#collapse of ussr

[tomorrowusa]

In 2005, Putin famously lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “great geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. It would be ironic if his war completes the Soviet dissolution.

– Thomas E. Ricks, military and national security journalist, writing at the New York Times.

Putin is no time lord, he can't turn back the clock no matter how much he wishes to be Stalin. The Soviet Union is DEAD DEAD DEAD and nobody can bring it back.

Nobody has done more in this century to strengthen NATO, make former parts of the USSR more distrustful of Russia, and damage the Russian economy than Vladimir Putin. The invasion of Ukraine was an overreach of Shakespearean magnitude.

Putin is Russia's self-inflicted catastrophe of the 21st century. And it may take much of the rest of this century to sort out the mess he's created.

[daegu-based-terrorist]

The DPRK in the 1980s

[zvaigzdelasas]

Millenium Icons huh? The year 2000? Don't seem to remember the Somali Democratic Republic lasting 10 years past the end of the Somali Democratic Republic.

Anyway wonder who else was on the coins, since these are a sign of "genuine attempts at correcting a wrong" and not just "hey this guy was historically impactful"

Strange

[chicago-geniza]

It's 1991, Gene Roddenberry just died, and Star Trek is doing a two-part allegorical episode about the collapse of the Iron Curtain / Cold War world order and the End of History (In Space). S'chn T'gai Spock is The Last Man and he is tearing down the Berlin Wall between Vulcan and Romulus

[leroibobo]

Hi, I was wondering, why did you tag the sword from Dagestan with "Persian Jews?"

dagestan's jews were descendants of jews who got to the area from the sassanian empire sometime in the fourth century. their "diaspora language" is juhuri, a jewish dialect of the iranian tat language.

"persian jews" is my catch-all tag for jews who live/d in or went elsewhere after having lived in persia, sort of like "ashkenazi" or "sephardic". there's no actual term for it nor an associated religious rite they all share. most iranian-speaking jews lived within modern-day iran (a huge and culturally/linguistically diverse part of the world in itself), but many also ended up in the caucuses and central asia.

(and yes, i’m aware that “persian” is a subset of “iranian”, but “iran” is the current-day country and i’d rather not confuse anyone.)

[marginal-notes]

But one of the biggest things out of this whole mess is the weird sort of. Egalitarianism? What the fuck are words, I don’t know. Whatever, the weird places where people could just not give a shit about gender or sex in Naruto.

AKA, let’s talk a bit about ANBU, land of the “no one knows your face, no one knows your name, fuck your personal identity, no one’s allowed to even remember your body shape since that can give away secrets, just stab that target real good and do your job.” It’s the kind of place where all that matters is how good of a weapon you are, and we can turn it into the fucked up little deadly meritocracy we want to. Because I only have so much patience for dealing with chauvinism in my dumb little fiction project.

The general shinobi forces also broadly has this attitude, though it might not be to the extreme of ANBU and ROOT. At the end of the day, as long as you can carry out your missions well, based on your specializations, the distinctions between male and female shouldn’t be a massive impediment to your ability to serve the village.

It’s the extra politics and the civilian cultural expectations that start messing things up.

[gregor-samsung]

" It’s important to understand that the Soviet Union achieved collapse-preparedness inadvertently, and not because of the success of some crash program. Economic collapse has a way of turning economic negatives into positives. The last thing we want is a perfectly functioning, growing, prosperous economy that suddenly collapses one day, and leaves everybody in the lurch. It is not necessary for us to embrace the tenets of command economy and central planning to match the Soviet lackluster performance in this area. We have our own methods, that are working almost as well. I call them “boondoggles.” They are solutions to problems that cause more problems than they solve.

Just look around you, and you will see boondoggles sprouting up everywhere, in every field of endeavor: we have military boondoggles like Iraq, financial boondoggles like the doomed retirement system, medical boondoggles like private health insurance, legal boondoggles like the intellectual property system. The combined weight of all these boondoggles is slowly but surely pushing us all down. If it pushes us down far enough, then economic collapse, when it arrives, will be like falling out of a ground floor window. We just have to help this process along, or at least not interfere with it. So if somebody comes to you and says “I want to make a boondoggle that runs on hydrogen” – by all means encourage him! It’s not as good as a boondoggle that burns money directly, but it’s a step in the right direction. "

Dmitry Orlov - Closing the Collapse Gap (2006)

[saucetail-hasanewblog]

I’m thinking about setting my original story in an alternate history world. Is this Weird. Because like, I don’t think I’m going to comment a lot about it but it just struck me that this is something I could very much do.

[40ouncesandamule]

I refuse to entertain any ai or machine learning hype bullshit, whether it be self driving cars or robot doctors or whatever, until I can go to my local store and buy a machine that can reliably crochet for less than a week’s worth of minimum wage

At its heart, outside of a few very specific edge cases, what is being promised is either literally impossible or secretly reliant on massive labor exploitation or some combination of both. It’s not real. This is another dot com bubble or another tulip craze.

