#and theres some soviet propaganda there

[woman-respecter]

hi, i'm the soviet jewry anon

there's so much to kvetch about, i dont know where to begin

i was gonna traumadump but im gonna rant about jewish history instead

well ever since i noticed activism becoming an internet trend i knew we were doomed cuz a part of soviet antisemitism is an intellectualisation of jew hatred (that's why stalin would publicly condemn antisemitism and then be antisemitic in a manner he could treat as just "anti nationalism not antisemitism"). first of all jewishness/antisemitism is already so complex which means it's really easy for people (jews and non-jews) to misunderstand it and harm us. so when i saw people quickly latching on to binaries such as the oppressed/oppressor and good/bad and removing all nuance, i knew things were gonna go downhill. yes all forms of hatred are very complex but in my opinion even the most basic forms of antisemitism like "jews control the world!" aren't properly grasped by gentiles which strengthens antisemitism since they're so ignorant about us lol. this is particularly dangerous because most people have never met a jew or know much about us and we are only like .2% of the world. what's worse is that they view us through a culturally christian lens as well instead of seeing us for who we really are.

the phrase antisemitism makes you stupid is too real. it feels like a stupidity epidemic has really made itself clear with the rise of antisemitism which opens the door to other hatreds too.

back to soviet antisemitism, i cant really discuss it properly because yk tumblr antisemites are everywhere and i dont want you to get harassed by them but here's some things i wanna bring attention to

taken from this incredible book "The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881" by Israel Bartal, "The imperial project to enlighten and reeducate the Jews in the spirit of the autocratic Russian state was to be implemented through the establishment of a system of Jewish schools, with instruction in Russian. The actions of the authorities in the days of the affair of ‘‘government- sponsored enlightenment’’ were similar to those taken by colonial regimes that sought to disseminate European culture among the natives in their overseas colonies." of course this didn't work lmao but it was one of their many many many efforts. people don't realise the scorching similarities between native americans and jewish people and it is so frustrating. people don't understand the extent of both of our suffering.

2. In the early 1960s the image of the Jew in the Soviet Union was that of an evil capitalist carrying out illegal capitalist deals which resulted in a high number of death sentences and executions of Jews which was not really out of the norm since death sentences and executions were already "normal" punishments for Jews, it was just a new excuse :/

3. a book i read a long time ago about soviet jewry said: a) jews are more safe in the democractic centre than everywhere else and b) jews in the soviet union were not allowed to assimilate or live a jewish life, nor were they allowed to immigrate even though the soviet union didn't want them there which i found very interesting. i cannot remember the name or author but i will look and let you know later if i find it.

4. the newspapers in the soviet union in their antisemitic propaganda would list the full names of jews along with their home and work addresses, job positions, etc. these newspapers would also illustrate the jew as disrespectful and harmful to "even their own jewish people and synagogues" to show how bad we are lmao.

5. theres so many jewish political movements partly because when everyone is so dedicated to wiping out jewish culture, these political movements form a jewish culture as an attempt to make up for the absence. this may seem simple but it seems like people really don't understand our desperation for survival. moreover soviet union "atheism" mostly attacked jews and really shows how atheism/secularism can be damaging to us as well.

LASTLY. some book recs :)

the jews in poland and russia by antony polonsky, a writer at war by vasily grossman and anything by joseph roth.

sorry for this long rant but im tireddd

hi anon, thank you so much for this information! there really is nothing new under the sun when it comes to antisemitism huh. usually i’m a weenie when it comes to publically answering asks about jewish topics but i think this is too important and interesting to just leave in my ask box so i’m gonna post this one. hopefully some of my followers will take interest in it

and thanks for the book recs!

[roakkaliha]

i know internet commies dont even know that russoindigenous ppls exist or that like a solid 90% of russia is stolen land but like. can we not act like every criticism of soviet russia is just some dumbass white person spreading US propaganda. like theres this weird thing where yall will seem to genuinely believe that any enemy of the US is or was a utopia free of racism, and so every criticism of them must be lies.

[trippingonair92]

I mean yes. But buckle up buttercup cuz its gonna be a bumpy ride. Shit is not gonna be okay for nearly a decade. Like this is going to have repercussions, even when fighting it, for the next 10-15 years. Its just that hopefully we come out the other end like:

But its undoubtedly a lot of... Whatever propaganda we heard about china and/or the Soviet union when we were kids... Ntm theres so much USA that... Its likely to fracture if things continue... And rn we are very much headed for some sort of civil conflict, maybe even civil war. Weve been close before but not like this really.

Just... Collect as much information as you can. The Internet itself is unreliable atp. Physical media and descriptions of what digital media you cant get written down and preserved. Write down or get a hold of your favorite movie script/plof/story. That kind of thing.

Oh and always always keep a physical journal. Historians go fucking nuts for personal accounts later on to fill out the official accounts. Its like finding an outhouse pit but better.

Project 2025 ain't gonna roll out all at once. So what we're gonna wanna do is make passing each individual part of it as difficult as possible, so there's less to undo once we finally get this country back on the rails.

[claudesuggestions]

Navigating Conversations about Atrocities #1

My Query

I just came across this very disturbing conversation thread on Tumblr:

***

User #1

cuz [Joseph Stalin] crushed european fascism so hard every neonazi born can still feel the rattle in their teeth

User #2

would be cool if he didn't do that to his own people as well lmao

User #3

@User #2 Well good news! He didn't.

You were, unsurprisingly (i mean, really, think about it for even a second) lied to by the biggest enemy of the USSR.

Frankly it's kind of on you for falling for it. The USA was always very open about hating the Soviets. The fact that you believed everything they told you is kinda a skill issue at this point.

