The title is a bit of an exaggeration.
Even back in 2010, there was plenty to criticize Putin for, and since then, the details haven’t even changed that much so far as I’m concerned (e.g. corruption, bureaucracy, white elephants). And it’s not that I have been unremittingly anti-Putin in the past few years, regardless of the “powerful takes” of random sovoks and the more rabid Putinistas.
Very powerful take. Never thought of it from this angle. Disavowing all nationalism henceforth. pic.twitter.com/bccZmCfcRd
— Anatoly Karlin (@powerfultakes) July 27, 2018
That said, there’s no question that my personal “approval rating” of Putin fell from around 75% during the 2008-2013 period, which peaked at close to 90% during the excitement of the Russian Spring in early 2014, to perhaps just 50%-60% during the ensuing period of never-ending zradas on the Donbass Front, the incessant persecutions under 282, and Putin’s own increasingly evident senility.
Typical articles from the former period:
Typical articles from the latter period:
- Presidential Q&A: Bye Putin, Hi Putlet
- More blackpilled articles on tech, the Ukraine, etc.
The Three Faces of Putin: VVP, putlet, PUTLER!
During 2008-2013, he was Putin – a strong, reasonably effective leader; not a visionary like Peter the Great, but at least a solid, state-building Ivan III. This was reflected in his initials, VVP – which translate to “GDP” in Russian. During the 2000-2014 period, this is exactly what Putin was defined by: Raising the VVP, sprouting malls, consumerism. This might seem crass and materialistic, but only to people in societies that were much richer than Russia thanks to their luck in avoiding Communism. We want what we don’t have. There’s little room for developing spiritual and thymotic values on an empty belly.
In 2014, Putin became PUTLER!*
But soon after the height of his triumphs, he started regressing into a pathetic putlet – so much so that I even ended up voting for Zhirinovsky in protest.
However, the failures in the Ukraine regardless, there have been so many substantive changes for the better in the past year that I am revising his status back to standard issue Putin.
1. Neoliberal Reforms
Putin raising the pension age was a truly heroic and necessary step that demonstrated that he still has vitality and the will to do the right thing, regardless of the wailing of the mob.
Though he did eventually roll back the target retirement age for women to 60 from 63, which was pretty weak.
Nonetheless, this is a very encouraging contrast to the example of Poland, where the retirement age has been reduced by the conservative populists of PiS to the detriment of its long-term fiscal outlook.
This is on the background of raising Russia’s position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings from 120th to 31st between 2012 and 2018. An unsung achievement that will benefit Russia in the years to come.
2. More Science Funding
One of my biggest peeves with policy in the past decade specifically is that the state of Russian science and R&D has been pretty lamentable – see my article on that.
Though one can’t blame everything on that, the paucity of funding played a significant part. Not clear how one can expect stellar results when Roskomnadzor (the Internet censorship authority that has followed up its blocking of Telegram with a block on Sci-Hub and a bunch of torrenting sites – so much for my suggestions of making Russia into a pirate heaven) gets 10% as much funding as the entire Russian Academy of Sciences (which accounts for about 40% of Russian science production).
However, things are looking up. Researcher salaries were almost doubled in 2018. For the first time since the end of the Soviet Union, academia is again a financially viable profession.
3. Ongoing Destruction of Federalism
As I have often pointed out, Russia is more Russian (82%-85%) than the “Jewish state” of Israel is actually Jewish (75%), so why do we have to pretend we are a “multinational” federation? Unlike the US or Switzerland, Russia was not constituted as a federation, a set of independent states that voluntarily joined up in a union while reserving some of their own laws, specific privileges, etc. Russia was always an empire, and it should act as one. And while much work remains to be done in this sphere, there have been at least a couple of concrete and substantial improvements.
First, there were legal changes that made the learning of ethnic minority languages in Russia’s national republics voluntary. This had the biggest effects in Tatarstan, where Russians (Bashkirs, etc.) previously had to learn Tatar. It is bizarre that non-Tatar pupils had to waste hundreds of hours of their lives learning a pointless language thanks basically to sovok-era borders and it is great that this is no longer the case, even if it did make Tatar bureaucrats very sad.
Second, the local, crony powerbreakers of Dagestan have been cleaned out and replaced with a “colonial” administration disproportionately composed of Russians and Laks (a traditionally more modernized and pro-Russian ethnicity). While I am skeptical about the long-term utility of keeping DICh within the Russian Federation, if they have to stay, it is best that they serve some purpose instead of constituting a bottomless money pit feeding local elites.
4. Immigration Reform
The latest policy moves on immigration reform are highly encouraging. I have written about this in greater detail in previous posts, so I will not dwell long here. But to cut a long story short, current suggestions are are both pro-human capital and pro-Russian, which also makes them implicitly anti-Ukraine. As I pointed out, PUTLER! might as well have been reading my blog.
Another law easing restrictions on asylum policy has also been passed. Unfortunately, this was too late for Olena Boyko, but hopefully the endless ghastly sagas of pro-Russian Ukrainians getting deported straight into Ukrainian jails for “migration violations” can finally come to an end.
5. White Revivalism
The past few years have seen a steady diminution of official identification with the Soviet era in favor of Tsarist and White symbology. In recent months, prominent monuments to Ivan III, Alexander III, and Solzhenitsyn have gone up.
Most strikingly, in a recent competition over the naming of Murmansk Airport, victory went to Nicholas II, the founder of the city, over Ivan Papanin, a Soviet polar explorer who committed atrocities while serving the Bolsheviks during the Civil War.
Though its questionable to what extent this is something driven by the authorities and to what extent it is a natural development, but provincial cities have been getting nicer and more beautified since 2014, despite a long recession.
6. Decriminalization of Article 282
Putin personally submitted a bill to soften Article 282, Russia’s hate speech law. Once again, it is good to see my blog is being read and acted upon at the very highest levels.
Caveat: As usual, this is a halfway measure. It only decriminalized Article 282, so one can still receive a modest fine for “hateful” speech; moreover, if you repeat the offense within a year, it becomes a criminal offense. Still, for all practical purposes, this removes the ability of the residual sovok swine that still dominate the Russian judiciary to jail Russians for saying things like “it’s time to do away with this strange economic system” (Konstantin Krylov), “the great Russian people” (Dmitry Bobrov), and quoting statistics on who subsidized who during the Soviet era (Roman Yushkov).
7. Regathering the Russian Lands
Not much to be done about the Ukraine by now, but there have been some very encouraging developments on the Belorussian sector in recent months.
Honestly, if Russia can’t even get back the six Belorussian oblasts, I am not sure it deserves to survive as a state.
HAIL PUTLER!
Given this impressive record over the past year, and especially the past few months, I am going to start toning down my criticism of Putin.
Indeed, while Putin’s approval rating has fallen to 60% from 80% because normies were sad over losing a few of their gibsmedats, my personal approval of him has crept up from 50%-60% during 2015-2018 back to a solid 70-75%.
True, much remains to be done for Russia to truly become a national state. In my world, all the ethnic republics and oblasts will be replaced with gubernias; all the Lenin statues will be toppled, all the Lenin and Soviet streets renamed; there will be open borders (or no borders) between Russia, Belorussia, and the Ukraine; and it will be the judges and prosecutors who imprisoned people on 282 who will themselves be sitting in Arctic penal colonies.
But Rome wasn’t built in a day.
For now, I am once again ready to serve as “ein strammer Putin-soldat.” Hail Putler!
- By PUTLER!, for those very slow people unable or unwilling to catch irony, I mean in the sense that svidomy Ukrainians imagine Putin – not a literal Russian Hitler.
With Belarus, I think Russia should stop feeding the limitrophes. This applies even more to places like Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Paying Bat’ka for love with oil needs to stop.
Merger with Belarus would inevitably lead Russia to dealing with local svidomism. Is bulba dictator going to serve Belarus to Putler without svidomism? I think not…
Belorussian attitudes to joining Russia are similar to the ones prevailing in Donetsk/Lugansk in 2014.
For now… perhaps not in another 2 decades.
PS. Belorussian svidomism = zmagarism. And it’s far, far less prevalent than in the Ukraine.
True, true. And well said.
Now, some people might wonder just what you can do with 17,332,785 square km that you can’t do with 17,125,191 square km, but they don’t get that it’s a matter of honor.
And no nation can live with honor if it fails to – at least – recover the maximal territory that has at any point in time ever been under its control.
If the nation can’t live with honor, then it will have to die with honor.
If that’s sad, don’t blame me – I didn’t write the rules.
An independent Belorussia is more of an affront even that the Ukraine, a standing monument to Russian division and Russian failure to to beat a bald potato dictator.
To the contrary, I am skeptical even of keeping some existing parts of Russia within Russia (namely, DICh). So far as I’m concerned, a Russia without DICh will be 10x more logical than the current retarded limbo state in which it has DICh but doesn’t have Belorussia or Novorossiya. If Russia is to be an exclusively Great Russian state then I don’t want to subsidize Caucasian layabouts.
Dude, when exactly does Putler’s decriminalization of Article 282 come into effect, and does it have a grandfather clause?
So pathetic I didn’t even notice. Whenever something somewhere won’t download, I just push the little vpn button in the corner of the browser.
I don’t think there has ever been a single 282 prosecution for an English-language text. Would be interesting to set a legal record.
This is of course a legitimate term given statistics on unemployment, their share of federal transfers, etc.
It’s good that we’re both technically literate and know how to use VPN, but that doesn’t apply to at least 80% of Russians who use the Internet.
Come now, why so gloomy. Belorus will surely fall. And after it, Poland. While it would have been poetic indeed to avenge the Polish-Soviet war in 2020, it’s perhaps a little late for that. But 2039 – fix that date in your mind and, as they say, speak of it never, think of it always.
How likely is it in your opinion that Belorussia will join Russia and when might it come about also whats the popular opinion in Russia itself for this ?
Also do you think the Donetsk & Luhansk Peoples Repubublics will eventually join Russia when it becomes obvious to everyone that they will not return to the Ukraine and again is this popular in Russia with the general public ?
With 9.5 Million in Belorussia and I believe 3.8 Million in the DPR & LPR there is immediately a huge gain in population if nothing else.
Thanks
Putin is a hero to some in the west……..more hunting and fishing pics please!…….and horse riding.
Apropos the Murmansk “Nicholas II” airport… That initiative is great, and I noticed that for example Simferopol will be “Aivazovsky”, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky “Vitus Bering” and so on. Just lovely. Actual culture, actual history, actual Russia, yeee-haw!
There were some Soviet names winning those contests too though, but most seem to be people like engineers (Andrei Tupolev etc) and stuff, which at least represent the better side of the USSR.
There are some similar trends in things like shipbuilding. To be sure, many new ships have been named after Soviet naval commanders, but after “Yuri Andropov” (yuck!) became “Peter the Great” in the 1990’s, it has expanded to things like “Imperator Alexander III”, “Admiral von Essen” and so on. Even “Admiral Kolchak” was proposed for a new frigate a couple of years back, but that was called off by seriously butthurt sovoks/KPRFers if I recall correctly.
Anyway, all kinds of sweet White stuff going on in general. I just hope it will be applied to street names, neighborhoods (raions) and so on too, at some point. It’s like the one thing about post-Maidan Ukraine I wholeheartedly agree with, by the way, the mass-ditching of the highly repetitive Soviet names. It went too far when it flipped over to the other extreme with the Petliura/Bandera/yadda yadda and “SS Galicia” fanboyisms everywhere, the schizo toppling of Suvorov statues (what the heck?) and so on though.
What good is the glorification of the people who brought the Bolsheviks to power?
I share your increased optimism, and there’s one thing I’d personally add to that list:
It’s the fact that Russia’s economic growth, which was at 2.3% in 2018 (I guess everyone/most know that by now), beat expectations quite comfortably. It’s symbolically important in a sense that this was the first time annual growth was above 2% since 2012. Also, that growth is probably already above Western Europe’s and quite likely even US’s long-term average annual growth, certainly so in per capita. And that was achieved with a federal budget surplus of (almost) 3% of GDP.
It seems growth should still slow down next year, due to the VAT increase and other “structural reforms,” but it should pick up “for good” from 2020-21 onwards, when the large infrastructure build-up and the “National Projects” thing properly kicks off.
Earlier Rosstat made some other GDP adjustments as well. Now the economy actually only declined in 2015 (annual growth), and even then by a quite modest 2.5%, etc. So I think it’s possible Russia might have already overtaken Germany in PPP GDP in 2018, remains to be seen, it will be very very close.
Then there’s of course the continuous rapid improvements in most demographic and social indicators, be it life expectancy, homicide rate, infant mortality… It’s probably true you can’t give too much credit to Putin there, because they would have been quite inevitable with any stability (though I guess you say that about most things), but I somehow find those trends very impressive as this improving “normalcy” remains unreported in the Western media, and it of course goes totally against their post-2014 narrative in particular.
The improvements are also “symbolically” important as Russia is about to overtake American homicide and infant mortality rates. And I just realized that even in regards to life expectancy, the gap between Russia and the US is already comparable to the difference between the US and many/most Western European countries. So much for that “moral” high ground… I do wonder how r/worldnews would react to all of these facts? “Fake news! Fake stats!” Demand more sanctions lol?
I assume this is a disclaimer for Russia Insider and its commenters? 😀 If MSM comments are cancer, sites like RI are really not any better.
Peter the great was garbage.
Given the fact that the price of oil has a floor of 50 a barrel, it does not make much sense for the budget assumptions to be so conservative, and running a small budget deficit of less than 2 percent of GDP in order to spend more on the military, infrastructure, and social services is actually not a bad idea, and considering its fiscal situation, Russia can actually afford to kick the can down the road on pension reform for a few more years or even a decade.
But the whole of Europe was pretending to be retarded at that time, London to Moscow.
Belarus is not just some random landmass. It’s home to 10 million Russians and its territory is Russia’s western part. It would be a disaster if it fell into the “loving” hands of Guy Verhofstadt/Merkel/etc as did Ukraine.
“if Russia can’t even get back the six Belorussian oblasts, I am not sure it deserves to survive as a state.”
-> This times 10000000
Russia’s fiscal policy is way too tight, although monetary policy is just about right. They could afford to spend 60 or 70 billion dollars more than they do right now per year without it being a credit negative, maybe buy 3 100000 ton carriers and a dozen squadrons of PAK-FAs with that money?
According to the most reactionary feudal standards, Nicholas II disgraced and discredited the Imperial power with his shameful behavior (and thus opened the way for the Bolsheviks). I would fully approve if the airport was named after Denikin or Kornilov or Wrangel. But the glorification of Nicholas is the quintessence of idiocy.
How many Russian lives and funds did Peter “the Great” sacrifice to achieve his results?
And Catherine “the Great”?
Was it worth it? And their reforms, specifically Peters’? As I understand it, he removed a lot of uniqueness and Russianess during his reign.
I would be very interested in a detailed answer from a Russian history pro.
Demographically, the reign of Peter and Catherine did not differ from reign of their predecessors/successors.
The role of Peter in the history of Russia can be compared to the role of Kemal Attaturk in the history of Turkey or the Meiji reformers in Japan . The existence of a” unique ” Russia (as an independent state) without reforms seems unlikely.
Nonsense, I think Karlin dispelled such myths. Nicholas II was largely a mediocrity, but a decent one. World War I was a massive blunder but he was not alone in stumbling into it – and his own instincts to stay out were correct, but he was too weak to go aganst consensus.
Who was the White leader in charge of Murmansk?
Yes, it’s surely a very good analogy.
Yes, the UK are not re-titling anything in the name of the less incompetent Charles I of England – and yet the mismanagement of Charles I did not even result in a century of negative consequences for England.
This seems about right. Not interested in full union, but happy with customs union and historical/cultural congruence. But is this stable, or changing? Are they drifting further apart?
This can be said about Charles I or Louis XVI.
But Nicholas II is a shameful dirt by any standards. One episode – in 1917 he renounced the rights of his son to the throne (the action on which Nicholas had no right). Nicholas would abdicate and pass the throne to his son (that gave Russia the chance will last until the end of WWII), but Nicholas feared that such a decision would jeopardize the life of his son. For this bastard, the son’s life was more important than the fate of the state and the fate of the throne. Ie for purely monarchical standards Nicholas is a person unworthy of the crown.
I agree with this view, assessed from a Russian perspective Putin probably reached his nadir in late 2014 when after speaking about the Russian world and seeming to claim Russia would re-gather the lost lands of Little Russia he cucked as hard as is physically possible and wouldn’t even allow the forces in the Donbass to advance to Mariupol. Regarding Belarus, it is inexplicable why Russia continues to subsidise the Belorussian state rather then just absorb it, it makes much more economic and strategic sense simply to integrate Belarus into Russia.
On the economic front, my main area of disagreement with Putin and his advisers is the obsession with putting away budget surpluses into reserve funds, what the Russian economy needs is investment, the gross investment to GDP ratio in Russia in 2018 was only 23%, it needs to be closer to 30% to stimulate growth, instead of stashing away money in reserve funds where real returns are basically zero, spending surplus revenues in investment in human and physical infrastructure seems to make much more sense. At least money used in the present will not be exposed to depreciation via inflation, putting away money in funds that generate 4% or at best 5% returns in a country where inflation is 5% makes no sense, it is an almost criminal neglect of fiscal resources.
If excess revenue is simply going to be locked away and its value destroyed by inflation it would be far better not to even run a budget surplus and so avoid sucking money out of the economy.
Regarding demographics, Russia has managed to increase its life expectancy at a faster rate then other Eastern European nations manged to from the same base so at least in this regard one can say Russia under Putin outperformed other Eastern European nations.
In Estonia for example LE rose from 69.9 to 71.9 from 1996 to 2003, Russia’s LE rose from 69.8 in 2011 to 73.2 by 2018, a 3.4 year expansion vs 2 in Estonia over the same number of years. It took Estonia until 2006 to hit a LE of 73.2, 10 years after it reached 69.9 vs 7 for Russia
Romania reached a LE of 69.9 in 1998, after 7 years it reached 71.9, again a rise of 2 years, it took Romania until 2007 to reach a LE of 73.1, 9 years after it reached 69.9.
In Hungary, LE reached 70 in 1995 and took until 2005 to reach 73, Russia underwent the same increase from 69.8 to 72.7 in 6 years, 2011-2017.
The story is similar in other Eastern European nations as well, one area therefore in which one could say Putin has excelled is increasing life expectancy, life expectancy has grown in Russia at a rate greater then much of Eastern Europe in the early 2000’s where growth was fairly rapid by global standards.
Neoliberal shock therapy: Examining the Russian Federation in the 1990s
Alexei had hemophilia. There is no way he would have lived that long or been able to be a strong ruler.
Russia needed to hold out in the war for another 2 maybe 3 months. Such term Alexey undoubtedly would have lived (of course for Alexey other people would rule, he was necessary as a symbol ).
*
There’s really a difference? Svidomy Ukrainians actually imagine Putler as something other than a Russian Hitler?
I will have a post on Belorussia hopefully sooner rather than later. It will include direct comparisons of polls of the separate oblasts of South-East Ukraine, on which Belorussian answers are most in line with those of Donbass on virtually all parameters.
About trends – I haven’t actually looked at that closely yet, though from what I recall, zmagarism actually peaked in the 1990s to early 2000s (admittedly, back then, polls on joining NATO were not the ideologically loaded question they are now, back when it seemed that Russia might eventually join the organization as well). But I’ll address that better when I do the actual post and look at the data afresh.
Ukraine conflict temporarily increased Russophilia seeing just how shit the country is now for its Western choice. However I don’t think this will last as zoomers and people born shortly before them associate Luka with Russia, while romanticizing PLC/GDL, with EU membership their hope.
Why would anyone other than Poles or Lithuanians romanticize PLC/GDL?
