of education’ . . .” [Kate Plummer, indy100, March 3, 2022.]

The Hitler Youth . . . the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol) . . . whatever they might name the new Russian youth organization . . . they’re all the same. Get those kids young enough, while they’re still vulnerable and their little psyches still malleable, and you’ve got a whole new generation of zombies eager to do your bidding. Perhaps they should be called “Putin’s Pioneers.” *

* NOTE: The Soviet Union’s “Youth Pioneers” was a compulsory organization for children and adolescents aged 9-14, founded in 1922 and continuing in existence until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. 

*. *. *

But wait . . . they already exist!

Dig deep enough, and you find the most amazing things. On October 29, 2015 — the 97th anniversary of the 1918 founding of the Soviet Union’s Komsomol* — Vladimir Putin, in a master stroke combining nostalgia and foresight, created what he calls The Russian Schoolchildren’s Movement. Komsomolskaya Pravda said in its website headline: “On Komsomol’s birthday, Putin signed a decree on creating new Pioneers.” But the article went on to clarify that the new movement would be “free from Communist or any other ideology.” Ministry of Education officials “appeared unfamiliar with Putin’s plans, while a social affairs official in Russia’s Cabinet said the new movement was ‘exclusively the presidential administration’s’ idea.” [Anna Dolgov, The Moscow Times, Oct. 30, 2015.]

* NOTE: Komsomol was the Soviet Union’s political youth organization for 14-to-28-year-olds who had graduated from the Pioneers. Komsomol was also dissolved in 1991.

*. *. *

So this apparently was all Putin’s brainchild. And within three years following its inception, along came the new Ministry of Enlightenment, with its Soviet-style, almost subliminal, daily dosage of official rhetoric, now complete with programs available for use in classrooms.

Free from propaganda, huh?

*. *. *

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/29/23

Someone asked me yesterday how I’d managed to live so long.

No, not that long!

Only a young person would ask a question like that, thinking it was a compliment; and I’m sure she meant it that way. I actually thought it was rather funny, and as I contemplated my answer, I realized that I had never thought about it before. And my answer was:

By doing pretty much whatever I wanted to do.

I’ve never smoked, but not because of the health hazard; I tried it twice in my teens, and hated it. Plus, it’s a very expensive habit. But lots of other people did, so there was a good bit of second-hand smoke being inhaled.

I didn’t do drugs because they were illegal and I was afraid of being caught. Plus — even more so than cigarettes — there was the cost. But otherwise . . .

Did I drink? Sure. Did I drink and drive? Sorry to say, I did, and the fact that I didn’t kill myself or anyone else is due to just plain dumb luck. And in my younger days, I was hell on wheels, even when sober.

Did I eat red meat? Oh, yeah . . . lots of it. A day without beef was an incomplete day. And fatty foods, spicy foods, all kinds of ethnic foods, without consideration for the grams of fat, sodium, or cholesterol. And dessert? To me, dessert was an essential food group. Every meal ended with something sweet.

Did I get enough sleep? Never! There was too much partying going on to waste my time sleeping. How about staying hydrated? We didn’t think about that when I was younger. Exercise? Every now and then, but it was too much work to keep at it.

I traveled, to countries where food wasn’t always properly stored or refrigerated. I never got sick from the food, or from spending hours in an airplane with people exhaling germs. And antibacterial soaps weren’t readily available. I learned not to worry about it.

And even before young adulthood. When I was a kid, we roller skated, rode bikes, climbed trees . . . and all without helmets. We fell and skinned our knees. So what? A little iodine and a bandaid, and we were back outside. Cars didn’t have seat belts. Kids shared soda bottles and popsicles, exchanging germs without thinking about it. Nobody cared.

And finally, I guess I have good genes. Most of my family members lived long, productive lives. They . . . we . . . have always worked hard, taken care of one another, and lived decent lives (apart from that drinking-and-driving thing).

