[PEN-L:379] re a further "Ryan comment"

[valis <valis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoth Mike Yates:
> Of course, the Soviet soldiers repulsed the Germans, and my father and all
> other fathers in the war owe them a lot.  I mourn their deaths and the sad
> fact that their widows have to sell off family possessions to keep from
> starving as Russia and the other republics continue their mad rush
> toward capitalism.

This was/is no doubt true, and widely so: boots and samovars going for
bread and fish, etc.  Far worse is what _supposedly_ has happened in the
midst of this pauperization: young German tourists, really mere punk kids,
buying the combat medals hawked by WW2 vets standing on their arthritic
legs in Moscow flea markets -- and then provocatively wearing them as they
depart for home.  Such tales grow and multiply with the telling, like those
of Vietnam vets being spat upon by anti-war students, until they are fine
politicians' tools rather than statistically marginal corings of history.
Expect to hear them _ad nauseam_ if Russia tumbles into the hands of
revanchist nationalists.
                                                                     valis


   "The contempt of the Europeans served only as a continuous goad
    which strengthened my loyalty to the spirit of my people
    and promoted my understanding of it."
                                            -- Dostoyevsky