Bright Red

Images from Moscow during the November, 7th 1975 celebration of some Communist victory. Unlike in America, fedoras still ruled the day.

Sunny Moscow

From englishrussia.com come these photos from 1967 Russia.

The photo above and many of the others found in the link depict a Moscow that is not as desolate as I have always pictured. Granted, these shots were taken on sunny, non-wintery days and there's always the chance that they could've been staged by the government. Note that there are several men wearing capitalist-pig suits and women attired in what looks to be 1930's/40's style American clothing.

The Wealth Creators

Via John Robb's blog comes this link to a NY Times article on America's richest entrepreneurs. The graphical interface that they've put together to exhibit these men's fortunes is very cool.

Robb titles his post linking to the Times as "Rogues list of wealthiest Americans". The use of the word rogue to describe these men is typical anti-market claptrap. It's surprising that, Robb, an entrepreneur himself would apply a term to these men who created jobs, wealth and products that improved people's lives as rogues. I'd much rather see a list of these men (most of whom I've never heard of) on a school bulletin board than the true rogues gallery of politicians who are prominently held up as heroes in schools across America.

Try, Try Again

Strange Maps gives us a quick history lesson on the Schlieffen Plan.

The Schlieffen Plan was the culmination of four decades of refining a series of military strategies that were designed with the purpose of ensuring the sovereignty and expansion of the German state in the case of a general outbreak of war on the Continent.

I always found the fact that the Germans had been extensively planning for a major Continental conflict since the completion of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) as the ultimate expression of German bureaucratic planning and their people's general neurotic state. This neurotic attention to detail was superbly expressed in Barbara Tuchman's brilliant book on the first months of World War One, The Guns of August. In the book she describes the intensive detail that the German Army built into the Schlieffen Plan -- right down to the number of minutes it would take to move this far along the railways with this much poundage in the fifth car of the train if the invasion was commenced during a particularly warm spring.

Alas, the Germans got halfway there in the summer of 1914 and would have to wait another 27 years to finally get it right.

Detroit and Kaifeng

Jsut like two peas in a pod. So says Bill Bonner.

Instead, maybe, the city [Detroit] will join the ranks of the dead, along with Ctesiphon, Mesa Verde, Presepolis, Kish, Harappa, Babylon, Sodom, and Gomorrah. Soon, its apartments and mansions may sell for no more than places in Mapungubwe, Tiahuanaco, Tyre, Nineveh, Troy, Golconda and hundreds of other defunct metropolises.

A Reading List

Younghusband's reading list at Coming Anarchy includes Brave New World by John Robb.

The Broad Sweep of History

Niall Ferguson compares the Venice of 500 years ago with the New York of today. In a wide-ranging article he also touches of globalization, outsourcing and nuke devices going off in London. The article is macro in nature -- thought-provoking and big-picturish.

Two Decades Ago

Twenty years back the Soviet Union was nearing the end of their disastrous military involvement in Afghanistan. Today, Soviet veterans of that war shake their heads when talk turns to the American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. In what has become a classic example of history repeating itself these veterans have a simple message to the Americans: Get out now.

An example of Soviet propagandizing, or rather, covering up the true nature of the Soviet invasion to their own people can be read in the following passage from Alexander Golts:

Alexander Golts, who covered the Soviet-Afghan war as a journalist, said the war was clearly a failure from early on, but Soviet leadership insisted on portraying it first as a minor operation and later as a struggle that ultimately would bring peace and prosperity.

In villages throughout the Soviet Union at the time, "mystery coffins" would arrive, containing soldiers who kept dying in a reportedly peaceful area. Soviet leaders tried to direct attention away from the coffins. Golts said Soviet leadership prohibited reporting on the war.

"A general stopped me one day to say, `I read that our soldiers are doing nothing here but building schools and planting trees, so please explain, how do my boys keep dying?'" Golts said.

Wonderful Color Photos from the 1910's

A website named "Heritage to the Great War" includes a goodly number of color photos from the conflict. A small number of them are quite disturbing so beware. For the most part, though, they are fascinating to pour over -- especially if you've never seen color pictures from the pre-1920 era. I once saw a set of color photos from the turn of the century that featured idyllic park scenes and that was quite impressive. Until now my experience with the Great War was always black & white.

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Some Poilu

Picking Flowers