Questions For Our Russian Friends

[vinceprince]

[QUOTE=Mosco Vito;4543754]

Originally Posted by Nobody1

I see! But how about Schuhplattler?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EzPkqt2Rk

That would be a good diplomatic step to increase international understanding. [/QUOTE

Director of the information Department of the Russian foreign Ministry is already using dances to establish mutual understanding between Russia and the West

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=81-0Cy4U-0Y

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRysHHzLAmM

[Mosco Vito]

[QUOTE=vinceprince;4544307]

Originally Posted by Mosco Vito

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRysHHzLAmM

It's not the worst thing that this alcoholic with a lot of experience did. The apogee of his drunken "adventures" was the absence of a meeting with the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland: he was just lying on the plane, drunk and pissed. During the ceremony, dedicated to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Germany, drunken Yeltsin conducted the orchestra. During a visit to USA, he pissed on the chassis of the plane, not shy of anyone. It's a pity that at that moment only writing journalists without cameras were nearby.

[seany65]

So dear Russkie friends, Did you do it? Come on, own up, did you?

I'm not talking about invading Afghanistan, nor about assassinating spies, I'm talking about the BIG terrifyingly BAD thing. You know:

Buggering about and affecting the rating of the most recent Star Wars film!

[deepsepia]

[QUOTE=Mosco Vito;4544354]

Originally Posted by vinceprince

It's not the worst thing that this alcoholic with a lot of experience did. The apogee of his drunken "adventures" was the absence of a meeting with the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland: he was just lying on the plane, drunk and pissed. During the ceremony, dedicated to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Germany, drunken Yeltsin conducted the orchestra. During a visit to USA, he pissed on the chassis of the plane, not shy of anyone. It's a pity that at that moment only writing journalists without cameras were nearby.

On a related note: what is Mikhail Gorbachev's status with Russians? He's not a useless guy like Chernenko, and he famously had an anti-alcohol campaign.

He's not been purged from history, but he doesn't seem to be popular either.

[Mosco Vito]

[QUOTE=deepsepia;4588958]

Originally Posted by Mosco Vito

On a related note: what is Mikhail Gorbachev's status with Russians? He's not a useless guy like Chernenko, and he famously had an anti-alcohol campaign.

He's not been purged from history, but he doesn't seem to be popular either.

The attitude to Gorbachev is purely negative. The vast majority of the older generation considers Gorbachev a traitor who destroyed the country in the interests of the United States. The younger generation of Russians doesn't know Gorbachev, for them he is a distant history. Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign was highly appreciated in the world, but Russians often think otherwise. Gorbachev's ill-conceived actions caused great damage: vineyards were destroyed, because of the difficulty of buying alcohol, many people were poisoned by his surrogates and even became drug addicts, smelled glue and acetone. The damage to the Soviet budget was estimated at billions of rubles. But the death rate from alcohol has really decreased.

[Roubignol]

Why do you still need Tsars and clergy ?

Youtube video surprise

[laberbacke]

Originally Posted by Mosco Vito

The attitude to Gorbachev is purely negative. The vast majority of the older generation considers Gorbachev a traitor who destroyed the country in the interests of the United States. The younger generation of Russians doesn't know Gorbachev, for them he is a distant history. Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign was highly appreciated in the world, but Russians often think otherwise. Gorbachev's ill-conceived actions caused great damage: vineyards were destroyed, because of the difficulty of buying alcohol, many people were poisoned by his surrogates and even became drug addicts, smelled glue and acetone. The damage to the Soviet budget was estimated at billions of rubles. But the death rate from alcohol has really decreased.

I once read that Russians drink as much Vodka as we Germans do beer - except Vodka has ten times the alcoholic strength. I always keep that in mind when I try to make sense of the Russian people.

As for Gorbachev, the man, somewhat unintentionally, managed to liquidate one of the world's largest empires with little violence. That is why he is highly regarded in the many countries that were forced into this empire, and disdained in the one country that controlled and benefitted most from the empire. From our respective perspectives, both views of Gorbachev make sense.

As a German, I'm glad that Gorbachev was head of the USSR and Putin just a KGB major back in 1989, when our compatriots were revolting against the Soviet puppet government in East Berlin. If their roles in history had been reversed, events would have turned bloody.

[deepsepia]

Have any of our Russian friends watched the miniseries "Trotsky"?

I'm watching it now, and like the best contemporary Russian films, it looks beautiful-- there's a real genius to Russian cinematography, I think I first noticed it in "Nightwatch", and "Trotsky", if not quite as inventive, still looks great.

But here's the weird thing about it-- it seems remarkably anti-Bolshevik, and indeed it repeats a lot of the anti-semitic tropes of White Russian propaganda; I wasn't aware that there was a contemporary appetite for this kind of depiction. It lingers on a lot of salacious rumor -- Trotsky's sexual appetites, invents an involvement with the killing of the Tsar and his family that he didn't have-- and I wonder if these inconsistencies matter to a local audience.

It reminds me a lot of the famous White Russian poster, attacking Trotsky (but making him seem like quite the hipster)


How does the political tone of this series strike Russians?

[Mosco Vito]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

Have any of our Russian friends watched the miniseries "Trotsky"?

I'm watching it now, and like the best contemporary Russian films, it looks beautiful-- there's a real genius to Russian cinematography, I think I first noticed it in "Nightwatch", and "Trotsky", if not quite as inventive, still looks great.

But here's the weird thing about it-- it seems remarkably anti-Bolshevik, and indeed it repeats a lot of the anti-semitic tropes of White Russian propaganda; I wasn't aware that there was a contemporary appetite for this kind of depiction. It lingers on a lot of salacious rumor -- Trotsky's sexual appetites, invents an involvement with the killing of the Tsar and his family that he didn't have-- and I wonder if these inconsistencies matter to a local audience.

It reminds me a lot of the famous White Russian poster, attacking Trotsky (but making him seem like quite the hipster)


How does the political tone of this series strike Russians?

This series is a creature of the first channel of the Russian television, the main mouthpiece of the official propaganda. Those who shot this series did not set themselves the task to create historically accurate cinema. They just carried out the state order. Since the beginning of the crisis, the official ideology has been actively appealing to the monarchical ideal of the country that collapsed in 1917. The message is very simple: opposition to the ruling regime is an absolute evil.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Mosco Vito

The attitude to Gorbachev is purely negative. The vast majority of the older generation considers Gorbachev a traitor who destroyed the country in the interests of the United States. The younger generation of Russians doesn't know Gorbachev, for them he is a distant history. Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign was highly appreciated in the world, but Russians often think otherwise. Gorbachev's ill-conceived actions caused great damage: vineyards were destroyed, because of the difficulty of buying alcohol, many people were poisoned by his surrogates and even became drug addicts, smelled glue and acetone. The damage to the Soviet budget was estimated at billions of rubles. But the death rate from alcohol has really decreased.

Completely agree

But the damage he caused was worse in many ways. There were referendums in 9 Republics whether to keep the USSR or dissolve it. The "keep" campaign won with 76%, but he dissolved it anyway

And his anti-alcohol campaign not only killed a lot of people by driving them to moonshine (and heaven knows what else), it also severely reduced the country's biggest source of tax revenue

But Germans like him, especially West Germans. They call him "Gorbi" and publish his writings