#petersburg citizens

[un-ionizetheradlab]

Russia just freed SIXTEEN political prisoners in a prisoner swap with the West!

Among the released political prisoners are:

Oleg Orlov, a longtime dissident and the co-chair of Memorial, an organization created in 1989 to chronicle the USSR's human rights abuses and educate Russians about the history of political repression;

Sasha Skochilenko, an LGBTQ artist who was imprisoned in April 2022 for replacing price tags at grocery stores with data about Russian destruction in Ukraine, deemed treasonous under Russia's "fake news" law;

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political dissident who was fundamental in bringing about the Magnitsky Act to sanction Russian human rights abusers, and who was poisoned twice by the KGB in attempted assassinations before being sentenced to 25 years in prison for "treason";

Evan Gershkovich, a young American journalist who was arrested in Russia while reporting for the Wall Streeet Journal in March 2023 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for "espionage";

Paul Whelan, American former Marine who was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor for "espionage";

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for spreading "fake news" about the war in Ukraine;

Andrei Pivovarov, an opposition activist who headed the pro-democracy organization Open Russia before being imprisoned in a Siberian penal colony infamous for its torture of prisoners;

Ilya Yashin, a young opposition politician who was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for publishing YouTube videos about the war in Ukraine; when Russian authorities "encouraged" him to leave the country, he chose instead to stay;

Lilia Chanysheva, opposition activist and regional coordinator of Navalny HQ; in her final speech before the Russian court, she tried in vain to appeal to the judge's sense of empathy: "If you put me in jail for 12 years, I will be too old to bear a child. Give me a chance to be a mother!";

Kevin Lik, a dual German-Russian citizen who was arrested as a minor for "photographing military sites" shortly before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine; he was the youngest person ever to be convicted of treason in Russia;

Rico Krieger, a German man sentenced to death in Belarus for supposedly planting explosives on a railroad track to help the Ukrainian army;

Dieter Voronin, a dual German-Russian citizen and political scientist who was arrested in 2021 in connection to a treason case involving Russian journalist Ivan Safronov;

Patrick Schobel, a German man arrested in February 2024 at the Pulkovo International Airport in St Petersburg when customs officers found cannabis gummies in his luggage, in a scenario very similar to that of Brittney Griner;

German Moyzhes, a dual German-Russian citizen and lawyer who was charged with treason for helping Russians obtain European residency permits;

Vadim Ostanin, opposition activist and Navalny associate arrested in 2021 for his work with Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation;

Ksenia Fadeyeva, dissident and Navalny associate sentenced to 9 years in prison.

[vermutandherring]

This is gonna be really long long read

Recently, my post with the paintings of Wilhelm Kotarbinski attracted a lot of attention from a couple of individuals. In this post, I share paintings for The Sims 4. 41 paintings that represent Kotarbinski's work in different periods of his life, on various motives. Against the background of my other publications, this is a rather unpopular post with a small number of likes and reposts (big respect to those who do this). This post is practically invisible by the standards of Tumblr and especially the Internet.

But it is noticeable for certain individuals who came under this post not for sims or even pictures. They appeared to restore justice and correct me, although I would rather call it bullying and humiliation of the national dignity not only of me, but of the entire Ukrainian people. But I don't want to play the victim. I just want to refute these arguments in a good way.

Take 1 – Kotarbinski is a Polish artist. Calling him Ukrainian means appropriating Polish heritage.

A lot of confusion arises when we talk about the past - the times of the existence of empires, when most modern countries (in this context, European ones) were under the oppression of metropolises. For some reason, a certain number of people still think in these categories, dividing countries into "newer" and "older". The purpose of such distribution is simple – to diminish the importance of the mentioned country. But we will gradually return to this issue.

But there is another, less obvious reason why it is difficult to talk about people of the past. Centuries ago, people did not think the way we do today - I am a citizen of this country, and therefore I carry its culture. Before the First World War, people preferred to identify themselves with a certain social class, a certain stream of like-minded people, a type of employment or religious denominations. They were subjects of their states, members of their noble and not so noble families, were Christians, Jews or representatives of other denominations, and only then representatives of some country or nation. And if the things created by people themselves do not give us a hint of their own position, our own thoughts are only speculations.

T. Shevchenko. Self-portrait 1860 (with a candle) (paper, etching on pleura, aquatint)

For example, let's take the artist Taras Shevchenko. He was a subject of the Russian Empire, which he hated, his work and life took place in Ukraine, he was Ukrainian by birth and wrote in Ukrainian, criticizing the government. There are no questions about his nationality and self-identification.

How about, for example, the artist Vasyl Tropinin? Tropinin was born in the Novgorod province, the territory of russia. He was of russian origin, studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and lived most of his life in russia. At the art academy where I studied, among the various art history courses, we had a separate subject on the history of 'russian art'. The art of no other country or period was defined as a separate subject. Except for russian (which somehow miraculously had a special status). But surprisingly, Tropinin did not appear in this subject as a russian artist. He was considered in the context of the history of Ukrainian art as an artist who represented the Ukrainian culture of the first half of the 19th century. Tropinin himself spoke about his work as follows:

Again, notice - I do not indicate that he was considered Ukrainian by origin. It was his work that was defined as Ukrainian, and therefore he himself is defined as a Ukrainian artist in the scientific studies of art critics based on the nature of his works. He owns many portraits depicting the Ukrainians of Podillia and their national clothes, emphasizing the diversity of Ukrainian culture. We can say that Tropinin is a russian by nationality, who has a Ukrainian period of his art.

Art by Tropinin

Speaking of this, I would rather pay attention to such a Ukrainian artist as Ilya Repin (real name - Ilya Ripa), Ukrainian artist of Armenian origin Ivan Ayvazovsky (real name - Hovhannes Ayvazyan) or composer of Ukrainian origin Pyotr Tchaikovsky ( real name is Petro Chayka). At this moment, you will most likely raise an eyebrow and distrust what you read, because all your life you have heard that these are Russian artists. But they are russian only because of the imperial hand of the russian empire, which represented the culture of the captured territories as its own cultural diversity.

Moreover, playing along with the empire and pandering to its colonial policy was the only way to "break out into the high society" and become something more than an ordinary peasant from the colony. For this, you had to do a few simple steps: to give up one's cultural identity, speak russian, and change a difficult (by russian standards) surname to one that is easier for russian to pronounce. That is why I added their real names in parentheses.

They know perfectly well what it means to sell one's soul to the devil

What does Wikipedia tell us?

Ukrainian-born, but still Russian. After all, I cannot deny the simple fact that their work, their life and fame really have a very close connection with Russia, at least because they were its citizens. In Tchaikovsky, you will find many works inspired by Russian culture, such as the operas Oprychnyk, Yevgeniy Onegin, The Queen of Spades, etc. The Cossack origin did not prevent the composer from distorting the image of the Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa in the opera of the same name. The image, which in contrast to the Russians, who historically perceived Mazepa as a traitor, had an epic and romantic image in the works of European artists (in the works of Lord Byron, for example).

Ukrainian motifs prevail in Ilya Repin's work. His most famous works depict the Cossacks and the Ukrainian countryside, but he himself, despite his descent from the Cossack family and great love for his native land, identified himself as a russian, separating himself from the 'little russians'.

