Russia (Martin Sixsmith) Continued some more. Yes, it's a long book.

Reading a history while the rain is pouring outside, sipping a cup of tea. I feel almost civilized. Then I go to the computer to write down my reflections and remember that that is not the case.

One of the things I like about this book is that it does not just spend time on politics and wars, but also science, technology, and arts.


Having made it through the horrifyingly depressing catalogue of crimes committed by Stalin, it is easy to see how parts of Russian history brought about the worst in people. It is a necessary reminder to see how it can bring out the best also. This conversation occurred between the noted cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov and a KGB official shortly before a lift-off:

As [Komarov] was seeing us off, he said straight out, 'I'm not going to make it back from this flight.' I asked him, 'If you're convinced you're going to die, why don't you refuse the mission?' He answered, 'Because if I don't make the flight, they'll send Yura [Gagarin], and he'll die instead of me. We've got to take care of him.'

Komarov did die in the flight; the systems failed shortly into the flight and the mission was aborted. The team was unable to regain control. The deputy premier and Komarov's wife spoke to him on video call; they had about two hours before the ship smashed into the ground at 400 miles per hour.



It is true that winners re-write the history. The author and I come at this story from a very western point of view, and at first it seems like a barefaced tragedy that Stalin could so successfully brainwash generations that they would still have trouble throwing off his yoke years after he was dead. In thinking about it further, however, are not the western powers are having that exact problem now with the idea of perfect free markets? It is a symmetry offset by several generations, but a symmetry nonetheless. In confronting our political-economic crisis of a government owned by the largest players of capitalism, it is as difficult for us to take a step back and see the solutions as it is/was for Russia. We also have the people who will defend the system of pure capitalism to their death, despite the fact that much of the stability we enjoy can be attributed to a government with some social programs.

This isn't to say that if we had remained an industry-baron nation we would not have been strong enough to defend our borders or created a cultural renaissance. In fact, one of the things that jumps out is that the industry fortunes made life better entire cities. I visited Pittsburgh and Delaware recently, and the impact of Andrew Carnegie and Alfred DuPont is probably incalculable . Libraries, museums, schools, hospitals, infrastructure. However, the tendency of capitalism as it has been practiced is for those with wealth to accumulate more wealth more quickly, and with that wealth a concentration of power. The thing keeping capitalists in check is a government interested in enough socialism to keep society from falling over and rebuilding from scratch. If the mass of people working got sufficiently fed up, it is not unthinkable that the federal government could go the way of the Tsars.  Pity the fool so quick to judge others that they fail to judge themselves?


I thought the rain was pouring before. I was wrong. It is torrentially pouring now.