About one vague story, which still stays vague...
( a manuscript, pulled from under the pillow )

     ...Russia came across an issue of  foretelling-where  should
we anticipate problems from?
        Anyone who is  interested  in  our  history  knows  about
mysterious trips to Tibet, arranged by the Russian Main Political
Bureau.  What were Russian spies looking for? The thing  is  that
not all the agents of MPB knew it as such.  For the close  circle
of the informed this governmental body was  known  as  the  State
Foretelling Bureau. Its profile was far from foretelling weather.
By the way, The State plan of the USSR of the Brezhnev's time was
a weak attempt to recreate similar historical body, but  we  will
talk about it later.  If we look from  this  perspective  at  the
expeditions, then we will see without a doubt that their  efforts
were targeted at gathering ancient  mystic  knowledge  about  the
structure of the universe and the  possibilities  of  foretelling
its pace.
        At that particular time the young country was practically
left without any information about the ways which were  used  for
such  purposes  in  the  Czar  Russian  Empire.  Due    to    the
understandable secrecy  of  this  procedure  the  circle  of  the
informed would be always narrow;  they  form  a  close  community
where you can be only recommended as a successor to its  members,
if  you  wish  to  get  there.  So  the  information  about   the
predecessors was virtually unavailable  except  for  some  report
documents addressed to the name  of  the  Emperor  and  by  their
contents one could guess about the  existence  of  such  service.
(These documents are still classified).
        By the way,  a  very  interesting  situation  looms  out.
Everyone knows that in any medieval European country  there  were
always court astrologists, who gave counseling on,  either  state
affairs or family issues of the monarchs.  Everybody is  familiar
with the name of  Nostradamus.  We  all  know  about  the  famous
horoscope of Wagenstein made by Kepler.  The same thing could  be
said about ancient China.  It is not a secret what  power  native
shamans had on the American Continent.  Not lesser role was given
to priests-foretellers in ancient Greece and Egypt.  These people
always stayed by the side  of  the  authorities,  in  fact  never
mixing with them.  But in Russian practice there  were  sagacious
elders, monks, "God's fools" always staying by the side of  grand
dukes and the authority asked their blessing for  each  important
event ..  By the way, these people almost  never  took  important
postings in church hierarchy.  And if we take a look  at  Russian
fairy  tales,  we  will  be  able  to  notice,  that  they  often
introduced  some  characters  of  roaming  elders  who  precisely
foretold how and what should happen. They couldn't just appear in
fairy tales if they didn't exist in real life. And suddenly these
characters start to disappear.
        We don't hear much about them.  Only rarely some snippets
of information sneak out like, for example, the fact, that Hitler
had a personal astrologist.  Nevertheless, astrology and  fortune
telling with Taro cards  and  many  other  foretelling  practices
exist and flourish up till now.  And it is an  interesting  fact,
that we don't get surprised when we  see  a  serious  businessman
resorting to the help of a fortune teller, but for some reason in
our conscious we can't relate it to  state  structures.  However,
this theme line would be more ideal for a psychological research.
        And after the flourishing of  mysticism  and  maximum  of
freedom of thinking of the first  post  revolutionary  years  (it
becomes obvious from looking at the tendencies  in  the  painting
art, poetry of those years) the young Soviet Russia moves to such
a primitive form of materialism, surprise as it may seem (what by
the way doesn't get reflected in the same  art  of  painting  and
poetry).  In fact, Stalin who was at the country' rule  at  those
times wasn't a stranger to mysticism, in  fact  practiced  it  to
some certain extent. It is a well known fact, that he changed his
birth date and from some rather delicate, but comprehensive facts
we could assume that he applied  the  principles  of  cabbalistic
practices in his long-term strategy.
        So what was it? Perhaps,  the  distracting  maneuver  and
Stalin was a master of these things.  Or maybe he was putting  to
practice the thesis of Dao De Czin:
        "In ancient times, those who followed Dao  didn't  inform
people about it, but made them ignorant.  It is difficult to rule
people, if they have a lot of knowledge..." (N 65).
