Merry Christmas to you and your family and friends! I hope you will do something enjoyable on the Christmas day for a change! I personally decided that enough is enough. I did not check the fear mongering MSM news. Me and mum watched The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) with Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck and had a yammi dessert with mangoes and brownies. And we thought how weird it is that the 'old normal' with all these small pleasures of life feels like it never existed. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on Santa and his deer to take the 'new normal' away from us. We have to keep fighting until the evil is defeated. Thank you Edward for your personal fight!
it might seem like this has happened quickly, but the reality is that it happened slowly, quietly... so slowly and quietly that you may not have noticed it happening ...or didn’t have time to notice it... or simply didn’t care to notice it... or noticed it but we’re afraid to speak of it... or noticed it but we’re willing to exchange your silence for the ease of the technology... only the smallest of a percentage of the population noticed it and whispered of it... an an even smaller slice of that percentage Roared about it... but the Roar was enough to turn the tide... and quickly...
Noticed it for many years but if I'd said something about it, I would have been considered insane. In fact one of my ideas is to go back and pick out those things that I noticed to get some attention on them.
My wife, who almost left me for my statement that 'they were coming after us' earlier in the year is now channeling Guy Fawkes and saying 'might as well go out with a bang'.
Dec 25, 2021·edited Dec 25, 2021Liked by Edward Slavsquat
Thanks for sharing this, Riley! It helps to know better cultural background of an author that you read!
For Russians, though, December 25th has a different significance, nothing to do with religion or Holidays. This was the day 30 years ago, on December 25, 1991, when Soviet Union ceased to exist after Gorbachev declared his resignation as Soviet leader and red banner with hammer and sickle was taken down from the government building in Kremlin. Two weeks earlier, leaders of 3 Soviet republics, Russia (RSFSR) - Yeltsin, Ukraine (USSR) - Kravchuk, Belarus (BSSR) - Shushkevich signed the act of dissolution of USSR and formation of CIS. This was an illegal act, even more than that, this was an act of high treason, as these heads of only 3 out of 15 Soviet republics had no rights to dissolve the entire country without agreement from the rest of republics and precededing referendum that registered 80% of the population that wanted to preserve the Union. But this was the final act of USSR's capitulation in a Cold War. Actual capitulation was signed by Gorbachev and Bush two years prior, in 1989, on that Soviet ship near the nation island of Malta, but since very few people knew at the time what happened between Gorbachev and Bush world needed a symbolic event like that to show the ushering of new era "The end of history". Before the ink has dried on dissolution agreement, Boris Yeltsin was already calling US president, George Bush Sr., and reporting to him that "USSR is no more". Nobody, myself included, could project then the global significance of those events. Many people say, that the first act of what is occurring today happened on 9/11 and thereafter, and I agree, but the foundation for events of 9/11/01 and 3/13/20 was laid back than, when alternative system of social order was humiliatingly defeated.
But, away from sad topics and onto Holiday spirit! Russian society remains largely secular, and this is despite that absolute majority of Russians get baptized as children and most of them wear small Orthodox cross made of gold on their chest. But that is paying dues mostly to tradition, I believe, for some it's even more about superstition and not a real deep religious belief. I know, most Americans and Europeans are just like that as well, even though evangelicals in America take religion very seriously. But because of Soviet Union's tradition that was a secular state where religion was allowed but not encouraged, the main celebration for Russians today remains to be not the Orthodox Christmas that falls on January 7th, but the New Year's eve. This Holiday has its own set of traditions and many of them are relatively recent that formed over the last 100 years. This includes a mandatory decorated spruce Christmas tree, just like in the West. Every good wife will start cutting her calorific salads dressed with mayonnaise a day before New Year's eve. There literally needs to be 12 salads with mayo on that festive table, starting, of course, with absolutely de rigueur salad Olivier (called in Europe simply Russian salad) , made of cooked potatoes, eggs, some form of meat, like ham, pickled cucumbers, carrots, onions and sweet peas. Champagne and vodka need to be in plentiful supply! And, of course, watching movies. Nation's favorite movie 45 years in a row, and this applies to Belarus and Ukraine as well, despite Ukrainian nationalists hissing from their dark corners, is "The Irony of Fate" filmed in 1976 by director Eldar Riazanov. Since most people who read this blog and participate in discussion here have some degree of interest in Russia and Russian culture, if you never watched that movie before, I suggest that you do. Think of it as an excursion into the Soviet time at the peak of its achievements, and perhaps an excursion into a Russian soul. Great songs in this movie, btw, produced specifically for that film based on poetry of some of the most famous literary geniuses of the bygone "Silver Era" in Russian literature, like Marina Tsvetaeva and Boris Pasternak.