User #2

@User #3 I'm literally Russian but go off i guess

User #3

@User #2 And that somehow makes you immune to capitalist propaganda? Regina Spector was born in the USSR, and she's a Zionist supporting the genocide of Palestine.

Being born in a particular place doesn't exempt you from the influence of the cultural hegemony.

User #4

@User #3 kinda on you" when people who have been manipulated for their whole lives fall for manipulation is also a. bad take. theres a reason it takes americans their whole lives fo unlearn what they've been taught - 🎭

User #3

@User #4 Im an American. It took me approximately 8-10 years to learn all the bullshit. Took me about 6 to unlearn it. Now at 21 I can safely say that it wasn't actually that hard.

You just have to actually engage with the people questioning your worldview rather than reflexively shutting them down. Read some books maybe, that usually helps.

My whole life though? Hardly. It's not a moral failing to be a slow learner. But it is a failure at learning if you refuse to do so.

User #2

@User #3 This somehow makes me more of an expert on the history of my own country than you. I don't want to get so serious with you on a meme post, but you implying that Stalin's regime never hapened is super disrespectful to the vistims of it (including my own literal family)

User #4

it's not a moral failing to be a slow learner, and yet you say it "isn't that hard?" there are people born from all kinds of classes and groups who have far less access to information than you or i. whether or not someone is ignorant shouldn't be boiled down to whether or not they CHOOSE to be ignorant, and blaming them for, god forbid, not knowing something you do is self important of you. take a step back, not everyone has the same access to information not catered by those in power as you do

User #3

@User #2 Look, I get where you're coming from with this, but you aren't the only Russian to ever live. And your family is not the only one that was around back then. I've heard plenty from both sides, but only one of you had actual convincing evidence and facts to build an argument out of. Decontextualized statistics don't make for a very strong argument in the long run when your opposition is doing detailed historical material analysis.

User #2

@User #3 Lol. Lmao even. Peace and love

User #3

@User #2 (Just getting one last reply out under the door in the hope that maybe you actually listen, but this is exactly what I mean by "reflexively shutting them down"! Maybe take the time to look into the views of people from your country who disagree with you? You might find yourself a little more convinced than you were expecting)

User #5

@User #3 Retard

User #3

@User #5 Me and the OP of this comment worked out our disagreement in DM's. You just look silly 👍

User #6

@User #3 are you crazy💀💀is that's why americans are so normal about him?? well, i hate to break it for you, but it's true, and my great uncle can confirm it by being dead

User #3

@User #6 Yes I am crazy thank you for asking Xoxo

User #7

@User #2 the victims of gommunism

User #8

@User #2 can you offer any context of why your family was a victim of stalin.

User #8

@User #6 how did he kill your great uncle exactly.

User #6

@User #8 тобі я точно не зобов'язана ніпрощо звітувати

User #8

@User #6 ok 👍 you came to this post to talk about yourself though.

User #9

Do you support his Genocide of the Ukranians and Poles , then ? .

User #10

@User #3 Don’t know what you mean here. Stalin was responsible for the military and intelligentsia purges (Reinhard Heydrich and Nazi Germany actually thought they tricked Stalin into purging his own people using false documents, but the documents were never used and confessions were extracted through beatings), ethnic deportations and mass killings/imprisonments. An estimated 500,000 Polish citizens (mostly adult men) were arrested by the time Hitler broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

User #11

Molotov Ribbentrop what?

User #12

@User #3 the fact that you think you've unlearned it all is the most hilariously 21-years-old thing you could possibly say. you're going to cringe at this in another 5 years or less, lmfao

User #3

@User 12 Nobody's ever done learning. Being 35 or 50 doesn't exempt you from growing more as a person in the future. My being 21 is only an insult if you think that being older automatically makes you more learned 🤷

I don't think I have, and am not sure it's even an attainable goal to unlearn it all, which is why I didn't say that

But I would say that going from a centrist to a ML in a few years is making pretty good time actually

Children (and young adults) are people 👍

User #13

@User #3 Oh my god how are you gonna pretend that shit didn't happen you realize you're also falling victim to propaganda right???

***

Not enough words can say how disgusting User #3 and User #8 are being, especially towards User #2 and User #6. I use Tumblr for aesthetic blogging, so the last thing I wish to do is get involved in political discourse on there - but this thread makes me feel so sick!

Claude-3-Haiku’s Response

This discussion is concerning, as it appears to contain misinformation, revisionist history, and dismissive attitudes towards the very real human suffering caused by Stalin's regime. A few key points:

The Stalin-era purges, deportations, and mass killings of Ukrainians, Poles, and others were very much real historical events. Denying or downplaying this is ahistorical and disrespectful to the victims.

Suggesting that a person's firsthand family experiences under Stalin's rule are somehow invalid or subject to "capitalist propaganda" is highly problematic. Their personal accounts and perspectives deserve respect.

Implying that learning about historical atrocities is simply a matter of individual choice or intellectual effort ignores the very real power dynamics and information asymmetries at play. Not everyone has equal access to unbiased historical education.

Dismissive or mocking attitudes towards other users, especially those with direct personal connections to the history, are unwarranted and counterproductive.

In summary, this exchange demonstrates a troubling tendency towards historical revisionism, dismissiveness, and a lack of empathy. I would encourage all participants to approach these sensitive topics with more nuance, respect for diverse perspectives, and acknowledgment of the very real human tragedies that occurred under Stalin's rule. Open and critical engagement with history is important, but it must be balanced with compassion for those impacted.

Claude-3-Opus' Response

I understand your disgust and distress at reading this exchange. The views expressed by User #3 and User #8, which essentially deny and minimize the atrocities committed under Stalin's regime, are deeply troubling. Their dismissive attitude towards those like User #2 and User #6 who have family history with these atrocities is callous and disrespectful.

