#Ex-Soviet Union

[xtruss]

The Rich, the Poor and Bulgaria! Money Really Can Buy You Happiness

— Published: December 16th, 2010 | Wednesday 16th August, 2023 | Christmas Specials | Comparing Countries

THE notion that money can't buy happiness is popular, especially among Europeans who believe that growth-oriented free-market economies have got it wrong. They drew comfort from the work of Richard Easterlin, Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California, who trawled through the data in the 1970s and observed only a loose correlation between money and happiness. Although income and well-being were closely correlated within countries, there seemed to be little relationship between the two when measured over time or between countries. This became known as the “Easterlin paradox”. Mr Easterlin suggested that well-being depended not on absolute, but on relative, income: people feel miserable not because they are poor, but because they are at the bottom of the particular pile in which they find themselves.

But more recent work—especially by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania—suggests that while the evidence for a correlation between income and happiness over time remains weak, that for a correlation between countries is strong. According to Mr Wolfers, the correlation was unclear in the past because of a paucity of data. There is, he says, “a tendency to confuse absence of evidence for a proposition as evidence of its absence”.

There are now data on the effect of income on well-being almost everywhere in the world. In some countries (South Africa and Russia, for instance) the correlation is closer than in others (like Britain and Japan) but it is visible everywhere.

The variation in life satisfaction between countries is huge (see chart). Countries at the top of the league (all of them developed) score up to eight out of ten; countries at the bottom (mostly African, but with Haiti and Iraq putting in a sad, but not surprising, appearance) score as low as three.

Although richer countries are clearly happier, the correlation is not perfect, which suggests that other, presumably cultural, factors are at work. Western Europeans and North Americans bunch pretty closely together, though there are some anomalies, such as the surprisingly gloomy Portuguese. Asians tend to be somewhat less happy than their income would suggest, and Scandinavians a little more so. Hong Kong and Denmark, for instance, have similar income per person, at purchasing-power parity; but Hong Kong's average life satisfaction is 5.5 on a 10-point scale, and Denmark's is 8. Latin Americans are cheerful, the ex-Soviet Union spectacularly miserable, and the saddest place in the world, relative to its income per person, is Bulgaria.

— This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline "The Rich, the Poor and Bulgaria"

[aglaiamanno]

i love flesh i love blood i love concrete i love the steppe and how it sees you - how the grass reaches up, how it knows you're there. i love rot i love decay i love the shift in language you hear if you walk too far - not quite illegible, not quite familiar. a whisper somewhere. ш or š or sz. keep quiet and they won't find you. but no one will find you. this land has no beginning, has no end. you can disappear here, if you wish. or not, if you're like me. i love buildings like wastelands of starships from ancient civilizations. monuments to power lost and power regained. where does the difference between past and future arise from? such concepts have no relevance here. the concrete is eternal anyway. i love the taste of metal in my mouth, and something else, an acidic tinge at the root of my nose. i love the mines. coal and copper. nickel and lithium. uranium. they haul it from the depths - hands red, faces black. it's in their mouths and it's in their food and it's in our houses. it's never deep enough. but this land is vast and empty - eternal. i love cautionary tales. i love gore i love guts. i love knowing what's out there. i love not knowing what's out there.

[galliaestomnis]

[viktorviolettaenterprises]

🇷🇺 Soviet Big 7 🇷🇺

DOWNLOAD LINK

Brace Yourself.. The Mightiest Soviet War Machines that become NATO Greatest Fear During Cold War and backbone of Soviet Military and It's Successor  Finally Make it's Way to The Sims 4 Universe. Inspired from Good Old Cold war Posters:

Note: The Sims Near The Vehicle are Represented A Real Capacity of Crew and Operators of Respective Vehicles. In 1981, the US Army Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center produced this informational poster, titled 'The Soviet Big 7', illustrating  seven armored vehicles/weapons systems that then formed the backbone of  the Soviet military:

ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" A self-propelled anti-aircraft gun Four 23mm AA guns on a common Mounting. All four guns together For Maximum volume of fire, employed as low-level AA Troop Protection. Tech Specs ¤ Build Mode Item, Can be found in Sculptures ¤ Two Model Consisted Of Standard Model &  Destroyed States ¤ Price §35.700 (Standard) & §357 (Destroyed States) ¤ 1 Colors Swatch

Mil MI-24 (Version P)  (Codename:Hind) A helicopter gunship. A potent weapons system that poses a significant threat in any tactical situation. This Variant Of MI-24 is Similar with MI-24D but differs in cannon armament.  Whereas the Mi-24D is armed with a 12.7mm Yak-B minigun in a nose turret  the Mi-24P has a twin barrel 30mm GSh-30K autocannon alongside the cockpit. The GSh-30K is much more powerful but easy to aim as the Yak-B. The P in the designation stands for "Pushka", which is  Russian for cannon. Tech Specs ¤ Build Mode Item, Can be found in Sculptures ¤ Two Model Consisted Of Standard Model & Flying Mode ¤ Price §40.000 (Both Standard and flying Models) ¤ 3 Colors Swatches

