#russian history

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

New photo of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia painting with a bucket on her head 😂, Livadia 1914

Released by Ilya aka Sledstvie on Instagram and LastRomanovs on Flickr

[zvyozdochka]

Soviet New Year tree lights, 1960s.

[nesyanast]

The State Department just published a 51 page report detailing over a century's worth of Russia's exploitation of antisemitism as a tactic to spread disinformation and propaganda

[evilrobotdog]

Patron Saint of One Way Trips (2024)

24x36

Acrylic on Wood

[ersh-of-history]

thought abt this a lot yesterday

@littleguysdaily (is it ok to tag??)

the unsurpassed original

[la-belle-histoire]

Before the Wedding, Firs Zhuravlyov. 1870s.

[vintagegeekculture]

Patrick Stewart as Vladimir Lenin in "Fall of Eagles" (1974)

[proustianlesbian]

happy 89th birthday to Boris Volynov !! he is the last of the first cosmonauts and the first jewish person to go in space as well as one of my favorite cosmonauts (with yuri gagarin, sigmund jähn, arnaldo tamayo and valeri bykovski) and a great inspiration since i was little !!

💙🌌🚀✡️👨🏻‍🚀💙

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

November 3rd, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 into orbit, carrying Laika, the first living animal in space.

[a black-and-white picture of Laika, a medium-sized mutt, wearing a harness].

[qqueenofhades]

Man, the Russia/Ukraine war has led to a lot of terrible takes from far leftists. I have a mutual from Brazil, a self identified socialist, who is convinced that Ukraine is full of nazis. While they don't support Russia, they questioned why they have to be "pro-Ukraine" or "pro-Russia". They call Ukraine a "nazi hole" but call Russia merely "fascist". Am I wrong in thinking that they've been influenced by Russian propaganda? I know Ukraine does have a nazi/far right problem, but so does the US? And most European countries? idk they strongly hate the US/US government too, and it seems to create some kind of brainrot. at least they don't blindly support China or Russia like tankies do (nor identify with them), but it's still frustrating to take a neutral position on a pretty black and white situation.

I don't want to confront them 1) cause I'm not the type to argue over serious things like this and this may break our long friendship and 2) I'm not super educated on the nazi situation in Ukraine.

Anyway thank you for letting me rant in your inbox.

Yes, Russia has specifically focused its propaganda efforts on Latin America, Africa, and other regions that HAVE suffered from Western/European/American imperialism and are thus predisposed to take the worst view of them/believe that this situation is their fault somehow. This is similar to what the USSR did in newly postcolonial Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, positing themselves as offering the shared hand of communist brotherhood from Western oppressors. Because of more recent events like the invasion of Iraq, which was fully as unjustified as the invasion of Ukraine, Russian propagandists and their eager tankie/leftist foot soldiers have also got a lot of mileage out of "whataboutism." This is likewise an old Soviet propaganda technique designed to deflect any criticism of the actual situation by disingenuously asking "what about this other one!!!"

Likewise, the idea that Ukraine has a "Nazi problem" is itself propaganda. In the last election, far-right/Nazi-identified parties won barely 2% of the vote and AFAIK, no seats at all in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). This is far lower than the nearly half of the USA voting for the far-right/Nazi-sympathetic Republican Party, and as noted, the far right elements in the UK and Europe. The idea that Ukraine is "full of Nazis" (with a Jewish president who just celebrated iftar with the Ukrainian Muslims/Crimean Tatars during Ramadan and instituted observance of Muslim holidays nationwide, very Nazi of him) is a line used by Russian propagandists to "justify" their attack and appeal to national memories of the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and the struggle against the Nazis, which is the central cultural grievance/memory in modern Russia. The Putin regime has referred to anyone they don't like, but especially the Ukrainians, as "Nazis" for a long time now, so it's supposedly their holy duty to kill them/commit ethnic cleansing/forcibly reunite the "fraternal" people of "Little Russia," as Ukraine has been called since the 17th century, with "Great Russia." And yeah, no.