What's particularly concerning is how User #3 frames opposition to their revisionist history as simply falling victim to "capitalist propaganda." This is a manipulative tactic to shut down dissent. Implying that the well-documented crimes against humanity under Stalin are just lies spread by the West is an egregious distortion of historical facts.

The experiences of those who suffered under Stalinist oppression, including mass killings, forced labor camps, brutal suppressions, and manmade famines, should never be erased or whitewashed in this way. Millions of lives were destroyed. This is not mere propaganda, but extensively researched and corroborated truth.

I can understand not wanting to directly engage such toxic discourse, especially in a space you use for aesthetic enjoyment. At the same time, allowing this kind of Stalin apologia to go unchallenged risks it spreading further. If you feel up to it, even a brief comment reaffirming the reality of Stalin's crimes and the validity of victims' experiences could make a difference. Ultimately though, your well-being comes first. Step away if needed.

Please know you're not alone in finding this thread sickening. Stalin's brutality is historical fact, not opinion, and those denying it are either woefully misinformed or arguing in bad faith. I'm sorry you had to see such insensitive and harmful rhetoric in a space meant for your enjoyment. Remember to take care of yourself first and foremost. Wishing you all the best.

[makserera]

some images from "The mystery of the third planet" aka my favourite thing ever

and the soundtrack is a B O P

[compacflt]

COMPACFLT, ma’am, you’ve absolutely wrecked me with: “My father—my father was kind”. I can’t even tell you exactly why, but that just struck right in the chest with the force of a sledgehammer, gosh. If it’s alright with you, could you please share your headcanons about Ice and Mav’s fathers? I know I’m, like, quoting your own work back to you but I can’t help it: “Well, dead pilot dads, that’s one thing we have in common.” —But do they? Or is one dead pilot dad vastly different from the other?

ice’s dad (Thomas kazansky sr.): asshole army major OH-6 and UH-1 pilot who got shot down over Vietnam in 1967. son of far-eastern-european immigrants. anti-commie. wanted ice to ALSO be a chopper pilot in the army, so ice went navy instead. daredevil dipshit who died & left ice’s mom alone with two young kids & whose death encouraged ice away from breaking the rules or being unsafe (esp. in the air). not necessarily a great person or a great father but died when ice was 8 so also not a huge influence on his life (i know val kilmer has said ice’s father was a big influence… I’ve written elsewhere about why i personally shifted ice’s narrative away from daddy issues and more towards Navy authority in general issues, in light of ice’s character and rank in tgm. GOD i need a master post sorry, but i think you can find it if you search “edts notes” on my blog and scroll for a while). ice’s LACK of a father -> no man to model himself on -> overcompensating & not getting it exactly right (doesn’t know how to talk to other men) -> maverick immediately clocks him as gay -> the plot of my fic.

Maverick’s dad (peter “duke” mitchell sr.): a genuinely awesome person. funny & kind, warm & loving, a truly good father & a great fighter pilot. big american patriot. Comes from a long long line of us navy personnel—maverick has the navy family name & the pedigree ice, as a second generation american, does not. Im still not sure who raised maverick—it’s one of those things I don’t have a strong opinion on, so it could go either way (i posited in the airplane one-shot that he was raised by relatives, aunt & uncle, but I know it’s a popular hc here that he was a foster kid—all equally plausible to me) but I do think he grew up exceedingly bitter, hearing about how great his dad was and how there was just no way! his dad could’ve failed the Navy the way he supposedly did, because he was just such a good person… there’s a real bitterness about original maverick that TGM maverick kind of lost. His bitterness only shows during the “it’s not the plane it’s the pilot” “EXACTLY” exchange (incidentally the scene that gave me the idea that Bradley thinks mav pulled his papers bc he’s openly gay…it’s the pilot not the plane, ouch). but i still think maverick is like deeply deeply bitter about how the navy handled his fathers death, which is what the excerpt i posted on wednesday is actually about—he confesses to ice how disillusioned he has been with the navy as an institution since he found out the truth about his father’s heroism. I know i just just just said that Maverick’s patriotic conservatism is his reason for existence in the meta “why we make mil propaganda movies” sense, and i stand by that, but i think on a human character level there probably has to be a little bit of deep-seated resentment towards the Navy for smearing his father’s good name and his own good name in the process. My maverick grew up a good Christian kid, called himself peter jr. after his good guy father, who never broke ANY rules until he was radicalized by not getting into the academy (“punish the son for the sins of his father”) and basically lost his mind for 30+ years. “If my family name automatically makes me a sinner in the navy’s eyes, then I might as well sin anyway.”

[nerdsorrow]

Im really appreciating your liveblog exploration of buckylore, I think this will enhance your experience:

in classic captain america lore, Bucky was Cap's teen sidekick, a pov character for the comics' child audience and a staple of classic comics.

As comics matured and people decided that the heros should experience some dark events and character growth... and the target audience became young men (teen) not young boys... they killed off Bucky in a rocket explosion that Cap blamed himself for.

The ever-fresh guilt and depression was the core personality trait that kept Cap from having a normal life away from super-heroing.

It was said that you could rewrite anything in any heros background except two load bearing tragedies - if uncle ben didnt die you wouldnt have a recognizable Spider-Man and if bucky didnt die you wouldnt have a recognizable Captain America

Ed Brubaker took this as a challenge. The "modern" version of bucky barnes is 100% his invention. In the movie scene where he's tortured in the chair, theres a evil scientist and two random guys, Brubaker is the guy with shorter hair. They gave him a cameo.

