87 Replies to “Happy Lenin’s Birthday”

  1. First I’ve heard of the connection between Lenin’s birthday and earth day. In 1970 I was a very active environmentalist and was busy handing out environmental literature in Calgary that day. At that time we were concerned about another ice age starting if something wasn’t done about pollution. The changes that have happened since then are huge and, in my opinion, have gone beyond what is reasonable in terms of statist intervention for “environmental” reasons. All of the environmental problems that we were concerned about in 1970 have been corrected. Even back then I was convinced that nuclear power was the way to go to reduce soot emissions which were going to cause another ice age. The fission power would be a temporary step until fusion power came on line. Needless to say it wasn’t long before I had a falling out with non-technophile environmentalists.
    This year I won’t have anything to do with earth day (and haven’t for decades now). Based on the politics of the greens, they should be celebrating earth day on 20-April given that their views are quite homologous to the National Socialist environmental agenda. We know the end result of that particular experiment.
    The most notable anniversary to celebrate that I marked this year was bicycle day on 19-April by rereading portions of The botany and chemistry of hallucinogens of which Albert Hofmann was one of the authors.

  2. The most notable anniversary to celebrate that I marked this year was bicycle day on 19-April by rereading portions of The botany and chemistry of hallucinogens of which Albert Hofmann was one of the authors.
    Thanks! That explains a few things.

  4. Excellent shot of Magnitogors’k!
    Built by slave labour during Stalin’s First Five-Year Plan, the steel mills continue to endanger human health to this day!
    Photo shot by National Geographic for their August 1993 story on Russia’s painful transition period, which also included stories on Ukraine and Kazakhstan (which was NOT written by “zhurnalist” Borat BTW).

  5. OT but related. another CTV.ca poll gone horribly wrong.
    With Earth Day upon us, what are you thoughts on global warming?
    Optimistic, we can stop it 29%
    Pessimistic, we’re too far gone 29%
    I don’t believe in it 42%
    Now to be fair, the poll does show that 58% believe in global warming. Of course most of them also believe that if the Canadians who drive SUV’s would switch to a more fuel efficient vehicle and if only Canada would abide by the Kyoto accord the world would be safe.

  8. This IS a celebration comerades of worker’s republic-come-fedration-of-corporate-soviet-states !!
    Today Chernobyl has only 10 half lives (24000 years) from full recovery and big welcome back to mother Russia, and the good news is what may be a shorter time with radioactivity has now reached ground water and this will hasten recovery for next great potato production.
    Mean while mother Russia has gift of coal for heat home of worker hero and making electric. For this we thank 1600 worker martyrs who die in cola mine each year so other hero workers getting coal.
    If we believed in God, he would surly bless our worker’s paradise.

  9. Hamilton does look like Lenin’s country.
    Weird eh?
    Hamiltonians vote for Lenin’s party too.

  10. It’s not earth day here in southern Alberta, we can’t see the earth because of the 2 feet of snow covering it, thanks to global warming. I’m very afraid and will now go pray to the wind god to melt this snow, then I might go name those coyotes that eat my calves, Suzuki and Gore.

  12. What is wrong with you people?
    Those are smoke signals of peace in socialist paradise, ideologically developed by dictatorship of proletariat, led by communist comrades.

  16. Hmm, Leon Trotsky may not be such an enthusiastic well wisher on Lenin’s birthday.
    Like some Taliban enthusiasts, watch out for the NKVD wielding a pick axe!!
    Cheers
    Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht BGS, PDP, CFP
    Commander in Chief
    Frankenstein Battalion
    2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
    Knecht Rupprecht Division
    Hans Corps
    1st Saint Nicolaas Army
    Army Group “True North”

  18. That photo reminds me of the winter I worked in the smelter at Thompson, Man.
    “Hamilton on a good day. On a bad day you can’t see that far.”
    I did see smoke like this in Hamilton – during the 2003 Road Cycling World Championship. It was at the end of the men’s time trial when I was returning to the car. I even snapped a photo of it.

  20. Did you know that during WW1, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia’s troops were sent into battle against the Germans with 6 bullets per day each? Did you know there were standing orders to the Officers to shoot any of their own retreating Soldiers?
    Did you know that just prior to entering the War against Germany, the Tsar had been engaged in the disastrous Russo Japanese war of 1904/05 from which the Russian military had yet to recover? Did you also know that Nicholas and the Kaiser of Germany were cousins? Nothing like a little scrap amongst inbreds.
    Did you also know that the Tsar’s wife had great influence on him and Rasputin, affectionately known as the “Mad Monk” had great influence over her?
    Did you also know that while Nicholas was sending Russian troops into battle with 6 bullets each, the economy was crumbling and massive amounts of people were on the brink of starvation? He was also one of the richest men on earth. By averaging, he is still considered today as the third richest person who ever lived.
    Nicholas was considered a White Russian. A capitalist.
    But you already knew all that. I can’t imagine why anyone would revolt against that. Can you?
    Hugger

  21. How about a better story from 1917?
    The miracle of Fatima told us to pray for the Russian people.
    Some of us still are.