Let’s face it . . . life’s a crap shoot. You can do all the right things, and still die young; or you can jump out of a plane without a parachute, and survive. (I don’t recommend that, however.) Basically, it’s a matter of luck. And I’ve been pretty lucky . . . so far, anyway.

Thanks to that young lady for asking.

Brendochka
11/28/23

It’s official at last: Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine has finally been declared a “war,” and by Vladimir Putin himself. And it only took 21 months.

In his address to the G20 leaders on November 22nd — his first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 — Putin, attending virtually from Moscow, first said that some leaders had expressed shock at the ongoing “aggression” of Russia in Ukraine. His unsurprising response to that was:

“Yes, of course, military actions are always a tragedy. And of course, we should think about how to stop this tragedy. By the way, Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine.”

While far from acknowledging any blame for having started the “tragedy,” this was by far Mr. Putin’s most conciliatory remark to date. And, to everyone’s surprise, he finally used the “w” word:

“I understand that this war, and the death of people, cannot but shock . . .”

. . . before then launching into a statement claiming that the Ukrainian government itself had persecuted its own people in eastern Ukraine, apparently referring back to the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Crimea in 2014.

He further commented on the present Israel-Hamas war, touched off by Hamas’ October 7th unprovoked attack on Israel, the slaughter of 1,400 Israeli citizens, and the kidnapping of another 240 innocent women, children and elderly civilians, as follows:

“And the extermination of the civilian population in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip today, is not shocking?”

. . . somehow managing to ignore those Israeli deaths that precipitated Israel’s retaliation.

But my principal point today is that Putin has finally, after nearly two years of dancing around the reality of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, used the word “War” to refer to what the whole world has long since identified, acknowledged, and castigated as such. Was it a slip of the tongue? Or could this be the first step toward a genuine effort at ending the “tragedy” in Ukraine? Might he even be willing to offer some conciliation in order to move things along? Is he finally feeling the pinch from the censure of most of the rest of the world?

And if so, wouldn’t that be the best holiday gift of all!

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/24/23

I’m taking the day off from writing in order to devote my time and my thoughts to my favorite holiday . . . and to wish everyone out there a day of peace, love, and safe travels. Wherever you are, whomever you’re spending the day with, and whatever traditions you bring to the table . . . enjoy!

See you on Friday.

Brendochka
11/23/23

[NOTE: The following is not a statement of my political views. I am neither Democrat nor Republican; neither liberal nor conservative; neither left-leaning nor right-leaning. I believe in moderation in all things (or nearly all things, chocolate and kindness to others excepted). This is simply a commentary on one individual who scares the hell out of me, and a statement of the reasons I feel as I do. I know there are those of you out there who will disagree with me, some perhaps vehemently. That is your absolute right — it’s what our First Amendment is all about — and I respect that. But be aware that I will not be responding to comments, pro or con. I do not engage in pissing contests. If you still want to read on, I invite you to do so, and I thank you.
- Brendochka]

*. *. *

I rarely dabble in U.S. politics, at least not publicly. But an article by CNN’s Stephen Collinson on November 14, 2023, had such disturbing domestic and international implications, I simply could not ignore it.

I don’t know the history of the poster shown above (which I found online), but it perfectly depicts my thoughts and fears concerning the current U.S. presidential campaign.

In a perfect world, the blond guy on the right would not be in that lineup. He’s not a deceased European dictator; we all know the atrocities committed during the early to mid-20th Century by Josef Stalin, Adolph Hitler, and Benito Mussolini, and surely he’s not in that category. No, Donald Trump is an American, a former President of the United States, a would-be second-term President, and not a mass murderer. By all rights, he should never appear in a picture with those other three.

But . . .

But he is also an American who is currently defending 91 charges within four criminal cases in the U.S. Courts. Ninety-one charges that, if he were to be found guilty of all of them, could bring him combined maximum sentences of up to 712 years in prison, or so I have read. Not even Methuselah could still run a campaign after that much hard time!

