The other day my friend Alexey (who is Russian/American) posted a video from Instagram in which a girl (seemingly from Russia) is reciting a poem in Russian. I didn’t understand it but she seemed to be speaking with a lot of passion so I asked him what she was saying.
He translated for me (admittedly with help from Google Translate) and posted his translation above the video on facebook. Below is as close as I can find to the original post from Instagram from which Alexy had shared it. I am not sure if this was the Instagram account that originally published it but this is the same video. Below that is Alexy’s translation.
This is the post on Instagram that the video above came from. https://www.instagram.com/p/BbH8-FxABN6/
Translation:
Poem for beloved president -
Vladimir Putin
Spray all saliva you want,
but this does not change the fact:
I’m not ashamed of my country
and my president Putin.
My Russia stands tall now!
But remember how West rejoiced,
When pig-faced moron (Yeltsen?)
Was drinking Russia away?
In the frenzy of a drunken binge
He wasted country on vodka!
Oh Yankees were so happy then -
A little more and we finish Russia off!
But slender guy, with a clear gaze,
With prayer to God came up.
“Go forward, I’ll be there”
Said the Lord. And he went.
He asked God for strength.
Without nonsense, useless chatter
He took murdered Russia
on fragile shoulders.
So mother-Russia was reborn
and regain her strength.
Right away howled, shrieked
The whole pack of Western “friends”!
America grinds its teeth now -
Pathetic! They just don’t get,
That this guy will NEVER,
Lets anybody embarass Mother Russia.
Rises above the world
With and Smile light and simple
Invincible Prince Vladimir -
A worthy son of Holy Russia!
I was kind of surprised by the contents of her speech. I mean I barely remember Boris Yeltsin, who knew that someone from Russia would seemingly hold him against us (or something like that)? In this time when, every day, we see more news about more and more Nationalist sentiment from a variety of countries, it is interesting to me to gain even a little insight into what this looks like in other countries.
If you are American like me I think we can look to Trump to see what running a country from a Nationalist viewpoint creates as he backs out of trade deals and initiates tariffs on imported goods. So then, does this video represent what the Russian version of Nationalism sounds like. Fair enough, maybe it does and, at any rate, I know more than I did. Now I feel like I would have a kind of common ground on which to talk with someone from Russia about politics in the two countries.
It seems like the major media in the US never do much to explore issues from the perspectives of the other countries involved. Maybe there just isn’t enough time to do justice to every story but at the same time I don’t think that 5 second “person on the street” interviews with people in other countries gives mainstream America much in the way of insight or understanding. I can only assume that the media in other countries is similar.
For me it seems so senseless to essentially revisit protectionist economic philosophies from a century ago just to try to being back the world that existed then. I don’t mean to imply that most Russians or Americans are part of the Nationalist mindset. I actually think that most are not. I think most people who take the time to even consider things outside the small circle of family/friends/work/bills that may make up their life are more middle of the road because that is what sensible people tend to think like. I say that solely from talking to people who I know on and off the web. In the end most people are not very extreme in their politics which makes it weird that the extremes are what seems to get all the media coverage.
In the responses I have seen on Facebook to my friends post from both Americans and Russians are pretty much what I would expect if the conversation was just among Americans. Some scoffing at Putin/Trump and some head shaking over a small segment of the population being so vocal and getting attention. I think it is great to have conversations with people from other countries as events involving one or both mutual countries unfold in the news, Kind of like sitting out on your front stoop/porch and talking to a neighbor about current events.
I think this is especially surreal when it involves war or when people are talking about war (as they are now). On the one hand I think you feel kind of obligated to pull for the “team” nationally, but when you are talking to someone with ties to the potential adversary it is really informative to see if those national differences extend to or have any bearing on your personal, one on one relationship.
I just kind of have this mental image of the American and Russian peoples hanging out and carrying on their lives while a handful of the rich people who run the world is having a hissy fit over resources or, more generally, money. I guess my viewpoint is somewhat influenced by the idea that our destiny as a species is to learn to govern ourselves globally and so wars between nations seem more like what they are, conflicts between minority groups of rich, powerful people who involve and/or threaten the security and safety of the majority.
I grew up in the final years of the Cold War and things were kind of different then. I was a country kid from a poor family and certainly not privy to an Ivy League viewpoint in my education. A lot of what I knew I learned through independently reading every book I could get my hands on. Russia was the enemy then and so was kind of a bad thing to be curious about (if not stated then implied). So I ended up not knowing very much about the biggest country in the world.
Since the Soviet Union fell when I was an adult and busy with raising kids and trying to stay employed, I didn’t learn much about the newly opened Russia except for what I saw in the news. Nut I know I kind of figured that the Russians were no longer the Enemy. As a matter of fact I saw them as pretty much like any of the other European countries with their own sort of vaguely democratic government.
Unlike me, many of the more internationally focused, entrepreneurially minded Americans took the opportunity of new access to the former Soviet Union in order to do business. For those people Russia was as I envisioned it I think and for anyone with the money to travel there it was a potential destination now.
For me though, and other Americans like me with no real exposure to the “new Russia”, there was much less real breakaway from the old, Cold War picture. Essentially that means that too much curiosity about Russia might be deemed somehow “un-American”. Now that Russia is once again being made out to be The Enemy I thought it might be good to brush up on my knowledge of the country and it’s history. I found this cute little animated synopsis that at least left me knowing more at the end that I knew when I started watching it.