It is mind-boggling, seeing how everyone else was reduced to peasants/serfs, apart from native nobility that converted to Catholicism or assimilated.
Frankly I don’t quite understand myself, beyond the aesthetics I dotn find much redeeming qualities in those two states for us. A lot of it comes from we wuzzing about being Litvins and shit.
False nationalist propaganda. Serfdom was no worse than in Russia and as % of population similar to that of fertile regions in Russia. Ukraine had a large native Cossack class, in addition to nobles. Cossacks were not always dissatisfied with GDL – they helped capture Moscow and to crush the Turks at Khotyn battle.
GDL provided Ukraine and Belarus with a high level of culture. Kiev became intellectual center of Orthodoxy:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Киево-Могилянская_академия_(1659—1817)#История
Upper nobility tended to do this but middle and petty nobility did not. And it varied with time. Supreme commander of GDL forces against Moscow was a very devout Orthodox prince – Ostrogsky.
Looking forward to it!
His grandson converted to Catholicism. The long term trends clearly pointed towards the conversion of the elite and ultimately the common people to Roman or Eastern Catholicism, though it is true that the PLC was not universally bad to all Orthodox.
Correct. Still –
Would people have lived worse lives if this and other long-term trends had been realized for them? Who have had better lives in the long run, people in Poland or people in Belarus or Ukraine who had gone under Moscow?
His mother was so tainted, it may have made sense to go straight to one of the cousins. I believe Nicholas had one that was 6’6″ and popular with the army. Or maybe, the one involved in killing Rasputin (not that Nicky would have approved.) Probably the choice would have been better taken out of his hands entirely. But didn’t one claim power ineffectively?
I believe Wilhelm II actually didn’t technically abdicate – he was said to have abdicated. He really wanted to stay a regional king. But the other regional German ones were removed from power anyway. There was a pretty strong pan-European movement against monarchy at that time, since the Left had gained so much power from the war. I don’t know if the Romanovs could have retained power for long.
It was a Polish colony where the indigenous (Western Russian) population was reduced to the level of livestock completely deprived of rights, and intended only to feed the alien foreign elite (in addition to the poles, the indigenous population had to feed the Jews, becouse the poles inhabited these lands by Jews, in order to oust the indigenous population).
GDL completely deprived Western Russian of their own culture. All minimally significant intellectual achievements of “Ukrainians” (Gogol, Ostrogradsky…) occur exclusively in Eastern Ukraine (liberated by the Moscow Tsar in the 17th century from the Polish yoke). At the same time, the” Ukrainian “(if we count their achievements per capita) is much inferior to the” great Russian ” (who did not know the Polish-Lithuanian yoke). Belarusians (where Polish rule lasted until the end of the 18th century) have no significant intellectual achievements at all .
I kind of like the idea of a federation for the possibility of having internal border countrols, which would separate the more problematic groups. Someone should do a cost-benefit analysis on needing to subsidize some of these places though.
Well, a lot of these people valued their Orthodoxy enough that they were willing to kill and die to resist conversion. Personally, I have a preference towards Catholicism over Orthodoxy and Russia would likely be better off if it was historically Catholic, though Orthodoxy has its advantages as well. It’s a shame that in Russia Catholicism was associated with Teutons and Poles who had purely malicious intent towards Russians.
Ultimately I think both Poland and Moscow would have, and to an extent did, assimilate the Ruthenians. As a Russophile I prefer Russia, though it’s perfectly understandable why a Ukrainian would prefer the more advanced PLC than historically backwards Russia. Just don’t romanticize it too much, the historical record shows that there was much more violence from Ruthenians towards Poles than towards Russians.
I’m not defending Roskomnadzor. On the contrary, I’m complaining that not only are they heavy handed, they are simply incompetent. In the sci-hub case, however, I would guess that the people who want to use sci-hub are a subset of those who can point and click to install a vpn plug-in. So what is Roskomnadzor blocking from the proles?
The population massively fled from the “Polish” lands, to the lands of the Russian Tsar. Also in the “Polish” lands there were several bloody peasant uprisings under the slogan of the transition to the power of the Russian Tsar (on Russian lands there were no Pro-Polish peasant uprisings)
Serfs on agricultural lands had same rights in GDL as in Russia. Nobles were mostly locals so it was not a colony. Local nobles had more rights in GDL than in Muscovy, where they were subject to arbitrary actions of the Tsar.
I suspect origins of nobles in what is now Ukraine and Belarus were more local than those in Russia, whom Russian serfs were feeding.
First Orthodox bible was printed in PLC. First Orthodox higher learning institute was in PLC.
Eastern Ukraine – Hetmanate, that maintained PLC institutions (Polish language, western educational norms, etc.). Per travelers, much more civilized and highly educated than Muscovy.
Gogol – part Polish, product of Hetmanate and thus of PLC. Russia has a flood of educated Ukrainians in the 17th-18th century. This speaks to higher cultural level of PLC relative to Moscow. Under Moscow, Ukraine was eventually reduced to a provincial backwater.
In 15th-17th centuries? Hardly.
They fled to “free territory” where the Tsar did not (yet) impose serfdom. They also fled to Zaporozhian lands, not under the Tsar. And they also settled Polish lands in Ukraine, where serfdom was lighter than in Poland itself.
Still –
Is Poland a wealthier and a better place to live the last couple hundred years, or are Belarus and Ukraine?
They’re just Russian monarchs (and as stated, Nicholas II founded Murmansk, so that’s enough reason right there to at least name the airport after him). Ivan Grozny founded Oryol, and a statue to him was erected there a while back, and he sure had some shitty sides to him too. It’s history, man, but most of all – it’s some organic variation, rather than mass-produced Lenins and 10000x “ulitsa Karla Marksa” or “ploshchad Revolyutsii”.
Sure. And Algerians killed and died so they wouldn’t be part of France. That turned out great for them.
Counter-Reformation was very bad for the PLC. It drove the civil war in Ukraine (often falsely described by both Russian and Ukrainian nationalists as an anti-Polish rebellion) in which the Rus magnates were defeated by the Rus peasants and lesser nobles. This of course led to the destruction of the PLC, the loss of the Orthodox was enough to tip the balance of power.
Poor choice of words. Why would anyone “love” any politician, including a leader of a country? Would any other word than “moron” come to mind if you hear than someone “loves” Trump, May, Macron, or Merkel?
On Putin: his rule was a mixed bag. On the one hand, he inherited a country that was totally devastated and robbed in the “democratic” 1990s and did a lot to develop it and bring back its glory. He was certainly helped in that by the continuing suicide of the West (ruling Empire included). Reminds me of a joke I saw on this site: “FBI uncovered a new Al Qaida plot: sit back and watch America destroy itself”. Still, with a fairly weak hand of cards he managed to outmaneuver pathetic Western “leaders” in many areas. He was not afraid to make bold anti-imperial moves like taking Crimea back to Russia, where the great majority of its population always wanted to be. He manages the “alliance” with China, essentially forced on Russia by crazy imperial bullying, fairly well, promoting balancing relations with South Korea, India, and even Japan, which is still occupied by the US more than 70 years after the war. As Russia was not inclined to become a subservient vassal of the Empire, it should not be inclined to become Chinese vassal, either.
On the other hand, his internal policies leave a lot to be desired. His power structure pushed through education “reforms” that made the education at the school and college level inferior to what it was in the USSR. His coterie essentially destroyed Russian science, emasculating even the National Academy (which was not very good to begin with), wasting huge resources on doomed white elephants like Skolkovo. As a biologist, I can look at PubMed, where practically all biomedical papers worth reading are listed: there are plenty of Russian names (including mine), but virtually none of them work in Russia. Many notorious compradore mega-thieves of the 1990s are still near the trough, the loot of none was confiscated. What’s more, punishment of these thieves is very selective: scum like Berezovsky or Khodorkovsky were punished, but similar scum like Chubais, Deripaska, Sechin, Miller, and many others keep their loot and enjoy tsar’s favors. No wonder that capital flight continues: compradore thieves transfer their ill-gotten wealth to offshores, more than $100 billion annually.
Pension reform was a mixed bag, as well. It would have been justified if it weren’t for the fact that mega-thieves close to the throne steal a lot more every year than pension reform is expected to save.
His propaganda overuses the example of Ukraine, presenting people with a false choice between that economic and humanitarian cesspool and Putin’s model for Russia. Of course, given this kind of choice, any sane person would choose even devil with horns over Ukrainian scenario, but Russia has better options. His propaganda also overuses the fact that so-called “opposition” (pathetic Navalny and his ilk) is actually financed by the US, which makes them despised traitors in the eyes of most Russians. But Russia does need a real patriotic opposition, which current power structure does not allow to emerge.
Yet Putin did a lot of good far-sighted things internally, too. The bridge to Crimea might enjoy high visibility in the West, but projects like pipelines to China and huge Yamal LNG plant that dramatically reduces the dependence of Russian gas exports on neighboring morons are more important. So are new Russian ports in the Baltic and Arctic, including a huge Ust-Luga project, that is literally choking Baltic parasites, both their ports and railways, depriving them of business.
So, “love” is out of place. Putin deserves reserved respect and one hopes that constructive criticism can further change his policies for the better.
Algeria is by no means a bad country by the standards of the region. It has a higher GDP PPP per capita than Ukraine and a slightly higher HDI as well. I wouldn’t want to cast my lot with modern France anyway. No doubt they’d be imposing feminism and sub-saharan immigration on the Algerians.
Anyway, if the Germans (not genocidal Nazis, something like the German Empire) decided to conquer and rule Eastern Europe, the populace would likely be ‘better off’ in terms of living standards and quality of institutions. Doesn’t mean they should just role over and take it. Independence matters.
Hear, hear! I always wear my Россия вперёд! t-shirt to the gym. It features the standard pic of camo-clad, Dragunov-toting VVP riding a bear. We need more stuff like that, if only to trigger the neo-progressi-cons.
To compare Ivan IV with such a jerk as Nicholas II is a heavy insult to Ivan.
The monument to Ivan is a good idea, but the sculpture in the Oryol is is completely idiotic .
“This might seem crass and materialistic, but only to people in societies that were much richer than Russia thanks to their luck in avoiding Communism. We want what we don’t have. There’s little room for developing spiritual and thymotic values on an empty belly.”
Apparently, there is even less room for developing spiritual and thymotic values on a full stomach, (judging by the current state of affairs in the West, so frequently and vehemently discussed on these very pages).
I think Algerians made out pretty well, comparing their situations over time.
Part of the excuse for many of them coming over was to flee reprisal. They were the beachhead for others. French counterterrorism efforts formed part of the grievance politics which they use so effectively to accrue power in France.
Maybe, cheap labor would have been enough of an excuse.
It’s just a blatant lie. In Russia Orthodoxy was the state religion, and in Poland the Orthodox population was legally deprived of the rights and lived under double oppression – Catholics-poles and Jews.
The facts are simple – in the”great Russia” people fed their own elite, but in the lands of the GDL People fed the hostile foreign elite, who hated the indigenous population and wanted to destroy this population.
Ha nonsense. All intellectual achievements are focused exclusively on the lands of the Russian Tsar, but on the lands of GDL (with their shameful colonial “institutions”)- nothing, zero. It’s no wonder the indigenous population on the lands of the GDL were turned into cattle, and cattle has no culture.
In the 15-17 centuries undoubtedly a “great Russian” achievements per capita, surpassed the achievements of the enslaved Western Russian. Who of the cultural figures at least a little known in other countries? Andrei Rublev, Theophanes The Greek, Dionysius. Famous (worldwide) architectural achievements – the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral… On the maps of the geographical discoveries can you find a route or Dezhnev, Poyarkov. Even the ballads of the ancient Rus ‘ remained exclusively in the “great Russia”. Here is a modern edition, and where did it come from?
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2Gfxbbo3KAU/WdRc-gtQE3I/AAAAAAAAGtM/gsoPkwqZPisCdWr-4IKZAXChMOgk3F-mwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_5505.JPG
From the “great Russia” 15 – 17th centuries
But the Western Russian lands had nothing, zero, thanks to GDL.
Mass murder and civil unrest and relative poverty since rejecting being part of France. It’s good for France that Algeria chose Islamism and Arabism over secular French-hood and left (but stupid of France for allowing all those Algerians back in).
If I understand the term “sovok” correctly we have a few in America, like AOC and Bernie.
Relative poverty just means that their ethnic base is safer from Africans. I wish the place where my folks came from were as poor right now.
May not prevent them from being completely Africanized, in time, but they have a better political apparatus to combat it. If they were a part of France, they’d probably be half black by now.
A Russian serf was as oppressed as a serf in GDL. Restrictions on Orthodox did not occur until the 17th century. As I pointed out, Orthodox Rus from GDL freely and happily went to war against Orthodox in Moscow.
Elite of Great Russia whom Russian serfs fed were mostly of foreign stock – descendants of Scandinavians, Germans, Tatars or Lithuanians.
Nobles in GDL were probably more local in origin than in Moscow. Khmelnytsky – the renegade noble, was of local origin. His antagonist, the magnate Wisniowecki, admittedly was from a Rurukid family (Scandinavian origin).
Nobody in the West heard of any of these people other than Rublev, because of Tarkovsky’s movie.
Theophanes was from Constantinople.
Italian architect.
In Lviv, an Italian architect built this church for the Orthodox of that city:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Lviv_Kornakta_2007.jpg
Let’s look at “cattle with no culture.”
Level of education of Orthodox in PLC vs. in Muscovy says you a lot. Muscovy had nothing on the level of Kiev Academy.
Danish envoy Jul Just visited Russia and Ukraine in the early 1700s. About Muscovy:
“Prince Menshikov, a figure second to the tsar, could neither read nor write. Chancellor Golovkin knew no language but Russian; not a single one of the tsar’s dignitaries could speak Latin, with the exception of Musin-Pushkin, who was fluent in that language. Even Tsar Peter, whose ‘enlightenment’ was widely known, spoke only one Western European language, namely Dutch, and even here the tsar had difficulty in making himself understood.”
He noted that all of the teacher’s in the Moscow higher school were Orthodox from Poland.
Contrast to the lands that had recently been part of PLC, in Ukraine:
“Korolevets is a big town…the streets are beautiful, such as I never saw in Russia; the buildings are stately, strong and clean and are along the streets as in Denmark…”
He noted that the monks in the Pecherska Lavra could converse with him in Latin. He saw peasants in Ukraine carrying prayer books, implying that they were literate. Unlike Prince Menshikov of Moscow.
French diplomat, Jean Baluse, writing about Mazepa:
“At his court he has two German doctors, with whom he converses in their tongue; to the Italian masters of whom there are several in the castle, he speaks in the Italian language. I spoke with the master of Ukraine in the Latin language, inasmuch he assured me that he was not very fluent in French…I do not know if this statement of his concealed a special motive, for I myself saw French and Dutch newspapers in his study.”
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Ironically, because of the higher level of education and culture among the Rus people in the PLC vs. those in Moscow, Orthodox from PLC contributed significantly even to Russia’s culture. Without PLC, who knows if Russia would even have had much of a high culture.
As Dostoyevsky (himself the product of PLC) noted, modern Russian literature comes largely from Gogol – a product of the Hetmanate and ultimately of PLC. Let’s look at Russian music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_classical_music
One of Russia’s earliest music theorists was the Ukrainian Nikolay Diletsky (c. 1630, Kiev – after 1680, Moscow). Although several of his compositions survive, Diletsky’s fame rests chiefly on his composition treatise, Grammatika musikiyskago peniya (A Grammar of Music[al Singing]), which was the first of its kind in Russia; there are three surviving versions of this work, of which the earliest dates from 1677…
In the 18th century, Peter I brought in reforms introducing western music fashions to Russia. During the subsequent reign of Empresses Elisabeth and Catherine, the Russian imperial court attracted many prominent musicians, many from Italy.[3] They brought with them Italian traditions of opera and classical music in general, to inspire future generations of Russian composers. A number of composers received training in Italy or from these recent Italian emigres and composed vocal and instrumental works in the Italian Classical tradition popular in the day. These include ethnic Ukrainian composers Dmitri Bortniansky, Maksim Berezovsky and Artem Vedel who not only composed masterpieces of choral music but also included operas, chambers works and symphonic works.
Those three were from the Hetmanate – child of PLC.
So Russia’s classical music tradition derives to a large extent from PLC.
You appear to be as ill-informed as you are ungrateful 🙂
Sure, but what if it peacefully had remained an integral part of France, as it had been? Leaving France was a dumb move for Algerians.
Khmelnytsky’s uprising, in the long term, was a dumb move for Ukrainians.
Or maybe Algerians plus conservative Catholics would have shielded France from all that, something Catholics alone could not do. Although Islam is worse than modern secular humanism (which is just spoiled Christianity) – I’d still rather live in Sweden than in Saudi Arabia.
Probably. Elimination of Austria-Hungary was bad for all of those peoples.
Well, for hundreds of years Ukrainians didn’t have independence, either. They left Poland and fell into Russia. Given what this meant (expansion and worsening of serfdom, joining in on the Bolshevik debacle to the loss of millions, followed by relative poverty) this has been a disaster. I doubt Ukraine would have been any more Polonized than it became Russified. Kiev would probably have remained a Polish-speaking city as it had been in the 17th-18th centuries, until industrialization and peasants poured into it.
Re: “I have a preference towards Catholicism”
In its essence what is Catholicism if not Aristotelian ethics (moderation in all
things) married to Christian faith? As primates (effectively smart chimps) we
need something to moderate our animalistic impulses. I think Catholicism
does it better than Protestantism or Judaism (or Jewish culture in general).
I don’t know enough about Eastern Christianity (except that its theology is
fundamentally irrational unlike the rational Catholic theology created by St.
Augustine and St.Thomas Aquinas, e.g., concept of the just war) to know if
it’s designed to keep our primitive tendencies (tribalism, aggressiveness,
territorialism, status seeking, …) in check. Czesław Miłosz who was part
Lithuanian, and hence not exactly starry-eyed about Poland, nevertheless states
in his autobiography Native Realm (1959) that he was struck by the great moral
restraint shown by the Polish population, esp. in times of war. I don’t know
about other Russians but Anatoly seems very territorial. IMHO territorial
impulses are a legacy of our animal origins and if excessive, they need to be curbed.
Moving now to a wider frame of reference, I think one reason why there may
be some residual nostalgia about the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (and
about the Hapsburgs) is that in both cases there was the moderating influence
of Catholic ethics at work, even though I fully realize that even the best system
when executed by smart chimps like us will be far from perfect (e.g., sexual
abuse of adolescent boys by gay priests). I would even venture to say that Poland,
Austria, and Italy, which still remain heavily Catholic, inflicted much less harm on
the world than Prussia (and later the German Empire), England, and even
France (which largely rejected Catholicism). Nobody is nostalgic about the
German Empire, and the Hindus are certainly not nostalgic about the British
Raj. Unlike France or Britain, Poland never executed its kings. I realize that
Catholicism is only one moderating factor, there may be genetic effects as well.
The Brits always claim that whatever greatness they may have achieved, incl. their
Empire, happened because they rejected the restraints imposed by Catholicism.
History may decide otherwise. Now that whites are becoming minorities
everywhere, are colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade seen
as the greatest moments of triumph for the West? Nor anymore.
This is Russian reunification Karlin is writing of, not some barbarous Reconquista. It goes without saying that it must never involve bloodshed. Still, there remains the question of getting Lithuania to cede its “Polish Corridor” that separates Kaliningrad from the Russian heartlands.
Hehe. You should get one of these too
https://theshirtprinter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/putin-t-shirts.jpg
Theophanes the Greek is in the film too.
These days Russian funding for Eureka projects is extremely generous; 100% up to €11m. Not exactly neglecting science.
As per his works, he very much opposed Poland in conjunction with favoring Russia.
