History is full of stories of people underestimating the Russians and suffering for it. Two notables are Napoleon and Hitler. At the beginning of WWII, two countries were underestimated: the U.S. and USSR. Britain lived up to its reputation, France was overestimated, and Japan and Germany way overestimated their own power and abilities. Everyone thought the Americans where too soft and lazy to fight.

Of the major participants in WWII, only Ethiopia was more backward than the USSR in regards to technology and equipment when the war started. However, while the Russians may be a backward country, Russians are not a backward people. There’s some very intelligent genes coursing through their veins. By the end of the war, Russia produced the best tank of WWII. Everybody copied them.

Russia put a listening device in the American Embassy that took the best U.S. geeks years to not only find it but to figure out how it worked. Some of the earliest work in stealth technology came from a Russian scientist. Not even the commie government realized until it was too late how sensitive that information was when it was published in a scientific journal.

The 20th century has been called the American century. Whose century the 21st will be is yet to be determined. Laugh at the Russia’s crude attempt at being hipped or whatever is the latest usage for the word “cool” but don’t take them for granted or underestimate their potential.