Bald–hairy is a common Russian joke that there is, apparently, a strict rule applying to the country’s politics for the latest two centuries: a bald (or balding) state leader is succeeded by a non-bald (‘hairy’) one, and vice versa. Whilst this pattern is most likely a coincidence, it has held true since 1825 (with the exception of Georgy Malenkov, who was Premier of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1955), starting from Nicholas I. However, some videos of Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference showed that he was balding.
Nicholas I’s son Alexander II formed the first ‘bald–hairy’ pair of the sequence with his father. The current pair of Russian rulers are the balding Vladimir Putin and the hairy Dmitry Medvedev. Putin was the president from 2000 until 2008, Medvedev held the post until 2012, and Putin became president again in 2012.
read more »
The Daily Omnivore 