The Mailbag
Letters, oh we get letters, we get lots of cards and letters every day . . .
Herein, La Russophobe dips into her e-mail bag to answer a frequently asked question.
Dear LR,Here are La Russophobe's Top 10 reasons, I.Q., for not calling herself a "sovietophobe." Feedback from readers is welcome in the comments section or by email.
It seems to me that you ought to call yourself "La Sovietophobe" rather than "La Russophobe." It's clear to me that you have affection for Russians and, compared to an average person, a detailed knowledge of their culure, history and politics. It's not Russians you hate, it's Soviets. In fact, you're trying to save Russians from Soviets. So why not call yourself La Sovietophobe?
Very truly yours,
Inquiring Questioner
10
"Sovietophobe" doesn't come trippingly off the tongue. It lacks poetry. Actually, to be technically correct it would have to be "neo-Sovietophobe" and that's just silly.
9
"Sovietophobe" isn't a perfect trap for the unwary Russophile idiot, who condemns you for judging Russia too harshly while judging you based on nothing more than your name. Another wonderful little trap is when such a person calls you a "racist," ignoring the fact that "Russian" is a nationality, not a race, and betraying their own racism.
8
There aren't any people who actually call themselves "Soviets" . . . yet.
7
One conceivably could destroy all that is Soviet in Russia without putting the country on the path to happiness. Many think there's a good deal of fascism to be found in Russia today, for instance, and there's certainly a dearth of economic equality such as the Soviets were striving for. The term "neo-Soviet" implies all that was bad in the USSR plus some new bad stuff.
6
Nobody knows what a "sovietophobe" means. "Russophobe" means somebody who hates what's going on in Russia and blames the people for it. We can live with that.
5
"Russophobe" is a highly urgent term which aptly encapsulates the emergency that we face in Russia today.
4
Howard Stern. Rush Limbaugh. Don Imus. Think they're not "serious" enough to solve the "Russia problem"? Well, how far have all the "serious" folks got us so far? A problem doesn't get solved when nobody's talking about it, and those guys get people talking. Just look how the egghead liberal democrats are trying to copy them with "Air America."
3
If you think changing the name would make it more likely that the neo-Soviet Union will end sooner rather than later, put your money where your mouth is. Lay an offer on the table. You want something from La Russophobe? What are you prepared to do for her in return?
2
Barry Goldwater said: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." The name sends the clear message to the apologists for Russian dictatorship that there will be a harsh price to pay for disseminating lies and propaganda injurious to world democracy.
1
"Sovietophobe" tends to deflect and dilute the responsiblity of the Russian people for their situation. Don't forget: The main reason La Russophobe hates Russians is because they are destroying themselves, in particular their innocent children. Russians are doing that, not Soviets. After all, the root cause of Sovietism is Russians, just as the root cause of crime is criminals. If Russians want to shut La Russophobe up, all they have to do is stop failing.
"Sovietophobe" doesn't come trippingly off the tongue. It lacks poetry. Actually, to be technically correct it would have to be "neo-Sovietophobe" and that's just silly.
9
"Sovietophobe" isn't a perfect trap for the unwary Russophile idiot, who condemns you for judging Russia too harshly while judging you based on nothing more than your name. Another wonderful little trap is when such a person calls you a "racist," ignoring the fact that "Russian" is a nationality, not a race, and betraying their own racism.
8
There aren't any people who actually call themselves "Soviets" . . . yet.
7
One conceivably could destroy all that is Soviet in Russia without putting the country on the path to happiness. Many think there's a good deal of fascism to be found in Russia today, for instance, and there's certainly a dearth of economic equality such as the Soviets were striving for. The term "neo-Soviet" implies all that was bad in the USSR plus some new bad stuff.
6
Nobody knows what a "sovietophobe" means. "Russophobe" means somebody who hates what's going on in Russia and blames the people for it. We can live with that.
5
"Russophobe" is a highly urgent term which aptly encapsulates the emergency that we face in Russia today.
4
Howard Stern. Rush Limbaugh. Don Imus. Think they're not "serious" enough to solve the "Russia problem"? Well, how far have all the "serious" folks got us so far? A problem doesn't get solved when nobody's talking about it, and those guys get people talking. Just look how the egghead liberal democrats are trying to copy them with "Air America."