Russian literature and science is certainly not inferior to Polish achievements. Overall, the ancestors of modern day Ukrainians preferred Russia over Poland.
An addendum about my philosophy of life
As I stated before, I believe that life is about optimization, not maximization.
In fact, much of physics (e.g., Classical Mechanics and Quantum Field Theory)
can be derived from the Principle of Least Effort, so minimization is definitely
more relevant than maximization. Hence, unlike most people here, I believe
there is a sweet spot for IQ. Extremely intelligent people (in addition to having
bloated egos) can inflict a tremendous amount of damage, for example when
employed by the military-industrial complex, and, as we know, the latter does
love to employ a lot of Ph.D.’s.
I also believe there is a sweet spot for aggression. We may be primates but we
are smart primates so we are perfectly capable of modulating our violent
response depending on the circumstances. Hence historically there is no
question that the Germanics, Jews, and sub-Saharan blacks have displayed
excessive levels of aggressiveness, whereas the Slavs and (northern) Italians
have been only moderately aggressive. That’s one reason why I’m glad that
Russia is at last ruled by Russians, and not by Germans (the Romanovs were
90% German) or Jews or that Georgian guy.
Correct, for after PLC fell. Not before.
Do you have a source for this, please?
Also, I think that there was a very real possibility of Belarus joining Russia in the late 1990s when Lukashenko believed that he would eventually have the opportunity to be the leader of a joint Russian-Belarusian state in the event of a union. However, Lukashenko appears to have cooled on this idea after Putin came to power in Russia and consolidated his power there.
In turn, this raises an interesting question–would Belarusian elites actually want to be governors, provincial administrators, and provincial bureaucrats in a joint Russian-Belarusian state or would they prefer to maintain an independent Belarus in order to be kings in their own house? In the case of the Donbass, after the Maidan Revolution, it was clear that they were going to be provincial bureaucrats in either Ukraine or Russia in any case; in Belarus, on the other hand, the elites actually have the choice between being kings in their own house and being Russian provincial bureaucrats.
Out of curiosity–do you think that Americans should be offended by the existence of an independent Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? I mean, all of those countries–like the US–were former British colonies and were historically settled by large numbers of Britons.
Won’t you be upset by the secession of some of your ancestors’ traditional homeland, though? Or is there no Lak pride left within you, Anatoly?
(BTW, I find it interesting that you passed a Mensa test and have a quarter Lak ancestry. AFAIK, you need an IQ of 130 or above to pass a Mensa test and considering that the average Lak IQ would probably be something like 85-90, you would probably be smarter than 99.9% of all Laks–a true wunderkind!)
Are these Belarusian polls an exception to the general trend? :
https://belarusdigest.com/story/do-belarusians-want-to-join-the-eu/
The polls in the link above show a gradual increase in Belarusian support for European integration in the early 21st century.
Also, for what it’s worth, I actually am somewhat attached to the idea of an independent Belarus due to the fact that my maternal grandmother was ethnically Belarusian (though she was born in Russia and lived in Russia her entire life). In addition to my Russian and Jewish ancestry, I am also–to my knowledge–a quarter Belarusian. Thus, there is some sentimental attachment to Belarus on my own part.
Plus, Belarus would probably–like Ukraine–be more useful being a part of the no-Muslim bloc in the EU than a part of Russia. After all, Belarus would provide Intermarium with strategic depth. (At least, that would probably be AP’s attitude on this issue.)
Also, one minor nitpick (FTR, I agree with most of your article here)–the 75% Jewish figure for Israel excludes patrilineal Jews. Thus, the real Jewish percentage for Israel would probably be a couple of/several points higher. Of course, even under my definition, Russia would likely still be more Russian than Israel is Jewish.
And Yes, I do think that forcing students to learn minority languages isn’t a particularly productive idea–and I would also apply this to the US.
Who cares if you have a Belarusian grandmother. Are you American? Pretend attachment to the old country is really lame.
Belarus doesn’t have a distinctive culture at all. Their national mythology is based entirely on stealing Lithuanian and Polish history. At least the Ukrainians have the hetmenate and a relatively healthy language. Belarus has nothing.
Belarus wouldn’t really resist Russian annexation. There would be resentment and grumbling, but that’s about it. On the other hand, Russia would get almost 10 million more Slavs.
As for the Muslim issue, just kick out the Central Asian guestworkers and grant the North Caucasians and Russia would cease to have a Muslim problems. The remaining Tatars and Bashkirs are perfectly civilized and not a cause for concern in the slightest, unless you’re some autist who demand absolutes homogeneity.
One branch of my family left Belarus for Galicia in the early 18th century, where they intermarried with local Greek Catholics, fellow Rus. Some of the ones who stayed behind left cultural marks, their estate is a museum. Since it’s not my surname, I’ll post it:
https://www.belarus.by/en/press-center/press-release/wankowicz-house-in-minsk-reopens-after-restoration_i_7998.html
Melanf claimed Belarus was a cultural desert, but there was this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walenty_Wa%C5%84kowicz
Family originated from a local Slavic warrior Vanko, who was ennobled by the Lithuanian prince Kęstutis after a battle in the 14th century.
It’s marginal, but not indistinct. Something like 90% of Belarussians speak Russian.
True, but it is mutual as their histories overlap. Ruthenian was the court language in Lithuania before it was replaced by Polish.
This part is true. Although, IF Russia were to simply invade and if Lukashenko gave the order to fight back, resulting in casualties and collateral civilian damage, who knows? Chance of this happening would probably be about zero of course.
So what. Rus in its prime was a leading center, before the Polish dominated PLC.
https://www.spreadshirt.com/russian+empire+coat+arms+men-s+premium+t-shirt-D1003906952
Below the eagle, Россия could be added with white, blue and red lettering. Dye sublimated much better than screen printed.
If you want Russia to be stronger via government spending why not favor projects that make the economy stronger rather than projects that make the Russian Navy stronger with weapons for which there is not even a serious prospect of a war to use them in?
Speaking as an American: I’d love to shift about $100 billion per year from Department of Defense to roads, bridges, and software development summer school classes for any high school student that wants to attend. I would love to ramp to spending on energy efficiency too. If it has to be DOD spending then I would spend on military sites with solar panels, insulation, ground sink heat pumps, and protecting military bases from extreme weather and other natural disasters (the US military bases have many huge future costs coming at them from the next hurricane that comes to shore at the right location).
There are plenty of infrastructure projects with high positive ROI that governments ignore. Military infrastructure projects with high positive ROI even make a military stronger by cutting long term repair and utility costs.
Rus had a few architectural and literary achievements of note, but was overall a backwater in comparison to Poland, and certainly the Holy Roman Empire. France, and Italy.
Yes, I am American–specifically an Israeli-American (but with strong emphasis on the American part).
What exactly is wrong with “stealing” Lithuanian history? I mean, Belarusians were under the rule of Lithuania for centuries, no?
The way that I see it, Ukrainian culture is a Polish-Russian hybrid and Belarusian culture is a Lithuanian-Russian hybrid (albeit with much more emphasis on the Russian part).
IMHO, this would depend on whether Lukashenko would have given orders for the Belarusian military to fight.
Also, Yes, Belarusians could eventually get used to Russian rule (just like Novorossians could have eventually gotten used to Russian rule had Russia conquered them back in 2014). However, there would still be the possibility of them racing for the exits if Russia experiences significant democratization and liberalization.
I was talking about creating a no-Muslim zone within the EU, though.
Agreed with your post here. I have just one quibble:
Do you mean Russia invading Belarus or Lukashenko giving the order to fight back? I just want to clarify this part.
Also, if Russia invades Belarus, expect there to be crippling Western sanctions on Russia. For instance, Russia would likely get kicked out of the SWIFT banking system in such a scenario.
Prior to Christianization, certainly. Afterwards – I’m not sure. Rus was a cultural appendage of Byzantium, which was far more advanced than western Europe of the time. I suspect urban literacy rates were higher in Rus. In the year 1100, Kiev matched Paris in size and had twice the population of London:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_urban_community_sizes
Thanks for sharing these links, AP! Indeed, that Wankowicz House in Minsk looks very cool!
Also, for the people who are saying that Belarusian culture is fake and not real, is Belarusian culture any more fake than, say, Kosovar culture or Macedonian culture or Moldovan culture or Laotian culture or Transnistrian culture or Taiwanese culture?
What do you think that the total population of Kievan Rus was back then?
Also, for what it’s worth, Anne of Kiev married a French King in the 11th century and was literate while her husband appears to have been illiterate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Kiev
The first. If the first happened (basically zero likelihood), Lukashenko fighting back to preserve his kingdom would be somewhat likely. His grip is tight enough that his orders would be followed by at least some of his forces.
Only a Pole could find something in Polish culture to be proud of. Too bad the rest of humanity (I mean, the tiny minority that knows that Poland actually exists) does not agree.
Hey! I’m not Polish and I absolutely LOVE Polish kielbasas!
Yeah, that makes sense. Also, if Russia didn’t conquer all of Novorossiya in 2014 due to the fear of crippling Western sanctions, then it is unlikely to conquer Belarus for the same reason. After all, one would think that conquering Novorossiya in 2014 would have been more rewarding for Russia than conquering Belarus would have been due to Novorossiya’s larger population (in comparison to Belarus, of course). Still, even this reward couldn’t persuade Putin to conquer all of Novorossiya back in 2014.
Poland is a great country with plenty to be proud of, though their victim mentality and American dick sucking gets old.
Fifth of June 2018:
http://www.unz.com/akarlin/the-case-for-annexing-canada/
Polish victim mentality has some basis in reality. Poland managed to antagonize both of its stronger neighbors, Russia and Germany, and for its stupidity and arrogance was divided between the two many times in history. The sucking of the American dick by the current elites is a clear continuation of the same combination of subservience and delusions of grandeur that led Pilsudski to believe that Hitler would honor the treaty he signed with Germany as early as 1934 (i.e., long before the treason of Munich) and treat Poland as an equal. He allowed Poland to snatch a piece of Czechoslovakia in 1938 (for which Churchill called Poland “the hyena of Europe”), knowing full well that he will take the whole Poland shortly. Poles supporting Pilsudski were sadly disappointed in 1939.
BTW, the only real defense Poland has today is that nobody wants it. It’s like an old and ugly prostitute is absolutely safe from rapists. If someone is mad enough to attack useless Poland, the Americans will defend it exactly like the British and French did in 1939 (remember “Phoney War” in English, the same as “Drôle de guerre” in French?).
I like Polish kielbasa, too. But is kielbasa culture?
What about Australia and New Zealand?
Food is a part of culture, no?
What exactly did Poland do to provoke its neighbors before the partitions, though?
As for the US, I expect the US response to any hypothetical invasion of Poland to be much more active and severe than what the Anglo-French did in 1939. After all, the US has a can-do attitude and doesn’t like wimps very much!
You could make the same point about Canadian and Australian, and even American culture. Are these cultures also “fake”? Were they duty bound to forever consider themselves English (or British)?
In nations that have culture, food is a small part of it. In nations that don’t have any, on the other hand…
I don’t know precisely how secular it is, but the Algerian army and state was quite willing to liquidate islamist rebels during the 1990s civil war.
But the best land and the well-paying occupations were held by ethnic Frenchmen. The revenues for natural resources would also then have accrued to the French state instead of Arabs and Berbers.
If Algerians were allowed to vote then they would most likely have voted for socialist or similar parties.
Although, in a roundabout way, if the 1961 coup d’état had succeeded France would have been more culturally isolated and intact.
Lol seriously, you family had the house in the house.
You need to prepare a legal case against Lukashenko to return your beautiful family house. It is his criminal friend who has converted it to a restaurant.
https://belaruspartisan.by/economic/216960/
Time to end this disgrace…
I don’t know if it is true or not, but mainstream media have quietly, without the hysteria that a white state doing so would provoke, reported for some time that Algeria is deliberately abandoning thousands of black migrants in the southern desert.
I find it rather cruel, I would rather execute mercy killing instead.
The US readily talks can-do talk, but does not walk can-do walk. Remember threatening noises the US made against puny North Korea? What came of it, except sailing three (!) aircraft carrier groups sort of in that direction and drowning two military planes? The US never attacks a country that has weapons of mass destruction. The US attacks on Iraq and Syria meant that the US was 100% sure that those countries have none. If Poland is attacked by Germany or Russia, the US would make a lot of stink, but no action would follow. The US military is always gang-ho against something like Grenada or Panama, but never against an adversary who can bloody its nose. Some would call this wisdom, some cowardice. Take your pick.
Yes, Canada is fake and gay.
There is an order of magnitude more difference between Americans and English than Russians and Belarusians. Furthermore, they are separated by a vast ocean while Russia and Belarus are not. Americans are for the most part not even the physical descendants of Englishmen, but Germans, Irish, Italians etc.
I would pick better examples, you are unnecessarily weakening your argument.
Oceania is too far away. Rather Australia and New Zealand should be one state. If places like Western Australia and Newfoundland were eventually amalgated then New Zealand could be too.
The original Americans were overwhelmingly British, but had undoubtedly developed a separate identity by the time of independence.
I think the declining price of EV batteries is going to start exerting some pressure on oil prices, if it isn’t already. EVs are already over 4% of new cars in China and over 1% in USA. Also, declining prices of wind and solar energy are going to cut electric prices in many areas. Russia needs to diversify its economy.
I once bit into one and encountered a piece of plastic. It was almost like a piece of a credit card. Name-brand in America. I shall save my hamburger story for another day, though I still eat both. Kielbasa is kind of gross to eat on a cold day outside though.
I don’t know if hotdogs are “missiles of death” like Nader said, but kielbasy probably are.
There would probably be a thousand people ahead of me, My people left Belarus in the 1720s. But if there was justice some distant cousin would own the place.
They say the further back you go, the more rich ancestors you tend to have, since rich people used to have more surviving children than poor. Though all I can get to is one or two small, ruinous-looking Georgian-style houses. I have wondered about some ruinous-looking castles though.
Königsberg.
I don’t trust the AP very much, for instance, but if we presume it is true, the desert was probably judged to be more politically expedient than bullets.
There is a recurring irony in these things. Minimal casualties in the longterm would probably be to decimate them and let the remaining 9 out of 10 record it. Repeat, as long as necessary. But that is only if globohomo were a hobgoblin, and not a global force backed with drones and cruise missiles.
Is that really so surprising, though? I mean, if you’re not going to get treated as an equal in the country that you live in, then it’s perfectly sensible to push for secession and try creating your own country. Indeed, had the US conquered all of Mexico in 1848 but refused to give US citizenship to most of these Mexicans and their descendants, then I certainly wouldn’t have been surprised to see a large-scale secessionist movement eventually developing in Mexico as well.
Thus, in the grand scheme of things, Yes, Algerians could have lived quite well under French rule if they were given citizenship and treated as equals. The same could have also been true for Tunisians, Moroccans, Senegalese, et cetera had France been willing to also annex these territories and give citizenship and legal equality to all of the people who were living there. However, to my knowledge, France had no desire to actually do this. It’s like with the West Bank–sure, West Bank Arabs could live very well if Israel annexed them and gave them citizenship and legal equality–but this is something that Israel simply isn’t offering and is unlikely to offer anytime soon (if ever). Thus, is it really irrational for West Bank Arabs to push for their own state–either with or without the Gaza Strip?
BTW, given your hostility towards Sunni Islam, wouldn’t it be a good thing that France left Algeria and other Muslim territories (Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, et cetera)? After all, the only moral alternative to this would have been granting citizenship and legal equality to all of the people who were living in these territories–and that would have meant that Europeans in France would have lost a lot of their political power. Plus, in such a scenario, France would have likely experienced a significant drop in its average IQ and would have had to aggressively subsidize these territories.
Had France actually been willing to give citizenship to Algerians en masse without forcing them to renounce their Muslim personal status (which I think that French Prime Minister Leon Blum actually proposed in 1936–albeit on a much smaller scale), then maybe much more Algerians would have supported continued French rule. After all, I don’t see a large-scale independence movement in either Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands–which is perhaps unsurprising since their populations were given US citizenship en masse in the early 20th century.
BTW, by your logic, maybe it would have been better for France to stay in Cambodia. After all, that would have certainly ensured that the Khmer Rouge would have never become a serious threat and problem there. For that matter, maybe it would have been better for Ukraine to join Russia in 1992. At least that way they would have experienced a much larger economic recovery under Putin.
Anyway, Algeria’s poverty was largely unavoidable due to its low average IQ–as is the poverty of neighboring Tunisia, Morocco, and other countries (with the exception of oil-rich Libya, which could have become pretty wealthy in spite of a low average IQ due to its oil reserves if it would have had a better government and much more stability). Had France been willing to aggressively subsidize Algeria (I suppose sort of how the US subsidizes Puerto Rico), then Algeria could have been in better shape. However, I haven’t heard of the French government actually willing to do this back when Algeria was still French.
As for Algeria’s civil war, this was ironically caused by Algeria’s leadership being too friendly towards democracy. Had Algeria’s leadership refused to allow Islamists to participate in the 1991-1992 presidential elections in Algeria, then it would have had no reason to cancel the second round of these elections at the last minute–which in turn might have ensured that there would have been either no Islamist insurgency or a much smaller Islamist insurgency in Algeria. Raising the hopes of Islamists and then crushing these hopes wasn’t a very good move on the part of Algeria’s leadership–though probably better than having Algeria become a hardcore Islamic state as a result of Islamists actually being allowed to come to power there.
Finally, I want to make one last point here–I agree that not being selective with immigration from the Muslim world is a terrible idea. However, the one group of Algerians whom I would have supported allowing to settle in France en masse would have been the harkis. After all, they risked their lives for France and that should have entitled them to move to France after Algeria acquired its independence. Of course, it would have been even better had France not conquered Algeria in the first place.
Would you rather be king of your own house or oppressed and under the rule of someone else, though?
European countries could have had a greater chance of keeping more of their colonies if they would have been willing to do things such as grant citizenship to their colonial subjects en masse. This is what the US did with Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands in the early 20th century and it really paid off for the US in ensuring that the US brand would remain heavily popular in these territories up to the present-day. The problem with Europeans doing this, though, would have been that there would have eventually been too many non-Europeans who would have had voting rights in European countries. I don’t think that Europeans would have been prepared to give voting rights to so many non-Europeans–just like Israelis currently aren’t prepared to give voting rights to the Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank. In turn, when integration to the metropole becomes an unrealistic option, what else is left? Why, independence, of course!
Rather than ruling over Third Worlders and denying them a say in their own destiny, why not push in favor of things such as IQ-enhancing technology (combating malnutrition, iodine deficiency, and parasitic disease load and also, in the long(er)-run, doing things such as editing the genes of embryos in order to increase their IQs) so that the Third World would significantly improve its level of human capital and thus be more capable of decently ruling itself.
Be careful what you wish for. After all, I would think that LGBT French people strongly appreciate things such as the legalization of same-sex marriage in France. Indeed, I certainly wouldn’t want the legalization of same-sex marriage in France to have been much harder as a result of the homophobic Algerian population being French voters (and, of course, ruling over Algerians without granting them the right to vote in French elections would have also been immoral).
Likewise, I would think that many French women greatly value their right to have legal abortions.
I’m not so sure about that. I mean, the Serbs in A-H were able to rejoin their brothers in Serbia, the Romanians in A-H were able to rejoin their brothers in Romania, the Italians in A-H were able to rejoin their brothers in Italy, the Czechs and Slovaks got their own independent state (and later, states), the Poles in A-H were able to join their brothers in newly recreated Poland, and the Germans in A-H would have been able to join their brothers in Germany had it not been for the victorious Allied powers blocking an Austro-German union in 1919.
