Russia’s state-run Rossiya TV network is conducting an online poll to decide who is the greatest Russian of all time.
The results thus far are dispiriting. In first place is the last Tsar, Nicholas II, followed closely by Josef Stalin (who wasn’t even Russian) with Vladimir Ilych Lenin (who was largely Tatar, German, Jewish and Swedish rather than Russian) in third place. In fourth place is 20th century popular singer Vladimir Vysotsky with Tsar Peter the Great fifth. No sign of Mikhail Gorbachev or Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the poll, but Nikita Khrushchev is in the final 50. Andrei Sakharov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky are in but aren’t on the leaderboard, unlike those lovable rogues Boris Yeltsin and Ivan the Terrible.
Are LP readers better judges of Russians than Russians themselves? I’ll put in a plug for Gorby, Jules Martov, Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky and call for your responses. If nothing else, this thread might bring Fyodor out of the woodwork.
Update (28/7/08). Lenin has now jumped to the lead ahead of Vysotsky, with Stalin in third place, and Khrushchev making a late charge into fourth followed by Alexander Nevsky. Tsar Nicholas II is dropping off the pace somewhat in sixth place, followed by Yuri Gagarin, Georgy Zhukov, Peter the Great and Alexander Pushkin.
Latest Update (4/8/08). St Sergy Radonezhsky, Russia’s most popular saint and a folk-hero during the time of Mongol occpuation, has now sprung to the lead. Considering that he is reputed to have performed miracles whilst still in his mother’s womb, winning an online poll should be child’s play for him. Stalin is back to second place, followed by Georgy Zhukov rising to third, Lenin slipping back to fourth and Yuri Gagarin recovering to fifth. Rounding out the top ten are, in order, Prince Alexander Nevsky, Alexander Pushkin, the multi-skilled Mikhail Lomonosov, Nikita Khrushchev and Vladimir Vysotsky. The various Tsars all seem to be dropping off the pace after being prominent early.
Your title said it all: Grigori Rasputin, Russia’s greatest love machine.
Geoffrey Rush?
Rush Limbaugh?
“Josef Stalin (who wasn’t even Russian)”
Yeah, sure, and Hitler was Austrian not German.
The greatest Russian - by far - is Ana Kournikova. http://www.kournikova.com/
Yeah, gotts to hand it to the big man. Although it was a shame how he carried on.
I couldn’t let this opportunity pass to plug Lev Sergeivich Termen though. A little bit of froggy blood, but basically a good St Petersburg lad.
My trinity:
Vysotsky, Mussorgsky, Yeltsin.
Spiros - I’ll see your Ana Kournikova and raise you a Maria Sharapova.
Interesting question Paul - can we judge Russians better than they judge themselves? Interesting to turn it around - who do you think the Russians would say was the greatest ever Australian? Robert Menzies? Rupert Murdoch? Steve Irwin? Kylie? Could they even name an Australian!
Internal v’s external perceptions are always coloured by the cultural glasses being worn.
I’ve been wanting to know what to do with this video for a while. Gorby’s such a badass.
http://www.vimeo.com/1223566?pg=embed&sec=1223566
Tolstoy
Evidently it was the anniversary of the murder of Nick and his brood yesterday. 90 years it has been.
Borat was born in that region sort of, so Borat.
Vladimir Nabokov, Igor Stravinsky, Pavel Andreievich Chekov.
But not Bulgakov. I mean really.
Well, Darlene, if they’re going to include Georgians like Uncle Joe in the poll there can be no objection to nominating Borat from Kazakhstan.
I’ll put a vote in for Andrei Tarkovsky.
Well, the poll seems fairly dodgy so I wouldnt read too much into it. When Nestor Makhno and Bogdan Khmelnitsky received lots of votes, Lyubimov (the guy running the poll) removed them from the contest and said “This is a game and I set the rules”.
Are Ukrainians russian? What is Rus anyway, a clearly defined ethnic group, or just where the empire got to?
Kasparov?
Zhukov?
No need to run a poll, just plonk the names into google searches and see who has the most hits!
Anna Pavlova, of course.
B team: Tolstoy, Rachmaninov, Nabokov.
C team: Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Ivan the Terrible.
I see this year’s Melbourne Writers’ Festival is honouring Anna Akhmatova.
Oh and Trotsky.
*runs away*
Stalin was not a Russian and they’re including him.
