I guess I should start off with a disclaimer – I am not Russian, not in any way affiliated with the Kremlin, don’t personally know anyone there, and am not involved in Russian policymaking in any capacity. I likewise do not receive any remuneration or consideration for using the title, “the Kremlin Stooge”, and chose it only to annoy and exercise Russophobes. It was inspired by one of the many insulting rejoinders I received as a commenter on the blog La Russophobe. My personal favourite is “Soviet Goon Boy”, awarded by a particularly unlettered and thickheaded Ukrainian nationalist currently living in Australia, named Bohdan – but it didn’t seem to have the same refreshing hyperbole when used as a blog title.
Well, then. I chose to start this blog after being banned from commenting on La Russophobe under two subsequent identities, after which it just wasn’t worth inventing a new one. I encourage you to check out La Russophobe, because if you’re not familiar with the completely unbridled nuttiness, out-of-control egotism and tunnel vision of the author, I wouldn’t be able to accurately describe it to you. Therefore, this blog is dedicated to exposing and refuting the nonsense offered by the crackpot who calls herself La Russophobe, as well as the supporting nonsense of her dozen or so followers. In fact, it is here she has enjoyed her greatest success – inspiring the creation of blogs which disagree with her (this one makes at least three).
My name is Mark Chapman, I am a born-and-bred Canadian, and my positive interest in Russia springs from my relationship with Russians I like and admire, met mostly through my Russian wife. Far from the uncultured, uneducated, slovenly and savage rabble portrayed by La Russophobe, I find Russia a fascinating country with a rich history, a proud and intelligent people and a government which is making steady progress in the best interests of its people despite a torrent of derision and rudeness from some Western sources.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
Note: In the case of some of the posts on this blog, I have written only the lead-in; the first couple of paragraphs, and the meat of the post itself was written by another author. To this point (October 2011) the only guest poster is kovane, who is a Russian living in Moscow; as such, he offers a valuable national viewpoint, and he has written some of the posts that drew the best response. Posts by kovane are identified as such in the lead-in.
My, some people will stop at nothing to suck up to Obama and the Russians! Disgraceful.
Apparently the goose quill pen used isn’t available today for forensic analysis to settle this, and might not be able to settle it anyway.
I never heard of anyone named “Hubber” and you can see many references in Google to the idea that the pen came from Jefferson’s farm.
I think I’ll trust common sense and logic, not only anecdotes, that indicates that Americans would use pens made from sources closest to home.
Of course it’s reasonable to assume the pens came from Jefferson’s farm or some other nearby farm.
Nobody *did* come up with the googse-quill shill as a political stunt before, no.
If there is some record in this “Russian American Library” so what? You might have been honest enough to admit that this library is a Russian government body:
*The Russian Cultural Centre is an agency of the Russian government and the official home of
Russian culture in the United States.*
I didn’t realize Russian culture in the U.S. needed an official home, but there it is. Clearly, it’s a propaganda arm of the Kremlin, judging from the site, and not merely one more source of anecdotes like somebody’s blog. Shame on you.
Judging from the benefactors of this library, which include the current American ambassador and Lockheed (!), which benefits from hugely profitable deals with Russia and benefited from the reset in particular, again, so what if *they* make this claim? It’s not a source and it’s not sound. It comes from the same place as Obama’s speech writer — a place that desires to suck up to Obama and suck up to the Russians at any cost.
In their propagandistic website, this outfit says they are “researching” the question of the goose quill pen. At least they don’t view it as a done deal — but it’s a provocation nonetheless.
So what if there were 1,320 commercial voyages?! There isn’t any evidence *you* have cited that Americans “tended to use turkey features” which were “inferior” and were somehow “unable” to make goose quill pens. Sounds like a total bridge too far to me that is reached for deliberately for the most smarmiest and suspect of reasons.
My, those Russian traders sound ambitious and prosperous! Just think of what they might have accomplished had the Communists not massacred them in large numbers, forced them to flee, or collectivized them, and crippled free enterprise for decades. That’s what cultural centers should be researching.
Catherine,
Are you not a propaganda arm for Soros, yourself?
