Bryan

“By choosing Christianity rather than Islam, Volodymyr cast Rus’s ambitions for ever in Europe rather than Asia, and by taking Christianity from Byzantium rather than Rome he bound the future Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians together in Orthodoxy, fatally dividing them from their Catholic neighbours the Poles.”
― Anna Reid, Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine

“I think television with two channels - one on a political speech, on the other a Russian film -- must be the cheapest and most inhuman means to effectively make people stupid.”
― Iva Pekárková, Truck Stop Rainbows

“I've never collected souvenirs. But if I could, I'd save the white of beautiful nights in a little pouch on my chest, the way Indians keep the scents of the prairie.”
― Iva Pekárková, Truck Stop Rainbows

“A totalitarian regime thus has one political party, one educational system, one artistic creed, one centrally planned economy, one unified media, and one moral code. In a totalitarian state there are no independent schools, no private businesses, no grassroots organizations, and no critical thought.”
― Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956