Right and the more recent figures of Stalin, Derzhinsky, and Lenin (whose body remains in full display in Red Square) were...?
Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff both spent the latter half of their lives and died in the U.S. (New York and Beverly Hills respectively) because the climate of their homeland was so repressive and dangerous.
Granted, Putin’s country is not Stalin-times, but enough repression and constriction of innovation remains. I say this as someone who spent time with lots of creatives there.
The filmmaking community is showing promise though. However the movie currently getting the most potential buzz for Foreign Language - Oscar is ironically a very critical of the current state of Russian society. The movie is called “Loveless” by Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Just shared this in another thread:
I write as an American with some Russian ancestry on my paternal side, who lived there as an expat shortly following the Crimea annexation.
Foreigners have it better than average Russians as we’re usually paid in foreign currency (not rubles) if employed, we’re there of our own will, and receive preferential and friendlier treatment in general. Being American carries more panache than every other nationality.
Russians don’t expect outsiders to be acquainted with all the baggage they share between themselves in terms of their interactions with each other, their deep-seated frustrations with life under the regime, etc...These are things I become acquainted with once I left the expat bubble and started speaking the language more.
The biggest conclusion I came to was that while the Soviet Union may have collapsed territorially and economically (and not that long ago at that), it has not collapsed psychologically or spiritually in the minds and hearts of the people. And rather than help Russians move forward, Putin has capitalized on his own people’s vulnerabilities to sell them a bag of short-term goods, which have contributed to their long-term harm and decline. Spiritually and Economically.
Putin knows this, which is why uses things like Crimea, Syria -to distract Russians from their own inner insecurities and turmoil. To make Russians feel confidence in their nation. The state-run news media diverts attention away from problems at home (like the tensions resulting from massive inflow of Muslim migrants to Moscow from former Soviet states in Central Asia, who make up for the labor shortfall posed by ethnic Russians’ demographic crisis, or the rising disputes over language-policy in the Russian republic of Tatarstan) —> onto sensationalized stories of Western chaos, and the sham that is American democracy or what have you...But, despite all this, the patience of Russians, particularly young Russians, is wearing thin.
Putin needs an unstable Ukraine so as to discourage the same Euromaidan-style revolution from happening within his own borders. Lest Russians demand a democracy of their own.
With regard to “Christian values” - while faith is alive and well in the hearts of many: banning gay propaganda and wearing crosses have not done enough to put the country on a strong social footing. Russia currently suffers from intense HIV rates and Soviet abortion culture has only recently started to be tackled. (Highest rates in Europe second only to Romania.) Divorce, domestic violence, fatherlessness — are more a general rule of life than the exception. Some of this is still fallout from the trauma of the collapse and the turmoil of the 90s. Some of it endemic. A Russian proverb says: “If he beats you, he loves you.”
And The Orthodox Church has reverted back to old habits of catering to the State at the expense of God. Some remain passive or even actively support of the Putin government’s efforts to rehabilitate the image of Stalin, who was responsible for the deaths and purges of millions of believers. Priests live in posh, lavish luxury while criticizing the so-called decadence and materialism of the secular West. (Want to stress, not all* of them.)
Lenin’s body remains unburied, and lies in full display at the center of Red Square. Efforts to question the historical record concerning horrors perpetrated on Russians by the Soviet State are repressed or punished, as Putin is present for near every single installation of a tsar statue — including that of Ivan the Terrible. Portraits of Felix Dzhervinzky hangs in police stations. (And all of these images often hang alongside Orthodox icons of Jesus, the saints, etc...an ode to the conflicted state of modern Russia as a whole.)
The Russian government bullies Poland and Ukraine for tearing down Lenin statues and Soviet monuments. So much for respect for sovereignty.
The Russian economy continues to hinge on oil prices and constricts innovation.
And the leftist movements here in America and abroad continue to be plagued by the Soviet values of secularism and socialism. Globalism is arguably a Soviet concept also. So Russia does the whole world a disservice by not acknowledging the lingering ramifications of the Soviet legacy.
As stronger leaders like Trump take hold of the West, Russia’s own contributions to Western corruption (like feeding millions to Hillary Clinton and clan) will unravel as well as the accounts of kleptocratic oligarchs having near-a-trillion-US-dollars stocked up in Western banks.
Trump will only be vindicated and Russia’s own domestic weaknesses and corruption will gradually become the forefront of global discussion as their March 2018 presidential elections loom, their fate in next year’s Winter Olympics hangs in the balance due to the (state-run) doping scandals, and as they host the corruption-ridden World Cup next summer while the economic conditions and living standards for most average Russians continue to tank and decline.
This is the short version. I am of the belief that Putin will not go down in history well. And once his regime crumbles, Russians will have to undergo the process of psychological de-Putinization as well the long-overdue postponed de-Sovitezation, and even de-imperialization from the toxic time of the tsars.
The body of Lenin will finally be buried, as well as the bones of the Romanovs. Reconciliation will be had with their Christian brothers and sisters in Ukraine. And Russia will embrace the struggle to build a free society on their own terms, and with faith in their own abilities to do so.
No, no... You have it wrong. Your reply is a complete non-sequitor. Stalin, Dzerzinsky, Lenin were also gas station operators. The only thing Russia can do is sell gas.