Here is the link to watch this movie with English subtitles. If you'll decide to watch it, please share with us your thoughts. Merry Christmas and a Happy upcoming New Year to you all!
That too is on the list of 12 salads/dishes that's part of a festive New Year's table. Also a "cake" made of herring, potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and, of course, layers of mayo, called "shuba" (fur coat) is very popular too.
What a great (and funny) movie. Imagine that, the Soviet people actually had a sense of humor--unlike how they were portrayed throughout my young life. There is a good website that has other movies as well. https://russianfilmhub.com/
My mother-in-law (God rest her soul) born under Stalin, was raised an Old Believer and yet she never really knew anything of her faith. She was to put it kindly, "devoutly ignorant". She observed all fasts etc. devotedly but had no real idea what they were about. When I tried to ask her questions of her faith (gently) she had no clue. BUT she was still a godly woman who was a more genuine and more real Christian than most I have ever met in the US. My wife however is as you described, she wears the cross, and even knows how to participate in an Orthodox service, but has no clue as to what it means.
That opening still from “Christmas in Connecticut” is perfection. I know life wasn’t that halcyon back then in reality, but it was a heck of a lot closer than it is now!
“Progressivism” (what an oxymoronic idea) has brought us all these lovely ideas, ideas like that we are all the same and that everyone’s contribution to the world (or lack thereof) is of equal value with the contributions of the Mozart’s, the Monet’s and Hemingway’s of the world. Another bit of silliness from this camp is the idea that man is self-redeemable and inherently good. Or the idea that the past is a construct (only partially true) and if we don’t like what we see it should be either destroyed (preferable) or at least ignored. There is a rather large list, but the point here is that we can look nostalgically at old movies and long for those days, but reality tells us that people have always been the same—all the same evils we see today. The difference being that there was an overarching societal structure that kept evil reigned in and we knew what shameful behavior was. Progressivism wants to do away with high standards because having high standards mean we have something to reach for and even if we do not attain the ideal, we still grow. So now we have no standards and so no growth (growth is at odds with "equality").
Progressivism has also accomplished the one thing that centuries of warfare, population displacement or natural disasters could never do. We have now embraced the story of the Emperor’s new clothes with the Emperor as the hero and the lad who pointed out his state of undress as the villain—because now there are no standards of dress. You will never see people dress as they are in this movie clip. I have spent over $200 ea on theater tickets only to sit beside a man in jeans and a sweatshirt and since he was beside me I know he spent that as well. I have taken my wife to lovely restaurants and we are always dressed appropriately, but we are nearly always alone in that. This is the infection from the west that has spread and it is this one that must be resisted. I should not go to Red Square in October and be able to point out to my wife who the Americans are amongst the hundreds of people there (hint it was cold and rainy, so look for guys in short pants or otherwise not dressed for the weather as your first clue.). Ladies I got news for you—that garment you are wearing is long underwear not pants. Gentlemen, it is December so put your little boy short pants away. Make dressing well and dressing appropriately a sign of your noncompliance. Make the world at least look elegant again.
So yes, Happy Christmas and all that--but the older I get the less sentimental I am and the more cynical I become—this comes from looking at too much reality and I really am tired of what I see.
El oh el. Quite the image. Still, I picture the future more like a red clown shoe kicking a human crotch---forever. With accompanying sound effects, of course: honk honk. Also, the future is now.
Dec 26, 2021·edited Dec 26, 2021Liked by Edward Slavsquat
Dobra dien,
All the Russians who have gone through Klaus's Young Global Leaders since 2006
Julia Shakhnovskaya, Lila Tretikov, Ruben K. Vardanian, Sergei Guriev, Alexander Ivlev, Kirill Androsov, Nikolay Pryanishnikov, Elena Barmakova, Kirill Dmitriev, Ksenia Yudaeva, Yuri Soloviev, Stanislav Voskresenskiy, Andrei Elinson, Nikolay Nikiforov, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Natalia Vodianova, Marina Kolesnik, Denis Morozov, Nick Dobrovolskiy, Miroslava Duma, Tigran Khudaverdian, Andrey A. Guryev
Merry Christmas to you and your family and friends! I hope you will do something enjoyable on the Christmas day for a change! I personally decided that enough is enough. I did not check the fear mongering MSM news. Me and mum watched The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) with Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck and had a yammi dessert with mangoes and brownies. And we thought how weird it is that the 'old normal' with all these small pleasures of life feels like it never existed. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on Santa and his deer to take the 'new normal' away from us. We have to keep fighting until the evil is defeated. Thank you Edward for your personal fight!
