From: mkagalen@lynx.dac.northeastern.edu (michael kagalenko)
Subject: Re: Stereotypes of Soviet Peoples
Organization: Northeastern University, Boston, MA. 02115, USA
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 02:57:53 GMT



>> However, I cannot imagine open border of islamic Chechnya with democratic 
>> Russia (of western type, as I hope) even if everything goes to its best.
>
>I think there's some confusion here. If you mean an Iranian type
>government by Islamic it's one case; if you mean people wanting to
>go to the mosque to pray as Christians go to churches and Jews
>go to synagagues, I don't see any problems.
>
>I personally don't see the slightest possibility of any of
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>the peoples of Russia, after 70 years of official atheism, to
>start up any fundamentalist-religious states.

You don't see it ? Hell, you're flooding the net by the articles about 
situation in the former USSR - and you don't know simpliest & basic 
things ! Communistic indoctrination was performed in the same manner as 
(worst kind of) religious. Comunist fanatics borrowed a lot from their 
religious counterparts. (Ditto for "communists" of the last days of the
USSR. One could have had a great fun watching communist bosses greeting 
Patriarch of the Russia during his vouages)  


> What probably
>passes for religion is not much more than resistance to the
>dominant ideology. 

What really passes for religion is conformism to dominant ideology. 

>Scharansky was not (as far as my readings
>lead me to believe) a religious Jew. His resistance was more
>against the state; for his ethnic identification and his desire
>to go to Israel and live among his 'people'. 
May be. It's irrelevant, however. Today's fighters for independence have
very little (if any) in common with democratic movement of 70s.



>
>> Yes, and I began the discussion with "asiatic" life order, not with islamic 
>> religion. Maybe it is only pure historic coincidence, that Islam is mostly 
>> in Asia (and Africa). So, calling Chchnya "islamic" makes it implicitly 
>> asian, and for Russia I always have to add word "democratic".
>
>I don't know where Asia starts and it doesn't make much difference.
>There's no law that says Asia must be undemocratic and there's
>no law that says democracy is a hegemony of Europe.  

Gee, how I haven't noticed immiduately, that this guy is from PC (inc.) team !
Now many things've become clerear, especially seeking support from the
audience & total ignorance of the facts. "There is no law that
(statement) is true" is their favourite way of arguing with (statement).

>
>> Democratic Russia will not conduct a war, so the decision will be made by 
>> Chechens (it has been made already). Totalitarian Russia will, and Chechens 
>> will lose, but it is not even interesting (for me, it is frightening) to 
>> discuss such opportunity.  
>
>Most reasonable people oppose war and suffering. The Chechens are
>only an example. I started this posting thread because I got upset
>at the obscene racism of some of the posters. All anyone has to
>do is to replace the word Chechen with 'black', 'hispanic',
>'Jew' or 'American Indian' to see what it boils down to.
>
>It was only about 50 years ago that some nitwits thought that
>the world (and specifically some specific Europeans) would have
>been better off, if certain peoples in Europe could be did not
>exist.

Do you mean those guys (with the words SS on the uniform)  who're now in
a big honor in independent baltic states ? Furthemore, can you
post the ratio   (number of "sovoks" killed in the fight with "specific 
Europians")/(number of soldiers from the rest of the world (incl. USA) killed
 during the fight with said "Europians") ? If you can't, I can help you.


> A few centuries ago, some others thought that they'd
>be better off, if the 'savage' Indians could be taken care of.
>For a few centuries, some people thought that blacks were of
>'low intellectual caliber' and fit only to be slaves. 

Thanks god, now these people are no more in power, and American 
Indians & Blacks are enjoing independence (including the government & 
military forces of their own). Mafia sructures formed by them control
large part of biggest USA banks ;They're also sending to the Capitol Hills 
threats of terroristic actions against white opressors in many cases, 
including insufficient pumping of oil from America. Note : I just followed your
suggestion to substitute "Chechens" by the "Blacks & American Indians" 
and Russia by USA.


Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet