Around 11pm May 8th 1945, the Fascists officially surrendered to the Allies in WWII. In the US, there are several holidays to commemorate those who have served in wars, or are still serving, but we lack any particular WWII remembrance day. Rhode Island is the only state to have a holiday commemorating Victory over Japan, due to the disproportionate number of young men sent off and lost to the pacific theater.

In the Soviet Union, more than 27 million lives were lost during WWII, and a large portion of the war was fought on their own soil. For this reason, the Russians call it the Great Patriotic War. Victory Day is celebrated, in usual Russian tradition on local time, May 9th. 23:05 May 8th Germany was around 1:05 in the morning the next day in Moscow.

This year is the first show of military might since the fall of the USSR. jets, tanks, rockets and about 8,000 soldiers marched through Red Square saluting the new inaugurated Russian President, Dimitry Medvedev. The new President didn’t say anything controversial as was expected (Or as his predecessor, Soon-to-be Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, would have done). Instead, he only vaguely hinted at Russia’s disdain for the US and US foreign policy.

As promised, here are some pictures. I didn’t get to sit in any tanks, but I wasn’t crushed under any either.

Waiting for the parade

First came the aerial display, kinda short actually. There were about 6 flybys.
Helicopters:

Planes:

Jets:

A Radar, tracking vehicle of some sort:

This tank had a really big gun!

More tanks:

Everyone cheered when they saw the ICBMs roll by. Apparently not only capable of hitting any target in the world, but also launching payloads into space.

ICBM Launch [via http://englishrussia.com/]

Me with Tanks!

Finally, on our walk around afterwards there were some Communists setup pitifully looking for attention. Mostly it was older women with hand written signs asking not to be forgotten, and touting the triumphs of the USSR.

Now that Russia has secured the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, the rush to make the city more expensive has begun. Sochi is currently a very popular domestic vacation spot for Russians.As the Olympics come closer, more foreigners will come and the prices will inevitably rise. How would you cash in on this 7 year out bounty?

Build an island that looks like Russia! I would have also accepted: Build a ski resort in a city that is guaranteed snow every winter or build a gaudy skyscraper in St. Petersburg to flaunt your countries gas wealth.

Blantantly ripping off The World artificial island chain that is being built in Dubai, Sochi hopes to create some high priced luxury real estate to rob foreigners blind. Not atypical for Russian businessmen. My prediction is that by 2014 the island will exist, but it will be uninhabitable mounds with temporary structures erected on non-landscaped dirt selling 500% mark up on the same souvenirs that can be bought in Sochi proper.

Starting my 11 day trip to Krasnodar, I found myself in the upstairs waiting room at the Vladimir Train Station. When I found out there was a waiting room, I was looking foward to just sitting in a corner not having to deal with anyone. Unfortunately, the waiting room was built in the soviet era. I laughed to my self when I first came up the stairs and saw the ‘waiting room.’ I could see hundreds of people sitting and facing the TV that bombards them with Propaganda 24/7 before travelling.

On the 30 hour train ride I sat near a high school chess team on their way to a tournament in Sochi. We didn’t play any chess because they thought I was a master chess player after finding and suggesting a checkmate in 4 while they were practicing. I felt pretty cool, and I wasn’t going to tell them I sucked. Here is a photo of the train at night, its them sleeping because I couldn’t use my flash and my other photos are too dark.
I spent most of my time in Krasnodar either at home or at the Kuban State University. I was offered a job paying about 250$ a month teaching English when I’m done travelling abroad. I walked around a lot and played with Valeria, the niece of my friend I was visiting.

More photos of the beautifully redone main street and fountain in Krasnodar.

To Mars! Yes, Russia and China have decided to send a few spacecraft to Mars and one of its moons, Phobos. It’s the first step for them to get people to Mars. More and more I doubt we (USA) will get there first with setbacks like our shuttles and cutbacks like Bush has made.

In 2003 Russia declared plans to build a nuclear power station on Mars, you know, to give power to all the Russians that will be living there in 2030. I want to get a nice crater front property when they start selling, so I guess it’s a good thing I’m in Russia now!

This holiday is about as international as the World Series is worldly.  IWD is celebrated almost exclusively within the former soviet bloc.  Its the one day of the year you can find Russians walking down the street smiling to each other.  This may or may not be because the vast majority are drunk.

Common gifts for Women’s Day are flowers, jewelery and chocolate.  Not entirely dissimilar to our Valentine’s Day.  The major difference is the complete focus on women.  I mentioned Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland, a sorry excuse to give men some holiday to match wherein the gifts are ‘congrats’ a pat on the back.  I haven’t much else news wise about the holiday, so here is an interesting link.  Siberian researchers have found that whipping people makes them happier.

Thanks to the wonders of social networking, I’ve found an archive of old soviet posters. As you would expect, most of them are about how wonderful working and living in the socialist republic is and how horrible the Americans are. In fact, I was surprised at how evil they made us seem. From an American point of view, they were the evil ones!

While the dream of a working socialist system hasn’t completely died in my heart. I am a lot more pragmatic when it comes to soviet whimsy. I’ve picked out some of my favorites and translated them for you, but the big versions and many more pictures can be found here.

