EppsNet Archive: Soviet Union

People I Thought Were Dead

 

Mario Andretti, auto racer Leslie Caron, actress Mitzi Gaynor, actress/singer/dancer Marla Gibbs, actress Bobby Goldsboro, singer Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the USSR Howard Hesseman, actor Sally Kellerman, actress Peter Lupus, actor Gavin MacLeod, actor Robert MacNeil, TV journalist Jackie Mason, comedian Lee Meriweather, actress, former Miss America George Mitchell, U.S. Senator Jaye P. Morgan, singer/game show panelist Bill Moyers, journalist Charley Pride, singer Dean Stockwell, actor Fred Williamson, athlete/actor Updates Mikhail Gorbachev, died 8/30/2022, age 91 Howard Hesseman, died 1/29/2022, age 81 Sally Kellerman, died 2/24/2022, age 84 Gavin MacLeod, died 5/29/2021, age 90 Jackie Mason, died 7/24/2021, age 93 Charley Pride, died 12/12/2020, age 86 Robert MacNeil, died 4/12/2024, age 93 Dean Stockwell, died 11/7/2021, age 85 Read more →

A Joke About Inequality

 

Igor and Boris are dirt-poor peasants in the Soviet Union (it’s an old joke), barely scratching enough crops from their small plots of land to feed their families. The only difference between them is that Boris owns a scrawny goat. One day a genie appears to Igor and grants him a wish. Igor says, “I wish that Boris’s goat should die.” Read more →

More People I’m Sick Unto Death Of: Angela Davis

 

I still believe that capitalism is the most dangerous kind of future we can imagine. — Angela Davis Alternatives to capitalism have resulted in shortages, famine, mass murder and societal collapse (cf., Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea, Cuba, Libya, Venezuela … I could go on and on but I think we both get the point). Can anyone list a few capitalist countries where this has occurred? If not, what does the word “dangerous” mean in this context? Angela Davis is now 70 years old. Can anyone list a few well-known Angela Davis-style radicals who lived a long life in any of the aforementioned countries? Read more →

Everyone Was Equal

 

Sorry, but I’m from a place where everything was “shared equally” and it wasn’t as nice as some of you seem to think it would be. — Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 20, 2013 Or as fellow grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi wrote in his autobiography: “The Soviets were very successful: everyone was equal — equally poor.” Read more →