Many things happened since the last RAGA Antidote 40 newsletter of December 2017. Christmas and New Year holidays last longer in Russia because the Russians tend to celebrate both twice, first according the Gregorian calendar, like us, then Julian which the Russian Orthodox Christians, whose numbers have been swelling since 1991, follow. The government too provides for more Winter days-off. Well, let's plunge into the Year of the Yellow Dog by following what president Vladimir Putin did on the day of Epiphany"Thursday January 18 Vladimir Putin Plunges in Frozen Lake to Mark Orthodox Christian Epiphany Ritual (VIDEO) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-epiphany-putin/russias-putin-takes-dip-in-icy-lake-to-mark-orthodox-epiphany-idUSKBN1F80J0 VladimirPutin’s ice bath ritual perplexes American journalists.Example ofreinforced ignorance about Russian leader’s Christian faith shows howdisconnected American press is from reality. President Vladimir Putin marked the celebration of Theophany (sometimes called“Epiphany” in the West) in the usual way – by immersing himself in freezing coldwater in Lake Seliger at a monastery near Tver, some 200 miles north of Moscow. http://russiafeed.com/vladimir-putins-ice-bath-ritual-perplexes-american-journalists/ Now, having cooled off, prepare for the really hot bath provided by Charles Bausman, the founder and editor of Russia Insider whom many Russia watchers have appreciated for its efforts to explain Russia and diffuse US-Russia tensions in a quest for global peace. I briefly met Charles in September 2014 at Ed Lozansky's Moscow forum when he announced this venture in public diplomacy. Soon Russia Insider went online. On January 16, RI surprised many readers, including myself, by publishing It's Time to Drop the Jew Taboo It's making serious discussion of Russian geopolitics and history next to impossible. Most people know about, but few are willing to condemn, the strict taboo in the media, of criticizing Jews as a group, using that term. One cannot even criticize a small subsection of Jews, a miniscule percentage of the Jewish population, even when they richly deserve it. http://russia-insider.com/en/its-time-drop-jew-taboo/ri22186 Bausman's initiative is both bold and controversial, so much so that I quickly posted my Russian translation on both Perevodika.ru and the RAGA site where it could be switched between English and Russian. http://www.raga.org/news/drop-the-jew-taboo Why court possible hostility from the Jews? Well, many Jews, at least, since Karl Marx's 1844 article "On The Jewish Question" (https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question/) have been aware of, and deeply deplored, the tendency of their kin to be attracted to shady financial dealings. Of course, Marx's article was unavailable in the country built in his name. In fact, I had to escape from the USSR in order to be able to read freely not just him, but foreign and Russian religious philosophers whose books were expelled from the country of their origin. One might even say that Marx preceded Bausman in lifting the taboo. I believe that lifting the taboo on naming Jews involved in finance and, especially, in MSM anti-Russian hysteria would be healthy for both Russia and the USA, for both Jews (remember how the banker Bernie Madoff robbed everyone, even Jewish charities! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/dec/23/bernard-madoff-jewish-charities) and Gentiles alike. After all, Bausman proposes to call spade a spade, nothing more or less. In fact, in my 2016 Open 2016 Letter to Obama I demanded something similar: 2. Start the legislative process for breaking up the corporate media conglomerates and, at least, make the current anti-monopoly laws stick in pursuit of the violators. Brother Nathanael Kapрner, a New York Jew who converted to Russian Christianity, goes as far as to propose nationalization of the media. In the very least, a national debate on media abuses is in order. http://www.raga.org/news/to-mr-barack-obama-potus I still wonder why President Trump did not pick up on my proposal to regulate the mega-media which have been overwhelmimngly against him--and Russia--both before and after his election? Bausman is right in calling for more research on the issue. However, in as far as he links negative consequences of the taboo now in the USA with those of the Bolshevik take-over of Russia 100 years ago, his failure to take into account the research done by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his book "The Crucifixion of Russia" https://www.amazon.com/Crucifixion-Russia-Russians-translation-Solzhenitsyns/dp/1548660272 (See also RAGA Antidote 39) is surprising. One reason may be that search engines fail to pick the above translation and respond instead to the more natural request-- Solzhenitsyn, Two Hundred Years Together--that shows only Russian original. Recently, Jan Peczkis posted a good summary of the book on https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R2J4T28VQDUMLZ?