Black Russian
Wilful, Ukrainians and Russians were the same people originally. Then Kievan Rus was destroyed by the Mongols, and the Russian polity reorganised itself around Moscow, while (to cut a long story short) the Ukrainian Russians were subject to various forms of non-Russian rule and diverged culturally somewhat from the Great Russians before the latter reconquered Ukraine and made it part of the Russian Empire. At least that’s how I understand the matter. I stand to be corrected.
If you understand Russian (or can at least decipher Cyrillic), you can see the ranking at Name of Russia. Gagarin is at 8, but they haven’t even given Shostakovich a ranking! Silly buggers.
The poll sucks - vote rigging is rife, and there’s only 50 choices on the ballot. Not even a write-in!
The greatest Russian was King Arthur: no him-no delighting a globe with English, surely.
Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov 1711-1765, who should have been more famous than Isaac Newton and would have been if he’d been British or American. Lomonosov contributed to more fields than da Vinci, including art (although he wasn’t as good an artist as Leonardo).
Most LarvaProd readers (warning - the following statement contains a stereotype) will remember him only as the character constantly referred to by Mr Chekhov in Star Trek as the discoverer of most scientific discoveries.
As a close number 2 in the amazing Russian prodigy stakes would have to be Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin 1799-1837, who managed to fit more into his short life than the eponymous Macedonian aka The Great. Apart from inventing the Russian novel and short story, and various entire genres of poetry, his translations of Shakespeare both compete with the Stratford Bard in linguistic accomplishment and ensure that the Shakespeare oeuvre is more accessible to Russian than to English-speaking audiences.
Surely.
Wait.. what?
I agree w/ Fine: Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky…filmic philosopher & poet. Observer. Educator. Guide.
Also, Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein…Soviet Russian film director and film theorist.
Agree w/ Lenin, Tolstoy, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Nabokov, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Gorbachev, Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, Dostoevsky, Kasparov…& even tho I disagree w/ some of Putins’ approach/strategies, I still reckon he has helped drag Russia back from the dustbin of history.
Tolstoy.
Tchaikovsky.
Dostoevsky.
Pasternak.
For politics, Lenin and Trotsky.
Asimov
Dostoevsky.
Then dust. Who of them ever achieved anything like “The Brothers Karamazov”? It’s Moby Dick for grown ups (and Moby Dick is awesome, just to put that statement in context).
Georgy Zhukov.
The Anarchist Prince, Kropotkin. 3 Million People attended his funeral, buckets loads more than Lenin’s. Plus his Geology and Geography work is still quoted in the relevant disciplines and he applied his Mutual Aid framework to the natural world beyond humanity presenting a radical reunderstanding of Darwinism that did not focus soley on individual organisms.
Lenin can surely be considered to be Russian, having been born in the Russian empire (and futher, being Russian-speaking and born to Russian citizens).
If, for example, someone accused an Australian-born person of (say) Asian extraction of being not “Australian”, then they would likely be loudly condemned.
Was not Fred Hollows (born in NZ) potentially one of the greatest Australians of all time?
Fair point, Paul.
Dostoyevsky
Tarkovsky
Chekhov
Gogol (even if he is from Ukraine)
Nabokov
Gorbachov
Tolstoy
Turgenev
Solzenitsyn
Shostakovich
Zhukov never got his due as Stalin feared his own cult of
personality would be undermined
Malevich and Tatlin from the arts
To those who said Lenin and Trotsky they left a shadow all over the world that will be with us for decades to come - university trotskyites
Rismky-Korsakov and my man Vladimir Prop w00t!!
Also: Nikolai Gogol and Stanislaw Lem,
Glad to see some Hawt Pushkin action.
Yeah, Kropotkin. Bukunin as well.
Re Dostoyevsksky v. Tolstoy. That’s a hard, almost impossible choice. Both are life -changing reading experiences - for me anyway.
I rather like the Trots - they sort of tell it like it really is when it comes to capitalism.
laika, first dog in space
I’d take Lenin, Trotsky, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Tolstoy at a pinch. (As for Yeltsin, well, how does that phrase about not pissing on when on fire go?)
But I feel compelled nevertheless to put in my main vote for Vasili Arkhipov, the guy who really *DID* save the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov
I reckon the poll is limited to dead Russians. Otherwise, I’d suspect that Putin would be number 1 with a bullet. (And Gorby would be in the low hundreds. They don’t like him much there.)
