{"quotes":[{"text":"In actual fact our Russian experience—when I use the word 'Russian' I always differentiate it from the word 'Soviet'—I have in mind even pre-Soviet, pre-revolutinoary experience—in actual fact it is vitally important for the West, because by some chance of history we have trodden the same path seventy or eighty years before the West. And now it is with a strange sensation that we look at what is happening to you; many social phenomena that happened in Russia before its collapse are being repeated. Our experience of life is of vital importance to the West, but I am not convinced that you are capable of assimilating it without having gone through it to the end yourselves.You know, one could quote here many examples: for one, a certain retreat by the older generation, yielding their intellectual leadership to the younger generation. It is against the natural order of things for those who are youngest, with the least experience of life, to have the greatest influence in directing the life of society. One can say then that this is what forms the spirit of the age, the current of public opinion, when people in authority, well known professors and scientists, are reluctant to enter into an argument even when they hold a different opinion. It is considered embarrassing to put forward one's counterarguments, lest one become involved. And so there is a certain abdication of responsibility, which is typical here where there is complete freedom....There is now a universal adulation of revolutionaries, the more so the more extreme they are! Similarly, before the revolution, we had in Russia, if not a cult of terror, then a fierce defense of terrorists. People in good positions—intellectuals, professors, liberals—spent a great deal of effort, anger, and indignation in defending terrorists.","author":"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn","tags":["revolutionaries","russia","soviet-russia","soviet-union","terrorism","youth-leaders"],"id":16268,"author_id":"Aleksandr+Solzhenitsyn"},{"text":"An imaginary friend once asked me why Americans can't stand Russia. The answer was cold, deadly, silent, and, well expected. It’s because in Soviet Russia nothing happens anymore, because it doesn’t exist anymore. And Americans are all about happenings. If there isn’t one – they don’t go where it isn’t, because there isn’t anything to happen to them there.","author":"Will Advise","tags":["america","answer","answers","cold","deadly","death","expectation","expectations","expected","friend","happening","happenings","imaginary","imagination","imagined","kgb","nothing","nsa","question","questions","russia","silence","silent","soviet-russia","soviet-union","ussr"],"id":23787,"author_id":"Will+Advise"},{"text":"Only then, as she prepared to cross the avenue, did she again spot the man in the fedora hat. He was at the opposite side of the street from where he’d stood before, but the caramel color of his coat was unmistakable. He was loitering in front of what looked like a Ford V8 parked nose-up on the sidewalk. Florence adjusted her shawl over her shoulders and crossed to the opposite corner of the plaza. When she turned back to look again, he was gone.","author":"Sana Krasikov","tags":["20th-century-russia","america","based-on-a-true-story","based-on-real-events","brookyln","communism","doctor-zhivago","family","feminism","love-story","moscow","mother","motherhood","political-drama","politics","romance","soviet","soviet-literature","soviet-russia","soviet-union"],"id":25747,"author_id":"Sana+Krasikov"},{"text":"Florence could feel a constriction in her chest…She had been foolish enough to hope that whatever she was walking into would affect no one but herself. Now the truth was catching up with her at the speed of her galloping heartbeat…Now they had summoned her. And they knew everything.","author":"Sana Krasikov","tags":["20th-century-russia","america","based-on-a-true-story","based-on-real-events","brookyln","communism","doctor-zhivago","family","feminism","love-story","moscow","mother","motherhood","political-drama","politics","romance","soviet","soviet-literature","soviet-russia","soviet-union"],"id":41040,"author_id":"Sana+Krasikov"},{"text":"I was amongst them – the first female pilot who had got admission to the Sturmoviks…Since my childhood I’d been lucky enough to meet good people. Wherever I studied, wherever I worked I would meet loyal friends, kind-hearted