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl In Solzhenitsyn's footsteps, RAGA favors polyphony or, at least, a dialog of opinions on any issue, no matter how controversial. This is not the place for discussions. Just a few responses from people whom I highly respect. One is from Gilbert Doctorow, a Russia Ph.D. scholar, peace activist, and RAGA contributor fluent in Russian. Doctorow: Letter to the Editor: the Jewish Question and Russia-Bashing in the West russia-insider.com/en/letter-editor-jewish-question-and-russia-bashing.../ri22218 In “It’s Time to Drop the Jew Taboo,” you have chosen your words very carefully so as to avoid giving unnecessary offense to anyone. And, you are right, the subject you have placed on the table merits open discussion which it has not received....I mention this only to make the point that counting noses is a tricky game and quickly degenerates into racial slurs which have no foundation in fact. However, for the sake of argument I will concede to you the point that Jewish controlled media have been a big factor in the hate-Russia mania that sweeps America today... http://russia-insider.com/en/letter-editor-jewish-question-and-russia-bashing-west/ri22218 Another is Henry Makow, an independent-minded and erudite Jew Taboo Against Anti-Semitism Must be Lifted - henrymakow.com https://www.henrymakow.com/2018/01/taboo-against-anti-semitism.html Makow - Jews and Freemasons are the vehicles through which the central bank cartel extends its monopoly over government credit to a monopoly over everything, i.e. business, government, media and thought. As Bausman suggests this monopoly largely has been achieved in the West.Does Russia pose a real obstacle to its imposition worldwide, or is Western antipathy to Russia part of a charade to foment war? https://www.henrymakow.com/2018/01/taboo-against-anti-semitism.html Then there is Anatoly Karlin, a transplant from the USSR who is equally well versed in USA and Russia. An independent thinker, Karlin is insightful contributor to The Unz Review which Cathy Young, a Jewish immigrant from the USSR, denounces as a “mix of far-right and far-left anti-Semitic crackpottery” in spite of the fact that it is run by a Jew and has several Jewish contributors, such as Israel Shamir. Karlin writes: Charles Bausman’s thesis is of course a controversial one, and I don’t agree with some things at both the macro level – high Jewish verbal IQ partially, though not fully, explains the overrepresentation of Jews amongst elite Russophobes – as well as some of the historical details at the micro level. However, he is correct at a broad level. http://www.unz.com/akarlin/russia-insider-names-the-jew/ I noticed the Jew Taboo article at once because it started with the painting of famed Russian painter Ilya Glazunov, A Jewish Bolshevik shutting down an Easter midnight service. Just last Summer I wrote an obituary for Glazunov (in Russian) who passed away on July 9, 2017. I first met him in 1957 in dissident circles of Moscow State University when the young painter's exploration of Russian history, literature and religion made him L'Enfant terrible of the Party's stalwarts and a hero among postwar generation of students fed up with the dead-end of "internationalist" but soul-less and rootless ideology. After defecting to the West, I looked with the hope at the beginnings of what is now called identitarian movement that was growing inside the USSR among ethnic groups. I wrote several articles on the rebirth of Russian "nationalism" (a benign form of it, more like a revival of Russian cultural and religious identity) as an alternative to the totalitarian Marxist-Leninist ideology. One of them was my 1979 article Wladislaw G.Krasnow, Richard Pipes's Foreign Strategy: Anti-Soviet or Anti-Russian? I argued that advice given to US government by Professor Pipes was wrong because he distrusted Soviet leaders because of their "deceitful and boorish Russian peasant origin" (Isn't it Jewish professor's ethnic bias?) and totally ignored their Marxist-Leninist ideology. I am proud to say that Solzhenitsyn, with whom I corresponded, liked my article. Another article was published in 1985 by Hokkaido University in Sapporo, JAPAN: Ilya Glazunov's Russian Nationalism: Notes from Two Exhibits, now accessible on RAGA site. After two huge exhibits of Glazunov's paintings in 1978 (Moscow) and Leningrad (1979), foreign observers began to worry about the rise of Russian nationalism. (CRAIG WHITNEY, JUNE 18, 1978. Unbridled Artist Proving Popular At Soviet Show, Fortunately, two books of thousands hand-written viewers comments were secretly copied and smuggled to the West. I analyze them statistically as a sort of opinion poll. My 1985 conclusion was: <<... unlike the official Soviet anti-Semitism which is chiefly focused on the Jewish religion, Zionism, and the state of Israel, the comment books give vent only to (a) variety of judophobia which seems to be chiefly concerned with the role of the Jews in the October Revolution and in the establishing of the "internationalist" Soviet state. ...that has been hostile not only to Russian nationalism but to Jewish and any other nationalism as well. Although some Soviet Jews apparently feel that the rise of ethnic Russian nationalism a la Glazunov may threaten their well-being in the USSR, many more realize that his art undermines the official ideology which shackles all peoples of the USSR, including the Jews.