The Russian Lie

          To borrow a classic malapropism:  If my father were alive today, he’d be turning over in his grave.  Dad was a passionate anti-Communist.  Posted to several countries in his two decades in the Foreign Service, he witnessed and struggled against the Evil Empire, long before Ronald Reagan called it that.

          The USSR is gone now and so is the Communism that enslaved Eastern Europe.  But, while Russia may not be the great power it was before the fall of the Berlin Wall, this does not stop Vladimir Putin from trying to re-establish Russia’s dominance over its former territories and beyond.  The former KGB operative remembers how powerful Russia once was and sees no reason why it can’t reclaim its standing as a super power.  If he could see the resurgence of his old enemies, Dad would no doubt proclaim, “They’re back!”

          We must not forget that today’s Russia is the inheritor of a history of tyranny that enslaved its neighbors and murdered its own people on a horrific scale.  Accordingly, we must see the opening ceremonies in Sochi celebrating Russia’s glorious history as a gross distortion and a massive lie.  How can any country take pride in the unimaginable scale of misery imposed by Stalin, the tens of millions deliberately starved in Ukraine, the millions more frozen to death in Siberian gulags.  Russia can celebrate its literature and its music, as well as the courage of its people through many centuries of suffering at the hands of invaders.  But it cannot celebrate its history of despotism and soul-crushing inhumanity.

          I have nothing but disgust for Meredith Vieira, the abysmally ignorant American commentator at the Winter Olympics who lamented the demise of the Soviet Union as “a bittersweet moment.”  Perhaps she would enjoy riding bareback behind Putin as he gallops to Russia’s final victory over a country that tolerates such pathetic nonsense.