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Laika ~☆!

My first ever tattoo, in honour of Laika of course! Done by @byo.tattoo on Insta, if you're thinking of getting a tattoo done I highly recommend her, especially for colours!! Very talented.

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Work in progress introduction:

Worldbuilding & plot

Disclaimer: this is a historical fiction world with fantasy/sci-fi elements (such as magic), it's very self indulgent. This is also actively a work in progress so details in here might change or be undetermined for now.

I. Worldbuilding

In this world, there are multiple dimensions. What each dimension differs in is random, it could be something as major as a country existing or something as minor as what a random person had for breakfast on the 23rd of March 2009. It is possible to get transferred through these dimensions, although it usually happens during splits and comes with serious physical consequences to the person getting transferred.

Splits are when a new dimension is made. Sometimes they start out completely different, but other times the two dimensions are completely identical until one minor event difference. In this case, it's possible those dimensions are one and the same before the event and rather split afterwards.

The effects of transferring dimensions ranges from disabling to deadly, and very often people just die from these. Some of the effects the character this story focuses on will remain unexplained for now as I haven't thought of a specific enough explanation for them, but they are not purely supernatural. While time and space do bend during these transfers, it's extremely rare to see a person be moved through time or space by more than a few hours or few kilometers.

II. Plot

So, I will make the character introduction posts later, however. We will be following out main character, Misha. Misha, through a series of events undetermined for now, gets transferred from his dimension to a different one. His original dimension, for all intents and purposes, is identical to ours. He gets transferred to his new dimension, and while he doesn't notice the changes immediately, he does notice the side effects when he accidentally kills a man with his newfound power/curse. Logically, Misha decides to go into hiding for a few years, until he reemerges after some political turbulence starts to weaken power structures in the country. He makes a lucky encounter that results in him getting hired as a political advisor of sorts. I will explain more about his power in his character introduction post. The story will have a slower, over-arching story if I ever end up writing for it, but a lot of the focus will also be more on the character development and everyday lives. The story won't involve Misha trying to get back to his original dimension in any way. I will try to keep it as down to earth and historically accurate as possible despite all the fictional elements.

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Soviet OC post incoming soon :))

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make the soviet OCs make the soviet OCs oooOOOOOOooooo you want to make the soviet OCs soooooo bad -

Oh that's so weird, I suddenly feel so compelled to make Soviet OCs...

Also hello anon??? While you're here and being so encouraging, let me explain why I didn't create the OCs yet.

I don't know what world to put them into. See technically I have two Soviet OCs. One belongs to another fandom and one is this prophet (sort of) guy I have in an alternate history universe (this one involves fantasy/sci-fi elements because of the prophet part). Do I expand on the alternate history or do I make new ones for the regular history? That's the big question here. I'd make new ones but I'm not nearly as obsessed with them as the other two and I fear that I wouldn't develop them right because of that.

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How do they keep making later and later stages of late-capitalism

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The daily urge to make OCs that relate to in some way or are in the USSR

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had someone ask me like “why are you guys unionizing? just cuz?” and it threw me so bad i didnt even know how to answer

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Queer/LGBTQ History in the Soviet Union

Since I started working on my novel, I’ve done a lot of research on LGBTQ history in the Soviet Union, which became a special interest for me. Since I always love to spread my special interests, here’s a bibliography of useful sources about queer history in the USSR. I believe this to be reasonably complete (I scoured JSTOR for articles and books) but I’d love to hear if I forgot anything. I’m also down to answer questions or help people access these resources if you DM me. 

Books

Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia - Dan Healey (2001)

Focuses on 1917-1940s. If you only read one book off this list, make it this one. Despite some outdated terminology, this remains the most central and accessible text on this topic, and it’s a good choice to read first to get a basic grasp. It combines a good sense of the broader context with a lot of fascinating details. 

Russian Homophobia: From Stalin to Sochi - Dan Healey (2017)

Effectively a sequel to the above book, a series of historical anecdotes which cover 1945-2017. 

Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956-91: A Different History - Rustam Alexander (2021)

This book examines Soviet queer history through the lens of official discourse, i.e., the police, Gulag officials, the secret police, and doctors. This is useful both for understanding people in these professions, and for understanding people who were subjected to official control. 

