“Where Is The “Shining City On The Hill”? ….. RUSSIA!

I love Russia Stock Vector Image by ©artlosk #1265471

If I were in my 30’s I would SERIOUSLY consider learning Russian, and moving there.  Russia is transforming into everything America once was. No, I am not kidding. Prove me wring.

 

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Russia’s Greatest Weapon is not a Weapon

An ultimately very healthy but in the meantime very unpleasant realization is gradually dawning in West—an insight that is simply shocking, that fundamentally alters their picture of the world: that the stronger becomes the hurricane of woke transformations that is raging there, the more attractive Russia becomes for hundreds of millions of Europeans and Americans. What is Russia’s most powerful weapon? Is it nuclear? Is it hypersonic (or “hydrosonic,” as per Trump)? Cybermagic, perhaps? No, Russia’s most powerful weapon is its values. And it grows stronger and more dangerous every day, in direct proportion to the intensifying fire of multiculturalism and political correctness that is raging in Europe and in America.

A recent article in The National Interest summarized various American authors who claim that the Kremlin is gradually developing its strategy of soft power and using it to successfully fight the West, splitting it and undermining it from within. What is the cause of their paranoid hysteria? Could it be that they have accidentally discovered who their true enemy is, and that it is… they themselves?

The simplest and most effective way to knock a geopolitical adversary out of the game is to impose on it a system of values ​​that will split its society and lead the most active part of its population to occupy public buildings, to erect barricades and to support a pretender to the throne that is immediately given support and recognition by the country’s enemies. This is how all color revolutions of the late 20th and the early 21st centuries have been done: broadcast some propaganda, recruit some activists, help them to organize, provide some clandestine financial support, and then at some point this human mass, confident in their strength and their righteousness, surges through the police barriers and goes on to create history by overthrowing some faux-democrat petty tyrant, clearing the path for the next faux-democrat petty tyrant to be installed, with the country growing weaker, poorer and more disordered with each iteration. The process starts with the conversion of some significant part of the target population to “universal human values” with secular proselytizing of the “one true democratic faith.”

To the extent that this could be called a game, the West had a huge head start in it. The tools for fighting the “evil empire” have been honed for half a century. In the course of fighting the Cold War, radio stations, foundations, newspapers and magazines, parties and communities, publishing houses and TV channels have been created. Virtually all of them were then repurposed from fighting against the USSR to fighting against Russia. Collapse of the USSR, it was foolishly thought, was but a first step toward destroying Russia and absconding with its crude oil, natural gas, metal ores, fertile farmland and other natural treasures. And then, just in time, new, internet-based forms of influence appeared, completely controlled from America. For a time, the combination of a huge head start and the newly weaponized internet technologies seemed overwhelming.

But then something miraculous took place.

For a long time the USSR struggled mightily to propagandize socialist ideas in the United States and in Western Europe—to no avail. In the US, from its inception as a quintessential pirate colony, centuries of being conditioned to think that good persons are good by virtue of having goodly quantities of bounty and loot in their coffers has rendered people immune to socialist values. Meanwhile, Europe—its western half after the defeat of Nazism and in its eastern after the demise of Soviet communism—have been reduced to American satrapies where American propaganda reigns supreme and ceaselessly paints Russia as backward, corrupt, despotic and generally evil. No amount of broadcasting by Russia Today and no amount of toil by Russian internet trolls would ever be able to reprogram the consciousness of a Western person. But then suddenly Russia was awarded the supreme prize, giving it attractiveness, charm and influence no one could have dreamed of.

What has suddenly transformed the situation was mass insanity into which the West has been plunged. This group madness has destroyed much of what is infinitely dear to a very significant, if not overwhelming, part of Western civilization. Those conditional “conservatives”—normal people who do not want to be forced to be ashamed of their skin color, heterosexuality, respect for religion, generally accepted morality, and so on, are now humiliated, discriminated against and persecuted by the newest crop of toxic lefties.

Here is a lovely quote from an article in the Daily Beast: “…The Kremlin intends to attract Western converts with… bigotry—turning Russia into the land of ultimate political incorrectness, the world’s anti-woke capital.” Never mind the spurious claim of Kremlin’s intent to make Russia attractive; that is akin to blaming a beauty pageant contestant for being beautiful. Never mind the spurious claim of bigotry when it comes to opposing the West’s gender dysphoria and other psychiatric symptoms; there is a perfectly valid counterclaim of a society-wide psychiatric disorder that has plenty of biological science to back it up. What’s important is that the world has flipped to its mirror image: no longer is the United States “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” Russia now is, in the eyes of the Americans themselves! No longer is it Ivan sighing enviously while dreaming of American blue jeans, Coca-Cola and rock-and-roll; it is John who is wildly jealous of the absence of black-on-white racism, dumbed-down high school curricula, laughable yet lethal accusations of sexual harassment and a rainbow of public toilets.