What was truly catastrophic was the rise of Nazism in Germany and the Western democracies’ unwillingness to do anything meaningful about this in its early stages. Had the Nazis never come to power in Germany, things in the former Austria-Hungary could have continued looking upwards. To my knowledge, a non-Nazi Germany would have only had territorial claims on Poland and no one else–and it might have actually been able to get its territorial claims on Poland (or at least most of them) satisfied without war had Britain been unwilling to fight for Poland in this scenario (which is certainly very plausible, considering that it was the events in Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939 which caused Britain to sour on Germany and to issue its guarantee to Poland).
Frankly, a lot might have depended on whether Polish nationalists or Ukrainian nationalists would have been in charge of introducing literacy en masse to the Ukrainian population in a scenario where Ukraine would have remained a part of Poland.
The US already has Hawaii–which is halfway between the continental US and Australia/New Zealand, no?
Seems like most of them are just expelled to Niger and Mali and only some of them are left in the desert, which is a bit lame, because the Algerians have to do it over and over again.
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2017/12/237238/algeria-sub-saharan-migrants-migration/amp/
IIRC after World War II all Algerians were given French citizenship, and Algeria was legally as French as any province in France itself. It was like Hawaii is for the USA now, not like the West Bank. There was probably a lot of informal discrimination, Europeans owned the best land, etc. but legally they were French people living in a part of France.
I am no more hostile towards Sunni Islam than I am towards any other non-Christian faith, I just oppose flooding of Europe by non-natives and support the preservation of indigenous culture in Europe.
But sure, it was good for France to leave Algeria (though I think it would have been better to engage in some population transfer and leave a piece of Europe beyond the sea for the Europeans living there). My point was that it was dumb of Algerians to leave France.
Yeah, Algeria doesn’t appear to be faring exceptionally bad by the standards of the region that it is located in. True, Tunisia and Morocco didn’t have a brutal bloody civil war like Algeria had, but at the same time, Libya does appear to have had a long period of warfare and chaos in the 2010s similar to what Algeria had in the 1990s.
Anyway, in my honest opinion, one needs to understand why exactly one’s colonial subjects (or de facto colonial subjects, in the case of the Algerians) would want independence. Personally, I suspect that when one’s colonial subjects are given citizenship en masse and treated as legal equals, the odds of one’s colonial subjects demanding independence would go way down. As examples I would cite Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Central Asia up to 1991. All of these areas didn’t have large-scale movements (until 1991 in the case of Central Asia), and what all of these areas have in common is that the population there was treated relatively well (in comparison to their other countrymen) by the governing authorities of the country that they lived in. For instance, AFAIK, the Soviet Union brought education, infrastructure, women’s rights, et cetera to Central Asia (and the famines that Central Asia endured in the 1930s, while extremely tragic, were not unique to this region; after all, Ukraine and perhaps southern Russia also suffered from these famines). One would think that all of these things resulted in the Russian/Soviet brand being strengthened in Central Asia and in Central Asians being nostalgic for the USSR after it collapsed. Had Algerians and other colonial subjects been given citizenship, treated as legal equals, and experienced a large improvement in their lives under colonialism, it is entirely possible that support for independence in these territories would have been much smaller than it was in real life.
Actually, in terms of average IQ, Poles, Estonians, Finns, and Russians aren’t much lower than Germans are. Latvia and Lithuania are a bit lower, but not too much. The part of Europe that is a true backwater is Moldova, Romania, and the Balkans. Personally, I don’t think that AP would have objected much if Austria-Hungary would have conquered the Balkans–at least as long as the Balkan peoples would have been given citizenship and legal equality within Austria-Hungary afterwards.
In the grand scheme of things, though, I completely agree with you that forcibly ruling over other peoples because one believes that one could do a better job governing their territories is a terrible idea. For instance, while Cambodians were probably very happy with the Vietnamese for overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, they were not particularly interested in having the Vietnamese remain in Cambodia for the long-haul. Thus, various Cambodians–and not only the remnants of the Khmer Rouge–fought against the Vietnamese in the hopes of getting the Vietnamese to leave Cambodia (something which ultimately happened in 1989-1991). Anyway, my point here is that while Vietnam could very possibly do a better job of governing Laos and Cambodia than the Laotians and Cambodians themselves (due to the Vietnamese likely having a higher average IQ), it would nevertheless be perfectly legitimate for both the Laotians and the Cambodians to resist any Vietnamese invasion of their countries.
Within PLC, Ukrainians/Ruthenians were partners of Poles and Lithuanians. Ostrogsky commanded the joint forces against Moscow, Sahaidachny was joint commander against Turks. Rus magnates were some of the richest people in the entire Commonwealth. In the Sejm, one of them had a grander throne than the Polish king himself. The son of a Rus magnate and his Polish wife ascended the Polish throne:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Korybut_Wi%C5%9Bniowiecki
During the Counter-reformation Orthodoxy was suppressed but these restrictions were mostly rolled back.
At any rate, Ukraine was independent for only about 6 years before becoming a vassal of Russia. A very poor long-term result.
The greatest Serb ever, Tesla, achieved what he did because he was in Austria with an Austrian education. I suspect literacy in Serbian was higher in Austria than in Serbia itself.
Czechs and Slovaks stupidly got their own states, and were rewarded with a couple decades of uselessness followed by Nazism and Bolshevism. A-H had been good for Czech native culture – it nurtured their greatest composer Dvorak and writer Hasek. As part of A-H Prague became a large Czech-speaking city and Czech peasants achieved literacy in their own language. Romanians in Bukovyna were better off than ones n Romania. Northern Italians didn’t really need to be tied down to southern ones. Etc.
Mass literacy in most places was the work of local activists. The number of Ukrainians equaled that of Poles, whereas Russians outnumbered Ukrainians 3:1
As far as I can tell, while France might have indeed done this in 1947 (I will have to do more research on this; after all, acquiring French citizenship means acquiring the right to move to metropolitan France, no? And yet, I seem to recall France not always being willing to accept Algerian harkis at the end of the Algerian War in 1962), France still appears to have rigged the rules in favor of the Europeans in Algeria. For instance, it states here that while Algeria received its own legislature, two electoral colleges [/b]of equal size[b] were created–one for the Europeans (and a few Muslims) and one for the Muslims:
https://books.google.com/books?id=cJ9sBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&dq=algerians+french+citizenship+1947+electoral+college&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTxZ-1vLDgAhUEI6wKHaoLA1sQ6AEIRjAF#v=onepage&q=algerians%20french%20citizenship%201947%20electoral%20college&f=false
Also, please keep in mind that (as stated in the book above) one needed a two-thirds majority to get anything done in the Algerian assembly–which ensured that Algerian Muslims wouldn’t be able to get anything done without the approval of the Europeans in Algeria.
Given that Muslims had something like a 9 to 1 (or 7 to 1, as is stated in a link below) population advantage over Europeans in Algeria (even if one includes Algerian Jews as Europeans), this seems like nothing less than blatant gerrymandering in favor of Europeans. Also, something similar appears to have been in play for French legislative elections:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_French_legislative_election_in_Algeria
Specifically, it says in the article above that (Europeans plus Jews) and Muslims elected the same number of deputies to the French National Assembly in spite of the Muslims having a 7 to 1 population advantage over the (Europeans plus Jews) in Algeria.
In turn, what all of this shows is that France was very much determined to continue rigging the rules against Algerian Muslims even after the end of WWII. In turn, this is unsurprising that separatism became very popular among Algerian Muslims. After all, one would think that they simply gave up hope of France ever agreeing to either let them rule themselves or giving them a share in the French National Assembly which was equal to their total population.
If you have any information in regards to this which I am unaware of and which undermines my arguments here, please let me know.
Ah! Makes sense. Indeed, such attitudes are probably quite normal in Eastern Europe and Israel. In fact, even the Algerians themselves had such attitudes given how they expelled the European population of Algeria after Algeria acquired independence. Indeed, not everyone likes diversity–especially in huge numbers.
Personally, I am not very fond of ethnic cleansing. If France did want to keep a part of Algeria (and I would think that Oran and the surrounding areas were its best bet due to their higher European percentage), then I think that the moral thing for France to do would have been to let the Muslims living in this territory to stay where they are (and, of course, not to gerrymander any elections against them afterwards).
I would have agreed with you if France would have stopped gerrymandering elections against the Muslims in Algeria and if Algerians would have still wanted to secede from France afterwards. Based on the set of facts which I am currently aware of, though, I think that the Algerians’ decision to secede from France was perfectly justified. I just wish that the post-independence period–specifically the 1990s–would have been much better for them.
Thanks for this information, AP!
Anyway, this comment of mine was in reference to Third World peoples such as Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans, and Senegalese.
Yeah, Austria-Hungary was certainly more developed than Serbia was. If you’ll look at a map of the 1931 Yugoslav census, the formerly Austro-Hungarian areas (with the exception of Bosnia and Herzegovina) were the most literate areas in Yugoslavia during this time:
https://i.redd.it/zdt5xc7glq001.jpg
Still, one could argue that having a bunch of literate Serbs and Croats inside of Yugoslavia would be a boon for it. Plus, one could argue that, even after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Austria and Hungary could have continued accepting students from Balkan countries into their universities–sort of how various Third Worlders come to the First World to study nowadays.
I’m not really sure that interwar Czechoslovakia was useless. I mean, as far as I can tell, it appears to have done a reasonably good job in regards to the economy, et cetera. Plus, it was able to remain democratic when all of the other Central and Eastern European countries became dictatorships in the interwar era.
Also, Yes, I am certainly not disputing that A-H was great for Czech culture. However, even without A-H, Czech culture could have thrived. Heck, even if the Czechs would have been annexed to Germany, they could have done pretty well for themselves–especially if this Germany would have had a tolerant nationalities policy. In addition, I don’t think that A-H was vital for establishing Czech literacy; rather, I suspect that even a small independent Czech state could have eventually been able to attain mass literacy.
One could argue, though, that like with the more educated Serbs and Croats from A-H which ended up in Yugoslavia after the end of WWI, having a lot of educated people from the former A-H might have really helped countries such as Romania. I don’t know if Romania actually did this, but Transylvanians and Bukovinians would have been great candidates to fill the Romanian bureaucracy, et cetera in the interwar era due to their history of being under A-H rule.
Same for Italy. Northern Italians (of whom there were plenty in Italy even in 1914) ensured that southern Italy will get a more competent, less corrupt government than it would have gotten had it been its own country.
Was it the work of local activists in 19th and early 20th century France, though? I mean, the various French patois underwent a significant decline in popularity as a result of French schoolchildren being taught in standard French.
The people of the Balkans outside Austria-Hungary had the opportunity to study in Paris and Berlin before and after the Empire collapsed.
The competence of local governance is the key point.
But it was the North Italians who chose to unify Italy, and even if they suffered from being connected with South Italians they could just as well be in a unified North Italy under Sardinia-Piedmont while leaving the Two Sicilies separate.
I don’t see how remaining within Poland would have been a better move for Ukrainians? Sure, certain individuals, all of the highest rank of Ukrainian society, did well for themselves as you have pointed out many times, but what of the ‘middle’ and lower classes, that were the main protagonists of the revolutionary movement? Besides, the Polish element within the PLC sealed Ukraine’s fate of not becoming a valued and equal third member of the Commonwealth by quickly abrogating the Treaty of Hadiach (1658) that would have created a third Duchy of Ruthenia.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Coat_of_arms_of_the_January_Uprising.svg/150px-Coat_of_arms_of_the_January_Uprising.svg.png
Alas, this proposed coat of arms, was not to be.
serf in GDL opressed much worse, because serfs oppressed as a serf and as Orthodox (and indigenous Orthodox population in GDL was equated to animals). Such order was established gradually, well so Jews in the third Reich were sent to gas chambers not instantly.
The facts are simple – in the”great Russia” people fed their own elite, but in the lands of the GDL People fed the hostile foreign elite – Polish and Jewish parasites. Hence the complete absence of their own culture in the enslaved indigenous population of GDL
But about “Ukrainian” painters 15-17 centuries just no one heard. Probably these (Ukrainian) icon painters are unknown in Ukraine itself (but Rublev and Dionysius are known)
The criterion is simple – about what achievements in the field of art/science people know all over the world. St. Basil’s Cathedral is known to people all over the world. Any buildings created on the territory of modern Ukraine in the 15-17 centuries are completely unknown. So the “great Russians” of 15-17 centuries far superior to”Ukrainians” in the achievements per capita. This is the result of the Polish-Lithuanian yoke in the Western Russian lands
It’s just stuff (Prince Menshikov could read and write, that’s for sure proven, etc.), but most importantly it is completely irrelevant. About the achievements of Peter’s elite in the field of art / science you can read in any book on the history of Europe of the 18th century (construction of St. Petersburg, Bering expedition, etc.). But the achievements of the enslaved indigenous population in the GDL lands is nothing, zero. Cattle have no culture
I think it was a mistake for France not to encourage Berber nationalism against the Arabs in Algeria (and Morocco).
Even if the French eventually lost they would have still have weakened the Arabs.
What would have been the point of weakening the Arabs, though?
The Algerians for revenge. The Moroccans because they wield a lot of influence in France.
“running a small budget deficit of less than 2 percent of GDP in order to spend more on the military, infrastructure, and social services is actually not a bad idea”
I agree. A 2% deficit is usually quite sustainable — if the money is spent wisely. Investment in needed infrastructure, the military, education & esp’ science & technology are priorities for a nation like Russia, beset by sanctions & Western skulldugery.
Revenge for what? I mean, the French were the ones who invaded Algeria and refused to leave for a whopping 132 years!
The French (based on the interests of France) had to be held partition of Algeria. Allocate land where to resettle the Algerian French and expel the Arabs from these lands. For the rest of the territories to grant independence.
I certainly agree with you re: cutting US defence budgets. I also would need to hear argument in favour of increased spending on the Russian navy.
However, the US & Russian military situations are entirely different.
US defence spending is a grotesque sink-hole of corruption & negligence designed to engorge elites, the deep state & further dangerous imperial aims.
Russia, by comparison has (for its size etc)a minimalist military. Also, Russia is beset with enemies, who must be constantly discouraged from interfering with Russia’s sovereignty.
Therefore investment in Russia’s military is really just that: an investment.
ANY kind of Russian military action against Belarus would need to be within the context of massive popular support (in Belarus and Russia) for such actions. Russia lacks the US luxury of wars & thuggishness generally based on ridiculous lies, propaganda & the slavish, dog-like support of most of the West.
Although there were peaks and throughs, it was only the efforts of European countries and America in the early nineteenth century that finally pacified the Barbary petty warlord governments and their Ottoman suzerains.
https://thewildpeak.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/barbary-barbarity/
Yes, agreed. But Russia also wanted the political advantages of keeping Novorossiya within Ukraine: the Lugansk etc are a permanent albatross around the neck of the Ukrainian gangster government .
The Algerians are rather angry about this.
https://www.echoroukonline.com/marianne-exposes-moroccan-influence-in-french-decisions/
Maybe. But I suspect most NZ’ers & Australians would disagree with you. (NZ’ers have a lot of pride…& as for Australia, they still haven’t forgiven the “underarm bowling” incident from 40 years ago– some of the more cranky NZ’ers would probably like to go to war with Australia (joke))
“While I am skeptical about the long-term utility of keeping DICh within the Russian Federation”
I don’t quite understand why Russia keeps those areas. Cut them loose along with part of Adygea (or however you spell it).
Russia also needs to avoid western style secularism and mass immigration in order to survive. It’s no good locking down all these oblasts if you face a wave of Africans being waved into Russia courtesy of the Jewish and Masonic elite.
This will mean a civil war in these territories (with the flow of refugees to Russia), followed by the victory of radical jihadists and the transformation of the region into a base for Jihad against Russia
This is really the end goal of the (((neocons/neoliberals))), to turn Russia into what France, Germany, UK are now. Kamala Harris is the most likely to be the next president, and she has already openly linked Russia to supporting xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, etc in the USA. They really want Russia to take in hordes of Africans.
History always started the exact moment the Europeans started winning the game everyone else was playing, too. The French invasion struck the peaceful pirates, slave hunters and slave traders out of the blue. They did nothing which might have provoked a European invasion or made it easy for colonization advocates to justify the invasion to the public. Not to mention their suzerain, the Ottoman emperor, who never engaged in the invasion of European countries.
That is disappointing – I didn’t read carefully and thought it would be the house your grandfather was born, or something. I read Lukashenko’s criminal friend now has this manor and converted it to a restaurant.
Your relatives should be like Zhirinovsky, who is always mad for restitution of his grandfather’s industrial properties in Ukraine.
The “PLC” was Polish dominated ot the point that the Lithuanians were to sour on it. The ancestors of modern day Ukrainians had influential roles in the Russian Empire.
Maybe not. Austria benefited from the minorities it subjugated.
A rhetorical though imperfect comparison, Shevchenko achieved stature in the Russian Empire. His literary accomplishments were nurtured growing up in the Russian aristocratic family which granted his release from serfdom.
Serbia was subjugated by an entity for an extended period unlike the Austrians. In any event, Serbia was to play the lead role in the development of Yugoslavia.
All, is citations to the great Plato:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Theaetetus
Serfs were not oppressed as “Orthodox” at all. Where were anti-Orthodox pogroms, laws, etc for serfs? Lifestyle of Orthodox serf in PLC was no worse than that of Catholic serf in PLC, or of Orthodox serf in Russia. Actually Orthodox serf in PLC lived better than Catholic serfs did – restrictions were lighter due to frontier conditions. This is why a lot of Mazovian peasants moved to Ukrainian lands, where they mixed with Rus people and became Orthodox.
Total lies.
Supreme commander of GDL forced in war against Moscow (prince Ostrogsky) – indigenous Orthodox.
One hundred years later, co-commander of PLC forces against Turks (Sahaidachny) and partner against Moscow – indigenous Orthodox:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Konashevych-Sahaidachny#Major_campaigns
Member of Polish Senate and negotiatior with Khmelnytsky (Kysil) – indigenous Orthodox.
“Animals”, indeed.
The greatest magnate in Ukraine was a native Rus prince. Converted to Catholicism, but spent lavishly on Orthodox monasteries and defended them from Tatar raids. Romanovs were Germans.
I assume you are of serf descent? Is that why you are bitter, that your people served foreigners for centuries while your brethren of PLC did not?
Again, facts of Orthodox from PLC huge role in Moscow culture after incorporation of these lands contradicts lie of “absence of won culture” in PLC.
Because no famous director made a movie about them that was popular among intelligent Westerners. It’s about Tarkovsky and the 20th century, not Rublev.
Here is a Ukrainian icon painter from PLC:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87,_%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD
A barbarian hired an Italian architect.
Other than St. Basil’s Cathedral, built buy an Italian, no one outside of Russia has heard of any Russian buildings. And probably St. Basil’s is only famous because Russia became a great power long after St. Basil’s was built, and St. Basils’ is on Rd Square that is shown on TV etc. Silly and desperate argument to use its fame now as evidence of high cultural level in 15th-17th century Muscovy relative to Rus of PLC.
Repeating nonsense doesn’t make it true.
Meanwhile, the facts – classical music tradition in Russia came from an emigrant from PLC. Moscow kids were taught mostly by teachers who were Orthodox from Poland. Moscow Church for 80- years was led by people from PLC. This is what naturally happens when people from superior culture have access to career advancement in a place where the cultural level is lower. It’s why the Russian historian Vernadsky stated that the acquisition of Kiev was no less important than St. Petersburg for the modernization and Westernization of Russia.
Indeed. There was no yoke, but the result of being part of PLC meant that the Rus of what is now Ukraine and Belarus had a much higher cultural level than did the Rus of Muscovy, as evidenced by their achievements in the arts, literacy, and culture. But a Muscovite tsar once hired an Italian to build a famous church 🙂
Much closer relatives from another branch owned an entire village in what is now Poland, but we aren’t Polish citizens so we can’t get it back.