        But let's get back to the 20-s.  There were always  tight
deadlines for a  specific  task  to  combine  ultra  contemporary
methods with the most ancient traditions.  Unique manuscripts had
been brought from Tibetan expeditions as  well  as  people  who'd
been passing on the knowledge (at those times there were a lot of
people who sympathized with a young republic).  Nowadays we  have
access to some information about the mystic circles of the  20-s,
and one of its initiators was a high official,  spy  Gleb  Bokiy,
who at the same time was in charge of keeping the state's secrets
and high clearance cable correspondence.  There was some  testing
being done in those circles and the  future  candidates  for  the
role of the main political foretellers would drop out or pass. We
can't ignore the fact that Stalin was the main initiator and idea
inspirator for these works.  But he stayed behind the  scene,  at
the backstage,  which  points  at  his  thoughtfulness  and  keen
insight.
        By the way the main rival of Stalin -  Hitler  introduced
some similar policy.  It is an interesting fact, that in  Germany
both before and after the Nazis came to power there  were  secret
mystic circles (  in  particular,  the  wide  spread  well  known
Anannerbe with "the cream" of the  German  society  in  it).  The
special services also would arrange  trips  to  Tibet.  In  fact,
after the Reich's office had  been  captured,  three  corpses  of
Tibetan monks were found there.  And this was only the surface of
the iceberg.
        In Russia these were the  times  of  searches,  attempts,
trial runs, mistakes.  In particular, the status  of  the  future
foretellers turned out to be the major problem,  should  they  be
the state or military officers or should they be of some sort  of
a special entity? Strangers to the subject of  foretelling  would
think this issue sort of far fetched but it  was  not  quite  so.
Moreover, in certain cases this issue  was  the  key  one.  Every
physicist knows that measuring of any quant  of  the  environment
brings changes to the  measured  characters.  And  the  issue  of
foretelling without a doubt is more sensitive to the  process  of
making the measuring.  And it is not of the least  importance  of
who these foretellers are. Due to the fact that foretelling dealt
with most of it  state  issues  and  therefore  the  relationship
between the foretellers and the state were extremely important.
        We don't have any authentic resources which  would  point
at the ways this issue was solved at those  times.  According  to
some indirect information we could conclude, that repressions  of
the  thirties  were  carried  out  with  the  attempt  of  direct
involvement of the foretellers in the process. Most of the issues
on  political  state  of  the  country    didn't    find    their
understanding. The foretellers used different thinking categories
and couldn't comprehend what they  were  asked.  Therefore  their
subsequent  drop  out  from  the  state  structures  led  to  its
helplessness during the early period of the Great  Patriotic  War
(World War2). However, as it follows from the historic materials,
eventually, some sort of compromise was reached.  This  topic  is
very voluminous and has yet to find its researchers.
        Without a doubt, I-Czin was one of the key instruments of
foretelling for some reason.  It is an ancient  Chinese  teaching
from the "Book of changes" which in old times was used  in  China
for similar purposes. It could be possible, that Bolsheviks liked
the book  for  a  lot  of  reasons,  including  its  name,  which
expressed the very spirit of the revolution. The vivid example of
the state's position  on  this  problem  is  the  life  story  of
Shutskiy, who subsequently became a well  known  orientalist.  By
the way,  we  could  also  note  that  his  translation  in  that
particular period of time was not the only one, and most  of  his
works  and  translations  on  the  direct  application  of    the
methodology still bear a high clearance status.
        What are  the  examples,  the  traits  of  these  special
Bureau's researches?
