home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!hermes.chpc.utexas.edu!news.utdallas.edu!corpgate!bnrgate!nott!cunews!vzhivov
- From: vzhivov@alfred.carleton.ca (Vladimir Zhivov)
- Subject: Re: back to actual politics
- Message-ID: <vzhivov.722240924@cunews>
- Keywords: collapse of democracy, Russia, Lithuania
- Sender: news@cunews.carleton.ca (News Administrator)
- Organization: Carleton University
- References: <1992Nov20.025151.385@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 06:28:44 GMT
- Lines: 25
-
- It's really interesting to observe visitors to former Soviet
- republics, especially when they are returning "home". Because I'm from
- Kiev and went there this summer I can really only speak about the
- Ukrainian experience (I'm Russian myself); it seems to me that these
- expatriates are far more nationalistic and Ukranian than the people
- who actually live there. For instance, no one in Kiev speaks
- Ukrainian. It's rather sad to see people who don't know anything about
- what's going on in the former Soviet states spreading stories on this
- side of the ocean and then going over and "advising" the peole on the
- spot. Well, that's my rather incoherent (it's late here) commentary.
- The woman who spent time in Lithuania brought up a key point
- - the people over there don't give a damn about democracy (and
- Lithuania is one of the more Westernized republics). Freedom and
- hunger are a dangerous mix, especially when there is a tradition of
- violence and authoritarianism (look up Hobbes on "...nasty, brutish,
- and short...").
- By the way can someone post some info on Kaliningrad
- (formerly Koeningsberg - sorry about the spelling). The Russians, I
- think, are determined to hold on to it for strategic, military, and
- prestige reasons. I also heard Germans were making some noise about
- it. Any usefull information would be appreciated.
-
- Vladimir
-