Correct, but there were more opportunities in Austria. In contrast, would Tesla have been as educated in Serbia as in Austria?
Kept them out of Moscow’s embrace. Kept them within the West at a time when the West was ascendant. Prevented the mass devastation that the civil war ushered in. Khmelytsky’s Tatar allies went on a rampage across Ukraine, and then there was the Ruin, followed by about 50 years of bright history under the Hetmanate, followed by centuries of disasters. Overall, on balance, it was very bad.
The plight of peasants was bad everywhere and would remain bad long afterwards. Admittedly the civil war resulted in a reprieve for the peasants. Maybe this reprieve (temporary, because when the Russians came things got back to normal) was even worth the mass Tatar devastation the rebellion brought to the peasants. The lower gentry were upset that the Rus magnates were getting more power at their expense. But after the rebellion they just imitated them and faced their own rebellion so this did not really change.
Long-term, the rebellion meant exit from the Polish world and entrance into the Russian world, which meant expansion and worsening of serfdom in accordance with Russian norms, then Bolshevism misadventure along with the rest of the Russian world (so loss of millions) and now post-Soviet relative poverty. On balance, a disaster for Ukraine.
Do people in Belarus not read/hear about the rapid Islamization of EU countries and the hourly violence and intimidation against the white Europeans there? Why would they possibly want to join the EU? I pray that they think it over and stay away from the EU.
Trying to predict the outcome of realities that never came to fruition can be a fun exercise but should never replace the template of things as they actually transpired. Your ideas of a Ukraine working in tandem with Poland was actually an attractive alternative that was given the opportunity to go forward, but was solidly rebuked by the ascending Polish magnates. The Treaty of Hadiach would have squarely put your plan into play, but was squarely shot down before it even got off the ground. Why are you so seemingly loathe to mention the Polish betrayal of what you put forth as a viable plan? The marriage invitations were sent out, near and wide, and yet the groom failed to show up to the wedding…time to find another suitor, or better yet stay single? 🙂
Russians, Belorussians, Poles, Hungarians, Ukrainians, Ruthenians, whatever, they need to stop arguing who was or is smarter or more civilized or less corrupt, etc.
START HAVING CHILDREN AGAIN, GET TOGETHER, AND GET READY TO FIGHT THE MUSLIM AND AFRICAN INVADERS WHO ARE COMING YOUR WAY. TOGETHER. Here in the USA, there are many millions of us real Americans, without political power and against our regime, rooting for you and praying for you all.
Kind of reminds of some North American Indian activists saying how their culture was at one time advanced, teaching the White man this, that and the other thing – somewhat similar to some Afrocentric types.
Muscovy as such was founded much later than Kiev and the core part of Belarus. The former emerges as the strongest and most independent of Rus territory – something that eventually leads to that area of Rus developing a superior level of art, literacy and culture.
Will add that relying too much on standard of living can be mis-informative. A noticeable number of countries have a higher standard of living than the US, while having limited geopolitical clout, relative to that facet. Meantime, it’s not like the US is comparatively so bad in terms of standard of living.
Prior to the Bolshe coup and terror, The Kiev born Igor Sikorsky did quite well in the Russian Empire. I’m sure Tesla’s brilliance would’ve shown there, once again noting Serbia’s unfortunate predicament of having been subjugated for an extended period.
Or Russians saying this about themselves relative to Rus from PLC lands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_classical_music
One of Russia’s earliest music theorists was the Ukrainian Nikolay Diletsky (c. 1630, Kiev – after 1680, Moscow). Although several of his compositions survive, Diletsky’s fame rests chiefly on his composition treatise, Grammatika musikiyskago peniya (A Grammar of Music[al Singing]), which was the first of its kind in Russia; there are three surviving versions of this work, of which the earliest dates from 1677.
In the 18th century, Peter I brought in reforms introducing western music fashions to Russia. During the subsequent reign of Empresses Elisabeth and Catherine, the Russian imperial court attracted many prominent musicians, many from Italy.[3] They brought with them Italian traditions of opera and classical music in general, to inspire future generations of Russian composers. A number of composers received training in Italy or from these recent Italian emigres and composed vocal and instrumental works in the Italian Classical tradition popular in the day. These include ethnic Ukrainian composers Dmitri Bortniansky, Maksim Berezovsky and Artem Vedel who not only composed masterpieces of choral music but also included operas, chambers works and symphonic works.
:::::::
I don’t recall Native Americans playing a similar role in European culture. So your analogy is false.
Poles know much more about Islam in western Europe than you or I do, like it as little as you or I do, and don’t mind the EU.
A key aspect of that analogy isn’t false, as evidenced by your constant attempts to belittle Russia/Russians, under a guise of being factual. You cherry pick with mis-representations. BTW, The North American Indians and some others would dispute what you said about the Indian influence in Europe – something that I’m not so keen on debating either way. Indians definitely had an influence on the Euros who came to the Western Hemisphere
Extreme ethno-nationalists downplay that a given nation’s greatness can be attributed to not having such a hostile outlook on others – as shown by the willingness to bring in and accept others on a merit basis. Overall, Russia definitely qualifies as such.
In that neighborhood Algeria is doing fairly well. Just wait until some busybody brings democracy to it, like NATO did in Libya. Then all hell is going to break loose.
Hadiach was ratified but the Polish side changed it (no more separate Rus principality with it own money and embassies, size of Rus army was reduced, number of Cossacks being legally ennobled reduced to 1,000 per year, etc.). The ratified version looked like the deal that the Hetmanate ended up having with Russia after Poltava. With similar deals, union with Poland (similar population as Ukraine) was less dangerous than with Russia (three times greater population) as later historical events proved.
So you never heard of Chopin?
Russia is in no danger of being invaded by “refugees” from Africa and elsewhere. Those “refugees” seek freebies. Suicidal Europeans offer that, whereas Russia does not: you have to earn your keep there.
Chopin was for all intents and purposes a product of french XIXth century culture.
I know Chopin, as well as Adam Mizkewich, Vaida, and Stanislaw Lem. However, the sum total of Polish cultural achievements, while comparing favorably with Bantu or Swahili, is nowhere near top cultures, English, German, Russian, or even French and Spanish. Poland is European backwater. Actually, Serbs have a very apt term for “European backwater” – “Evropska zadnitsa” (for English speakers: this sounds for most Slavs as “European ass”).
Polish contribution to human culture would still be puny even if we count more French than Polish Chopin and Marie Curie in.
The “funny” part about Tesla is that he wasn’t born on Serbia’s proper. He was born in Croatia -which was then part of Austro-Hungary. In the ethnic-cleansing wars of fmr Yugoslavia – the Serbs were expelled from the area where Tesla was born. Actually, I think they were decimated by the Croat Nazis in WW2 in that area. So basically, Croatia did to the Serbs, what Austro-Hungary couldn’t – or didn’t want to do. If Gavrilo Princip knew what was going to happen, I bet he would have rethought his plan to assassinate Ferdinand, and would have found a more appropriate target among the Croats.
Are Serbs in a position to call anything a backwater?
Yes, he would. Miloš of Serbian principality might have been illiterate, but Serbs in Austrian Empire were invited to Serbia and formed the first educational institutions. Serbia also subsidised cultural and scientific work in Austrian lands, including students abroad, sending them to Graz, Vienna, Prague, Paris etc. Upon finishing their studies, they would return and join the national elite.
If anything, Tesla would have avoided the money troubles had he been born in either Serbia or Woiwodschaft Serbien, and not in Grenze.
He is not a Serb, but an American of Russian descent.
You will very rarely hear Serbs insulting Poles and other West Slavs, despite Poles being Catholics and anti-Russian. I believe this is due to similarities in national history, being caught between two empires of different religion, in addition to PLC mirroring both Dušan’s Empire and Yugoslavia of 20th century.
I remember reading that by late 1600s, there was not a single Orthodox Church operating on territory of PLC: everyone was nominally Catholic and Uniatic, Orthodox Churches and Monasteries were either confiscated and handed over to Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic clergy, closed or outright destroyed.
AP, you shouldn’t call them Orthodox. They were at least Rus’ Orthodox, it was unique and used specific lithurgy and language.
Btw, the funniest thing about Greek Catholics, they are neither Greek, nor Catholic. Something like Christian Right.
The meaning of word Catholic directly disqualifies them.
In Danish, saying ‘I am Greek-Catholic’ means ‘I don’t care either way (about the outcome)’.
He was born in Grenze, a militarised territory under direct control of Vienna.
It became part of Croatia years after his birth.
Princip was a delusional pawn who killed a nobody and inflicted 0 practical damage on Austrians and Habsburgs.
He was part of a multinational, multiconfessional group that advocated Yugoslavism. King, PM and Chief of Serbian Staff had nothing to do with Black Hand, which was implicated with French and Russian secret service, and Freemasonry component (1903 coup). Serbia had little to no control over Black Hand, and only curbed it in 1917, after arranging a trial and execution of Apis and ring-leaders for an attempted murder of King and heir.
Most interestingly, Italian connection with Sarajevo assassination is rarely brought up.
Very interesting.
Unlike some people, they are honest with themselves – they call Serbia “Evropska zadnitsa”.
@AnonFromTN
Next time you meet anyone saying that, kindly remind them to fuck off and renounce nationality. Serbia would stop being European backside if all the feces and physiological waste emigrated.
I discovered a recently (in 2010) deceased Polish composer called Henryk Górecki. Unlike Penderecki, he’s actually very good. I like his quartets, symphonies (at least I heard #2-4, I haven’t heard the first one), and a few choral works like Miserere or Szeroka woda.
Thanks for the info! I’ll check Henryk Górecki out. BTW, I did not mean to say that there is no Polish culture. There certainly is. It just fades in comparison with the leading ones. But there are few of those leaders, so Polish culture is certainly above that of Bulgaria, Romania, and many other European countries.
BTW, “Szeroka woda” means “wide water”. I was born in Lvov, so I know about a hundred Polish words, some very polite, some extremely impolite. These two are neutral.
Much worse. In Russia, the three-day corvee was considered very heavy (corvee more than three days a week was prohibited), in GDL six-day corvee was the norm. At the same time, Russian peasants fed their elite, but “Ukrainian” peasants – foreign parasites.
Total truth
“In 1673, the Orthodox of the Commonwealth were prohibited from acquiring noble status. In 1717 and 1733, religious dissenters (i.e Orthodox) were banned from participating in Diets … In 1699 Orthodox burghers were prohibited from holding council offices in the royal towns…. Among the major factors that contributed to the Polonization of the Ruthenian elites was the decline in the use of the Ruthenian language. In 1696, when the Commonwealth Diet adopted a resolution making the use of Polish obligatory in jurisprudence and administration.. Thus the equalization of noble rights in the Commonwealth went hand in hand with linguistic and cultural Polonization…” etc., etc.
S. M. Plokhy , “The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus”
That is, the indigenous population was deprived of rights and equalized with animals, to clear the way for Рoles and Jews
Out of curiosity checked – Andrei Rublev in Google 1million results, Dionysius the iconographer is also a million results. Dionysius is not mentioned in Tarkovsky’s film. You can specify the “Ukrainian” artist of 15-17 centuries who will have in Google the same result as Dionysius?
Definitely not Italian architects. Google Postnik Yakovlev (from Pskov). Other than St. Basil’s Cathedral, everyone outside of Russia has heard of Kremlin (built in 15-17 centuries). So the “great Russians” of 15-17 centuries far superior to”Ukrainians” in the achievements per capita.
A simple test-take the achievements of the world level and divide by population. For “Belarus” (which until the end of the 18th century was under the boot of Poland) the result is zero. For “Ukraine” the result is much lower than for “great Russia”. All achievements of Ukraine are exclusively from that part of “Ukraine” which in the 17th century was liberated (by the Russian Tsar) from the Polish slavery.
Polish yoke is worse than leprosy
In the West Russian territories under the rule of Poland, the standard of living of the indigenous population was clearly lower than the standard of living in the Russian lands (peasants massively fled to the Russian lands, raised bloody revolts in order to come under the power of the Russian Tsar)
Yakovlev’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandfather was from Italy. More proof that Russians have never achieved anything.
I always find it funny how Vatican and Pope go around and preach bullshit about ecumenism while litteral inquisitors and persecutors of Orthodoxy in Balkans and Russian lands like Jesuits are venerated, or beatified (Stepinac and his gang) or sanctified! Josaphat Kuntsevych is a martyr and Saint of Roman Catholic Church, and he met his untimely end as an Inquisitor at the hands of Rus’ Orthodox people, after persecuting them, closing their churches and ordering their graveyards be desecrated.
Regarding Dr. Preobrazhensky’s comments on higher quality of life in PLC, I guess the modern Ukrainians inherited the ungrateful attitude of their Ruthenian ancestors who rebelled incessantly against cultured and just PLC rule.
To a large extent this reflects Western parochialism. For example the works in the Tretyakov gallery compare favorably to those in any Western museum, but most people outside Russia have never heard of any of the artists featured in Tretyakov.
Sure, but if Tesla had been born in a village in Serbia and received all of his education in Serbia, would he have achieved what he did because he lived in Austria?
We discussed this previously. Corvee in Ukrainian lands was lighter than elsewhere, in order to attract settlement:
“In the 16th and 17th centuries there were three distinct serfdom belts in Ukrainian territories. In Western Ukraine, where the filvarky were most developed, the peasants were exploited intensely and had the smallest allotments. In the middle belt, encompassing eastern Podilia and the northwestern Kyiv region, mixed (alodial and conditional) land tenure lasted longer, and the transition to filvarok farming was slower. The large landowners there were usually content to receive payment in kind, and the peasants were not completely or uniformly deprived of the right to own land. In the third belt, covering the lands along the Dnieper River and the Boh River in southwestern Ukraine, serfdom was difficult to impose: because of the proximity of the steppes and the constant danger of Tatar attack, the population was too mobile. North of the defensive line of castles many estates in the second and third belts offered 15-, 20-, or 30-year waivers from corvée or other obligations in order to attract and hold settlers.”
A clever trick. We were discussing conditions in 15-17th centuries, prior to the civil war that resulted in half the Orthodox lands leaving PLC and conflict between Russia and PLC. When Orthodoxy became a tool of Russian expansionism the PLC responded. Why not mention burning of Orthodox churches in 1930s Volynia by the Polish state? But you are still wrong:
By then the indigenous population were mostly Greek Catholics or Roman Catholics so these restrictions did not apply to them. They applied to dissenters and not the general population.
Ironically when the Russians came back they persecuted the Greek Catholics and forced them to become Orthodox:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_Che%C5%82m_Eparchy#Conversion
Then in the 1930s the Poles persecuted the Orthodox and forced them to become Catholics again.
But of course, after most of the Orthodox left and the civil war between Rus people assumed the form of Orthodox vs. Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic, the Orthodox remaining on the PLC side of the border were persecuted. Just like the Greek and Roman Catholics indigenous people on the Orthodox side of the border were also persecuted. Many of them were indeed slaughtered.
But these are not the times we are discussing. We are discussing the ultimate stupidity of rebellion and civil war in the first place.
An excellent article on the topic, others may be interested in:
https://day.kyiv.ua/en/article/culture/jeremi-wisniowiecki-hero-or-antihero
You are half-right. It was not Italian architect but used Italian plans and Italian and perhaps German builders.
People only heard about Kremlin outside Russia because long after Kremlin was built Russia became a global superpower. Kremlin’s fame has nothing to do with its high architectural achievement.
That’s true, too. Most Old Holland painters aren’t as good, but they are well known in Europe. In that sense the US is harmonious: no culture and no appreciation of culture. When I came to the States, a post-doc in the lab where I worked (born and bred in the US) told me an interesting thing: on the money it says “in God we trust”; that’s the only God we trust in.
So, how can you go forward and work with somebody who’s untrustworthy, who is bound to change the rules of the game as soon as it becomes expedient to do so? Also, Russia’s population at the time of the treaty of Hadiach was roughly equal to that of the PLC (9-12 million) and nowhere represented one being three times larger than the one in Ukraine. You seem to be projecting population trends from the 21st century backward to the 17th. Now, I’m not supporting the idea that a union with Russia would be a better one for Ukraine than with Poland. I like to embrace the ideas of the great Ukrainian bard Shevchenko who clearly could see the historic injustices of too close a relationship with either Poland or Russia, who instinctively gave us this wise instruction to lean upon:
Yes, but I want to leave that for the Belorussia thread. They are quite precisely similar to Donetsk/Lugansk, as opposed to Kharkov/Odessa or Crimea.
I do indeed believe that all red-blooded Americans should be offended by their existence (or Canada’s, at any rate).
Why would I be? Secession would seem to offer more prospects for the successful preservation of Dagestani culture, not that I care one way or the other.
Well, first, a quarter Lak. The other half being pure Slavic (mostly peasant but with a lot of priests popping up); the other quarter being half Slavic (half of which was of aristocratic heritage; distant relatives still have the signed ennobling writ from Alexander III), half Christianized Jewish-Italian-Slavic hodgepodge from Odessa.
Second, as I think I noted before, my Lak ancestors were local notables – they were some of the biggest fish in what was an admittedly very small pond. The elders in that branch of the family recalled playing with gold spoons as children before the Bolsheviks confiscated them and shot a bunch of them. (It is ironic that they were my only ancestors who were actually liquidated as class enemies, instead of just being dispossessed). Meanwhile, the Laks themselves were something of a market-dominant minority in Dagestan since the late 19th century, with higher literacy rates than any other Dagestani ethnic group (as fixed by early Soviet censuses). Considering their low numbers, and remote, interior homeland, that’s quite impressive and suggests a higher IQ than ordinary Dagestanis.
Consensus estimates range around 6 million, where it would remain until the Mongol invasion (4 million in 1000).
Yes, all of this is correct. Of course, I also think that Serbia’s likely low average IQ would hold it back relative to countries such as Austria-Hungary (which had some high-IQ peoples inside of it–Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, northern Italians, Slovenes, and Croats).
In regards to Yugoslavia, weren’t Serbs the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia? Also, wasn’t the Serbian royal family the one who was in charge of Yugoslavia until the 1941 Nazi invasion?
Interesting. Anyway, I look forward to your thread on this topic.
Makes sense.
Interesting analysis of this situation. Of course, the only real way that I think that Russia is going to be a threat to Dagestani culture is if Russia engages in a long and aggressive policy of Russification in Dagestan–something which Putin appears to loathe to do.
Anyway, if the Dagestanis (and Chechens, and Ingushes, et cetera) genuinely want to leave Russia, then they should be allowed to do so. Of course, I would also hope that their gay people are going to find safe refuge in more gay-friendly countries afterwards–specifically countries such as the US, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and even Mexico and Brazil.
Yeah, I said a quarter Lak.
Yep, I’ve believed that you mentioned that.
Interesting points. Also, Yes, I am well-aware that your Lak ancestors were at the top of the cognitive pack in Dagestan. It’s still interesting, though, that even if Laks have an average IQ of 95 (and I don’t think that it’s going to be higher than that given the fact that 95 also appears to be the average IQ of southern Russians), your IQ is still going to be three or almost three standard deviations above the Lak average (135 – 95 = 40 / 15 = 2.67 standard deviations). That’s somewhat less impressive considering that you are only a quarter Lak, but it’s still pretty impressive. After all, I don’t think that even many quarter-Black people are going to have an IQ three or almost three standard deviations above the Black average (125-130).
BTW, did they give you an exact IQ after you took your Mensa test or were you simply told that you passed it?
Interesting.
It’s pretty cool that these six million people reproduced so much that now their descendants number something like 200 million people.
It’s amazing just how few people were the ancestors of the present-day East Slavic populations. At the same time, though, I shouldn’t be that surprised. I mean, the US Black population increased from something like 500,000 in 1790 to something like 40 million today–an increase even greater than that of Eastern Slavs over the last 900 years.
