PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG OF SINGAPORE (b. February 10, 1952)

LEE HSIEN LOONG

b. February 10, 1952

THIRD PRIME MINISTER OF SINGAPORE

August 12, 2004-Present

Son of Current Minister Mentor

(and First Prime Minister of Singapore,

June 3, 1959-November 28, 1990)

LEE KUAN YEW

HELEN THOMAS TAKES ON BARACK OBAMA

HELEN THOMAS

TAKES ON BARACK OBAMA

HELEN THOMAS

IN HER UPI

WHITE HOUSE OFFICE 

BACK IN THE DAY 

Howard Kurtz points out in today's Washington Post that Hearts 

columnist (and long-time UPI reporter) Helen Thomas has

challenged President Obama's attempt to duck his most

knowledgeable questioners by avoiding White House press

conferences. Kurtz quotes Thomas as saying that the president

has "gone an obscenely long time, not holding one."

And then there is Ms. Thomas's recent column's stark opening 
assertion: "President Barack Obama does have a foreign policy.  It’s called war." 

THE PACK TURNS ON HELEN THOMAS, here 

PETER THE GREAT b. June 9, 1672

PETER THE GREAT

June 9, 1672-February 8, 1725

"THE BRONZE HORSEMAN"

Monument to Peter the Great

by E.M. Falconet

The subject of Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman":

"Behold the Image sit, and ride

Upon his brazen horse astride!"

Of the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, the poet writes:

"I love thee, city of Peter's making;

I love thy harmonies austere...."

(from the English translation here;

the original Russian can be found here).

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN UKRAINE II

IN HONOR OF

THE UKRAINIAN ELECTIONS II

With the second round of the Ukrainian elections today, and

all the talk about which direction Kyiv will take, here is a

photograph of two girls and bows in Kiev in 1984.

One of a series from Back in the USSR,

to be published in HERE BE GIANTS.

RONALD REAGAN (February 6, 1911-June 5, 2004)

RONALD REAGAN 

CHAIRS A CABINET MEETING 

AT THE WHITE HOUSE 

RONALD WILSON REAGAN 

40th President of the United States 

February 6, 1911-June 5, 2004

AL KOOPER: "Get your kicks at Al’s 66th"

AL KOOPER

b. February 5, 1944

Could he be channeling Beethoven?

Photographed at Sanders Theatre,

Harvard (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

"NEW YORK CITY, NY -

BB KINGS - FEBRUARY 5TH, 2010

Ahhh, the annual birthday bash !!!

Get your kicks at Al’s 66th !!"

ONCE MORE BACK IN THE USSR: IRKUTSK THIS TIME

ONCE MORE BACK IN THE USSR

THIS TIME

IRKUTSK (1990)

"HAVE I GOT A TOMATO FOR YOU"

VOLGOGRAD: STALINGRAD AFTER THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD & AFTER STALIN

VOLGOGRAD:

STALINGRAD AFTER

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

& AFTER STALIN

A city so reduced to rubble in the Great Patriotic War

(World War II) that some thought it not worth

re-building, came to life with typical Soviet

construction (and typical Russian touches?).

Here is a scene from downtown Volgograd in 1984.

"HERE BE GIANTS"

VICTORY IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

VICTORY IN

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

FEBRUARY 2, 1943

In Volgograd (the former Stalingrad), in 1984, in the

then Soviet Union, a boy checks out an airplane from

the Great Patriotic War (World War II) Battle of

Stalingrad.

Other monuments from that turning part in the war

against Nazi Germany are to be found here and here.

"HERE BE GIANTS"

BORIS YELTSIN BORN IN BUTKA, FEBRUARY 1, 1931

BUTKA, RUSSIA

THE BIRTHPLACE OF

BORIS YELTSIN

Butka, Russia, the village in which Boris Yeltsin was born on February 1, 1931, in what was then the USSR, photographed sixty years later, in 1991, when Yeltsin was already president of Russia

BORIS YELTSIN

ORIGINS

Character and personality matter in a political leader. Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin's were formed in hard times common to many, with particularities specific to him. He was the son of peasants, born during the Soviet Great Depression of collectivization, with his family forced to move off the land to survive. He was to have a taste of the Soviet sweet as well as the sour: his father received only four years of education, and his mother never went to school except for evening classes at work -- but he himself managed to attend college and be graduated as an engineer.

That Yeltsin was almost drowned while being baptized is part of his legend. His mother, Klavdia Vasil'evna Yeltsin, implicitly blames this happenstance on the rules within which rural religious were forced to live. When he was born, on February 1, 1931, baptisms were allowed only once a month, so there was quite a queue, with each family bringing a toast for the priests. By the time it was Baby Yeltsin's turn, the two priests were rather tipsy, and forgot to lift the infant out of the baptismal tub. His mother cried out and saved him.

Her son's rebellions against authority (in school and out) are also part of the story he tells. What is less often remarked upon is the family structure. Boris was the first child, and for a significant amount of time an only child. His siblings were widely spaced, with a brother, Mikhail (Misha), six years younger and a sister, Valentina (Valya), thirteen years younger. So he grew up without any immediate peers in his family, and, as his mother tells it, accustomed to much responsibility for a child.

To be continued in: RUSSIA REDUX