Russia itself could never have achieved such a high level of attractiveness merely by using its propaganda machinery (all one and a half TV channels of it). It arose by itself when traditional (i.e., white heterosexual Christian) Europeans and Americans began to compare the surrounding Bedlam with Russia’s naturalness and orderliness. And then there spontaneously arose in them a very simple feeling: to hell with past grievances; it is the future which we must make livable for ourselves and our children. In the past, Russia was an adversary, but that past ended thirty years ago, and in the present Russia is safe, secure and happier than ever while we are burning in Hell and have no idea what to do about it. But at least we have Russia to hold up as a positive example.

It must also be understood that there are no other candidates for this role. There is no LGBT insanity, sexual harassment mania or violent reverse racism in North Korea, or Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or China, but these examples are all far too exotic and come with toxic baggage of their own.

What the persecuted white Western Christian conservative heterosexual male needs is a normal European country, full of white people, comfortable for living in, but without any of the things he hates. What other options are there? It is not a competition if there is just one contestant.

And thus we have come to the point where Russia—in all seriousness and without any irony or puffery whatsoever, really—has become the light of the world, a shining city set upon a hill, a beacon of hope, a bastion of righteousness and free spirit and the symbol of a truly free world. This is an almost magical transformation: it was able to win this exalted status outright without even playing the game. It did the barest minimum in standing its ground and in preventing a smallish faction of foreign-controlled traitors and fools from destroying their country. Theirs has remained a wholesome world of brave, masculine men, of attractive, feminine women and of their above-average, non-gender-confused children. In their world, rewards and privileges are based on merit, corrupt politicians and businessmen spend years in jail, and respect for traditional ethics and religious faith is mandatory. In their world, all of history is permanently theirs: none of it will ever be forgotten, falsified or erased—all thousand-plus years of it, including life under the Golden Horde, the serfdom, great victories of the Russian Empire, the revolutionary terror, collectivization, Stalin’s purges, the defeat of Nazism, the destruction of Western colonialism throughout Africa and Asia, the conquest of space, the national humiliation of Gorbachev’s and Yeltsin’s puppet regimes and Russia’s rebirth under Putin.

It is a world to which more and more people in the West want to escape to, leaving behind a landscape blighted by leftist vandalism and enforced repentance for the crime of being of a certain race or of daring to exhale carbon dioxide. They do not wish to subject themselves to the unholy inquisition which doles out punishments to those who remain unenthusiastic about and unsupportive of sexual perversity, gender dysphoria, the destruction of traditional families and the brainwashing of youth. Even if they cannot escape, they can take comfort in knowing that a more normal and less damaged alternative reality exists, and they can secretly sympathize with it.

What makes this transformation particularly remarkable is that ten years ago Russia’s soft power barely existed. At that time, a small but vocal opposition demonstrated in the center of Moscow, chanting “We need a different Russia.” But now hundreds of millions of French, Germans, Americans and others in the West are chanting what amounts to “We need a different West.” To the abject horror of their political elites they look to Russia—the country of extreme political incorrectness—with longing, delight and hope. These people are self-organizing into parties, uniting like-minded people in much greater numbers than the Communist International had ever been able to gather. In many countries they already exert a very significant influence on the political agenda. The more the pandemic of woke madness rages, the greater their influence will become. When this conflagration of mass insanity finally burns itself out, it is Russia that will have the civilizational seed stock with which to re-fertilize the devastated cultural landscape of the West.

In the meantime, this is already shaping up to be a Russian century. This level of soft power is something beyond anyone’s wildest dreams; it is is Putin’s judo mastery taken to the nth level. In judo, one directs one’s opponent’s own force against him; here, the opponent is directing his own power against himself while the judo master merely stands back and watches, nodding in approval. In every country that the liberals attempt to reformat to their liking, Russia automatically gains millions of fans, forcing any possible geopolitical confrontation with Russia to fade into the background before the neutralizing force of a great commonality of traditional values. Remaining passive and risking nothing, Russia has gained a myriad ways to turn the geopolitical situation to its advantage.