BMP-2 An armored personnel carrier. By US Military standard it was excellent in mobility, fire power and troops protection. it was a Improvement to Old BMP-1 with Specs: The commander now sits with the gunner in an enlarged, two-man turret, a slightly Improved armor, two rear infantry roof hatches instead of four. Now armed with the 2A42 30 mm auto cannon and the 9P135M ATGM launcher capable of firing SACLOS guided 9M111 "Fagot" (AT-4 Spigot), 9M113 "Konkurs" (AT-5 Spandrel) and 9M113M "Konkurs-M" (AT-5B Spandrel B) anti-tank missiles. however it only carried seven troops instead of eight. Tech Specs   ¤ Build Mode Item, Can be found in Sculptures ¤ Three Model Consisted Of Standard Model ,Open Hatch and Destroyed ¤ Price §5.319 (Both Standard And Open Hatch Version), §531 (Destroyed Model) ¤ 3 Colors Swatches (Available only to Standard and Open Hatch Version)

T-72 A main battle tank. Reported to be a successor to the T-62 Tank. Highly Mobile with improved armor protection.It is equipped with a 125 mm cannon with a smooth barrel having  the range of fire of 4,500 meters. Tech Specs   ¤ Build Mode Item, Can be found in Sculptures   ¤ Two Model Consisted Of Standard Model & Destroyed state ¤ Price §50.000 (Both Standard And Open Hatch Version), §500 (Destroyed Model) ¤ 3 Colors Swatches (Available only to Standard and Open Hatch Version)

2S1 "Gvozdika" A self-propelled 122mm howitzer.  Gvozdika is a Russian-made 122mm self-propelled howitzer based on  a tracked armored vehicle. The first prototype was ready in 1969. The  2S1 entered service with the Soviet Army in the early 1970s . The 2S1 Gvozdika  has a crew of four soldiers, including a commander, gunner, loader, and  driver. The 2S1 is always used by many armed forces around the world but  in the Russian army is only in service with reserve units. Reported to be replacement for The 122mm Towed Howitzwer D-30. Highly mobile and Amphibious Tech Specs ¤ Build Mode Item, Can be found in Sculptures   ¤ 1 Model ¤ Price §11.500 ¤ 1 Colors Swatches

2S3 "Akatsiya" A self-propelled 152mm howitzer. The SO-152 (Russian: СО-152) is a Soviet 152.4 mm self-propelled gun developed in 1968. It was a response to the American 155 mm M109. The development started in 1967 according to the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from July 4, 1967. In 1968 the SO-152 was completed and in 1971 entered service. Its GRAU designation is 2S3 (2С3). The fighting vehicle also received the additional designation Akatsiya (Акация), which is Russian for Acacia. Tech Specs ¤ Build Mode Item, Can be found in Sculptures   ¤ 1 Model ¤ Price §12.000 ¤ 1 Colors Swatches

9K33 "Osa" (NATO Codename: SA-8 Gecko) 9K33  is a Russian-made  highly mobile, low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile  system. "9K33" is its GRAU designation. The development program was  protracted with major redesigns of both the missile and launch platform  required. Extensive range testing of the Osa for the Land Forces was  conducted at a test range in Kazakhstan in 1965 where many of the faults  of the original system were discovered. The modified system was named  Osa-M with most of the individual systems having to be redesigned and  also many of the developing agencies changed. The Russian Army accepted  the OSA-M for service in 1972. Series production of the system began in  1971. The SA-8 Gecko is intended for defense of troops on the march and  in mobile combat, as well as of strategic ground facilities against  airstrikes delivered by manned or unmanned air vehicles flying at low  and medium altitudes. All versions of the SA-8 Gecko feature all-in-one  9A33 transporter erector launcher and radar(TELAR) vehicles which can  detect, track and engage aircraft independently or with the aid of  regimental surveillance radars. Tech Specs   ¤ Build Mode Item, Can be found in Sculptures     ¤ 1 Model   ¤ Price § 30 ¤ 1 Colors Swatches At the time, these were the primary combat vehicles that NATO forces  were likely to encounter in the event of a military confrontation with  the USSR. The poster was a training aid, designed to educate US Army  personnel about the basic characteristics and capabilities of these  vehicles, and to help them identify them by sight.

@exzentra-reblog @sparkiekongreblogsstuff @amalkavian​

[skylordhorus]

there are ppl on tumblr.com who learnt that their country (usually usamericans because that seems to be the cultural majority here) has done awful shit, are understandably ashamed, but decided to go to the extreme ends of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ and do whataboutisms in discussions where it’s uncalled for, or at worst, actively engage in propaganda

[itachikun]

my bf has a bot on his discord server that he set up to play a specific sound whenever x person joins and mine is a snippet of the USSR anthem

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“FARMER’S DEPORTATION TO DEATH IS COMBATED,” Montreal Star. October 25, 1932. Page 7. ---- Guthrie is Sent Appeal in Mennonite's Case ---- WINNIPEG Oct 25— (C T)— A plea to the Minister of Justice to atop the deportation of Isaac Braun, Saskatchewan Mennonite farmer to Russia, where he is almost "certain to meet death” has been dispatched to Ottawa. 