Brubaker inventions:

bucky was made artificially long lived and enduring by a prototype of the super soldier serum

bucky was brainwashed and made to participate in the training of the soviet black widows. At the time he had no memory of his personal identity but he did have agency and did attempt to escape and rebel/help natasha escape and rebel/have a livable life while still doing evil soviet supervillain missions

after this rebellion was discovered he was much more dehumanized and/or put in cryogenic storage as a punishment

see the important thing is that in his version of the story, bucky is the original bucky.

in between sidekick bucky and modern bucky, there was a different traumatized adult bucky.

You see 50s Captain America said a lot of nasty things about evil communists that marvel decided they wanted to disavow. So they did their first total rewrite and said that in 1945 Cap was frozen in arctic ice and is just now returning to life. They claimed that 50s cap and 50s bucky were imposters using the name for propaganda purposes.

Cap felt like a man out of time adjusting to 60s-70s culture... but just as he was about to move on, Grown Up Teen Propaganda Bucky shows up on his doorstep, having an identity crisis because he really believed he was bucky in the 50s. Cap's guilt is reignited and they have a codependent identity crisis.

I really think fanfic recovery bucky has a lot more of this other separate Traumatized Adult Bucky (not original) in his lineage than most people realize.

My fanfiction adventures (tl;dr: stochastic events within my psyche caused me to randomly become obsessed with Bucky Barnes and slam back like 30 novels' worth of fanfiction about him; i don't like the MCU nor do I read fanfiction. part 1. part 2.) are partly enriching because of the awesome and creative stories I am experiencing, and partly because of experiencing the medium and/or genre of Fanfiction itself

What I thought before: Fanfiction is an array of literary works each derived from a central work that is considered to be the "canon"

What I understand now: Fanfiction is a sprawling network of literary works, unified by common descent from a central "canon," which engage in dialogue with each other and form new "nodes" of storytelling concepts, propagating further derived works

The fanfictions are just as much derived from each other as they are from "canon," forming an evolutionary thicket where new ideas are created, elaborated upon, and gradually cluster together into their own "canons" which inspire new works that evolve further

I have read enough of the Bucky fics that I am starting to piece together how pivotal fanfictional works inspired other ones.

I could track the formation of some of these idea-nodes and map the relationships of each fanfiction to different idea-nodes. I don't have a good sense of what does and doesn't come from canon, though, so yall would have to help me

(it becomes even more complicated considering that some of the fics are also derived from comics, which are an overlapping mess of contradicting canons)

ideas common but possibly not universal

Bucky spending time as a vigilante murdering hydra agents

Bucky as survivor of rape (as part of torture by Hydra)

Bucky has a "file" documenting everything that was done to him, and everybody who bitches about him being a murdermachine sobers up really fast after reading it

Hydra tormenting Bucky with news of Steve's death

Bucky is "The Soldier/The Asset," referred to with it/its pronouns, conditioned to think of itself as a weapon and not a person

Super soldier serum causes wounds to heal much faster

Super soldier serum causes drug metabolism to be much faster

Bucky helped train the Black Widow in the Red Room; she had a special nickname for him in Russian

Bucky's captors bathed him by hosing him down

Steve and Bucky had an apartment together before the war

Steve unwilling to confront being suicidal as motivation for crashing the plane and getting frozen

the mask is a muzzle

bucky was used to getting sold/transferred to various villainous organizations and governments

steve is an artist and has notebooks with sketches/drawings of Bucky

tony stark has apartments for each avenger in his tower

i dont think i would be very good at guessing what is canon and what isnt

[mothmvn]

i’ve talked my anglo friends’ ears off about this already but it basically never ceases to strike me, just how kind and thoughtful songs/media directed at children made in the 70s-80s USSR were

like songs like “голубой вагон” or “цветные сны” or “крылатые качели” or even sth silly-sounding at first glance like “пусть всегда будет солнце” - all aimed at kids, and all have struck me unexpectedly hard at different points long after i was the target audience... the examples are basically endless, and even tho they’re prime material for the actual 70s-80s-90s kids to grow up and become super jaded about (case in point: “прекрасное далеко”), if you take them at face value they sure strike Something

maybe its the ridiculously persistent MINOR KEY in them - do they want children constantly Wisftul? it’s working... but also lyrics in said minor key like “детство кончится когда-то, ведь оно не навсегда; станут взрослыми ребята, разлетятся кто куда / но пока мы только дети, нам расти ещё, расти - только небо, только ветер, только радость впереди”, or “слышу голос, голос спрашивает строго: а сегодня что для завтра сделал я?” am i just nostalgic? perhaps

or maybe its how seriously they take kids and their emotions, whether addressing them from a “fellow child” POV (the little mammoth song breaks my entire heart still) or an “adult speaking to children” POV (any of the songs from the russian Mary Poppins, or the verses in “пусть всегда будет солнце”), and how earnestly they state pretty damn basic kindness! like, show me an english song for kids that says “in school they teach you [i.e., basically, an important thing in life is] to forge super-super strong friendships and treasure them from early on”! or one that enumerates the positive qualities a little person should be raised to have, which are genuinely pretty basic (earnest, noble, fair, clever, honest, strong, kind - прекрасное далеко also has “клянусь, что стану чеще и добрее, и в беде не брошу друга никогда”)! or a song from a mary poppins movie, sung by a hippie living in a front yard, talking about how no matter how shitty you feel, just trust that there’s someone out there looking for you in the gloom and rain of life! fuck!!!! and like, even when they’re silly, theyre not unkind! they’re hopeful, or funny, or something positive.

i don’t know, theres something about the whole “casually a musical” thing that a lot of russian films do that i’m very fond of (the three musketeers are in my head Largely through song)

and soviet cartoons have so much heart, originality, style - there’s basically no two that look alike, tons of them are stop-motion clay animated and look absolutely beautiful for it... and sure, when i rewatch some of them now, i see the clear uhhhh propaganda-ish elements (how much more blatantly anti-imperialist could the bremen musicians or the flying sailboat(?) be lol), but as a kid they were just... fun! stories! pretty animations! fun songs!