I suspect that Poles would be comparable to Russians in per capita achievement.
I’m not sure if this can be characterized as changing the rules of the game. Ukrainians sent a version to Poland, Poland modified it. I suppose it is like when the president sends something to congress and a modified version is passed.
To be sure, the initial deal that Ukraine got with Russia was better and provided for more autonomy. Modified Hadiach looked a little like Ukraine after 1709. But long-term the consequences were clearly negative.
This source claims 12 million in Russia in 1600, so probably 12.5 million or so by 1650:
https://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/nsx.htm
In 1650 the “left bank” Hetmanate had about 2 million people according to Ukrainian wiki. If one includes the Right Bank also it was 4 million people. There were about 4-5 million ethnic Poles within the PLC. Ukrainians plus Belarussians actually outnumbered Poles. So long-term, given eventual social mobilization etc. prospects for Rus in Poland would have been pretty good. Those Rus may have become Polonized to a degree (was this worse than becoming Russified, to a degree?) but they would have eventually become rather strong.
First of all, he’s a deranged Dixiephobe who really, really hates Southern culture while living in Nashville, one of the most southern, in an upscale way, major metro areas (over 1 million) left in the US.
He likely lives in a bubble in the Hillsboro Village or East Nashville areas. He’s not even aware of the massive Nissan factories just down the road in Rutherford County (or the VW factories in Chattanooga for that matter). On top of that, he “despises” the single largest reason why Nashville punches above its weight in national recognition given its population.
Poland is one of the less “sophisticated” cultures of Europe, which is why he has heavy disdain towards it. In terms of overall accomplishment, Poland is middle of the road in Europe, ranking directly behind Spain and perhaps on par with the Netherlands. Its definitely not gay or fake whatsoever.
While I can’t really adjudicate on the disputes over how repressed Ukrainians were on either side of the Russia/PLC border, not having read enough about that myself, I think your point about PLC’s cultural superiority over contemporary Russia is obviously true. One needs to just look at the respective histories of the printing press in both polities.
The 3 million French people in Quebec are descended from, IIRC, about 20,000 settlers. Spectacular growth. Then came secularization in the 1960s and suddenly – population decline.
Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are all branch states of the former British Empire. So no, they are not gay, nor fake. They might not be independent civilizations, belonging to the Greater Anglo Civilization. But they are indeed legit independent states with their own histories, forms of government, and own national heroes and martyrs. All of which are actually distinct from the US or UK, but like all branch states, the founder is always a citizen of the main state it branched from (in this case the UK).
I don’t see why Americans would get angered at the presence of Australia. They don’t even share the same founding fathers!
And you also think that Taiwan is gay and fake: Any territory with a distinctive history and achieved nationhood is a nation, period. Taiwan and Hong Kong are a part of the Chinese civilization, but again, they have their own histories, own form of governments, and own “national” heroes and martyrs. So yes, they are legit states, neither gay nor fake.
One civilization can have multiple states (Russian civilization consists of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine for example), but what is unacceptable is for states within a civilization to be estranged from each other (Ukraine and Russia, the 2 Koreans, or China/Taiwan up until 2008). Different states within a civilization shall be independent in terms of internal policies, sovereignty, and can even have internal squabbles from time to time, but when it comes to foreign conflicts, civilization shall take precedence over statehood.
Different states of the same civilization should be in a union of some sort.
Well, it seems relevant to how I got my reasonably high (though not stratospheric) IQ… That’s somewhat less impressive considering that you are only a quarter Lak, but it’s still pretty impressive.
I got 140 on a Cattell verbal test and 100 on the Raven’s test. They only count the higher one, which doesn’t seem all that appropriate. OTOH, the Raven’s had really tough time limits and it wasn’t just me who felt that way, everyone was complaining about that.
I took a Raven’s test on the Internet (a properly calibrated one, not one of those where everyone gets 160) and finished it half the allotted time, getting 120.
You’re beginning to cuck. Get a hold of yourself!
And as part of PLC the Rus there enjoyed this advantage.
I don’t know much about history of printing presses in Moscow. Here is all about printing presses in Rus lands by Rus people in the 16th – 17th centuries:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CP%5CR%5CPrinting.htm
The first printing press on Ukrainian ethnic territory was founded by Ivan Fedorovych (Fedorov) in Lviv (1573–4). Its equipment and assets were used to found the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood Press (1591–1788), which played a key role in the history of early Ukrainian printing.
Other early Cyrillic presses in Galicia were Bishop Hedeon Balaban’s Striatyn Press (1602–6), his press in Krylos (1605–6), Y. Sheliha’s press in Dobromyl (1611–17), Pavlo Liutkovych-Telytsia’s press in Uhortsi (1617–21), and the Univ Monastery press (1648–1770), founded by Bishop Zhelyborsky.
Printing in Volhynia began after Ivan Fedorovych (Fedorov) entered the service of Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky and founded what became the important Ostrih Press (1577–1612). Other Cyrillic presses were founded by Prince Ostrozky at the Derman Monastery (1602–5); by Kyrylo Stavrovetsky-Tranquillon in Rokhmaniv (1618–19); by Pavlo Liutkovych-Telytsia in Chetvertnia (1624–5), Lutsk (1625–8), and Chorna (1629); and at the Epiphany Monastery in Kremenets (1637–8).
In Kyiv, printing began with the founding of the Kyivan Cave Monastery Press (1615–1918). It remained the largest printing press in Ukraine until the mid-19th century. Other presses in Kyiv were founded by Tymofii Verbytsky (1624–8) and S. Sobol (1628–31).
In Left-Bank Ukraine the first printing presses were those of Kyrylo Stavrovetsky-Tranquillon in Chernihiv(1646) and Archbishop Lazar Baranovych in Novhorod-Siverskyi (1674–9)
I suspect much more advanced than in Russia.
Not really. Polish literature does not have a single writer of the caliber of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Bulgakov, Faulkner, Joyce, or even Dickens. Polish painting is clearly secondary European, whereas Russia started with copycatting Europe but then developed its own stile. Not to mention music, theater, opera, ballet, etc. Not to mention science: Lomonosov, Mendeleyev, Butlerov, a bunch of physicists and mathematicians. Lvov-Warsaw school of mathematics is nowhere near, while in other areas Polish science is a blank. Yet there are a lot of Poles, more than 40 million today.
I don’t want Taiwan or Hong Kong getting subjected to Uncle Chang’s social credit system, since Taiwan and Hong Kong had a history of being anti-Communist, and was never under the direct jurisdiction of the CCP.
They should definitely thoroughly clean out neoliberalism.txt with right wing dictatorships minus the social credit though, which was what they were supposed to be founded as. And should form special and close trade and economic links with the CCP. Essentially the KMT platform for Taiwan, and also applied to Hong Kong.
On top of retaining autonomy of internal affairs while being plugged in to the Sinosphere (but not direct rule by Beijingers), Hong Kong should actively promote and strengthen its Anglo cultural influence. This is the last city outside of the UK that still retains a Queen’s Road Central, or a Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The Mainland Chinese would eventually need to use (and in my opinion also the Taiwanese would want) Hong Kong to deal with the Eternal Anglo again if relations break down further.
Poles are fine, but the orthography makes me wince.
And keep in mind from a businessman’s perspective, Hong Kong merging into a core Mainland Chinese city would be a complete disaster economically for Hong Kong.
On the other hand, estrangement from Mainland China would be an even bigger disaster.
Which is why acknowledging Hong Kong’s distinctiveness while as an integral part of Chinese civilization is the way to go.
What an utterly moronically stupid comment. Literally the stupidest I have ever read on the internet ( and that is some statement)
Are you so beholden to smoking the penis of Badneratard f**kwits because the more comments then the better rated the blog?
There is just no way you could think such an idiotic thing
I’d say that it was a ‘modified version’
The principle idea of a tri-national state had been completely abandoned, as depicted in the coat of arms depicted above, and even any signs of autonomy were being whittled down. Sounds like a good old fashioned zrada to me. Most of the Cossacks weren’t drawn towards such an uneven proposition and ultimately abondoned the idea. Poland blew it, AP, it could have been something great and stimulating.
A reminder that this law was totally just….and that Russia’s prison population has decreased by about 25% in the last 4 years….numerous laws are being softened…and about 2 hamsters have been imprisoned because of 282…or in most of the prosecutions, the person accused has normally done something else, much worse, with 282 only being placed in addition
Russia punches far above its weight in literature. I think for the other fields though, it’s probably pretty similar per capita. Poland is probably a bit lower, but that’s understandable considering their repression by the German and Russian Empires. On the other hand, Tatar yoke and geographic isolation suppressed Russian achievement for centuries. It’d be interesting to see an objective measure of this rather than just listing famous people.
Well, Murray’s Human Accomplishment data is open access no at the OSF. Has been for a few years. Anyone sufficiently interested can do some quick calculations himself and tell us precisely.
In my opinion Putin’s main focus should be diversifying Russia’s economy away from energy.
International logistics (especially Europe to East Asia transit hub for both cargo and passenger planes), automotive (make Lada Hyundai or at least Skoda quality), IT, entertainment (develop Rpop like how Kpop got developed), and agricultural export should be Russia’s main focuses.
You idiot. Poland is 3 to 3.5 times smaller in population than Russia.
3 or 3.5 multiplied by 0 = 0
WTF you twat? The best of influence from France, Russia, Germany, Jews, Sweden……and next to nothing in 500 years for Poland to show for it. How would you explain away the many successes of Hungary you idiot?….or plenty of other lands
These takes are a bit weak.
Pension age has been raised,but the system still does not operate under a fully funded scheme, meaning it remains unsustainable (as working age/pensioner ratio will keep decreasing). Moreover, the russian population is still duped out of their personal pension savings, which the state has kept frozen for 5 years and they are basically gone now.
Doing business measures Moscow and St. Petersburg, it is limited in scope and not very representative.
Supposed doubling of salaries in research exists on paper, but does it have a basis in reality? Or did it go the way of Putin’s “May laws”? Probably the latter.
And the list goes on.
In any case, all of this is meaningless. It’s like putting make up on a terminally ill patient. Russia is in economic terms falling behind developed countries, it has been falling behind for 10 years by now. Real wages are falling for 5 years straight. The economy is still based on resource extraction — after 19 years of empty promises.
But lo and behold Putin renamed some airports! What a joy and a pride to be a Russian now! Let’s unite around the great leader!
To date the only thing a Pole or Poland has created of value/effect/intrigue or whatever in the last 500 years has been…..Al Qaeda
I wish there were objective measures in culture, but I am afraid there aren’t any. Same with history, it’s as subjective as it gets. One view, like yours, is that isolation and Tatar influence suppressed Russian achievements. The opposite view is that due to these factors Russia developed its own civilization, neither European nor Asian, and is now immune to the rot that is destroying Europe. It’s all in the eye of the beholder. Not to mention that history has no subjunctive mood: “ifs” are pointless, whatever happened has happened and cannot be changed.
Why? Boleslav Prus “Pharaoh”, Henry Senkevich ” Qwo vadis?”. These works are not worse than the best works of Gogol and Bulgakov, and of course far surpass everything that Leo Tolstoy wrote. Stanisla Lem is also one of the greatest writers of Europe.
Out of curiosity-what do you consider a special Russian style (different from the styles of European painting)?
At least Copernicus
Literature: These guys are OK, but they are not at the same level as really top writers, be it in Russian, English, or German.
Painting: You need to see it to know what its is. If the artists could have expressed what they wanted to in words, they would have been writers or poets, not painters. So, if you are really curious, visit Tretyakov gallery (both old and new building on the bank of Moskva river) in Moscow or Russian museum in St Petersburg. It is almost as different from European in style and perception as Asian art, but it is even more different from Asian painting.
Copernicus is the sole star on Polish scientific horizon. One has to remember, though, that Aristarchus of Samos formulated a similar model of the Solar system about eighteen centuries earlier.
So to make a (non-point) you have to start with somebody from half a millenium ago? Does that make any sense at all
Is this a sick joke?
Then move onto classical music. Whilst Russia has so many incredible, awe-inspiring classical music composers known throughout all the continents and even incorporated into much of popular culture….Poland has NOTHING….except a french guy who only slept with French women, and performed and wrote most of his best work in France ( Chopin)…….who himself did nothing involving orchestras , all on the piano only….and thus doesn’t deserve to be recognised well at all.
Let’s not start on Polish “engineering”
Perfectly on track on number of SME’s and people employed by them ( doubled from 10-20 million in a few years and is increasing to the point it should easily reach 40 million)
On track on life expectancy
Digitilisation in business and in life in general is ahead of schedule
Nonsense – it is 30 cities, going from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok
You have stupidly confused the world financial crisis 10 years ago….and superimposed it onto Russia . Russian growth is ahead of the UK, Italy and France….those are developed countries.
Over 10 years then growth is superior to nearly all developed countries you clown
Adam
AnonFromTN
It is possible to assess the impact of the Tatars on the cultural achievements of Russia. The old Russian principalities on the territory of modern Central Russia as well as on the territory of modern Ukraine were conquered and came under the power of the Horde. Principalities on the territory of Belarus completely avoided the power of the Horde, Novgorod and Pskov avoided conquest, recognized the power of the Horde, but symbolically.
If we compare these territories, we can see that the negative impact of the Tatars on the achievements in the field of art/technology/science is completely absent (since the territories that escaped the rule of the Tatars do not demonstrate advantages).
The situation with the Polish-Lithuanian yoke in the Western Russian lands is quite different. Here the border is clearly visible. “Great Russia” (completely free from Lithuanian-Polish rule) achieved the most brilliant results (per capita),”Ukraine” was divided between Poland and Russia, and all world – class cultural/scientific figures come exclusively from the Russian part of Ukraine (from the Polish part of Ukraine-no one). Belarus was under the power of Poland is completely deprived of any achievements of the world level.
Conclusion-unlike the rule of Tatars, the power of the poles had a super-negative and super-oppressive influence
Probably fair, after all the Tatars never ruled directly and were indifferent to cultural and religious matters in Russia. Still, I find it hard to believe that the destruction and looting the Tatars inflicted on the Russian lands had no effect on its development. For one the division of Rus into eastern and western branches was a consequence of the Mongol invasion.
Of course, Russia’s backwardness is a consequence of geography more so than anything else. A non-Bolshevik Russia would have reached parity with the west in development, as will Russia on its current path in the next few decades.
Nonsense, given that prior to end of 17th century, Rus lands in Muscovy were backward compared to those in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Russia began catching up due to:
Indeed. Moscow was quite backward.
For example, in the 17th century there were 18 printing presses in Rus lands used by Rus people in the PLC and only one in Russia. In the 17th century no school in Russia compared to the Kiev Academy.
First East Slavic printing was in Belarus:
https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2017/08/belarus-celebrates-500-years-of-printing.html
A nice description of Ivan Fedorov, showing the contrast between higher culture among Rus lands of PLC vs. those of Moscow, from RT of all sources:
https://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/history-and-mythology/ivan-fyodorov/
The border was quite visible in the sense that Moscow gymnasium was staffed by educators described as “Orthodox from Poland.” It was also visible because for 80 years the heads of the Russian Church were from this side of the old border. As were the originators of the Russian classical music tradition.
“Russian” philosophy of 15-17th centuries – mostly in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:
Link is here
Access to and integration with the West meant simply a higher level of culture for Rus in PLC.
You are correct. Being part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth gave access for the Rus of those lands to culture and science that were unnown in Russia.
For example, this Rus scientist from 15th century PLC (born in Galicia) had no analogue to anyone in Moscow:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriy_Drohobych
” philosopher, astrologist, writer, medical doctor, rector of the University of Bologna, professor of Kraków Academy, first publisher of a Church Slavonic printed text. “
Here is a Rus from 15th century Galicia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriy_Drohobych
No Russian analogue of that time, not even close.
Thanks Swedish Family! I have seen this on postcards [and sent a few] but never on t-shirts. What a miracle is the Internet 😉 I grew up w/o it ..
Putin deserves to lose at least another 10% for his incredibly stupid Kudrin Lite cuts to defense spending (which are now cited in Western media as evidence of Russia’s continuing decline). Whether defense spending is 5% or 3% of GDP will make no difference to GDP growth, but cutting it while the USA and NATO are increasing theirs, sends a message of weakness that will encourage more sanctions and other aggressions.
Putin is a moron who deserves to read deficit spending and modern monetary theory within limits.
Here’s a great article about Yuri Drohobych, written in Russian, that goes into some depth about the whole cultural milieu and how many Rusyns were taking advantage of schools of higher learning throughout Europe. https://day.kyiv.ua/ru/article/istoriya-i-ya/yuriy-drogobych-v-kontekste-formirovaniya-ukrainskoy-elity
Thank you for the advice, but I live in St. Petersburg and know Russian painting well.
Explain why this painting different from European in style and perception as Asian art?
https://images14.fotki.com/v699/photos/7/1454087/7339419/_1822__81x64_-vi.jpg
Or are these: you can determine without Google where is the Russian painting?
http://artcyclopedia.ru/img/big/006740015.jpg
http://i.art-talk.ru/attach/old/28028.jpg
And how is determined really top writers?
I suppose you could argue that the problem was not so much the Tatar yoke, but being cut off from core Europe for geographic reasons. Poland was closer to core Europe and thus innovations such as the German printing press spread to it quicker. Furthermore, Poland was Catholic and connected to the Catholic system of education and scholarship, while Orthodox Russia ceased to have a technologically advanced civilization to connect to after the fall of Byzantium.
Then you need to see more European painting, not just a few pieces at Hermitage, but large collections at Vatican museum, British Museum. Louvre, Prado, etc. Individual painting does not reveal much, you need to compare a few dozens at least. Not to mention that early Russian painting (say, XVII or even XVIII century) was copycat European, specific stile developed later. Some technically Russian artists continued copycatting, all the way to present. Well, some people have creative talent, some don’t.
Anyway, the perception of art is subjective (that applies to your second question, as well).
Principality on the territory of Ukraine was completely under the power of the Horde. Principalities on the territory of Belarus-completely avoided Horde power. In both cases there was (until the 18th century at least) an equally low level of culture. That is, the influence of the Tatars is completely absent (otherwise there would be a difference).
A simple test – take the achievements of the world level and divide by population. What will be the result, you know
It is clear that you will copy here the stupid texts from Wikipedia, talk about the amazing Ukrainian art of making painted boomerangs (which became the basis of the European Renaissance), etc., etc.. But at the same time you will not give a sane answer, because you have nothing to answer.
Well, specify these special Russian artists. Of course there was (for example) Bilibin who illustrated fairy tales in a stylized medieval manner. But it was a typical European art Deco
http://parnasse.ru/images/photos/medium/4d048e7e098c62e8bf8f88aee0cc64af.jpg
It might be helpful if you gave examples, such as which Russian paintings/artists and why or how you think their style is different from the rest of Europe?
Additionally, the Byzantine Empire itself had fallen behind the West as early as the High Middle Ages.
The main problem hindering the development of Russia was religious isolation. Backward countries of Catholic Europe (such as medieval Sweden or Poland) actively borrowed cultural/scientific/technical achievements of developed countries (Italy, France). But for Russia it was impossible because of the difference of religions. Perhaps this factor helped to defend the land from much stronger enemies (the same Poland which had an overwhelming superiority in human and other resources) , but it is monstrously slowed down all development..
This is influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e.
Answer to both #234 and #235
Well, I can throw a few names, but the list won’t be comprehensive, as there were many Russian painters with perception distinct from that of both European and Asian artists, some first-rate, some not. Here are randomly selected names: Kramskoy, Repin, Polenov, Surikov, Brullov, Ge, Kuindzhi, Ivanov, Kiprensky, even Shishkin (I am not a big fan of him), and so many others it is hard to list them all. Those who read Russian can go to the Tretyakov gallery site (https://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/collection/) and select Authors, or just look through paintings (most are online; that does not require language skills).