At least the poll has Zhukov - albeit at number 27. But they haven’t even included Vasilevsky, and that’s sheer, unadulterated madness. It would be like having a Greatest American Poll without Patton, or a Greatest Australian Poll without Monash.
And those Russian - they’re really suckers for punishment with Ivan the Terrible at 12. But at they didn’t include the terrible trio of Yakov, Yezhov or Beria.
I was one sent into hysterics when a univestiry classmate of mine referred to Kropotkin as Kroptopkin. I had to excuse myself from the lecture, with Verity Burgmann looking on in disgust.
BBB
i just remembered Bulgakov. http://urchin.earth.li/cgi-bin/twic/wiki/view.pl?page=MikhailBulgakov that story of his request to emigrate reaching Stalin’s ears, Stalin’s call to B and subsequent demand of the Moscow Theatre to show him one of his banned works, the next day andone of then lifting the ban on all his works remains one of my fav ‘you couldn’t make this up’ stories of the USSR.
kroptopkin: love it
Nikolai Lobachevsky (”Who deserves the credit … “)
Also Chebyshev.
Before going offline for the day, I’d like to put in a plug for Stanislav Petrov, for the same reason as Vasili Arkhipov.
Where’s the love for Mikhail Kalashnikov?
Shostakovich!
Closely followed by Stravinsky and Chekov.
Oh, I know I should put bloody Dostoyevsky in there, but I just can’t. He’s such hard work…
OK, tim, I’ll put in a vote for Dostoyevsky. And Tolstoy. But I hear Catherine the Great was terrific in bed!!
Stanislav Petrov should certainly be up there too. The wiki article on Arkhipov is a bit light-on - probably the whole incident has been over-shadowed by the Missile Crisis itself (which, if nothing else, should put the thing in context). The US policy on nuclear retaliation was quite clear at that point, and the whole world was on a knife edge.
Arkhipov was very quickly sent to Siberia (literally) for disobeying orders. So the ‘human story’ of Petrov (the break-down, the interviews, etc) never had a chance to come to light with Arkhipov. Which is why I still lean towards Arkhipov over Petrov - he’s still just “that guy that saved the world”.
Although really, for these two it shouldn’t be a contest at all - just gratitude.
Mikhail Kalashnikov, for providing to smuch entertainment to crazies all over the world.
First time poster, so be gentle.
Vasily Grossman is currently my favorite Russian although he was . Author of Life and Fate and the subject of a fantastic book by Antony Beevor, A Writers at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941 - 1945.
What comes through in Antony Beevors book is a quietly defiant man who in his own way stood up to the regime at a cost to his health and his family. Grossmans war time diaries and notes make fascinating reading. He was also the author of The People Immortal, unfortunately I haven’t been able to get a copy of it as yet.
More information at
http://www.antonybeevor.com/writer/index.htm
Sorry it should read
although he was born in the Ukraine.
One man deserves the credit!
One man deserves the blame!
And Nikolai Ivanovich
Lobachevsky is his name — oh,
Ni-kol-ai I-van-ovich
Lobachevsky is his name!
Andrey Kolmogorov
Lie and Fate is a wonderful book. It was reviewed in the London Review of Books last year and sounded so great I had to track down a copy.
I want to add Pushkin to the list. I don’t think he’s been nominated yet.
*blush* sorry Hal9000 @ 24.
1) Mikhail Bakunin
2) Pytor Kropotkin
3) Nestor Makhno
( Honorable runner up Manning Clark )
Tsiolkovsky. “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Tsiolkovsky
Why of course Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria for his craven/belligerent behaviour alternately as Old Joe Stalin slipped into and out of conscienceness (as reported by Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalin’s daughter.) Also known as the inventor of spiked drinks.
Omar Sharif, alias Dr Zhivargo, for his seduction technique with Julie Christie.
Borat for advancement of motor vehicle technology without fuel.
Ivana Humpalott for exhausting British spies in the movies.
(Just kidding):
Mussorgsky for Pictures at an Exhibition & Tchaikowski for everything.
Zhukov, number one Nazi f****er
Solzhenitsyn for “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” et al
etc etc
Rudolf Nureyev.