Art by Ilya Repin

After this lengthy passage, in which I prove that often the origin does not say much about the affiliation of the artist, we can return to so much suffered Kotarbinski. Wilhelm Kotarbinski was born in Neborów, in the central region of Poland. The boy was interested in drawing from childhood, so after entering the Warsaw gymnasium, he additionally attended drawing courses. While studying in Warsaw, young Kotarbinski fell in love with a cousin - a relationship that the family could not allow, and therefore gave the girl in marriage to someone else. Shocked by this, Kotarbinski decided to leave Warsaw and go to Rome. Kotarbinski lived in Italy for 15 years, where during this time he managed to graduate with a silver medal from the Art Academy of St. Luke.

The joke about the fact that Kotarbinski studied and lived in Italy, but for some reason is not considered an Italian artist, looks a bit lame. As Viktoriya Sukovata points out in the study "Wilhelm Kotarbinski, the forgotten genius of Ukrainian Modern", being a Pole, Kotarbinski received an academic base in Rome, and therefore to some extent he can be called a representative of the Italian art school.

Roman Orgy

In 1888, Kotarbinski returned to Warsaw, where he was able to marry his already widowed cousin, although over time he realized that this marriage did not bring him the desired joy. So at the invitation of his old friends from the Roman period, the Svedomskyi brothers - russian artists - Kotarbinski moved to Kyiv. Here he actively took part at exhibitions, being one of the most active Kyiv artists.

Imitating the organizational forms of The Itinerants (association of artists of the russian empire, including Ukrainian artists), in May 1893 Wilhelm Kotarbinski, together with Vladyslav Galimsky and other artists, appealed to the authorities with an official request to approve the charter of the Kyiv Society of Art Exhibitions. In 1897, he became a member of the Kyiv Society of Antiquities and Arts, which was reformed from the Society for the Promotion of Arts. It can be said that the Kyiv cultural environment was not alien to the Polish artist at all, and he actively contributed to his work with his creativity and social activities.

Paintings Roman Orgy and Death of Messalina at an exhibition in Lviv, 1894

If you are a little familiar with the history of art, you will notice that Kotarbinski's works, with their Ancient and Oriental motifs and chosen themes, is very reminiscent of the works of representatives of mid-19th-century academicism, Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Henryk Siemiradzki. However, as Viktoriya Sukovata points out in her already mentioned article, this perception is a bit wrong, since Kotarbinski was working at the end of the century. Instead of the romantic interpretation and fascination with the past, inherent in the middle of the last century, Kotarbinski perceived exotic Orientalism through the prism of the decadent present, on which was superimposed the mystical aesthetics picked up by Kotarbinski from the cultures of Eastern Europe.

This mysticism is particularly visible in his erotic female images. According to the researcher, they are inspired by such currents of European modernism as Jugendstil and Vienna Secession, which enriched his Italian academic base with "bright decorativeness, sophisticated plots and symbolism." It was during this second Polish and Kyiv period that Kotarbinski painted many canvases depicting creatures from Slavic mythology. Numerous mavkas, mermaids, female spirits of nature, ghosts and other creatures are permanent characters in his works.

It is also worth mentioning the fact that, in addition to easel works, Kotarbinski had extensive experience in painting churches. He painted Orthodox and Catholic churches in Ukraine and Belarus, the most famous of which is the Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, as well as the Church of St. Nicholas in Radomysl (Zhytomyr Region, Ukraine), the Cathedral of Tree Anastasias in Glukhiv (Sumy Region, Ukraine), etc.

The ceiling in Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv, painted by Kotarbinski.

This, in turn, could not help but leave an imprint on Kotarbinski's work. In Orthodoxy, the temple is the embodiment of God's house on earth and a semblance of paradise for Christians. Its inner space should remind the believer of his purpose and life path, in which he is accompanied by saints, martyrs, archangels and other forces of the heavenly host. Kotarbinski worked on the frescoes of the church under the supervision of Sviedomskyi, because as a Catholic, he could not be allowed to independently paint an Orthodox church. Perhaps that is why, in this period of Kotarbinsky's work, in addition to nymphs, he also depicts numerous angels of death, drowning women or paintings with the leading motif of death, full of the same aesthetic mysticism, but in different context.

"Stop. What all this does with the aesthetics of mysticism ?" - you ask. This is about my answer to not so respected person that the environment has a considerable influence on the creativity of any artist:

I'm sorry for the 'forks' typo, it was about works.

Do you really believe that after living in another country for more than 30 years, you can remain completely untouched by the local culture? But in the eyes of someone, I am the thief here for calling Kotarbinski a Ukrainian artist for his conscious choice to incorporate local motifs into his works. However, his most significant role for Ukrainian art is bringing the style and themes of European art of that time to Ukrainian. Viktoriya Sukovata writes about this in the already mentioned work:

Panels from the Tereshchenki-Khanenki house, created by Kotarbinski. Photo from the site Culture.PL

Returning to the question itself - whether Kotarbinski can be called a Ukrainian artist based on the nature of his creative heritage, I believe that there is every reason for this. Firstly, Wilhelm Kotarbinski spent a significant part of his life in Kyiv, surrounded by its artistic life, in which he actively participated. He not only enriched Ukrainian culture with European modern trends, but also borrowed local motifs in his work, creating his mystical worlds full of mythical creatures.

Take 2 – Kotarbinski could not be a Ukrainian artist, because Ukraine did not exist.

Here I'd like to address both disreputable individuals who repeated this slogan twice in different variations:

Can you guess who else likes to use this narrative about "Ukraine didn't exist"?

Here I would like to introduce my Polish not-friends to one russian under my post, dated October 31, 2023. This was a post in which I adapted for The Sims 4 novel "Vyi" by the writer Mykola Gogol, calling him Ukrainian because of him (you won't believe) being a Ukrainian.

I will not raise a historical polemic about who owns which lands and when which state arose. After all, in such a case, it is possible to reach extremes, in which Ireland never existed without Britain, and Poland without the soviet union. Doesn't sound very nice, does it? But the imperial past of Poland and russia still allows certain individuals to draw this trump card and throw it in the face of Ukrainians, whose separate country really did not exist for a long time precisely because of them. But for some reason they don't like to mention it. Currently, Ukrainians are going through a difficult stage of self-identification, collecting parts of our culture, scattered by empires over the centuries, barbarically looted and erased from the face of the earth. A very convenient position is to ban culture and language, erase at least a hint of its existence and appropriate it, and then declare that neither such a nation nor its "poor culture" exists.

I want to add only one thing: Kyiv has always been Ukrainian, and no barbaric capture by another state for over 10 centuries made it either the cradle of some imaginary civilization, or the mother of distant and foreign cities for us.

I wrote "Polish-Ukrainian" artist precisely because Kotarbinski was an important part of Ukrainian cultural life of the beginning of the 20th century; precisely because that is how it is defined by the art history scientific community, and not my personal whim. It is thanks to him that the St. Volodymyr Cathedral has its majestic interior full of mystical awe, the house of the Khanenkos is filled with exotic panels with Oriental motifs, and Ukrainian museums preserve rare easel works of the artist, which embody the tragic uncertainty of the future, so characteristic of all European art of this era.

Wilhelm Kotarbiński in his workshop in the hotel 'Prague', Kyiv. Photo: Central Archive-Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine.

Unlike the Ukrainian works in the Tretyakov Gallery in St. Petersburg, Kotarbinski's works were not stolen, illegally exported, or shamelessly appropriated under the guise of "evacuation" or forced restoration. Kotarbinski spent the last years of his life in Kyiv. Against the background of the First World War, his fate was not the best. He died poor and forgotten, unable to return to his homeland in Poland. Today, his works are kept in museums in Warsaw, st. petersburg, Ukrainian Kyiv and Sumy. His work is examined from the perspective of all three countries with which he was in contact, and the scientist of each of the countries will emphasize those aspects of his work that are related to this country. But for God's sake, no one tries to steal from a dead person, unless you're into strange practices.

