Your sustained ability to write with such authenticity just AMAZES me. My lowly Newsletter still struggles for topics and its inability to find such CONSISTENCY is a great effort. I think the disarray in the world that came to be after the violence of 100s of years of realignment in Europe (1800s, WW1, WW2), if run as a computer simulation would lead to WILDLY DIFFERENT results with only small changes in boundary conditions. After lots of history reading, my opinion of the Depression and WW2 was that the WHOLE WORLD chose dictators and regardless of the revisionist historians, America chose a BENEVOLENT leader in FDR. Different leadership for most of the world would have led to wildly different results. That, I believe is the REAL THREAT of the world we live in today.
It is quite easy to be dark and judgmental about what came to be in Russia, FSU and Russia 2.0. While some of it is likely cultural, there is also the result of chance cascading. I think the Korean Peninsula is the strongest validation of the theory of chance. North of the parallel they eat tree bark and live in perpetual darkness. Their relatives 30 miles south live a SciFi life.
Your writing energizes me to learn more about Russia. As far as chance, the FACT that your life bifurcates and ends up in this place and results in this great Newsletter is REASON FOR HOPE.
I seem to remember learning in school that the U.S. was at a tipping point with voting in FDR, but my memories are pretty vague -- it's been a long time! But the reading I've been doing, like with "Spin Dictators," which my father recommended, back up a lot of what you're saying about leaders and leadership.
Lives lead to strange places, don't they? I can't imagine my life without that time in the Soviet Union, and yet do wonder what would have actually changed. (My father has run a business in Moscow since 1992 -- or did, until February of this year -- so maybe that would have brought many of these factors into play in any case.)
When I read yesterday about the death of Dugin's daughter I immediately thought of you. And wondered, what you and you Dad thought about this very dangerous development?
The wondering: I was wondering the same thing yesterday, so we had a conversation about that last night. It really depends, doesn't it? My father listens to a number of critical Russian-language podcasts and filled me in on Dugin's waning influence with those in power, and how many see him and his insistence on more powerful and violent military actions against Ukraine as an inconvenience. But also that there is a small faction that supports his vision.
So a few things came to mind: Dugin seems to really believe in his vision. I only know its outlines from what I've read and some extensive analysis in various places that I haven't shared in my "stuff to read/listen" mostly because it seemed a little niche to my interests and outlandish for most. But the Conspirituality podcast had a good episode on his beliefs back in March: https://conspirituality.buzzsprout.com/1875696/10261532-95-aleksandr-dugin-kali-yuga-chess
I have tended to think that Steve Bannon shares a lot of this belief, but possibly with more reservations and those possibly because he doesn't want to commit to it unless he himself is in a safe position. (I'm probably just rambling here -- I am no expert in these realms. Conspirituality also had an episode on traditionalist beliefs with Bannon's biographer: https://conspirituality.buzzsprout.com/1875696/9737257-82-steve-bannon-mystic-w-benjamin-teitelbaum) But it's part of why I've watched Dugin, to see if and how Bannon acts and what the consequences are.
The questions I'm pondering now is how many other people who might push things over tipping points *also* believe that deeply in Dugin's vision of a new worldwide geopolitical structure, or deeply enough. The conclusion we came to last night is that nobody knows. But I think that the leaders of some Eastern European countries have a better sense of what the possibilities are than some other world leaders, and they are obviously very worried.
Yes, it does appear that the "Putin's Brain" meme has run its course. I also agree with you and your father that nobody knows, especially how Putin himself will use this incident (that's the genuine scary part) to maximum nefarious effect.
The FSB's, we've got our perpetrator, is a real stretch even for blatant propaganda.
Interesting you compare Dugin to Bannon, Ian Bremmer did the same comparison in a GZERO recap this morning. Another similarity is Dugin's use of the Russian Orthodox Church and Bannon's dubious embrace of the Roman Catholic Church.
One thing is for sure, Ukraine had no sensible strategic purpose for the assassination, but Putin now has several to choose from.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question. I think of you and your dad as "boots on the ground" when it comes to everything Russian.
I think I might have read the Dugin-Bannon connection somewhere, or maybe it was on that Conspirituality episode; it's not my original thought but it made a lot of sense considering some of Bannon's "burn it all down" statements. But it wasn't until the episode on him that I learned about his traditionalism.