  22. Yep, Stalin was definitely better choice compared to the Tsar. That revolution sure was a great success for the Russian people. The went from bad to worse. I wonder what would have happened if after overthrowing the Tsar they had chose capitalism and democracy.

  23. I had a look at those pics – and being left-handed, was stopped in my tracks by the kids missing a forelimb. All of them are missing their left side!
    To update Butterfield, “Pollution Increases: Poor, Minorities, and Left-handed Hardest Hit”
    What are you rich right-handed bastards of the West going to do about the plight of my people?? We can barely operate can-openers, for chrissake!

  24. “Nicholas was considered a White Russian. A capitalist.”
    Greg, did you know that TSAR Nicholas, was in fact a monarchist, King of one of the least industrialized powers to enter WW1, King of a country that had barely crawled out of the feudal ages?
    Did you also know that mother Russia is no longer communist? Apparently communism failed miserably – Who’da guessed!

  25. Here in Edmonton they held the ‘celebration’ last Sunday because, I suppose, it fell on the weekend. It also happened to be Adolph Hitler’s birthday, which i though was rather comical. The faithful were forced to gather and bemoan global warming in the only heated pavilion on the site because of the minus 11 C temperature outside.
    They don’t really need to dress as clowns for events such as this.

  26. Did you also know that mother Russia is no longer communist? Apparently communism failed miserably – Who’da guessed!
    And Socialists eingthe mentally ill dolts that they are still think it’ll work and are trying to shove it sown the West’s neck now….

  27. As a post script; I remember the prayers for Russia at the end of the mass years ago. I didn’t know it was connected with Fatima, and I don’t know if they still say them these days (not having attended mass fo decades) but I was surprised to discover that the prayers were not being said for the people of Russia suffering under communism, but rather for the ‘conversion’ of Russia from the Orthodox form of Christianity to Catholicism.

  28. Never mind Greg, he’s a product of western education. He can’t help being ignorant and stupid. The comrads in the system produced him that way.

  29. if after overthrowing the Tsar they had chose capitalism and democracy.
    Posted by: lynnh at April 22, 2008 11:53 AM
    How would you assess the system they have now? What words would you use? Capitalism, communism, socialism, social democracy, autocratic, totalitarian?
    Hugger

  30. You guys, that “smoke” you see in Hamilton? That’s STEAM. From quenching. Dofasco downtown runs one of the cleanest steel mills in the entire world. There isn’t any smoke. None.
    I’m pretty sure Stelco doesn’t even make steel in Hamilton anymore, they just have rolling mills. All the steel gets made out on Lake Erie. Again, zero smoke. The Hydro One coal plant in Nanticoke puts out a hell of a lot more/worse poo than Stelco.
    Which is what makes me laugh when the greenies around here start whinging about “heavy industry”. Their beloved Liberals are running one of the dirtiest coal-fired generators in Canada. Why? Because Liberals don’t actually care a tinker’s damn about the environment, they just talk about it a lot to keep the Morontonians happy.
    If they cared, they’d have shut that wheezy thing and fixed Bruce and Darlington and Pickering nuke stations.

  31. Warwick at April 22, 2008 12:47 PM
    Whoa! The sheer weight of the intellectual ability that conceived this mighty thought has convinced me.
    Thank you Dr.Gobbles.
    Don’t forget to take your bow before the minions. Altogether now, group headbob.
    Hugger

  32. Russia is in transition. The choices they make today will decide their tomorrow.
    I do not keep up to date with Russian politics but they seem to be going two steps forward and one step back in both the free market economy and individual freedom.
    They need to learn from the past to see what failed. Then took at which of the world’s political systems work the best. Next move steadily towards these successful models. It might be US capitalism or European socialism. Either is superior to the failed path of communism.

