http://www.facebook.com/people/Emmy-P-Cerveny/1385850354 Emmy P. Cerveny
awesome job! Congratulations!!
ronda123
love love this song it is great
bobbradburn
I am really surprised Christine Amanpour gave a platform to this song uncritically. My dad was part of the NRO’s secret satellite programs all through the 1960′s and 1970′s, trying to prevent a nuclear holocaust. There was nothing simple about those times, and we were in much more danger, and only herculean efforts saved us. Now I hear that putting up a wall to keep political dissidents enslaved, and going to back to when we could have 80 million people die in one day, is this fellow’s fervent wish? This song is a poster-child of the ignorant and self-centered American in 2010. Nashville hasn’t been obliterated by terrorists lately, has it? Or did I miss something?
lanarus
I’m Russian-American and the last generation of the Soviet Era. Lots of things people in the US were not told about the USSR However, socialism provided people free homes and land (because it belongs to the nation, oil and natural gas also); 30 days a year guaranteed and paid vacation, medical service, hospitalization, surgeries were free, education and books were free. We even got paid stipend by going to the University. Now, I teach in the US having no worries about astronomical student debt.
Cold War: Soviet people went through the devastating World War II: human loss, destroyed land, economy – zero. Women and kids left without male support. In Russia, the demographic situation is devastating still: there are three women available for one man. We knew that we don’t want that the war happen again. I guess that’s why Soviet Union was over protecting itself. BUT: there were no local wars, drugs, prostitution. The moral values were very high. It was the COLD WAR but never real.
Let’s think about the past: due to the competition between the systems, both nations had jobs: in the US and Soviet Union. Unemployment was illegal in Russia. And in the US, employees were provided with more benefits than now in order to compete with the socialism. Economy was booming. Now: URRS collapsed and what happened with the US? Economy in the US is in a deep depression. No balance – no healthy competition.
Anyway, the song is nostalgia about the peace and stability in the world including those republics somebody mentioned before: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Chechnya/Georgia.
Do you think they love being at war, corruption and politics so many years? Or maybe their life is better than before when they had everything for free and soviets helped them to recover economy after the WWII?
And by the way, we never were told that American people are bad! Never, but the capitalistic system is exploitation of human beings (Marx and Engels) Wealth was making big money in the US, and in order to protect the capitals and credit bubbles, people in the US never ever knew the positive things about USSR. By the way, my American husband was in the US air force, and after the end of the Cold War lost his job: most of the military bases were closed.
About Gorbachev – Russian people hate him for devastated distraction he left the country and people. Real Criminal who committed crime against Russian people. They call him hunchbacked. I went through the starvation in 1992 and survived mafia-time from 1991-2001. So sad Americans do not study Russian language and can not read or watch the news or movies in Russian. An eye opening opinions and news.
Bravo Christaine, educated woman who can read between the lines and see behind the walls!
nanusia
Well, this song is nothing to celebrate — just a very child-like way of looking at the world. Times were not really simpler “back then” – it’s just that we didn’t have 24 hour news and the internet to document all the corruption in the world so people were blind to what was happening in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, etc. And hearing “Mr. Gorbachev please build up that wall” it is a great offense and insult to people in Poland, Czech and Yugo countries. Mr. Cerveny in his ignorant storybook American entitled life doesn’t seem to know the suffering of 100s of millions of people.
bobmcconnell
Accepting – hopefully – that this is suppose to be clever and funny it remains terribly ignorant of the USSR, what it was, what it did and the inhuman suffering it imposed on millions. Perhaps one large enemy was more convenient for American understanding and global planning but the reality of the Soviet Union and our genuine lack of understanding of what it was is no justification for a plea for its return. That the opportunity to watch “The Soviet Story” and you will understand the offensiveness of these lyrics to millions.
lazarus
“One very important ingredient of success is a good, wide-awake, persistent, tireless enemy.” –Frank B. Shutts
Great musicians with policital sense are always high on my list.
ilikecommoninterface
Can’t say this guy has much political sense. Gorbachev wasn’t responsible for building OR tearing down the Berlin wall.
I understand the point of the song is this guy’s longing for what he thinks was a simpler time, when our enemies were “safe” behind walls and there were recognizable borders. But, it just isn’t so any longer – so maybe he ought to write a song about bravely moving ahead into an always uncertain future.
lanarus
Well, back then, the time was very different than today. I grew up in the USSR, and know for sure there were no local wars (Chechnya, Georgia, Yugoslavia) as well as there was no paranoia about the “HOT” war. We simply did not believe that after WWII we want something else.
The Cold War was an intellectual, technological, and scientific rather than destructive. The nostalgia about the “Berlin Walls” (in the song) is just a symbol that kept the stability in the world compare to today’s bizarre situation all over the globe.
jeffkoopersmith
Bill – Keep one thing in mind Gorbachev now does double truck magazine ads for Louis Vuitton with a 6000 dollar bag sitting next to him in back of his Rolls limo. You’re right – but you are admitting the America lied along with Russia to keep the “machinery” running.