What to do to see Ukrainian culture?

For example, to begin with, open your eyes. This can be especially difficult if you're a prejudiced chauvinist, but it's worth a try. Next, as the fastest solution, I can offer you the blog @vintage-ukraine, where works of Ukrainian fine art, films, famous Ukrainian cultural figures, historical photos, musical works, etc. are published every day. As a next step, I can recommend the Культуртригер channel, in which the authors talk about Ukrainian fine art and refute imperial narratives about Ukrainian art that have been cultivated for centuries. This channel is in Ukrainian, but it seems quite similar and easy to understand for Russian and Polish speakers, so I think you won't have any problems with it. According to the same principle, I can recommend the Ukrainian-language literary channel Твоя Підпільна Гуманітарка, where authors research and talk about Ukrainian literature, language and mythology in an accessible form.

If you don't see something, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist

Many thanks to my Ukrainian friends for their support 💖

P.S: If you think that all this post is about my personal drama and offence, I kindly recommend you to pay a visit to @lichozestudni and read just a bit more. You'll find a lot of interesting things 👋 (Please, I'm not calling for threats and humiliation. You can use Tumblr's tools for regulating this kind of thing).

[izloveshorses]

we're almost to the halfway mark, so i thought i'd share another progress update on this little (big) project!! (previous update)

i've almost finished drawing half of all the assets (according to my spreadsheet) and then we can start assembling them into a "book." the bulk of the assets are characters/costumes, but i've also completed several props and started working on some backgrounds as well. I need to decide how the book will be laid out before i make much more progress on those, though. i've been trying to hold off on finishing the principal cast because i think saving them for ~dessert~ will keep me motivated to power through the rest, but i'm so anxious to get to them because i want to play with them in photoshop and put them on their associated backgrounds like little paper dolls 🙈 so that's why ballet tuxedo!dmitry doesn't exist yet, and why i've yet to color the rest of anya's act ii wardrobe.

anyway. progress in my workflow is hardly ever linear, but you can kind of see how i approach the rendering process from these images, i hope. the drawing carries the weight of the image so that step always takes the longest, since getting the likeness, the proportions, the folds, and the expressions right is the most important. if any of that looks off no skillful painting or rendering can save it.

and then i always color skin first because everything else (clothes, hair) goes on top of skin. you can see the color palette i'm using is the same for almost all of them, though act ii requires a few more saturated hues than act i (bright blue, some reds, and green every once in a while). coloring the rest in doesn't usually take very long. once the flats are down i go in for a final pass, laying down those patterns and textures that always give me a hard time lol. and then i clean up and recolor the line work and mark it as done! since i'm working digital i use alpha lock and clipping masks for that.

director's cut commentary of each image included (under the cut bc this post is already so long):

anya's act ii lineup. her phtk outfit is the only one i've marked complete (the linework on the others is still black and need just a few more touchups). I've yet to lay in the flats for the maroon travel coat because i think the drawing needs more work. i might change a few things on big red, maybe her expression, but i haven't decided yet.

dmitry's act ii lineup (sans tuxedo). he just needs a final pass on the first two on the left, and then his finale look is finished, because it's the same from act i :)

vlad's act ii lineup. he's almost done, just needs a final pass on the finale and phtk outfits.

lily's act ii lineup. i'm going to redo the pattern on her neva club dress (linda cho i love u but god) but otherwise she's all finished.

the dowager's act ii lineup. she's done! :) maybe i'll find something to pick at later but rn i'm marking her done lol.

petersburg citizens from rumor! i think these guys are all done. there are more people i could include, but there isn't enough variation on the costumes to make it worth it imo.

neva club patrons. the only two marked complete are the two on the left, sergei the doorman/the male server and count leopold. i still need to find a good reference for the female server lol.

the press! just the men for now lol. i used the obc program as a reference for this one, so i'll get the two ladies in soon :)

the hussies! i've marked it complete, but. we'll see if there's more adjustments i can make.

there's still more i've completed that's not pictured, but i'll definitely share more soon. act i is nearly finished entirely, which is cool, and the only big ensemble sheet i've yet to make much progress on is everyone in phtk. i may end up just drawing one or two people from that and then copying them with different patterns because, honestly, the shape of the dresses and suits are all very similar. hopefully that won't be boring to look at lol.

if there's anything in particular you'd like to see/have any questions, or even suggestions, lmk!! and follow my 'anastasia illustrated guide' tag for more updates :)

[mariacallous]

Tucker Carlson went to Moscow last week and had an absolute blast. He rode the subway and marveled at its clean cars, the fancy tilework in Kievskaya Station, and the lack of booze-drenched hobos. He went to a grocery store and was astonished by what ordinary people could apparently buy. He even managed to meet a local history buff and sit down for tea and conversation. Carlson, who had never previously visited Moscow, declared himself “radicalized” against America’s leaders by the experience. He didn’t want to live in Moscow, but he did want to know why we in America have to put up with street crime and crappy food when the supposedly bankrupt Russia provided such a nice life for its people, or at least those people not named Alexei Navalny.

My former Atlantic colleague Ralph Waldo Emerson called travel a “fool’s paradise,” but not all forms of foolishness are equal. Many commentators have guffawed at Carlson’s Russophilia and pointed out that Russia’s murder rate is roughly that of the United States, and that its citizens are dirt poor, about a fifth as wealthy per capita as the citizens of the United States overall. “I don’t care what some flagship supermarket in an imperial city looks like,” The Dispatch’s Jonah Goldberg tweeted. “Russia is far, far poorer than our poorest state, Mississippi.” Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal suggested that Carlson instead visit the grocery stores of the “10th or 50th” richest Russian cities, and see how they compare with America’s.

In 2019, I visited several large and small Russian cities, and I went grocery shopping at least once in each. Would you believe that Tucker Carlson is on to something? In Moscow (the largest) and St. Petersburg (No. 2), the flagship supermarkets are indeed spectacular. The Azbuka Vkusa branch next to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow is more luxurious than any grocery store within 100 miles of Washington, D.C. Other branches in Moscow vary in quality, and they are usually smaller than American supermarkets. But to some extent that’s just a matter of culture: The U.S. has fewer supermarkets, but each one is big enough to feed the 82nd Airborne Division for a month; in Europe, supermarkets are more numerous but tiny.

Makhachkala (22), the capital of Dagestan, followed a similar pattern to Moscow. One supermarket downtown was amazing, the equal of an upscale supermarket in Washington or Dallas. On the outskirts the quality varied, but not drastically. Local residents were not eating soups made from grass clippings. In Murmansk (71), the cramped bodega near my rented flat had a good wine selection and enough fresh staple foods to prepare a different meal your mom would approve of every day of the week. Only in Derbent (134) did I start to wonder whether the bad old days of the Soviet Union were still in effect. But even that would be an exaggeration. In Derbent, for $15, you could get champagne and caviar with blini and velvety sour cream. If you want to flash back to Cold War communism, go to Havana. There the grocery stores stock only dust and mildew.

With apologies to Emerson, travel can disabuse you of foolish notions just as often as it plants them in your head. An idea ripe for dispelling among Americans at this particular moment is that life in Russia must suck because the frigid depression of the Cold War never ended. In those days ordinary citizens were spied upon and tortured and killed, and the shops were empty, save for substandard goods at prices few could afford. Now Russia is different. The state repression is much more limited, though no less brutal toward those who attract its attention. Until the Ukraine war added a huge category of forbidden topics, the main ones that you could get locked up for discussing were war in the Caucasus and the personal life and finances of President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle. Most other topics were broachable, and you could whine all you liked about them.

