I cannot help but notice who here was featured with their families: Putin and Che.
Putin leads with the most pictures of his family. Putin as the good father and stable family man. I love the picture with his first baby and the flowers: it's such a typical straight, good Soviet portrait.
What an idiot Blaire looks like. I wonder why they chose these pictures, and if this reflects the bias of the site authors.
Putin's picture reminds me of the scene in Brazil, where the guy from information retreival is torturing a guy, then he goes home to a christmas party with his wife and kid. Putin is a KGB thug, and the bogus domesticity of his pictures is sickening.
Hitler as a young soldier ... the Iron Cross for bravery. Too bad he didn't die.
Stalin, a sociopath from the beginning. What a haunted-looking kid.
Blair. No one looked good in the 70s. Exhibit 9,000,000.
"Blair. No one looked good in the 70s. Exhibit 9,000,000."
Maybe nobody looked good (although, at two, I think I was pretty cute) but Blair looks worse than all the rest. Even Bush looks good compared to Blair during that period. As for Putin, I seriously doubt it's bogus. He's such a typical Russian KGB guy: for the love of the country, family, za nikh, za nas... i za dalyokikh gorodov... za tekh kto snami byl togda. What were they supposed to do?
The photos of Gandhi remind me of Winston Churchill's comment in 1931, - 'a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace, while he is still organising and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor."
Most people didn't feel they were living in a dictatorship, or at least they felt it was a worthwhile dictatorship of the proletariat. Those interested in serving their country, fighting crime, and travelling joined the KGB. Well, the people I know who were and are in the FSB wanted that, anyway. Should anyone who wanted to live successfully and happily have defected, leaving their homeland forever? Anyway this is beside the point.
It was interesting to be in Russia the year before Putin became president. I remember that "Kommersant Vlast" magazine ran a poll among the population of which fictional character Russians would like to see as president, and the response was overwhelmingly to choose the Soviet spy Stirlitz (brilliantly portrayed by Viacheslav Tikhonov in "17 Moments of Spring"). Effectively, the Russians got their hero, which helps to explain some of his larger-than-life ratings in that country. For more on the film (which has a wonderful soundtrack by Mikael Tariverdiyev) see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069628/
Among the old photos of world leaders, I can't decide whether I like Chirac or Kim more.
I was there when he became president. The people in the house with me- a teacher, a scientist, and a high school student- all nearly broke down into tears of happiness. "It's Yeltsin's New Year's present to the country- finally now things might get better," the high-schooler translated for her father.
I remeber that new year's eve too (when he became acting president, and Yeltsin wiped a tear from his eye when admitting the transition hadn't gone well for a lot of people). The general mood was "Wow. Nice New Year's present".
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Comments to this entry
ghola
August 28, 2006
11:49 pm
Elizabeth
August 29, 2006
4:19 am
Putin leads with the most pictures of his family. Putin as the good father and stable family man. I love the picture with his first baby and the flowers: it's such a typical straight, good Soviet portrait.
What an idiot Blaire looks like. I wonder why they chose these pictures, and if this reflects the bias of the site authors.
sun bin
August 29, 2006
8:09 am
looking at the title i was thinking about the infamous chimp and the bush photos.
Gollios
August 29, 2006
1:37 pm
Lexington Green
August 29, 2006
4:38 pm
Hitler as a young soldier ... the Iron Cross for bravery. Too bad he didn't die.
Stalin, a sociopath from the beginning. What a haunted-looking kid.
Blair. No one looked good in the 70s. Exhibit 9,000,000.
Elizabeth
August 29, 2006
5:49 pm
Maybe nobody looked good (although, at two, I think I was pretty cute) but Blair looks worse than all the rest. Even Bush looks good compared to Blair during that period. As for Putin, I seriously doubt it's bogus. He's such a typical Russian KGB guy: for the love of the country, family, za nikh, za nas... i za dalyokikh gorodov... za tekh kto snami byl togda. What were they supposed to do?
Alfred Russel Wallace
August 29, 2006
8:52 pm
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/06/19/stories/2005061900060300.htm
Lexington Green
August 29, 2006
11:34 pm
Not join the KGB.
It is one thing to have to live in a dictatorship, and get by from day to day. It is another thing to join the Gestapo.
I agree Bush looked pretty good for the 70s.
Elizabeth
August 30, 2006
1:15 am
von Kaufman-Turkestansky
September 3, 2006
11:47 am
Among the old photos of world leaders, I can't decide whether I like Chirac or Kim more.
Elizabeth
September 3, 2006
4:17 pm
von Kaufman-Turkestansky
September 3, 2006
9:28 pm