Dr. John MacKay, principal of Manitoba College, and head of the Manitoba Conference of the United Church in Canada, wired to Hon. Hugh Guthrie, Minister of Justice last night urging him to aid Braun and save “Canada from this descent to savagery." 

Ordered deported after serving a five-year perjury sentence in Prince Albert penitentiary, Braun fears death at the hands of the Bolsheviks because he smuggled money from Russia when he came to Canada in 1927. The money paid for the purchase of a Saskatchewan farm. 

Money smuggling is an offence punishable by death and the Mennonite farmer, during the trial at which ha was convicted of perjury, confessed that he had smuggled funds out of Russia. En route to Montreal today, he is scheduled to leave there aboard the S.S. Montrose on October 27.

[communist-ojou-sama]

Polish neonazi who has spent their entire life in Canada and has never set foot on Polish soil: We Poles are just so glad that the evil Soviet Union is gone now so we can venerate our national hero, Władysław the Jew Smiter, without censorship.

Ordinary Polish guy: Idk man it kinda sucks that western financial firms came in and bought all our national industry and our social services are shit now and the picture of "upward mobility" offered to us is going to the UK and picking tomatoes in rural Kent while the inbred grandniece of the architect of the Bengal Famine films herself cracking a whip over our heads for her #girlboss motivational instagram account, and the main outlet for that frustration is catholic christofascism. Maybe it wasn't so bad before the fall of the SU (all of this is in polish so anglophones can't understand it and don't care to translate it)

smug liberal whitey, to me: Don't you hysterical darkies see? ex-soviet people are Glad the soviet union is gone! Look at what all polish people are saying, which in the english language is entirely sentiment one and not sentiment 2!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

End of the line for corporate sovereignty

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me next weekend (Mar 30/31) in ANAHEIM at WONDERCON, then in Boston with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then Providence (Apr 12), and beyond!

Back in the 1950s, a new, democratically elected Iranian government nationalized foreign oil interests. The UK and the US then backed a coup, deposing the progressive government with one more hospitable to foreign corporations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalization_of_the_Iranian_oil_industry

This nasty piece of geopolitical skullduggery led to the mother-of-all-blowbacks: the Anglo-American puppet regime was toppled by the Ayatollah and his cronies, who have led Iran ever since.

For the US and the UK, the lesson was clear: they needed a less kinetic way to ensure that sovereign countries around the world steered clear of policies that undermined the profits of their oil companies and other commercial giants. Thus, the "investor-state dispute settlement" (ISDS) was born.

The modern ISDS was perfected in the 1990s with the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). The ECT was meant to foam the runway for western corporations seeking to take over ex-Soviet energy facilities, by making those new post-Glasnost governments promise to never pass laws that would undermine foreign companies' profits.

But as Nick Dearden writes for Jacobin, the western companies that pushed the east into the ECT failed to anticipate that ISDSes have their own form of blowback:

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/energy-charter-treaty-climate-change/

When the 2000s rolled around and countries like the Netherlands and Denmark started to pass rules to limit fossil fuels and promote renewables, German coal companies sued the shit out of these governments and forced them to either back off on their democratically negotiated policies, or to pay gigantic settlements to German corporations.

ISDS settlements are truly grotesque: they're not just a matter of buying out existing investments made by foreign companies and refunding them money spent on them. ISDS tribunals routinely order governments to pay foreign corporations all the profits they might have made from those investments.

For example, the UK company Rockhopper went after Italy for limiting offshore drilling in response to mass protests, and took $350m out of the Italian government. Now, Rockhopper only spent $50m on Adriatic oil exploration – the other $300m was to compensate Rockhopper for the profits it might have made if it actually got to pump oil off the Italian coast.

Governments, both left and right, grew steadily more outraged that ISDSes tied the hands of democratically elected lawmakers and subordinated their national sovereignty to corporate sovereignty. By 2023, nine EU countries were ready to pull out of the ECT.

But the ECT had another trick up its sleeve: a 20-year "sunset" clause that bound countries to go on enforcing the ECT's provisions – including ISDS rulings – for two decades after pulling out of the treaty. This prompted European governments to hit on the strategy of a simultaneous, mass withdrawal from the ECT, which would prevent companies registered in any of the ex-ECT countries from suing under the ECT.

