Hi I thought I'd do a translation of a post-soviet Russian song (rap?) on the architect of shock therapy on the Russian economy after the collapse of the USSR, Yegor Gaidar. Might be of interest to leftists interested in the USSR, or might not. I will provide cultural context explanations to the best of my ability albeit it's not *all* clear to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiEeTkLc-FkArkadiy Gaidar's[1] grandson worked very hard
That's why the lazy and dirty masses hate him
He achieved success by following the precepts of Alisa Rosenbaum[2]
He wasn't taken by drink or despair like some others in Zimbabwe[3]
Winter, the hoarse voices of grandmas at the bazaar [4]
But Mr. Gaidar just started with himself [5]
He took notes from Adam Smith's works
Dissected into atoms the lives of the well-fed [the haves]
The free market, the concept of the individual,
A man is a poisonous snake to another man. [6]
And when the red distemper came to an end
He demonstrated what he learned in a practical way:
The weak, the unfit shall perish,
But their pathetic cries won't affect the will of the powerfu.
The black square of hydrocarbon [7] and a tax on your organs [8]
- those are just the right conditions for an aspiring enterpreneur
Yegor the singer is a sullen soviet supported, who read too much Platonov[9]
But our beloved Yegor is nothing like that
Giving a speech on the telly, Yegor straightens his shoulders [10]
Way back at the kindergarten, the young future narrator [of this text] looks up to the man
And one could already tell what the boy dreamt of:
that he'd one day see a man of high social status in his mirror.
Yegor has already pulled himself by the bootstraps [11]
And the boy will do that in the future too.
The white master [12] swims in money
The townfolk's eyes get red upon seeing him
- "How could this be, we worked so hard for the good of the Soviets,
We beat our competitors oversees
And yet here you are, you speculator [13]
How could this be?
This is unfair, this is outrageous [lit. "not by human standards"]!"
- "Well, you're not human anyway, you're Scythians"
Yegor probably liked poetry too
And was, in a sense, a poet himself
The architect of the new ethics
The epitome, the guide for the generation
Rob, rape, utilize, cut, weigh
Come on, boy, increase your sales!
Every boyar [14] has his own Altyntash [15] waiting for him just around the corner
Thus Gaidar moved underground, closer to his beloved oil
His funeral was attended by every other socialite [at this point Navalny is shown on screen attending]
The sunny city [16] mourns his death
One more grave at the graveyard.
A few of his fans even ended their lives [no idea who this refers to]
By starving themselves to death [?]
In his last years, Yegor was troubled by his conscience -
Alcohol turned out more influential than George Soros
Cut open your veins, if you still live with your parents!
Cut out your tongue, if you don't know the taste of black caviar!
Stab your eyes, if you haven't seen underage girls going 69!
The poor, the diseased, the apathetic - die, die, die!
Cut open your veins, if you still live with your parents!
Cut out your tongue, if you don't know the taste of black caviar!
Stab your eyes, if you haven't seen underage boys going 69!
Everyone who couldn't fit into the market - die, die, die, die, die!
Never forget the noble Yegor Gaidar's and his family
who paved the way for the deaths of millions of poor, dumb, sick Russian pigs.
[1] Yegor Gaidar, the liberal reformist that lead to Russian people's suffering, is the grandson of Arkadiy Gaidar, the communist children's writer.
[2] Ayn Rand's Russian name
[3] Russian imageboard users often call Russia compare present-day Russia to African countries for different reasons (economy, AIDS rate, Russians not looking "Aryan", resource-based economy).
[4] Conveys the atmosphere of poverty and despair
[5] "Start with yourself" is a phrase often used by Putinist propaganda to somehow "justify" Putin's madness, just like it could be used to "justify" capitalism's madness
[6] Very obviously a play on "homo homini lupus" + the ancap snake symbol. Ancap is gaining popularity among Russian youth today. I myself semi-sympathized this song when I was younger, *taking it unironically*.
[7] Not sure. Googling this expression points to an article from 2000s talking how prices are formed semi-randomly under "free market", taking "Black Square" by Malevich as an example, and then dwelling on oil prices, so maybe it was heard in the discourse some time around Gaidar's life.
[8] No idea whatsoever.
[9] Likely refers to Yegor Letov, a quasi-leftist doomer rock singer. Platonov was a communist writer skeptical of Stalin's policies.
[10] The Russian name of "Atlas shrugged" for some reason is "Atas straightened his shoulders" - so a reference to that.
[11] Again a common trope in capitalist and Putinist propaganda, justifying obscene wealth. Literally translated, "he achieved it all on his own".
[12] Again semi-Africa-related theme: Russians don't see them as white, because white in their mind = well off
[13] Speculator in Russian has a negative connotation and can be used as a semi-insult in regards to a selfish person.
[14] A type of feud. Today on Russian imageboards it is used jokingly in relation to any rich person, or to Russian state officials, perhaps to empathise that we haven't moved too far from feudalism
[15] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Andrei_Karlov
[16] Futuristic, well-maintained city in the fairty tale "Neznaika", where it probably represented the epitome of communism.