Visit Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It is just European art indeed, but it is fucking impressive and really a lot of good paintings, as one of the best (if a bit derivative) art traditions of all of Europe.
Lol how many different nationalities you are descended from.
You are probably eligible for both Israeli and Italian passports as well. For Israeli (if only any mother of a grandfather was a Jew, or mother of the mother of any grandfather, then you can get the citizenship). For Italian, you need only any Italian ancestor to (the beginning?) of the 19th century and you can get automatic Italian citizenship. A lot of North and Latin Americans get Italian citizenship if they can prove they had any Italian ancestor in the 19th century.
PS. It is strange that the discussion of Putin veered to culture and art. He has nothing to do with art or culture, Russian or otherwise.
Putin is a politician, skilled in many ways (especially when compared to hapless and clueless Western “leaders”). Personally, I agree with him on some issues and disagree on others.
Undoubtedly.
http://dekormyhome.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/24.jpg
But this is a common feature of European art Deco painting
I the early 1990s for just $100 one could get a letter from a rabbi stating that you were born by the Jewish mother personally known to him. The funniest thing is, naïve Israeli officials took this crap at face value (at least if you weren’t black or obviously East Asian).
This is likely a common feature of disintegrating societies. Today in Ukraine one can get “documents” “proving” your Polish ancestry to apply for the Polish card (Karta Polaka). The price is higher, different fakers charge from ~$1,500 to $5,000, but the principle is the same: fake proof for real money.
I guess this is why today Israel has made extremely difficult and rigorous documentation process if you are Russian, to apply for Israeli citizenship (they don’t accept things like letters). They’re really discriminating against people from the postsoviet countries in this area as a result of this and many people are trying for years to prove they have a Jewish ancestor to them.
Also I wonder if Germany is still giving passports to half of alleged “Germans” in Kazakhstan.
The Italian one is strange though, because all they need is any ancestor to have been Italian historically.
So Karlin can obtain an Italian passport, as long as he has document chain that he has had an ancestor who came from Italy. This could be just one ancestor in 1802.
But as a result Italy, has a vast amount of people from Brazil, Argentina, even Northern America, applying for the Italians passports and benefits of EU citizenship status.
Probably because Italy has such a low birth rate, they have become the most generous and easy to become citizenship. (It’s surprising if Ukrainians have not discovered their Italian roots yet).
You eill ignore the answer as always.
There were 18 printing presses in Rus within PLC, only 1 in Russia in 16th-17th century.
There was no equivalent to Ostrog or Kiev Academy in Russia in 16th-17th century.
There was no scientist equivalent to Ivan Drohobych in Moscow 15th-17th century. You have to wait basically until Lomonosov.
You can not adequately answer these facts.
We see here pattern. you know something about Russia, but outside Russia you are quite ignorant and often corrected. When discussing Sweden or Finland Jaako was often correcting you. And I do so when you discuss western Rus lands..
Correct. And the Orthodox of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth participated in this higher culture that they had access to. The Orthodox educational institutions such as the Kiev Academy were based on Jesuit ones, even using Latin as the language of instruction. Western Rus was unique among Orthodox lands in the degree to which it was integrated with the West in the 16th-17 centuries (Russia was isolated, the Balkans were under the Ottomans).
Did it? I’m not so sure, but could be wrong. The West began laying down the foundations for future spectacular advancement (such as universities) but say in the 1000s or 1100s I doubt it had gotten ahead yet. Visitors were still entranced by Constantinople.
Could you please enlighten the readers what was the contribution of this Ivan Drohobych person to the development of humanity? How come I never heard of him? What did he discover?
While you are at it, could you also specify the contributions of Ostrog and Kiev Academy to humanity? What did all those venerable people discover or describe that was not discovered or described before them?
PS. I know the answers to these questions regarding Lomonosov and the Russian Academy he founded.
I think it’s obvious that areas controlled by Poland were more advanced and developed than Moscow or the other Russian principalities, which were objectively backwards compared to core Europe.
On the other hand, that doesn’t seem to translate to a large number of notable figures in science, arts, etc. among the Rus living there. Drohobych (I assume you meant Yuri, not Ivan) was an interesting fellow but not amazingly impactful in the grand scheme of things, and at any rate was just one person.
Great Russians have produced a much larger amount of notable figures per capita than western Rus, despite the latter’s head start in development.
I do think there’s truth to your claim that the influx of educated people from Kiev accelerated the development of Russia, though perhaps not as much as you think.
Sorry, it was Yuri. He was the rector of the University of Bologna, the first publisher of a printed text in Church Slavonic, and made some minor astronomical discoveries involving solar and lunar eclipses. He later taught in Krakow and Copernicus was one of his students. There is no evidence that Drohobych influenced Copernicus directly, but Drohobych himself was influenced by teachers with (unproven) heliocentric idea so it is certainly possible.
Lengthy Russian-language article about him. Ignore the silly nationalism (referring to 15th century people such as Mikhail Glinski as Ukrainian liberationists) and stick to facts:
https://day.kyiv.ua/ru/article/istoriya-i-ya/yuriy-drogobych-v-kontekste-formirovaniya-ukrainskoy-elity
Can you name a Russian of the 15th to 17th centuries that was comparable? Obviously Lomonosov surpassed him but this was already in the 18th century.
The point is that Muscovy of that time did not produce anyone close to him. Recall that melanf was pushing the silly idea that western Rus was backward to compared to Muscovy Rus in the 15th-17th centuries. This is why I brought up Drohobych.
To global humanity? Probably not much. They were the most significant intellectual and academic centers in Rus lands of the 16th to 17th centuries, into early 18th century. Kiev Academy gave Russia the heads of its Church for about 80 years and an educated elite in Rus lands. But for influencing “global humanity” you have to go later in time.
I don’t dispute this. It is quite true, and in no small part due to the brain drain from more-educated western Rus lands to Moscow after these lands were annexed by Moscow. Western Rus had a head start but was then ended when it was annexed by Moscow. The war devastated and depopulated the Right Bank while the Left Bank got cut off from the West and came under Moscow. The educated people of the Left Bank, due to their legacy of having been within the PLC, contributed a lot of Russia’s development.
I was comparing western Rus lands when they were part of the PLC in the 15-17th centuries versus Muscovite Rus of that same time. It was a stark difference, Muscovy was far more backwards at that time. Western Rus were far more educated. Melanf reveals his incredible ignorance when he argues against it.
The population of the Left Bank that joined Russia was about 2 million. Russia itself had about 12 million people. Left Bankers punched far above their weight in terms of Russia’s cultural development. Diplomats noted that Moscow’s schools were full of teachers who were Orthodox from Poland. Kiev Academy supplied Russia with its heads of the modernized Church for about 80 years, starting with Stefan Yavorsky (a Galician who studied in Kiev, and became first head of the Holy Synod – he also wrote poetry in Latin and Polish). Russia’s classical musical tradition begins with Left Bank Ukrainians. Gogol – first great Russian novelist. Lomonosov didn’t get much out of it, but even he went to Kiev Academy for awhile.
Thanks for the info!
If I got your info right, that person (be it Yuri or John Doe) accomplished exactly nothing of note in science. Solar-centric idea was around for some eighteen centuries before Copernicus, expressed by Aristarchus of Samos.
Publishing a text is very different from writing it. That’s why we remember Dahl’s dictionary as Dahl’s, not the dictionary of his publisher Wolf. This Drohobych person might have been one of Copernicus teachers, but there were many other teachers, and many other students, who did not distinguish themselves. You say he was a rector of the University of Bologna. That does not mean anything scientifically. Say, the President of our University did not contribute anything to science, and his contribution to arts is exactly the same – zero.
Again, from what you wrote, Ostrog and Kiev Academy are pretty much like the oldest University in Europe – the University of Salamanca – which predates Oxford and Cambridge, but in contrast to those Universities, did not contribute anything of note to the development of humanity.
It depends on what you mean as “exactly nothing of note.” Would you say that about yourself and all the colleagues you know, in the context of thousands of years? Would you say that about, say, majority of members of Russia’s current Academy of Sciences?
Drohobych, a Rus from Galicia, was rector at one of the world’s top universities at the time (Bologna), and teacher at Poland’s top university that produced Copernicus, whom he also taught. He made some minor discoveries in lunar and solar eclipses, and was also prominent in medicine (he was the Polish king’s personal physician) and printing.
A man of the Renaissance. Not a da Vinci, of course, but second-tier. At the time, Moscow could not even produce a third tier of this type.
My point here is not d*ck measuring, but to illustrate that the PLC did not retard culture and education in Western Rus as melanf falsely claimed , but elevated it. Being part of PLC meant being part of the West and partaking of its opportunities. And thus in the 15th-17th centuries level of culture in Rus lands that were part of PLC was much higher than in those that were not (Muscovy). Drohobych is the best example of this but there are lesser ones, such as “Johannes de Ruthenia” who taught at Sorbonne around 1400.
HAHAHAHAHAHA…ROFL laughing and this dumb bilge
so basically like the retarded loser you are…you have spent the last 2 months crying and on your period because of my comments in a previous thread about the complete absence of culture and success in Poland in it’s history
To counter this, you have laughably just copy-and pasted random dogshit from Wikipedia, that you have spent the last 2 months getting eyestrain from ( or editing) – to come up with this nonsense, promoting people you have blatantly never heard of before ,into making an illogical and cretinous argument.
LOL….with absolutely nothing to mention in mathematics, engineering, science, art, music in the failed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,you are reduced to promoting as ‘success” the…..PRINTING PRESS!
this stems solely from the germans you braindead POS, brought it there, taught it to them…about 100 years later.
What you would seek to claim as “success” something that is as dumb as claiming the US putting Missile Defence infrastructure and technology in Poland as “Polish technology” or one of the Pacific Islands where the atomic bombs were tested getting credited as “inventing” the atomic bomb you thick moron.
Printed money /banknotes starts in Russia 50-100 years before this failed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, I think coin money also
So as soon as Russia had wide use of printing press – the most world renowned authors, poets and playwrights starting appearing left, right and centre throughout it. The PLC …nothing , even with this head-start. And you want to promote this crap you dumb retard?
the polish word for chemist is of course the Russian one “Apteka”, now Americans changed the name from “Chemists” or “Pharmacy” into drugstore, you would expect this inept state of Poland ,desperate to westernise but continually kamikaze fucking up and getting annihilated by Russia, to have a different name for it as in Czech/Slovakia – after all the fulcrum of modern thinking, modern science comes from advancements in medicine and production of it…but NO
As it is, innoculations only brought into the Polish elite after Russia had conquered it you idiot.
So in other words, nothing of enlightenment brought into this area…until Russia introduced it either via their own discoveries of their own acquirement of western knowledge, long before the PLC did, even though it is right next to these western countries
So 2 main uses of printing press, in money and medicine – well behind Russia.
Famous , successful people in this time….nil
Then comes the obvious fact that military power is entirely synonymous at the time with intellectual, cultural power you stupid prick – which had been proven in numerous easy defeats of Poland and succesful invasion of Poland that lasted nearly 200 years
Nobody has a clue WTF Polish “Architecture” is you dipshit
A braindead lie, made even worse by the obvious thing of why there would be absolutely nothing of any academic equivalence within what is not Lithuania or Poland you idiot
LOL..wtf!!! So you have (once again) used the only tool a sick fantasist freak failure as yourself can use…Wikipedia into regurgigating some BS over people you know nothing about
So hayden,Mozart,Beethoven ( could probably add Bach at the beginning of that list) – or a whole series of composers before and after Lizst can be linked to him as part of a big musical progression/development/interaction.
At a time when countries are producing Vivaldi, Bach, Purcell, Handel and so on. PLC are producing ….f**k all. You are then linking these nobodies to the great Russian ( which of course “Ukrainian” is Russian) classical music composers…of which NOBODY with an IQ over 5 thinks have any connection to these geniuses.
This is yet another example of a sociopathic excrement as yourself regurgitating some random fake crap, of some nobody ( which you are severely sick enough to have edited yourself)
I am not saying that there was scientific progress of general significance in the Moscow kingdom, I am saying that there was none of it in the Polish parts, either. The fact that you present that Drohobych person as a star says it all. Scientific progress that contributed to the development of humanity starts in Moscow with Lomonosov (1711-1765), starts in Poland and lands under its control – never.
I know exactly what I contributed to science. More importantly, others in my field do know and acknowledge it. I know what some of my colleagues in the Department contributed (some contributed nothing whatsoever). I don’t think people would remember that in a thousand years. What’s more, most discoveries made by Nobel prize winners (I personally know four; importantly, they know me, too) would be forgotten in much less than a 1000 years. Then again, this guy Drohobych (1450-1494, I looked him up on the web) died a lot less than a 1000 years ago. While people remember Aristotle, Plato, or Homer, all of whom lived more than a thousand years earlier, hardly anyone remembers Drohobych.
I didn’t notice (or forgot) that you wrote something about this. Projection as usual from you. And of course, obsession with my posts. Melanf responded to me and I responded to him.
This part is funny:
I guess English word “Apothecary” also comes from Russian LOL.
In 15th-17th centuries PLC dominated Russia militarily. The best Russia could do was to kick Poles out of Moscow..Russians never took Warsaw at this time, however.
I haven’t bothered to read the rest of your post. But you certainly read all of mine.
You’d better get busy, I wrote many other posts for you to read 🙂
Copernicus?
Anyways your argument seems to be – Moscow and PLC in 15th-17th centuries were culturally equal because neither one made substantial contribution to humanity. That’s silly. It’s like stating that the Baltics and Zimbabwe are culturally equally advanced because neither one made eternal contribution to human knowledge and civilization.
One can compare relative cultural advancement without getting to the benchmark of eternal contribution to humanity. And PLC was clearly far more advanced than Muscovy. PLC had many printing presses, mass literacy in multiple languages, science education, etc. etc. Moscow before Peter had not, at least not close to that level.
Copernicus – much better known than Lomonosov.
Sure. And I suspect in 500 years fewer people will know about you than know about Drohobyuch today.
So in other words…a nobody..not even in the top 10000 of influential scientific minds of the era in the west….that you have just invented a BS argument to having just caught him of Wikipedia
HINT; If you BS attention-whore theory starts with Copernicus, is followed by absolutely nobody at all for 200 years ( not to mention the abject lack of anything in the 200 years before him of this “empire) – then it is normal to assume that Copernicus was a one-off and not at all Representative of the area of society that he came from.
for the last time 0 multiplied by 0 = o you thick sack of faeces. You are asking to compare Russia to some nobody, then bizarrely claiming it as “success”. Even more bizarre considering the established fact that everything “western” into Russia bypassed Poland completely. Anything common in western Europe but unknown to Russia they never went to Poland for . “I wonder why” (not)
Can you name me ANY word in Russia that stems from Polish intellectual achievement you thick POS. Just the one? Of course not you twat…even though several word in Russian exist derived from achievements in the latin, English, Germanic, American, Tatar, even Indian world you idiot
Russia’s mere existence, comparability, exploration, trade & military at the time signifies a considerably more successfuland cultured place. You are asking to promote people of whom the west would have had zero interaction with you retarded moron. Even more bizarre , you are trying to claim that the introduction of people with zero cultural and intellectual achievements into the empire then contributed to it’s incredible rise.
PLC did not exist until late 16th century, but Moscow did fairly well against Lithuania – with the frontier steadily moving west. The PLC did win its early wars against Moscow, but they failed to put a Pole on the throne or definitively end the Russian threat, and after the Russo-Polish war in 1654 it was the beginning of the end for Poland, with Russia winning every subsequent military confrontation until the Polish-Soviet war. Admittedly, the Poles were ravaged by the deluge at that point, but then again so was Russia during the Time of Troubles when the Poles occupied Moscow (with the assistance of many Russian boyars, by the way).
The funniest thing is that Baltics and Zimbabwe have one important thing in common: primeval tribal mentality. So, appearances are deceptive.
Generally correct. GDL and Moscow stalemated after a few of their wars but the trend was one of Moscow’s expansion. This stopped after union with Poland.
PLC won their wars with Moscow, until Ukraine joined Moscow. This (plus going to war with the other neighbors) was enough to tip the balance of power in Moscow’s favor.
Even the failure to keep Moscow ended with a treaty that provided a lot of additional land to PLC at the expense of Moscow so it was a clear Polish win:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Truce_of_Deulino_1618-1619.PNG/220px-Truce_of_Deulino_1618-1619.PNG
So did Germans. Will you claim Russia is more culturally advanced than Germany historically?
There you go again, aping all things Russian and trying to denegrate all things Ukrainian, even though you’ve admitted that your own mother is Ukrainian, in true Janissary fashion. Your homeland Ukraine has already forgot you, yet will remember Drohobych for many centuries to come:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Stamp_of_Ukraine_s343.jpg
Sorry for being blunt, but when person’s ambition is to be the biggest frog in a tiny pond, that’s a sure sign of severe inferiority complex. My condolences.
You are confusing Germans with Nazis. Not all Germans are Nazis. Not all Nazis are Germans.
Not surprisingly, Nazis of all nationalities contributed nothing of value to human science or art.
Oops, an unexpected confession. But for the consolation of the GDL patriots is the fact that in the 16-17th centuries in “Ukraine”, the number of monks who knew the Latin language was more than in the realm of the Moscow Tsar. “Ukraine” even had Orthodox schools where taught Latin translation of Aristotle!
However, it brought absolutely no benefit to” Ukraine ” (all this scholasticism was useless nonsense, and real education came to Ukraine from St. Petersburg). Consider a few dozen monks who know Aristotle as a fair compensation for the legal deprivation of the indigenous population of Western Russia of any rights (Polish laws of 1699, 1713, 1733) and the transformation of this population into a two-legged cattle on Polish plantations is something at the level of Orwell’s doublethink.
Here are the thoughts of the Polish philanthropists about Ukraine:
“Accordingto the plan, Jews were to be employed to undermine the economic status of Ruthenian burghers,whileTatars were to be used against the populace of Right-BankUkraine, Podilia,and Volhynia if it rose in defense of its faith. The devastated lands would then be settled by migrants from Poland”
And this syphilis you praise
By the way, the analogue of Yuriy Drohobych – Dmitry Gerasimov also known (by Italian humanists) as Demetrius Erasmius Ambassador of the Moscow Prince in the papal state, the author of the hypothesis of the Northern sea route to the Pacific Ocean. Unlike Yuriy Drohobych, Gerasimov made a real contribution to science.
Why unexpected? It is you, not I, who regularly engages in denial of reality.
Great Russians were far behind Western Rus in 15-17 centuries but surpassed them later, despite the head start. However discussion was not about later centuries.
LOL, scholasticism and Renaissance learning were “useless nonsense.”
But good that you can admit something, at least.
Let me remind you agian that comparison was to GLD and PLC of 15-17 centuries.
Let me also remind you again that by 1703 Orthodox Church united with Catholic one so anti-Orthodox laws targetted only small numbers of dissenters and not the general population. But this is another topic.
Your “plan” is also from the wrong time. It is like arguing against Austria-Hungary or Germany of World War I by appealing to Hitler’s ideas decades later. Dishonesty and tacit admission that you are wrong.
Not that analogous. He provided useful geographic information, made some contributions to philiology (not more than did Drohobych), and made some translations.
Drohobych published work on eclipses, calculated specific geographic positions of cities in Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine for the first time, taught medicine and became a rector at perhaps Italy’s best university, etc.
But Gerasimov was at least a third tier academic, so it was something.
And not all people who base nationalaity on ethnicity or “blood” are Nazis. While Russia, like America (but to a lesser extent), is an abstract idea, Germany tradionally is much less so.