For a very long time the West had monopolized the dominant discourse, but now Russia has gained control of it. Needless to say, this does not go down well with those who have been accustomed to uncontested dominance. They react hysterically: by throwing around groundless accusations and insults, staging provocations, imposing toothless yet self-defeating sanctions… They will try anything that they think might help to defer the moment when they will be forced to admit the horrible truth: that they have checked themselves into an insane asylum in Hell and they can’t check out. Meanwhile, all Russia has to do is to wait patiently for the fires of Hell to consume them and to burn themselves out; because they always do. Their desperate thrashing about and threatening Armageddon is for Russia to ignore.

SOURCE:  https://therussophile.org/russias-greatest-weapon-is-not-a-weapon.html/

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Damned good BONUS ARTICLE:   “Covid Vaccines are the Trojan Horse leading us to Tyranny”

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Author: Stucky

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it.

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67 Comments
another Doug
another Doug
December 4, 2021 2:35 pm

Right again Stucky.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran
December 4, 2021 2:46 pm

It’s certainly intriguing. World’s largest country with only 145 million people. Cold enough to keep the wimps out. Some good looking women, although with that Mongol heritage you probably gotta watch your back even more than normal.

Balbinus
Balbinus
December 4, 2021 2:49 pm

I’m just to old to transition to another culture. We have a friend who was a missionary to Russia and the liked the country. Being rid of the covidiots and the freaks in this country would be a blessing. The Russian language is difficult and very different from English.

MMinWA
MMinWA
  Balbinus
December 4, 2021 3:55 pm

It galls the living fuck out of me to consider giving over 1 sq. in. of my country to the scum REgressives. They turn everything they touch to shit.

Fact is even if every white Christian took it upon themselves to emigrate to Russia, eventually the remaining scum here would come. So why bother jumping through hoops? There’s going to have to be a river of blood with ONE winner. I like my country and would rather be buried here.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  MMinWA
December 4, 2021 5:14 pm

Same here, Brother!

Copperhead
Copperhead
  Balbinus
December 4, 2021 4:00 pm

Two of my three kids are trying to learn Russian as a hobby. I would suck at trying to learn that language.
To me it seems like Russia is becoming a much more Christian nation than the U.S., as a kid that seemed impossible, but here we are.

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
  Balbinus
December 4, 2021 4:11 pm

Actually, you’d be surprised how easy Russian is to learn, and how similar it is to English.

They don’t use articles, for one thing (no “a, an or the”), so it streamlines things. Plus, their alphabet is based on Cyrillic, which is used by 250+ million people worldwide, so by learning Russian it is easier to recognize other Cyrillic languages — like Greek, for example: I speak none, but its alphabet is familiar because of Cyrillic. Trust me, it’s much simpler to learn Russian than it looks.

English, conversely, is the hardest language in the world to learn, because it keeps bastardizing other languages, and there are so many rule exceptions (like the same words with multiple meanings depending on context). This is not me talking here, this is from the Defense Language Institute itself: each language is leveled, from 1 through 5; level 1 languages are things like Swahili (I’m not joking), level 2 would be French and Spanish, level 3 are German, RUSSIAN, Italian, etc., basically all your European languages, level 4 only has 4 — Arabic, Chinese, Japanese/Korean and Pashto.

There is only one level 5 language, and you are reading it now. Doesn’t that make you feel better, knowing that if you did choose to learn a new language, you already know the hardest one?

Ken31
Ken31
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 4:26 pm

I scored second tier down from top on the DLAB, but I was having a bad day. It did not help that I was feeling ever more retarded and inadequate as I went along. I was convinced it wasn’t even going to say I could learn Spanish.

I was conversational in French once, and I have wanted to learn Russian for a long time. I have been once, but I would never leave my own country. I was having recurring dreams when I was in foreign lands: one was that I could live in America and the other is that I had my very own place to live in. I spent too many years longing for home to ever consider leaving.

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
  Ken31
December 4, 2021 5:29 pm

Ken31: I scored a 98 on the DLAB, this before I’d ever taken a foreign language. That test is just to see if you have the ability to learn languages, not if you actually can. The fact that you scored that high proves you do have it. It’s not an easy test for a reason. My recruiter was stunned; he said I was the only one he’d ever personally had joining who passed that test.

m: As I said, the tier system is according to the military. All forces, worldwide, send their troops to the DLI to learn languages (I had Royal Navy and Israeli Army in my Russian class, for example). The instructors of every language class are native speakers of whichever language, and the course is intense (I had 47 weeks to learn Russian, its culture and history; we had to memorize pages of words daily). So I would tend to believe these people know what they’re talking about when they say English is hardest to learn. You can have a look for yourself at their tier system here:

Languages Offered

I believe they are basing their tiers on mastery and not skill; in other words, English is the hardest of all to master because of its constant evolution whereas other languages are more obdurate with their with their rigidity. And depending on which area of the country you are in, even in America people speak with mushmouth so bad you can’t understand them, so it ain’t just Russia!

m
m
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 5:56 pm

On that linked-to page there is no English and no level 5 listed.
Doesn’t matter, someone is pulling someone’s leg here.