Equally in need of updating are American expectations about Russian economic misery. Those whose visits to Russia stopped 20 years ago tend to have outdated views of the best the country has to offer. My visits started 24 years ago. Back then, I spent days at a time on the Trans-Siberian, crammed into railway cabins with little to do but talk with Russians and see how they lived. Life was not beautiful. The men busied themselves with crosswords and sullenly browsed pornography. When not in motion, I stayed with Russian friends in single-room flats that looked straight out of a New York tenement building 100 years ago. No one I met was starving, but women sometimes approached me in train stations hoping to rent out their homes or bodies, or to sell me family heirlooms. That type of desperation seems to have subsided, although I would be shocked if any of those people are able to buy the jamón ibérico at the Smolenskaya branch of Azbuka Vkusa yet. On the roads between the big cities, there are still villages so ramshackle that they look like sets from The Little Rascals. Evidence suggests that the Russian military’s frontline troops tend to come from these depressed and benighted lands, the places that really are stuck in the 20th century.

Certain aspects of life remain dismal even in the cities. My flat in Murmansk had surly drunks tottering outside its entrance, and its stairwell smelled like every cat, dog, and human resident had marked its territory there regularly since the Brezhnev era. But the playgrounds were decent, and you could get a delicious smoked-reindeer pizza at a cozy restaurant for $7. Remember, this is in a small, depressed Russian city—not somewhere stocked with goodies just in case an American wanders out of the lobby of the Radisson and needs to be impressed. The “useful idiots” of yesteryear were treated to fake Moscows, which evanesced as soon as the next Aeroflot flights took off. The luxuries of Moscow that Carlson sees, and that I saw, are not evanescent, and they are not (as they are in North Korea, say) a curated experience available only to those on controlled visits.

The stubborn belief that all good things in Russia must be illusory can in turn warp one’s analysis of the country, and in particular of Putin’s durability in power. After all, why would anyone remain loyal to an autocrat who delivered only hunger, penury, and the reek of cat piss? Putin rules by fear but not only by fear. Most Russians will tell you that Russia today is better than it was before Putin. They compare it not with the Soviet era but with the anarchy and decline of the 1990s. Life expectancy has risen, public parks are better maintained, and certain fruits of capitalism can be tasted by Russians of all classes. Who would risk these gains? Like every autocrat, Putin has ensured that his downfall just might destroy every good thing Russia has experienced in the past two decades. This risk is, from the perspective of regime continuity, a positive feature, because it keeps all but the most principled and brave opposition quiet, and content to shut up and enjoy their cheap caviar. Those like Navalny who object do not object for long.

Carlson’s videos never quite say what precisely he thinks Russia gets right. Moscow is in many ways superior to New York. But Paris has a good subway system too. Japan and Thailand have fine grocery stores, and I wonder, when I enter them, why entering my neighborhood Stop & Shop in America is such a depressing experience by comparison. Carlson’s stated preference for Putin’s leadership over Joe Biden’s suggests that the affection is not for fine food or working public transit but for firm autocratic rule—which, as French, Thais, and Japanese will attest, is not a precondition for high-quality goods and services. And in an authoritarian state, those goods and services can serve to prolong the regime.

I confess I still enjoy watching Carlson post videos of Moscow, wide-eyed and credulous as he slowly learns to love a country that I love too. I hope he posts more of them. One goes through stages of love for Russia, often starting with the literature and music, then moving to its dark humor and the personalities of its people, which are always cycling between thaw and frost. Inevitably one reflects on the irony that this civilization, whose achievement is almost without equal in some respects, is utterly cursed in others—consigned to literally centuries of misgovernment, incompetence, and tyranny. The final stage is realizing that the greatness of Russia is part of the curse, a heightening of the irony, as if no matter how much goes right, something is deeply wrong. Maybe when things go right, the more deeply wrong it is. Carlson seems to still be in one of the early stages of this journey.

[zarya-zaryanitsa]

Stalinist attitudes towards homosexuality and the events surroudning criminalization of homosexuality in Soviet Union in 1934 - excerpts from professor Dan Healey’s book „Russian homophobia from Stalin to Sochi”

In the same chapter I analyze the Soviet return to a ban on “sodomy” in 1933-34. It was a Stalinist measure, proposed by the security police and backed with relish by Stalin and his Politburo. Stalin personally edited the new penal article. This was the moment when the Soviet state adopted a modern anti-homosexual politics, the birth of modern Russian political homophobia. (…)

On September 15, 1933, deputy chief of the OGPU (secret police) Genrikh Yagoda proposed to Stalin that a law against “pederasty” was needed urgently. Stalin and Yagoda used the crude term pederastiia to discuss male homosexuality; but government lawyers revived the tsarist term muzhelozhstvo (sodomy) for the published law that was eventually adopted in March 1934. Yagoda reported that in August-September 1933, OGPU raids had been conducted on circles of “pederasts” in Moscow and Leningrad, and other cities of the Soviet Union. Yagoda wrote that these men were guilty of spying; they had also “politically demoralized various social layers of young men, including young workers, and even attempted to penetrate the army and navy.” From a recent collection of FSB archive documents of political cases against young Communists, it is clear that during the early 1930s, the secret police were obsessed with detecting counterrevolutionary moods among young people. Stalin forwarded Yagoda’s letter to Politburo member Lazar Kaganovich, noting that “these scoundrels must receive exemplary punishment” and directing a law against “pederasty” should be adopted. In the months that followed, Yagoda the secret policeman steered its passage through the various legislative drafts. (…)

When in mid-September 1933 Yagoda wrote to Stalin, recommending the adoption of a formal law against sodomy, he apparently cited a figure of 130 arrests of “pederasts” for the operations in “Moscow and Leningrad.” According to Ivanov, the archives of the St. Petersburg FSB reveal that during August-September 1933, 175 men were arrested on grounds of homosexual relations in Leningrad alone. The raids on “pederasts” continued and probably expanded to the principal “regime” cities, including Kharkov and Kiev. It appears that somewhere inside the central secret police machinery, an order originated in late July or early August 1933 to begin arrests of “pederasts” known to the authorities on their card-indexes either as “anti-social” or “declassed” elements, or as a security threat with international dimensions. (…)

In the 1993 release of correspondence between Yagoda and Stalin leading to the sodomy ban, one other significant document was published from the same file in the Presidential Archive. It is a sixteen-page letter to Stalin, from a homosexual British Communist, Harry O. Whyte (1907-60), an ex­ patriate journalist living in Moscow who loved a man who was a Soviet citizen. His Soviet lover was arrested sometime during late 1933 or early 1934. The release of the Whyte letter said little about its provenance and the author. It was typical of the 1993 publication that this document also appeared without commentary, but was labeled “Humor from the Special Collections” by archivists or editors who failed to show any historical empathy or intellectual curiosity.