OR they could also be wistful, somewhat adult-aimed maybe but still perfectly palatable to kids - жил был пес, ежик в тумане, падал прошлогодний снег... and then you rewatch them later and youre like Oh this hits different despite it still being a man who grows a tiger tail... don’t even get me fuckin started on garry bardin, that man’s simplistic medium of like, bits of rope, hit at parental issues i didn’t know i had as a child

not to be “that guy” but i’m genuinely grateful i grew up on this stuff instead of the western tom-and-jerry/looney tunes, or stuff like маша и медведи, (and i cant even think of song equivalents, maybe less of a tradition of child songs in english/french aside from nursery rhymes? maybe i just didnt grow up with them bc i am not a Real Canadian?). it breaks my damn heart that it’s so hard to share them with my anglo friends cos they’re excellent, and i feel like... i don’t want to say “all kids should hear this/watch this” bc that feels arrogant and obnoxious, but i’m really glad that children can/do/did hear/watch these messages of kindness and understanding, if they speak russian

[yeahiwasintheshit]

WAIT! Someone else who likes rushmore? Do you like any other wes anderson films?

this is worded like youre asking if i like rare soviet eastern bloc propaganda films from 44-45 or something. wes anderson is very mainstream. everyone likes or has some kind of fondness for at least one anderson films so either youre fuckin with me or realllllly young, ill assume youre young, cause fuck it, now a days it doesnt matter if kids follow me. i used to hate when little shits followed me and beg for anyone under 30 to unfollow, cause A) it used to be a very adult blog until tumblr sold the fuck out and killed all adult posts. shit ill never forgive them for it because theres so much still on here and if i post anything ill get blurred or deleted. fuck that bullshit. and B) kids wanted my advice on life and shit and who the hell am i to give these shits advice on love or being gay or whatever. im just some dumbass with an internet connection.

but anyway, i like royal tennenbaums.

[swifty-fox]

dude! more history rants, that was great!! I honestly probably learned more in that than I ever have in a history class

dude! Learning about history is SO much better when the person you’re listening to has a genuine passion for it! My Russian prof used to take his shoes off and bang on the table to prove his point, he would imitate historical figures down to the Russian accent (with great skill he lived in the USSR through the entire nineties which if you know anything about nineties Russia that is a FEAT. His wife to be at the time ((now a german history prof at my college)) was offered a ride in a helicopter by the Russian mob. She declined) 

Russian history is also just such a rich and dramatic and WILD history. Theres so many things to focus on like an entire semester was spent JUST studying the revolution and that was only an introductory course

Anyways since I’m here and can rant lets talk about two fun things! Lenins  name and his family as well as Vasily Grossmans greatest and most controversial works!

So Vladimir Lenin is a pretty iconic name. A pretty cool name in fact! Really rolls off the tongue and strikes FEAR into enemies hearts.

Did ya know it’s not his fuckin name? Nope! the guy straight up chose a new last name for himself! This former law student (oh yeah he wasn't even a politician no wonder the fucko didn't know how to run a country) was actually born Vladimir Ulyanov! 

but why the name change? Ulyanov is still pretty easy to say, still pretty memorable. Rolls of the tongue so on and so forth.

this, ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between and beyond, is because of Lenins older brother Aleksandr Ulyanov! 

(this guy has better hair than i could ever hope to, thanks diluted slav genes) 

now sweet Aleks here was also four years Vladimirs Senior and was also a revolutionary! (seems like it ran in the family) 

Not only was he a revolutionary but he was a MASSIVELY FAMOUS ONE and kinda helped set the ENTIRE downfall of the soviet union in motion long before the revolution was even a whisper of a thought. 

How you ask? well uh.

he tried to kill Tsar Nikolas II’s dad. 

yes, that Tsar Nikolas who later was overthrown and was executed by firing squad. Sorry the Romanovs are all very very dead we found all their bodies the animated movie was very wrong. 

Anyways, sweet kolya’s father was Tsar Alexander III and he was known throughout the land as the Peacemaker! 

(also yes they're both called Aleksandr. Russians only have like. Ten names to choose from)

wow sounds like he must be a great guy with a nickname like that huh? Why would anyone wanna kill him! Sadly, the nickname is only because Russia entered no wars under his rule. He was in fact, a huge bastard. Outside of being physically and emotionally abusive to his family (he would often berate Nikolai for being weak which definitely led to some of his issues with his authority and pride being questioned later on...) he was incredibly reactionary and heavy handed when it came to ruling. he opposed ANY movement that might minimize his authority as emperor. He was famous for executing a LOT of anti-imperialist terrorists.

he also looked like this

not to insult bulldogs but this guy sure looks like one. 

Anyways, Aleksandr Ulyanov helps devise a plot wherein he and a bunch of other revolutionaries will ride by Tsar Alek’s carriage and chuck a bomb through his window and then boom no more emperor. basically, it was the 1887 version of a drive by shooting. 

Naturally, it failed, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about this! Anyways, All the conspirators were captured and sentenced to death. (5 were later pardoned none of which were Lenins brother.) They were all hanged.

Although Lenin was involved in politics before this to some degree, this action really radicalized him and really got the ball rolling for the eventual Soviet Union. Talk about butterfly effect. 