Along with seconding many of the above, I’d throw Alfred Schnittke into the mix
I think it’s disgraceful the way this thread consists entirely of nominations for Dead White Males
Harumph. To think that no-one has yet nominated Ilya Yefimovich Repin, who amongst other marvelous achievements, did this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks
Let’s also spare a thought for…
1. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov,
2. Vsevolod Meyerhold,
3. Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (per Brett @ #58)
4. Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, and
5. Joseph Brodsky.
also, Dr. Cat — Chekhov, on the… C team?! The C team??!! (splutters with astonishment)
As the good Doctor himself once put it, “I am a C-gull. No, that’s not right.”
p.s. and thank you, Ivan Sergeyevich, for writing “A Hunter’s Album”.
How about Ekaterina Ivanova? Ilya Kuriakin, anyone?
Anna Pavlova is chopped liver?
Ilya Kuryakin
“consists entirely of nominations for Dead White Males”
If the Russians knew how to make Kournikovas out of dead white men the Berlin wall would have been pushed the other way….
Everyone:
Well, it was a toss-up between international negotiator and enthusiast for applied metallurgy, Aleksandr Yuroslavich Nevsky [1220~1263] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Nevsky and that zealous political reformer and social critic, Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev [probably 1742~certainly 1775!!]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emelyan_Pugachev
But then …. who was the gentleman, larrikin and story-teller who embodied the Spirit of Russia, whose statue in Shanghai had more ups-and-downs than any other in the world, who famously [or notoriously] won a bet on a dinner-table in a manner I prefer not to emulate myself? None other than Aleksandr Sergeyovich Pushkin [1799~1837] of course. http://en,wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin
Wilful [15] That’s a real brawl-starter!
L=O=L
Mercurious [62]:
Fair go now. Catherine the Great should have been in the first five places …. but she was a German who became Russian; that might have left her out of contention.
Pushkin? Pshaw. I’d have shot the wife.
Good to see the mathematicians getting a strong run in the above comments, but I’m a little perplexed at the relative lack of mention of 20th C Russian musical figures. This seems almost perverse given the pivotal role that music played in Soviet life.
Sergei Prokofiev, for instance, whose death preceded Stalin’s by a matter of hours. Mstislav Rostropovich, a great cellist who risked much in supporting colleagues who were out of political favour, and who was ultimately exiled. Tatiana Nikolayeva, Sviatoslav Richter (though maybe he was Ukranian), David Oistrakh, Evgeny Mravinsky; each of whom changed the ways that classical music is performed and heard, and who all played roles as ambassadors to the West during the thaw in international relationships.
And I don’t think anyone has mentioned Mendeleev, whose periodic table of the elements still underpins a huge chunk of chemistry.
I see Bulgakov got a deserved look-in, but what about Yevgeniy Zamyatin, whose dystopian novel We was
plagiarised bythe inspiration for Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. Oh, and we’re all living in it now.I obviously don’t know how to make the strikeout work. New technology baffles old fart, I suppose.
No wonder Russians are such a miserable bunch. If there was any hope their politicians wouldn’t be anywhere near the top. The Greats - Peter and Catherine feature where I wonder…
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And the writers? I’d a thought Pushkin or Tolstoy should’ve made the top three.
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I’m sorry it’s inevitable: Nook’lar combat, toe to toe with the Rooskies.
Feral Abacus @ 71 - Prokofiev actually died a few hours after Stalin, not before, if my memory serves. I’m sure I remember reading about how he died in paroxisms of joy having survived the detested tyrant.
And Oistrakh is a great call!
On the great Russian female - has anyone mentioned Politkovskaya???
tim, you may well be correct re Prokofiev’s time of death vis-a-vis Stalin’s: my memory has dyslexic tendencies.
There’s a quote attributed to Shostakovich to the effect that Prokofiev would have enjoyed - in an ironic sense - the farcical funeral arrangements. From Wikipedia:
You have all forgotten Anna Akhmatova. In literary-land, I’d also nominate Yesenin and of course Pushkin, also Chekhov, for his wry and wonderful short stories. And could I leave out Gogol? In other fields, Lomonosov and Mendeleev, and Zhukov is an inspired suggestion.
I would also like to put in a word for Alexei Stakhanov — not for Stakhanovism, which was disastrous, but because after becoming famous, he had the good sense to take himself off to Kazakhstan rather than wait for Stalin to become jealous and order his arrest. Kazakhstan was a traditional place of exile for those who annoyed the Tsar, btw.
Lastly, I nominate Misha the Olympic Bear!
I can’t be bothered to nominate a famous Russian.