        The country, which was going through its industrial rise,
which chose the  appropriate  way  of  development  couldn't  use
ancient methods as a foretelling technique.  To  put  it  simple,
foretelling on the leaves of the milfoil  wasn't  appropriate  to
the spirit of the time.  There  was  a  need  in  something  new,
global, industrial and collective.  The new way was  supposed  to
reflect mass culture and mechanism of the merciless  strength  of
statistics. And in the long run it was found.
        Let's take a close look at the major project during those
years  -  the  building  of  the  Moscow  Underground  under  the
management of Lasar  Kaganovich,  who  was  the  closest  aid  to
Stalin.  In this case even at first observation of the structure,
including trains and all other unique details for those times for
this  specific  kind  of  transportation  allows  revealing   its
similarity with some sort of a mechanism.  This  kind  of  system
could be used in many different purposes,  however,  we  are  now
interested in its foretelling  aspect.  It  satisfies  clear  but
strict requirements: there is a  solid  structure  and  there  is
"randomly" changing variables, filling of  the  content.  By  the
way, the metro corresponded to the spirit of the  "chief  of  the
nation" - the underground was always associated with the  mystery
and mysticism.  It is not surprising, that Stalin personally took
an active part in it, even up to designing the stations.
        It's difficult to say what  came  first  -  the  idea  to
create a huge foretelling instrument, which realized  the  spirit
of the time or an ideally suitable for  the  foretellers  object,
which they came across in  their  searches  and  introduced  some
changes to it later on.  Nevertheless, we could  definitely  say,
that this invention was soviet. Neither one of world's metros was
used for such purposes before.  A lot of details of  this  device
pointed at it very clearly and so did the contents of the objects
of the metro in other countries.
        Perhaps, we should briefly mention necessary elements  of
foretelling  for  those,  who  are  unfamiliar  with  the  I-Czin
technique.  The key element is a hexagram. Speaking the  language
of mathematics it is an ordered combination of 6  elements  which
possess two characters (i.e.  double code). Overall there are  64
characters.  These two states are called Ying and Yang. They  are
designated appropriately as a whole horizontal line, torn in two.
A hexagram visually looks like a column of 6 lines. Besides, each
line  can  be  "young"  or  "old"  and  corresponds  directly  to
"changes", i.e.  the process of floating of one hexagram into the
other. Therefore, a very small order of elements according to the
number (64) allows  modeling  and  considering  huge  numbers  of
possible situations.  To understand the way these processes work,
we could refer to some additional literature.  Our interest  here
is in the very process of getting the hexagram.
        It is  a  well  known  fact,  that  taking  pictures  was
prohibited in metro for a rather long period time  and  for  film
making purposes the footage with the metro were to  be  consulted
with  special  state  institutions.  Everyone  knows  about   the
continuation of the construction works during  the  war  and  the
existence of the governmental city under the ground.  It is not a
secret,  that  there  were  bomb  shelters  there  for  emergency
situations, including war.  But all these  objects  were  just  a
cover for something  which  caused  an  interest  of  the  higher
political  institutions  to  the  metro.  Therefore,   a    super
confidential object was accessible to everyone with its basic and
perhaps main secret staying unrevealed.
        Few people would question why metro trains have 6 benches
and 6 seats. And if we add, that traditionally Yang is associated
with a male beginning and Ying  with  a  female  one?  There  is,
however, a little difficulty in defining  between  young  or  old
Ying but it is not an issue  for  the  specialists.  The  natural
orientation of the hexagram was assigned by the direction of  the
train.  And  if  we  recall  vague  writings  like  "Places   for
passengers  with  children"...then  everything  falls  back  into
place.  There is only one technical detail though. How would  the
foreteller get the information from the  required  point  of  the
Metro at the required moment of time?(The choice of the place and
time is related to a foretelling technology and take  us  further
away from  the  topic  of  discussion,  although  it  is  a  very
interesting issue).