Gay Lives and ‘Aversion Therapy’ In Brezhnev’s Russia, 1964-1982 - Rustam Alexander (2023)

Red Closet: The Hidden History of Gay Oppression in the USSR - Rustam Alexander (2023)

This book attempts to bridge popular history and academic history, and doesn’t quite succeed - it has a lot of interesting information in it, but if you can, read Alexander’s other work (including the articles below) first. 

Lesbian Lives in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia - Francesca Stella (2014)

Chapter Two, “Lesbian Relationships in Late Soviet Russia,” contains a lot of valuable information. I admit I found the writing style rather dry. 

Out of the Blue: Russia's Hidden Gay Literature: An Anthology - Kevin Moss (1996)

This anthology of literature in translation mostly features pre-Revolutionary and post-Soviet fiction, but it’s the only source for English translations of several valuable Soviet artistic works and primary sources, including Mikhail Kuzmin’s diaries and works by Gennady Trifonov. 

Soviet and Post-­Soviet Sexualities - Edited by Richard C.M. Mole (2019)

Queer History of Belarus in the second half of the 20th century: a preliminary study - Uladzimir Valodzin (2016)

Forced underground: homosexuals in Soviet Latvia - Rita Ruduša (2014)

Articles

The Queer Life of Lieutenant Petrenko: The KGB and Male Homosexuality in the Ukrainian SSR of the 1960s - Rustam Alexander (2023)

"With a Shade of Disgust": Affective Politics of Sexuality and Class in Memoirs of the Stalinist Gulag - Adi Kuntsman, Slavic Review, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Summer, 2009), pp. 308-328

“Not a Personal Matter”: Soviet Conservative Discourse on Homosexuality in the 1960s and 1970s - Irina Roldugina (2024)

An inconspicuous sexual dissident in the Georgian Soviet republic: Subjectification, social classes and the culture of suspicion in the late Soviet period - Arthur Clech (2021)

Gay in the Gulag - Yaroslav Mogutin (1995)

Using the Past to Save the Present: Soviet Transgender History and Its Implications for Present-Day Trans Rights in Russia - Yana Kirey-Sitnikova (2025)

Transsexual and intersex individuals in Soviet medicine and jurisprudence - Yana Kirey-Sitnikova (Date of release unclear - recent)

The Trans Man Whose Pioneering Surgery Was A State Secret For Decades - Daniil Turovsky, Buzzfeed News (2018)

Documenting the queer self: Kaspars Aleksandrs Irbe (1906-1996) in between unofficial sexual knowledge and medical-legal regulation in Soviet Latvia - Ineta Lipša (2021)

Taming the desire: Pavel Krotov’s “bisexual” closet - Rustam Alexander (2021)

The inner lives of queer comrades in early Soviet Russia - Artem Langenburg interviewing Irina Roldugina, openDemocracy.net (15 December 2017)

‘Why are we the people we are?’ Early Soviet homosexuals from the first-­person perspective: New sources on the history of homosexual identities in Russia - Ira Roldugina in Soviet and Post-Soviet Sexualities (2019)

Criminal Prosecution of Homosexuals in the Soviet Union (1946-1991): Numbers and Discourses - Uladzimir Valodzin (2020)

"With a Shade of Disgust": Affective Politics of Sexuality and Class in Memoirs of the Stalinist Gulag - Adi Kuntsman (2009)

“Not a Personal Matter”: Soviet Conservative Discourse on Homosexuality in the 1960s and 1970s - Irina Roldugina (2023)

Political Homophobia in Soviet Lithuania Revisited: The Case of the Dissident Viktoras Petkus - Rasa Navickaitė (2024)

Translating queer texts in Soviet Russia: A case study in productive censorship - Brian James Baer (2010)

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masterlist

USSR

☆ Educational posts

Ethnic and national oppression in the USSR: a short summary and explanation.

☆ Essays

☆ Others

Cosmology — WIP

Posts about my ocs and universe.

Work in progress introduction: Worldbuilding & Plot

Other subjects

Anarcho-communism: an introduction [website]

dividers by @bunnysrph here!