On a serious note, Valentina Tereshkova
Stanislavsky - where would theatre and acting be without him?
Nope.
I think we should nominate Putin for his wonderful sense of fun. Look at that face. Boogie on down.
Today I was perusing a “Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror” comic in a newsagent.
As part of some nefarious scheme, Monty Burns was gloating that he had millions of rubles which had been sitting in a bank account for a very long time collecting interest …
He explains: “When I was just a lad, I won a bet with Catherine the Great.”
Mr Smithers: “Lucky you. She’d have won if the rope hadn’t broken.”
P.S. Apparently the myth of Catherine the Great dying in flagrante delicto with a horse dates from shortly after her death.
That would make it one of the world’s oldest urban legends, I suppose.
Everyone:
On further reflection ….
We do not know the names nor the graves of the two Greatest Russians Of All Time. Yes. There were two!! Husband and wife [well, presumably - but definitely father and mother]. They were the two who decided to be free, no matter what the cost; they were fed up with going hungry again and again because they worked their guts out only to have what they made taken by the Russian tax-collectors working for the Mongol overlords. They, like many of their fellows, fled eastwards and penetrated the impenetrable forests. They crossed hundreds of dangerous steams and struggled through uncrossable swamps. They fended off wolves, bears and hordes of savage insects. They kept themselves warm enough to survive the cruelest winters. Many of their fellows drowned, were eaten, froze to death, disappeared without trace, starved to death or died by violence …. or, worse yet, turned around and went back the way they had come.
Somehow, against impossible odds, this couple - and some like them - survived, found some way of getting enough food and robust enough shelter in one place to settle down there and raise a family, have their children live long enough to have families of their own …. and become the ancestors of the people who would, hundreds of years later. reach the Pacific Ocean.
No mistake. These two are indeed the Greatest Russians Of All Time.
The Feral Abacus:
You are right of course. My apologies for omitting Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyov from the short-list.
Everyone:
i.. Thank you all for not taking the mickey out of me, back at post 69, for misspelling the patronymic of Alexandr YAroslavich [with a <-R =ya, not a I-O =yu] Nevski.
ii.. Yeah. Just where are all the musicians, scientists, mathematicians and heroes of …. sorry Comrade Stakhanov; stop right there; you are definitely not allowed in at all; you really have disqualified yourself from this competition for very obvious reasons.
Graeme Bell, I’m not surprised Mendeleyev was overlooked. His periodic table is such an integral part of western perceptions of the physical world that we’d really only notice him by his absence - he’s the wallpaper on a major component of our intellectual framework, if you like.
On the other hand - in the visual arts - no-one (myself included) has mentioned Wassily Kandinsky. OMG! A colossal oversight!! Where do I go to make an advance booking for a self-condemn?
The Feral Abacus [87]:
Visual artists?
That’s easily explained.
According to this evening’s news ….
“The old-fashioned long-established Tretyakovskaya Galereya has been closed for good; the artifacts formerly displayed there are now being offered for sale to foreign tourists at bargain-basement prices [while stocks last]…. and the building will re-open in October, following extensive renovations as …. the Kansas Boot-Scoot Saloon - with happy-hour drinks at half-price every evening between 7 and 8 in the Victor Vasneezoff Bar & Grill”
Graham Bell, that’s truly depressing.
Asking Russians to choose the greatest Russians of all time? Imagine what Australia would be like when choosing the greatest Australians. Sporting heros and rock musicians would be on the top of the list rather than scientists, important (as opposed to popular) politicians. What we consider great is very different to what the rest of the nation considers great. Any slice of the population will have a different idea; throw them all together and you get a sense of what the country values.
Rossiya TV poll update: Uncle Joe has now jumped to a handy lead over Tsar Nicholas II, with Lenin still 3rd and Prince Alexander Nevsky moving into 4th just ahead of Vladimir Vysotsky. Rounding out places 6 to 10 are Peter the Great, Alexander Pushkin, Catherine the Great, Yuri Gagarin and Ivan the Terrible.
On the LP poll, the standings are: Tolstoy leading on 8 votes, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Pushkin tied for second on 7 votes, Tchaikovsky and Zhukov equal fifth on 5 votes, Gorbachev, Nabakov and Mendeleev equal seventh on 4 votes, and a scrum contesting tenth place on 3 votes each - Stravinsky, Tarkovsky, Trotsky, Shostakovich, Lenin, Solzhenitsyn, Kropotkin, Gogol and Catherine the Great.