3
If you think changing the name would make it more likely that the neo-Soviet Union will end sooner rather than later, put your money where your mouth is. Lay an offer on the table. You want something from La Russophobe? What are you prepared to do for her in return?
2
Barry Goldwater said: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." The name sends the clear message to the apologists for Russian dictatorship that there will be a harsh price to pay for disseminating lies and propaganda injurious to world democracy.
1
"Sovietophobe" tends to deflect and dilute the responsiblity of the Russian people for their situation. Don't forget: The main reason La Russophobe hates Russians is because they are destroying themselves, in particular their innocent children. Russians are doing that, not Soviets. After all, the root cause of Sovietism is Russians, just as the root cause of crime is criminals. If Russians want to shut La Russophobe up, all they have to do is stop failing.
Labels:
russia,
russophiles
12 comments:
(republishing the comment)
Re. reason #8: I think you could classify some people as calling themselves "soviets." Two examples spring to mind: one war criminal, sharing responsibility for January 13th massacre in Vilnius in 1991, who lives in Belarus currently and tells that his goal is to restore "power of constitution of USSR in the extent of its territory." Example number two could be a woman in Riga, Latvia who moved there after WW2 from Piter and considers herself "a citizen of USSR" even nowadays. Yes, she's the one "oppressed" by "Latvian fascists" that "force" her to learn state language.
All of this does not sound surprising when one considers that one of the soviet goals was to eradicate nationalities and create "homo sovieticus."
Partly re. reasons #9, #6 and #1. "Russophobe" has a very bad national (not "racist") discrimination connotation, I would say, a fascist one, wherein you blame a single etnos for something. (That's why this word is so loved by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in their press releases - it makes them "look" right with little effort.) Lack of adequate translation in most languages that would discriminate between "russkyi" and "rossiskyi" plays a role here too. But on the other hand, I understand that "russophobe" is readily recognisable and helps attract attention.
Do you consider Jews with Russian citizenship, Chechenians with Russian citizenship and Georgians with Russian citizenship to be Russians?
LR, please answer in order to clarify whom you mean by Russians: all Russian citizens?
UGLY: "Russophobe" means somebody who hates what's going on in Russia and blames the people for it. We can live with that. I guess you love what's going on in Russia and think Russians deserve the credit. In other words, you want to kill Russians and destroy their society, and I want to save it. How can you sleep at night, you destroyer of Russia?
SERGEY: Anyone who holds a Russian passport is a Russian. The term "Russian" properly has no racial or religious aspect of any kind. We have the perfectly serviceable words "Orthodox" and "Slavic" to cover that area. La Russophobe hates all people who are destroying Russia by recreating the Soviet Union, no matter their race, relgion or nationality. But most of all, La Russophobe despises Russians who try to make some connection between being "Slavic" or "Orthodox" and being "Russian."
Thanks for your response, LR.
Does that mean that when you say "Russians simply cannot solve social problems except by resort to brute force..." this can be expanded into "ethnic Russians, ethnic Ukrainians, ethnic Chechenians, ethnic Georgians, ethnic Jews and any other people with Russian passports cannot solve social problems except by resort to brute force..."?
UGLY SCUM OF THE EARTH: Au contraire. We'd love you to get a wonderful night's sleep . . . and never wake up. That way, Russia's chances of making it to the next century would be just a little bit better.
SERGEY: None of our critical comments about Russians are directed at Slavs except when we say so explicitly. Our only specific criticism of Slavs is (a) their racism towards non-Slavs and (b) their shocking hypocrisy in complaining about anti-Slavic racism. We believe that all people who hold a Russian passport are equally responsible for allowing a proud KGB spy to seize power in Russia and hold all people equally accountable. Of course, since Slavs represent the majority in Russia, it's a fact that Slavs are more responsible as a group than any other for Russia's failure. However, this has nothing (as far as we know) to do with their race.
COMMENTING: Thanks for your interesting comment! Sorry we didn't respond sooner. If you would like to write up your analysis of the presence of nominal sovietism in today's Russia, we'd be happy to publish it on the blog as a post.
I didn't like your blog. All the anti-Russian ideas in it just remind me of classical and pretty stupid antisemitism, which was haunting Europe for centuries. And this hate has pretty irrational origin. The reason why Russia is probably because this type of xenophobia is not so much under taboo (actually, it's almost official) and you can easily find a rationalizing and legitimizing frame for it: the hate is for political regime, not for Russians themselves (ok, now it is enough politically correct, cheers). Anyway, this is obviously a case for psychoanalyst. Do you have problems with Russia? Do you want to talk about it?