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
  m
December 4, 2021 6:10 pm

There are many more languages than those listed that they teach; one of my roommates was learning Serbo-Croatian, for example. It is all based on military need.

They told us English is the only level 5 language, and I guess since we obviously don’t need to learn it, its listing would be redundant. Just going off what I was told at the DLI!

Ken31
Ken31
  Captain_Obviuos
December 6, 2021 12:17 am

At the time I took it in probably 2006, Chinese was in the top tier ( I forgot what else), but I wanted Russian or a ME language anyways. Turned out the war had other plans for me. I don’t remember my raw score, but it is probably still in a file somewhere.

I still may get around to learning Russian.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 7:21 pm

Try mensa, give you something else to babble about, lmao

m
m
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 4:40 pm

You can’t be serious. English would belong on level 2, I’d put it even a little easier than French. Italian belongs on that level too. Portuguese seems quite a bit harder.
German took me 9 months to learn (speak/listen/read/write) as a kid while being immersed 24/7 within native speakers.

Russian is maybe a tiny bit easier than German overall. The cyrillic alphabet is no big deal, took me 2 weeks to learn, and then a few months practice to not still sometimes mix up the “B”, “P”, and “H” with the western alphabet ones. Leaving away articles doesn’t really make it easier, and the lack of clear “having” and “being” verbs is a big hurdle for the absolute beginner.
But the really tough nut is listening, as Russians often enough (maybe 30%) “smear two words together”, i.e. make no pause between two words, which makes understanding in real time an almost hopeless exercise for the first few months. (And native Russian speaker clips with Russian subtitles, which would be very helpful there, are extremely hard to come by.)

August
August
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 7:49 pm

Captain, I won’t dispute your, or the DoD’s, ranking of language difficulty, aside from adding my opinion that English is indeed difficult to spell, and speak like a native.

In many ways, though, dumbed-down English is reasonably straightforward due to its relatively simple verb conjugations, and lack of change in articles and word-endings with changes of case (which always plagues me in German).

Gregabob
Gregabob
  Captain_Obviuos
December 5, 2021 1:05 am

‘Which witch is which?’ English is a disaster….however, when spoken correctly is very beautiful. Russian and Ukrainian are similar and neither have those ‘little words’ as mentioned in a prior post. The words get modified to accomplish the same thing as using ‘little words’.

SmallerGovNow
SmallerGovNow
  Balbinus
December 5, 2021 7:09 am

I would consider it if I was twenty years younger… Chip

Muscledawg (not to be known as Delusionaldawg)😉
Muscledawg (not to be known as Delusionaldawg)😉
  Balbinus
December 5, 2021 7:41 am

The Russian language is difficult and very different from English

It helps if you’re a little dyslexic….русские женщины горячие.

Guest
Guest
December 4, 2021 3:26 pm

I like this solution better.

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 3:50 pm

As someone who can speak Russian (thanks to the military), and who still speaks to Russians pretty much daily, I will tell you that a lot of this article is true, but it also glosses over some major Russian issues.

They have some of the worst-polluted cities and rivers in the world, the cleanup of which could have been done by now but for their own bureaucrats. Their EPA equivalent, Rosprirodnadzor, is about as corrupt as ours. They have had strict environmental policies in place for years but no one to enforce them, instead their inspectors take bribes and look the other way. As a result, many Russian cities are very polluted, some by radiation. The biggest CO2 offender on the planet, by an order of magnitude, is the Norilsk Nickel plant, which paid the highest fine ever in Russia, $2 billion dollars, after it was responsible for spilling a record 6.5 million gallons of diesel fuel into waters feeding the Kara Sea. And this is just one example. Suffice it to say, their government is as greedy as ours, just in different ways.

They do believe in values quite strongly however. They do not tolerate deviant sexual nonsense, nor are they trying to force vaccinate their people; Russians are much more familial, I suppose due to their 20th Century experience. They are still in the process of making themselves whole again instead of being torn apart.

John Pietrusiewicz
John Pietrusiewicz
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 4:05 pm

Thanks. You answered some of my questions.

Ken31
Ken31
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 4:30 pm

Some are saying that vaccine strong arming in Russia is about as bad as it is in the USA now. At least in some areas and that Mr. Putin has walked back on vaccine mandates, without flip flopping yet.