That's the spirit, Nastya :) Merry Christmas!
it might seem like this has happened quickly, but the reality is that it happened slowly, quietly... so slowly and quietly that you may not have noticed it happening ...or didn’t have time to notice it... or simply didn’t care to notice it... or noticed it but we’re afraid to speak of it... or noticed it but we’re willing to exchange your silence for the ease of the technology... only the smallest of a percentage of the population noticed it and whispered of it... an an even smaller slice of that percentage Roared about it... but the Roar was enough to turn the tide... and quickly...
because no one could ignore the Roar...
💕Merry Christmas 💕& a Roar’n New Year🐱🎯
you are quite right. I often think of that Hemingway line -- "it happened gradually, then suddenly."
Merry Christmas!
Noticed it for many years but if I'd said something about it, I would have been considered insane. In fact one of my ideas is to go back and pick out those things that I noticed to get some attention on them.
My wife, who almost left me for my statement that 'they were coming after us' earlier in the year is now channeling Guy Fawkes and saying 'might as well go out with a bang'.
Like this!
💕🐱💕
Thanks for sharing this, Riley! It helps to know better cultural background of an author that you read!
For Russians, though, December 25th has a different significance, nothing to do with religion or Holidays. This was the day 30 years ago, on December 25, 1991, when Soviet Union ceased to exist after Gorbachev declared his resignation as Soviet leader and red banner with hammer and sickle was taken down from the government building in Kremlin. Two weeks earlier, leaders of 3 Soviet republics, Russia (RSFSR) - Yeltsin, Ukraine (USSR) - Kravchuk, Belarus (BSSR) - Shushkevich signed the act of dissolution of USSR and formation of CIS. This was an illegal act, even more than that, this was an act of high treason, as these heads of only 3 out of 15 Soviet republics had no rights to dissolve the entire country without agreement from the rest of republics and precededing referendum that registered 80% of the population that wanted to preserve the Union. But this was the final act of USSR's capitulation in a Cold War. Actual capitulation was signed by Gorbachev and Bush two years prior, in 1989, on that Soviet ship near the nation island of Malta, but since very few people knew at the time what happened between Gorbachev and Bush world needed a symbolic event like that to show the ushering of new era "The end of history". Before the ink has dried on dissolution agreement, Boris Yeltsin was already calling US president, George Bush Sr., and reporting to him that "USSR is no more". Nobody, myself included, could project then the global significance of those events. Many people say, that the first act of what is occurring today happened on 9/11 and thereafter, and I agree, but the foundation for events of 9/11/01 and 3/13/20 was laid back than, when alternative system of social order was humiliatingly defeated.
But, away from sad topics and onto Holiday spirit! Russian society remains largely secular, and this is despite that absolute majority of Russians get baptized as children and most of them wear small Orthodox cross made of gold on their chest. But that is paying dues mostly to tradition, I believe, for some it's even more about superstition and not a real deep religious belief. I know, most Americans and Europeans are just like that as well, even though evangelicals in America take religion very seriously. But because of Soviet Union's tradition that was a secular state where religion was allowed but not encouraged, the main celebration for Russians today remains to be not the Orthodox Christmas that falls on January 7th, but the New Year's eve. This Holiday has its own set of traditions and many of them are relatively recent that formed over the last 100 years. This includes a mandatory decorated spruce Christmas tree, just like in the West. Every good wife will start cutting her calorific salads dressed with mayonnaise a day before New Year's eve. There literally needs to be 12 salads with mayo on that festive table, starting, of course, with absolutely de rigueur salad Olivier (called in Europe simply Russian salad) , made of cooked potatoes, eggs, some form of meat, like ham, pickled cucumbers, carrots, onions and sweet peas. Champagne and vodka need to be in plentiful supply! And, of course, watching movies. Nation's favorite movie 45 years in a row, and this applies to Belarus and Ukraine as well, despite Ukrainian nationalists hissing from their dark corners, is "The Irony of Fate" filmed in 1976 by director Eldar Riazanov. Since most people who read this blog and participate in discussion here have some degree of interest in Russia and Russian culture, if you never watched that movie before, I suggest that you do. Think of it as an excursion into the Soviet time at the peak of its achievements, and perhaps an excursion into a Russian soul. Great songs in this movie, btw, produced specifically for that film based on poetry of some of the most famous literary geniuses of the bygone "Silver Era" in Russian literature, like Marina Tsvetaeva and Boris Pasternak.
Here is the link to watch this movie with English subtitles. If you'll decide to watch it, please share with us your thoughts. Merry Christmas and a Happy upcoming New Year to you all!
https://youtu.be/lVpmZnRIMKs
I was just thinking of Russische Eier this morning on my walk to work
That too is on the list of 12 salads/dishes that's part of a festive New Year's table. Also a "cake" made of herring, potatoes, carrots, beets, onions and, of course, layers of mayo, called "shuba" (fur coat) is very popular too.