        "Human resources are a key to everything!"  Everyone  was
familiar with this famous  Stalin's  slogan.  However,  its  true
sense hides in a totally different direction.  And really,  there
was a need in a hexagram or the order  of  hexagrams  with  every
controversial situation or  any  other  which  required  decision
making and therefore the estimation of the sequences of a certain
approach.  It is clear that the members of the  foretelling  team
and those of the Political Bureau never  used  metro  themselves.
There was a special group of  the  Bureau  working  there,  which
delivered photo shots from the required place of the metro. After
getting these issues all arguments was senseless - the final word
was given to Stalin who considered the forecast in  his  own  way
and made decisions.
        Besides we can't ignore the choice of trains'  directions
in the Moscow underground, which was  far  from  being  randomly.
Here we can see the obvious influence of the  foretelling  group.
So the astrologists say about the  clear  correspondence  of  the
branches of the Moscow metro to the Zodiac signs.  If we look  at
the scheme of the movement, then we can instantly notice that all
directions (rather evenly) are  used  (geographically).  Besides,
there is a rather important element  -  the  circle  line,  which
separates the external from the internal.  It is obvious that for
the forecasts related to different countries, the stations of the
metro were chosen on the appropriate  distance  from  the  circle
line which symbolized "the closer circle"; by the way  this  very
terminology went through many situations and therefore could mean
different things.  Thus if there was an issue about the  internal
problems of the country then it symbolized the capital or the top
of the party.  On the international level it corresponded to  our
country.
        After focusing all the power in his hands by the  end  of
his life Stalin started to noticeably restrict the access to  the
foretellers and many at the top of the ruling  power  never  knew
anything about it at all (they were deprived of major lever  arms
of power) or didn't take  "strange  inclinations"  of  the  first
Bolsheviks seriously.
        After the death of the  "father  of  people",  Khrushchev
attempted to move on to softer forms  of  foretelling.  In  fact,
many peoples of the world have a taboo  on  "meddling"  with  the
depth of the earth; the underground is considered far from  being
the best place and is  associated  with  hell,  evil,  gloom  and
fears.
        The authorities of the country came across the  question,
if the previous period was somehow related to the  gloom  of  the
underground mechanism of foretelling to some considerable extent?
        And Nikita Sergeevich, a rather decisive person tried  to
introduce  some  innovations  to  this  mechanism.  However,  the
foretelling on the corn stems similar to that of a milfoil of the
ancient Chinese obviously didn't work.  Possibly it led to such a
failing end.
        Brezhnev  in  his  turn  made  an  attempt  to  create  a
"bureaucratic" foretelling mechanism in the  form  of  the  State
Plan.  But unfortunately the form,  which  was  plotted  for  the
generation of  the  random  events  (  in  the  form  of  orders,
directions, ideally kept secret) was understood in a  wrong  way,
to be more precise came out of  control  and  these  orders  were
simply carried out, which led to the poorest results.  The  state
body, which was authorized to bring in the dynamism, according to
the name of "The  book  of  Changes"  turned  into  its  complete
contrary  version  and  became  the  source   of    "stagnation".
Apparently, there is no sense to discuss  the  ways,  which  were
used to generate events in the State Plan, since it  wouldn't  be
possible to repeat this unsuccessful  experience.  But  the  main
result of gained experience  pointed  to  the  necessity  in  the
instrument of foretelling  on  the  governmental  level  and  its
correspondence to the spirit of the time. And, if we proceed from
the most recent events, it is yet to be created at least  in  its
improved form.
        "...Russia where are you running? Answer me.  There is no
answer."
        Not everything is as pessimistic as some  classic  writer
put it.  There is an answer and our  task  is  to  take  it  from
nature.  Although this issue is not simple, it requires patience,
accuracy and along  this  decisiveness  and  persistence  in  its
search.  Russia  without  a  doubt  is  one  of  the  perspective
countries in this sense.  What would be the fundament of the  new
system? Would that be checked in  practice  I-Czin,  European  or
Indian astrology, Maya mystic  calendar,...,  or  maybe  we  will
invent something new in the new century ?