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Context: making my way through the newly released JFK files. My opinion might change as I read more, do not take any of this fully seriously or as reference.

Very often, I think about just spy work and intelligence on foreign countries, just generally things that align with the functions of the KGB, CIA, FBI etc. I often end these fantasies with, "But I know that's not how it happens, because that's corny and based on movies and they'd be so much more secretive and wouldn't say any of these out loud" and then without fail, the USA releases documents that boil down to, "We operate like a cartoon caricature of ourselves and are also very very terrible lol."

Now two options, either I'm insanely good at picturing such things and I am predicting the function of the CIA so good. Or this is genuinely caricature levels of operation on a lot of things.

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Disclaimer: this is a joke. It's satire. Mostly.

Not Soviet related, however it is history so it's going on here. Edit of my favourite power couple: the German Empire and Austria-Hungary.

It's my first edit so be nice.

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Anarcho-communism: an introduction

Disclaimer: I'm not an anarcho-communist, this is an outside view on the ideology. I tried to be as neutral as possible but biases are always included in our works in some way.

This is a basic website I coded entirely by hand in HTML that is a brief and simple overview of anarcho-communism. I made it as a project for school (which I wildly overestimated the amount of effort needed for it) but I wanted other people to get a use out of it. All the sources are cited. Some parts might look strange regarding what I mention (such as the opinions section), these are just parts I needed to include for the grade. Would love some feedback if anybody wants to provide it, I'm open to changing it since it's been graded already!

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Happy Stalin's death day :)

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Of course! Thank you for giving me an opportunity to rant <3 love you too

You absolutely should have a long talk with him. Definitely give him like, a benefit of the doubt vibe because people are more open to criticism that way. His job is to educate, not give his personal opinions on history. It's impossible to fully avoid bias but still, we should try our best. If he doesn't listen, I will support your radicalisation lmao. Report his ass, this could result in so so many problems in the future, especially for those who wanna study this kind of thing in the future.

He's a mess.

Yes mister "russia and the world" professor yes the USSR wad united and there were toooootally republics. Yes mister professor of course everyone was united through the language! Erasure and oppression? Oh sorry I misheard you. Nevermind.

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Vintage wind-up toy bear (USSR, 1920s-30s)

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Let's talk about this actually! Hijacking your post for educational purposes because I Am Evil.

Ethnic and national oppression in the USSR: a short summary and explanation.

disclaimer: I am not an academic or an authority on this in any shape or form. Always do your own research and double check even trusted sources. This is not a comprehensive list, only including major instances that I feel sure enough to speak about.

I. Introduction

Oppression in the USSR was indeed very present, no matter what a tankie professor might try to claim. I want to make clear that this short list, essentially, will be referring to oppression by the USSR towards its ethnic groups within it and the national identities of both its republics and puppet states. Please keep in mind that these intersect with the oppression faced by individuals for their gender, sexuality, race and economic position within the USSR.

It's not uncommon, especially for older individuals, to hold romanticized view of the USSR or other Soviet adjacent regimes. Part of this is the effect of nostalgia, part of it is the human want to have a better world to escape to, something to strive towards, to hope about. However, these types of beliefs getting brought into academic circles is not only wrong, it is DANGEROUS. The Russian government still refuses to acknowledge many, many horrible crimes and genocides the USSR committed and to compensate the victims. This affects actual people and their living situations nowadays. It puts us at risk of minimizing victims stories and repeating history. Educate yourself. Read more. Educate others. Speak up.

This is a BRIEF and INCOMPLETE explanation of everything. If you are curious, please do your own research too, read books, listen to lectures, start at whatever level you are comfortable. Listen to the victims. I will try my best to answer if any questions are sent my way.