But wait . . . there’s more. Donald Trump idolizes strongmen; Vladimir Putin comes immediately to mind. We’ve all known about that little bromance for some time now. And Trump believed when he was in the White House — and still believes, despite having been proven wrong time after time — that as President he possessed, and would again possess if he were to be re-elected, absolute power. He still operates under the illusion — or delusion — that he would be above the authority of all laws, including the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Department of Justice, rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court . . . and probably God Himself. Because he is Donald Trump. And in his parallel universe, Donald Trump reigns supreme.

And he doesn’t hesitate to say so . . . loudly, clearly, and repeatedly. And he does so in a rhetoric that daily becomes more and more frightening to those of us Americans who value our hard-won freedoms. On Saturday, November 11th — Veterans Day — he spoke at a rally in the small town of Claremont, New Hampshire, where he offered up the following promise to his potential constituents:

“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

“Root out”?!! . . . “Thugs”?!! . . . “Vermin”??!!! . . . From which of Hitler’s speeches did he plagiarize that sentence? And he went on, further warning that “the real threat is not from the radical right. The real threat is from the radical left, and it’s growing every day.” Personally, I feel threatened by the “radical” anything, but apparently he’s okay with the ones from his side.

With wars continuing to rage in Ukraine and the Middle East, and with Russia and China joining forces to establish a “new world order” of their own imagining, Trump — rather than focusing on unity at home — instead chose to push his favorite theme: divisiveness. In his words, “The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.” He sounds as though he’ll be satisfied with nothing less than another all-out civil war. Way to go, Donnie — that’ll sure solve all our troubles!

I don’t mean to minimize our internal problems; we do have plenty, and they do need to be dealt with. He’s right about that. But not his way. He would have us forget Russia; forget China; forget North Korea; forget Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran and . . . oh, what the hell — let’s just forget them all. And while we’re at it, let’s drop out of NATO, thus ridding ourselves of the need ever again to worry about our allies, because we wouldn’t freakin’ have any allies left! He would have us believe we just need to focus on getting rid of the liberal left — and anyone who opposes Donald Trump’s beliefs — in our own country, and all will be well, forever and ever, amen. The triumph of 21st-Century American isolationism: The Gospel According to Trump.

*. *. *

Donald Trump has also continued to zero in on “outsiders” and immigrants as juicy targets for his proposed feast of vengeance and — well, let’s just call it what it is — ethnic cleansing. He told the right-leaning National Pulse website that undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country. It’s so bad, and people are coming in with disease.” Another idea borrowed right out of Der Fuhrer’s playbook . . . remember that episode called “the Holocaust”?

I seem to recall Trump’s similar statement, either during his 2016 campaign or early in his presidency, to the effect that the “Mexicans” (his all-inclusive term for Latin American immigrants entering the U.S. across our southwestern borders) were “. . . bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Wow . . . how magnanimous of him!

*. *. *

Luckily for my nervous system, Mr. Collinson’s article goes on to point out the differences between the world of the 1930s and ‘40s and the world of today, as well as the protections existing in our U.S. legal system that would hold Donald Trump in check if he were to be elected to a second term. But imagine, if you can, the cost in terms of time and money, and the inattention to domestic and world affairs that would result from our need to be focused constantly on his every spoken and tweeted word.

(Off the subject for just a moment: can we still “tweet” when “Twitter” is gone? Don’t we have to “X-pel” or something? Just a thought.)

But back on topic: Another four years of that sort of nightmare scenario would, I fear, do us in, individually and as a nation. And what would the domino effect be like throughout the rest of the world? To paraphrase the irrepressible Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I can only say . . .

“Quelle nightmare!”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/19/23

[Again, credit and thanks to Stephen Collinson of CNN, for his article of Nov. 14, 2023, which saved me the time and trouble of searching elsewhere for the Trump quotations.]

Apropos of today’s earlier post: We may never have the answer to this one, but add it to the growing list of “suspicious” deaths. They’re dropping like flies over there.