tutors. I was trained at the factory school by the old craftsman Goubanov, I was assisted by the engineer Aliev, who was the shift boss, in my transfer to the most important sector of operations – the tunnel. I was trained by the superb instructor Miroevskiy in the aeroclub, the secretary of the Ulyanovsk District Comsomol Committee gave me a hand at a very hard moment of my life, then there was Maria Borek from Leningrad, the Secretary of the Smolensk District Comsomol Committee, the Commissar of the Smolensk aeroclub…Was it really possible to count all those who had warmed my soul with their sympathy and human kindness and helped me to realize my dream!","author":"Anna Timofeeva-Egorova","tags":["gratitude","soviet-russia","sturmoviks","wwii"],"id":60838,"author_id":"Anna+Timofeeva-Egorova"},{"text":"This formidable officine dates from Peter the Great, who formed it in 1697...Its historic origins must, however, be looked for much earlier; one finds them in the byzantine traditions and in the operations of the Tartar domination...Espionage, delation, torture, and secret executions were the normal and regulating instruments of the |||||||| police.","author":"Maurice Paléologue","tags":["espionage","history","intrigue","politics","russia","soviet-russia","spying"],"id":73880,"author_id":"Maurice+Pal%C3%A9ologue"},{"text":"He realized that trust between people is what makes us happy. Any totalitarian state is based on betrayal. It needs people to inform on each other, to avoid socializing to interact only through the state and to avoid unsanctioned meetings.","author":"Oliver Bullough","tags":["betrayal","soviet-russia","trust"],"id":75263,"author_id":"Oliver+Bullough"},{"text":"She was arriving at a revelation that the secret to living was simply forgetting.","author":"Sana Krasikov","tags":["20th-century-russia","america","based-on-a-true-story","based-on-real-events","brookyln","communism","doctor-zhivago","family","feminism","love-story","moscow","mother","motherhood","political-drama","politics","romance","soviet","soviet-literature","soviet-russia","soviet-union"],"id":76778,"author_id":"Sana+Krasikov"},{"text":"In order to become the chisel that breaks the marble inside us, the artist must first become the hammer.' [Soviet censor of paintings and photos].","author":"Anthony Marra","tags":["censorship","communism","soviet-russia","soviet-union"],"id":104715,"author_id":"Anthony+Marra"},{"text":"Mounting tensions in Eastern Europe send shivers down the spine. Barely a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War we seem to be sliding inexorably towards another.","author":"Alex Morritt","tags":["aggression","armageddon","armies","army","caucasus","caucasus-region","checkmate","checks-and-balances","cold-war","conflict-management","conflict-resolution","conflicts","cool-response","crimea","defence","defences","destruction-of-us","diplomacy","eastern-europe","eastern-european","end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it","error","errors","escalation","fear-of-unknown","fear","fears","fears-and-doubts","force","forces","forces-of-darkness","geopolitical-forces","geopolitical-tension","geopolitics","historical-perspective","history-repeating-itself","impasse","inexorably","international-community","international-relations","international-relationships","lack-of-judgement","learning-from-mistakes","lessons-learned","lessons-learned-in-life","lessons-of-life","live-and-learn","mexican-standoff","military","military-history","military","military-theory","moscow","moscow-rules","nato","nuclear-power","nuclear-proliferation","nuclear-threat","nuclear-weapons","one-upmanship","peace-on-earth","peace","peacemaker","political-commentary","political-quandary","political","politics-observation","poor-judgement","poor-leadership","power-struggle","power-struggles","quandary","red-army","regressing","regression","repeat-mistakes","repeated-mistake","repeating-the-past","rules-of-engagement","russia","russian-federation","sabre-rattling","shiver","shivers","sliding","soviet-occupation","soviet-russia","soviet-union","sphere-of-influence","spine-chilling","stalemate","standoff","struggles","super-powers","tension","treaty","troops","ukraine","warfare","warmonger","wars","weapons-of-mass-destruction"],"id":105706,"author_id":"Alex+Morritt"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":33,"pages":4,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}