It will not surprise you to learn that the UK did not join this pan-European coalition to wriggle out of the ECT. On the one hand, there's the Tories' commitment to markets above all else (as the Trashfuture podcast often points out, the UK government is the only neoliberal state so committed to austerity that it's actually dismantling its own police force). On the other hand, there's Rishi Sunak's planet-immolating promise to "max out North Sea oil."

But as the rest of the world transitions to renewables, different blocs in the UK – from unions to Tory MPs – are realizing that the country's membership in ECT and its fossil fuel commitment is going to make it a world leader in an increasingly irrelevant boondoggle – and so now the UK is also planning to pull out of the ECT.

As Dearden writes, the oil-loving, market-worshipping UK's departure from the ECT means that the whole idea of ISDSes is in danger. After all, some of the world's poorest countries are also fed up to the eyeballs with ISDSes and threatening to leave treaties that impose them.

One country has already pulled out: Honduras. Honduras is home to Prospera, a libertarian autonomous zone on the island of Roatan. Prospera was born after a US-backed drug kingpin named Porfirio Lobo Sosa overthrew the democratic government of Manuel Zelaya in 2009.

The Lobo Sosa regime established a system of special economic zones (known by their Spanish acronym, "ZEDEs"). Foreign investors who established a ZEDE would be exempted from Honduran law, allowing them to create "charter cities" with their own private criminal and civil code and tax system.

This was so extreme that the Honduran supreme court rejected the plan, so Lobo Sosa fired the court and replaced them with cronies who'd back his play.

A group of crypto bros capitalized on this development, using various ruses to establish a ZEDE on the island of Roatan, a largely English-speaking, Afro-Carribean island known for its marine reserve, its SCUBA diving, and its cruise ship port. This "charter city" included every bizarre idea from the long history of doomed "libertarian exit" projects, so ably recounted in Raymond Craib's excellent 2022 book Adventure Capitalism:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/14/this-way-to-the-egress/#terra-nullius

Right from the start, Prospera was ill starred. Paul Romer, the Nobel-winning economist most closely associated with the idea of charter cities, disavowed the project. Locals hated it – the tourist shops and restaurants on Roatan all may sport dusty "Bitcoin accepted here" signs, but not one of those shops takes cryptocurrency.

But the real danger to Prospera came from democracy itself. When Xiomara Castro – wife of Manuel Zelaya – was elected president in 2021, she announced an end to the ZEDE program. Prospera countered by suing Honduras under the ISDS provisions of the Central America Free Trade Agreements, seeking $10b, a third of the country's GDP.

In response, President Castro announced her country's departure from CAFTA, and the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes:

https://theintercept.com/2024/03/19/honduras-crypto-investors-world-bank-prospera/

An open letter by progressive economists in support of President Castro condemns ISDSes for costing latinamerican countries $30b in corporate compensation, triggered by laws protecting labor rights, vulnerable ecosystems and the climate:

https://progressive.international/wire/2024-03-18-economists-the-era-of-corporate-supremacy-in-the-international-trade-system-is-coming-to-an-end/en

As Ryan Grim writes for The Intercept, the ZEDE law is wildly unpopular with the Honduran people, and Merrick Garland called the Lobo Sosa regime that created it "a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed to operate with virtual impunity":

https://theintercept.com/2024/03/19/honduras-crypto-investors-world-bank-prospera/

The world's worst people are furious and terrified about Honduras's withdrawal from its ISDS. After 60+ years of wrapping democracy in chains to protect corporate profits, the collapse of the corporate kangaroo courts that override democratic laws represents a serious threat to oligarchy.

As Dearden writes, "elsewhere in the world, ISDS cases have been brought specifically on the basis that governments have not done enough to suppress protest movements in the interests of foreign capital."

It's not just poor countries in the global south, either. When Australia passed a plain-packaging law for tobacco, Philip Morris relocated offshore in order to bring an ISDS case against the Australian government in a bid to remove impediments to tobacco sales:

https://isds.bilaterals.org/?philip-morris-vs-australia-isds

And in 2015, the WTO sanctioned the US government for its "dolphin-safe" tuna labeling, arguing that this eroded the profits of corporations that fished for tuna in ways that killed a lot of dolphins:

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/24/wto-ruling-on-dolphin-safe-tuna-labeling-illustrates-supremacy-of-trade-agreements/

In Canada, the Conservative hero Steven Harper entered into the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, which banned Canada from passing laws that undermined the profits of Chinese corporations for 31 years (the rule expires in 2045):

https://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/harper-oks-potentially-unconstitutional-china-canada-fipa-deal-coming-force-october-1

Harper's successor, Justin Trudeau, went on to sign the Canada-EU Trade Agreement that Harper negotiated, including its ISDS provisions that let EU corporations override Canadian laws:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-eu-parliament-schulz-ceta-1.3415689

There was a time when any challenge to ISDS was a political third rail. Back in 2015, even hinting that ISDSes should be slightly modified would send corporate thinktanks into a frenzy:

https://www.techdirt.com/2015/07/20/eu-proposes-to-reform-corporate-sovereignty-slightly-us-think-tank-goes-into-panic-mode/

But over the years, there's been a growing consensus that nations can only be sovereign if corporations aren't. It's one thing to treat corporations as "persons," but another thing altogether to elevate them above personhood and subordinate entire nations to their whims.

