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“Belarus is the wholly owned subsidiary of Alexander Lukashenko…

… the last one hundred percent political dictatorship of Europe,” said Mr UD when I read him an article my sister just sent me about Belarus. “By comparison, Russia is a great democracy.”

In 1993, in Diatlovo, he visited The Museum of Peoples’ Glory (or something like that; Mr. UD forgets), though his main purpose was to visit significant Soltan family sites. “The woman at the museum was absolutely shocked that someone showed up wanting to see it.”

I suppose when you hold on to icons of Soviet glory past their expiration date, this sort of thing will happen:

A massive statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin collapsed on a man who was hanging from it Monday, killing him on the spot, authorities said.

The 21-year-old man was drunk when he climbed onto the five-meter (16-foot)-high plaster monument and hung from its arm, the Emergency Situations ministry said. It then broke into pieces and he was crushed.

The statue in the southeastern Belarus town of Uvarovichi was built in 1939…

Margaret Soltan, August 10, 2009 8:52PM
Posted in: kind of a little weird, snapshots from home

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4 Responses to ““Belarus is the wholly owned subsidiary of Alexander Lukashenko…”

  1. Bill Gleason Says:

    I will send this to two of my Belarusian friends, safely in the US, and see what they have to say…

    Bill

  2. RJO Says:

    A famous illustration, suitable for this post.

  3. Christopher Vilmar Says:

    What kind of cheapskate builds a plaster monument? It makes Ozymandias seem downright immortal.

  4. Van L. Hayhow Says:

    Wow. Lenin has been dead how many years? And he’s still killing people in Russia.

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UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
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truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
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Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

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Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
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