That adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same” seems to apply in modern-day Russia, and two films currently in release pound that point home. In one, it’s obvious that pop culture has moved far beyond the days of governmentally approved socialist realism art. In the other, the depressing truth is that the former Soviet Union may now be a nominal democracy, but it is as authoritarian and corrupt as ever. Khodorkovsky is director Cyril Tuschi’s exhaustive documentary about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, now languishing in a Siberian prison ... Read More
Whose Road Led to Hu’s China?
June 30, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
What kinds of historical echoes sound loudest in today's China? And which past leaders deserve the most credit — and blame — for setting the country on its current trajectory? These are timely questions as the Chinese Communist Party gears up to celebrate its 90th birthday on July 1. For in China, as elsewhere, milestone moments are fitting times for backward glances and often accompanied by symbolic gestures that invite scrutiny. One thing is obvious: Mao Zedong (1893-1976), though long gone, has hardly been forgotten in the West or East. Nor should he be, in light of the indelible ... Read More
Documentary Tells Story of Art Saved from Stalin’s Fury
April 4, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
One of the most astonishing art collections on the planet is housed inside an obscure museum in the dusty Central Asian town of Nukus, Uzbekistan. The Igor Savitsky Museum is home to thousands of paintings and sculptures made by artists the Soviet government had banned, all collected by a former artist and archeologist who traveled throughout the Soviet republics in a desperate search to uncover these hidden treasures. "I found these paintings rolled up under the beds of old widows, buried in family trash, in dark corners of artists' studios, sometimes even patching a hole in the roof," ... Read More
Three Ways of Looking at the PRC’s Latest Campaigns
September 16, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
"One can imagine Chiang Kai-shek's ghost wandering around China today nodding in approval, while Mao's ghost follows behind him, moaning at the destruction of his vision." — Rana Mitter, Modern China, Oxford University Press, 2008 "The communist leaders of the world's most populous nation are taking lessons from the small city state of Singapore. ..." Asahi Shimbun, China's Top Officials Study at Singapore's Knee," June 2010 For someone who's been dead almost 35 years, Mao Zedong (1893-1976) has been getting a lot of attention lately. In 2005, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's Mao: The ... Read More
Fostering Abortion With Soviet Gusto
October 7, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Europe, of course, is a decadent place where spoiled, cheese-eating hedonists tolerate socialist taxation and sexual perversion of almost any kind. European national health systems even pay for abortions. President Obama has tried to be very clear that any American system won't — "Under our plan," he told Congress on Sept. 9, "no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions" — but that hasn't kept the issue from flaring up. An amendment to strengthen anti-abortion language in the controversial Baucus bill was voted down by the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 30. Republican ... Read More
Socialist, Hell — Make Him a Full-Bore Commie
November 18, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
Democrats toppled Republicans in 20 U.S. House races across the country on Nov. 4, but they struck out in what may now be the GOP’s most entrenched urban stronghold: South Florida’s Cuban electorate. Conditions seemed auspicious for Democrats to oust any or all of the Miami area’s three Republican House members — Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (18th Congressional District), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (21st) and Mario Diaz-Balart (25th). All are Cuban Americans, all dogmatic adherents to the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, all among George W. Bush’s most devoted loyalists and therefore ... Read More
