La Russophobe asks readers for enlightenment:

Do other countries with dark pasts continue celebrating holidays invented during, and even to glorify, those dark pasts once the light shines in? Do Germans still celebrate holidays invented by the Nazis? Do Americans still celebrate holidays invented by slave-owners and Native-American killers?

And even if they do, does that excuse or rationalize Russia in continuing to celebrate the May Day today, or "International Women's Day" on March 8th (with "international" being defined in the Russian sense to mean Belarus, Moldova and Russia), or "Defenders of the Fatherland" day?

La Russophobe understands as well as the next person that Russians love a good extended holiday celebration, but if Russia isn't the Neo-Soviet Union, couldn't it invent some new holidays to take place at different times, maybe even giving a longer period of vacations to workers as a reward?

If it doesn't do so, isn't it rather hard to see the revival of the Soviet National Anthem, written to glorify mass murderer Joseph Stalin (who killed more Russians than Hitler), and even the revival of the hammer/sickle symbol, as anything other than the revival of a neo-USSR?

Anyway, happy holidays Russians, as you lovingly remember how you used to parade nuclear weapons through your streets so as to terrorize the world. Those really were the good old days, weren't they?