I had no idea until I read this in Hugh Barnes’s Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg:
“Until the end of the eighteenth century, even houses of wealthy Russians were barely distinguishable from peasant huts.”
Who knew? (File under Humor, Sarcasm.) More on Gannibal and Gannibal.
It was the failure of the fathers that brought communism to this country. An absolute disaster.
“There, men kill not only men, but their country, without even suspecting what they are doing. Some imagine that they are accomplishing a great work and believe that they are saving humanity. Others think of nothing and simply adapt to the new conditions of existence, taking into account only their daily interests. What will happen tomorrow? For the latter, the question leaves them indifferent. They do not believe in tomorrow, just as they do not remember what was yesterday. People of this kind form in Russia, as everywhere, the overwhelming majority. And, strange as it may seem at first, it is these men, the men of the day to day, entirely absorbed in their petty interests, who create history. It is in their hands that lies the future of Russia, the future of humanity, the future of the world.”
Leon Chestov – What is Bolshevism?
Translation: Google Translate