# N. and S. Korea firing artillery at each other **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 9, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483 "2010-12-09T00:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/101 "2010-12-10T18:33:19Z")
**Morgenstern** : Bet Commissar handwaves away your cite because it’s from a South Korean newspaper. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/102 "2010-12-10T20:04:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m having trouble taking **Commissar** at face value Ya think? 😃 Aside from his obvious trolling here, my favorite bit was from one of his earlier troll-threads where he claims to be an American citizen, but has no idea how to get out of America and to any of his preferred nations. He’s trapped, trapped, by The Empire. [It’s just so hard!](http://www.china-airlines.com/en/index.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/103 "2010-12-10T20:22:26Z")
I must have missed that, but it sounds like comedy gold. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/104 "2010-12-10T20:54:07Z")
Yep, and because unlike our commie I actually cite things since I don’t make them up. > [@I am a Communist.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/28): > > I voted for Obama. > [@I am a Communist.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/63): > > It is my strong belief that the People’s Republic of China is not only the greatest nation in existence today, but also in the entire history of mankind. It is a powerful, highly centralized nation in which a single party proudly guides an immense populace into the future. It is a brilliant melding of Marxist-Leninist theory and private ingenuity. It is a glimmering beacon of hope and prosperity, an awe-inspiring trend-setter that will bravely shepherd all of humanity into a golden age of socialism. > [@I am a Communist.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/76): > > Er, do you mean the PRC or the DPRK? > > If the prior, I am willing to move myself and my family there at the drop of the proverbial pin. The future belongs to them, and I want a piece of the action. > [@I am a Communist.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/146): > > I have not yet been to China, though I am planning to do so in the coming year or two. I feel that teaching languages is beneath my level of education, to be honest. > > Why do I live here? I suppose because of family commitments, mostly, but also because I have not yet discovered the proper way out. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/105 "2010-12-10T21:40:05Z")
Heck, I’ll kick in a Canadian nickel toward his moving expenses. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/106 "2010-12-10T21:47:45Z")
[Quote=Commissar] I feel that teaching languages is beneath my level of education, to be honest. [/quote] That’s funny as hell and just as stupid. Most teachers have more education that you’ll ever have. It is a pre-requisite of the job. My Uncle spent the better part of his life teaching the kids of American Soldiers in Germany, just to be over there and not here. When that ended, he spent time teaching English in the Czech Republic as a way to get back over there. If you are not Chinese, you are never going to be Chinese. I don’t know if it would even be possible for you to become a citizen. If you want to be there, then get there by teaching English, or whatever other languages you speak. Because frankly, you aren’t going to get there by being hired as an Engineer, or a Marketing Director, or in IT. Once you are there, you can work on other ways of staying there and earning a living. And although we’ll never hear from you again, we’ll bask in the likelyhood that you will learn up close and personal the flaws of the system you worship. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/107 "2010-12-10T21:50:32Z")
I particularly enjoyed the classist, bourgeois objection to teaching since it’s beneath his education level. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/108 "2010-12-10T21:58:58Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > I particularly enjoyed the classist, bourgeois objection to teaching since it’s beneath his education level. Well, back in post #49, he said “I am ready to fulfill whatever role the people, through their socialist representatives, deem best to assign to me.”, so if he knows English and they want to learn English, assigning him work as a teacher of English would be efficient. Communism being notoriously inefficient, though, he’d probably end up sorting screws in some screw-factory. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/109 "2010-12-10T22:08:37Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > he said Duff Man says a lot of things, baby. 😉 Currently one thing that China definitely needs and is hiring for are people to teach English. But like the bourgeois classist that he is, Commissar views the job they have offered to him as below his station, so he wouldn’t take it. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/110 "2010-12-10T22:18:20Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, back in post #49, he said “I am ready to fulfill whatever role the people, through their socialist representatives, deem best to assign to me.” > [@FinnAgain](#): > > But like the bourgeois classist that he is, Commissar views the job they have offered to him as below his station, so he wouldn’t take it. Pure Comedy Gold. I guess he’s not unlike many other people who idolize a system they’ve never had to live under (whether Communism, Fascism or Pure Evil\*), assuming that somehow _they_ are “special” and will certainly be recognized as such by their Masters, resulting in a position of priviledge and plenty. - Fantasy Evil, like Satan or Cthulhu ruling the world. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/111 "2010-12-10T22:34:25Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > I guess he’s not unlike many other people who idolize a system they’ve never had to live under Well, he’s said once or twice that he “grew up” in the USSR, which I’d guess at the very minimum meant spending the first 15 years of his life there (any younger than that would be, I figure, _too_ young to appreciate his surroundings in anything resembling political comprehension), so if he was 15 in 1991, he’d’ve been born around 1976 and would now be in his mid-thirties. Trouble is, as far as I know he’s never given his actual age, despite requests from several users. Possibly he feels that if his family moved out of the USSR when he was five, that still counts as valid for claims of “growing up” there, for purposes of trying to claim authority on the subject. And of course, there remains the possibility that _all_ his claims are lies. Of course, I understand there are some people in Russia, having seen what it’s become, who are now pining for the days of Stalin. Human memory is so wonderfully selective. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/112 "2010-12-10T22:52:31Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Cthulhu ruling the world. Ia! Ia! Mao fhtagn! That is not debunked whose author can eternal lie And after dozens of pages, even dumb may die ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/113 "2010-12-10T23:16:39Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > Name three countries that follow your governmental ideals where someone can reliably enjoy free education at all levels of study, be free from bourgeois exploitation, and has ability to be upwardly mobile despite whatever class they’re born into. See my question was based on basic human needs and liberties. Yours is based on some kind of paranoia. Education is a key part of being upwardly mobile. Just so we’re clear does universal access to education through federal grants, scholarships, and government backed loans count? Because even “the empire” has that, or is the magic word free that important to you? However a quick google search found [this](http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/14/world-happiest-countries-lifestyle-realestate-gallup-table.html). Followed by a 5 second copy and paste job. [Denmark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark#Education) > [@](#): > > Denmark, with a mixed market capitalist economy and a large welfare state,[6] ranks as having the world’s highest level of income equality. Denmark has the best business climate in the world, according to the U.S. business magazine Forbes.[7] From 2006 to 2008, surveys[8] ranked Denmark as “the happiest place in the world”, based on standards of health, welfare and education. > [@](#): > > The Danish education system provides access to primary school, secondary school and most kinds of higher education. Attendance at “Folkeskole” or equivalent education is compulsory for a minimum of 9 years. Equivalent education could be in private schools or classes attended at home. About 99% of students attend primary school, 86% attend secondary school, and 41% pursue further education. All college education in Denmark is free; there are no tuition fees to enroll in courses. Students in secondary school or higher may apply for student support which provides fixed financial support, disbursed monthly. Can you handle the [Finland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland#Education_and_science)? > [@](#): > > Finland built an extensive welfare state and balanced between the East and the West in global economics and politics. The country tops continuously the international comparisons of national performance.[7] Finland ranks the best country in the world in the 2010 Newsweek survey based on health, economic dynamism, education, political environment and quality of life.[8] With a side of [Norway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway#Education)? > [@](#): > > Higher education in Norway is offered by a range of seven universities, five specialized colleges, 25 university colleges as well as a range of private colleges. Education follows the Bologna Process involving Bachelor (3 years), Master (2 years) and PhD (3 years) degrees.[94] Acceptance is offered after finishing upper secondary school with general study competence. > > Public education is virtually free, regardless of nationality,[95] with an academic year with two semesters, from August to December and from January to June. The ultimate responsibility for the education lies with the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Fucking easy, because I value people, not ideology. Now it’s your turn to put up or shut up. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/114 "2010-12-11T08:49:11Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > **Commissar** , authoritarianism requires a government in a position of unquestionable authority using that power to make life hell for people, most often its own citizens first and foremost. This dates back to substantially before 1917. It dates back to substantially before the dawn of recorded history. Your Pink Heroes’ Ivan-Come-Lately shenanigans have to be examined in the context of the Russian Empire, the various Chinese Dynasties, the Belgian Congo, Spanish rule in the West Indies, and the many and varied slave-holding empires dating far back into antiquity. Sure, but what relevance does this have to anything at all? I am a supporter of socialist authoritarianism. Authoritarianism alone, without more, doesn’t cut it for me. > [@](#): > > What do we learn? Well, 1917-1991 is pretty damn pitiful. I disagree. “Pitiful” can mean many things, but saving humankind itself is not one of them. Not is turning an agrarian backwater into a global superpower. Nor is singlehandedly saving the world from the Third Reich. Yes, we accomplished quite a few things over the course of those seven decades, and I’m quite proud of them. > [@](#): > > Also, Stalin was a pathetic figure hounded by the ghosts in his head. I concur. I have been known to argue that the only significant mistake that the Soviet Union ever made was not shooting that paranoid piece of shit in the head. Had we given that enemy of the people his just deserts, I am confident that the glorious USSR would be alive and well at this moment. > [@](#): > > Finally, we learn that the only way forwards for China was to adopt the strategies of the successful democratic nations and allow its citizens an amount of personal liberty so extreme they can even visit websites of questionable political character without ending up in Reeducation Through Labor Camps. (Also: ‘One Country, Two Systems’? In Mao’s day, it would have been ‘One Country, Two Mass Graves’!) Er, you’re confusing politics and economics, my friend. Socialism is not the antithesis of democracy. Moreover, the utopian People’s Republic, may it last for a million years, has dutifully advanced socialism into the new era. It has not adopted corrupt capitalist or democratic lies; it has simply evolved Marxist-Leninist thought into a system best able to deal with modern times. I am confident that this amazing socialist nation will lead the rest of us into the future, and I celebrate its wise and benevolent leadership. Long live the People’s Republic! ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/115 "2010-12-11T08:59:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Again: when did your family leave Belarus, and how old were you? I’m accustomed to hearing from Communists, but most of the ones I know strenuously disavow the Soviet Union owing to the mass murders and starvations and other titanic failures. My parents were invited into the Empire in order to participate in advanced biological research shortly following the unfortunate collapse of the magnificent Soviet Union. The temporary stay became prolonged once the invitation was reiterated, and eventually led towards citizenship. I was a teenager when we moved, and am currently quickly approaching my mid-thirties. I was apolitical when I moved to the Empire. Years of capitalist brainwashing had their effect, and I identified with the Imperial political and economic model for a while. I intellectually fooled around with both libertarianism and fascism, and went through a short period of time during which I considered myself a Republican. I eventually rejected all three theories, finally settling on Communism as the best representation of my ideals. The point is that I was not a Communist when I first immigrated; my political awakening came much later, once I realized that only socialist authoritarianism can fix the problems created by capitalist exploitation. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/116 "2010-12-11T09:11:58Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Commissar, is this North Korea’s equivalent of the Berlin wall? > > _Since the mid 1990s, when famine and a mass exodus jeopardized Kim Jong-il’s control over the country, the regime has viewed its border with China as a second battlefront, stationing 300,000 soldiers there._ > from. > [http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html\_dir/2009/07/13/2009071301284.html](http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/07/13/2009071301284.html) > > Nevermind, I think I found the answer. > > - …but at the Chinese border there is the sound of gunfire every day. Defectors are being shot,…\* > > I guess searching for food is a capital crime there. Um, you may have missed all the many posts in which I explicitly condemned North Korea as an insulting corruption of Marxist-Leninist thought… Once again, I state that North Korea is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a good example of what I would like to see under a socialist government. If I could snap my fingers and have the North Korean government dissolved and the territory absorbed by the magnificent PRC, I would do so with no hesitation. The North Korean people deserve a better government, more freedoms, and an end to all the moronic secrecy. Having said that, I would much rather see North Korea under its current form of government than as an Imperial puppet state. If power is to be handed over, it should go to Beijing rather than Seoul. Otherwise, I’ll stick with Pyongyang. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/117 "2010-12-11T09:17:51Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > The point is that I was not a Communist when I first immigrated That’s exactly what I expected to hear. You’re glorifying something you didn’t really experience personally (the system was near collapse by the time you were aware of it and you left as a teenager), so you never saw its worst flaws up close. You’re wearing a costume. The Communists I know don’t do this glory to China, glory to the USSR shtick. They defend those countries a bit more than a capitalist would, but they don’t adopt that Pravda tone you’re using. I guess they’re smarter and have more perspective than you do despite being raised in “The Empire.” ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/118 "2010-12-11T09:28:40Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > That’s funny as hell and just as stupid. Most teachers have more education that you’ll ever have. I really doubt that. I have received a graduate degree from one of the best schools in my chosen field. Unless they happen to possess a Ph.D., the vast majority of Imperial teachers will be far less educated than I am. Which does not, of course, mean that I am belittling their noble calling. I am simply pointing out a fact for your benefit. > [@](#): > > It is a pre-requisite of the job. My Uncle spent the better part of his life teaching the kids of American Soldiers in Germany, just to be over there and not here. When that ended, he spent time teaching English in the Czech Republic as a way to get back over there. From what you have said, your uncle appears to be a great man, and I thank him for his dedication. This does not mean that he automatically outclasses my education. > [@](#): > > If you are not Chinese, you are never going to be Chinese. Being Chinese has never been my intention. The closest I can get is by pointing out that my facial hair is naturally black, which tends to point to interbreeding between my Slavic ancestors and the Tatar invaders many centuries ago. No, I do not expect to be granted Chinese citizenship on the basis of this observation. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/119 "2010-12-11T09:49:47Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > That’s exactly what I expected to hear. You’re glorifying something you didn’t really experience personally (the system was near collapse by the time you were aware of it and you left as a teenager), so you never saw its worst flaws up close. That is a reasonable assumption, and one that I used to share. Then I became older and wiser, and set out to discover the truth. On my yearly trips back to Belarus, I would ask all my relatives, friends, and friends’ relatives to recount their experiences under socialist rule. Shockingly, not a single one could point to the type of outrageous conduct widely portrayed by the Imperial media. I learned from father that he had been summoned by the KGB following his first trip to the US in the late 1980s. They asked him if he had had dealings with dissidents. He truthfully answered “no,” and that was the last time that the KGB ever contacted him. I talked to the father of a family friend, who admitted that he had served time in a “gulag.” He had been a Red Army officer, had written a letter to his fiance in which he cursed and criticized Stalin. A fellow officer saw the letter and reported him; he served two years in prison. He is not aware of a single inmate that died during his internment in Siberia. Overall, none of the accounts that I have heard have ever matched the widely accepted Imperial propaganda. I have searched long and hard, and I can still not name a single person that has ever been executed by the USSR. I may have been young when we immigrated, but I have done everything in my power to reconstruct my Soviet past. Having done so, I see only a glorious proletariat paradise, rather than the reeking oppressive hellhole that you have been thoroughly taught to imagine. > [@](#): > > You’re wearing a costume. Nope; I am what I am. None of this is a charade. I truly am a Communist, and I really do believe that my political viewpoint will soon prevail. > [@](#): > > The Communists I know don’t do this glory to China, glory to the USSR shtick. They defend those countries a bit more than a capitalist would, but they don’t adopt that Pravda tone you’re using. I guess they’re smarter and have more perspective than you do despite being raised in “The Empire.” I appreciate your experiences and your interpretation thereof. Nevertheless, this is me, and this is who I am. If you have never met a Communist immigrant quite like me before, that is fine. I do not seek to fit into your preconceived notions regarding my people. I have my own individual beliefs, and said beliefs happen to contradict your baseless assumptions. I do not view this as a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/120 "2010-12-11T10:16:04Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Care to give us a translation, generously assuming you actually understand the language and not just a lying troll who picked a mournful-sounding song at random? A translation isn’t really feasible, since all of our best songs tend toward allegory and playfulness with the complex Russian language. One can translate the words into English, but the wonderful emotional contact would be lost. Trust me: whenever I attempt to translate these songs for my fiance, she gives me a pitying look… 😃 Anyway, let me try. This is an excellent song by Visotskii, our most famous Soviet singer, bar none. The title is best translated as “I lived wonderfully in the first third.” It is a highly symbolic song, one that some have interpreted as an autobiography, some as a political argument, some as a product of a mind that spent a bit too much time chasing the dragon (Visotskii went on to die of a heroin overdose). It is clearly allegorical, but the basic words tell the story of his meeting with two morbidly obese witches and his attempts to escape their grasp. It is truly one of the songs I would put in my Top 5 list of Russian songs. P.S.: My personal opinion is that this song is a condemnation of the Soviet Union. I disagree with this, to be sure, but damn if it’s not the most beautiful thing that I have ever heard. Visotskii was a fucking genius. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483.md?page=7)