Kalinka!

Friday, I heard a recording of the Russian song, Kalinka sung by Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone, with the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, Nkolai Korniev director. . The song was as thrilling as ever, and as I listened to it, tears in my eyes, I thought back to when I first heard it, years ago, during the Cold War, sung by the Soviet Army Chorus, with a great tenor soloist.

I was able to find a video or two on You Tube with the Army Chorus and the amazing soloist. He’s still with us, and still spectacular.

But here’s what it really did. It made me wonder why we ever had a "Cold War". The Cold War was a scam perpetrated to advance the goals of US imperialism and corporate domination of the world. Moreover, it gave the US military a blank cheque in perpetuity to spend the wealth of the country on the tools of destruction. I do not support the state capitalism of the Soviet Union. Indeed, I don’t support any state. Part of that means that I don’t support wars between states. When I look at the videos of the chorus, all in their Red Army uniforms, I think, how much better for soldiers to sing and play music than to wage war. Would that we’d have sung at each other all those years, and spent the money on good instruments and concert tours, instead of bombs, guns, nukes and the rest. I have no reason to hate Russians, and didn’t then. How stupid and how despicable that we did.

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I'd like to add a personal note as to why I haven't been keeping up this blog. A month ago today, my mother was killed in a road accident. She was an amazing woman, who at age 86 was still substitute teaching at her local high school, teaching ESL, and was involved in many other community and arts organisations.