The future of Russia

[Saras]

Serb rought to my attention a book which I still have to find and read, but the thesis in it is that Stalin and his brutality were necessary for Russias survival, and that (correct me if I'm wrong here, Serb) Russian history is doomed with a cycle of relative liberty replaced by tyranny and so on.

[Saras]

Personally I think this cycle theory is bull. Russians are people too, and they like to live well like other people do. So, I voted option 1. I think they also deserve a break

[laurentius]

Putin already is 'the great leader', and Russians have never stopped bullying their neighbourgs...
So my vote goes to option #2.

[FrustratedPoet]

Personally I think this cycle theory is bull.

Me too.

[Saras]

--"Russians have never stopped bullying their neighbours"

Yea, but some they can't touch anymore

[laurentius]

Maybe not touch but they can still do alot damage if they want to.

[Saras]

Not without damage to themselves, also.

[Ben Kenobi]

I vote that Russia becomes a puppet to a resurgent central asia.

Just like the good old days.

Seriously, the demographics are not good.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Saras
Serb rought to my attention a book which I still have to find and read, but the thesis in it is that Stalin and his brutality were necessary for Russias survival, and that (correct me if I'm wrong here, Serb) Russian history is doomed with a cycle of relative liberty replaced by tyranny and so on.
Personally I think this cycle theory is bull. Russians are people too, and they like to live well like other people do. So, I voted option 1. I think they also deserve a break

Not exactly Saras. Russians are people too of course, but we are different people. Russia isn't Europe and isn't Asia. It's not West or East. Russia is North. We live in the coldest country on this planet. Thanks to our climate the additional product produced by our peasants/workers was always/will be always lesser than in Europe for example. Summer is very short here, so agricaltural season is shorter than in Europe. Winter is long and cold and to surive the winter, they had to make huge surplace of lumber and food for domestic animals within short summer. So peasants had to work harder and always get much lesser than their European counterparts. The same with industry- it costs more thanks to climate (warm, light, construction, etc). So, in competition with Europenan countries Russia will always lose, thanks to additional expences and Europeans will always live better than Russians. Authors claims that after such periods when Russia is obviously loosing its competition with West, always comes period when comes external threat to existance of Russia, because Russia's neighbors see that it's week and try to grab somethin from it. Then when the bet is survival of our nation- comes period of our mobilization. During such period Russians works extremly hard almost for nothing, suffer, but complete their goal- destruction of external threat. After a victory comes period of relaxation and people start to live better, It last some time, untill the energy accumulated during mobilization is out. (I don't mean some cosmic energy, its such thing as infrastructure, education, technologies, etc)
Then Russia again lose competition and become weaker --> the weaker become Russia, the more external threat grows--> Everything repeats.
The authors points on three such big periods of mobilization (there were lesser periods of mobilization, but those three were the biggest):
1) The rule of Ivan IV, aka Ivan the Terrible.
2) The rule of Peter the Great.
3) The rule of Joseph Stalin.

I can't explain whole book, esp. using foreign language for that.
You can easily find it Saras:

http://oz.by/books/more.phtml?id=109430&partner=myminsk

It cost 60-85 rubbles. All that you lose if you will not like it is about 100 rubbles (with delivery) or so.

[Combat Ingrid]

How cute

[CerberusIV]

I found this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3410669.stm

It may not enjoy the catchiest title on the web: "The President of Russia for Citizens of School Age."

But once you click on the icon of the happy, smiling cartoon school kid you enter a Kremlin the like of which you've never seen or heard before.

The piped music sounds as if it would be more at home in a corporate video or a supermarket. Still, this is a fun, friendly, almost fluffy world of colourful cartoons and capers.

All designed to grab the attention of young Russians.

On this new website, you can visit Mr Putin's office - there you'll find a virtual Vladimir sitting with his back to you - click the cup of tea on his desk, and he'll answer some important questions.

No, not things like "Does democracy in Russia have a future?" or "When will the conflict in Chechnya finally end?"

Questions like these:

"Are you allowed to touch the President with your hands?" The answer - "no".

Or "Who's more important, the President or your mother?" Answer - "your mother".

And "What should you do if you love the president too much?" Answer - "just calm down."

Mind you, for those Russian schoolchildren who may already love their president a little "too much", this site is bound to be a hit.

There are plenty of photos of Mr Putin - playing judo, meeting the Queen of England, smiling with his favourite schoolteacher and posing with a string of animals, including his pet dog, a goat, and a horse.

The site explains what a constitution is, how important it is to serve in the army and recounts the history of the Kremlin.

But its main aim appears to be to turn Vladimir Putin into a children's superhero.

If not Superman, then at least a cyber star that most school kids would welcome as their president.

and found it worrying.

[Nubclear]

Do not insult the comrade Chairman

[Drogue]

Nearest to 1. I don't think they'll join the EU, but I think they will be economically more prosperous than they have been.

[VetLegion]

How does the author explain the relatively successful industries of Finland, Sweden, Canada, Island...?

The often mentioned theory that workers in cold climates are more productive than their counterparts nearer to the equator sounds far more convincing than the theory that production in cold climates is more expensive.

[Combat Ingrid]

Originally posted by VetLegion
How does the author explain the relatively successful industries of Finland, Sweden, Canada, Island...?

Because we are capitalist scum?