John Pietrusiewicz
John Pietrusiewicz
  Ken31
December 4, 2021 5:06 pm

Good points. Look at the difference in states. California, Oregen, New York – Commie states. Florida, S Dakota – free states. I am in Alaska. We have a good Governor, and Mayor, in Anchorage, who support freedom. But a terrible city council. So, there is a big difference in States and even cities in a state. Putin is way more stable than Biden and may have be more stable than Trump.

m
m
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 5:13 pm

2/3rds of the lower end estimate for the Exxon Valdez spill.
Or do they do that every year in Russia?

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
  m
December 4, 2021 5:19 pm

6.5 million was a Russian record. But they still lead the pack by a not-even-close margin when it comes to industrial pollution from its Norilsk Nickel factory.

John Pietrusiewicz
John Pietrusiewicz
December 4, 2021 4:04 pm

I was thinking some of the thoughts in this article. I read one of Putin’s speeches, and he actually talked about freedom, that the USSR had done the Tyranny thing, and people rejected it. Did Biden ever do that? You might be better off in Russia than here. But are Russians allowed guns? Can you move around freely without being vaxxed or give me your papers? Can someone answer these questions?

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
  John Pietrusiewicz
December 4, 2021 4:22 pm

Yes Russians have guns, possibly more than we do. And the days of needing papers to move anywhere, and of an omnipresent subjugator, are long gone. They value their freedom.

As I say, they’ve already been through all this Bolshevism and are in the process of rebuilding.

John Pietrusiewicz
John Pietrusiewicz
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 4:59 pm

Many thanks. You confirm what I have been reading.

i forget
i forget
December 4, 2021 4:22 pm

Countries are like corporations. May even be synonymous with corporations.

Corporate values? Military intelligence?

Slogans like “human resources are our strength” come to mind. Human…resources.

Shining corporations on hills. Like Dallas has. Well, grassy knolls.

Or wherever there’s gold, let’s rush there. Al Swearingen types are waiting to serve up the resources.

In my 30’s, much earlier even, I knew that, & was trying for the jumbo shrimp of…isolationism, call it.

Still trying. Jumbo shrimps is hard to find, hold onto. And that’s even w/o the urban/suburban organism metastasizing to ruralities, & ruining them.

m
m
December 4, 2021 4:51 pm

Thanks Stucky.
I needed an uplift today after my mom showed her full Covidian stance, and my ex-fiancee got boostered, in the US.

While Orlov draws a bit too rosy a picture, it still is a country where more than half of the population personally experienced totalitarism, nihilism, and oppression of religion. That gives them a much bigger buffer than any “Western” country, against Ideology.

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
  m
December 4, 2021 5:12 pm

“…ex-fiancee got boostered…”

Revealing.

m
m
  Abigail Adams
December 4, 2021 5:14 pm

Your mind reading skills on full blast again, MANLY Abigail?

Yeah, my fiancee kicked me out against my will, that’s the only imaginable reason why I would still care what she does or doesn’t do. Oh, and she did it because I was such a weakling, конечно.
Thanks for the good laugh, I needed that!

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
  m
December 4, 2021 5:17 pm

Nope. Just find it fascinating when I can peg someone’s character accurately. Carry on…

m
m
  Abigail Adams
December 4, 2021 5:26 pm

That reminds me when a very good female friend of mine called her student dorm neighbor a slut, after she insulted me, decades ago. That would probably happen now as well…
Carry on!

Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
  m
December 4, 2021 5:33 pm

In the ‘friend zone’ with the ladies, huh? VERY revealing today…

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 4, 2021 5:10 pm

Why?

Russia:

Around 85% of the Russian population was of “European” descent in the 2010 census,[19] counting Slavs and with a substantial minority of Finnic peoples and Germans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia#Ethnic_groups

US:
Non-Latino White Americans (57.8%)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States

Diversity is societal suicide for White countries.

Sonic
Sonic
December 4, 2021 5:37 pm

I spent several weeks there in 2019 with my family. A good friend of ours is Belorussian, and we took a trip to Moscow, St Petersburg, and a small village south of Minsk (Belarus). One of the biggest impressions was men were men, women were women, and people were all pretty cool with that arrangement. I didn’t see much of anyone trying to celebrate a disconnect with their biology or their mind. That means there are probably lots of people suffering in hiding as they deal with problems that are not accepted, but the net result for someone who appreciates sanity over compassion is that it felt a lot more like my childhood.

