@sneakypete
Interesting . Thank you. Even though technically, communism is gone in Russia, I still think of Putin as a communist dictator and as such, I would have expected he and the current government would have disarmed the citizenry. Perhaps the Russians are more enlightened on this issue than a whole bunch of Americans.
@Applewood That's really hard to judge because for so many decades and so many generations Russians grew up knowing to not talk truthfully to anyone but immediate family,and sometimes not even then. One of my Russian friends,who has now died,grew up in what was "privileged" conditions with access to all the good schools (he became an engineering professor) because his father was a KGB Major,but he told me his mother told him his father had his own house and telephone bugged,so be VERY careful what he said to his friends he had over,or on the telephone. He served a tour in East Germany as a Soviet signals officer,and was an absolute gun nut. First time I met him in person was in his apartment with his wife,who was a linguistics professor,he pulled down a huge book from his bookcase,put in on the kitchen table,and said,"Now tell me what guns you have! " No matter what I said,he would instantly answer "Oh,Yes,page 713!",or whatever page it was,and then flip to that page and ask me if I agreed with the description and the opinions printed about that gun. He loved the idea that I was a gunsmith. Yet,the only gun he owned was a BB gun that he would use to break up dog or cat fights.
Even though Yeltsin had made it possible for anyone without a criminal record to own and store guns at home by them,he was terrified of owning an actual gun. He told me "Yes,it is legal today,but will it be legal tomorrow,and what will the police of tomorrow do to people who have guns?"
I even invited him and his wife to come to the US to visit with me and take him to gun ranges where he could even rent machine guns to shoot if he wanted,plus be able to shoot my guns right out in my yard,but never could get him to come. Not even after offering to pay his airfare. I think that after growing up in a KGB house,he remained afraid of them right up until the day he died.
I think maybe his happiest moment was when I sent him blueprints so he could make his own metal detector. It had been illegal for Russians to own anything like that under the communists,and you couldn't even buy one in Russia. He had a ton of fun and found a bunch of antique coins and other stuff with the metal detector during the next summer when he and his wife would travel up the Volga in his sailboat,and visit the towns that Stalin killed by rounding up all the villagers and moving them to cities so he could keep an eye on them better. He told me that Russians would historically hide their coins (the only kind of money they had back in per-Revolutionary times, under the fireplace,so he found a LOT of antique coins on these trips with his metal detector. Also knives,tools,and other items he could sell to collectors. He had already made and sold at least 3 metal detectors to frieinds from the plans I sent him,and was talking about maybe starting a metal detector business before he died.
He died from drinking too much of the bathtub vodka he was making and selling,according to his wife. VERY bright and friendly guy,and his wife was every bit as smart as him. Maybe even smarter. She was half-Mari. The only Mari left anywhere are the very few in the Mari Republic in Russia,and a few who live in northern Finland.
In case you don't know,the Mari were "Russia's Indians". Red skin,buckskins,birch bark canoes,teepees,feathers in their hair,the whole bit. They were already living in the area of Russia now known as the Mari Republic when the first Vikings came rolling through Russia on their way south. Pretty much disappeared as a ethnic group due to Stalin moving tens of thousands of "White Russians" into the Mari Republic in the 30's,and put them and the native Mari in the same apartment blocks. Boys and girls did what boys and girls do,and the result is there are virtually no ACTUAL "red" Russians living today. If it is still up,there is a Mari Republic web page that shows the Mari Museum and tells more about the local history.
Probably more than you wanted to know,but I am a history freak and get enthusiastic about this crap.
