Denis Fodor wrote:

>Bob Draper writes:
>
>>But my question is why don't people here talk more about the Russians
>>and Thaikovsky in particular.  After all that nation carried the torch
>>of cultural civilisation into 20c when other nations turned to rubbish...
>
>...  I'm now wondering whether Bob Draper's 20c could just possibly be
>the Siamese twin of the 20th century in which the Russians darn near
>sent Shostakovich to the GULAG? (And for cultural reasons exterminated
>approximately 20 million nyekulturniks?)

I would certainly not seek to defend the barbarities inflicted on his own
people by Stalin.  That includes the cultural purges of course.

In fact to show just how crazy the man was I once heard that one of the few
things that softened him was the performance of a Mozart piano sonata.

Anyway whilst the west has been stuffing itself with burgers, rocking
around the clock and strutting its funky stuff for most of the century
eastern europe has been going to the ballet and concert hall.

Bob Draper
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