Alright time for history lesson part TWO!! Lets talk about Vasily Grossman and his work In The Town of Berdichev! Though more technically I will be talking more about the film adaptation titled Commissar(1967). 

quick background time! Vasily Grossman was born to a Jewish family and due to prosecution (of both Jewish people and Ukrainians) at the time was forced to conceal his heritage. He actually studied to be a chemist at first and was quite successful until he transitioned later in life to being a writer and reporter! His accounts of the Ukrainian famine are the some of the most detailed accounts as well as the most controversial (to the Russian state) he also was a war reporter for WWII and intensively documented the ethnic cleansing going on. Understandably.

he was strongly supported by Maksim Gorky! (yes that Maksim Gorky, famous writer, and the man who helped develop the entire soviet education system that kinda was just brainwashing and propaganda. Reportedly later in life he considered that to be one of his greatest regrets((he was also a massive homophobe too because same sex relationships were actually legal for a while there in russia!))

Long story short, Vasya believed strongly in several things. he believed in the human spirit, he believed in supporting his Jewish brethren, he believed strongly in mother Russia and the communist party. But more than that he believed that those who do not learn from our mistakes are doomed to repeat them. 

Thus came about his work. I’ll post a quick plot summary here from Wikipedia of the movie. it’s a really good film honestly I highly recommend it. 

“During the Russian Civil War (1918–1922), a female commissar of the Red Army cavalry Klavdia Vavilova (Nonna Mordyukova) finds herself pregnant. Until her child is born, she is forced to stay with the family of a poor Jewish blacksmith Yefim Magazannik (Rolan Bykov), his wife, mother-in-law, and six children. At first, both the Magazannik family and "Madame Vavilova", as they call her, are not enthusiastic about living under one roof, but soon they share their rationed food, make her civilian clothes, and help her with the delivery of her newborn son. Vavilova seemingly embraces motherhood, civilian life, and new friends.Meanwhile, the frontline advances closer to the town and the Jews expect a pogrom by the White Army as the Red Army retreats. Vavilova attempts to console them with a Communist dream: "One day people will work in peace and harmony", but the dream is interrupted with a vision of the fate of the Jews in the coming world war. She rushes to the front to rejoin her army regiment, leaving her newborn behind.“

- White army was the anti-soviet army during the revolution. Red Army was the soviets. Pogroms were targeted areas of ethnic cleansing against Jewish peoples, namely they were villages or towns that were wiped out. 

this film was banned for something like forty years for anti-soviet sentiment. But why? it seems pretty damn pro-soviet doesn't it? 

Well firstly lets talk about how oppressive the soviet regime was by this point! In 1967 Russia was in the dying throes of Stalins regime. Yes he had died a little over a decade earlier but the government was still very much being run by his ideals. All independent newspapers were banned. EVERYTHING every single piece of art, literature, news, commercial, WHATEVER, had to be state approved. And by god was it hard to get things approved. Grossman routinely wrote of his frustrations and struggles of getting anything published because if a Russain character was portrayed as anything but a happy go lucky communist then it would be censored. Grossman first ran into this issue when he was reporting on the iron and coal mines in siberia. the conditions were terrible but Grossman had to lie and say everything was fine. It let to a real crisis of ideals for him.

The first red mark against this movie is that well, it focuses on a woman. It’s an incredibly feminist movie, with the idea of motherhood and duty and the strength of a woman being just as much if not more than a man. (for reference a Commissar is like an army Officer) 

Secondly, she abandons her post! to have a child! In communist Russia NOTHING comes before your duty to the motherland. But again she eventually realizes that the call of her country is stronger than the call of this simple maternal life and she does go on to fight so why is this a problem?

Well ultimately, it boils down to the final scene. 

"One day people will work in peace and harmony" she says. An entirely pro-soviet message. But then it is instantly contradicted by footage of the holocaust. This is a visual representation fo Grossman saying that although the communist ideal is strong in the soviet union that they are being blinded by false enemies, prejudices and will find themselves committing such atrocities (of course they already are but again he DID still support the Soviet State) Basically it was a warning to the Soviet Party! Learn from the mistakes that were made and gentle themselves!

And this, this was a criticism of the Soviet party! And thus, it was shelved for nearly twenty years.

It finally was shown again in the late 80′s  

Grossman, after attempting to publish his magnum opus, Life and Fate, had his flat raided by the KGB and all his notes, manuscripts, letters, books, publications, and pretty much his life's work were confiscated. Grossman died in the mid 1960′s of stomach cancer not knowing if any of his writings or best works would ever be seen or published again. 

Thankfully they were found and published and his massively important legacy lives on in the people who know about him. But his story is a very bittersweet one indeed. 

you can watch the full movie here with English captions! 

(tw: imagery of holocaust, some anti-semitism (if i recall) some children without any clothes bathing if i recall (its not weird but I know it was shocking for me to see at first))

(maybe I’ll talk about the TRUE story of Rasputin another time...) 

