This is a great essay, wonderfully written. I wish more of Limonovs books were translated to English. Can only find three: memoir of a Russian punk, it's me Eddie, and his butler's story.
Now that I think of it. John Dolan translated another book of Limonovs while at the university of otago, and wrote an intro to it. Was available online at one point iirc.
Thank you SO MUCH for this and the lead to Limonov. I'll read him on электронная библиотека. I never saw the Pizza Hut ad before, nor seen Gorbachev smile. It is clever and politically sophisticated advert.
Another big thanks from here, esp for the fact this is so well and thoughtfully written. I don't know whether America won't or simply can't see that they are able to define themselves *only* against enemies. I suspect it is just too frightening to face the fact that, not only do they no longer "share the same values" but that, outside the marketplace, there just ... haven't ever really been any. The ever-shifting definitions of "liberty", "democracy", "equality", etc, always just end up taking the form of transparent cant. Thanks esp for emphasising the realities behind the Anglophone world's spin of 1991.
PS Limonov's (Carrère) bio actually is available in English - I think it's from Penguin
All of this is very true. I’d add that the truer mirror image of the 1968 Prague invasion - of a country willing to get away from a grip of the boss and returned to the cartridge - were the events in Indonesia 3 years prior where communists could win the elections. There was no invasion, but CIA and MI6 sent arms and money to right wing militaries there, and provided the lists of communists to be killed. As a result during 4 months about 1,5 millions of people were murdered (1 million estimate by the murderers, 2 million estimate by those murdered) - communists, their relatives, those around... Compare with 150 Czechs that died during the Prague invasion (these were chance people - no directed murders). The ratio of the number of victims is 10 thousand. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965–66 and Joshua Oppenheimer documentaries “The act of killing” and “The look of silence”.
In 2001, Eduard Limonov was arrested and accused of attempting to organize a "separatist coup" in Kazakhstan and of purchasing weapons illegally. I find it strange that a Russian prosecutor can think that the territorial integrity of Kazakhstan is under Russian jurisdiction.
This essay by itself is worth the price of a year’s subscription.
Wish somebody would bring Limonov over into English. If some of his stuff can be found online somewhere (in Russian), Google Translate might do a tolerable job.
Really great essay. I see America in decline that is accelerating due to a senile and corrupt ruling class, but America always seems to be a nation lashing outwards and inwards. Talk to any American living in cities abandoned by deindustrialization and white flight and you would have thought America was over. But as the architect and ruler of global capitalism, it always seems to have another run of prosperity and power. Granted, fewer and fewer share in that prosperity, but no other power offers any alternative to the American system.
Evgenia, this was a excellent piece (as ever). Have shared with a few people… BTW have you seen the Limonov film? It was recently on the Criterion Collection. I didn’t care for it. Lots of English actors doing dodgy cod Russian accents. There is one great scene where he attacks both physically and orally some French smug liberals during a radio interview… They expect him to join them in attacking the USSR which he does not. He says a lot of what your article says… Worth the poor film just for this scene. Thanks again! :-)
Yup, it was actually called "The eXile" and produced weekly or biweekly (this varied) by Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi. The paper's name was in reference to people like themselves (depraved Westeners) only much, much worse. The expats arrived in droves to spread the gospel of predatory capitalism, mostly by example. "The eXile" set out to expose the dark side of, well, humanity in general. They did this mostly by example and got away with murder. . . OK, maybe not actual murder but rape, pillage and drug addiction not to mention making shit up in the guise of what they euphemistically called "pranking," often by copying the letterhead or business cards of especially loathsome VIPs and sending missives allegedly written by them to various enemies of them. In this way the eXile staff courted forms of vindication worse than death and managed somehow to escape Moscow unscathed once the madcap (post-collapse) mayhem had died down and Russia was boring again, i.e., stable and (comparatively) prosperous. This improvement—for Russians if not always for expats—I can't help crediting Putin for having a hand in, but as you say the U.S. requires an enemy to keep its war machine financed. Hence the monster Putin narrative. As to Limonov, he was a regular contributor to "The eXile" and wrote the foreword to a book Matt and Mark produced years later, a compilation of their greatest hits (pun intended), for which I paid $50 just last month. You can find anything online. Limonov was an amazing writer and as funny and astute as Yasha says, and a huge celebrity in Russia in the 1990s, far more popular than, say, Navalny.
Editing was a bit messed up earlier — probably my fault. But it's fixed now! A great essay!
By the way, Evgenia wrote this not me. So questions should be directed to her!
DOH! Sorry for to both of you… my statement stands, as both of you deliver high quality.
