Slouching Towards Ekaterinburg: The Case
for Constitutional Monarchy in Russia

FTA about a counterrevolutionary noble who ended up an American citizen, an officer in Sullivan’s OSS… well, read about him... The life story of Prince Serge Platonevich Obolensky is superficially an adventurous chronicle of an exceptional man. On another level it is symbolic, within the person of this one individual, of a once-conceivable Russian-American relationship now destroyed. The prince was the best of both countries, both worlds, merged as one mindset and outlook: the wizened, aristocratic survivor of “History,” on the one hand, and the energetic, optimistic idealist (at least as America meant at the time), on the other.

In #1 I wrote Sullivan’s OSS when I meant Donovan’s OSS. I knew better. Distracted.

Christoff goes on to compare Russia today (at least Russia pre Ukraine) and there are surprises. I’ll just include #7 though all are worth a look and she is not fantasizing: (7) While the U.S. is demoralized by identity and gender politics, professors and teachers fear for their careers in the event of using the wrong pronoun, and men and women are increasingly hostile or sterile toward each other, Russia is, shall we say, old-school. By law, the country does not permit what it calls “gay propaganda” (for example, exhibitions and events cannot be publicly advertised as gay, nor are “parades” allowed, etc.), and marriage is officially defined in the constitution of the country as that between a man and a woman. (Specifically, a constitutional amendment of 2020 is defined as “a defense of the institution of marriage as a union of a man and a woman; the creation of conditions for a decent upbringing of children in the family, as well as for the responsibilities of adult children to care for parents.” The U.S. State Department responded by hanging a rainbow flag outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.)

Russia has a tsar all right. Not Ivan the Terrible, but Vladimir the Terrible. Tsar Vladimir the Terrible, the rapist of Ukraine.

It always gets me. The media craps all over Conservatives for years and years. Then all of a sudden we are supposed to not just believe them but we are supposed to fall into line, willing to shed our blood for whatever cause de jour they have fashioned. And people fall for it.. hook, line, and sinker. Now, this is the same media you wouldn't have believed 6 months ago had they told you the sky is blue but you believe it now because America good vs Russia evil... no matter what, every time, even if we know there are evil people in charge of our nation right now. /shakes head Putin is no doubt is a horrible guy but Ukraine ain't lily white in all this. Lots of stuff had been going on that we have never been privy to. Their government and ours and many in Europe made some slimy corrupt choices and choices have consequences. Sometimes one of those consequences is war. Maybe they and we should have thought better than to provoke Russia time and time and time again. Backing a bear into a corner is never a smart move.

Right now President Zelensky is regarded as an international hero built up by Western psychological warfare propaganda to be a international hero with the stature of Winston Churchill. But after the current Russian-Ukrainian War is negotiated to an end, chances are many in Ukraine will regard Zelensky as the man who refused to negotiate with the Russians, would not declare Ukraine to be a neutral country, grant Russia rights to a Black Sea seaport, or reach a settlement with Russia about the disputed Russian speaking Eastern Provences of present day Ukraine. Therefore bringing down the destruction of Ukraine through a brutal Russian military invasion. It remains to be seen, whatever happens to Ukraine, that if after the current war ends, if Zelensky and his family will end up residing in a luxury condominium at Miami, Florida with millions of dollars in banks.

Excellent article and must read. Accurate historical facts and interesting comparison between Russia and the US. If the world descends into chaos, Russia is better prepared to survive than we are. While we are busy downgrading our schools to illiterate levels of sexual deviation and racial animosity, they strive for excellence. If one major flaw can be blamed for the destruction of what was once a superb society, poor education is it. Our kids were better educated in the 1950s. We spend money like drunken sailors while Russia has a better hold on their economy in spite of underdevelopment, undoubtedly due to the restrictions of communism. Their manufactured goods are often laughable but they also make an excellent combat rifle, the AK-47, a nearly century-old design which is relatively inexpensive, accurate and hard-hitting and for which ammunition is always available. I have plenty of firearms but the AK is the one that sits by my bed. The Russians have a good grasp on priorities while our resident Nero in the White House fiddles with his private parts and lies to us worse than the kid who wets his bed and blames it on the dog.

I tried to read this, and while a lot is interesting, even sensible, much is at serious odds with the reality I saw traveling and doing government-industry partnerships in Russia for almost a decade. It doesn't match with things I saw and learned from listening to friends and colleagues born in the Soviet Union who either still lived there, or had emigrated to the USA, and were back as partners or business advisors. First, a very intensely Christian friend, born in Soviet Armenia, raised in the Soviet Union, and ultimately a wealthy and powerful man because of his black market entrepreneurship ( with such evil products as gum, candy, and fine crystal), told me when we went to an Orthodox Russian church every Sunday, that all the church leaders and priests were in the employ of the KGB during Soviet times, now in the employ of the FSB. But, the church, tightly controlled, and limited, is permitted to exist, and many churches are newly rebuilt on the foundations of those blown up by the Soviets, funded by oligarchs nervous about the hereafter, and trying to hedge their bets. But never imagine that their "Church" is anything remotely beyond another path to control people, or a possible 'indulgence' to maybe keep them out of a Hell that they don't really much believe in, but are still a bit fearful of. And the other is that Putin and the oligarchs are fundamentally, deeply, TOTALLY corrupt and extremely vicious, with zero scruples. Do anything which interferes with their massive, total corruption and you may get a warning and then you will be dead, often very publicly, clearly intended as a warning to others to not cross this government-mafia-large company ruling group. ALL of the courts, laws, police, judges, patent office and government agencies are 100% corrupted, all a sham working to keep the government-mafia-large oligarch owned companies in control of everything. This crushes smaller entrepreneurs as soon as they start to build a good business, which is nearly impossible since the banks won't lend money in any useful way to small businesses. Russia is a mafia state. Everything is a sham, everything crooked. Unfortunately, it seems as if the USA is headed rapidly in a similar direction. And as to Ekaterinaburg, I've been there, visited the site where the tsar's family was executed in the forest and buried, now surrounded with a small museum and carnival-like food, souvenir and T-shirt stands. I don't think that there is any chance that the mafia chieftan currently running things, by the name of Putin, is going to let power ever move to any sort of a 'constitutional' government, monarchy or not.