There is reason as to each of the days of us – the team members of Blitz is compared with the term ‘Russian roulette’. For those who may not have heard the meaning of ‘Russian roulette’ — for those esteemed readers, let me first explain the meaning. Russian roulette (Русская рулетка), or Russkaya ruletka is a potentially lethal game of chance in which a player places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against the head or body (of the opponent or themselves), and pulls the trigger. If the loaded chamber aligns with the barrel, the weapon will fire, killing or severely injuring the player. Russian refers to the supposed country of origin, and roulette to the element of risk-taking and the spinning of the revolver’s cylinder, which is evocative of a roulette wheel.
According to Andrew Clarke, the first trace of Russian roulette can be found in the short story “The Fatalist”, which was written in 1840 and was part of the collection A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, a Russian poet and writer In the story, which is set in a Cossack village, the protagonist, Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin, claims that there is no predestination and proposes a bet in order to prove it, laying about twenty gold pieces onto a table.
A lieutenant of the dragoons of the Tsar, Vulič, a man of Serbian origins with a passion for gambling, accepts the challenge and randomly takes one of a number of pistols of various calibres from its nail, cocks it and pours gunpowder onto the pan. Nobody knows if the pistol is loaded or not.
“Gentlemen! Who will pay 20 gold pieces for me?”, Vulič asks, putting the muzzle of the pistol to his forehead. He then asks Grigory to throw a card in the air, and when this card touches the ground, he pulls the trigger. The weapon fails to fire, but when Vulič cocks the pistol again and aims it at a service cap hanging over the window, a shot rings out and smoke fills the room.
However, the first appearances of the term in newspapers began in 1938 with reports of young men attempting it, often in party settings and with horrified girlfriends or wives looking on. The earliest instance appears to have been a former journalism student in Austin, Texas as reported in The Austin Statesman and other Texas newspapers of January 8, 1938.
Blitz and Russian roulette
Russian roulette is a game which is commonly associated with six-shot revolvers. In our case, we can make it twelve – as the year comprises of 12 months. As we know, the term Russian roulette became a metaphor for taking foolhardy risks and its usage steadily increased in reportage of diplomacy, politics, economics, corruption, nepotism, medicine and sports.
Yes, since publication of Blitz in 2003, we have been always taking foolhardy risks – where everyday we fight for survival. Although advertisements are considered lifeline for any newspaper in the world, in the past almost two decades – we did not receive even a single advertisement for our print edition. People don’t place their advertisements in Blitz simply because we publish “unpopular opinion”. And most importantly, we never have received even a single penny from anyone as grant, despite the fact, Blitz plays a vital role in confronting religious extremism, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and promotes interfaith harmony. This is the ONLY newspaper in the entire Muslim world that has been publishing unbiased and un-molested news and articles on Middle Eastern issues and never have accepted juicy offers from Qatar and Iran in particular. During the past almost two decades, some Arab investors wanted to buy this newspaper or at least make us agreed to shift our editorial policy and stop defending Israel. For obvious reason – we did not agree.
In the recent time, we have similar approaches of abandoning our ongoing coverage of Ukraine affairs, where we publish truth against massive propaganda run by the local and international media, mostly portraying Russia as a monster. We are the only newspaper, which exhibits the audacity of publishing prolific news and articles on ongoing Ukraine war. Similarly, we don’t buy the unhealthy rhetoric of the American and Western media that portrays Joe Biden as a Messiah. Instead, we have been consistently exposing crimes and corruptions of the Biden family. We are exposing Joe Biden – the most dangerous president in the history of the United States.
As we have entered a new year – 2023 – while majority of the newspapers would think about expansion or celebrating their achievements of the past year, to us – the new year is just another round of being in Russian roulette. We shall have to face series of challenges, odds and hurdles to survive. At this junction, we of course are eternally grateful to our valued readers who are visiting our online edition every day – reading our contents, and mostly sharing on social media. Readers are our only strength. They may not pay as our online edition is offered free of charges – they give us the encouragement of continuing our foolhardy risks.
Blitz may not be a big publication. But we are proud to be distinctively different. Happy New Year!