With the world's richest countries pulling out of ISDSes alongside the world's poorest ones, it's feeling like the end of the road for this particularly nasty form of corporate corruption.

And not a moment too soon.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/27/korporate-kangaroo-kourts/#corporate-sovereignty

Image: ChrisErbach (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UnitedNations_GeneralAssemblyChamber.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[stillunusual]

Will they ever stop westsplaining? It's a shame that western commentators continue to routinely describe countries that were forced to spend a tiny fraction of their history as part of the Soviet Union, or the Soviet bloc, as "former Soviet" or "post-Soviet" or "ex-Soviet satellite" states, even though the USSR has been dead as a dodo for decades.

Strangely enough, you'll never see the same people referring to "the former Nazi state of Germany", or "America, the former slave-trading British colony", or even "Moscow, the former provincial Mongolian village".

Hopefully, condescending terms like "former Soviet", the stereotypes that go with them and the pernicious idea that these independent countries still somehow belong to "Russia's sphere of influence", will eventually disappear as they continue to develop and evolve, but I'm not holding my breath….

[frogchiro]

I hear it is time to spread the word of our lord and savior Tachanka? 👀

link: (https://rainbowsix.fandom.com/wiki/Tachanka_(Siege) Context of link: Just the wiki page of R6 operator Tachanka.

But I wanna highlight a few things!!!

Alexsandr Senaviev was born on November 3rd in Leningrad, Russia to a military family. At the age of eighteen, Senaviev was conscripted into military service just as the Soviet Union was ending its operations in Afghanistan. Upon the dissolution of his draft, Senaviev opted to enlist full time. He was part of the wrestling league, where his formidable frame and match strategy earned him accolades. 

Alexsandr Senaviev has a boisterous sense of humor with a booming laugh. He can be quite blunt, but without the intent to offend

Senaviev's younger sister is a doctor and our discussion had barely started when he was showing me pictures of her in her doctor's smock, along with a dozen more photos of his nieces and nephews and his own kids. […] He and his sister grew up in a strict household without many things, which is why he makes a great effort to enjoy life. They both make sure that their kids are loved and raised with laughter. At the same time, he doesn't like to buy or accumulate physical objects and emphasizes this with his children, much to their consternation. I suspect that's also partly to do with his divorce. […]

(Also the main reason why we refer to Tachanka as 'lord'/godly is mainly 'cause his weapons/loadout is shit.)

Ladies and gentlemen, we got ourselves a REAL LIFE DILF <33

From what I gathered on his wiki he has at least two children, one of them a son and an ex-wife! Also him being an ex wrestler because of his size and strength...

Imagine being a babysitter for his kids, a 6 year old boy and a sweet 3 year old girl who absolutely adore their nanny who spends the majority of their time with them since their father is still a busy man and their mother is using her newfound freedom as a divorced woman so you're babysitting the little ones for a hefty sum from their dad whenever you're free from college.

But you have to admit, while the kids are literal angels and a delight to babysit, they nor the money are the sole reason for you being so eager to babysit and their father, Alexsandr, played a huge part in it too.

He was so large and heavily build, no doubt from his years in the military but his charming, boisterous attitude combined with his broad, toothy grin that almost seemed boyish on his mature face was what really made you fall for him :(( Whenever the kids were playing or napping, you two had a little time with each other to just talk and spend time together, get to know each other better because 'Let's not make this one of those stick-in-the-ass rigid employer-employee relationships, yes?' as Alexsandr put it himself.

The connection between you deepened but you were still so shy under his clear blue eyes :(( You couldn't possibly do the first move, what if he doesn't return your feelings? He's much older than you, he has a military career, two kids and a divorce, surely he wouldn't ever be interested in someone like you...right?

Ofc little did you know that Alexsandr was tugging his lengthy, heavy cock every night after sending you off with a thick wad of cash and a loud, happy thank you for taking care of his kids, though in reality he was everything but happy :(( Like it or not but the burly male fell for you, the most cliche thing on earth, the young, sweet babysitter that visited him home almost every day to care for his little ones with a gentle smile towards them and him too, such a stark contrast from his ex wife...