That's very kind of you! I do tend to trust my dad's instincts on these things. He's always been able to see the shape of these situations pretty clearly. But in the end we're still just a couple of ordinary people. He's going back there soon, so weirdly I might know even less after that, since conversation is guarded, even over encrypted services.
I hadn't watched the GZERO recap -- thanks for the rec! Yeah, reading Dugin's comments at the funeral about needing to make his daughter's death mean something is pretty disturbing. (Also, the podcasts out of Russia have reported that he had never been in her car and had arrived and was leaving with other people, so have questioned that he was the target.)
Wow, the perspective is eye opening to me. How easy if is to forget that time if you lived through it safe and far away in the middle US. Thank you for your story and wishing you lovely beets!
Thank you! (About the beets ☺️ I have hopes.) I imagine that's true anywhere in the world, at any time, that we forget or are unaware. It does give easy access to imagine what these experiences are like in different situations. My family's was very individual and painful enough, but what if it's your whole nation, culture, people?
Thank you, Nia! Actually, the decision NOT to live in the Soviet Union was made when Sashenka (your sister!) and I came to Leningrad from Helsinki, the first your father had seen his child. When I'd left, a year before, I had agreed to live with him in Russia. But after the Soviets had refused a visa (usual runaround) for Sasha and me, I realized I couldn't do this to our child, no matter how much I loved your father, and Russia. She deserved to.make her choices, too, and they would never let her. Also, your Papa was very afraid - I had never seen him likecthat before. But when I said Sasha and I would go back to the U.S. alone, he begged me not to leave, saying he would "die" if we left. I didn't know what he meant, but had heard him say that people he had admired were "fools" to try to
stand up to the administration, that "they break everyone." In the end, he decided to come with us, or the KGB decided for him. That ugly organization seemed to me like a dirty joke, but when your family is threatened, they become Dostoevsky's dirty cell with spiders. Be glad you've never met up.with them. I hope all is going well for you, and Jessie and Zach - and your father and Olya. I remember yourcreturn through Helsinki, and what a shock the plethora of choices was. But those aren't, of course, the choices that matter.
They are in fact pickling cucumbers, but since 3 families are finding it easy to consume them all we won't be pickling them. I did have half a mind to, which was why I grew this variety, but wasn't sure how much we'd get or how many we'd eat fresh. But I did buy a 25-pound bag from the bulk produce stand last week, and we got them started fermenting on Saturday evening! (I do almost all the canning, hunting, gardening, foraging, processing stuff but spouse likes making pickles so that's his thing. I just assist by peeling garlic and growing dill and cutting all cucumber blossom ends off ☺️)
That's because you wrote it. You're not allowed an opinion on how strong-tea-worthy it is. I am, though, and I grade it a 9.5/10 on the strong-teaworthy scale.
This is a really lovely piece. I love how it circles through so many things, asks so many questions, and leaves them like a cloud in the air that hasn't settled yet, a cloud with an identity and a role and meaning all of itself (and not just later, looking back, from where the answers are)...
(I love that someone out there one day was clearly hunting for a creative idea, and suddenly thought, "You know what would be a great website? Comparing things with other things! Then I just SEO the living blazes out of it and run terrible ads until I'm rich. Bingo!"
That is very good tea ;) *But were there biscuits*
That's where actual stories go, isn't it? The questions are never settled. Maybe that's why we crave stories so much. They provide resolution and a shape of meaning for us.
And I did not know about the difference between pickled cucumbers and gherkins! I also love that someone was just wondering about this and also why does it never occur to me to just run SEO content that generates passive income so I can spend more time pulling knapweed?
You have not seen my family eat pickles, especially the homemade ones. Actually, one of the kids' friends loves pickles and is over a lot and gets through a surprising number of jars. And they make a change from jam for gifts for people!
Thank you, as always, Nia.
🧡
Hi Antonia,
Your sustained ability to write with such authenticity just AMAZES me. My lowly Newsletter still struggles for topics and its inability to find such CONSISTENCY is a great effort. I think the disarray in the world that came to be after the violence of 100s of years of realignment in Europe (1800s, WW1, WW2), if run as a computer simulation would lead to WILDLY DIFFERENT results with only small changes in boundary conditions. After lots of history reading, my opinion of the Depression and WW2 was that the WHOLE WORLD chose dictators and regardless of the revisionist historians, America chose a BENEVOLENT leader in FDR. Different leadership for most of the world would have led to wildly different results. That, I believe is the REAL THREAT of the world we live in today.