My ex-father-in-law was Polish, so yeah lots of meat and mayo salads.
Friends sent some photos of their Xmas from just outside Warsaw yesterday. Snow on the ground. It's about 27ºC here.
What a great (and funny) movie. Imagine that, the Soviet people actually had a sense of humor--unlike how they were portrayed throughout my young life. There is a good website that has other movies as well. https://russianfilmhub.com/
My mother-in-law (God rest her soul) born under Stalin, was raised an Old Believer and yet she never really knew anything of her faith. She was to put it kindly, "devoutly ignorant". She observed all fasts etc. devotedly but had no real idea what they were about. When I tried to ask her questions of her faith (gently) she had no clue. BUT she was still a godly woman who was a more genuine and more real Christian than most I have ever met in the US. My wife however is as you described, she wears the cross, and even knows how to participate in an Orthodox service, but has no clue as to what it means.
Merry Christmas to everybody!!! May the holiday spirit be with you despite this mess we're in.
Merry Christmas, Natalie!
Merry Christmas to you and all your readers!!
I think I love the comments on your Substack the best.
I also love the articles you link.
I also love YOUR articles, especially your dry sense of humour.
Wishing you all the best of everything possible,
Your Comrade with arms, 🥳❤️🙏
thanks, Sirka! Merry Christmas!
That opening still from “Christmas in Connecticut” is perfection. I know life wasn’t that halcyon back then in reality, but it was a heck of a lot closer than it is now!
Bring Back Barbara! (And Audrey Hepburn, and Katharine Hepburn, and Grace Kelly....so many....)
Yes, please!!
“Progressivism” (what an oxymoronic idea) has brought us all these lovely ideas, ideas like that we are all the same and that everyone’s contribution to the world (or lack thereof) is of equal value with the contributions of the Mozart’s, the Monet’s and Hemingway’s of the world. Another bit of silliness from this camp is the idea that man is self-redeemable and inherently good. Or the idea that the past is a construct (only partially true) and if we don’t like what we see it should be either destroyed (preferable) or at least ignored. There is a rather large list, but the point here is that we can look nostalgically at old movies and long for those days, but reality tells us that people have always been the same—all the same evils we see today. The difference being that there was an overarching societal structure that kept evil reigned in and we knew what shameful behavior was. Progressivism wants to do away with high standards because having high standards mean we have something to reach for and even if we do not attain the ideal, we still grow. So now we have no standards and so no growth (growth is at odds with "equality").
Progressivism has also accomplished the one thing that centuries of warfare, population displacement or natural disasters could never do. We have now embraced the story of the Emperor’s new clothes with the Emperor as the hero and the lad who pointed out his state of undress as the villain—because now there are no standards of dress. You will never see people dress as they are in this movie clip. I have spent over $200 ea on theater tickets only to sit beside a man in jeans and a sweatshirt and since he was beside me I know he spent that as well. I have taken my wife to lovely restaurants and we are always dressed appropriately, but we are nearly always alone in that. This is the infection from the west that has spread and it is this one that must be resisted. I should not go to Red Square in October and be able to point out to my wife who the Americans are amongst the hundreds of people there (hint it was cold and rainy, so look for guys in short pants or otherwise not dressed for the weather as your first clue.). Ladies I got news for you—that garment you are wearing is long underwear not pants. Gentlemen, it is December so put your little boy short pants away. Make dressing well and dressing appropriately a sign of your noncompliance. Make the world at least look elegant again.
So yes, Happy Christmas and all that--but the older I get the less sentimental I am and the more cynical I become—this comes from looking at too much reality and I really am tired of what I see.
I’d like to keep this for someone to read if that’s ok with you. A little Wakey-Wakey they’d identify with😉
If you want a picture of the future, imagine Santa's boot stamping on Ralphie's face – forever.
El oh el. Quite the image. Still, I picture the future more like a red clown shoe kicking a human crotch---forever. With accompanying sound effects, of course: honk honk. Also, the future is now.
Dobra dien,
All the Russians who have gone through Klaus's Young Global Leaders since 2006
Julia Shakhnovskaya, Lila Tretikov, Ruben K. Vardanian, Sergei Guriev, Alexander Ivlev, Kirill Androsov, Nikolay Pryanishnikov, Elena Barmakova, Kirill Dmitriev, Ksenia Yudaeva, Yuri Soloviev, Stanislav Voskresenskiy, Andrei Elinson, Nikolay Nikiforov, Elizaveta Osetinskaya, Natalia Vodianova, Marina Kolesnik, Denis Morozov, Nick Dobrovolskiy, Miroslava Duma, Tigran Khudaverdian, Andrey A. Guryev
Пожалуйста. (late Xmas pressie)
thanks, Rich!