  33. Hey Hugger as long as you’re telling tales why not complete the tale of the Russian revolution.
    Did you know that Stallin and the Bolsheviks pressed rural farm laborers into sevice as revolutionary soldiers under threat to their families?
    Did you know that the majority of the russian people did not support a bolshevik solution to maonarchy?
    Did you know that the bolsheviks were financed by the richest bankers in London Newyork and Paris?
    last of all, do you know where all this wealth the Romanovs had in tangible assets went after the revolution?? It certainly didn’t get to the people because Bolshevik leaders were out negotiating loans with western Bankers to stave off post revolution famine.
    Just where did the Romanov fortune end up?
    Hint: You see the odd bit of Romanov art or jewelry show up at a London or Paris auction house from time to time…usually the seller of the piece is listed as “private”. Same as the sources which claimed their asset accounts in foreign banks and brokerages.

  34. Greg: Back to history class my boy … the Czar was not a capitalist, by any definition. He was a monarchist … king … sovereign.
    As to what Mother Russia is today … she is in flux, somewhere between democracy – and totalitarianism. She is still digging out from her destructive history, which included the Czar followed by the most destructive murderous construct that humans have ever conceived … communism.

  35. Greg….any idea how many people the Bolsheviks killed? Any idea how many ordinary people were displaced by this “glorious revolution” and had their land and assets taken away? You are clearly and profoundly ignorant. Take it from the descendant of a Volga German.

  37. Greg,
    Did you read your own post? It contained so many stupid comments that it could only come from the teaching of a university professor.
    What was it? Sociology?
    As for 6 bullets a day in WWI, I guess it worked so well that Stalin decided to expand on the program and sent one old WWI rifle for every 2 soldiers in WWII. He too, shot retreating soldiers. Neither the Tsar nor Stalin were capitalists.
    “Nicholas was considered a White Russian. A capitalist.” By who? The Communists? Give me a break. The Tsar wasn’t a capitalist. He was a feudal monarch. Russia was the least industrialized place in Europe at that time. The Tsar, like most of the aristocracy in Europe then and today, looked down upon the Capitalist “merchant class” as crass money-grubbers. In fact, the Tsar’s attitude toward capitalists wouldn’t have been much different than Lenin’s.
    The Tsar’s fate would have been foreseen by any intelligent man after the French Revolution killed his kin in France. That he didn’t is a testament to his isolated, naïve position. Both Louis and Nicholas were young, naïve, incompetent rulers who made life so hard for the average people they revolted. Capitalism had nothing to do with it.
    As for the “third riches person who ever lived” this is such pathetic nonsense as to bugger belief. Tsar spent the nation into bankruptcy both through lavish spending on himself and foolish wars. But that didn’t mean he was rich. It means he was stupid. I would buy that he could be the third most proliferate spenders in history if I hadn’t heard of the two Habsburg dynasties (Spanish and Austrian) as well as the House of Saud, the House of Medici, the Vanderbilts and the Sultan of Brunei. OH! And let’s not forget Louis and Marie Antoinette themselves!!
    Your whole view on the matter is so clichés, so very campus that it’s clear you have never once had an original thought.
    Oh, and nice violation of Goodwin’s law. Loser.

  38. Before the revolution, the Ukraine was known as the bread basket of Europe.
    During the forced collectivization and forced starvation of those who did not hand over their land to the Central Committee, millions of hard-working farmers died.
    Not sure of the exact number, but it’s out there somewhere.
    Josef Stalin was responsible for a minimum 10 million deaths of the people he allegedly led. Some estimates range upwards of 30 million.
    In the pre-WWII, Stalin signed a pact with fellow utopian/totalitarian, Adolf Hitler by which each was allowed to invade and take over administration of neighbouring countries.
    Hitler reneged on the deal, creating even more misery and death.
    Stalin, not content to slaughter millions of people who did not comply with his vision of a perfect society, started killing off his former allies who he suspected were trying to seize power from him.
    Insanity is trying he same thing over and over again in the hope the outcome will be somehow different.
    Marxism is a political philosophy based, one of whose main features is intolerance toward dissenting opinions, whose outcomes have demonstrated time and time again that ultimately the innocent pay for their objections with their lives.
    There is no ‘correct way’ to impose the philosophy. It is a poison to the human spirit and will be continue resisted everywhere by free people.
    It is the very system to which ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ applies.
    Need a modern-day example?
    Look no further that what has happened in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.

