Another Reality: the Forgotten World

This post at English Russia is typical of much of the most striking material at that photo-blog, which covers 1/6 of the Earth's surface.

Have a look. It might prove to be a philosophical moment. It certainly is a philosophical title.

Scenes from the last Afghan war

...done in ballpoint pen by a Russian soldier. From English Russia.

"A sad cemetery of depressing clutter"

A modern Russian characterizes Soviet-era "interior design" AKA "dying for the unavailable K-Mart."

Our modern world

Don't miss this segment from English Russia.

Is it rural Russia, or "I survived a Japanese game show?"

I laughed out loud at this video from English Russia, but once again it reminds me of off-the-beaten-track Canada. Especially with all the rain my area has got this year.

A re-created medieval battle in Russia

When I got involved in medieval re-creation in the early 70s, Russia was a faraway and generally inaccessible place where the kind of fun we were having would not have fit in. Now, however, an energetic and classy re-creation (Alexander Nevsky versus the evil German Crusaders? English Russia saith not) looks much the same there as it does in North America.

Images: Love that fort!

Alex Andreev's "Hermetic Art"

From the sample recently posted at English Russia. Andreev has a site of his own.

So much for "an armed society is a polite society."

Gunfire for fun in the streets of Moscow. You have to be a bit patient see the point of this video.

From English Russia: a variety of Russian women

Here.

Image: World War II veteran.

Scenes from the Russian Antarctic station

More at English Russia.

Icon

An illustration of the adaptability of just about any system of symbolism; a Joseph Stalin/Virgin Mary icon, hanging in a church in Strelny:

The church's Beneficiary Evstafy Zhakov said the legend has it that Stalin would often hold discourse with Blessed Matrona of Moscow. And that is the scene depicted on the icon. However, church visitors didn't think it was a good idea and the icon was placed in the church's remote corner.

Beneficiary Zhakov explained that he sees Stalin as one of the nation's fathers, no matter how bad he was. He does not believe Stalin was an atheist.

Someone on the Mediev-L discussion list points out that Stalin has his back to the Virgin and seems to be striding away. Oh, well, he wasn't Russian, either.

Stunning

Yes, the Obama inauguration was special, but I will let everyone else on the web talk about that. If you want a break, see English Russia for this stunning array of beautiful, grim, gritty pictures by Aleksey Petrosian called Life in Russia. Your jaw will drop.

(Non-)Holiday music

From English Russia.

Sports fans in Toronto, Russia

Russian immigrants celebrate a sporting win in Hogtown. Hey, at least they have a winning team! From English Russia.

Kamchatka

Ever wanted to know more about Kamchatka than where it is on the Risk board?

Here's where you go.

Image: Can't say it's a particularly remarkable example.

English Russia goes wild!

The amazing Russian photo site has two fabulous postings: on Soviet playing cards with a Mayan motif, and contemporary Siberian carving done in recovered prehistoric mammoth ivory.

Spaceport Baikonur, Kazakhstan

A collection of pictures of this key Russian-run installation from the Big Picture. As noted on the BP site,

When NASA's last scheduled Space Shuttle mission lands in June of 2010, the United States will not have the capability to get astronauts into space again until the scheduled launch of the new Orion spacecraft in 2015. Over those five years, the U.S. manned space program will be relying heavily on Russia and its Baikonur Cosmodrome facility in Kazakhstan.

Views of the Georgian-Ossetian crisis

An article by a Washington Post correspondent with extensive background in Georgia.

Amateur photos showing the results of the fighting from English Russia.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Islamic extremism, your time is up!

No longer are you the key battlegrounds for the future, or the greatest threat to the free people of the world.

Indeed, just like all those people in Washington, I can hardly remember when or why you were important. The big bad bear is back!

Another example of brilliant political insight.

Russia's steampunk future

English Russia says:

"Some say that Russian Post Office is considering on using special Postal Dirigibles on the distant Siberian parts of Russia and those are leaked project drawings for this project."

The designers seem to have taken the whole steampunk aesthetic to heart, as these pictures indicate.

Steampunk is a retrospective futurism: stories featuring technology as it might have developed with airships rather than airplanes, in a world that hadn't yet gotten to the First World War, or never did. The movie The Wild, Wild West is a good example; League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a not so good one.

Note in this picture the Golden Compass in front of the building?
That movie, too, has steampunk elements.

Homage, I believe that's called.

Update: Eventually steampunk turned into this. Ah, nostalgia.

This could be Canada

This could be my township! But it's ice fishers in Russia rescuing cars and snowmobiles that went just a little too far.

Opiate of the masses

Since one of my interests is the history of democracy, this cynical, long-perspectived post by IOZ caught my eye, not least for its striking title, a quotation from the Roman historian Livy: You know how to vanquish, Hannibal, but you do not know how to profit from victory.

Image: The elephants cross the Alps.

Katyn: the Germans did it, not us

The Economist reports on an ominous sign of official Russian backsliding. After the fall of Soviet Communism, the new Russian government admitted that Stalin's secret police had killed 40,000 Polish officers in Katyn forest, not the Nazis as Stalin claimed.

Now Putin's government is back to peddling the party line.

Read the column in the Economist for how ominous this is.

Curiously, this incident (Katyn) just came up in a World History seminar this afternoon.

There really is nothing new under the sun

Except maybe the chainsaws.

Christian vs. pagan in Russia, today. From that amazing site, English Russia.

Why I love English Russia

English Russia is a site which gives you some extraordinary picture of life in Russia today, every day. Many of the pictures are astonishing or hilarious.

I mean, Stalin himself is not funny, but who could not laugh at this? Granted, if you knew either Stalin or the car's owner, you might have a different reaction.

Why do I link to this site from an "early history" blog? The world historian in me has to love a site whose premise is: "just because something cool happens daily on 1/6 of the Earth's surface." Even the in the "sixths" we hardly ever think about.