Being truly sorry for something you didn’t do and apologising for something you might not have done is the essence of a polite and noble cricketing nation.
It’s no coincidence that the Axis powers didn’t play cricket, although Goering did get around in rather ostentatious whites. 
They were the sort of chaps who would bowl underarm 
and run a chap out. What?
That’s probably how we were run-out of the World Cup?
But, what about the emergence of the Irish?
Irish emerging in cricket now, or from the peat bogs circa 1712?
I’m of Irish, among others, descent so I can say that. Probably won’t stop me getting kneecapped though, by the IRA (Irishmen Really Annoyed).
This was the underarm to which I referred. Old inter-colonial stuff, so you probably missed it in the mother country, but New Zealand thought about declaring war on us over it. http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2001/feb/01greg.htm
Well, if he’s Chapel, he must be Welsh - what do they know of the game?
I just had a call from Dublin. They said they’ll not kneecap you - this time!
However, they asked me to warn to you that if ever you dare to use that ridiculously overused and meaningless word ‘Bog’ in relation to the good people of Ireland,again, or post any such-like comments, they will reach their hand down the cyber connection and throttle you - “Ur Oirish-Ozzy eejit!”
No, I didn’t know the meaning of the two-headed eagle.
I hear what you are saying. There are many Russians living in the UK at present. Yes, relations have become warmer, but your average Brit doesn’t take much notice of what is happening in Russia, today (hardly take any notice of what is happening in the UK). To many, Russia might as well be on another planet. Russia might not necessarily be seen as a threat, when one sits back and reasons it out. However, Russia was seen as a threat for some seventy years, or so. Communism per se was never the enemy here. The enemy was perceived to be the Soviet Union and that was the average Brits concept of communism.
This is what is ingrained in the psyche, and it will take considerable time to completely erase this ‘instinct’. I am sure that the same could be said of many people in Russia - it’s simply human nature.
Many people have little interest in history and, therefore, remain somewhat ignorant of the events of the two world wars and the Cold War (to a lesser degree). The younger generations have other, more urgent, priorities.
Exchange USA for UK…same here.
Guys! Well, thanks for getting back on the topic!
I still do not get what Rising Sun wants to discuss! As I read his post I should prove him that we are also humans with emotions and life going on. We have a saying in Russian about someone having to prove somthing obvious and still having problems exactly because it’s obvious: “Prove that you are not a camel.”
I know Rising Sun has most honorable intentions, but could his majesty elaborate a bit?
Egorka - you have got to be joking.
Before 1917 the West was scared of and from 1917 it was hostile to the USSR.
The British in India were always worried about the Russians attacking India via Afghanistan.
Churchill intensely disliked the Soviets and Stalin, during WW2 he made many references to his distrust and dislike of the Soviets. Most other Western nations felt the same - the Germans taking it to the extreme of portraying you Russians as an inferior class to be enslaved and conquered.
The 1937/38 purges were well known in the West at the time, Communism and collectivisation were feared and scorned even at the time. The British, Americans and Russians made unlikely bed fellows at the time. Safe to say that the West thought the USSR to be bad during the war but needs must.
Now, come along. You know R.S. asked you not to refer to his bloodline in public. 
People often travel to different countries. Foreigners who visit Russia for extended periods could get an idea of what things are like there.
Also why should one form a view of a place just based on its people? There are many different species in the former USSR and one can still apppreciate the native fauna regardless of their feelings towards the people.
I doubt that many Brits have any animosity towards Russians. Many friends of mine have visited Russia to enjoy the culture and architecture of cities such as St Petersburg, usually by way of a cruise. If they held bad feelings towards the people, they wouldn’t travel there.
To travel wider and more extensively would, presumably, involve a certain time and cost element neither of which most people are not able to afford.
Man of Stoat,
Don’t forget that the Gulag system predates the Communists for centuries. Even under the various czars anybody who might disagree with the government was sent to prison camps. Forced labour under inhuman conditions was used by the czars as well, see the construction of the original trans Siberian railway. Russia was also the last European country to abolish serfdom.
Lenin ansd Stalin simply used and expanded an existing system, both with the prison camps and in the way they treated the farmers.
Also, what many people forget is that Russia was a major colonial power. The only reason why most people do not see it is that the Russian colonies (former and still existing) are sharing joint borders with Russia proper.
Basically events like the Baltic states or Finland breaking away was like the movement for independence in India for the UK ( or Indonesia for the Netherlands).
Jan
Yes, sure. I just ment that if USSR was considered to be bad, it was not as much during the WW2 it self. At the end of the days we were allies, for better or worse. So I mean my impression is not that west thinks that USSR did something evil from june 1941 - Sept 1945. It is more before and after the period. But we were worn to talk only about WW2, hense my comment.
Jan,
You are awear that this is very oversimplified explanation, right? Essentially it half truth, half lie kind of thing.
I do not want to comment because it is not WW2 related as Rising Sun wants to be. 
Ok, oversimplified it might be, but I think that whatever happened in Russia between 1917 and now has it’s roots somewhere in Russian history before. It didn’t just start all with Lenin.
Jan
Open it up from whatever point anyone wants to start to the end of the Cold War, if that helps the discussion.
I’ll post something more substantial shortly.
This I absolutely agree with you. As much Communists wanted to “destroy the old world and build a new one”, they could not deal with the profound aspects of the culture that was built in the area of Russian Empier.
This connection of different epoches with all positive and negative in them, helped to go through the turmoil in 20th century.
Russian Empire had almost nothing common with USSR in 1920s and 1930s. Russia wasn’t totalitarian counrty, it didn’t use repressions in mass scales, it almost didn’t applied death penalty. Forced labor for criminals was used not only in Russia. Russia was more conservative than other european countries, that’s true. But in the beginning of 20th century Russia was on the way of modernization, and it developed with high rate. Lenin completely destroyed the existing system, and Stalin constructed the fully new one, with only similar borders.