It is quite easy to be dark and judgmental about what came to be in Russia, FSU and Russia 2.0. While some of it is likely cultural, there is also the result of chance cascading. I think the Korean Peninsula is the strongest validation of the theory of chance. North of the parallel they eat tree bark and live in perpetual darkness. Their relatives 30 miles south live a SciFi life.
Your writing energizes me to learn more about Russia. As far as chance, the FACT that your life bifurcates and ends up in this place and results in this great Newsletter is REASON FOR HOPE.
Those are very kind words, thank you!
I seem to remember learning in school that the U.S. was at a tipping point with voting in FDR, but my memories are pretty vague -- it's been a long time! But the reading I've been doing, like with "Spin Dictators," which my father recommended, back up a lot of what you're saying about leaders and leadership.
Lives lead to strange places, don't they? I can't imagine my life without that time in the Soviet Union, and yet do wonder what would have actually changed. (My father has run a business in Moscow since 1992 -- or did, until February of this year -- so maybe that would have brought many of these factors into play in any case.)
When I read yesterday about the death of Dugin's daughter I immediately thought of you. And wondered, what you and you Dad thought about this very dangerous development?
Apologies -- took me a while to catch up on the news. I read the Financial Times article (possibly paywalled: https://www.ft.com/content/23690584-97de-4453-a0cb-1dbb7e34c3ae) but found Max Seddon's commentary on his Twitter feed a little more enlightening re "what is going on here?" https://nitter.net/i/status/1561677815187230720
The wondering: I was wondering the same thing yesterday, so we had a conversation about that last night. It really depends, doesn't it? My father listens to a number of critical Russian-language podcasts and filled me in on Dugin's waning influence with those in power, and how many see him and his insistence on more powerful and violent military actions against Ukraine as an inconvenience. But also that there is a small faction that supports his vision.
So a few things came to mind: Dugin seems to really believe in his vision. I only know its outlines from what I've read and some extensive analysis in various places that I haven't shared in my "stuff to read/listen" mostly because it seemed a little niche to my interests and outlandish for most. But the Conspirituality podcast had a good episode on his beliefs back in March: https://conspirituality.buzzsprout.com/1875696/10261532-95-aleksandr-dugin-kali-yuga-chess
I have tended to think that Steve Bannon shares a lot of this belief, but possibly with more reservations and those possibly because he doesn't want to commit to it unless he himself is in a safe position. (I'm probably just rambling here -- I am no expert in these realms. Conspirituality also had an episode on traditionalist beliefs with Bannon's biographer: https://conspirituality.buzzsprout.com/1875696/9737257-82-steve-bannon-mystic-w-benjamin-teitelbaum) But it's part of why I've watched Dugin, to see if and how Bannon acts and what the consequences are.
The questions I'm pondering now is how many other people who might push things over tipping points *also* believe that deeply in Dugin's vision of a new worldwide geopolitical structure, or deeply enough. The conclusion we came to last night is that nobody knows. But I think that the leaders of some Eastern European countries have a better sense of what the possibilities are than some other world leaders, and they are obviously very worried.
Yes, it does appear that the "Putin's Brain" meme has run its course. I also agree with you and your father that nobody knows, especially how Putin himself will use this incident (that's the genuine scary part) to maximum nefarious effect.
The FSB's, we've got our perpetrator, is a real stretch even for blatant propaganda.
Interesting you compare Dugin to Bannon, Ian Bremmer did the same comparison in a GZERO recap this morning. Another similarity is Dugin's use of the Russian Orthodox Church and Bannon's dubious embrace of the Roman Catholic Church.
One thing is for sure, Ukraine had no sensible strategic purpose for the assassination, but Putin now has several to choose from.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my question. I think of you and your dad as "boots on the ground" when it comes to everything Russian.
I think I might have read the Dugin-Bannon connection somewhere, or maybe it was on that Conspirituality episode; it's not my original thought but it made a lot of sense considering some of Bannon's "burn it all down" statements. But it wasn't until the episode on him that I learned about his traditionalism.
That's very kind of you! I do tend to trust my dad's instincts on these things. He's always been able to see the shape of these situations pretty clearly. But in the end we're still just a couple of ordinary people. He's going back there soon, so weirdly I might know even less after that, since conversation is guarded, even over encrypted services.