“In 1994 Soros crowed in “The New Republic ” that “the former Soviet Empire is now called the Soros Empire.” The Russia-gate scandal in 1999, which almost collapsed the Russian economy, was labeled by Rep. Jim Leach, then head of the House Banking Committee, to be “one of the greatest social robberies in human history.” The “Soros Empire”"
http://tinyurl.com/29m7lds
Dear Catherine; thanks for taking this special time to tell me about your feelings. I wouldn’t have considered anything I said to be “sucking up” to Obama or the Russians, since Obama can’t do anything for me, and the only Russian who can do anything for me is married to me. Still, I suppose sucking up is in the eye of the beholder.
Were you familiar with the term, “anecdotal”? It means information that is not based on facts or careful study. Synonyms are “gossip” and “rumor”. So, when you say things like, “Apparently the goose quill pen used isn’t available today for forensic analysis to settle this, and might not be able to settle it anyway…I think I’ll trust common sense and logic, not only anecdotes”, you are telling me you are going to rely on anecdotal evidence, which is rumor or gossip. If there are “many references in Google” that say the quill came from Jefferson’s farm, then please cite them.
Was Jefferson unusual among his countrymen because he could identify a goose by sight? Probably not. Geese would have been imported by the first colonists, and would have been a common sight on farms of the period. That being the case, why would those colonists import goose quills by the millions? You don’t make a feather bed with quill feathers.
The reference you did cite in support of the quill being from Jefferson’s farm is called “Hub Pages”, and your information was furnished by an individual who calls herself “Bits ‘n Pieces”. The people of this community refer to themselves as “Hubbers”, as you can see from the links bar at the top of Ms. Pieces’s profile, which you might click on if you were interested in seeing what kind of research led this person to conclude the quill came from Jefferson’s farm, and which informs us,
“Born at a young age, I grew up in a world where life had its ups and downs, which isn’t a bad thing considering my father was a roller coaster mechanic. I came to hubpages because I heard that there was gold in them thar hills. But all I’ve found so far is a dribble of copper in my adsense account. Not to fear, I am tenacious when it comes to learning new things, always throwing myself into the deep end. Which would explain why as a child I almost drowned several times and couldn’t be trusted unsupervised near pools or large bodies of water.
The only other things I can think of that can describe me is I never let my morals get in the way of doing what’s right.”
Certainly sounds a Jeffersonian scholar, what?
In fact, we can determine from such documentation as the Tariff Act of 1789
http://www.enotes.com/major-acts-congress/tariff-act
that Americans in the late 1700′s did buy lots of things they could easily make for themselves – a tariff was placed on things like cloth and bar iron, both of which Americans could make for free from locally-available supply, to encourage them to do just that rather than buying them from traders, like England.
A good deal of the “evidence” regarding use and manufacture of the quill pen is anecdotal – some suggests the quill is harvested during the moult, and is never taken from the live bird, while others insist they are taken from freshly-slaughtered birds: “The writing instrument that dominated for the longest period in history (over one-thousand years) was the quill pen. Introduced around 700 A.D., the quill is a pen made from a bird feather. The strongest quills were those taken from living birds in the spring from the five outer left wing feathers. The left wing was favored because the feathers curved outward and away when used by a right-handed writer. Goose feathers were most common; swan feathers were of a premium grade being scarcer and more expensive. For making fine lines, crow feathers were the best, and then came the feathers of the eagle, owl, hawk and turkey.
Quill pens lasted for only a week before it was necessary to replace them. There were other disadvantages associated with their use, including a lengthy preparation time. The early European writing parchments made from animal skins, required much scraping and cleaning. A lead and a ruler made margins. To sharpen the quill, the writer needed a special knife (origins of the term “pen-knife”.) Beneath the writer’s high-top desk was a coal stove, used to dry the ink as fast as possible.”
All suggest the making of a decent quill pen was not as simple as yanking out a feather and cutting a slit in the tip; it might well have called for specialized knowledge, which is why there was a category of tradesmen known as penmakers, which did not count Thomas Jefferson among their number. Considering a quill only lasted about a week under normal use, and Jefferson did a prodigious amount of writing – the Declaration of Independence alone required several drafts – it stands to reason he would have a supply on hand. In fact, there is also anecdotal evidence that John Isaac Hawkins invented a copying machine for Jefferson that used two quills, and that the geese at Monticello could not keep up with Jefferson’s insatiable demand for quills. There is no mention of Monticello being a goose farm.
