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04-25-2007, 04:12 PM
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#1 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10,665
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Yeltsin grossly underappreciated (presently)
I will never understand the press' love for Gorbachev and relative contempt for Yeltsin. Gorbachev is lionized for glastnost, and his dance with Reagan. Fair enough. But Yelsin is more often lampooned for chronic drunkeness and a corrupt administration. But it was Yeltsin who said the Soviet Union is practically and politically bankrupt, who made its dissolution happen, and said tear down those walls. He said B.S. on glastnost, we should joint NATO. He was the real catalyst of the miraculous events of 1989. He was Gorbachev's great rival precisely because he parted company with Gorbachev on carrying on the pretense vs. instituting radical reforms. And ultimately he creamed Gorbachev politically.
I forgive Yeltsin for alcoholism and corruption in office just as I forgive General Grant for similar sins as President. Yeltsin is one of the world's all-time heros. I think history will agree with me. The darkly comic aspect of his drunkeness and corruption is also sorely missed in comparison to what we have to deal with now. Bottom line is Russia is one @&%cked up place and crushes even its best and brightes.
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Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster Last edited by SeattleUte; 04-25-2007 at 05:33 PM. |
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04-25-2007, 04:45 PM
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#2 | |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Happy Valley, PA
Posts: 1,866
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I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. - Epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) |
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04-25-2007, 05:08 PM
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#3 |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,964
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Whatever happened to Yeltsin? I lost track of him after he did that stint as President of BYU.
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...You've been under attack for days, there's a soldier down, he's wounded, gangrene's setting in, 'Who's used all the penicillin?' 'Oh, Mark Paxson sir, he's got knob rot off of some tart.'" - Gareth Keenan |
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04-25-2007, 05:39 PM
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#4 | |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 5,996
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Who knew he had a huge drinking problem? |
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04-25-2007, 06:14 PM
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#5 | |
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AKA SeattleNewt
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 7,055
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04-25-2007, 09:47 PM
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#6 | |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 5,996
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