Tag Archives: Soviet Union

Pardon me!

When laws change, people who were once convicted as criminals are (sometimes) pardoned. We often find that just and necessary, like in the case of those convicted of homosexual acts when this was still a crime (which isn’t all that … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Cold War, History, Law, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Random Thoughts (7)

Don’t blame me for looking at your ( . )( . ) when you wear sunglasses and I can’t look at your eyes. In Venezuela, the richest country in South America between the 1950s and the 1980s, and still the … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Cinema, Economics, Germany, Politics, Religion, Technology, Terrorism, Travel, USA, Venezuela | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The allure of chess

In a civil registry office in the Soviet Union, some time in the 1960s: The men are immersed in a game of chess. The brides are bored, most of them have already fallen asleep. So, the long waits in government offices … Continue reading

Posted in History, Sports | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Why I don’t play the Lottery

Because it’s a Soviet scam, a Communist charade: In the novel Twelve Chairs, Ilja Ilf and Evgeny Petrov describe how the Soviet Union organized steamship tours, accompanied by orchestras and dance groups, whose goal it was to get people to sign … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Economics, History, Lithuania, Photography, Travel | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Grutas Park – a Museum of Falsification of History

Last weekend I was in Druskininkai, in the South of Lithuania, and of course I wanted to visit nearby Grūtas Park (Grūto parkas in Lithuanian), a sculpture park of Soviet monuments and a museum about the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. … Continue reading

Posted in History, Holocaust, Lithuania, Military, Photography, Politics, Travel, World War II | Tagged , , | 38 Comments