Whyte, who worked for the English-language Moscow Daily News, wrote to Stalin, in May 1934, asking him to justify the new law. The journalist boldly explained why it violated the principles of both Marxism and the Soviet revolution. He argued that persecution of the law-abiding homosexual was typical of capitalist regimes and fascist ones: Nazi Germany’s “racial purity” drive was just the most extreme example of the push in both systems for “labor reserves and cannon fodder.” “Constitutional homosexuals, as an insignificant portion of the population . . . cannot present a threat to the birth rate in a socialist state.” Their position was analogous to that of other unjustly persecuted groups: “women, colored races, national minorities” and the best traditions of socialism showed tolerance of the relatively insignificant number of naturally occurring homosexuals in the population. He asked Stalin, “Can a homosexual be considered a person fit to become a member of the Communist Party?” In a revealing reaction, Stalin scrawled across the letter, “An idiot and a degenerate. To the archives.” Whyte got a blunt answer to his question: he was expelled from the Communist Party; he hastily left the Soviet Union for England in 1935. (…)

The dictator turned to his cultural spokesman Maxim Gorky, to explain the law’s rationale for Soviet and European readers. Gorky wrote an article that appeared in Izvestiia and Pravda on May 23, 1934, and later in a German-language socialist newspaper in Switzerland, in which he compared healthy Soviet youth to the degenerate youth of Nazi Germany. “Destroy the homosexuals - and fascism will disappear” he concluded, propounding the genocide of a social group on the grounds of sexuality. Later in 1936, People’s Commissar of Justice Nikolai V. Krylenko gave a speech to the central Soviet legislature in which he explained that the law was necessary because homosexuals were not healthy workers but “a declassed rabble, or the scum of society, or remnants of the exploiting classes.”

[matthew-s-j]

Her attention was caught by a massive and obviously newly-built eight-storey block of flats at the far end of the street. Margarita flew towards it and as she landed she saw that the building was faced with black marble, that its doors were wide, that a porter in gold-laced peaked cap and buttons stood in the hall. Over the doorway was a gold inscription reading ' Dramlit House'.

The film begins with an episode when Margarita trashes the apartment of the critic Latunsky, whom she hates. Filming took place at Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

At the hour of the hot spring sunset two citizens appeared at the Patriarch's Ponds.

The Patriarch ponds can be seen in the scene with the Master and Margarita. After their chance meeting.

The conversation between Woland and the members of MASSOLIT, and the subsequent death of Berlioz, was not filmed on the Patriarch ponds. This is the House of Soviets in St. Petersburg.

The famous historical house of Palibin (19th century) acted as the Master’s home.

If Styopa Likhodeev had been told the next morning: ‘Styopa! You’ll be shot if you don’t get up this minute!’ — Styopa would have replied in a languid, barely audible voice: ‘Shoot me, do what you like with me, I won’t get up.’

The apartment of Berlioz and Likhodeev, and subsequently Woland and his entourage, is located in St. Petersburg in the Khrenov's Revenue house.

And I was right about the Palace of the Soviets.

[russiawave]

Citizens of Saint-Petersburg after the Victory day celebration

[my-skull-is-full-of-sunken-ships]

How Russian language changed during the war

I was planning to make a series of posts about this topic for a while. I’ll talk about new words, new meanings, symbols and memes that appeared after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Today I’ll start with the changes brought to us by the people who started the war or support it.

Z, V, and why making them symbols of the war was a bad decision

It’s already a pretty well-known fact that letter Z (as well as more rarely used V and O) became a pro-war symbol by accident. Initially it was just an identifier on vehicles, to distinguish directions of the attack. 

Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA

Now it’s associated with the war and is used by both russian propagandists and pro-war citizens. And it’s everywhere.

Ligov Prospect in St. Petersburg, reading #WeDontAbandonOurPeople

Anatoly Maltsev / EPA / Scanpix / LETA

Nikolai Khizhnyak / TASS

So, the issue with Z as a pro-war symbol in Russia is problematic on several levels:

1. Z is not part of the Russian alphabet. Just like letter V, they both exist in the latin alphabet, but not in cyrillic one. In Russian Z is З and V is В, and so, when these letters are implemented in russian phrases, they look out of place (two of the most popular cases are “Сила V правде” (strength is in truth) and “Za победу” (for victory). The out-of-place-ness is even more obvious if you keep in mind the Kremlin's narrative of Western world (so called “collective West”) being Russia’s biggest enemy, and so it seems odd to adopt “western” letters that don’t belong in cyrillic writing at all.

2. No one understands what it stands for, and no one can explain. It kind of comes from the previous point and the fact that making Z a symbol was accidental and its origin is neither significant nor inspiring in any way. People just went along with the fact that this letter is important now, but no amount of mixing it into russian words and sentences can cover the fact that actually this symbol symbolises absolutely nothing

3. Z looks like half of a swastika. Yes, now you too cannot unsee it. We can argue about whether we can call the Russian regime a fascist one or not, but officially it is openly stated (by Russian officials I mean) that Russia fights neo-nazis in Ukraine, so you’d think that any association of russian pro-war symbols with nazism should seem undesirable, but here we are.

Side story: in some Slavic countries there's a symbol "kolovrat" (supposed to represent the sun) that is used by Slavic pagans and far-right movements (including neo-nazi movements as well), and it looks like this:

Source

Yes, it’s a double swastika, you won’t be able to unsee a lot of things today.

Now make it a joke

I couldn’t leave you without them, of course.

The biggest joke lies right here, in the letters that they’ve chosen. You see, in Moscow’s Gorky Park there’s a stand with these letters:

But if you turn V upside-down, you’ll get Л - russian L. then you’d read the whole thing as “zlo”, which in russian (зло) means “evil” (as a noun).

Alternatively, you could play by the rules of Z-symbolism creators:

МудоZVOны - dickheads

ZVOните в дурку - call the madhouse

Zдохни V Oкопе - die in a trench

Congratulations, now you've seen a little bit more unhinged things.

[hippodamoi]

A friend said she read Crime & Punishment but wasn't impressed by it. All she recalled was an entitled man killing an old woman and pity party for the murderer's poor tortured soul. This was my response to her, I thought others might enjoy it too.

"It is a staunch criticism, not a pity party. There was this idea of a cosmopolitan man, a Nietzschean übermensch was someone capable of transcending social and moral codes. Prime example being Napoleon, a man without parallel. Them being 'great' would make them invincible to guilt because all actions they took would be something considered beneficial to society - Raskolnikov thought he was one of these men, and by devolving throughout the narrative he realizes he is not one of these "great" men, he is just like any other citizen and there is no excuse for thinking morals and laws don't apply to you. It's a direct message to the students and academic men of the time. The old woman is a horrible loanshark and abuses the woman she lives with, her niece, and he tries to convince himself that killing her would be excusable since he considers her a cancer on society. But he also ends up killing the niece to cover up his crime as she returns and witnesses it - removing even that sliver of argument or defense for his actions. He hoped to 'serve humanity' by eradicating the mean-spirited moneylender, but also had the utilitarian idea that he would steal her money and use said money to further his education, so that he could become a great man and have positive influence and help more people. The whole murder has the spirit of a psychological experiment which fits the theme and craft of the novel. Raskolnikov has delusions of godhood and this is after Dostovyevsky has been in a gulag for 10+ years, so he knows that the young think themselves immortal and anointed, a common misconception of the youth in western education at the time and even to this day,

After killing her he realizes just how much he is not beyond good and evil. Something he previously thought was petty, something for plebians.

It has three dimensions, his biography, his christian faith (there's several references to the bible and lazarus who he symbolizes) and criticism/exploration of philosophical ideas. Its a direct response to utopian socialism and rational nihilism. He even foresaw many of the horrors of the russian revolution.

The epilogue is not just redemption, but sanctification. Raskolnikov has become a saint. Russian religion at the time was very orthodox and process-oriented, so we follow the steps of his redemption in the narrative. He confessed his sin out of weakness instead of strength, his transformation from the snivelling arrogant youth to a saint is not verbal, its a lived out experience and process. even the title in russian refers to the carrying of a cross, the very first scene is him crossing a bridge from the dirty streets of Skt. Petersburg to fresh clean air of the pastoral. Both foreshadowing and commentary on the squalor most of the citizens live in. as well as the moral degradation of the cosmopolitan cities. Skt. Petersburg was usually described as extravagant and beautiful in literature, while he describes it as smelly, dirty and sort of a wasteland - a hell, you might say.

