Post something nice about Russia.

[4th]

I'll go first.

[dhol82]

1. A nice hearty meal.

Going for the heart attack!

[mitch96]

2. WTF? Borsch and vodka? Oh I know.. breakfast of champions...

Slava Ukraine!
m

[LoisB]

10. That looks like caviar to me.

[4th]

27. He wanted to see if there's such a thing ...

... as enough red caviar.

[LoisB]

36. What's on his spoon is more than enough.

[4th]

60. Not of Russian heritage I take it?

[LoisB]

61. You would be correct. I can do 1/2 teaspoon of red or a teaspoon of black then I'm through for another few years.

[DFW]

64. Surely you jest

It’s Russian Thanksgiving, and that’s Russian cranberry sauce.

[LoisB]

67. Ok. I'll take your word for it. My eyes are pretty doggone old.

[DFW]

69. Mine are getting there fast, so don't my word for it.

Since part of my work consists of counterfeit money detection, it’s not a process that bodes well.

[JoseBalow]

70. It is clearly caviar

You're right.

[LoisB]

71. I know. DFW and I were just joshing.

[elleng]

3. Tshaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Borodin,

Mussorsky, >>>>

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

105. You forgot Prokofiev

My particular favorite.

[elleng]

119. Yes, I did. sorry!

Here's one of his greats, and the PERFORMERS!!!

[PJMcK]

4. Music

Some of the greatest composers were Russian.

Tchaikovsky
Rimsky-Korsakov
Mussorgsky
Rachmaninoff
Shostakovich
Stravinsky
Scriabin
Prokofiev
Borodin

Still, the Russian/USSR has always sucked as a government and society. Their economies fail.

[Basso8vb]

51. I love Shostakovich.

His music was subversive.

[JoseBalow]

5. They killed a lot of Nazis

which is nice

[Irish_Dem]

6. Russia also managed to get 27 million Russians killed in the process.

Stalin didn't care how many civilians or troops he killed in the meat grinder trying to save Stalingrad. Which had zero military significance, he only did it because it was named after
him so he got into a d waving contest with Hitler.

[DFW]

65. My father in law left a leg at Stalingrad at age 18.

He never had a kind word for either of them.

[Irish_Dem]

74. He is lucky to be alive.

Many injured were just left to die.

Yes one of the most shameful episodes of WWII.
Hitler and Stalin engaging in a worthless fight over Stalingrad.

However to be fair, Stalin helped win WWII.
He kept engaging Hitler on the eastern front.
This allowed the Allies to be successful marching towards Berlin on the western front.

[DFW]

75. He was the only farm boy in his unit

Though badly injured, he was used to bitterly cold winters. A retreating unit noticed he was still alive and rescued him. All the city boys froze to death. Göring, after his capture, explained how the Nazis talked their people into a war. He said, of course the people don’t want war. Why should “some slob on a farm” go risk his life in a war when “the best he can hope for is to come home in one piece.” My father-in-law was that slob on a farm.

Stalin demanded to be allowed take Berlin in return for offering up a few million of his “volunteers,” never mind that we gave him untold billions in materiel, and that he stole the entire gold treasury from the Spanish Republic in 1936. No, he couldn’t take it with him, but nor did he or any of his successor socialist brothers ever give any of it back, even after Franco died, and the dictatorship ended. By the way, taking Berlin meant Stalin took the Reichsbank as well, with untold billions in gold in it. I saw a tiny bit of it when the Soviet Union collapsed, and even that was mind-bogglingly vast. One of the rogue KGB guys who made off with it in 1991, and who was involved in selling some of it in the UK and the USA, told an American colleague, “your children are already too old to ever see the end of what we have.”

[Irish_Dem]

77. Farm boys are hardy, resilient, and fierce fighters.

The traits they learned in the hard life of farming.

Yes we gave Stalin the equivalent of $11 Billion in today's dollars.

Of course the SOB wanted more.

[DFW]

78. And he took more. Much more. See my other post.

My father in law was more of a pacifist than anything else. But he knew that the only conscientious objectors in 1942 were dead conscientious objectors. After surviving, he prayed that if he ever had grandchildren, that they all be girls, and thus not subject to compulsory military service. Fate was to grant him that wish.

[Irish_Dem]

85. I think most of the guys came home from the war feeling the same way.

They were done with fighting and wanted peace in the valley.
Glad your FIL got his wish of all girls.

