Editorial from Neva News

I had to put this up. Its from an otherwise fairly normal English language monthly in St Petersburg called Neva News. I've been carrying it around for ages. Its from the Christmas edition, accompanied by a merry picture of Grandfather Frost (The Russian Father Christmas) and his young blonde wife (I think she's his wife [Update from Russian editor: Snegurochka is actually Father Frost's granddaughter. Apologies). I won't say that it gives any great insight into the Russian psyche but I don't think you'd see it anywhere else. Here it is, complete and unabridged:

EDITORIAL

Where are we all going?
Individuals, known only by what we see in the mirror.
And in the soul.
Why then do we take everything so seriously?
When we die, all of us die... Just a question of when.

Look at our history.
Tolstoy, Puskin, Dostoevsky, Brodsky, Akhmatova.
Mao Tse-Tung, Stalin, Hitler, Churchill, Truman, Bush.
Art v Mass murder: World War I, World War II.
What have we learned?

Some of us lead. Some of us follow.
Some of us vote. Some are fallow.
Whatever the process the outcome is the same.
People do what they're told, then die.

So the food is poisoned.
Water polluted, good air made bad.
Citioes grow and the trees decline.
And a pretence remains
That all is well.

Merry Xmas (sic) to all, as we realise
This festive time is not for celebrating
Anything like whate we are told.
Thank God we all live and we all die:
As we recall Artists, Poets and Writers.

Kahue.