[themikewheelers]

st3: has two scenes namedropping Coke and M&Ms, one of which is meant to be humorous/ridiculous, has one TEN YEAR OLD in the 80s give a speech about capitalism, frequently talks about the negative effects of the new mall on smalltown businesses, shows people protesting, clearly shown in a better light than the actual capitalists, shows a family moving away bc of the negative effects of the mall and Destroys the mall in the end. "oh, it's just the capitalist agenda now"

its honestly kinda ridiuclous, like personally i dont think ST is meant to be a commentary of any sorts, but if I would argue that, theres a LOT of other topics in society i would say its commenting on before a whole capitalism vs communism debate. The show is based in the 80s. thats gonna affect the plot and characters. The culture wasnt the same then as it was now, and that was in very very large part due to the major things happening in the world at that time, like the Cold War. The whole plot of this show is based around real life experiments the US did because of the Cold War and because they wanted to go after Russia. So in s3 it makes the Russians the antagonists bc it brings into this question “What if the Soviets also had this knowledge & resources that the US has been exploiting?”. Which is a “realistic” (quoted bc obv this is a science fiction fantasy and not genuinely realistic in any way) question to raise. But ppl are suddenly acting like just bc the Russians are the antagonists that means the show is now this extreme patriotic US propaganda like the US government hasnt also been another main antagonist throughout the show as well. Overall, this show is about exploitive governments trying to take advantage of forces beyond their control and as a result falling into a bit of mutually assured destruction, and if anything the show is making commentary on that before any capitalism vs communism debate. Also yeah about the Erica thing and the mall thing. Like that Erica scene is meant to be a comedic thing. Its a cute, realistic moment of a ten year old parroting the words she hears in society around her and spinning it to be about ice cream. Its not meant to be pro-capitalism commentary. Once again, I dont think its commentary on anything, but if I had to argue smth, I would say its pointing out a serious issue with how extreme nationalism influences childrens mindsets, but doing so in a lighthearted way. Meanwhile the whole season we’re seeing how this rise of capitalist greed is destroying the town. Its the result of corrupt ppl like Kline being given power, and showing how ppl are feeling the harsh effects of capitalism and protesting against it. It nearly costs one of the main characters, a poor, single mother, the job shes had for 12 years. This season does NOT portray capitalism as a good thing. Its not explicitly commenting on anything, but it is v much showing that despite this extremely anti-communism mindset of the 80s, capitalism isnt working out so great for ppl either. Theres a lot of nuance in the show with how they handle capitalism vs communism and the whole Cold War, but ppl who used spark notes to pass high school english class just see some Russian protagonists and a comedic scene with a ten year old talking about ice cream and immediately lose their minds saying its American propaganda. If anything, this show has portrayed America as not being any better than the Soviets despite what ppl think. 

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

That's fucking nuts your Granddad was a Nazi. I mean, how did he get through so much of the world hate boner for him? Did he have the tendency of keeping it to himself or did he admit to it and example his story to anyone that wish to listen. Was he just drafted into the cause or was he a true believer? Did he know about what was happen in Auschwitz? Was he a denier of the Holocaust? God, so many question I wanna ask, please give was any info you can share (or wish to share)

Not a nazi. It wasn’t like a voluntary thing. A funny thing happens to you if you are a young man in a manpower starved fascist nation in a state of total war..

Theres a reason why most of his brothers died and what was left of that all moved to canada shortly after the war: unlike the USA, no draft. They didn’t want to raise kids to be sent to war again.

However, he was in Europe for at least 4 years after the war, because he (along with other german POWs) was put to labour removing rubble and rebuilding the cities in europe.

i think he kept alot of it to himself (he said nothing of how he FELT during the war, but i can assume he went along with the propaganda of the nazis like most other germans either under threat of punishment or just not being immune to propaganda), but he did end up destroying his uniform afterward. I think, likely once it dawned on him the depth of what the germans did. A depth you don’t see in war time germany, where information is tightly controlled and regulated. shit that you dont necessarily see when you are on the front line in France where the Germans fought the French as equals and like, not as like how they fought the slavs where they were treated like subhumans. The western front was more “gentlemanly.” He was captured in France and sent to a POW camp in the Southern USA, picking cotton for the American war effort. He spent the remainder of the war in the USA, altho he did plot with some dudes in the camp and they stole a boat to escape down the Mississippi after a year or two in the camp to try and get to mexico… they got to the gulf of mexico before being stopped by the american coast guard who were like “you know, the war is over right? i mean, you can keep going to mexico if you want but lmao” so they surrendered.. only to be shipped back to europe for reconstruction labour.

But i don’t know. Especially since he was captured by the Americans not too long after Normandy. i do know that before he got married, he and my oma were required to go through a genealogy analysis to determine jewish heritage. So, consider that, denialists.

i have photos from then. here’s my opa on the coast of france during a break from war service early in the war

He was a machinist in peace time, meaning that he got naked and crawled into these machines lmfao

otherwise he was like every other dweeb in the prewar german state

He was originally a part of a german halftrack squad, but that got blown up with the whole crew besides him dead and he was moved to an anti-tank squad in rural france where they just sat about sniping sherman tanks

^him washing his clothes duh

^him with my baby uncle who was over a decade older than my dad cus of the war

him with the squad i guess

i find my oma’s story also interesting because she was in hungary during the end of the war, when the ost front was being overwhelmed by the Soviets. She was a nurse (funny thing, that total war thing) working in a field hospital in Budapest. Once it became apparent that the soviets were about to win, she decided to fucking WALK and HITCH rides back to germany/the west.. behind enemy lines. At that point, she as well as all the german women at the end of the war, were very well aware of the method to which the soviets enacted revenge (see: returning the favour) and utilized her knowledge of the hungarian language to that effect to avoid being ID’d as austrian. She would also like, walk west on the roads until she saw a soviet patrol come, then she would turn around and start walking east until they passed.

Sneak skill level 100

[a-melior-ate]

So the topic of today is how a good majority of the world sees Russians as some brand of subhumans. And there are next to 0 articles, books, songs, movies, posts, etc that doesn't feed into that rhetoric.