U.S. Consulates and Embassies, of which there are 4 in Russia, are agencies of the United States government – does that in and of itself presuppose they are “propaganda arms of Washington”?
Serendipity and the American Home form a combined American cultural centre in Vladimir.
http://www.serendipity-russia.com/engculture.htm
I’ll advise them on your behalf that the message they should be researching is what Americans might have accomplished had they not killed each other in large numbers during the Civil War (more combat deaths than any other, including Vietnam), thus crippling free enterprise for generations.
I realize this is likely a much longer answer than you expected, but you are so charmingly confused that I’m glad to do it.
Oh my, I am so going to enjoy this… Your passion is to be admired, especially when it’s for people other than your own. I’m glad I came across this. We really aren’t as bad as they make us look
Welcome, Alterismus! Your blog is impressive, and I’ll certainly be adding it; your English is flawless. Shanghai is an instructive example of your contention that “We really aren’t as bad as they make us look”. Prior to visiting Shanghai in 1998, my only previous look at China had been Tsingtao 10 years earlier. It was dirty and crowded, and the people seemed to view us either as amusing oddities or potential enemies. Shanghai was like a different country; strolling along the Bund among the colourfully-dressed, hip locals was like visiting a city in overdrive. They have to do something about that river, though. Or perhaps it’s improved. When I was there the municipal government had just recently banned houseboats, and visiting teachers from the Shanghai-American School said it was much better, but it still looked like thin butterscotch pudding. There’s a lot of river traffic all day and all night, too, so I imagine it never settles much.
Russia gets a rough deal from some people, which contributes to misunderstanding. With La Russophobe, it seems to be pathological, and definitely has nothing to do with a desire to see Russia improve.
Hey
Thanks for stopping by and glad you found it interesting. I have only just started and will be adding more onto it, it sort of takes time to figure out exactly the way you want to go about it and I’m also trying to set up a Shanghai-only hub at shangology.wordpress.com Shanghai is a truly great place to be these days, there have been a lot of changes in the past ten years or so. I am in love with the city, can’t help it.
Oh, and thank you so much for the Sublime Oblivion hint, I haven’t come across that one before, will certainly be adding that one to my Blogrolls.
Bestest,
M
Great blog title. I can only imagine that the irony will be lost on many people here on the ‘webs.
Hey, Shelley: maybe, maybe not. I didn’t think it up myself, of course, and adopting it after being called it was more defiance than anything else. Sure is fun, though.
I think its ironic you claim to support Russia yet you want it to be swamped demographically and invaded by hostile Muslims.
I’m delighted to nurture your sense of irony, regardless of the nuttiness quotient of your conclusions. Always happy to help.
hahaha im not banned!
im still here!
by the wa, are you in some way relate? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_David_Chapman
No, but I get that a lot.
Re: that picture you use of Putin in every one of your posts. I’d like you to notice what the puppy does at 0:35
He’s a fast learner, isn’t he? Just like Daddy! I got that photo from a National Post story on GAZPROM making it to most profitable company in the world (for 2010), so the wink was extremely appropriate. Did you notice the girl on the left end in the last few frames? Wow.
Hi
Is it possible to talk with you off-blog?
I’ve just started a blog on the books of Enid Blyton – http://blytonlyobvious.wordpress.com/
Pingback: Another glass of wine « Décoller
Don’t know if you’ve been notified; http://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/editorial-kremlin-stooge-the-very-bottom-of-the-fetid-russophile-barrel/
Yes, thanks; I got a pingback as soon as it was published, so I read it a couple of days ago. Music to my ears it was; to be the subject of insults from the most frenziedly russophobic of russophobes is an honour indeed. I haven’t seen your site before – I’ll check it out.
Her mindless insults and total lack of actual argument are almost as disgraceful as: https://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2007/02/08/me-so-horny-ii-annals-of-cheap-russian-prostitutes/ her going to the most disgusting and cheap, lowest levels and totally vile humour… for what?? To appease Bohdan and Mccusa?? Why sink so low?