There's also this dominating motif of christian authenticity that is typical of russian lit. A christian heart will react in a christian way - meaning it will recognize good and evil in a way that a rationally educated mind does not. (especially in reference to that horrible scene with the horse)

Raskolnikov is described as a misanthrope, and alienated from both religion and other people, leading him to commit same sin as Cain, not killing his brother per se, but a fellow human being. that very act transforms him. something in him dies with the moneylender - his common humanity.

out of that death comes a different life, drawing parallel to Lazarus as I mentioned before. It's like a whole hermeneutic event, his return to common humanity starts with Sonia telling him the very story of Lazarus. anyway, enough of me writing novels about novels! It's so convoluted and deep and I genuinely love it. Its a prime example of literature being an educating, moralizing element capable of engendering empathy and inspiring positive social progress."

[warsofasoiaf]

Was it true that most of the Russian people were kept in the dark about being at war with Ukraine? That putin did this on purpose not only because they were losing but also because he knew that the Russian people wouldn’t support the conflict?

No, not really. The actual fact that Russia was conducting a "special military operation" was not hidden from the Russian people. For the most part, the Russian public supports the special military operation. While support has become a little more subdued as the war has dragged on, there has not been a strong "anti-war" presence.

Russia has spent a great deal of social capital painting itself to its citizens as the aggrieved victims of an evil West bent on their destruction, and that the war was a justified form of self-defense, to strike before the West could encircle Russia further. In this sense, they saw the war as a means to check the West, to stop their anti-Russia ambitions. This has largely been seen to be hollow, as Finland's accession into NATO has not only extended the border, but drawn it much closer to Moscow and St. Petersburg, two of the most prominent political and social centers of Russia proper. This conflict with the West is not just physical, but also ideological. Western democracy is seen as two-headed and ineffective, Western society as decadent and incoherent, and it seeks to deny Russia it's inherent position as a world leader. In this sense, to oppose the war is for Russia as a whole to commit suicide, its heritage and culture destroyed and dismembered.

What the Russian elites have been lying about is the scope of casualties and the extent of their failures in Ukraine. Their army has been shown to the West as an embarrassing failure of a modern army, but that is kept hidden from the Russian public out of fear that eroding the prestige of the venerable Russian Armed Forces would diminish faith in the leaders, discredit the leadership that have led them to this ruin, and more practical fear of reprisal of standing against Putin and the siloviki.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[darkmaga-retard]

Andrew Korybko

Sep 14, 2024

Expectations should be tempered though.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to the US from 21-24 September to attend the upcoming Quad Summit that’ll be hosted at Biden’s Delaware residence. This follows his trips to Moscow and Kiev earlier this summer, which readers can learn more about from the preceding hyperlinked analyses, as well as his National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval’s trip to St. Petersburg last week for the BRICS NSA Summit. Doval also had a separate meeting with Putin where he briefed him about Modi’s trip to Kiev.

What’s most interesting about Modi’s upcoming trip to the US though is that it’s taking place against the backdrop of newly troubled ties brought about by an alleged attempted assassination last year and America’s role in Bangladesh’s regime change last month. The first greatly worsened mutual perceptions of one another, both at the elite and civil society levels, while the second could pose serious national security threats depending on the policies that the new government implements.

The Quad Summit is therefore a convenient opportunity for bringing Modi and Biden together to discuss their problems afterwards. This year’s event was supposed to be hosted by India, but it agreed to swap hosting duties with the US. It’s unclear why, but Biden might be too frail to travel and/or his team wanted this summit to part of his legacy. Another possibility is that it might be too scandalous for Biden to travel to India after his government accused it late last year of conspiring to kill a dual US citizen.

[nobodysdaydreams]

I Should Have Guessed Psycho-Boomer Would Be A Fanboy of His Own Manual. And Where Is His Glorified Secretary Getting Her Attitude From? (or my reaction to Wolf359 mini episodes 6-13).

Welcome back dear readers. Thanks again for your patience. Everyone has been excited for the mini episodes, so I'm eager to see what they've been so excited for.

Tagging the mutuals who got me invested in this, and if you want to be tagged or untagged from these posts, lmk, or you can follow my blog or simply follow the tag "#bods wolf359 reactions". Anyone who has followed me for a while knows my updates are inconsistent, so I apologize in advance for that and for any spelling/grammar mistakes in my posts.

@sophieswundergarten @oflightningandstars @acollectionofcuriousreblogs @herawell @commsroom

Mini Episode 6: Once in a Lifetime

Okay, just from these episode descriptions, I'm starting to think that these episodes are gonna be Cutter BSing them into this mission.

Get ready for some ✨Cutter hate✨

2013? I think that's one of the first times we've gotten a year.

"He doesn't bite. Much" YES HE DOES RACHEL AND APPARENTLY SO DO YOU.

"Director of Communications?" Wrong. That's DOUG's job and he's better at it than you Cutter. Even if he is a pizza delivery boy.

Cutter shut up.

Cutter and Rachel shut up! THANK YOU MINKOWSKI.

"All they want is poster children and sob stories. We like people that can fly ships." Sounds like Renee wasn't the ONLY one rejected from NASA, huh Cutter? 👀 Aw, did they not like the fact that you murder people? Did they think your space ideas were crazy and unethical?

I think I'll call Rachel Cutter's glorified secretary. As for Cutter, I think that's simply enough for him. There aren't enough words in the English language or any language to give him

Wait what does her dad have to do with this? Andre? Astrophysics? Early retirement?

Why do I think Cutter had something to do with that "early retirement"? How old is he? He sounds about as old as Minkowski, but the actors all seem around the same age and Doug's Hilbert voice sounds older, so it's hard to tell their ages. Based on where Cutter is in his career, I'm guess he's older.

I hate this because YOU KNOW THEY ALL SAY YES. And you just want to shake them and scream not. PLEASE TELL ME YOUR HUSBAND SAYS NO.

Journalist? I hope he blows this wide open Cutter.

Oh my gosh he can adjust his salary? That means he controls the press.

Why is Cutter talking about Renee's parents like he knew them personally? "They would have done so much more if they hadn't gotten married and had kids." Why are you talking like a bitter male tenured professor who never found love to his female graduate students?

SHE MATTERS A LOT MORE THAN YOU CUTTER.

"Don't make your parents mistakes Renee" hm. sounds like someone is projecting his own issues.

"no one will dare reject you again" BECAUSE SHE'LL BE DEAD.

"My husband is going to kill me" No, but Cutter will.

But I hope you kill him first. And I hope your husband destroys him in his newspaper.

I am loving and hating these episodes.

Mini Episode 7: Rebranding

Look like it's Hilbert's turn for the chopping block, oh sorry! I mean uh...✨exclusive job opportunity✨

St. Petersburg 1989?

But this is number 2? So...these aren't in order? Is this Cutter organizing his files because he's numbering system makes no sense.

Yet another way he has proven incompetent.

Ugh. It even sounds cold. I had it.

CUTTER BROKE INTO HIS HOUSE.

Okay granted, that's far from the worst thing he's ever done, but still man, kinda creepy.

"Tricks don't scare him?" Tell WHO he should know better? Who else is threatening Hilbert.

"I prefer to think of myself as a citizen of the world" "That's very nice for you" 😂 It's nice to actually see Hilbert not going for Cutter's bs.