*. *. *

“Lieutenant General Vladimir Sviridov, former commander of the 6th Air Force and Air Defense Forces Army of the Russian Federation, has been found dead in his home in the Stavropol Krai. Source: Latvia-based Russian media outlet Meduza, citing Baza Telegram channel; Kremlin-aligned news agency RIA Novosti and Kommersant media Details: A source of RIA Novosti says that the body of a woman was found next to Sviridov, her identity is being determined.”
— Read on news.yahoo.com/russias-6th-air-force-army-130553067.html

I cannot imagine a more horrifying headline. But that is what’s happening today in Russia: Josef Stalin is back.

Stalin. “Man of Steel.” The chosen name of the tough little Georgian with the shrunken arm who would come to terrorize, not only his own vast country, but the rest of the world as well, for some 29 years. A tyrant, a sadist, a mass murderer, whose own death in 1953 was a relief to the entire world.

Yet he is still revered by many in Russia as the man who saw them through a world war, fought off the Nazi onslaught, and maintained order and prosperity in their beloved, beleaguered, bedraggled motherland. And, though dead these 70 long years, he is staging a comeback — but not without help, of course. (He is, after all, dead.) Rather, his comeback is taking place with a gigantic push from a man born just months before Stalin’s demise: Vladimir Putin, who — had he been born six months later — might well have been assumed to be the reincarnation of the little Georgian.

Two men, from different locations but similarly poor backgrounds; both small in stature (Stalin a bit larger), but both with gigantic egos born of deeply ingrained inferiority complexes; both fighters, determined to prove to the world that they were more than just what showed on the outside. And on the inside . . . each the personification of evil.

And now, the one currently in charge — Putin — is not only emulating his long-gone hero; he is actually succeeding in restoring Russia’s nostalgia for the “good old days” of order, security, and . . . what? Let’s see now . . . oh, yes . . . fear. Fear of everything. Of saying the wrong thing. Of someone reporting you for saying the wrong thing. Of that banging on the door in the middle of the night. Of the mock trial, the inevitable conviction, and the endless train ride to the endless term in the GULAG.

[Note: GULAG is an acronym for Main Administration of Prison Camps: Glavnoye Upravleniye Lagerei.]

It’s all coming back now, except (so far) the GULAGs. For now they’re just using regular prisons. But consider this:

— Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza, guilty of nothing more than speaking out against the current regime, a right held dear in the free world, but no longer permitted in Russia . . . rotting in prison on false charges of corruption and parole violation (Navalny) and spreading “false information” about the Russian military (Kara-Murza).

— Boris Nemtsov, Aleksandr Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya, and numerous others . . . dead, for the same or similar reasons.

— Countless business, industrial, and government leaders suddenly falling out of windows or suffering “heart attacks”. . . dead, for the same or similar reasons.

— Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder and head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries and close friend and confidant of Putin, along with several high-ranking members of the Wagner Group, suddenly falling out of the sky in an airplane . . . obviously dead, for protesting the military’s handling of the war in Ukraine.

And then there’s this. Over the past decade, memorial plaques — about 700 or more — have been put up in Russia and elsewhere to commemorate the final residences of the victims of Stalin’s purges in the 1930s. But according to the plaque project known as Posledniy Adres (“last address”), dozens of the plaques have disappeared throughout Russia. And the disappearances are not being investigated by police, despite the growing numbers. Oksana Matievskaya of Posledniy Adres has said: “The memory of the Soviet terror challenges the concept of the state always being right and is, therefore, inconvenient for the Russian authorities. Especially following the invasion of Ukraine.” [As reported by Sandro Gvindadze, BBC Monitoring, Nov. 13, 2023.] In other words, criticizing the former Soviet state is now as verboten as criticizing Vladimir Putin and the current regime.