I hadn't watched the GZERO recap -- thanks for the rec! Yeah, reading Dugin's comments at the funeral about needing to make his daughter's death mean something is pretty disturbing. (Also, the podcasts out of Russia have reported that he had never been in her car and had arrived and was leaving with other people, so have questioned that he was the target.)
Wow, the perspective is eye opening to me. How easy if is to forget that time if you lived through it safe and far away in the middle US. Thank you for your story and wishing you lovely beets!
Thank you! (About the beets ☺️ I have hopes.) I imagine that's true anywhere in the world, at any time, that we forget or are unaware. It does give easy access to imagine what these experiences are like in different situations. My family's was very individual and painful enough, but what if it's your whole nation, culture, people?
Thank you, Nia! Actually, the decision NOT to live in the Soviet Union was made when Sashenka (your sister!) and I came to Leningrad from Helsinki, the first your father had seen his child. When I'd left, a year before, I had agreed to live with him in Russia. But after the Soviets had refused a visa (usual runaround) for Sasha and me, I realized I couldn't do this to our child, no matter how much I loved your father, and Russia. She deserved to.make her choices, too, and they would never let her. Also, your Papa was very afraid - I had never seen him likecthat before. But when I said Sasha and I would go back to the U.S. alone, he begged me not to leave, saying he would "die" if we left. I didn't know what he meant, but had heard him say that people he had admired were "fools" to try to
stand up to the administration, that "they break everyone." In the end, he decided to come with us, or the KGB decided for him. That ugly organization seemed to me like a dirty joke, but when your family is threatened, they become Dostoevsky's dirty cell with spiders. Be glad you've never met up.with them. I hope all is going well for you, and Jessie and Zach - and your father and Olya. I remember yourcreturn through Helsinki, and what a shock the plethora of choices was. But those aren't, of course, the choices that matter.
I read this through twice, savoring it. This passage (and, I realize, your writing as a whole) reminds me a great deal of the writing of Eavan Boland:
The photos look blank, empty. A reminder that for events to have meaning they must to be crafted into narrative, no matter how small, how individual.
Anyway, thank you for finding beautiful ways to express the things that must be said.
Also: Will you pickle the cucumbers?
Aw, thanks Karen! 💕💕💕
They are in fact pickling cucumbers, but since 3 families are finding it easy to consume them all we won't be pickling them. I did have half a mind to, which was why I grew this variety, but wasn't sure how much we'd get or how many we'd eat fresh. But I did buy a 25-pound bag from the bulk produce stand last week, and we got them started fermenting on Saturday evening! (I do almost all the canning, hunting, gardening, foraging, processing stuff but spouse likes making pickles so that's his thing. I just assist by peeling garlic and growing dill and cutting all cucumber blossom ends off ☺️)
I haven't read anything beyond the first paragraph. Because - good grief, that first paragraph.
Good lord.
I'll have a strong cup of tea to steady my nerves, then come back and keep reading.
Good *lord*.
I'm not sure if it's nerve-steadying-tea worthy 😂
That's because you wrote it. You're not allowed an opinion on how strong-tea-worthy it is. I am, though, and I grade it a 9.5/10 on the strong-teaworthy scale.
This is a really lovely piece. I love how it circles through so many things, asks so many questions, and leaves them like a cloud in the air that hasn't settled yet, a cloud with an identity and a role and meaning all of itself (and not just later, looking back, from where the answers are)...
Also: that's a lot of pickled cucumber, even for 3 families. And it got me wondering: are pickled cucumbers the same as gherkins, which I eat a lot of? And thus Google spake to me: http://www.differencebetween.net/object/comparisons-of-food-items/difference-between-gherkins-and-pickles/
(I love that someone out there one day was clearly hunting for a creative idea, and suddenly thought, "You know what would be a great website? Comparing things with other things! Then I just SEO the living blazes out of it and run terrible ads until I'm rich. Bingo!"
That is very good tea ;) *But were there biscuits*
That's where actual stories go, isn't it? The questions are never settled. Maybe that's why we crave stories so much. They provide resolution and a shape of meaning for us.
And I did not know about the difference between pickled cucumbers and gherkins! I also love that someone was just wondering about this and also why does it never occur to me to just run SEO content that generates passive income so I can spend more time pulling knapweed?
You have not seen my family eat pickles, especially the homemade ones. Actually, one of the kids' friends loves pickles and is over a lot and gets through a surprising number of jars. And they make a change from jam for gifts for people!