  39. lynnh at April 22, 2008 1:09 PM
    Well, at least you took an honest poke at an answer based on what you know.
    Thank you.
    I wanted to make you think about it for a few minutes particularly in consideration of your reference to Stalin. The intent of Stalin prior to WW2 is a study in itself and as we sit in 2008 it is easier to see the outcome of the effects of everything from WW1 through the revolution to the effect of Hitler breaking the agreements he made with Stalin. Anti Bolshevik sentiments as well. I should say, it’s easier if a person tries to look at it with an open mind.
    My main point is that Russia has been a country in transition for a long time, as is the case in many countries. They, of course still suffer from the stigma’s of Cold War propagandists, therefore don’t always get fair consideration.
    They are no longer Communist, but still have influence from that era. They are not fully democratic, but more so than they ever were. So, in the end, where did the overthrow of the Tsar take them?
    On the road to Democracy??
    We are not democratic either with a 2 party system.
    Hugger

  40. Greg,
    You know there’s 5 parties in our national parliament? And just how would only having two parties count as not democratic?
    “So, in the end, where did the overthrow of the Tsar take them?
    On the road to Democracy??”
    And if I went went east from calgary I’d get to Banff eventually, right?
    Russia has gone from a thug Monarch to a thug communist to a thug ex-communist gangester state. Their road to democracy seems to have a dead end.

  41. That is an interesting way to look at it, Greg.
    If true then it is one heck of a trip to the destination called democracy.
    Note to self: if lost, never ask a Russian for directions. 🙂

  44. ***OHFISHWALL Birfday Gleetings to Comrade Lenin***
    Deer All Small Dead Animals,
    Tanks for all you do in honoring Comrade Lemon!
    His great works is true inspiration to my Glorious Starving People’s Army!
    In shorts- Small dead Animals WOKS!!!
    Ruv Yoo Looong Time!
    Great Reader, KIM Jong IL
    Pyongyang, California 90210

  45. Warwick at April 22, 2008 1:52 PM
    I could only read bits of your stuff, as you venture into revisionist history and cherry picking.
    Where do you suppose the Soviets learned that trick of shooting their own?
    Now, as you all go off on your individual rants and versions of History and definitions, none of you address the question and point of my post, which was on the topic of Lenin.
    Considering the political, economic, historical and military situation that existed in Russia just prior to the Revolution and rise of Lenin, can you understand why the people revolted against the Tsar?
    Simple enough question isn’t it?
    As for the rest of “did I knows”, yes I did and a whole lot more.
    Here’s a question for the would be scholars and political scientists. What is the best thing the founders of the new Russian Federation did for the future of the country when the Soviet Union dissolved?
    Oh, and Warwick, I prefer discussion with someone who writes something worth reading so there is no reason for you to respond. Look at the link below. Look for number 3 on the list.
    Wealthy historical figures 2008
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthy_historical_figures_2008
    Hugger

  46. It is unfortunate for the Russian people that their revolution was not followed by founding fathers like the US. Communism was not the only other alternative. There was lots of democratic success stories at that time. I can understand the need for revolution but not the choice to replace it with communism.

  48. Beats hanging out on some leftwing blog having a circle jerk eh Greg
    Posted by: bob at April 22, 2008 3:07 PM
    Head bobbing bores the living sh*t out of me. Does that answer your question, bob??
    Hugger

  49. Note to self: if lost, never ask a Russian for directions. 🙂
    Posted by: lynnh at April 22, 2008 2:26 PM
    Oakalie doakalie…
    Here’s the thing. If you want to understand Russia and it’s History you have to understand the tremendous dynamics involved. Particularly in respect to race, language, culture, religion and tribal considerations.
    Hugger

  50. “The ranking process is done by the percentage of the total GDP of the nation they live in.”
    Put Bill Gates in the Sudan and see what happens to that ranking.
    What they have produced is a relative ranking based on the wealth of the society. The guestimate isn’t actually valid.
    “Where do you suppose the Soviets learned that trick of shooting their own?”
    I believe I addressed that in my response. Go re-read.
    “As for 6 bullets a day in WWI, I guess it worked so well that Stalin decided to expand on the program ”
    “…can you understand why the people revolted against the Tsar?”
    I addressed that, too.
    “Both Louis [France] and Nicholas were young, naïve, incompetent rulers who made life so hard for the average people they revolted. Capitalism had nothing to do with it.”
    It’s your assertion that capitalism had anything to do with it I objected to – not the idea that the Tsar wasn’t worthy of a bullet (although there’s no need to have shot his children – but the communists did a lot of that sort of thing.)
    Aside from agreeing that the Tsar brought his fate upon himself, I fail to see how your original comment excuses the actions of Soviet Communism in any area of concern. That was your point, right? That the Tsar was bad so the Soviets were justified in what they did? Else why post it?
    My point is that Stalin killed more people than anyone but Mao (fellow commie but not friend) and did far more damage to Russia than did the Tsar.

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