Another big observation that has been reinforced in visits to many other western and European countries is that people are for the most part just people. They want to raise their kids, watch their sports, eat their food, and generally be left alone. Governments are all the same too. They all want the biggest chunk of those people’s lives that they can manage to steal.

In Moscow I sat next to a guy from Uzbekistan in an uber cool speakeasy who was trying to tell me why the USA is evil. I told him he didn’t know the half of it and proceeded to tell him a list of terrible things we’ve done that he didn’t know about. I told him that we were not any big fans of it either, but we also had about as much influence in it as he did. It was a great conversation, and while I’m sure the whiskey didn’t hurt it was clear that we both just wanted the same thing. The pursuit of happiness and the freedom to pursue it.

Governments and their ilk are the creatures that feed upon people like he and I. We just want to work hard to build an opportunity for ourselves and the people we love.

All that said, if you are considering Russia, St. Petersburg is the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. When you consider the entire city was a burned out pile of brick less than 100 years ago it was amazing how much art was woven into the fabric of everything. The buildings, canals, streets, etc are all lovely.

Walking back from the grocery store at 2am I never felt the slightest bit at risk. Don’t leave your bike unchained, but the likelyhood of being assaulted (even a single woman) was slim enough that the people there were surprised you’d even ask about it.

Also, until you ride the hemi-vertical mega-escalators down 350′ beneath the bedrock of the city to get to the ancient train style subway system, you will never appreciate how much they took the history of the city to heart by building making their entire subway system a city-wide bomb shelter. Crazy deep and architecturally fascinating.

I would not be afraid to live there. Their form of tyranny appears to be the more direct in your face kind, and less this let all the things you love leak out the back door type we have here. The people were very kind and helpful. I played soccer with local kids who would smoke every time they would take a break. There are more types of Vodka readily available than I knew existed. For $2 a bottle you could enjoy a quality Sovietskia Champagskia (Soviet Champagne) that was quite good. The food was good and very little of it was processed. There was a lot to like.

That said you could see its roots in socialism in the big block apartments and run down sections. I have no doubt that deep corruption and organized crime are going to notice you if you have resources enough to notice.

On the flip side raise your hand if you ever saw a truly beautiful woman working at the DMV? What about as a train attendant or as an armed guard at a museum? It was AMAZING how many fantastically pretty ladies there were in ordinary roles. And redheads? Who knew Russia had more redheads than Scotland? Crazy.

When you are heir to the most evil nation ever to exist (that would be US in case you are wondering), nearly anywhere could look great. I’d make it a point to visit at the worst time though. We went in the summer and it was lovely. I can imagine the middle of January might have been a bit different.

August
August
  Sonic
December 4, 2021 8:09 pm

Spent about three weeks as a tourist in Russia fifteen years ago.

To be concise, I’d say Russia is the inverse of California, in both climate and people.

Taras 77
Taras 77
December 4, 2021 5:54 pm

Russia with its values is everything the us is not; us is on a fast downhill slide into the lawless sewer, aided and abetted by the press and the uniparty.

Gryf
Gryf
December 4, 2021 6:42 pm

Welcome back Stucky. Great article.
Russia is back in focus as our arch enemy. When you look at the ongoing transformation of the country we should give credit where due. Putin is a new Czar, and a very competent one. I watched a video of him at a national awards ceremony for high school kids. He was like your favorite uncle, smiling, teasing and down to earth. In another video he was touring a factory and lit into the director. I would not have enjoyed being on the receiving end of his critique. He is definitely one of the most intelligent leaders on the planet.

Treefarmer
Treefarmer
December 4, 2021 7:04 pm

Russia and other Eastern European countries seem to have the most potential. You’re right, it’s a move for the young to make. At our age, it just makes more sense for us to keep to the large swaths of the US that are still sane. Oh, and we should all improve our Spanish skills. El futuro es hispano. When we first visited Yuma more than 10 years ago, about 70% of the radio stations were english language. Now there are just two.

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 4, 2021 7:12 pm

Excellent piece. I’ve been informally studying Russia for some time, and I too have pegged it to be the real comer in next several decades. They are free of the culture wars like we have, have unbelievable natural resources, and I don’t think they pick their bureaucrats because they tick some diversity box. It wouldn’t surprise me if they made a move on the Donbass region of Ukraine. Biden is too much of a waffler to take action, and if he did, how many of our allies would feel comfortable following his lead? They already saw what our promises mean when in dealing with our surrogates in Afghanistan. Europe is too scared anyway; winter is here, and Putin’s thumb is on the energy pipeline that keeps Europeans warm. Putin has us where he wants us.

