Those Hilarious Russians: Humor intertwined with politics: a survey.

• Author: Desai, Padma

Russian political humor was the subject of several lectures I gave during a tour of Australia in 2012 as a guest of the Australian Economic Association. Here I go further and put Russian political humor in a comparative perspective, which illuminates the special nature that sets it apart.

Russian humor is closely intertwined with Russian politics, with what Russians call anekdot directed at the Russian way of life under communism or at specific political figures such as Khrushchev and Brezhnev.

JOKES ABOUT COMMUNISM

Both funny and sad, these jokes that reflect the cynicism of the Russian population which had to live under the communist system that flourished oppressively under Lenin and then Stalin, down to recent times despite the revisionism of Khrushchev and Gorbachev.

Question put to Radio Armenia: "Is it possible to build communism in a capitalist country like, say, Netherlands?

Answer: "Yes, but what have the Netherlands ever done to you?"

An Israeli father is asked what his three sons are doing. "The eldest is in Moscow." "What is he doing?" "Building socialism." The second son is in Bulgaria. "Doing what?" "He is building socialism." Where is the third son? "He is here in Israel." "Is he building socialism?" "What do you mean? Israel is our own country." (Cynical observers note that, for many socialists, socialism is for export, not for oneself. These socialists are therefore often described contemptuously and in jest as "long-distance revolutionaries.")

A Visit to Hell: A Russian communist is being shown around hell for a preview by the devil. In one cell, Lenin is being whipped. In the next cell, Stalin is being flayed alive. In the third cell, Gina Lollobrigida is sitting on the lap of Walter Ulbricht of East Germany.

The Russian says: "I want the last cell when I am sent to hell."

"Ah," the devil says: "you do not understand. That is not Ulbricht's cell. It is Gina Lollobrigida's cell."

A buyer puts down money for a car to be delivered ten years later. He asks: "Morning or evening?" The bureaucrat handling the transaction says: "Ten years later, what difference does it make?" The man answers: "The plumber is coming in the morning."

JOKES ABOUT SOVIET LEADERS

Joseph Stalin gave a speech where he said: "I am prepared to give my blood for the cause of the working class, drop by drop." A note is passed to him from the audience: "Why...