[DFW]

89. By the time I met him, the War had been over for nearly 30 years

But as much as he tried to suppress it, I could tell that every time he tried to take a step with his prosthesis, the pain manifested itself. Only when riding a bicycle was he at ease. He was a nice guy, but I was told (later on, when I was accepted as a freak foreign member of the family) that as a teenager, he was the shining light of the family, always in a jovial good mood. He wasn't happy about being drafted at age 17. When he came back a cripple at age 19, he was a changed person (small wonder). the villagers told me that only when he met the girl that was to become my wife's mother did he light up again. He was absolutely taken with her, and apparently there was some jealousy when he was the one to finally marry her, handicap and all. She was "the catch" of the village, and the girl the local guys all wanted. Judging by their daughter, I can well imagine that her mom was quite the looker in her day as well.

[Irish_Dem]

91. A happy ending to a sad entry into adulthood.

Only 17 years old and coming back two years later with a serious war injury.
But he got the girl of his dreams and beautiful daughters.
And of course a nice SIL.

[DFW]

93. One daughter, one son (for the record).

She was beautiful, alright! His son was a great guy as well. He had the lousy luck to get a glioblastoma, the same kind kind of always-fatal brain cancer that felled John McCain, Teddy Kennedy, a cousin and aunt of mine, and now has selected Cecile Richards as a soon-to-be victim. Luckily, his father never lived to learn of that. It was his granddaughters that my FIL hoped never to have to see military service. In West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, military service was compulsory for males unless you could prove convincingly you were a religious conscientious objector, or physically unfit. The day before his physical, my wife's brother doped himself up seriously, drank himself half blind and did who-knows-what to himself to avoid being declared fit for military service. All very much with his conservative father's approval! It worked, too. He was declared unfit for military service. He was also declared unfit to serve in any government bureaucratic job, most of which guarantee employment for life in Germany (if you want it/can stand it). He couldn't care less. Like the rest of us, he never liked bureaucrats, and so was perfectly happy to be declared unfit to be something he never wanted to be in the first place.

[Irish_Dem]

95. What a story.

I don't think people should be forced to fight.
It was terrible here in the US during the VN draft.

Oh I didn't know about Cecile Richards.
I saw a recent picture of her and she did not look well.
It looked like both people standing next to her were propping her up.
She did not look well.

[DFW]

98. She isn't.

Glioblastoma is a one way street down the wrong direction.

[Irish_Dem]

100. So sorry to hear this.

Thanks for sharing the information.
She is a great lady and I am glad Biden gave her the Medal of Freedom.

[DFW]

107. So am I !!

From happier days:

[Irish_Dem]

110. Fabulous picture. Thanks for sharing.

[DFW]

113. Good times are SO fleeting.

Katrina had invited me to her 150th anniversary party of the founding of The Nation. It was in September, 2015, and I'm normally NEVER in North America in September. She knows that, so she never expected me to accept. But that particular year, a very close friend's daughter was getting married in mid-September, so we stayed around three weeks longer than normal than our usual August return to Europe, and on "the" day, I actually WAS in DC. You would not BELIEVE who was there. Besides Katrina herself, there was, as you can see in the photo, Cecile and Jerry. Also Elizabeth Warren, E J Dionne, Rev. William Barber, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, and a LOT of others. I think I was invited as the token mortal among the group. The rest of them were some pretty stellar people, Cecile certainly being among them.

Obama was still president then, and we all expected Hillary to succeed him, so there was a special warmth at the gathering. It's a good thing we had no inkling of what would happen to the country just a year and half later.

[Irish_Dem]

115. Yes none of us would have guessed the direction our country would take so quickly.

All the people you mention worked hard to move the US to a better place for all Americans.

What a star studded cast. It must be so thrilling to mingle with that awe inspiring group.

[DFW]

117. Not so much thrilling as humbling

Talk about being made to feel small!

But I did get something done there I was proud of. I asked Rev. Barber if he had been approached to speak at the Democratic Convention the following year, and he said no. I then asked if he would want to, and he said he’d be honored. I said I’d ask on his behalf if it was OK with him. It was, so I called up a friend who was the long term treasurer of the DNC. He knew of Rev. Barber, and agreed it was a good idea. He said he would make some calls and try to makebit happen. Lo and behold, Barber DID speak at the 2016 Convention. Prime time, too, as I recall. Yes, these people are important and famous, but they are people, too, and quite willing to talk with us normal mortals. Usually, all you have to do is go up and say hi.

