The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

Vladimir Musaelyan, Brezhnev's personal photographer, has died aged 81. I feel like there's a TV series/film in the General Secretary and the Photographer. Especially given the aesthetics of some of his shots.

Wasn't he quite popular for USSR premier standards because he came off as a relatively normal and relatable dude?

My favorite picture of him is him meeting Jill St. John while visiting the U.S.

Not this one:



But this one:

[DGuller]

Wasn't he quite popular for USSR premier standards because he came off as a relatively normal and relatable dude?

I was just born when he died, but my impression is that Brezhnev was widely viewed with derision, because he looked feeble in his later years and symbolized USSR becoming ruled by a collection of bloated corpses (those tables in the second picture where a very regular occurrence, which is what gave everyone in the ruling elite such sexy physiques and robust health).  By far the most common joke about Brezhnev was something like this, though usually shortened because everyone heard it a thousand times:

The government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has announced with great regret that, following a long illness and without regaining consciousness, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the President of the highest Soviet, Comrade Leonid Brezhnev, has resumed his governmental duties.

[Sheilbh]

Would Marx have appreciated football though? I can't really answer for England, but over here sports clubs were fostered by industrialists as a way to keep workers away from the booze and unions.

Another opiate of the masses. I think it grows at that point whenever there are groups of young men together whether it's churches (Everton, Villa), YMCA/sports clubs (Forest, Hotspur) or workers (Man United, Arsenal). And that still happens, put a group of young men together who don't know each other with a ball and they will, sooner or later, start playing football. But I think local businessmen get involved in it really quickly as a way to make money out of buying land and renting it or taking the gates and, as you say, controlling their workforce who would otherwise be agitating/organising.

The most extreme examples are Liverpool and Chelsea. Liverpool was founded because one of Everton's board members bought the ground (Anfield) and wanted to wildly increase the rent, the rest of the club disagreed and moved to the other end of Stanley Park - so he created his own football club to pay himself handsomely. I think Chelsea was founded because a local businessman couldn't convince Fulham to play in his land at Stamford Bridge so he set up a rival to do it instead

[Sheilbh]

Wasn't he quite popular for USSR premier standards because he came off as a relatively normal and relatable dude?

I've heard that he's looked back on quite fondly now because his time in charge comes between relatively traumatic/stressful periods. So in between Stalin and the War, plus Khruschev's changes and uncertainty and Gorbachev and the collapse of the USSR, plus the trauma of the 90s. In the middle of that you have Brezhnev when things were relatively calm, life was relatively stable and decent and not terrifying. I don't know how widespread that is but it makes sense to me.

Also I always think there's a bit of a cycle in judging leaders from the past and we're probably at the point where Brezhnev can be viewed with sort-of rose-tinted nostalgia, rather than any realism. I think in the UK we've seen a similar re-appraisal of the 70s from a terrifying time when we came close to a coup, went to the IMF, had a three day week, regular strikes etc etc - it's now just seen quite nostalgically and the politicians in that era are being judged a lot more kindly than when I was growing up when the 70s was really awful which explained why Thatcher. Similarly I think Thatcher, Reagan etc are probably getting their harshest critiques now which will probably mellow over the next decade until they're de-fanged figures from the past.

My favorite picture of him is him meeting Jill St. John while visiting the U.S.

I absolutely love the one of him lounging in his trunks, doing business on the phone with an ashtray at hand - growing up my dad and my grandparents and aunties etc all definitely had that ashtray. (I find him weirdly relateable because there's a number of other pictures I've seen that show he had very similar furniture/decor tastes as my elderly relatives )

I also enjoy this one showing that even Communist dictators experience the universal politician's thought "who agreed to me doing this event?":

[Duque de Bragança]

The questions in the Spanish exam are really specific, which makes it look quite hard ("what documents do you need to switch your registration to a different public hospital?"), but ultimately they come out of a pool of 300 which is available for download, which makes the exam easier (and ultimately pointless as proof of "integration", but I'd get rid of the entire thing anyway).

Depending on the pathway to citizenship in France, i.e naturalisation or having already some French citizen in the family, one gets questions about what one thinks about paying taxes, the place of religion in society and the status of women.
I remember a question asked in a doc about future or hopeful naturalisations which was who was the Roi Soleil (Sun King) and the candidates failing miserably. 

[Valmy]

I mean just say "King Louis" to all such questions and you should do pretty well.

[Duque de Bragança]

I mean just say "King Louis" to all such questions and you should do pretty well.

Quelle est la couleur du cheval blanc du roi Louis ? 

[Syt]

I absolutely love the one of him lounging in his trunks, doing business on the phone with an ashtray at hand - growing up my dad and my grandparents and aunties etc all definitely had that ashtray. (I find him weirdly relateable because there's a number of other pictures I've seen that show he had very similar furniture/decor tastes as my elderly relatives )

On that note, here's Kim Il-Sung visiting a family in East Germany in the 80s (I think I posted it recently). I love the bottle of schnaps on the table in the foreground - on old photos from the 60s-80s, at every gathering, formal or informal, there'd be a bottle of schnaps on the table (I guess that's where east and west were much alike).



Even the "good china" wouldn't have looked out of place in our hosehold.

[Sheilbh]

On that note, here's Kim Il-Sung visiting a family in East Germany in the 80s (I think I posted it recently). I love the bottle of schnaps on the table in the foreground - on old photos from the 60s-80s, at every gathering, formal or informal, there'd be a bottle of schnaps on the table (I guess that's where east and west were much alike).

I do slightly love that era - I think probably until the early 2000s. You look at pictures from anywhere in the world and they're all clearly of their time but slightly distinct/local. Of their time but clearly German or Russian or English.  Later images and movies etc look a lot more aesthetically similar - globalisation and IKEA and all that

[Duque de Bragança]

Brezhnev, according to what I gather from the Russians I know, or rather their parents, was seen as not so dangerous but corrupt (red bourgeois having his geese imported by plane from somewhere else in the COMECON) and leading the Soviet Union into stagnation. Bonus: the invasion of Afghanistan.

[Tamas]

Nothing has made me feel so old yet than the CK3 forum at Paradox. I am quite interested in and liking the game, but there's so much passion and hurt feelings there debating the game, it just feels alien to me now. I mean, who could care THAT much? Kids, eh?

[Syt]

Nothing has made me feel so old yet than the CK3 forum at Paradox. I am quite interested in and liking the game, but there's so much passion and hurt feelings there debating the game, it just feels alien to me now. I mean, who could care THAT much? Kids, eh?

I hear you. I commented in an Imperator thread recently (why do people like barebones CK3 but not Imperator Rome), where I commented that I'm kind of over the standard Paradox map painter, considering that I've been playing them for .... almost 20 years (I bought EU1 in December 2000; for some reason the game released first in Germany)

[Duque de Bragança]

Heard an explosion or rather a sonic boom around noon today. According to news sources, it was just a Rafale fighter breaking the sound barrier in an interception mission. Assistance to an aircraft in distress says Le monde and others.
Seldom happens over Paris. It was even heard on the live broadcast of the Roland Garros Grand Slam tournament (yes in September).

[Tamas]

Oh crap I forgot EU1 was TWENTY YEARS ago.  As you say, we have been playing (improved) iterations of the same game since.

[Zanza]

Hah, I feel young as my first Paradox game was EU2 18 years ago.