In addition, no fewer than 18 monuments to victims of repression, as well as foreign soldiers who fought in World War II — most of them Polish nationals — have been reported stolen or vandalized just in the past year and a half. Recently, in the city of Vladimir, a brick memorial to a prominent Polish priest was torn down and destroyed. And a concrete cross in the Komi Republic, memorializing Polish prisoners, was demolished; police blamed “bad weather” for that one, and refused to undertake criminal proceedings.

Hundreds of thousands of those Poles were executed, and nearly two million deported to GULAG camps in Siberia and Kazakhstan, after 1939. The noted civil rights group Memorial “believes the damage [to the monuments] was ordered or carried out by authorities because Moscow wants the Soviet Union to be perceived as a powerhouse rather than an oppressive state. The authorities try to erase the memory of the crimes of that empire to cover up or justify the crimes of this one.” [Alexandra Polivanova, Memorial, as reported by BBC Monitoring, Nov. 13, 2023.]

Recent polling has suggested that 63% of Russians now have a “favourable attitude” toward Stalin. And there are 110 Stalin statues still standing — 95 erected during Vladimir Putin’s rule, at least four of them since the invasion of Ukraine. One such, in the town of Velikiye Luki, is cast in bronze and stands eight meters (just over 26 feet) high. Go big or go home, I guess. And to cap off the occasion of the dedication, a Russian Orthodox priest scattered holy water over the base of the monument, intoning “Christ is risen!” — as the dozens of onlookers responded, in accordance with orthodox tradition, “Risen, indeed.”

Christ? I thought it was Stalin!

*. *. *

So what is behind this sudden “rehabilitation” of one of the world’s foremost monsters? Why, Vladimir Putin, of course. None of this would have been allowed if he hadn’t been behind it, or at least in favor of it. He needs the example of the strength and power of the Soviet state, even as far back as the 1930s, to legitimize his own similar actions today . . . particularly, of course, his invasion of Ukraine. He has stated that, to him, the greatest tragedy of the 20th Century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. And he has set about rectifying that “tragedy,” not merely by instituting and enforcing new and ever more repressive laws, but now also engaging in the same sort of mind-control tactics so familiar to those of us who remember the days of Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler.

And, not content with controlling his own country, he seeks to bring back into the fold former republics of the Soviet Union, beginning with Belarus (with the all-too-willing consent of its leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko), and Ukraine (by brute force — a war of attrition that he ingenuously calls a “special military operation”). And who knows who’s next?

Are we to sit by and watch this happen again, once more ignoring the signs as the world did until Hitler and Stalin marched into Poland in 1939? Or until Japan bombed the hell out of Pearl Harbor in 1941? Have we forgotten that little disturbance known as World War II?

Please tell me we’re not that stupid.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/16/23

Exciting news! Remember Laverna, the mischievous surfboard-stealing otter from Monterey, California’s coastal area? The one the authorities have been trying to capture and re-home because she’s been annoying the human surfers who have . . . let’s be honest . . . been impinging on what is rightly her home, not theirs? The same one who has been evading them for months now, and who has the following comment for those humans:

There’s been no word of her for a while, and I’ve been worried about her. Well, at last there’s been news . . . and great news at that. Laverna was spotted recently, and with her was her brand-new pup! That’s right — Laverna is a Mom. And the so-called experts who thought she was just an incorrigible little thief now admit that her behavior was simply the natural instinct of an expectant mammalian mama protecting her baby’s habitat. In other words, she was hormonal.

Now, we women have fought tirelessly against those males who persist in blaming everything we say or do on our hormonal “problems.” But in this case, it turns out to be true . . . and the result for Laverna and her little one couldn’t be more favorable: they will not be re-homed, and will be able to live peacefully in Monterey Bay for as long as they like. Justice has prevailed.

Now I look forward to details about the little pup. Male or female? Does it have a name yet, other than just a number? Any readers have suggestions? I’m thinking about “Justice” (it’s shorter than “Retribution”). I’d love to hear your ideas.

It’s a happy day at Blog HQ . . . “Justice” has indeed been served.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/14/23