PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
The American philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot rememberthe past are condemned to repeat it."
So.....let's remember Russia's past, and consider the reasons why Putin is twice as popular with his populace as Obama is with ours.
1. "....many Westerners speculate that the discomfort the Russian people feel will become too much for them to withstand. Many say the sliding standard of living will become unbearable, and that it could cause the Russians to turn on President Vladimir Putin.
a. “[Putin is] facing a full-blown currency crisis that could weaken his iron grip on power,” Reuters wrote on December 17.
b. “It looks all over for Putin,” Forbes said on December 18, adding that his “days are numbered.”
Will this lead to the end for Putin? ... let’s look back through the annals of Russian history.
The history of the Russians can be summarized in five words: “And then it got worse.”
2. Beginning in the 11th century, the majority of Russians lived as serfs in a dreary and oppressive feudal society. .... in a severe climate, forbidden to own any property or to leave the estates they worked... essentially slaves owned by a slender minority of landowners.
Historian Richard Hellie said they “raised and made most of what they had, and had few resources left after paying rent and taxes to buy anything” (The Economy and Material Culture of Russia, 1600-1725). Hellie says that, for many years, up to 90 percent of Russia’s population lived this punishing existence.
3. ....Czar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861, life for the average Russian took a turn … for the worse.
Serfs hadn’t owned land, but most of them only needed to meet a certain quota and then were permitted to keep the remaining crop yields. But after serfdom was abolished, the masses became wage laborers. Everything they grew or produced belonged to the property owner, and they were compensated with a few kopecks a day. They could barely buy the food they had grown with the wages they’d been paid to grow it.
Alexander had abolished serfdom to assuage the Russian masses and prevent a revolution. But the circumstances created by that abolition only increased revolutionary pressure. In 1905, the pressure exploded into a revolution against Czar NicholasII. However, because of infighting among the revolutionaries, the czar’s power strengthened. Russian nights grew longer, darker and colder.
When it looked as if things couldn’t get much worse, World WarIbroke out." The Amazing Durability of the Russians - theTrumpet.com
“And then it got worse.”
So.....let's remember Russia's past, and consider the reasons why Putin is twice as popular with his populace as Obama is with ours.
1. "....many Westerners speculate that the discomfort the Russian people feel will become too much for them to withstand. Many say the sliding standard of living will become unbearable, and that it could cause the Russians to turn on President Vladimir Putin.
a. “[Putin is] facing a full-blown currency crisis that could weaken his iron grip on power,” Reuters wrote on December 17.
b. “It looks all over for Putin,” Forbes said on December 18, adding that his “days are numbered.”
Will this lead to the end for Putin? ... let’s look back through the annals of Russian history.
The history of the Russians can be summarized in five words: “And then it got worse.”
2. Beginning in the 11th century, the majority of Russians lived as serfs in a dreary and oppressive feudal society. .... in a severe climate, forbidden to own any property or to leave the estates they worked... essentially slaves owned by a slender minority of landowners.
Historian Richard Hellie said they “raised and made most of what they had, and had few resources left after paying rent and taxes to buy anything” (The Economy and Material Culture of Russia, 1600-1725). Hellie says that, for many years, up to 90 percent of Russia’s population lived this punishing existence.
3. ....Czar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861, life for the average Russian took a turn … for the worse.
Serfs hadn’t owned land, but most of them only needed to meet a certain quota and then were permitted to keep the remaining crop yields. But after serfdom was abolished, the masses became wage laborers. Everything they grew or produced belonged to the property owner, and they were compensated with a few kopecks a day. They could barely buy the food they had grown with the wages they’d been paid to grow it.
Alexander had abolished serfdom to assuage the Russian masses and prevent a revolution. But the circumstances created by that abolition only increased revolutionary pressure. In 1905, the pressure exploded into a revolution against Czar NicholasII. However, because of infighting among the revolutionaries, the czar’s power strengthened. Russian nights grew longer, darker and colder.
When it looked as if things couldn’t get much worse, World WarIbroke out." The Amazing Durability of the Russians - theTrumpet.com
“And then it got worse.”