And he's right. There are other geneticists closer to home. Ah...the retroviruses.

The most realistic thing about this entire show is "oh I want to research something very important! Let's see who's doing it so that I can contact them and get a job" and it's one guy in the middle of nowhere.

Who is Victor Stewkoff? Why does he knew about Hilbert I mean uh Dimitri's research?

"Dr. Stewoff died last year" "Of course he did"

So either Cutter's lying about the conversation, when it took place, or he for sure killed that man.

"Are you referring to the human trials?"

That silence is an overwhelming yes.

"Matter of time" mmm... Cutter does not seem like that patient type.

And I'm sorry. If you're doing creepy illegal experiments, you should know better than to trust a man who comes to you and says he's cool with it. Takes a monster to know one.

So he promised him a chance to perform his illegal research? But...what does that have to do with space?

"The last member of your family died when you were 9" wait...what about his sister? I thought he said she survived, or maybe she died a little later?

"Any discoveries you make will belong to us" don't like that. I mean, that's how it is, but in this case, I don't like this.

Cutter's like "I'm paying off the IRB man, geez do I have to spell it out for you man?"

Again, sad because we know what choice they are going to make.

Does the retrovirus have a name? Decima. Wait. The what? Oh rebranding.

WAIT. WAIT.

WILLIAM CARTER.

AS IN PRYCE AND CARTER?

AS IN THE TEXTBOOK THAT CUTTER FANBOY'S OVER.

Let me listen again. I think I heard that right.

Oh my gosh. I'm so stupid. Rule of writing: don't give your characters similar names that can easily be confused by the readers UNLESS you're trying to make some sort of point with it. Don't know how I let that one get past me.

He really is like that professor who makes all his students buy his book.

Who the heck is Pryce? Is that another one of his fake names? Or is that a colleague he axed off years ago?

And why did he change his name?

Also if he's already a powerful adult with his own company in the 80's then he and Hilbert are for sure older than Eiffel and Minkowski.

Actually, I take it back. Maybe I do have a nickname for Cutter after all. "Psycho-Boomer". Probably did some surgery on himself to make himself sound like he's in his twenties (though by the way he laughs, you'd swear he was a nine year old tee hee hee 🙄).

Hopeful we'll get to see the boomer go "boom!" very very soon...

Mini Episode 8: Language Mapping

This one is Maxwell's. How is Cutter ordering these? Oh back to 2013.

Is Cutter organizing these in terms of threat level? Because if so, it's honestly accurate to put Minkowski first and the scientists next, though I KNOW his errand boys would be devasted. Doug probably wouldn't care.

Oh no wait this isn't Cutter. Huh. Hello Whiskey boy.

Why doesn't Maxwell want to be here?

HOW MANY SECRETARYS DOES CUTTER NEED?

Yeah, this IS harassment. How on earth could they have not broken any laws?

"You could have come to work for us." That's...that's not a solution.

Redneck teachers? Did not expect that background.

Sounds like she's very different from her family. Maybe that's why she doesn't talk to them. Is she embarrassed by them?

Hm. Don't like Maxwell yelling at the AI ethics committee. Well actually I suppose it depends. Was she advocating for their rights or against them? And was she doing so for the wellbeing of humanity and the AI or her own interests?

"Someone has to bully them into being brave. Somebody needs to push".

Maxwell. I agree that sometimes progress needs to happen. But if you don't do it carefully and with ethics in mind, bad things tend to happen. Very very bad things.

Especially when someone else controls the rights to your technology. Of course there's the whole "if they didn't hire me they'd find someone else" but still...Maxwell this is bad.

Do not be fooled by the flashy lights and buttons and sound effects!

"Whoever built this is brilliant and they already work for you. Why me?"

Good point.

"I need someone who can talk to things that aren't human."

^Great idea Whiskey boy. I'll call Doug. Dr. Robot needs to earn my trust first. Not sure how I feel about her nickname. It doesn't have the same punch as the others, but it does fit.

Oh great the Whiskey speech again. At least he earns his nickname.

Mini Episode 9: Greensboro

Number 4, 2010. Ah Lovelace.

Once again, if this is the order in which crew members present a danger to Cutter, I'm agreeing so far.

I wonder how similar hers will be the Minkowski's.

"We don't do interviews, well yes we do some. But that's only when we don't want to hire someone and need a reason." Why do I feel like that's a straight up lie?

"Infiltrate the company and bring it down from the inside" I love the foreshadowing and double meaning. It also makes me sad to remind me that Lovelace used to have Doug's sense of humor before she lost all her friends.

It's not standard protocol. No one else had a polygraph, and Hilbert was doing human experiments.

"Convicted of a crime? Are you an alien?" OH MY GOSH PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS FORESHADOWING.

(Actually don't tell me, but...I hope it is).

Do you love your father? Have you always wanted to serve in the armed forces? What are these questions?

Ma'am this medical stuff is private.

They interviewed the people working for her? Cutter is literally everywhere. Well, I suppose Psycho-boomer has been blackmailing people since the 50s so such. I wish he'd hurry and die.

"You do this for everyone?" No they don't.

"We're screening you for a different job" Nope. Nope. Don't like that. Usually means you're about to get underpaid for your talents. "Sorry the job you wanted didn't work, but oh look! We did find something." In this case, something worse.

I hate the lie detector.

I want to hook it up to Cutter, but psycho-boomer probably knows how to trick the test.

Mini Episode 10: Things That Break Other Things

Duck boy! Are we gonna get to see him get attack by a duck? Boy do I hope so.

San Francisco 2011?

Duck Boy is a heavy drinker. Fantastic. Just the man you want holding your explosives.

"Buy you a drink." Uh. What. Oh it's a fancy one too.

Yeah Jacobi this is weird. He's coming on too strong. Time to bail.

My gosh what happened to Jacobi in the military? He sounds traumatized. Did it involve the Duck?

"Did you serve?" "No." Hm. Wonder why.

Oh Duck Boy has daddy issues. Why is no one surprised.

Jacobi's dad: "You think you're man enough for the Airforce? Can even fight one lousy duck?"

Oh he has bad depth perception too? Wow, yeah, sounds like it's a great idea to give him explosives.

"I'm good at making things that break other things. Including people".

Don't like that. Sounds like Duck Boy might not either. Haunted by ghosts perhaps? Perhaps Discount Cutter can take that conscience off your hands.

Went off early during a test. Two guys died. Well ain't that a shame for you Duck Boy. But hey, what better way to get over the guys you killed than by killing more people for a boss that doesn't care?

"You'll never work in this planet again" well funny you should mention that...

I see. So this happened in 2009.

"most of the world is profoundly stupid" why would I not be surprised that discount cutter is into eugenics?

Oh he left his business card.

Would have been funny if Duck Boy had just knocked if off the table or forgot to call the number.

Mini Episode 11: Decommissioned

EVERYONE SHUT UP THEY'RE DOING ONE FOR HERA!

No longer do I agree that this is in the order of "threat to Cutter", but I suppose from his perspective...

Ah 2012.

Unit 214? Her name is Hera. And how many of her are there? Do they all have the same voice and personality?

"Do you remember me? Do you know who I am?" Ugh. Don't like that.

"Where am I?" poor Hera.

Yeah they need to stop talking like she's not here.

"Your science board rejected me." Interesting. Most of Cutter's approach has been "X won't let you do something. But I will :)." But with Hera, his own people rejected her, but he seems to like the reason. "Poor social skills". Huh. Odd thing to prioritize.

"Don't think of it as dead. Decommissioned." Yeah. It's basically dead. Or asleep. Depends on whether someone wakes you up again.