[nicklloydnow]

“The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the start of the USSR’s collapse—but not the collapse itself. While the USSR ceased to exist as a legal entity after 1991, the collapse of the USSR is still happening today. The two Chechen Wars, Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the on-and-off border skirmishes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the 2020 Second Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan are just a few examples showing that the Soviet Union is still collapsing today.

However, future historians will likely describe Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine as the most consequential moment, if not the final moment, of the Soviet Union’s collapse. When the war in Ukraine will end is unknown, but it will likely mark the dissolution of the Russian Federation (the legal successor of the Soviet Union) as it is known today. Russia has undeniably suffered a major blow to its economy, devastation to its military capability, and degradation of its influence in regions where it once had clout. The borders of the Russian Federation will likely not look the same on a map in 10 or 20 years as they do now. As the final collapse of the Soviet Union plays out and as the Russian Federation faces the possibility of dissolving, policymakers need to start planning for the new geopolitical reality on the Eurasian landmass.

(…)

After the dissolution of the Russian Federation, the United States should pursue a set of achievable goals that narrowly focus on the American national interest. Specifically, the US will need to:

Be realistic about Russia’s democratic and free market prospects. (…)

Contain any spillover from internal Russian fighting. (…)

Account for Russia’s stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. (…)

Spread stability on Europe’s periphery by expanding Euro-Atlantic integration and deepening bilateral relationships. Euro-Atlantic integration has been one of the greatest drivers of stability in Europe since 1949. When the Russian Federation dissolves, NATO and the European Union should take advantage of Moscow’s weakness and push for a “big bang” enlargement for remaining candidate and aspirant countries. Planning for this, including the preparatory work for any institutional reforms needed to add new members, should start now. Where NATO or EU membership is not appropriate, the US should pursue stronger relations on a bilateral or multilateral basis—especially by leveraging regional groupings like the GUAM or the Organization of Turkic States.

Maintain superior military strength in Europe. (…)

When possible, hold those in Russia accountable for atrocities committed in Ukraine. (…)

The success of Ukraine on the battlefield against Russia could offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put Russia back inside its geopolitical box for a generation. This would create a new geopolitical reality not seen in a generation. As policymakers plan for this new geopolitical reality, they should learn the lessons from the 1990s when Western decision-makers naively hoped for democratic governance and economic reforms in Russia that never materialized. If Moscow’s behavior on the world stage since 1991 has shown anything, it is that Russia is unlikely to become a responsible global actor in the foreseeable future. Instead of focusing on the unachievable, American decision-makers should pursue pragmatic and realistic policies that advance the national interest of the US.”

[mercoglianotrueblog]

It wasn't the "end of history"

#USSR wanted to join #NATO in 1954:rejected cos they needed the only credible #enemy to keep govt. #money flowing

non-Western #world has backed away from the #West which is now in #minority

real changes will be only with #nuclear threat or #debt collapse

https://salvatoremercogliano.blogspot.com/2024/07/it-wasnt-end-of-history.html?spref=tw

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Goncharov wouldn’t be half as entertaining if Tumblr weren’t completely and utterly willing to “yes and” all the initial flaws. Katya’s name should be Goncharova? Her calling herself Goncharov reflects her complicated relationship with both her gender and her queerness. Andrey’s name should be Andrei? No, because he’s actually a Ukrainian being mistaken for a Russian by the Italians, which is central to his character and the themes about identity and nationality in the wake of the collapsed USSR. The USSR wouldn’t even fall until 20 years after the film was made? Matteo JWHJ0715 was ahead of his time.

It’s a great example about how good faith approach to writing can really enhance the reading, when you treat flaws as opportunities rather than just nitpicking them or erasing them. The mistakes being folded into Goncharov makes for a deeper, stronger, and more interesting story than if those mistakes had never happened at all.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Quote: "In recent weeks, the tone of public debate in Russia has moved beyond merely punishing those who criticise the 'Special Military Operation' [as Russian propaganda calls the war against Ukraine] towards mandating citizens to actively make sacrifices in support of the war effort," the UK MoD stressed.

Details: In particular, Russian state media and business groups have asked the country’s Ministry of Economy to allow employees a six-day workweek to meet the war's economic demands, obviously without additional payment.

P.S. The repressive Russian regime is suffering heavy defeats in Ukraine and the stupid regime loyalists will have to work for the Kremlin without pay... Russian populists who supported the Kremlin get what they deserve - "forced labor"...

[jovialbasementbouquetblr]

2000: Jiang Zemin on Post Soviet Collapse Challenges in Ideological and Political Work

2000: Jiang Zemin on Post Soviet Collapse Challenges in Ideological and Political Work

Jiang Zemin in June 2000: "Why did a socialist country that had been developing for more than 70 years disintegrate? …Some party members and cadres have also experienced a "crisis of faith" to varying degrees. This is an objective reality that we cannot deny or overlook" pic.twitter.com/WP9ApOiGeY— Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt (@jcmittelstaedt) December 12, 2022 An intriguing tweet from…

[shituationist]

Stalinists will call themselves materialists and then say shit like "revisionism taking over the party is why the USSR collapsed"