twenty things i love about russia
(Dedicated to all my pals at Russia Today, President Putin's English language news service.)
1. Blinis.
2. Solzhenitsyn who gave the world its first clear hope that the Russian soul would endure, outlast, and finally transcend, communism.
3. Tolstoy without whom all literature in whatever language would be bereft and incomplete.
4. The great composers. (Whatsisnameikov and Yermaninov.)
5. Eisenstein whose films provided the imagistic vocabulary from which all modern cinema descends.
6. Chekov. (The one from Star Trek.)
7. Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), and Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), and Moscow (forever Moscow).
8. Troikas racing through the snow with bells ringing.
9. Russian skies. The Steppes. The pine forests.
10. Russian Christians, the wise men of the east.
11. Pushkin and Pasternak.
12. The blood sacrifice in the Second World War. As Hitler's unbeatable armies moved towards world conquest, it was the Russians who drowned them in a sea of blood. The world owes the Russian people an unrepayable debt for this sacrifice. With the exception of the sacrifice 2000 years ago of God's own son, no other sacrifice in human history exceeds what the people of Russia gave in order to stop the Nazi armies.
13. If the Russians hadn't beaten Napoleon in 1812 we'd all be speaking French.
14. Russia is the one country Islamic terrorists are afraid of.
15. Gorbachev, for standing down the bombers, allowing Eastern Europe its freedom, and refusing to bankroll African dictatorships any longer.
16. Yeltsin for building real Russian democracy and then upholding it by recognising when his time had passed and allowing a change of power.
17. Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square.
18. The deep, dark, mysterious, poetic, implacable, impossibly passionate soul of the Russian people.
19. Russians in Moscow wearing winter furs so that they look all cuddly rather than dangerous.
20. Russian women generally.
20. And Irina Kuksova particularly.
21. And Alena Blizhnikova.
22. And Yevgenia Tarasova.
1. Blinis.
2. Solzhenitsyn who gave the world its first clear hope that the Russian soul would endure, outlast, and finally transcend, communism.
3. Tolstoy without whom all literature in whatever language would be bereft and incomplete.
4. The great composers. (Whatsisnameikov and Yermaninov.)
5. Eisenstein whose films provided the imagistic vocabulary from which all modern cinema descends.
6. Chekov. (The one from Star Trek.)
7. Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), and Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), and Moscow (forever Moscow).
8. Troikas racing through the snow with bells ringing.
9. Russian skies. The Steppes. The pine forests.
10. Russian Christians, the wise men of the east.
11. Pushkin and Pasternak.
12. The blood sacrifice in the Second World War. As Hitler's unbeatable armies moved towards world conquest, it was the Russians who drowned them in a sea of blood. The world owes the Russian people an unrepayable debt for this sacrifice. With the exception of the sacrifice 2000 years ago of God's own son, no other sacrifice in human history exceeds what the people of Russia gave in order to stop the Nazi armies.
13. If the Russians hadn't beaten Napoleon in 1812 we'd all be speaking French.
14. Russia is the one country Islamic terrorists are afraid of.
15. Gorbachev, for standing down the bombers, allowing Eastern Europe its freedom, and refusing to bankroll African dictatorships any longer.
16. Yeltsin for building real Russian democracy and then upholding it by recognising when his time had passed and allowing a change of power.
17. Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square.
18. The deep, dark, mysterious, poetic, implacable, impossibly passionate soul of the Russian people.
19. Russians in Moscow wearing winter furs so that they look all cuddly rather than dangerous.
20. Russian women generally.
20. And Irina Kuksova particularly.
21. And Alena Blizhnikova.
22. And Yevgenia Tarasova.
posted by heelers | 8:20 AM
5 Comments:
I cannot believe I have wasted three minutes of my life reading the above post, plus another one commenting on it.
Grashagh aboe.
heelers me again
hope all well (allowing for the despair of course) send me an email dont have yours here
regards from duodenum of dark continent
JM (M)
Grashagh you are not a plantagenet.
Mugs, do you see the sort of arse I have to put with from these people!
J
Heelers,
After five minutes over coffee with some Arab girl you'd be writing Twenty Things I Love About Arabia.
Avid Fan
Vodka. Just saying...
Schneewittchen
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