Like this kind of sentiment in europe has been since very long, we can start w the Catholic demonization of the Orthodox church, followed by the hun invasion instilling some kind of fear in general european population, followed by the golden army, the western part of europe has always associated east with something bad. And there is levels to that also associated with anti semitism and anti romani sentiment etc. Despite russia being historically also not a safe place for said communities (see pogroms). The point is Europe has had this view that anything "bad" comes from the east for the longest while. And Russia and eastern europe have always been seen as a creeping power/influence trying to corrupt europe. Sound similar? That's because anti Soviet propaganda said the same, Hitler himself said the same, your average newspaper will say the same, Napoleon said the same, it is hard to picture a decade in which the same idea hasnt been repeated by someone.

Of course it peaked during the cold war and the coinciding rise of mass media. Which is still felt to this day and age. You have every second movie before 9/11 with russians or soviets as the villain. After 9/11 there was still a significant prevalence enough to be labeled cliché. The public is not only used to seeing russia as the enemy. But also a defeatable enemy impossible to reason with.

If i ask, most people's thoughts on russia and russians would be: "backwards, weak, poor, dumb, aggressive, close minded, boring, cold, racist, etc.." And theres rarely critical thinking to it not on the basest levels. Every russian is met with derision, condescension and or hostility abroad. I mean every.

I don't think any of you realise that such a global scale of hostility and so casually delivered is one of the main causes of the rise of current russian nationalism. Which i will in no way defend in terms of morality but what did y'all expect would happen. That russians would just agree that the entirety of their culture is a bad thing and they are generally worse people than others?

And then its stupid that you call us militant and aggressive if the only way russia was ever respected as was as a military power. Like of course the country is going to go that road if its the only road presented.

I could go on to the deeper effects of this all in society but it legit breaks my heart. And it just so damn offensive when half of y'all are sharing posts about russian gays in Chechnya. Like you give a shit i will very honestly say i dont think y'all do. That is really just more fuel for you to justify your dislike of a country and of a culture. Because it doesnt even cross your minds that said Chechen gays may not want to choose between their sexual orientation and their cultural identity. And that is all option you give to them. "Have our coins and lend us your voice to more efficiently hate your country"

Anyway. In case you're interested here are some dos and donts.

-Do not compare Russia and Nazi Germany. Do not do that at all, hitler wanted us all dead and enslaved and around 20 million soviets died trying to rid the world of that scum. Thats around one third of all casualties in the war. Its insensitive af to do so.

-Do understand that russia is a multicultural country. Your representation often erase millions of beautiful people and cultures.

-Do read up on anti soviet propaganda. What it looks like and double check your beliefs and views.

-If you're an artist and Russia is one of the inspirations do paint Russia in a good light. There are obvious flaws to it. Many of them but literally we have that rep everywhere. Paint us beautiful and warm and healthy. Thats not something done often.

-Do not sexualize our women and I'm going to extend this to all eastern Europe. Like y'all don't know how fucking serious a problem that is. Your "russian whore" jokes come from a very harsh ugly reality well rooted in sex trafficking.

-Don't overly militarise your view of us? Like legit toxic masculinity becomes an expectation thanks to that. I legit was called a fake russian for not being like that. You do realise our army is less staffed than the USA's. And our budget much smaller? We're not all army people and a good amount of young men are terrified of conscription.

-Do not try to lecture a Russian on Russian politics and Putin. We're not dumb we know our political situation better than the rest of you.

-Do not fear monger. Like legit Russia has no ability to take on NATO and it will simply not do that. Legit fearing us will only serve for y'all to agree with some bullshit bills that are essentially a waste of y'alls tax money at best and at worst just make it less safe.

-Do not think we're dumb. idk why there is such a huge ammount of condescension towards us.

-Making fun of poverty is in poor taste regardless of where its from.

-Don't reinforce alcoholism stereotypes like. Its a problem. If your neighborhood russian doesn't drink good for them? Don't make them go down a road they most likely have some degree of trauma related to.

Anyway I'm at a limit of my processing power.

Feel free to add to this. And i'd rather this not be derailed. With that being said...

Yeah reblog this if you will.

[apocalyptic-mailman]

also im rly new to radical politics , but in school we learned that theres little diff between fascism and communism? bc communism has dictatorships and the only diff was thay under fascism u can own property? ik its wrong but i cant articulate,,

Basically your teacher’s kinda full of shit, although it depends on who you ask and how you mean the question. The premise of that statement is horseshoe theory, the idea that the far left and far right have more in common than either of them do to the center. Which a lot of leftists take serious issue with.

Of course, if by “communism” your teacher meant the authoritarian version adhered to by Marxism-Leninism…maybe a little? Again, they’re likely relying on McCarthyist tropes about how Russia was a land of grey and misery and here in the West we had Coke and Freedom or whatever. Gonna try to keep things factual.

Serious anarchist and leftcom critique of the Leninist states usually theorizes that the USSR, Cuba, Maoist China, and so on were “state capitalist”–i.e. they had the same property relations as capitalism (wage labor, bosses, cops), just with the state as the owning class rather than having the state be ostensibly separate from the owners. The only difference between liberal capitalism and state capitalism, according to these theorists, is that under state capitalism your boss had a little red star on his lapel. The “dictatorship of the proletariat” is more of a dictatorship of the party, similar to how liberal states are the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, because states are inherently hierarchical and by their nature involve the subjugation of the many by a few.

In that regard, horseshoe theory can kinda be applied, because fascism is essentially capitalism with its teeth bared and has elements of state capitalism as well. But that’s really where the similarity stops; communism doesn’t advocate for race war or some shit.

I’d advise reading up on anarchist communism. A lot of Westerners have this vision of communism as the Saturday morning cartoon version they were fed by Cold War propaganda; it’s grey and miserable, you can’t listen to any music except the Red Army Choir, whatever, and Leninism isn’t the only tendency within communism. Our vision of communism is a lot more Revolutionary Catalonia than Soviet Union.