II. Russification and Sovietization

Let's start off with defining russification. It is a form of cultural assimilation in which a non-Russian culture assimilates Russian culture into it. While this can be voluntary, it is most often forced upon the people of a region by the government. Although not often included, shifts to a majority Russian population can also be considered russification. Russification targets mostly culture but can also be found heavily in politics and education. This process usually results in the shift of one's ethnic identity from non-Russian to Russian. Russification often manifests by officials getting replaced by Russian officials (often less qualified to run their position), the forcing of the Russian language on children in schools and individuals in official settings especially, and policies being introduced forcing or replacing the non-Russian culture (language, traditional crafts and dresses, literature etc.) with Russian culture. The results of this are often the loss of the original culture. Non-compliance or efforts to keep the original culture alive were often met with mass deportation (which we will tackle later on) or executions. It was implemented in countries such as Estonia and Poland by the USSR. I recommend checking the articles linked here on Britannica as they go over a lot of the instances of Russification that play into the Soviet era. It was a tactic most prevalently used by the Russian Empire, however the USSR also used it in combination with Sovietization. [1][2]

On that topic, Sovietization. This is often conflated with Russification or used interchangeably. However, they are usually considered distinct processes. Sovietization is the adoption of political models based on the USSR or the adoption of the way of life, mentality, and culture of the USSR. This is very similar to russification, obviously. If this definition is too vague for you, this is essentially what happened in every republic the USSR annexed (Estonia, Lithuania etc.) or the puppet states (Poland, Hungary etc.). There are lots of similarities in the process to Russification and the results are essentially the same. However, it is often more brutal and results in more deaths than in russification because the 'Soviet way of life' is founded on the persecution of 'class enemies' which due to corruption became a short hand for anybody that Soviet authorities did not like. [3]

Now, if this doesn't sound like oppression to you, you probably also think colonization only had positive effects on the countries that were colonized. Sovietization and russification are major contributions as to why so many ethnic minorities in Russia are struggling to survive, but also as to why post-Soviet countries have such high rates of corruption. Implementing a system that is riddled with corruption into new countries results in them having a corruption issue, what a surprise. Additionally, these processes are the reason generations have such hatred towards Russia, especially in countries such as Poland and Georgia. This is textbook oppression. The Russian government often denies ever having forced populations to be more Russian, however there is plenty evidence to the contrary. Below, I have linked a few academic articles that are a good read if you want to know more.

III. Mass deportation

This is one of the most known aspects of the USSR, yet it is denied so often by supporters of the USSR. A majority of these deportation were organized by Stalin. It is important to stress that these mass deportations were specifically targeting non-Russians who were considered foreigners within the USSR. There was never unity is the Soviet Union. We are talking about millions of people who were rounded up and dumped in a foreign region they most likely didn't speak the language of based SOLELY on the fact that they are foreign. Some of the major groups targeted were Chechens, Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars and Ingush. There were also plans of mass deportation of millions of Jewish people, however that never came to fruition due to Stalin's death. The survivors of these mass deportations are still alive. [4][5][6]

And these are only the deportations from within the USSR. Millions were deported from Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Romania among others. Millions were forced out of their homes and onto trains. In Lithuania, in a series of 35 mass deportations between 1941 and 1952 resulted in the displacement of at least 130,000 people (70% of them women) to forced labour camps (Gulags) or remote settlements in the USSR. These also resulted in many, many deaths as not only was the transport brutal, so were the labour camps and settlements. [7] This was not even an uncommon process. Mass deportations of Ingrian Finns, who were also victims of genocide, took place from the late 1920s to 1940s. Approximately 100,000 Ingrian Finns were deported to prison camps and even more were shot. [8] Ethnic minorities such as Korean and Chinese individuals were also targeted. This is VERY well documented yet the Russian government still refuses to acknowledge it. These mass deportations were also often part of genocides, of which the USSR committed too many to list in this post. [9][10][11]

United my fucking ass. United nations don't mass deport major parts of their population. Get fucking real. Here are a few links to more resources on the mass deportations by the USSR, including a timeline.

IV. Genocide

Genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group. In our case, both have been committed. This is a controversial topic within Sovietology. Academics have a hard time agreeing what qualifies as genocide and what is just a massacre. However, the fact that the argument can be made at all disproves the point of my mutual's professor, in any case the USSR committed horrible mass killings against people within its own regions.