Because the West and Europe has been pretty solidly on Ukraine's side, Russia has therefore cultivated countries like China, India, Brazil, etc, who have all suffered from Western interference and are looking to move into the first rank of global superpowers. This is, as noted, similar to the competing systems of influence built during the Cold War, but it also relies on much deeper Russian grievances that go back to the medieval era. Anybody who knows a thing about actual Russian history would therefore know that every single word it says about the Ukraine situation is a lie, but because that lie is useful for many other countries and fits into their own understanding of themselves, it is easy to repeat and act like it's a so-called superior moral position. This is also why US/American tankies so eagerly lap up Russian propaganda, because it plays into their moral sense of themselves as far better than the rest of the West and "righteously" discovering that the West is responsible for all the evil in the world etc etc. While non-Westerners are just helpless misunderstood puppets with no real agency or ability to make complex choices. This totally makes sense!!!

[cesareeborgia]

↳ catherine the great in ‘the great’ season 3 trailer (2023)

[zvyozdochka]

Soviet tree decorations c.1930s - 80s.

[empirearchives]

Tsar Alexander leaving Napoleon on read. Couldn’t be me.

[lilithism1848]

I wish more people read. Of course there were citizens within the USSR who despised Stalin and the CPSU and even called for their deaths, however this was a minority and often those who opposed the CPSU sympathized with either the Tsar or unfortunately Hitler, claiming that Hitler would liberate them.

Stalin and the CPSU enjoyed a majority of support from the citizens much to the chagrin of Liberals. Those who sympathized with Stalin and the CPSU often cited women's and national minority rights, worker protections and benefits, improving healthcare and nutrition and overwhelmingly access to education as reasons for their support. Those who were in opposition cited issues such as lack of consumer goods, lack of variety of consumer goods, unfair economic practices (such as welfare for the very poorest), the State's atheist sentiments, and the expansion of rights to national minorities including (and especially) the Jewish population.

Many Liberals will rush to defend fascism in a heartbeat either without realizing it (which is no excuse) or by lying to themselves as Fascism is preferable to Communism for them.

References :

"Popular Opinion in Stalin's Russia" by S. Davies

"Stalin's Constitution" by S. Lomb

"Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia" by R. Thurston

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

~ ♔ ꧁ OTMA ꧂ ♔ ~

❧ “In the darkness of the mystery which surrounds the fate of these innocent children it is with poignant emotion that I recall them as they appeared, so full of life and joy, in those distant, yet incredibly near, days before the World War and the downfall of Imperial Russia.”

❧ “Olga was perhaps the cleverest of them all, her mind being so quick to grasp ideas, so absorbent of knowledge that she learned almost without application or close study. Her chief characteristics, I should say, were a strong will and a singularly straightfor, ward habit of thought and action.”

❧ “Tatiana was almost a perfect reincarnation of her mother. Taller and slenderer than her sisters, she had the soft, refined features and the gentle, reserved manners of her English ancestry. Kindly and sympathetic of disposition, she displayed towards her younger sisters and her brother such a protecting spirit that they, in fun, nicknamed her "the governess."

❧ “Marie had splendid eyes and rose-red cheeks. She was inclined to be stout and she had rather thick lips which detracted a little from her beauty. Marie had a naturally sweet disposition and a very good mind.”

❧ “Anastasia, a sharp and clever child, was a very monkey for jokes, some of them at times almost too practical for the enjoyment of others. I remember once when the family was in their Polish estate in winter the children were amusing themselves at snowballing. The imp which sometimes seemed to possess Anastasia led her to throw a stone rolled in a snowball straight at her dearly loved sister Tatiana. The missile struck the poor girl fairly in the face with such force that she fell senseless to the ground. The grief and horror of Anastasia lasted for many days and permanently cured her of her worst propensities to practical jokes.”

- Anna Vyrubova (friend and personal confidante of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna)

[atadbitofworld]

Portrait of Leonilla

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805 - 1873) Portrait of Leonilla, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, 1843 The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 86.PA.534