If you have any you’d like translated. feel free to comment.

We are sowing life
Two Worlds – Two Plans
They sow death!

American Freedom
(ccw from top left)
Freedom of the Press
Freedom of expression
Freedom to gather
Freedom from lynching?

Work so that Comrade Stalin will say thanks!

Gossip – Helps the Enemy!

The more I write here, the more I want to write here. It’s a good escape from the drudgery of my daily work. It’s also a challenge, can I find something new and interesting enough to post about every day? Can I find something good yet hold off on posting it until tomorrow? How long can I keep posting daily and have no one comment? These are all great questions, but not having the answers just makes me want to try harder.

The teachers here only have 2 days to work this week before we are on the second 1/2 of our spring break. Hopefully I’ll find a job over this one. At the very least, I want to get something content oriented for Gateway Games. If you’d like me to write about something, please let me know. Who knows when I’ll run out of ideas or be unable to find some qwerky news about Russia to entertain the masses.

I’m not really sure in which direction I should take this blog. I could do what everyone else does and make it a personal blog, but besides acting like a diary, I ‘m not sure people will come back. I could post news that I find here, but I don’t want to be one of the thousand blogs that post and repost each others’ news to oblivion. Speaking of which, soon I’ll have a post tracking tech blogs and how they don’t actually have much unique information, and its quite a headache to sort out duplicates of news articles from different sources. Until then, enjoy the (double) daily goodness.

I haven’t actually gone to the theatre recently.  But I did find some interesting news about them.  Alexandrinsky theater in St. Petersburg, Russia’s oldest theatre, has installed a cellphone network block device.  No phone will get reception inside, stopping russians from answering their phones during a performance.  Who would do that?  Well, its not very common in the US, and most people leave the theatre before answering.  In Russia, on the other hand, people aren’t against having a 20 minute conversation in the seat during the performance.  This goes for movie theaters too.  Not to mention classrooms…

Speaking of theaters, Russia has quite a novel way to sell tickets.  Assigned seating.  This makes for graduated pricing and lets you arrive late and still have the exact seat you purchased waiting for you.  Movie theaters in the US could learn something from the Russians.  Would you go to the movies more often if you could get cheap 2$ tickets up front, or 3$ tickets against the wall?  I know I stopped going when prices topped 7$ a movie.

[Reuters]

Later this month Russia and North Korea will be meeting to discuss the repayment of Korean debts to Russia.  This amounts to several billion dollars, and I can see why Russia might want their money back.  It also makes me ask a question about sovereign states and debt.

If you spend more money than you have, you accrue debt.  Its a simple system.  Banks give you money and charge interest for it until you give it all back.  This is how most Americans live, and how almost all Americans who’ve gone to college start out their life.  I’ve taken many classes on economics and they all explain that when you die, most of your debts go on to your children (or are paid by insurance).  Thus guaranteeing monetary flow and supporting the economy.  But my question is what happens at the international level?

Take the US for example.   Our external debts are somewhere in the 10 trillion dollar range (10,000,000,000,000).  I also found some articles about a default in repayment by the USA would cause a world economic crisis.  I’m not so sure I can believe it.  Sovereign countries aren’t entities that often die.  When one does cease to be, often all debts are forgiven because whoever takes their place doesn’t count as next of kin.  But I think we could see an example of ‘collecting dues’ on a country wide scale with North Korea.  If the North Korean state collapses, no one will get their money back.  No one will really care economically either.  Yes, N. Korea isn’t very big and is isolated from the world, but an entire country should have some impact on the international debt system.

I didn’t do much research but I found a link on international debt, and found it boring.  If you find something contradictory there please comment about it here.  I’d also like to know how terribly the US treasury website is laid out.  Lots of information can be found there, but not to someone without a strong background in economics and economic terms.

Economics is like “Who’s line is it anyway?”  Its a game where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.  Btw, why do people think green paper will make them happy?

Sure, it looks the same as our pool, or billiards if you will, but its played entirely differently. Most of the skill set involved in American pool revolves around strategically placing your balls in front of the pockets so your opponent can’t get his in. In Russian billiards, all that is thrown out the window. Anyone can hit any ball into any pocket at anytime. There is no ‘cue’ ball except for breaking, one ball is red. The numbered balls only are numbered as a courtesy for you to talk about hitting them. The rule is simple. The first person to sink 8 balls is the winner.

If only it were that easy. If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see something off about the dimensions. The balls are significantly larger (as is the table) and the holes are significantly smaller. In fact, they are less than half a centimeter wider than the balls.

If you goof your shot and leave a ball almost in a pocket, on your opponents turn he will sink it. Russian billiards is a game of attrition, whoever doesn’t screw up first, wins. Maybe it reflects Russian culture a bit?

When I get back to the US, I will find a proper Russian pool table and show all of you what a difficult game it is.

BTW, You should check out my shiny redone resume at the top of the page. Now in PDF format. I’m applying for jobs now, so feedback would be great! Just leave a comment here or e-mail me. You know where. (hint, see ‘contact’)

[Wikipedia article]