He was cumming every night multiple times to the thought of you right here beside him, in his bed, all nice and naked, sated and warm after a night of passionate love making. He came on his hairy tummy with a displeased growl, once the post nut clarity set in and realized that he wasted so much precious seed when it could be inside you >:(

Alexsandr knew he had to have you, had to confess to you how he felt but didn't know how; his loud, charismatic attitude failing him for the first time in years but these thoughts were for the time being pushed back once again to the back of his mind. He could think of a better solution on how to win you over once he wasn't so terribly horny, testosterone clouding his mind as his heavy cock jumped to life once again, thick potent sperm oozing from his swollen tip and Alexsandr could only think about how well he could breed you, he was a real stud despite his age y'know? Plus he always wanted another kid anyway <33

[bitchalotl]

Harbingers in an unhinged modern-day AU I just cooked up:

Pierro - Bitter ex-minister of the German empire. Tried to prevent ww1 and failed miserably. Went into exile during the years of the Weimar Republic. Current prime minister of the Russian Federation.

Dottore - Infamous Egyptian scientist. Expelled from multiple universities due to faults against ethics. Currently wanted by the egyptian government. Fled the country with the help of the CIA. Later, they betrayed them for the KGB. May or may not have been involved in the creation of supersoldiers Capitano and Columbina as well as the tampering with decomisoned Android model Scaramouche.

Capitano - Early soviet attempt at the creation of a supersoldier following the devastation of ww2 and the tensions of the cold war. Unconfirmed involvement in the soviet invasion of Afghanistan during the 80s and the russian invasion of Ukraine.

Columbina - Escaped soviet experiment. Thought to be an attempt at a new generation of supersoldier. Abandoned after the collapse of the soviet union due to a lack of funding. Subsequently, It escaped russian facilities and presumably remained at large.

Arlecchino - French ww2 orphan. Recruited as a Paris based spy by the KGB during the cold war. Alleged mass murderer. Current director of russian espionage after allegedly murdering the previous director.

Pulcinella - Ex-communist sellout. Has been the mayor of Moscow for many, many years. Regularly accused of electoral fraud.

Scaramouche - Runaway android. Created by the founder of Shogun Robotics. Declared faulty and destined for decommissioning. Vanished from Japan years ago and may have been found in Russia and tampered with by Dottore. Shogun Robotics has since forgotten about this failed model and now produces the aptly named "Shogun" model.

Signora - Former German academic turned mass murderer following the death of her husband, who was a soldier in the French front of ww1. On an unrelated note, the russian ambassador to Germany has an uncanny resemblance to her.

Sandrone - Founder, CEO, and senior engineer of Marionette Technologies. Her technology and weapons manufacturing empire has the russian federation as its biggest client. Her personal information remains a mystery since she does not appear in public. Rival firm of Shogun Robotics.

Pantalone - Current governor of the Central Bank of Russia and former economy minister of the Russian Federation. Has a distinct and fierce hatred of Chinese economic policy. Labeled an oligarch by Western observations. The single wealthiest man in all of Russia.

Childe - Formerly a normal russian kid living in the Ural's region. He became extremely violent and bloodthirsty after an accident where he got lost in the mountains due to heavy blizzards. Eagerly joined the russian armed forces and has since become their poster boy. Has an unwavering loyalty for Russia and it's president.

Tsaritza - Current president of the Russian Federation. Her ancestors were nobility in the times of the russian empire. Is mockingly called "the Tsaritza" by political adversaries and Western press.

[upsettingandunfortunateclasshate]

“Back then, the one thing we could not tackle was Northern Ireland,” says Fox, who later became managing director of BBC Television. “The decision had been taken that the head of Northern Ireland programmes would act as censor. So it was as difficult to film there as in the Soviet Union. It also meant that it was easier to go to America, with no censorship, to film their race problems than those of Northern Ireland.”

All three strongly feel that not telling the British public what was actually happening in Northern Ireland led to ignorance and prejudice. “If we, the BBC, had been given access to deal with issues and injustices long before the troops went in, the British people would have been much more aware of what was happening in Northern Ireland, and understood what was going on in our country,” says Fox.

This is common even today. Reporting on domestic issues inspires the wrath of the gov, the right, vested interests. Reporting on foreign affairs is a lot more palatable.

[hetaliahyperfix]

Hetalia Headcanons: Nation Physiology- Death

Tw: Discussions about death and cultural destruction

In a previous post, I discussed both canon and headcanon ideas about how immortality works. Yet, how does a nation die? It certainly seems like they can endure a lot. Well, this post shall discuss what can and what cannot kill a nation.

Before we get any further though, I will need to discuss something very important if we are to understand this topic: nation vs state.

Nations and states are actually not synonyms of each other, despite many using them as such. In fact, the distinction is important enough for this discussion that I have decided to make sure we are all on the same page when it comes to the differences between them.

Instead of being long-winded though, I have actually put a very useful graph under the cut that will quickly compare the differences between the two:

(Third row from the bottom is wrong. I believe it is supposed to be "Not as stable as a nation" and "More stable than a state.")

In canon, the characters are exclusively referred to as nations, not states. While these things can often coincide, they are not synonyms. I'd also argue that Hima does not use it as a synonym. The characters have been pretty consistently made to represent the nations, or the religious/cultural/ethnic parts of their respective groups (ex: France is not simply the modern borders of the nation-state in today's Europe, he represents the French people and their culture).