August
August
  Anonymous
December 5, 2021 2:59 pm

Russia really doesn’t want to ‘take Ukraine’, though there are still some sizeable chunks that they’d be happy to have.

The USA / NATO want a limited war, where 10,000 or so Ukrainian conscripts get killed, NATO gets west Ukraine, and Europa as a whole gets another fifty years of Russophobia, with the USA remaining In, and Russia Out. Boo-yah!

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 4, 2021 7:52 pm

Agreed, more than you Know.
But learning Russian be hard for an old dog.
Perhaps I could pretend to be deaf and dumb.

Ray Jason
Ray Jason
December 4, 2021 8:03 pm

Hi Stucky,

Welcome back. When you “go away” do you also go away? If so, I might send you my lat/long.

Good article. The Navy sent me to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and put me in their Russian program. It is a tough language but manageable for the highly motivated. Was 12 weeks into the 56 week course when I wiped out in a motorcycle crash and was hospitalized. In their infinite wisdom, instead of having me join the next incoming class they shipped me to Vietnam on an ammunition ship. One of the very few regrets in my life was not getting to become fluent in Russian.

On my “juggle my way around the world trip” in 79-80 I visited Moscow, St. Petersburg and then did the entire Trans-Siberian railroad. My State Dept forbid me from performing my juggling act in the USSR, so naturally I did so as often as possible. The Russians have long had the best jugglers in the world. Got to attend their great circuses.

There is a vid circulating of Putin standing in the pouring rain at an Unknown Soldier ceremony without an umbrella. Then a student asks him why he did so. His answer is so thoughtful and honorable. Check out the other students in audience. Definitely lacking in cultural enrichment.

Great literature, music, ballet and circus. Not a bad combo platter.

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
  Ray Jason
December 4, 2021 9:45 pm

Здравствуйте, товарищ по кораблю!

Lucky for me, by the time I came to DLI (1989), the Russian course was only 47 weeks; they lengthen or shorten it depending on need, I learned later. In my time, it was just before the Wall came down, so they needed Russian linguists. I finished my course in late 1990, which was of course too late, but I still had a good shore billet (Treasure Island!) as sort of a consolation prize I guess. The military tends to take care of you if they’ve invested a lot of money and time in you — funny how that works, innit? So I spent the rest of my time (they offered me $36k if I would re-enlist, which I turned down) on a minesweeper (USS Excel MSO-439 — which saw action in Vietnam, sir) up and down the West Coast, and around some places I can neither confirm nor deny. I would give anything to be back in those days now. Irreplaceable memories.

I would have loved to have seen your juggling act! Did the Russian circuses all have the requisite bears??

Ray Jason
Ray Jason
  Captain_Obviuos
December 4, 2021 10:28 pm

Hi C.O.

When I was there the department head was Mr. Yablakoff (Mr. Apple). In my era I recall it was about 4 hours of classes and 1 of language lab. Then about 2-3 hours of homework was needed. A sensationally good program, but tough. My duty stations would have been Adak, AK or somewhere in Turkey.

Yes, the Russian circuses had spectacular bear acts.

You can see me juggle in 30 seconds by going to Youtube and typing in something like “Ray Jason juggles dangerous objects.” I never knew this short video was out there in the cybersphere, and a TBP commenter alerted me.

Captain_Obviuos
Captain_Obviuos
  Ray Jason
December 5, 2021 9:10 pm

WOULD THIS BE YOU, RAY?? 🙂

Look at this young fella, folks! Now that’s entertainment!

And how clever is this guy, who off-the-cuff mentions a YT video in which the producer is RAY JASON? You’re amazing, Ray!

m
m
  Captain_Obviuos
December 5, 2021 2:24 am

Had to look up товарищ.

Treasure Island! Speaking of, did you also check the radiation pollution in that place?

Doohickey
Doohickey
  Captain_Obviuos
December 5, 2021 10:51 am

DLI grad – mid-70’s. German linguist. 32 weeks of language training. About 60% of the German linguists ended up at Ft. Hood in tactical units and never stepped foot on German soil unless they reenlisted. I was one of the lucky 40% and spent 3.5 years in Germany. Of course, that’s back when the Wall was alive and well. I practically maxed the proficiency test (listening) at the end of training but you don’t know what you don’t know. It took me about a year living in Germany and working my MOS to truly become proficient in the language. My MOS was offered $10 grand to reup. I declined. No guaranteed duty station. Looking back, those were some of the best years of my life. Always Vigilant!