It’s designed to draw a reaction. When I was a commenter there, sometimes the comments would go over 100 due to angry exchanges and people getting fired up. There’s a small circle-jerk of dedicated fans there who truly hate Russia and its people; you’ve already named two. You can throw in Robert as he’s a loyal fan, but no matter what the subject, he posts a stream of comments about Chechnya. Anyway, if there’s nobody to argue the interest peters out pretty quickly. But throw in one defender of Russia and the battle is joined.
She interprets lots of comments as evidence that her blog is important and relevant. No comments, no interest….no balm for her ego. She often challenges other blogs by suggesting if they have no comments to their posts, they are lame and sad and pitiful. Although she believes Paul Goble is some kind of saint, and he almost never gets any comments. Anyway, the deliberate insults are intended to draw an angry rejoinder, and she often leaves the most profane and disgusting replies posted by angry commenters as “evidence” of what savages they are, while deleting those comments that show her up for the angry, confused fool she is.
The post you linked is another attempt to draw a reaction and get some excitement going over at La Russophobe. I might do a post on it, but maybe not; it depends on what else is going on that looks interesting to write about. Attention from what I like to call “The Toilet Bowl of Russian Analysis” is certainly welcome, and the more insulting the tone the better I like it, I must confess. But I don’t know if it’s worth it to get caught up in a senseless back-and-forth, although that’s exactly the reason I started the blog. But I’ve learned a lot since then.
I saw on your site that you’re writing a book – excellent, it sounds interesting. I couldn’t comment without joining, but I wanted to suggest you might contact kovane if you are interested in some sources on Russian history; he did a great post on the USSR that still brings us a lot of hits, and although it’s too short for a book, he might share some of the reference material he used to compile it. Good luck!!!
Yeah, you’re about right. LR’s a game you can only win by not playing it, meaning, her aim is attention, and she should be deprived of it. Just reading her posts made me want to make my own anti- blog, so I went searching the web and guess who I found? Well it was AK first, a year or so ago. With every new post by her one feels she’s sinking to lower and lower planes of vileness and hostility. Anyway, thanks a lot and good luck to you! If there ever was a best-Russia blog it’s here. As for mine, it’s still ‘underground’ I wanna get the site working better and get a few posts going before I inform my friends and colleagues of the blog. When done, I’ll do a little bit of an ad-campaign. Hope you like it)
Also, I’ve tried to find kovane on wp and google, I can’t find anything. If you could gimme an internet contact, and a link to the article, I’d be very thankful,
I think probably LR is just trying to stir up a bit of traffic – after that insulting post of hers, I got a total of 7 referrals from her site, which suggests her readership is way down from what it was.
I’ll email kovane and ask him if it’s OK to give you his email address; meanwhile, his post on the USSR is here.
Thanks a lot. Really good stuff.
Hello, Mark, couldn’t find an e-mail address so here seems the most appropriate place for this. What’s your take on the eXile? They seemed slavophile (albeit rather quirkily so) in the past, but lately they’ve taken to simply channelling the State Department’s line on Putinist Tyranny — from an oh-so-”left” angle, of course. Any thoughts?
Hi, Fenian, and welcome! Your take on the eXile seems to pretty much reflect my own, at least as far as their previous material goes. They were inspirational, and I loved their lead-with-the-jaw stance. But the posts I read, which were probably before I started this blog, seemed all to be old ones and I wasn’t aware they were still even in business. Sean Guillory from “Sean’s Russia Blog” used to be a regular writer there, and I’ve read a post he authored that mercilessly dismembered Boris Nemtsov’s “White Paper” in a manner that sounded quite a bit like Anatoly from Sublime Oblivion does now. I love and respect Sean’s work, he’s a talented and frequently very amusing writer, but often lately it reflects a weariness with Russia and seldom draws parallels between Russia and its critics with the intensity it did when he wrote for The eXile. Today he seems to focus a lot on Nashi, and I (a) don’t really know very much about them and (b) disapprove generally of youth movements used as underscores to political aims; it’s too reminiscent of Hitler Jugend, and I think what repulses most people about the concept is that children are impressionable, so taking advantage of their malleability is cynical, and the worst thing you can do to a child is to teach them cruelty. They learn it soon enough from the world. Anyway, Sean and I frequently disagree, but his criticisms of Russia are usually substantiated and usually include a suggestion for how the situation could be significantly improved over the short term with little headache for anyone. It’s difficult to argue with that approach.
