THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

One example of the difficulty of playing a big lie was recently shown in the exposure of a recent Russian government lie.

A heroic young ethnic Russian nurse, working the front lines of the war between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia separatists, was captured by the Ukrainians. After dragging her back to their camp and abusing her (in such a vile manner that the description is no more specific, though it is noted that “they recorded their fun on video”), one of the Ukrainian soldiers grabbed an ax and decapitated her.

The name of the heroic nurse is given on the “Aid for Donbas” page as Sasha Serova, and while they don’t give her age, they do run a photo showing a beautiful dark-haired woman, with surprisingly come-hither eyes.

Or not so surprising. The actual surprise was to Sasha Grey (in Russian, that would be Serova), the woman in the photo. Sasha Grey, though, is the adult-film star name for Marina Ann Hantzis. She lives in California, has made at least 171 porn films and her porn awards include Best Group Sex Scene in 2007 (with 19 others), Best Oral Sex scene in 2008 and Best Anal Sex scene in 2010. The German newspaper Die Welt headlined an article about her “The Dirtiest Girl in the World.” The article, in 2013, noted that she was retiring from the porn game at 25. She turns 27 next month.

When Grey saw the postings, and realized that she was the tragically murdered nurse, she noted on her Twitter account: “I love my Russian fans, but this propaganda takes it too far.”

While she once starred in a porno film called “Nurses,” which runs 197 minutes, she is still very much alive and intact. She’s even got a book out these days.

While she may be the sort of nurse you want when sick or injured, social media quickly exposed the lie. Nevertheless, the story will probably not die because there is a large segment of society these days that only sees what it wants to see.