This is a great essay, wonderfully written. I wish more of Limonovs books were translated to English. Can only find three: memoir of a Russian punk, it's me Eddie, and his butler's story.
Now that I think of it. John Dolan translated another book of Limonovs while at the university of otago, and wrote an intro to it. Was available online at one point iirc.
Thank you SO MUCH for this and the lead to Limonov. I'll read him on электронная библиотека. I never saw the Pizza Hut ad before, nor seen Gorbachev smile. It is clever and politically sophisticated advert.
Another big thanks from here, esp for the fact this is so well and thoughtfully written. I don't know whether America won't or simply can't see that they are able to define themselves *only* against enemies. I suspect it is just too frightening to face the fact that, not only do they no longer "share the same values" but that, outside the marketplace, there just ... haven't ever really been any. The ever-shifting definitions of "liberty", "democracy", "equality", etc, always just end up taking the form of transparent cant. Thanks esp for emphasising the realities behind the Anglophone world's spin of 1991.
PS Limonov's (Carrère) bio actually is available in English - I think it's from Penguin
All of this is very true. I’d add that the truer mirror image of the 1968 Prague invasion - of a country willing to get away from a grip of the boss and returned to the cartridge - were the events in Indonesia 3 years prior where communists could win the elections. There was no invasion, but CIA and MI6 sent arms and money to right wing militaries there, and provided the lists of communists to be killed. As a result during 4 months about 1,5 millions of people were murdered (1 million estimate by the murderers, 2 million estimate by those murdered) - communists, their relatives, those around... Compare with 150 Czechs that died during the Prague invasion (these were chance people - no directed murders). The ratio of the number of victims is 10 thousand. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965–66 and Joshua Oppenheimer documentaries “The act of killing” and “The look of silence”.
In 2001, Eduard Limonov was arrested and accused of attempting to organize a "separatist coup" in Kazakhstan and of purchasing weapons illegally. I find it strange that a Russian prosecutor can think that the territorial integrity of Kazakhstan is under Russian jurisdiction.
This essay by itself is worth the price of a year’s subscription.
Wish somebody would bring Limonov over into English. If some of his stuff can be found online somewhere (in Russian), Google Translate might do a tolerable job.
Really great essay. I see America in decline that is accelerating due to a senile and corrupt ruling class, but America always seems to be a nation lashing outwards and inwards. Talk to any American living in cities abandoned by deindustrialization and white flight and you would have thought America was over. But as the architect and ruler of global capitalism, it always seems to have another run of prosperity and power. Granted, fewer and fewer share in that prosperity, but no other power offers any alternative to the American system.
Evgenia, this was a excellent piece (as ever). Have shared with a few people… BTW have you seen the Limonov film? It was recently on the Criterion Collection. I didn’t care for it. Lots of English actors doing dodgy cod Russian accents. There is one great scene where he attacks both physically and orally some French smug liberals during a radio interview… They expect him to join them in attacking the USSR which he does not. He says a lot of what your article says… Worth the poor film just for this scene. Thanks again! :-)
Carrere's bio of Limonov is very good, but I ain't a Russian. I first became acquainted with him via The Exiled.
Ha! His writing convinced me that despite Stalin's efforts, the Kulaks prevailed in the long run.
Yup, it was actually called "The eXile" and produced weekly or biweekly (this varied) by Mark Ames and Matt Taibbi. The paper's name was in reference to people like themselves (depraved Westeners) only much, much worse. The expats arrived in droves to spread the gospel of predatory capitalism, mostly by example. "The eXile" set out to expose the dark side of, well, humanity in general. They did this mostly by example and got away with murder. . . OK, maybe not actual murder but rape, pillage and drug addiction not to mention making shit up in the guise of what they euphemistically called "pranking," often by copying the letterhead or business cards of especially loathsome VIPs and sending missives allegedly written by them to various enemies of them. In this way the eXile staff courted forms of vindication worse than death and managed somehow to escape Moscow unscathed once the madcap (post-collapse) mayhem had died down and Russia was boring again, i.e., stable and (comparatively) prosperous. This improvement—for Russians if not always for expats—I can't help crediting Putin for having a hand in, but as you say the U.S. requires an enemy to keep its war machine financed. Hence the monster Putin narrative. As to Limonov, he was a regular contributor to "The eXile" and wrote the foreword to a book Matt and Mark produced years later, a compilation of their greatest hits (pun intended), for which I paid $50 just last month. You can find anything online. Limonov was an amazing writer and as funny and astute as Yasha says, and a huge celebrity in Russia in the 1990s, far more popular than, say, Navalny.
Carreres limonov book is great I think. Same here with the exile connection...if I had not read the exile I doubt I would have heard of limonov
Wonderful essay Evgenia!