Nations have also been shown to almost universally exist before their state does. As an example, America was born before the official establishment of the United States of America (1776 or 1789). If America were simply a state and not a nation, this would not be the case.

This distinction here will actually be very important in understanding what can or cannot kill a nation going forward, so that is why I felt the need to make this distinction clear.

So, using both canon and history, this is what I came up with:

Nations very rarely, if ever, die from occupation. Just about every nation has been occupied at some point. Just as an example, the original strips took place during WW2 when Germany occupied the majority of Europe, yet all those European nations continued to exist. Russia occupied the Baltics as the Soviet Union yet they continued to exist. Vietnam was colonized by France until 1954, yet we wouldn't say she was only born in 1954. A more ancient example is Ancient Rome. We see that, when an empire conquered territories, those nations remained. When the Roman Empire occupied land in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and various nations in Europe, all these nations still remained. At its height, the Roman Empire covered the majority of Europe, the Anatolian Peninsula, the Levant, parts of Arabia, and North Africa. Yet, I am positive all those nations in these areas continued to live but only as part of "his house," so to speak. In canon, characters who are occupied by foreign nations refer to it as living in the other nation's house (ex: the Baltics said they lived in "Russia's House" when they were part of the Soviet Union). Already, we can see why the distinction between state and nation is important. If they were states, they would not survive the occupation.

Territory changes rarely ever kill a nation. Nations in canon are constantly gaining and losing territory. This does not kill them. Even civil wars, despite popular headcanon belief, don't seem to kill nations. As an example, China is canonically over 4,000 years old. Yet, he has had his territory divided by civil wars hundreds of times over his history. In fact, it was such a prevalent thing, it even got its own term coined to describe it: the dynastic cycle. While this graph doesn't show it, you should keep in mind that each time it gets to the part where people revolt, the dynasty would often split into several different states. Here is a map of what this region looked like in 1936, right before WW2.

Loss of state or lack of state borders does not necessarily kill a nation. There is nothing in canon to indicate one way or the other, but I choose to believe that nations can exist even if they don't have official territory to call their own. To act like state borders are the only thing that determines a nation seems to deny the legitimacy of nations that were always nomadic or were forced into a nomadic life due to conquerors ousting them from their homeland. Native Americans groups were sometimes nomadic or were forced out of their home territory by the US government, yet I would not feel comfortable saying that means they weren't ever real nations (in the case of them always being nomadic) or that they ceased to exist as a nation of people (in the case of being forced from their homeland). There are/have been a lot of diasporas of people in the world who were either ousted from their homelands or always nomadic including the Native Americans, the Sami, the Romani, the Jews, the Ainu, the Aboriginal Australians, and more. All of these groups would have or still have either one or multiple personas for their groups, regardless of the fact that they didn't have a state to call their own for a long period of their history. Some of these groups have since been able to get state borders of their own (ex: the Cherokee Nation has a reservation covering multiple parts of Oklahoma). This is not the case for all these groups. This is because some of these groups either have no interest in a state of their own (the various Romani groups) or are interested, but have been denied (the Ainu). Also, the amount of personas they would have varies because not all of these terms refer to a single distinct group. For example, there would most likely be a single persona for the Ainu, but multiple for "Native America" as this term refers to over five hundred different nations native to North America that are around today, and each would most likely have their own persona.

So, with all of that being said, what can kill a nation? Simply put:

The destruction of a distinct national identity of a nation of people. This might seem self explanatory but it requires a bit more explanation. Basically, a nation can exist as long as their people do. "Existing" in this case refers to both physically existing and to culturally existing. So, for a nation to die, they either need to experience the complete destruction of their culture, or the complete death of all their people, or a combination of these two. Let's use a nation that canonically died: Ancient Rome. While I said that states don't need to exist to keep nations alive, they can often be intertwined with the national identity of a people so, in a case where nation-states are the same like Grandpa Rome, the destruction of the state can lead to the death of a persona. The fall of the Western Roman Empire brought about the collapse of the Roman identity (in the West, at least) and now, today, you will not meet someone who identifies with the language, religion, and culture of Rome. Nobody identifies as a Roman, at least none who were part of the original ancient culture that Grandpa Rome would have represented. Basically, his culture was effectively wiped out, so he died.

While a lack of state borders in itself won't kill, it can compound the problems that do kill a nation. If death is caused by the loss of a distinct cultural identity unique to that nation group of people, then states can often be very useful in maintaining these cultures. State borders are often founded around distinct nation groups or the formation of states can cause unique nation groups to rise up. So, while nations can exist without state borders, there is also no denying how important they can be with the formation and/or maintaining of national identities. So, while losing state borders in itself won't kill a Hetalia nation, it might lead to circumstances that can kill them aka, the death of their culture.