[Shermann]

103. I'm sure Stalin would have preferred fewer casualties

The Russians had far more in Stalingrad than the Germans, but still won a decisive victory. This asymmetry would have been even worse for the USSR on open battlefields against the mechanized Blitzkrieg. The urban war of attrition was at least winnable for them, albeit at tremendous cost. The blunders were all on the German side here.

[Irish_Dem]

111. Psychopaths will kill as many people as it takes to get what they want.

The only human life that matters is their own.
Everyone else is just collateral damage.

Stalin, Hitler, Putin, Trump.

Trump and Kushner did not lose one night of sleep over the 1 million Covid deaths they caused.

[Shermann]

114. I'm no fan of Stalin, but he tried to negotiate his way out of going to war.

There's no evidence he planned to renege on that non-aggression pact with Germany and seemed to be surprised and unprepared when Hitler did. He went all-in with the only cards he had to play: a lot of troops and a lot of tanks. A Soviet victory was by no means certain early on.

That said, he certainly was a ruthless and callous dictator. But in the interest of posting something nice, he would have been at least concerned about his civilian and military casualties (even if only for strategic reasons).

[Irish_Dem]

116. The Russians love their meat grinder approach to war.

I really don't think they care about civilian or military deaths.

Like Putin now. He finds a way to drag more men to the front lines.
Just cannot fodder and he knows it.

[malaise]

28. It is they who facilitated the end of WW2

By reaching first

[Irish_Dem]

112. Russia certainly helped win WWII.

I think FDR paid Stalin about $11 Billion in today's dollars. So Russia had a lot of help from the US.

And the Allies did their part on the battle field. They came from the west, Stalin from the east.

It was a mutual effort.

[WhiteTara]

7. It's collapsing

[LoisB]

8. Marat Safin, Nureyev, Baryshnikov

[2naSalit]

9. It's...

Way over there.

[wnylib]

40. Beat me to it.

[Different Drummer]

41. Me, too.

[CincyDem]

53. Well...technically...not that far. In fact, I believe it's the closest country without a shared land border.

At its closest point, Russia and the US are only 53 miles apart. That’s closer than Cuba at 90 miles and, other than Mexico and Canada, it’s the closest country to the US.

[applegrove]

11. If you made Matryoshka nesting dolls out of the last

5 Russian Presidents, and the smallest one was Putin, it would be actual size.

[Cartoonist]

12. Boris and Natasha

But not Fearless Leader

[Hekate]

48. Moose and Squirrel agree

[True Dough]

13. Being the largest country in the world

there are some incredible natural sites. I can't hate on their geography.

The Altai mountain range:




The Lena Pillars:




The Kungur ice cave:

[Hekate]

49. Gorgeous indeed

[ProfessorGAC]

14. The Alphabet Looks Great

Took a couple years of Russian in HS. I remember about 20 words, how to count to 50, and the alphabet.
I can still read it phonetically, but haven't a clue what it means.
I especially like the way their cursive looks.

[electric_blue68]

20. Ah. I took 1 year in JHS. I did very well, but the specialized HS I went to didn't offer it....

Last edited Tue Nov 26, 2024, 10:27 PM - Edit history (2)

I took it because I hated French at the time We'd had a French teacher come in once in a while in 5th & 6th grade a d I didn't like her, and didn't like Spanish that much either.

My dad (1st Gen Ukrainian-American) spoke it to his dad. I though it'd be close enough to talk to him at least simple stuff

Only 4 JHSs offered it in NYC.

[AmandaRuth]

15. come on, it has to be Dr Zhivago....Boris Pasternak

i was so much in love with this movie as a kid

[marble falls]

29. If they would have only shortened the slog through the snow back from Siberia.

[greatauntoftriplets]

55. I second Boris Pasternak.

Great novel and movie.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. Lovely boulevards and beautiful subway stations in Moscow.

[efhmc]

17. Amazing dancers.

[catbyte]

18. St. Petersburg. It's not called "Venice of the North" for nothing.

And the Hermitage Museum is breathtaking. So was the Romanov summer palace a little ways outside of the city. It sits on the Gulf of Finland and rivals Versailles for opulence.

[C0RI0LANUS]

24. Catbyte: I'm sure you saw the kitties at the Hermitage.

[Ferryboat]

33. Hermitage Museum

Walking in and seeing the Jordan Staircase set the tone. Mind-blowing.
One room had 23 Rembrandts!
After 4 hours you become numb from the overwhelming collection of great art.

St Petersburg is pretty cool too.

[C0RI0LANUS]

19. The great Russian novelist Yuri Testikov.

"That noise! What is that noise crawling up my spine?"

[JoseBalow]

22. War, what is it good for?

[C0RI0LANUS]

23. "It's true, Mr. Lippmann, that was the original title of the book!"

[El-Capitan]

21. Made for great bad guys in James Bond movies.

[red dog 1]

25. Three things nice about Russia: ---- 1) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 2) Pussy Riot, 3) They helped the Allies win WW2.

[marble falls]

31. "helped". Sounds like they sat around the dacha folding bandages for the allies ...

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › World_War_II_casualties_of_the_Soviet_Union
World War II casualties of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia
Dead Soviet civilians near Minsk, Belarus, 1943 Kyiv, 23 June 1941 A victim of starvation in besieged Leningrad suffering from muscle atrophy in 1941. World War II losses of the Soviet Union were about 27,000,000 both civilian and military from all war-related causes, [1] although exact figures are

They didn't help the allies, they were an ally.

In the same period Stalin killed off about 20,000,000 more Russians and Ukraine in the 30s alone.

[red dog 1]

38. They helped the Allies WIN!

Of course "they were an ally," that goes without saying.

11 million Russian soldiers died, along with 19 million civilians.

Without Russia's help, who knows how WW2 might have ended?

(Lighten up, Francis, this is the DU Lounge)
.

[GreenWave]

26. Some of them are desperate for 2025.

[marble falls]

30. Red Square is photogenic ...

Just like Disneyland.

[Submariner]

32. Kamchatka Peninsula

A place with the largest moose and grizzly bears on the planet. So isolated and wild, much of it unexplored. Most of the wildlife have never seen a human being. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.



This place was on my bucket list, but the Crimea invasion ended that.

[electric_blue68]

44. Wow

[DFW]

66. A good friend of mine toured it

As chief news correspondent for West German Radio News in Russia, he got a private tour by Sikorsky helicopter. Said the place was full of wonders.

[JoseBalow]

86. Everything I know about Kamchatka I learned from playing Risk

Also, Irkutsk and Yakutsk

(0:06)

[Beringia]

99. Nice

[dwayneb]

34. Lake Baikal

[lark]

35. I got nothing. I'm sure there are good folks in Russia, but they are in hiding, just like we will be.

SMDH

It is one place I have never had any desire to see, wouldn''t want to spend one dime of my money there!

[orangecrush]

52. This

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. Wonderful folk music

I sang in two different ensembles devoted to Eastern European performing arts, and there's something about Russian folk choral music that says "Mother Earth."

[Aristus]

43. Not to mention dance.

Ballet, Cossack squat-dancing, that thing where a dancer grasps the arm of another dancer, and they hurl each other around by the wrist.

The mind-boggling athleticism of that…

[electric_blue68]

45. Ukrainian-Americans in dance groups do it too (squat dancing)

[peacebuzzard]

57. Nijinsky.

I don't believe there is film of him, photography was in its infancy; but, his leaps and jumps records were noted to be magnificent. Perhaps the height and distance of his leaps have not been broken.
As with the rest of the dancers and athletes the competing and performing stage is limited. Nijinsky suffered huge health challenges after only a brief 9 years of dance.
The Russian Ballet is a hard act to follow.
During Olympics I try to watch the Russian gymnastics; only problem with this short mention list is the abuse is certainly there for the artists and athletes. Sometimes there is no escape for the individual or the performer's family.

[DFW]

68. Second that!! I played with a balalaika orchestra in college

A highlight of my college years. I can still play the balalaika.

[Niagara]

39. I once had a Great Aunt and Uncle

They visited Russia sometime in the late 80's.


The teenagers/young adults were very interested in American's and American apparel, not necessarily American made clothing but the what shirt or jeans that American's were wearing while they were visiting Russia.


The Russian teenagers/young adults would trade even up with Americans for shirts and jeans.


I have no clue if this tradition is still happening in Russia since it was eons ago. I thought it was an interesting story.

[JoseBalow]

72. Ukrainian

[cadoman]

46. The Red Army Choir

[LudwigPastorius]

47. Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Chekov, Tolstoy....