Let’s not be delusional – Putin is a hard man. But he’s certainly not a tyrant or a dictator, and I interpret his “macho stunts” as more an attempt by a man who isn’t particularly emotional and doesn’t make friends easily to connect on a personal level. People rave on about his iron control of “Kremlin TV”, but Novaya Gazeta and The New Times regularly call him everything but a pedophile (they’re probably saving that for the presidential elections), and he could have them shut down easily (their readership is pretty low in Russia) and nobody would care except the west. Besides, the Republicans in the country that most vocally criticizes Putin have FOX News, and it is so indistinguishable from Kremlin TV in its rabid partisanship that you could put them both in a sack and be unable to distinguish one from the other by feel.
I’ll have to take a look at The eXile now; can you suggest any articles that illustrate your point?
Hi Mark,
I am a producer with Al-Jazeera English’s new social media show, The Stream. We are doing a show Russia on Dec 13th, Tuesday, 1930 GMT, 2:30 pm EST. Our topic is of course, the elections….but the news peg is the youtube video that went viral recently where an elderly woman is figuring out how to vote, and a poll worker steps in to do it for her.
http://mashable.com/2011/12/06/russian-elections/
“After complete results of the elections were announced Monday, thousands of protesters went to the streets. Bloggers posted and tweeted the gathering places of protesters.”
We’ll be discussing the elections in detail. Please let me know if you will be available, and if you can send me a number where I can contact you, we can discuss this further.
Thanks,
Zuleqa Husain
Al Jazeera English, THE STREAM
Newseum Studio: 555 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, D.C. 20001
mobile: +1.612.251.5993
stream.aljazeera.com
Now available in Washington, D.C.
Comcast Channel 275 | Cox Channel 474 | Verizon FiOS Channel 457
Dear Ms. Husain;
I am extremely grateful for your interest, but I’m afraid that as an employee of the Federal Government, I am not permitted to publicly express personal political opinions on the affairs of foreign governments, especially where they may or may not conflict with national foreign policy. A blog is a little different; people arrive at it because they are searching for that particular subject, and I am entitled to my personal opinion – but television is a broader audience and my opinion might imply an official Canadian response, which it definitely is not. I would not be allowed to do it.
Russian electoral law makes a provision for someone else to mark your ballot for you if you are unable to do so, although a poll worker probably does not qualify; I’m not sure if poll workers are considered members of the Election Commission, or are simply volunteers. In any case, poll workers likely receive limited training, and this sounds to me like an innocent mistake that some adjustment to the training program would prevent from ever happening again. It’s unlikely to be widespread, and a “viral” response merely suggests a motivation to find fault at any opportunity. The text of the law reads,
“If a voter is unable to sign for the receipt of a ballot by himself/herself, he/she may ask other persons to help him/her, if these persons are not members of the election commission, registered candidates, authorized representatives and agents of registered candidates, authorized representatives of an electoral association, electoral bloc, initiative voters’ group which nominated a registered candidate, observers, foreign (international) observers. The person who helped the voter shall put his/her signature in the column «Voter’s Signature for Receipt of Ballot» in the voters list indicating his/her first, middle and last name, the series and number of the passport or an equivalent identity paper.
A voter who is unable to mark the ballot by himself/herself may be assisted by another voter who is not a member of the election commission, a registered candidate, an authorized representative for financial matters or an agent of a registered candidate, an authorized representative of an electoral association, electoral bloc, initiative voters’ group which nominated a registered candidate, observer, foreign (international) observer. In this case, the voter shall orally inform the election commission of his/her intention to ask for assistance in marking the ballot. The first, middle and last name, series and number of the passport or an equivalent identity paper of the person assisting the voter shall be marked in the appropriate column (columns) of the voters list.
Each voter shall vote in person. Voting for other voters shall not be allowed. ”
In short, the correct procedure for the elderly woman discussed would have been to bring another registered voter with her and announce her intent to have that individual mark her ballot, as well as completing the required documentation to record the fact.
The link is here: http://www.democracy.ru/english/library/laws/eng_2000-9/index.html
I regret that I can’t help you, and thank you again for your kind interest.
