Copperfox
Well-known member
Another Russian folktale, this one alleging to report actual facts about a historical personage, may give a hint as to why there are a lot more Russian women wanting to marry American men, than American women wanting to marry Russian men.
Stepin Razin (pronounced RAH-zin; he was not a dried grape) was a famous Cossack bandit leader, who did much of his travelling and raiding by river. The story is that Razin married a young woman, and brought his new bride on board a large boat bound for his headquarters on a river island. As the Cossacks rowed the boat, some of them were muttering and complaining that having a bride was going to make their leader less enthusiastic about drinking and plundering with them. So, to mollify his precious thugs, Razin picked up his bride and threw her into the water to drown, just like that, proving that he knew "what really counted."
But never fear, the Russian culture does not ONLY treat women with brutality; men can be oppressed and murdered also! For many generations, the Russian armed forces have had a charming custom called "DEDOVSHCHINA," which can be translated as "The Grandfather System." This means that, as new recruits arrive at military units, every man senior in service to them--even if not higher in literal rank--is allowed to bully, enslave, and even assault them. Nothing inflicted on "plebes" in American service academies comes within a thousand miles of "DEDOVSHCHINA."
Such human-rights activists as have managed to remain unimprisoned in Putin's Russia have had their hands full trying to document all the cases in which longer-in-service enlisted men, sergeants, and even officers have _murdered_ young recruits, essentially for the fun of it, and have then tried to make it look like suicide. "Private Yablonsky struck himself ten times from behind with a steel pipe, broke both of his own legs, tied his own hands behind his back, and then hanged himself. A clear case of suicide. Alas, how did we fail to notice his suicidal tendencies?"
And Russian military commissars profess to wonder why some young men aren't eager to serve the Motherland.
Stepin Razin (pronounced RAH-zin; he was not a dried grape) was a famous Cossack bandit leader, who did much of his travelling and raiding by river. The story is that Razin married a young woman, and brought his new bride on board a large boat bound for his headquarters on a river island. As the Cossacks rowed the boat, some of them were muttering and complaining that having a bride was going to make their leader less enthusiastic about drinking and plundering with them. So, to mollify his precious thugs, Razin picked up his bride and threw her into the water to drown, just like that, proving that he knew "what really counted."
But never fear, the Russian culture does not ONLY treat women with brutality; men can be oppressed and murdered also! For many generations, the Russian armed forces have had a charming custom called "DEDOVSHCHINA," which can be translated as "The Grandfather System." This means that, as new recruits arrive at military units, every man senior in service to them--even if not higher in literal rank--is allowed to bully, enslave, and even assault them. Nothing inflicted on "plebes" in American service academies comes within a thousand miles of "DEDOVSHCHINA."
Such human-rights activists as have managed to remain unimprisoned in Putin's Russia have had their hands full trying to document all the cases in which longer-in-service enlisted men, sergeants, and even officers have _murdered_ young recruits, essentially for the fun of it, and have then tried to make it look like suicide. "Private Yablonsky struck himself ten times from behind with a steel pipe, broke both of his own legs, tied his own hands behind his back, and then hanged himself. A clear case of suicide. Alas, how did we fail to notice his suicidal tendencies?"
And Russian military commissars profess to wonder why some young men aren't eager to serve the Motherland.