"More on the Russia's Brutality..."

Kim, you profess to hate Russia, yet your misuse of the English-language article "the" sounds very... Russian. You might want to have a native English-speaker proofread your headlines, at least, if you've been in country so long that your English has started to "go native."

LYNDON: Why can't a Russian hate Russia? Plenty of Americans hate America. Who taught you logic? Brezhnev? Get your brain at K-mart? Blue-light special?

By the way, talking about typos instead of substance is classic KGB tactics, so I assume you are one. In other words, a sick little coward.

Hey, plenty of Russians hate Russia. Personally, I think hate is an unproductive waste of energy - better to work to fix things that are wrong - and there are plenty in both America and in Russia, though more in Russia - in positive ways. But maybe that's my K-mart brain talking.

You shouldn't be so thin-skinned, it's not good for your credibility. Every time someone criticizes your blog or comments (on other blogs), you just lay into them with ridiculous attacks. "Sick little coward"? I'm not the one launching broadsides using an anonymous blog.

But you said that it is some kind of contradiction for me to BE a Russian and also hate Russia. Not only is it possible for a Russian to hate Russia, but if I WERE Russian I'd have more credibility since I'd be more intimately knowledgable about the subject. So your comment is doubly idiotic.

But I'm glad to see that you searched through my blog to find errors and grammar followed by some kind of personal slur based on nationality was all you could come up with. So, thanks for the backhanded compliment, and I apologize for being so rude as not to have noticed it!

If you think you can point to anyone working in a positive way to solve problems in Russia, by all means let me know about them, I'll be happy to credit them in this blog.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to be more concerned with the reviving of the Stalin anthem and widespread racial violence in Russia. I hate those things even if you don't, and I show it. I think pretending such things are just a topic for calm discussion is collaboration, and those who take that view are complicit in the rise of dicatorship.

But to each his/her own.

By the way, Lindy, your hypocrisy comes close to that of your namesake LBJ. It's rather amusingly ludicrous for you to proclaim to stand against hatred and then attack my language skills and call me thin-skinned. Not exactly the inspirational, exemplary act of Mother Theresa, is it?

No "slur based on nationality," just a question about your identity and background, which you don't see fit to disclose. As I mentioned in an earlier comment which either didn't get posted through some Blogger fluke or which you suppressed, you seem to have identified yourself as an American in comments on other blogs. I'm not trying to place people in boxes, but it does help to know where people are coming from in discussions like this. Though I hesitate to call any disagreement with you a discussion, since they all seem to turn into virtual shouting matches. Since you condemn "KGB tactics" all over the place (and rightly so), I think it's interesting that your blog is engaging in a classic tactic of the era of the purges - the anonymous accusation.

And I hardly think my comment on your misuse of the word "the" qualifies as an "attack." More like a "critical comment." There is a difference between reserved criticism and ad hominem personal attacks, but you don't seem to do too well with shades of gray. I think it's good that you're getting an anti-Russian perspective out there, but your attitude is more hostile than any I've ever encountered on-line before.

And LBJ was not my namesake, but molodets for making another assumption and forging ahead with it. Flag tebe v ruki.

Lindy: Actually, I think your need to know "where people are coming from" so you can attack them is the quintessence of racism.

But I understand your pain. You can't do that with me and it's frustrating, I know. Think of it as a challenge. I'm sure you can come up with plenty of knee-jerk slurs without asking me any questions first that are non-denominational, all the while complaining that I prejudge you and all while ignoring my maint points and trying nitpick up a smokescreen. Good luck with that!

MICHAELGALIEN: That's another interesting question! Can a person be a Russian patriot without being Russian?

In another blog, I wrote about the words "russkii" and "rossisskii" which can't be translated into English without a lot of explanation. The first means "Russian because he's a Slav" and the other means "Russian because the law says so." People can come to America and "become Americans" but can they go to Russia and "become Russian"? If not/so, what does that mean?

Michael, thanks for pointing that out. I'm sure "she has good reasons" for concealing her identity, too, but since several other Russia bloggers have speculated whether this is a real person or someone's propaganda project, questions about identity are relevant.

Russophobe,
Some of your main points are fine, but you veer too often into hysteria. Absurdly strident rhetoric only discredits the underlying ideas. And you have some strained comparisons - MLK and Barry Goldwater in the same post? That is rather rich, if you know anything about US politics of the '60's. Although I did like the comment comparing MLK to Gagarin - interesting.

But whatever, keep on doing your thing and calling anyone who comes by with criticism "complicit in the rise of dictatorship," a racist, a moron, or a KGB stooge. Soon all you'll have are readers who agree with you 100% - anyone else who stops by will be shouted down, just like on some American political blogs.

If you are a real person, I wish you luck finding some balance in your life, and I thank you for illuminating in your own way some of the problems with Russia that I've criticized many times in the past. As I'm sure you know, you're not doing more thoughtful critics of Russia any favors with this blog, but as you said, to each his/her own. Maybe the raving lunatic approach will win some people over.

And if you're a fraud or a "project," then I wish you luck with that also - I'm sure the razvyazka will be interesting.

Thanks for the psychological diagnosis based on no knowledge at all, Lindy. You're a true professional.

Lindy, please at least try to read what I write before commenting. I never compared Goldwater and MLK, I merely said that they had the same view of fighting for what the believed was right. The reason I mentioned both is that, being so different, their agreement is compelling.

It would also be nice if you at least tried to speak about the topic of the forum, which in this case is the barbaric Katyn mass murder committed by Russia during World War II.

Your paranoid fantasies about the origins of this blog only highlight the ludicrous nature of your attempt to diagnose the psychology of others.

And it would also be nice if you acknowledged the basic fact that 90% of the content of this blog is NOT original, but copied from mainstream news sources. If you find quotation of news reports to be anti-Russian propaganda, your beef is not with this blog but elsewhere (probably with Russia for creating this news, unless you dispute the facts, which you have not done).