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

106. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

[WestMichRad]

50. Garry Kasparov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Kasparov

[BeyondGeography]

54. Piano players, ie Richter and Gilels

Two of the best ever. Of course Horowitz was Russian too. There were and are many, many others.

Then you had Oistrakh on violin and Rostropovich on cello. I’m dating myself being stuck in the past when it comes to music. Helps me with managing the present.

[3catwoman3]

56. St. Basil's cathedral is very pretty.

The Moscow metro stations are works of art.

I spent 2 weeks in the then-USSR in the summer of 1981, on a tour to compare the health care there with health care here, specifically if there was a role equivalent to nurse practitioners here. Short answer - there's not.

I wouldn't go back there now for any reason.

[Dulcinea]

58. Russian hockey players.

Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin (even though he plays for the Capitals), & Sergei Federov, to name a few.

[Shambala]

63. Remember the Russian 5?

It was fun watching their puck control style versus the dump and chase game of the NHL.

And another Russian hockey player of old, Vladislav Tretiak, who in my opinion is the greatest goalie of all time at any level.

[evemac]

59. Tolstoy

and Chekhov and Solzhenitsyn and
Dostoevsky.

[Golden Raisin]

62. Spectacular Bolshoi and Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballets.

Plus Tolstoy.

[Emile]

73. They have the world's longest railway.

[Sneederbunk]

76. They've thrown out tyrants before and

they can do it again.

[IbogaProject]

79. Their curruption is a near totality

And that leads many to hope their atom bombs are deficient due to theft of the tritium.

[tulipsandroses]

80. I like Cream Russian dressing better than Creamy French dressing, they taste similar though.

I like vodka sauce on my pasta?

[Mike Nelson]

81. Russia...

... has had some great musicians, writers, dancers... so their contribution to the "Arts" is nice. They recognized bad governments and revolted against their Royals, Nazis, and Soviet communists. They haven't had the best luck with replacements, I know, but the question wants nice things. There are most likely a lot of nice people living in Russia.

[CanonRay]

82. They have a low birth rate

Which means at some point they'll disappear.

[gay texan]

83. They make decent electron tubes n/t

[Shermann]

104. I had a set of Sovteks in an old Fender Vibrolux I used to own.

The amp still sounded like ass but had other issues going on. I ended up getting rid of it, oh well.

[Trellastic]

84. Some nice things about Russia

Most of them are good at budgeting ( I assume), many are photogenic, I imagine they're good at building snow and ice sculptures, ballet, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Tetris, hearty stews, many scientists that contributed to advancements in science, some beautiful old churches, and some of Russia's citizens wish to live in a world filled with peace, compassion and justice.

[Rebl2]

87. Those

Little wooden nesting dolls. I know there is another name for them, but not coming to me at this moment.

[QED]

88. My best friend was born there...

and immigrated first to Israel then the the US. She calls herself a "Jimmy Carter Jew".

[XanaDUer2]

90. Ballet nt

[debm55]

92. My great grandparents were born there . Howerer, the Bear wants the Ukraine back

[mountain grammy]

94. My wonderful Uncle Sam

Who left us 45 years ago. Escaped Russia with his two teenage sisters when he was around 9 or 10. Saw their parents murdered in a pogrom. Slept in barns. Had family in the US and made it to NYC. No place for Jews, Russia.

[pansypoo53219]

96. i like kolhkoma stuff. i have quite a bit.

[Jack Valentino]

97. They waged one hell of a war against the German nazis....

Perhaps they should compare Trump to Hitler...

ahh, they called his number. Trump is a gutless coward,
except to threaten Haitian immigrants somewhere in Ohio...

[Duncanpup]

101. In Russia everything is shit except piss.

That’s all I got.

[Layzeebeaver]

102. in 2006...

...the Russian hookers frequenting Harvey Nichols 5th floor bar in London were exceptional.

My wife and I had many evenings there observing and rating the talent.

The bar staff joined in most times and it was a hoot. So many joke and jabs...

Good times, bad times, it's always times...

[raging moderate]

108. Isaac Asimov, born in Petrovich, Russia

Isaac Asimov, famous scientist and writer of great science fiction books (and books such as Realm of Numbers and Realm of Algebra, which helped me understand math). He was born in Russia in 1920 and brought to the United States by his immigrant parents.

[Botany]

109. Anna Kournokova

[MaryMagdaline]

118. I don't live there