"Helpful for everyone". No helpful for you Cutter.

What did Hera do? Misguided bid for independence? Record for rogue AI attempting jailbreak?

Psycho-boomer is so unstable. I swear, he likes the risk of using Hera just to prove to himself that she actually can't destroy him.

"We're not about to start forcing anyone to do something against their will. But if you don't do what we ask, we'll kill you :)" Cutter you suck.

And it's sad because Hera probably just thought this was how he spoke to AI. So she didn't warn the other humans because she figured they'd be fine.

"Maybe I should see if Dr..." What doctor?

Oh he called her Hera. Feeling a little disgusted by that fact that he's the one who gave her her name.

Though it beats "Unit 214"

Mini Episode 12: Pagliacci

Doug's turn!

Oh dear. Are we gonna find out about his charges.

Texas. 2013.

Ugh I HATE the sound of those heels and fancy dress shoes.

Oh he's in jail. Yep, called that one pretty quickly.

"Are you my lawyer?" oh Doug you really are lost. And yeah, that's not how it works.

Wow. Glorified Secretary is very classist. Girl your salary comes from a man who'd kill you without a second thought. Maybe cool on the comments and take a breath while you still can.

"Scary Ally McBeal" nice nickname.

"You are extremely and infuriatingly lucky" Yep and he's gonna be lucky enough to kill you by the end. If Doug's going back to prison anyway, he has nothing to lose by ending your life.

"What do you want from me?" Your soul. What else?

Doug. He's not kidding. He's crazy. Now PLEASE go back to prison.

"Maybe I don't want your way out." Oh Doug feels like he deserves to be there. 🥺

Who is Ann? Yikes, yeah, Cutter you crossed a line there. Is that his wife? Daughter? Mom? Girlfriend?

DAUGHTER?

Oh. And he's promising everything Doug can't give her.

For my TMBS mutuals: something something something...MBS space AU...something something something...Curtain, Milligan, and Kate...you get what I'm saying right?

Mini Episode 13: Kansas

2009. Oh the same year Duck Boy had his little accident.

And...Discount Cutter is last. Where he belongs. How sweet.

Looks like somebody's not as "in" the "inner-circle" as he thought.

How do you like being on the expendables list Whiskey Boy?

"I am accountable to two men in this company"

Cutter and...who? Pryce? It doesn't sound like he's talking about Rachel.

"Step into the elevator" Nope. Miss me with that tower of terror bs.

Who the heck is Richard? Did I miss something? Another errand boy?

Oh Cutter's voice is infuriating. I now imagine him as a 70 year old man who has given himself throat surgery to sound younger. Like an smug elementary school know-it-all-kid voice. Yes, I understand it's just the voice actor's voice and age, but it's still funny to imagine. "William Carter" it even sounds like an old man boomer name.

"You're never going to stop are you? You're like me." Exactly. Discount Cutter earned his nickname. But Whiskey boy is nice too.

Richard Littlewood. What a name.

"It's a shame that you weren't there." Ohhhh... he's using Kepler to edge out Richard Littlewood.

"You're going to crucify him." "No silly, I'm going to hang him."

Cutter really said I want him gone without the mess. Psycho-boomer really is the worst.

"Am I going up or down?" You're going to the very top...metaphorically. But we're going very very far down."

I would have to agree. Hell is very far down indeed.

"Don't tell me you believed that." I didn't. Why would anyone?

Oh. The Black Archives. FINALLY.

The files on a 1978 early deep space mission. First contact.

Wait. So they've known about the aliens this entire time? Not surprised but...what happened to the first crew? And why do they keep sending teams up that don't come back? What are they testing? Or rather, what deal did they make with the aliens? Are they studying the aliens, or are the aliens studying them? Is Cutter an alien too?

Well I guess that's all dear readers. Find out next time.

Once again, very much disliking Cutter, but now I'm also wondering how long Rachel has been around. And who Richard and Pryce are. And when Cutter changed his name and why. Interesting that Richard, Pryce, and Rachel didn't have mini episodes. At least, not yet...

[sovietpostcards]

My favourite thing I ate in Russie was Syrok. The chocolate covered one I bought from the supermarkets. So yummy. I wish we had them!!! Trying to go to Russia is a bit annoying because of having to get visa. One thing foreigners might find weird is during the May Day parade, there were smaller parades in the suburbs and there were people selling books of Lenin and carrying flags/posters of old communist figures and older men in military uniforms with loads of medals on their jacket, and little kids would run up and give them roses/flowers. I thought it was interesting. I loved my time in Russia (this was 8 years ago) and really wish to go back. I want to ice skate in red square.

Yes, syrok! King.

That must have been Victory Day parade (May 9) with the medals. They are organized every year in every city and town.

By the way, look up Russian e-visa. It works in three entry points (one of them is St Petersburg) and it's very fast and hassle-free. They've been testing it since before covid. It works for citizens of Europe and some other countries.

I wanted to invite some of my EU friends to St Petersburg, but then covid hit :(

[kwebtv]

Crime and Punishment - BBC - May 22, 1979 - June 5, 1979

Crime / Drama (3 Episodes)

Running Time: 225 minutes total

Stars:

John Hurt as Rodya Raskolinov

Anne Orwin as Natasha

Siân Phillips as Katerina Ivanovna

Fiona Glassbrook as Polenka

Nicky Stoter as Kolya

Francesca Gerrard as Lida

Christine Ozanne as St. Petersburg Citizen

Beatrix Lehmann as Pawnbroker

Carintha West as Lizaveta

David Troughton as Razumihin

Colin Higgins as Nicolay

Barbara Young as Mme. Lippevechsel

Frank Middlemass as Marmelov

Malcolm Tierney as Zametov

Timothy West as Porfiry Petrovich

Yolande Palfrey as Sonia Marmeladovna

Gordon Gostelow as Accuser

Tom Wilkinson as Cadet

[mariacallous]

Russia reportedly sends 10,000 migrants to ‘dig trenches’

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on Thursday, Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin said that the Russian authorities have identified more than 30,000 recently naturalized citizens who failed to register for military service. “[We’ve] already sent about 10,000 of them to the special military operation zone,” he said, using the Kremlin’s official euphemism for the full-scale war in Ukraine. Bastrykin said that these citizens were assigned to rear units and tasked with “digging trenches and building fortifications.”

[beardedmrbean]

Just months after closing its healthcare centers, primary care centers are returning to Walmart.

CenterWell, the healthcare services business of Humana Inc., will open senior-focused primary care centers at 23 Walmart Supercenter retail stores. The initial openings will take place in Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas in spaces formerly occupied by Walmart Health.

In-store centers are expected to open in the first half of 2025.

“CenterWell is committed to providing seniors with high quality health care that is accessible, comprehensive, and most of all, personalized,” said Sanjay Shetty, M.D., president of CenterWell. “These nearly two dozen primary care centers are specifically designed for seniors, and each location’s design, including dedicated entrances and easy parking, offers patients the access that they have come to expect at our clinics across the nation.”

Clinics will be staffed by board-certified physicians, nurse practitioners and medical assistants alongside care coaches, social workers, behavioral health specialists and clinical pharmacists.

In addition to the in-store clinics, CenterWell will open senior-focused primary care centers adjacent to Walmart Supercenters in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Orlando, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth and Kansas City.

In May, Walmart announced it was closing 51 in-store medical centers five years after they first opened. Walmart Health and Walmart Health Virtual Care centers across five states closed, though the chain continued to operate nearly 4,600 pharmacies and 3,000 vision centers.