The caption to this great poster says: “Soviet Union is a diagnosis.” I couldn’t agree more. It isn’t a country that fell apart years ago. It’s a state of mind, a way of being that is not bound by history and geography. Its symptoms are: a cult of mediocrity and a hatred of everything and everybody that stands out from the crowd, an intense materialism, a dislike of everything intellectual, a corruption that is so wide-spread that it penetrates into every aspect of existence, cynicism, and indifference.
I found this poster here.
Clarissa's Blog 
Maybe I’m a horrible person, but seeing that image, and comparing it mentally with a map of Russia now, I got the Arrogant Worms’ song, “Canada’s Really Big” stuck in my head, specifically:
But we can still stand proudly because Canada’s really big
We’re the second largest country on this planet Earth
And if Russia keeps on shrinking, then soon we’ll be first!
(as long as we keep Quebec)
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It’s funny, yes! But I find that state of mind exists, too, in places having very little to do with the USSR…
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That’s my point exactly. 🙂 And I’m glad I managed to get it across without too much wordiness.
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While “chorny krest” sounds like the name of an anarchist group (Black Cross), the comment stream seems fascistic and antisemitic, with avatars proclaiming “Hitler was Right” and one comment advancing what looks like some kind of Masonic/Israeli conspiracy theory. And what the heck is that symbol in exize’s avatar supposed to represent? The whole scene looks very creepy.
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I only followed the link to that site because I wanted to copy their poster. Far be it from me to engage in anything with those people. the poster is good but the Russian-speaking blogs are teeming with extremely creepy people. Fascism and racism are on the rise in Russia. This is why I read almost no blogs in my own language.
I’m sorry I exposed my readers to a horrible blog. I just felt bad about not attributing the poster to its source. I should have known better.
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I associate USSR with mediocre olympic medalists in weightlifting, gymnastics, the mediocre top 10 chess players of the world, mediocre Fields medalists, mediocre physcists…
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That a few miserable people were bullied into competing in a sport is only these folks’ tragedy, nothing else.
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By the way, even the black cross itself (I mean the image on your poster) is the one used by the Germans in WWII. (Those from WWI or from modern Bundeswehr are somewhat different) But maybe only history buffs know it these days…
And while I do not have much sympathy for USSR and associated mentality (which does indeed exist), I do not think its negatives are unique. Iranian society, for example, seems pretty Soviet-like. You can also find some parallels with Chinese. And anti-intellectualism is pretty wide-spread in the US. It also seems that many of the so-called “political technologies” which are used to brainwash people of Russia were borrowed from the US. Content was changed somewhat, of course…
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That’s exactly what I’m trying to say here.
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