I have had to disqualify 18 votes for Trofim Lysenko from persons purporting to be Bob Carter, Jennifer Marohasy, Alan Moran, Andrew Bolt, Michael Costa, Ray Evans, Keith Windschuttle, Piers Akerman, Nick Minchin, John Howard, George Pell, Lord Monckton, S. Fred Singer, Pat Michaels, Richard Lindzen, Bjorn Lomborg, Nigel Lawson and Graeme Bird. I have ascertained that these commenters are all sock puppets for an obscure Brisbane academic in the field of environmental politics and policy.
Also worth noting is that nobody has nominated Ayn Rand or Kostya Tzsyu, even though they would be eligible on the same basis as Isaac Asimov. Not that I’d nominate either, of course.
If Catherine the Great wins, will she henceforth be known as Catherine the Greatest?
There was a survey for the Great Human Who Ever Lived in the UK - winner: David (fucking) Beckham.
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?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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He played for Man U. And most of the time he spent fiddling with his hair!!!
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My vote is for Catherine the Great a walking illustration of Aristotle’s argument that monarchies are the best kind of government; and then of course there’s Ivan IV and Joe Steel illustrating that they are also the worst.
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But my favourite Russian was a writer, in the finest Dandy garb who dies in a duel over a woman sometime between the death of Napoleon and the start of the American Civil War. There’s so many to choose from.
The Feral Abacus [ ]:
Terribly sorry. I apologize!
I was only JOKING. It’s not really true. Mine was really an out-of-date ‘Nineties satirical comment. Privatization and commercialization have hit some real lows …. but, thankfully, the Tretyakovskays Galereya is still - and remains - safe from the predators and plunderers.
Paul Norton [92]:
Kosta Tszyu might have been born a Sibiriak but he’s ours now - one of the top twenty Aussies!!
…. and on 91:
Wow! Move over Hercule Poirot …. title of World’s Greatest Detective has just been taken over by a bloke named Norton. L=O=L
Quite right Adrien. The native-born English have always been inferior to their immigrant Norman overlords.
Who is Beckham compared to Eric Cantona?
In comparison to Beckham Eric Cantona had a lot more kick as some Crystal Palace supporters can attest.
And who can forget Paulo Di Canio whose brain explosions were works of genius, and he’s sure to at least pick up to the fascist vote of a poll of top Italians (if they look past Berlusconi).
Graham Bell - you’ll keep! Thanks to you I had nightmares last night about Soviet mafioso types with Malevich’s in their bedrooms that they’d picked up for a song.
But seriously, aren’t the truly great Russians those unfortunate souls who were caught up in the siege of Leningrad? Confronted by Hitler’s forces on one side, with Stalin’s at their back, and surrounded by the Russian winter. Nazi and Kampuchean extermination camps excepted, it doesn’t come any worse than that.
And then, at the commemoration service several years ago, the survivors had to endure a lecture from George W Bush on the wartime privations experienced by the US… They deserve better than that.
Was this before or after Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon wrote and recorded “Tender”?
Before. Sorry I do like Gorrilaz but I think Albarn’s a little twerp. No I don’t like Noel Gallagher either.
I raise my glass to you. I remember watching the FA Cup final Newcastle v Man U about 10 years back. Pub full of Brits. Beckham kept fiddling with his bangs to a chorus of ‘my hair, my hair’. The Beckhams are show-room dummies brought to life by someone like Frankenstein only much more evil.
The Feral Abacus [98]:
Would it help if I sent a few bales of hay for your nightmares? Sorry ; “…. a jest, a trifle overdone ….”
The Greatest Russians Of All Time would definitely have to include the nameless faceless forgotten people who endured terrible hardships - a bit like the Unknown Warrior in our culture …. whether they were the ancestors of the Sibiriaks or those who went through any one of the many appalling rebellions and reprisals or, as you said, those who went through The Siege Of Leningrad …. or those who had the courage to stand up to the abuse of power by Stalin and his henchmen.
A Gnome named Grimble Grumble [93]:
Catherine The Greatest? Of course.
b.t.w. How do we kill off the mythical horse so beloved by slanderers of Catherine the Greatest? It’s nothing but an annoying distraction in an otherwise fascinating epic. [Move over Cleopatra, you’re not even in the hunt].