I found an interesting news about human right issues in Russia:
In english:
http://www.mari.ee/eng/news/polit/2007/03/03.html
More in russian:
http://www.mari.ee/rus/news/polit/2007/03/05.html
Attack on Galina Kozlova and oppression of Mari minority in Russia condemned
16.03.07
In a parliamentary resolution, MEPs roundly condemned the recent attack on Mari activist Galina Kozlova and called on the Russian authorities to "bring the perpetrators of these acts to justice and ensure respect for freedom of expression." The House emphasised the importance of minority languages and cultures in the Russian federation, and called on the Commission to raise the issue during the regular EU-Russia human rights dialogue.
On 25 January of this year, Galina Kozlova, a member of the board of the Mari national organisation Mari Usem, and wife of Vladimir Kozlov, chair of the Mari council, was attacked and suffered severe head injuries. The attack follows a series of attacks on Mari activists and journalists in the Mari El republic, and no convictions or arrests have been made. The Mari are a Finno-Ugric minority in Russia, concentrated in the Mari El republic. They are pushing for full cultural and linguistic rights, such as access to secondary and higher education in their language.
The Parliament's resolution calls for a "speedy, comprehensive and independent inquiry by federal, and local judicial authorities into the attacks." It also calls on the Government of Mari El "to halt political retribution and intimidation" and to "refrain from undue political interference in the affairs of educational and cultural institutions." MEPs insisted that Russian authorities enable "quality education in a person's native language at all levels," and called on the Commission to raise the issue of Finno-Ugric minorities during the regular EU-Russia human rights dialogue.
Source: European Parliament
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Европарламент осудил нападение на Галину Козлову и притеснение марийского меньшинства в России
16.03.07
Европарламент принял резолюцию, в которой резко осуждает нападение на активистку национального движения Галину Козлову и обращается к российским властям сделать все возможное для того, чтобы найти виновника и привлечь его к судебной ответственности и гарантировать свободу слова.
В своей резолюции европарламентарии подчеркнули важность языков и культур меньшинств в Российской Федерации и обратились к Комиссии с просьбой поднять проблему в ходе регулярного диалога между ЕС и Россией по правам человека.
25 января этого года, Галины Козлова, член правления марийской национальной организация «Марий Ушем» и жена Председателя Всемарийского Совета Владимира Козлова, подверглась нападению и получила серьезные черепно-мозговые травмы.
Это уже неоднократное нападение на марийских активистов и журналистов в Республике Марий Эл, и никто виновным не признан и даже не арестован.
Европарламентарии обращаются к Министерству внутренних дел Республики Марий Эл, к Министерству внутренних дел Российской Федерации, а также к Федеральной Службе Безопасности (ФСБ), с призывом сделать все возможное для того, чтобы найти виновника и привлечь его к судебной ответственности.
Резолюция призывает Правительство Марий Эл немедленно прекратить политическое преследование и запугивание государственных служащих за их взгляды и воздерживаться от необоснованного политического вмешательства в дела образовательных и культурных учреждений.
Европарламентарии настаивают, чтобы российские власти гарантировали качественное образование на родном языке на всех уровнях и обращаются к комиссии включить вопрос о положении финно-угорских народов России в повестку дня предстоящего саммита ЕС-Россия.
Парламент призывает российские власти обеспечить марийскому и русскому языку равный статус в Республике Марий Эл.
По материалам Европарламента
MariUver
Ссылки по теме:
Европарламентарии осуждают избиение Галины Козловой
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That site is full of minority right issues in Russia.
Guys: Its much simpler than what you all think. This woman's real name is Claire. She spent time in Moscow and tried dating a number of Russian men. She got kicked around a bit and then she tried with some American expats in Moscow. No one paid her any attention and one night she threw herself at Mark Ames who was dead drunk but not pissed enough to sleep with am American. The rejection and frustration have been building up and you can all see that her hatred has turned her into a compulsive obsessive maniac. This woman spends more than 5-6 hours a day posting on this stupid blog and then goes to other blogs to post comments so people will notice her.
She is desperate for attention. All this time she lives on junk food and has become obese. She has not had sex in two years and she has pictures of Mark Ames and Limonov all over her wall.
Please do not hate her. She is really sick and pathetic.
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