>> I followed up with a book, Russia Beyond Communism: A Chronicle of National Rebirth (https://www.amazon.com/Russia-Beyond-Communism-Chronicle-Contemporary/dp/0813383617), where I collected a veritable polyphonic choir of "voices of glasnost", from a broad spectrum of Soviet authors, left and right, Party and no party, who wanted to go beyond Gorbachev's "reformed Communism" which the West then eagerly supported. Written in late 1980s, the book was published in Colorado in 1991, just in time for me to pick a fresh copy and present it to Boris Yeltsin who, just in time, suppressed a Communist coup and hoisted Russian national tricolor instead of the Red flag of Communism. There were in the book few lines (p. 256) devoted to Glazunov too. Well, so much for the conjuncture with Glazunov that Bausman so vividly displayed in his spectacular article.Let us not forget that, as Bausman argues, the existence of the Jew Taboo is not only bad for US-Russia relations, but makes a nuclear war and possible annihilation of life on earth much more likely. RAGA does not want to promote a panicky fear, but we do take seriously the well founded warnings, such as the recent one issued by Sharon Tennison, a tireless peace-maker since the time of the Old (less scary) Cold War From Sharon Tennison You have probably seen last week's announcement from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about preparing Americans for a nuclear detonation somewhere here in the U.S. If a nuclear detonation ever happens here in the U.S., it will bring about a rapid return of numerous nuclear weapons toward the sender and likely a volley back and forth. Are we this close to an all-out nuclear exchange and no one is pursuing serious diplomacy? Are we American citizens perturbed … or are we just moving forward unconsciously like lemmings to the sea? I suggest we call or write our newspapers, public officials, congress members, and everyone on our e-lists––and say, NO! We need to pursue a radical course of diplomacy, a total reevaluation of the US-North Korea history in order to learn why they are so defensive and paranoid. Please educate yourself with this 9-minute TED X Talk. It is a very topical subject these days since our CDC will soon be sharing information with the public about how Americans can survive a nuclear blast. Physicists and physicians tell us a different story. Dr. Ira Helfand does a magnificent job of describing the reality of nuclear w wenteapons in the following link: Ira Helfand, MD is co-President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. As co-Founder and Past President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, IPPNW’s US affiliate, he knows terrible truths about nuclear war. In 2013 Dr. Helfand to Israel to argue the same. In a country, whose nuclear arsenal is much less mythical than anything Iran can possibly build, his reception was short on enthusiasm. Good Vs. Evil - A debate in the Knesset between Dr. Helfand and MK Feiglin of the Likud Party Sharon is not the only one who takes the growing threat of nuclear annihilation very seriously. PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS (Warmongers pushing the US toward global Armageddon with Russia http://russiafeed.com/warmongers-pushing-us-toward-global-armageddon-russia/ While Reagan and Gorbachev understood the danger of the nuclear threat, present US policy makers do not – The US military/security complex has taken another step toward Armageddon. The Pentagon has prepared a nuclear posture review (NPR) that gives the OK to development of smaller “usable” nuclear weapons and permits their use in response to a non-nuclear attack.... Some scientists have concluded that even the use of 10 percent of either the US or Russian arsenal would suffice to destroy life on earth. ...Those such as myself and Stephen Cohen, who point out that Washington’s reckless and irresponsible behavior has created an enemy out of a country that very much wanted to be friends, do not get much attention from the presstitute media. The US military/security complex needs an enemy sufficient to justify its vast budget and power, and the Western media has accommodated that selfish and dangerous need. http://russiafeed.com/warmongers-pushing-us-toward-global-armageddon-russia/ Trump’s Plan Makes Nuclear War More Likely FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, January 12, 2018 CONTACT: Brett Abrams | 516-841-1105 | brett@unbendablemedia.com Last night, The Huffington Post released a pre-decisional draft of the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review. The document outlined a strategy that includes the development of new, so-called “low-yield” nuclear weapons — expanding the number of scenarios in which the first use of nuclear weapons would be considered, including in response to non-nuclear attack...In reaction to the leaked document, Derek Johnson, executive director of Global Zero, the international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons, issued the following statement: “This leaked draft of the NPR is a radical document and terrifying in almost every respect. Trump’s plan to develop so-called ‘low-yield’ nuclear weapons and loosen restrictions on their use is a dramatic departure from long-standing