Will You Celebrate Russia and the Russians With Me?

Question

So much great art, philosophy, literature and everything else comes out of Russia...breaks my heart this excruciating war, where we are now required to diss each other...so here are a couple of examples of Russia's magnificent contribution to the world.

A couple of years ago, I posted here on SOLVED a wonderful American basso who sang with Elvis Presley, whereupon Tink the Polymath promptly introduced me to the Oktavists...I don't know why Russia has so many of these amazing male voices, but they seem to...so here is Vladimir Pavlovich Pasyukov, a basso profondo born in St. Petersburg (July 29, 1944 – June 20, 2011).

Oh and btw, an oktavist is someone who sings an octave below the usual bass range! Some people say a basso profondo is the same thing as an oktavist, and some say the oktavists have a still lower range than the basso profondo.

...and then people are still debating who was the greatest ballet danseur of all time, Mikhail Baryshnikov or Rudolph Nureyev...here are a couple of Baryshnikov one-minute solos, with commentary from yet another danseur as to why his dancing is so wonderful...

Last if you are up for 3:47 minutes of the Volga Boatmen, here is a marvelous sextet giving us just that, like you have prolly never heard before. The Oktavist is superb, as are they all here, and note the counterpoint of the wonderful soaring tenor of this group...I saw somewhere that Russians are always surprised that the Song of the Volga Boatmen is so well known in America, and outside Russia generally!

Answer 1

Well,I have no argument with the ordinary citizens of Russia but while my friend is putting her life on the line every day I have to say no.

Sorry.

Comments

Thank you for your post anyway, SFA...Rooster also has answered this, and is not giving me much sympathetic response either...but I still think it's a good idea...

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The UK ruled over many countries.

Answer 2

The Russians have had many talented people over the years.

But since the Russian Hitler started invading other countries? Makes me wish they would have listened to Patton!

We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. George S. Patton

Comments

Thanks for thoughtful comment, Rooster...glad to see you here when you can, and I still wish the Blurt owners had listened to your offer...

I thought of that because I came upon a SOLVED question as I was preparing this Q, mentioning Blurt.

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The USA invaded many countries.

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Ah yes, Kninjanin...I thought of that too...the old saying about, "People in glass houses should not throw stones..."

Answer 3

Many European countries make crazy decisions to ban Russian artistic works, even some works made in the 19th century. Some Russian artists lose jobs because they are Russians. It is xenophobia. I am not surprised because they are big racists.

Comments

Yes...I read of this, breaks my heart, ty Kninjanin.

Answer 4

I'm happy to celebrate Russian achievements in art, literature, science and music. The world is richer for them. 

And I have nothing against ordinary Russian citizens; indeed the half dozen or so Russian emigres that I have known are all polite and honorable.

BUT... Putin is no ordinary Russian. The ex-KGB officer obviously wishes he could restore the Russian Empire. ("The collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century."}

When the USSR collapsed, many Soviet states declared their independence, just as these very same regions did when Tsarist Russia collapsed; they had no wish to be ruled by a central government in Moscow.

And of course one of the first orders of business once the communists took over in 1917 was to take back the territories that had declared their independence, which they mostly succeeded in doing , by force, by 1921. It was only by a very unexpected Polish victory at the gates of  Warsaw that Poland wasn't reabsorbed into the empire. Finland also avoided being reabsorbed, but by and large, practically all of the old Russian empire was re-established by the communists, including the Baltic states, who never had any wish to be under Muscovite  rule in the first place.

Putin wishes he had the power to do the same. Holding the Russian empire together, in the final analysis, was never about the nominal form of government in Moscow, but was rather about maintaining Russian hegemony.

Comments

ty Tink, i learned things as usual...did not know of that unexpected reversal near Warsaw, preserving Poland independence.

Also, I was raised among so many Finns, tending to think of them as irretrievably part of Scandinavia, along with the Swedes and Norwegians...not realizing the Russian empire went after them intensely.

Long before this war began, I saw once that Russians tend to realize that Putin is an autocrat, but continue to vote for him because they believe he acts with their interests at heart. However, now you hear about popular outcry against this war...sometimes I wonder if the common folk are almost a different species than our rulers!