Comrade Putlin, Pull the Other One

The gremlin in the Kremlin reaches back for greatness, yet again

Stalin down, Budapest circa 1956

So, Stalin has appeared on the facade of the medical university in the center of Volgograd, the city itself called Stalingrad previously. Until 1961, his mug was above the main entrance on the façade between columns in the same row as Lenin, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, then the bas-relief of Stalin in a medallion was initially removed from the wall.

He’s back now. Interesting. When I was in Ukraine it was statues of Shevchenko, Andy Warhol, John Lennon and others I saw, as well as plans for a statue of Boris Johnson. See the difference in culture? What’s that I hear, you question my use of Stalin and culture in the same breath? You are right. Russia is a disgrace, a psychopathic emporium that cannot and will not ride out of an obsession with brutality. And it is brutal; exemplified by this war, as well as daily life in Russia.

Why Russian culture thinks it is important to suffer and inflicted suffering on others I do not know. They are unable to have more than a shallow association with religion, and seem to have generally taken the wrong message from the concept of Christ. Of course, everything is also filtered through vodka, which is revered in unfathomable ways,— and amounts. Filtered also is Russia’s efforts to provide helpful propaganda for their actions. But this is filtered by all-too naïve and willing western accomplices; unknowingly, true. Just as for years the picture many Europeans had of USA was a hopelessly glorified pastiche (Route 66, Harley Davidson, Mc Donald’s, Coca Cola, Cool, Cowboy boots, American Football, Blues, Cheerleaders, NY, LA, Rich, GI Joes, Freedom), so are many commentators looking for a “Russianess” that is palatable, in the interests of fairplay, of discovering a real story, fear, attraction to power, suspicion, and latent anti-Semitism. Suspicion includes the fact that the Ukrainian Minister of Defence is a Muslim.

The misreporting of the war includes little snippets heard on podcasts and read in articles, such as when reporting the multiple beheading of Ukrainian soldiers, with a tiny caveat at the end, that the Ukrainians may well be doing the same thing, or will, surely, in revenge. They will? Will? That is news, prediction? No, they will not. I have fought in Ukraine and plan to return. The whole mindset of Ukrainians is completely different. Ukrainian military is not set on beheadings, torture and other war crimes. They did not invade Russia in order to raze it from the map. The covertly hidden “accusations” are not justified, have no merit and show huge ignorance. Transplant these onto other wars, and tell me each side did the same.

While I am in this vein, there is another troublesome theme, that of woman’s rights: when I was in Ukraine I used to get contacted by a number of charities, often wanting to offer help more than supplies, because there is always the notion that Ukraine is not really developed, that they need Western expertise in order to tie shoelaces and other difficult matters, and that they are corrupt. And of course, there is a serious problem with women’s rights in Ukraine, no? There must be. There has to be!

The foreign charities who were trying to promote women’s rights in Ukraine took my breath away. The key word was promote, actually, because it was, as usual from our societies, PR without substance: banners on websites with We support the women of Ukraine and such. Unfortunately Ukrainians do not have such a mindset at the moment. The country may or may not be the best place for women to live, but this is no anti-women society, even if men are always offering tiny bouquets to women on the street: yes, very much part of Ukrainian culture. Is it mysogenic? Probably in some twistable way. It is also important therapy during a brutal war.

I have received replies from two charities admonishing me for not saying the word women when replying to their request to help them find a serious unit to support. Not all units have women in their ranks. One of the two insisted I should say men & women even if there were not women. There are professional reasons I do not find that suitable, not cultural ones. And lives are being superceded here by agenda.

Both Ukrainian and foreign fighters in this war have tragically lost their lives. All of the women in the Ukrainian military are volunteers, as well as foreign women, obviously. We do not need to filter the war through a western prism to make it more relatable. Ukrainian women already face catastrophic burdens. This is why there must be less effort to try to present a balanced picture. There is no balance. The situation is horrendous for Ukraine, who have precious few allies as it is.

Russia is hell bent on bringing back a murderous tyrant into their mainfold culture. Why? I could surmise some reasons —defender of mother Russia, a past through rosy lenses, tough guy (well, murderer), of a time when Russia won etc. But as usual, who are they kidding. This is no Churchill or George Washington.

Could Ukraine do that, just for the sake of, you know, balance? Well, no. First because they do not have dictators to bring back, and anyway, they already have a national hero, in Shevchenko, a poet. And they even named a town after a writer, (Ivano-Frankivsk), for goodness sake. How unRussian. In fact how un all other countries I know of.

Ah dear stalin you were such a comedian! All those tricks up your sleeve maybe you should have been a librarian, collecting so many destinies, in the good old days when good was bad — drawers full of cards with names and dates and other cards for lies and one liners…I mean who can forget:

One man a problem, no man no problem?

Such wit!

Alas, Putin is utterly devoid of such cheekiness. Here’s one from the gremlin in the Kremlin himself:

It’s better to be hanged for loyalty than rewarded for betrayal.

What kind of absurdity is that? What kind of twisted mind?

Oh, and here he is at his best, nah, strike that; at his worst:

It’s better not to argue with women…when people push boundaries too far, it’s not because they are strong but because they are weak. But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman.

You know what? I’m not even going to comment on that. I am not going to say one word. Ok. One word — sicko.

As Gogol once said:

However stupid a fool’s words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.

And he would know, being an Ukrainian author. But thus lies the problem. Not Gogol’s nationality, but how selected western leaders in the USA and Germany (though there are others) have been confounded so.