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Daria · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:31 pm Post subject:

"Finnish troops attacked Soviet territory with artillery fire" on November 26th 1939. This incident that happened in the small village Mainila, was made by Soviet troops and put up as a reason for the Red Army to attack Finland. Finnish frontier guards also recognized the explosions on the Soviet
side of the border. For that time being, the closest Finnish artillery guns were placed so far away from Mainila that it would have been impossible to reach the place with artillery gun fire. Finland´s government wanted to negotiate and asked for a withdrawal of the troops on both sides of the border. The soviet Foreign Minister Mr. Molotov cut off all diplomatic connections with Finland and the Red Army attacked Finland on November 30th 1939. The Soviet Union officially apologized for the provocative artillery act in 1990.

Countries like Russia, U.S.A. and few others are well known for their "provocative acts".

Lady_Stumbletongue · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:21 am Post subject:

Wolves and sheep, sheep and wolves. Aren't things a little more complicated than that? I'm an American, by your definition, one of Russia's 'enemies' a wolf, though I have little against you. Does that mean, to me, that you are a wolf? Which of us are wolves, and which are sheep? Are we both, at the same time? Is human both wolf and sheep, both victim and perpetrator? Is human nature "good" or "bad," or somewhere in between? When will the world discover, if ever, that "we" against "them" is really "we" against "we?" We are all living creatures, trying to survive on this earth, blinded by the walls of sheep and wolves, of "we" and "them." One may say that the differences between us are an important part of who we are, and that is true. But these differences should enrich this world, not serve as reasons to attack people for their "otherness". Unity is relative. Should every person in a city be 'the same'. What about every person in a country? What about the world? Wouldn't that be a boring place! Who decided that unity be synonomous with "same-ness," anyway? Nothing changes that, on some level we are all related. Perhaps the majority of war, most especially "offensive" war, could be compared to an overblown family feud? Yes, I am commiting the very act that I have accused you of...simplifying. The world is too big and brilliant for us to understand without making it smaller in our minds. While this may be necessary, it causes many evils. It may be best to do as little of it as possible. A true thing has been said... power corrupts. An excellent point was made about the Nazi's sheep. Perhaps the world, and its people, would be better off if, instead of paying the highest allegiances to their governments, they swore them to the universal values of kindness and generosity? Loving one's country and one's government are very different things. The people of the world, most of whom I, however naievly, believe are basically decent, could act as an ethical force to keep the powers of the ruling in check. Let that be our "unity". Perhaps, if the world was this way, the Nazis would have had a harder time carrying out their atrocities, and perhaps not. We can't really know. Should we attempt, though the likelihood of failure is high, to live a life that is beautiful and improve the days of others, no matter how "different" from us they may be? Or shall we sacrifice ourselves, our beauty, empathy, individuality, and yes, global unity, to play our brother's scapegoat, till we all, all being scapegoats in eachother's eyes, slay eachother till none are left, and all the world...dreams hopes, men, women, children, babies, tigers, lambs, squirrels and deserts, forests, meadows, fish, and fowl, all the wonderful things on this planet of ours.. are dead. Yes, my views are naive. Whats more, they surely would be, coming from a 15-year old child such as myself, a girl who has been pampered and coddled all of her life, one unaccustomed to the realities and hardships of the world outside of her neighborhood. I am a hypocrite, I know that. All of us humans are. It is a fact. Yet we can fight the greed and cruelty within ourselves. I know I will fail, but I will try, to make this world a better place, and to stay as true as I can to peace and kindness. To me, that is true glory. Art, music, literature, dance, etc. are better providers of national pride than that fool's goal "power". To build and preserve instead of destroy, to care for, instead of to conquer, that, for me at least, is true greatness.

surfguy · Lounge Wizard Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 6979

go forth and conquer...that is conquer your experience in life. But know this the sad reality of our world is that while we are all dong one thing...someone else is doing another.

lusenish · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:07 pm Post subject:

It's true that Russians are pessimistic about their land and future. In my point of view the state of things didn't change a lot since the Soviet era. Although the people now have more rights and freedom they still can't do much to make things better. The today's govenment is a rough copy of the communist government. Someone mentioned in this thread that president Putin was not elected by the nation but just appointed and promoted by Yeltsin. That's right... The same situation repeats today when Putin officialy backs his successor Medvedev. In the essense nothing changed. The modern elections is just a performance for the press and western countries.
There is no real opposition in our Duma (Parlament) which means that laws and decisions may be biased.

