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What read Russian and Persian classics?
Are you kidding.
Americans dont even read their own classics.
I read Steinbeck's The grapes of wrath,and Pearl S Buck Good Earth,when I lived in the old Country in 1968.My kid who is born in the USA does not even care who Steinbeck is,and probably never heard of Perls S.Buck.

We should keep perspective on the matter of Russia. It is a brutal authoritarian state but is not as perverse as China.

If you had a choice, would you prefer to live in Russia or China? I choose Russia.

Here's why.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/29/news/food.php

Chinese society is rife with dishonest, morally repugnant people. If they can make a fast buck while harming you, they will do so.

The Chinese regularly export contaminated food -- including infant formula -- to the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can catch only a few of the contaminated food crates because the FDA does not have the manpower to test each crate of Chinese food.

The label "Made in China" is equivalent to a skull and cross bones -- a warning of lethality.

Note that Russia does not have the same degree of dishonesty. When was the last time that you heard of a Russian company using human hair as an ingredient in soy sauce?

It is heartening to hear such a message from Hungary. The use of fear to motivate the population to vote in their direction is a too often used strategy in US politics. Rather than engage the world, friend and enemies, in useful discussion with the goal of ameliorating differences, the current administration, and by proxy the political core of their party, seek to promote democracy in a rather imperialist fashion. Why not, as the author of the original letter suggests, learn more about these other cultures in the attempt to better understand THEIR dreams and needs rather than impose ours upon them. Would this not gain their greater admiration? Granted, the situation in Israel, Palestine, and Iraq has already descended below the line of civility, and such measures are beyond the hatred fomented in their rising generations. Nevertheless, we should attempt to give peace a chance through respect of cultures foreign to our own.

Sorry, we in America are too busy watching gangster rap on MTV as we consume McDonald's calories to expand our horizons. Have no time to read, let alone time to understand Pushkin or Omar Khayyam. Are they available as books on tape, in English?

To understand the relationship between Russia and the West, we must first understand the state of Russian society. On April 15, a group of peaceful demonstrators in St. Petersburg walked to the site of a peaceful demonstration, at which they pleaded for the government to become more democratic. In response, Russian special-forces police popped out of nowhere and charged the crowd of demonstrators. They beat the living daylights of them. Police took batons and beat an innocent bystander -- over and over and over. He was covered in blood.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18246918/site/newsweek/

The shocked "Newsweek" reporter wrote, "In St. Petersburg, a police baton broke former city Duma deputy Sergei Gulayev's hand in five places. Police chased down and beat every pedestrian they could, including pensioners. ... [Aleksandr] Kazantsev suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung after a policeman kicked him repeatedly."

Visit the following Web link to see a video of Russian police brutality.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/15/kremlin.protesters/index.html

What is most shocking is that most Russians did nothing to condemn the actions of the government. What kind of heartless animal would remain silent after the Russian government nearly pummels innocent bystanders to death?

I condemn Russia.

I doubt the Israelis would agree with your assessment of Iran as posing no serious threat.