Mark
I understand. Thanks for the info. Can you recommend someone with a similar viewpoint as yours who may be able to come on our show?
I certainly can – Anatoly Karlin, of Sublime Oblivion. A Russian-American from the San Francisco Bay area, Anatoly is well-versed in both Russian and American politics, and we generally take the same position on the goals of Russia’s government and its treatment in the media. If Anatoly is unable to do it, another excellent resource is Eugene Ivanov at The Ivanov Report. Eugene is a little more western-oriented than Anatoly and I, but generally very pragmatic and fair, and a gentleman into the bargain.
I wish you luck, and the very best of success with your show.
Also, I think the point you make in your post is really not heard much in the mainstream media…. Even though you cannot come on the show, I was wondering if you can provide this point via a small video comment that you can send to us via email that we can play in the show.
Good Day, Ms. Husain;
You are free to quote anything you like from the blog, as it is in the public domain, but I cannot be associated with the comment because, as before, of Federal guidelines. Employees of the Federal government are apolitical, in that our official opinion is whatever the Federal Government’s opinion is unless we are specifically granted the authority to comment on the Government’s behalf. That applies even to national elections, never mind those of other countries. I’m sure you’re familar with that, as many sources now are reported as “a government insider who cannot be named because he does not have official authority to comment”.
It’s not because I find my position difficult to defend; I find it eminently defensible and I try to consistently quote source material that backs up my conclusions. But neither is my inability to speak censorship; I understand my own government’s position, and realize there are many considerations involved in the formulation of foreign policy, which is not my responsibility.
Anatoly, Evgeny (Eugene) and I are all friends, more or less, and familiar with each others’ work. Neither of them are restricted in their public expression of opinion on television as I am, and either would be an excellent choice.
Thanks for answering, Mark. Yes, to specifics: they’ve been sniping here and there over the past few years, but I didn’t take much notice. This was the article that really got my goat:
http://exiledonline.com/over-10000-in-moscow-protest-election-fraud-the-99-everywhere-is-sick-of-oligarchy/
Here’s a nice pair of posts from my rss-to-e-mail inbox, from yesterday
and today:
Well known British researcher Jonathan Mowat gave the Americans their due in the headlines of his work “Coup d’etat in Disguise: Washington’s “Democratization ” Template”. A provocation is to take place by the time of elections in presence of “foreign observers” and “exit polls”. Angry young people are there equipped with up to date communication devices, blogs and websites provide real time connections to make precise the way operational activities are conducted. The “swarm” may be regrouped any time and global media makes possible the internationalization of any event, no matter how insignificant it may be.
–http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2011/12/14/coup-etat-in-disguise-washington-democratization-templete.html
And what do we read the very next day in “the eXiled”?
There are a lot of reasons why Russians-young Russians, young Muscovites in particular-poured out into the streets last Saturday to protest rampant election fraud in the Duma vote. For the past couple of decades, young Muscovites couldn’t be bothered with…
–http://exiledonline.com/here-are-a-few-video-samples-that-help-answer-why-are-young-muscovites-protesting-kremlin-power/
Well, quite.
So, for my Russian news, I ignore the US State Department and its willing and unwilling proxies, and turn to:
* your good self
* Sublime Oblivion
* Strategic Culture Foundation
* Russian Military Reform
Which does me to be going on with.
I do know of Seán’s Russia blog, though I hadn’t realised he used to write for the eXile.
La Russophobe is an extraordinary blog and I almost forgot that in an imperfect universe such things also exist. Keep on publishing, I really like the Kremlin Stooge.
Mark – I just wished to leave you a note wishing you a happy 2012! Thank you for all of the encouraging words and inspiring, enjoyable comments on piecurious. I cannot claim to be very knowledgable of Russian politics or culture (although I did go through a Dostoevsky / Tolstoy / Ivanov phase), I can say that you are so well-written it puts me to shame! I love your delivery style and depth to which you engage your readers. I have a thing or two to learn from you!
All the best in 2012!
-C
Thanks, C; your kindness and warmth are much appreciated. I encourage you selfishly, I assure you, because I believe you will be something great; you have what it takes, and you have courage to burn. I wish you success and happiness in 2012 and beyond.
Interesting Site! Refreshing in Fact