Observer
Observer
December 4, 2021 8:21 pm

I would SERIOUSLY consider learning Russian

Please, learn Russian (or use Google translate) and then bother reading at least some of the local Russian news. You will be surprised about what is _really_ happening in Russia. Hint: Russia is 100% corrupt and 90% controlled by the same WEF cabal.

Here’s for your pleasure the translated interview with Mr. Deripaska back from 2006:

https://pobasenki-ru.translate.goog/biblioteka/mirovaya-zakulisa/kto-v-rossii-realnaya-vlast.html?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

This is the same Mr. Deripaska, whose property has recently been raided by the FBI:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/us/politics/oleg-deripaska-fbi-raid.html

The FBI sure knows how to put pressure on Putin’s clique.

m
m
  Observer
December 5, 2021 2:27 am

So you mean Russia is 100% corrupt, and their local media is honestly telling us about that?

Llpoh
Llpoh
December 4, 2021 8:40 pm

Hi Stuck – Russia is corrupt. Really, severely corrupt. A guy I know was grabbed up in Red Square by whatever they call the police, taken to a cell, and held there until his wife brought the “fine”. This corruption is endemic. So, buyer beware. There are no good places anymore. Just less bad. I do admire that they do not allow themselves to be pushed around.

BL the cur
BL the cur
  Llpoh
December 4, 2021 10:44 pm

Llpoh- Stucky must have missed the unrest in Russia. Just the other day 5000 protesters marched against Putin waving toilet bowl brushes in the air to bring light to the fact that Putin has $600 gold plated bowl brushes in his palace. Putin has the largest and most expensive palatial home of any world leader.

Navalny’s following grows by the day..

BL the cur
BL the cur
  BL the cur
December 4, 2021 11:09 pm

Did I prove you wring (your typo) Comrade Stucky? It’s never too late to pursue your dreams.

m
m
  BL the cur
December 5, 2021 2:30 am

Now that was funny!

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Llpoh
December 5, 2021 5:52 pm

What was he doing before he was arrested?

Guest
Guest
December 4, 2021 8:50 pm

I figured Russia was very corrupt, too, however I thought there would be a lot more stories of hikers, climbers etc. going for Russian wilderness experience. Some areas sound pretty wild and beautiful.
Perhaps they are and I’m just not hearing about it cuz I don’t read that stuff anymore.

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 4, 2021 8:58 pm

No thanks, but please feel free to go!

Leah
Leah
  Anonymous
December 4, 2021 9:35 pm

Friday Fail, Country Russia version!

Anonymous
Anonymous
December 4, 2021 10:35 pm

I wonder if Israel thinks their genocide of the Palestinians should be recognized as genocide or not?

Gregabob
Gregabob
December 5, 2021 1:51 am

Hey Jew-Guess what? You’re not the only ones to have been persecuted and killed. Plenty of others have suffered. 1.5 million Armenians, 7-10 million Ukrainians were starved to death before your ‘time of troubles’ in the 1930s-1940s. You’re not special. Get over it.

Anonymous
Anonymous
  Gregabob
December 5, 2021 2:26 am

Hey, who governed that “Soviet Union” you speak of? It wasn’t Russians.

Leah
Leah
December 5, 2021 4:42 am

Another where is question…Where in the fk is Auntie K? She is missed.

Jon
Jon
December 5, 2021 10:35 am

Among many I will only point out one glaring difference between modern Russia and the United States:
The Kremlin didn’t create what we have in the U.S.

Russia has become a designed antithesis to what the west has become, though they are being set up to fail. They have none of the inherent protections or liberties that the citizens of the U.S. possess. There is still a large communist influence in Russian government and the country is what it is only because the government allows it to be.

The U.S. has become a horrible place only because of the people not having the emotional courage to use the tools they were given by their founders. The tools are still there, it’s just that very few people choose to pick them up and wield them against their enemies.

m
m
  Jon
December 5, 2021 1:13 pm

Excellent satire, thanks.

Jack the Reefer
Jack the Reefer
December 5, 2021 1:11 pm

225,000 thumbs up. The unthinkable from my childhood has become the inescapable conclusion of my late years: Russia is more America than America is now.

I’m not kidding. If I had the chance to vote for Putin for president, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Is he perfect? From from it? Has he benefited from his position? No doubt. But since St. Francis is not available for the job, as I look around at the alternatives, V. Putin is a better exemplar of the values I believe in than any decrepit sybarite from Delaware, pedophilic potentate from Brussels or ChicCom pseudo-Marxist vulture/venture capitalist from Beijing.

I am looking for Vote Russian tee shirts now. If we really could vote for the lesser of all evils, Putin should win in a landslide.