Despite the disagreement, one major agreement is that the Holodomor existed. As always, this is denied fervently by most supporters of the USSR but also the Russian government. The Holodomor was a mass man-made famine in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933. In that single year, it is estimated that around 3.5 to 5 million died in Ukraine as a result. The Holodomor was part of a larger famine that affected the USSR, especially Ukraine and Kazakhstan. There is debated whether the Holodomor was intentional or a by product of collectivization, however some claim it started as a byproduct of collectivization and was later weaponized by Stalin. Collectivization had detrimental effects on agriculture and the availability of food. It led to a steep drop in production, the disorganization of the rural economy, and food shortages. Naturally, these also resulted in peasant uprisings. A prominent theory is that Stalin used the famine to put down these rebellions. Farms, villages, and whole towns in Ukraine were placed on blacklists and prevented from receiving food. Along with the catastrophic death rate, there have been many, many reports of theft, cannibalism and lynching as a result of this famine. Stories about parents eating their children are very common from this time period. In case you had a doubt about whether this was a genocide, it was also accompanied by a broader assault on Ukrainian identity where Soviet officials started to violently punish anyone who has ever had any connection to cultural or independence movements within Ukraine, including mass killings, deportation and show trials. Additionally, Soviet officials intentionally kept new of this famine quiet. [12][13][14]

The Kazakh famine is also often considered a genocide, including by the Kazakh government. Similar to the Holodomor, it was part of the famines of the 1930s. However, Kazakhstan was absolutely wiped by the famines. Also caused by collectivization and the punishment from Stalin, the famine resulted in 1.75 to 2.1 million deaths between 1930 and 1933. Approximately 38 to 42 percent of all Kazakhs died, the highest percentage in the Soviet famines recorded. This was an especially hard blow to the population since they went through a different famine only 10 years earlier from 1920 to 1922. This was also the beginning sedentarization in Kazakhstan, a process where tribes cease seasonal or nomadic lifestyle and settle down in all-year habitats, which was a loss because nomadic practices are a large part of Kazakh culture. [15][16][17]

These are only two examples of mass killings by the USSR that are considered genocides by many, however there is many more. Still, the existence of these very two already prove the level of oppression and erasure within the USSR. Further sources, including a list of more massacres, are provided below.

V. The Great Purge or Great Terror

At this point, I'm getting tired and I think I've made my point. However, lets go over one last major point that points to the oppression and erasure of ethnicities and nationalities in the USSR. I will be brief about this section because it is more about political persecution but it still proves my mutual's professor wrong so, included.

The Great Purge, or Great Terror, was a brutal political purge by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938. It was mainly aimed at political opponents of the regime and those deemed a threat or opposition to the USSR. However, these were pretty arbitrary categories as Stalin was a paranoid freak. It basically included anybody he wanted to include, including freedom fighters and supporters of national independence for republics, but also sometimes just people of certain ethnicities or religions such as Jewish people [CORRECTION: Although certain religious participants were targeted, such as priests, Jewish people were not directly targeted by the Great Purge. As far as I've looked, the deportation and killing of Jewish people was more so correlation than causation in this case.]. Scientists, the armed forces, artists, musicians and members of the party were heavily targeted. Most agree that around 750,000 were executed during and more than a million were sent to forced labour camps (Gulag), in which even more people died. The camps were their own hell which I won't get into for now. There were also many show trials intended to intimidate anybody who would dare to step up to the Soviet regime. [18][19][20][21][22][23]

VI. Conclusion

In conclusion, the idea that there was no oppression or erasure in the USSR is just false. Ethnic, national and political persecution was well and alive in the USSR. Refusing to acknowledge these facts is a direct disrespect to all the people that died due to this regime and all the victims that survived. But for an academic professor to do so in his lessons is just abhorrent. I will be throwing hands with that professor when I go visit you, James, and I might mean that literally. I also would absolutely report his ass to the university. He is teaching false hoods.

Anybody who wishes to learn more than this, I'd recommend doing a good long Google search and visiting your local library!

Yes mister "russia and the world" professor yes the USSR wad united and there were toooootally republics. Yes mister professor of course everyone was united through the language! Erasure and oppression? Oh sorry I misheard you. Nevermind.

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Yes mister "russia and the world" professor yes the USSR wad united and there were toooootally republics. Yes mister professor of course everyone was united through the language! Erasure and oppression? Oh sorry I misheard you. Nevermind.