U.S. policy that makes nuclear war more likely. The world is about to get a whole lot more dangerous...." Isn't Russia one country against which we prepare a terrible nuclear vengeance? Who are they? Take a look: Christ’s birth celebrated in Russia and across the Orthodox world. Midnight liturgy was held through Russia and several other Orthodox countries to mark Christmas according to the Julian calendar For a deeper insight in Russia's spirituality I recommend again Gilbert Doctorow Jan 8, 2018. The New Russian 'Messianism' - Christmas Interview With Head of Russian Church Another remarkable interview between Kiselyov and the head of the Russian church, Kirill. He explains that Russia must make Christian morality the guiding star of its foreign policy — only then will it maintain its appeal to people around the world. Last November Russians marked the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik coup in Petrograd which effectively put them in charge of the whole county. So what did the Bolshevik leaders--Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov, Uritsky and several other Jews--do with the newly won power? In January 1918 they forcibly dissolved the Constitudent Assembly called into existence by the manifest of Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov, Tsar Nikolai's younger brother in whose favor he abdicated. Not wishing to cause a bloodshed by suppressing a soldiers mutiny in Petrograd, Mikhail suggested a compromise: let people decide on the future form of government in a free election by universal ballot. Having taken power, the Bolsheviks did not cancel the election hoping to get a majority of the delegates. But as soon as they found out that they garnered fewer than 25% of the vote, they dissolved the Assembly by force thus started the civil war which took more Russian lives than World War One. I have been promoting the memory of Mikhail Romanov as the author of Constituent Assembley, tsar-democrat and peacemaker. Tragically, Mikhail and his secretary Johnson were murdered by the Bolsheviks in my native city of Perm on June 12, 1918, five weeks prior to the Yekaterinburg massacre of former Tsar Nikolai II and his family. Here is one of my several Russian language articles translated into English. W. George Krasnow, Last Russian Tsar Was Michael, Not Nicholas. It was published by The Moscow Times in 2013 (https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/last-russian-tsar-was-michael-not-nicholas-25693) You could read a lot more in the well-researched and perceptive book book by my dear British friend Donald Crawford's The Last Tsar: Emperor Michael II. https://www.amazon.com/Last-Tsar-Emperor-Michael-II/dp/1466445009. To save your time and money I recommend you read first an excellent review of Crawford's book by David Roulston, a member of the Oxford-Perm Sister Cities Association's January2013 newsletter http://www.oxfordperm-assoc.org/members-only/news-Jan13.pdf or in attachment below. Anatoly Karlin offers a fresh and sobering assessment of how the Bolsheviks established the totalitarian dictatorship in Russia against the will of majority http://www.unz.com/akarlin/centenary-of-the-bolshevik-usurpation/ Centenary of the Bolshevik Usurpation ANATOLY KARLIN • JANUARY 20, 2018 Contrary to both Communist and Western Russophobe propaganda, Russians never voted in the Bolsheviks, let alone gave them license to usurp absolute power and launch a civil war. Who did vote for the Bolsheviks? The Latvians and Estonians of the Governorate of Livonia gave them 72% of the vote, the highest of any region in the Russian Empire. Read more for more surprises! http://www.unz.com/akarlin/centenary-of-the-bolshevik-usurpation/ Let me just ad Ed Lozansky's excellent suggestion re Ukraine "The solution for Ukraine is clear. It has been on the table since 2014, in variations put forward by Henry Kissinger among others. No NATO membership. Neutrality. Regional decentralization, perhaps federalization. Official status for the Russian language. That won’t return Crimea to Ukraine but it could perhaps reintegrate the Donbass, which Russia has pointedly declined to absorb, despite locals’ requests and Kiev’s refusal to implement self-rule under the moribund Minsk 2 agreement." https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jan/25/poor-state-us-russia-relations-does-not-serve-amer/ As always, a view of Russian civilization THERYAZAN KREMLIN by Willian Brumfield https://www.rbth.com/travel/327249-russian-incredible-ryazan-kremlin Sincerely,
Peace and Justice to the World. миру мир и благоволение в сердцах From RAGA site: "We are an association of Americans who believe it is in the U.S. national interests to foster friendship with Russia on the basis of mutual Good Will and non-interference in each other's affairs. RAGA is a gathering of people who share common interests in Russia's history, culture, religion, economy, politics and the way of life. We feel that Russian people have made outstanding contributions to humankind and are capable of greater achievements. We envision Russia as a strong, independent, proud and free nation and as a partner in achieving peace in the world." |
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