With all that being said, national identity can be a bit fluid. The culture of China during the Shang dynasty is not the same as the culture found in the People's Republic of China today, yet both are represented by the same persona. I think changes in cultures will not kill a nation as long as you can trace their culture's path pretty linearly and it progresses naturally. One really absurd example of this is Prussia. First he was the Teutonic Knights, then Prussia, and then West Germany. Those are some pretty big leaps (and honestly, I think they don't even make sense and only happened to keep him alive because he is a popular character).

All of this is to say that what ultimately kills a nation is the loss of their people and culture that represents their nation, the culture being the biggest factor.

A nation can die if their people completely assimilate with another culture, destroying their own distinctive national identity they represent. A nation can die if the people comprising their nation all perish, leaving no one left alive that was part of that distinct culture. A nation can die if their people go through a sudden and extreme enough change of cultural identity that they are basically a new group. A nation can die if they lose their state borders and, either gradually or suddenly, the people of the nation associated with that state loses their national identity.

A nation does not die from civil war as long as one or multiple of the states involved still represent the culture of the nation persona. A nation does not die from the loss of land, change of territory, or even complete loss of all land as long as a group exists that still holds onto the national identity associated with their nation persona. A nation does not die from occupation as long as the group occupied keeps a distinct sense of nationally identity associated with the nation persona.

Well, that's all. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Also, if I got any history wrong, feel free to correct me. I did my best to research, but mistakes sometimes still happen.

[personalmoshiakh]

hey, so— i’ve been ~officially writing a web serial since 2021 (unofficially, since at least 2014). Updates are currently very irregular, but i’m definitely still working on it!

✨🧿 THE BITTER DROP 🧿✨

modern fantasy romance about gay/trans Eastern Bloc Jews, set in a secondary world counterpart of early Soviet communes

The lounge is nearly empty tonight; all the action is downstairs at the grinding workshop — in the basement discotheque; you if I’m to have any hope of pulling, that’s where I ought to go but … ekh, I’m foggy tonight, between the psychosis and the laudanum for the pain what likes to haunt nefilim and the horse pills they made me take at the Mamka — nu okay, I skipped tonight’s dose so I can drink but like, neuroleptics don’t let go that quick — and as the brainfog settles on my thoughts, it turns to hoarfrost and my will seizes up like a rusty hinge.

Lev/Lyubov Morgenshtern, a queeny bigender flamer who’d once been one of the Pale’s youngest-ever ordained rabbonim, has just returned to the Talons Ghetto sovyet — an autonomous workers-and-peasants commune of the kind that directly preceded the Soviet Union (and indeed the thing that the USSR named itself after).

Lev is fresh off a stint on a psych ward that’d followed a far longer stint living in the tzarist-held half of Svet Dmitrin with a bougie respectability-obsessed ex-boyfriend — he’s got nowhere to sleep, no assurance her old friends, Red Guard and civilian both, would want to see them and the only workable plan she’s got is to find someone willing and soft-hearted to take him home for the night …

… and what luck if their rescuer, a medical necromancer by the name of Anzu Menelikov (Nyura to friends and lovers) is a beautiful trans flamer from a prominent rabbinical family! who better to welcome Lyubov home than a fellow hothouse flower and dedicated scholar? and does it matter if Nyura did anything the White Guard might still bear a grudge about? after all, most of the old Ghetto walls are still safely intact, and it’s not like Reb Doktor Menelikov personally set the Winter Palace on fire, right?

i’d say if you liked the Baru Cormorant series, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union and Gentlemen of the Road, Fallen London and its associated games, China Miéville’s oeuvre, and Disco Elysium, this’d probably be your thing!

content warnings

(under the cut)

reclaimed homophobic slurs

the narrator has a history of psychiatric institutionalisation

homophobia, transphobia, transmisogyny and antisemitism are environmental hazards in the setting, though by far not the focus

[googledocsdyke]

idk kinda weird to me that no one to my knowledge has yet brought up the interesting adaptational irony of the gonchnatural episode being like. really weirdly and intensely xenophobic and alienating about russia or at the very least like the very abstract aesthetic coding of pseudo-soviet imagery that the episode deploys to represent russia on american soil? like FASCINATING how perez absolutely however unintentionally dips his toe into the super broad sweeping pro-military, specifically pro-american military, rhetoric of spn as a whole, and that throwaway ex-kgb vet side character really served to reinforce that! there was literally no reason to have a random russian guy who dies at the first act break! you can very much separate the emotional concerns of goncharov from that context! if you want to! it felt like he couldn't do an homage to goncharov at all without being like "btw russia bad" in a super abstract way which is FASCINATING when contrasted with scorsese's like, really anachronistically nuanced depiction of life in the soviet union idk idkkkkk just spitballing. i love the episode dont get me wrong it's just crazy to read as a modern-day red scare moment that never appears in the show again like it's SO FUNNY to me when supernatural tries to be like. current as they can with like blunt scissors on a one-off episode basis. the duffer brothers seasons 3-4 called they LOVE your work