So I feel that both communist and post-communist Russias are not dear to me. I have mostly negative perception of both these concepts. I neither would say I wished there was Tzar or things like that because it was such a long way back that we cannot now judge whether those were good or bad times for Russians.

So generally when it comes to politics and the preferable type of government and country running I'm lost.... And so I feel are many.

Russian people don't usually identify themselves with the government. Just on the contrary, they position themselves as opposed to the government. So what is important for all Russians is not the type of government but our culture, nature and traditions. So things that were formed in course of history and to some extent depend on the geography.

Russia has always been a vast country and so this large scale is reflected in our mentality - freedom, large distances, lots of wild unhabitated places, forests and fields. This defines the main traits of character which are typical of Russians. Mutual help, hospitality, inventiveness, bravery and inconsistency and so on...And this is dear for all of us, this is what Russia means for us.

jo-jo-7 · Just Starting Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 6

start-wearing-purple · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:54 pm Post subject:

charles · Lounge Lizard Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 180 Location: USA

Soundbrigade · Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:37 pm Post subject:

When we talk about Russia and Soviet Union in our home I understand that my wife, more or less don't recognize any difference between the time of the tsars and the socialist era (note socialist as the country was "strugging towards communism"). The time of the tsars was a bad time and the last tsar was really a very reluctant ruler misspending too many resources with no gain or with big losses.
There are more or less just one historic person worth mention - Peter the First, for bringing Russia from the darkness to enlightment. Katarina the Great was another ruler that somewhat brought the country a few steps forward.

There are many myths about the socialist era, that people were starving, or waiting lines to buy shoes or beeing constantly monitored bu KGB, but most people lived a happy time, people had a job, had free school and post-high school education (university and institutes). These kind of ideas can sometimes be heard from Russians that were to young to remember anything from the socialist times. Instead health and dental care was free, people could be on maternity leave for up to three years, holiday travels were cheap, often organized by the union.
When we look at old Swedish movies and/or talk about Sweden during the 50's and 60's we notice that we had the same living standard or conditions.

I have noticed that some "nostalgic" Russians want to bring back Russia to the time of the tsars. However it is an idea of mostly wealth so-called new Russians, people who have gotten dirty rich in no time and who now crave to a fine title. There were people buying old photographs from the 19th century to nail to their walls, to show their fine ancester, though these people were often prostitutes, thugs or simply illiterate.

We consider it as dangerous to sort of "romatisize" a certain era beacuse people had fine titles, dressed nicely and spoke French. The way Russia has been ruled has been the same since 790 AD, nothing did change in 1917 and nothing changed in 1990.

Absurd · Frequent Guest Joined: 22 Apr 2008 Posts: 28

Arina8 · Frequent Guest Joined: 30 Aug 2008 Posts: 27

TheWaitisOver · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:27 am Post subject:

hpesch · Frequent Guest Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 35

Efficiency of totalitarian systems is a legend. Some results look awsome, like the terracotta army, the pyramids, the German autobahn and Stalin's power plants and canals.
But when you count the sacrifice and the real cost you notice that it was no good deal for the nation as a whole.
When North Korea once will get rid of the communist terror regime, its neighbours will have to invest an awful lot of money and work to put things right again. East Germany has cost already trillions of dollars to reconstruct, but it was the most developed parts of the communist block. Hope China will take part of the load that North Korea represents, but I'm afraid the democratic countries Japan and South Korea will be left with the dirtheap alone.

In 1913 a Russian worker had an income of 55 roubles per month. With that he was able to support his family and pay for school, doctors and rent. 20 years later the same worker got 200 roubles, but the wife had to work, a loaf of bread would cost 1-2 roubles, a suit 800 etc. Workers lived in dirty barracks and had to do slave work. And were not even allowed to strike or protest, which they did regularly under the Czar.

There was never socialism in the Soviet Union, it was slavery from start to end.

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