Nonsense. Von Braun was a member of the Nazi Party and of the SS.
https://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/12/04/was-nazi-science-good-science
Oddly enough, despite their adherence to the dubious science of racial hygiene, Nazi medicine and science did produce some rather amazing advances. Indeed German physicists and engineers developed what was in essence the first Cruise missile (the V-1) and the precursor to the intercontinental missile (the V-2). German medical scientists identified the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer more than two decades before the Surgeon General’s warning and undertook public health programs to help people quit smoking. Indeed, in his book, The Nazi War On Cancer, Robert Proctor describes, well, a Nazi War On Cancer in which many of the public health measures taken were both progressive even by today’s standards and decades ahead of their time. (Indeed, I keep meaning to do a post on this topic, and I keep somehow never getting around to it.) At the same time, the Nazi regime, while producing advances in scientific medicine, also was enamored of “alternative” medicine such as naturopathy, which in which they glorified German folk medicine as being more “natural.” (Another topic for a post that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.) Still, it is a mistake to conclude that science suffered under the Nazis. In many ways it thrived, at least the areas of interest to the regime, including medicine and any physical science related to weapons.
So was Nazi science good science? Yes, some of it was. Was it bad science? Also yes, quite a bit of it was. Was it pseudoscience? Yes again, a lot of it was. It may not be bad science to take two groups of people, carefully match them and inject them with a deadly microbe, and then to test whether a new drug or treatment can save people compared to a no treatment control, but it’s profoundly immoral science. Indeed, science under the Nazis was a paradox. A regime that could figure out the link between smoking and lung cancer long before anyone else also viewed its enemies as subhuman and perpetrated the most horrific atrocities on them in the name of science.
Any of these artists created painting in the styles that existed in Europe. For Example Ivanov
http://rus-artist.ru/sites/default/files/images/image_337.jpeg
In my opinion it is European painting
Interesting info. I did not know the smoking bit.
However, don’t you think that the statement that Nazi science thrived should be tempered by the fact that numerous critical people who developed (successfully!) the Manhattan project in the rival US were the scientists who ran away from the Nazis? That’s what happens when primeval tribal mentality guides the state apparatus, as it did under Hitler and his European sidekicks.
I don’t see it that way, but I won’t argue: in art virtually everything is in the eye of the beholder.
Correct. Nazis IIRC thought that atomic stuff was “Jewish science” and drove away those people, many of whom would have been loyal to the Kaiser’s Germany.
Glad to read this, you’ve been too hard on ol’ Putin lately imho. One thing I will push back on is this claim that Putin is senile or becoming so. This is simply absurd, the man comes across as sharp as ever in interviews and during Q&As, including those with Western MSM rats I mean reporters, who can’t possibly be set up to throw softballs. If you’re going to claim he’s senile you’ve got to back it up, some appearances where he became confused, and not about smart phones or PCs which he’s never been big on.
I don’t think that Drohobych’s inspiration for being a prominent scholar was motivated by any wishes for becoming ‘the biggest frog in a tiny pond’. This is the kind of nonsense that motivates modern day grant-eaters and pseudo intellectual blow-hards, possibly like you. I think that AP had done an adequate job of keeping Gerasimov one rung down (a 3rd tier academic) from Drohobych, who he has characterized as a second tier academic in comment #273. 🙂
Come again? It’s even shorter in Ukrainian: ”Га?”
В українській мові назва яничари вживалася переносно на означення ренегатів, що вірно і завзято служили чужій владі, лютих карателів, катів, поневолювачів.
The discussion was about how to assess the Polish-Lithuanian rule of the West Russian lands. Of course, this rule should be evaluated by the end result. As you can see the rule of the Krakow/Warsaw for the indigenous population of the Western Russian lands meant disaster and failure
By what parameters Great Russians were far behind Western Rus in 15-17 centuries?
If we take the criterion of achievements in the field of science / art of the world level per capita, the Great Russians of 15-17 century completely surpassed Western Rus, (just because Great Russians have such achievements for the 15-17 century, Western Rus does not have such achievements).
If the criterion – number of monks who know Latin – in this Great Russians were far behind Western Rus.
We know nothing about the literacy of the population, except that this literacy was terribly low (all the stories about the literate En masse great Russian/Ukrainian / Belarusian medieval peasants are the usual “Patriotic” lies, a local version of the “great civilization of Zimbabve”). No comparison is possible by this criterion
According to the printing-take this book
«Книга в России в XVII веке» С. П. Луппов
and count the volume of book publishing per capita. In Moscow, the 17th century was one large printing house which produced many books in the West-Russian lands there were several small printing houses which printed a small number of books. In both cases, printing (compared to Western Europe) was insignificant and purely religious.
Silly logic. According to your logic, one can evaluate the rule of Austrians and Germans by the “end result” of the mid-20th century and conclude that the Germany of Goethe or Austria of Franz Josef were genocidally anti-Slav and anti-Jewish.
Also recall, what occurred in the 18th century in PLC was also the result of the civil war in what is now Ukraine. This resulted in the loss of ~35% of the Orthodox population from PLC, depopulation of the Right Bank due in large part to Khmelytsky’s marauding Tatar allies, and call for reciprocal anti-Orthodox measures in response to the banning of the Greek Catholic Church in rebel-held territory. So “end result” is largely the product of the anti-PLC rebellion. Prior to the anti-PLC civil war among Rus, restrictions against Orthodox had been largely reversed and trend was in the opposite direction.
As we can see, civil war and rebellion ultimately resulted in disaster and failure for all the western Rus.
No significant achievement among Great Russians at those times (Moscow’s Kremlin, famous only because centuries later Russia would become a superpower, doesn’t count). And you have failed to come up with a true analogue to Yuri Drohobych among Moscow Rus.
This also includes population who knew Latin and Aristotle because they attended schools teaching this stuff.
We know that Khmelytsky spoke three or four foreign languages and conducted negotiations in Latin, Peter spoke only one. There are countless such anecdotes,. They add up.
What is the count? You claim the one printing house in Moscow produced more books than all 18 printing houses in PLC combined? And keep in mind that in Russia there were about 2 times more people than there were Orthodox Rus. So Moscow would have to print twice as many books as all 18 printing houses for there to be equality per capita.
First, translation for those who do not read Ukrainian:
“In the Ukrainian language the word “Janissary” is used figuratively to call renegades, who devoutly served foreign powers, fierce enforcers, executioners, and slave drivers”
You mean, like hero of Ukraine Shukhevych, one of the commanders of Nachtigall Battalion, a hauptmann of the German Schutzmannschaft 201 auxiliary police battalion, and one of the organizers of the Halych-Volhyn Massacre? Or like heroes of Ukraine who served in 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician; Galizische in German)? Very appropriate.
No, not really, I had another schmuck in mind – are you smart enough to figure out who that may be? 🙂
So, from Ukies perspective, Hitler’s lackeys are not janissaries? Fascinating. In Ukraine I know they are exactly that: traitors and Nazi servants.
Unlike the Soviet POWs who worked as concentration camp guards, the groups above were as much lackeys as were the Poles who fought under Napoleon or the Russian Whites such as Krasnov who also fought with the Germans. This does not necessrly make them good or heric (UPA were genocidal monsters in Volyn) but jannisary or lackey is not the right conceptualizaion.
I don’t see how the fact that Krasnov and Vlasov were traitors and Hitler’s lackeys makes other traitors and Hitler’s lackeys like Shukhevych or those serving in Waffen SS division Galichina something different. As far as I am concerned, all of the above were janissaries serving foreign power.
The fact that the atrocities in Volhynia were committed by UPA monsters voluntarily, rather than at the behest of Hitler’s regime, does not endear them to me one bit. The atrocities the same scum committed in Babiy Yar in Kiev, in Belarus, in Slovakia, and in Eastern Ukraine were on German’s orders. Criminals are criminals, no matter who was the godfather issuing orders.
Also, based on what German concentration camp survivors tell, the guards were not inmates, they were free people. Many remember Western Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars serving as guards, but I never read about any other residents of former USSR serving as guards in Hitler’s concentration camps.
Krasnov was not a traitor because he was never a Soviet citizen. He made a deal with the Nazis to fight the mutual enemy. Same as Bandera.
You are mistaken.
Guards were mostly Red Army POWs, like the infamous “Ivan the Terrible.”
Sobibor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobib%C3%B3r_extermination_camp#Camp_guards
“While the camp officers were both German and Austrian SS members, the camp guards under their command were Volksdeutsche from Reichskommissariat Ukraine as well as non-Jewish Soviet POWs, primarily from Ukraine”
Treblinka:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka_extermination_camp#Organization_of_the_camp
“Managed by the German SS and the Trawniki guards – enlisted voluntarily from among Soviet POWs to serve with the Germans”
Belzec:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%C5%82%C5%BCec_extermination_camp#Camp_guards
Bełżec camp guards included German Volksdeutsche and up to 120 former Soviet prisoners of war (mostly Ukrainian) organised into four platoons
:::::::::
Guards at Auschwitz seem to have been Germans.
Basically, Sovok Ukrainians accounted for a very large % of concentration camp guards and most of the non-German guards. Granted, they were in a tough position – they had to choose whether to work as guards or to starve to death with other Soviet POWs.
Western Ukrainians worked as police under the Germans, but not as concentration camp guards.
Krasnov was a traitor of his country. Many former Whites who never were Soviet citizens refused to serve Hitler, some even expressing it this way: I do not fight against my own country. Krasnov was just scum, during the Civil war and after it. He was executed by the Soviets (who got him from Brits) for a good reason.
You are talking about tough choice. All non-Jewish non-communist Soviet POWs had exactly the same choice. But the majority chose not to serve Germans. Tells me everything I need to know about those who chose to serve.
There is a joke about an anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (called in Russian Oświęcim, after the nearest Polish town).
Germans say – it’s our holiday, we organized this camp.
Jews say – it’s our holiday, we were prisoners in this camp.
Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians say – it’s our holiday, we handed the Jews to the Germans to be sent to this camp.
Ukrainians say – it’s our holiday, we were guards in this camp.
Russians say – what about us?
Everybody answers – you came uninvited and spoiled it all.
BTW, there is a really good opera The Passenger written by a Polish Jew Mieczysław Weinberg who ran away from Nazis to the USSR. I heard it in Chicago a few years ago and was surprised: usually modern operas are crappy. Besides, I never thought one can write a good opera about a concentration camp, yet this guy Weinberg did.
His country was Russia, not the Bolshevik Empire that destroyed his country.
His grandson helped prevent Communism from coming to power in Chile:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Krassnoff
There were millions of Soviet POWs but only a few thousands or tens of thousands of guards, so not everyone was given the choice. I certainly do not support their decision and hope I would not have made the same one, but it’s hard to condemn them too strongly given that their alternative was starvation.
IIRC the Germans favored giving this choice to Ukrainian Soviet POWS over Russian ones.
Naturally, the Habsburg rule over the Slavic lands should be evaluated by the results of this rule. Similarly, the Polish rule over Western Russian lands should be evaluated by the results of this rule. As for the opinion of contemporaries, the 17th century showed a harvest of hatred gathered by Poland. After the betrayal of Mazepa, Russian propaganda accused Mazepa of wanting to come under the power of Poland. And Mazepa himself (in propaganda leaflets) swore that it (the desire to go under the authority of Poland) lies and slander. I think it is easy to understand what was Poland’s reputation.
The uprisings against Poland were the result of Polish policy (the forcible imposition of Catholicism, the settlement of Western Russian lands by foreign migrants, the deprivation of rights of the indigenous population – the policy of Poland since at least the 16th century). The fact that the resistance of the local population led only to the radicalization of Polish politics very clearly characterizes the Polish government
If we exclude the Kremlin-St. Basil’s Cathedral. Enter in Google “geographical discoveries of the 17th century map” and see the first map showing the voyage of the ship of Dezhnev.
Well, Drohobych contribution to science is zero (he did not invent anything new) while Gerasimov was the first who put forward a scientific hypothesis about the Northern sea passage (the hypothesis that was fully confirmed).
Such disputes do not have a solution, so the objective (as far as possible) criterion is the calculation of achievements recognized at the world level (not locally)
Such examples are meaningless (you can selectively pick up any examples-for example, a favorite of Alexei Mikhailovich Pskov nobleman Ordyn-Naschokin knew 6 languages)
Besides Peter (who successfully designed ships of the line) was clearly superior to Khmelnytsky in the General level of education.
This is clearly manipulation. It is necessary to compare the volume of book production in Russian/Church Slavonic. Those books that poles have printed in Polish and Latin are completely irrelevant. In book printing in Russian, the Moscow printing house in the 17th century surpassed all printing houses in PLC combined.
And this should involve the time we are discussing, 15th-17th century, prior to much of Ukraine leaving. Actions of 1700s are are relevant as actions of 1930s are to judge German/Austrian or Moscow rule in Europe of 1900.
False about Khmelytsky’s uprising. The forcible imposition of Catholicism was stopped by then. The Orthodox Church was reinstated and indeed Kiev had become a major intellectual center of the Orthodox world.
Khmelnytsky’s rebellion was about Rus magnates grabbing more power at the expense of Rus minor nobles and peasants. Khmelnytsky was hoping for help from the Polish king and turned to him before he turned to the Tsar.
Khmelnytsky’s antagonist was not a Pole but a Rurikid prince who had converted to Catholicism but who also spent a lot of money on Orthodox churches and monasteries and had protected these churches and monasteries, while Khmelytskyi’s troops and their Tatar allies looted them.
Your argument depends on falsification of mixing events from 1620s with 1640s or 1700s.
Again, if Moscow had not become a superpower thee things would be as well known in the world as the Kazan kremlin.
Drohobych used calculations to determine the exact geographic location of several cities in the PLC for the first time. He also used astronomical calculations to predict some lunar and solar eclipses. These are minor, but real scientific contributions
Gerasimov provided something new, but he did what even an illiterate Chukchi can do, when he tells Europeans about a river or passage they had never heard of before.
Moreover, Drohobych became a rector at one of the world’s top universities.
The problem is that in Khmelytsky’s case it was not a “selective pick.” Only in Moscow would such a case be selective. The reason is that those monks in western Rus who spoke Latin and studied Aristotle ran schools where the local elites studied all of these things. So among nobles (even minor ones like Khmelnytsky) it was normal to be fluent in several languages and to have a normal education by Western standards. In Moscow it was not.
Is that understood now?
Western Rus (including even the first head of Peter’s Orthodox Church) were fluent and enjoyed writing poetry in Polish and Latin also. The Orthodox Kiev Academy taught in Latin and printed works in Latin, like any other normal institution of higher education in the civilized world of that time. They should all count, of course, also.
So compare volume of printed works by the 18 printing houses in Western Rus that were run by Rus organization to that printed in the only one in Russia, in Moscow. Are you afraid to provide the number totals from the source you found?
This is a rather strange and even bewildering article. I will comment on only two items in its contents. The phrase concerning Vladimir Putin’s “increasingly evident senility” is baseless and irresponsible. Considering Putin’s active schedule, almost daily workouts, multiple-hours’-long question-and-answer sessions before large audiences, and knowledgeable and intellectually-filled speeches, I cannot find any evidence that this world leader is “senile.” If the author wants to be witty or fashionable, I’d suggest that he search for different material.
The second item has to do with the supposed “white symbology” and author’s rejection of Russia’s multi-national population. There are over 190 different ethnic groups in Russia, and thus the country cannot be called exclusively “white.” However, Russia’s origins in the late 10th century are (from the northwest) Scandinavian and (from the southwest) Bulgarian and Macedonian. These peoples are considered Caucasian and Mediterranean. If Russia wants to erect monuments to Solzhenitsyn and name the Murmansk airport in honor of the tsar and martyr Nicholas II, surely the decision is not because of their “whiteness,” but rather for their notable place in Russian history.
By white was meant White, i.e., the Whites who fought the Reds after the Revolution.
There are Russian jokes about everything. They are a big part of the common culture, even bigger than baseball in the US. After Soviet line that all nationalities are equal stopped being official, the number of jokes about different nationalities skyrocketed.
Here is one that goes a long way to explaining why
In the maternity ward three babies happened to be unlabeled: German, Russian, and Ukrainian. The staff invited all three women into a room, brought all three babies, and said “we don’t know which is which, so please figure it out yourselves”.
German woman came to the babies and shouted “Heil!” One baby raised its hand. German woman took it and left. Russian woman got up, picked another baby, and made for the door. Ukrainian asks: “How do you know it’s yours?”
– When German woman shouted “Heil!” mine clenched his fists, whereas yours shat himself.
A mean joke at the expense of Sovok Red Army men from Ukraine who were preferred as concentration camp guards. Well, they served similar regimes.
Lithuanian-Polish rule over the Western Russian lands lasted from the 15th century to the end of the 18th century. The Lithuanian-Polish rule should be assessed for this period.
britannica 1911 : “Throughout the Ukraine the Polish gentry were hunted down, flayed and burnt alive, blinded and sawn asunder. Every manor-house was reduced to ashes. Every Uniat and Catholic priest was hung up before his own altar, along with a Jew and a hog….Chmielnicki made his triumphal entry into Kiev, where he was hailed as the Maccabaeus of the Orthodox faith, and permitted the committal of unspeakable atrocities on the Jews and Roman Catholics.”
Spending further time on proving that white is white and black is black makes no sense.
In this case, it’s just your “whistfull thinking”. If the Kremlin is known as a symbol of power (despite the fact that it is the largest and one of the most beautiful castles in Europe), the St. Basil’s Cathedral is a purely architectural object.
Britannica again:
“Bogdan, after learning to read and write, a rare accomplishment in those days, entered the Cossack ranks, was dangerously wounded and taken prisoner in his first battle against the Turks, and found leisure during his two years’ captivity at Constantinople to acquire the rudiments of Turkish and French.”
In addition, in a situation where Western Russian peasants fed the Polish nobility and Orthodox nobles like Khmelnitsky were exceptions (which will soon disappear completely), all this education had little value
The Russian court aristocracy of the late 17th century was also fluent in Polish and Latin. But to consider Polish and Latin books as Russian is a wild manipulation.
After 1660s 1/3 of Orthodox left, the former PLC territory where Orthodox left were massacring Greek and Roman Catholics. So it was a different creature.
You leave out other facts: chief negotiatior for the PLC side was an Orthodox senator. Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev opposed the uprising. Rebels also looted Orthodox monasteries. Chief opponent was a Rus prince. Thousands of Orthodox troops (“registered Cossacks”) fought against Khmelytsky. Khmelnytsky hoped to get help from the Polish again against the local Rurikid prince.
Lying by omission is also lying.
What you are doing is omitting pieces of white in order to turn what is actually grey into black.
Also famous only because Moscow was the capital of a superpower. If the capital had stayed in St. Petersburg/Leningrad, the Hermitage, St. Isaac’s and the square in front of the Hermitage would be famous instead and the Kremlin and St. Basil’s would be obscure curiosities.
Khmelnytsky studied a full course and was fluent in Latin, Polish and Ruthenian.
Britannica:
Western cultural influences gradually penetrated Russia in the 17th century. They entered the country through a number of channels, including the “German [foreign] quarter” in Moscow and through Ukraine, which was united with Russia in 1654. Ukrainian and Belarusian clerics, who had received a Polish-style education at the Kiev Academy, brought Western and Latin culture with them to Moscow. By the end of the 17th century, Russian literature had changed in important ways. A key figure in producing these changes was Simeon Polotsky (1629–80), a monk educated at the Kiev Academy. He played the leading role in introducing syllabic poetry (verse that is measured by the number of syllables in each line), based on Polish models, into Russia. Old Russian literature had been dominated entirely by prose, and so Polotsky’s verse marked a decisive break. So did the introduction of drama into Russia with Polotsky’s school dramas (modeled on Jesuit Counter-Reformation plays having biblical or religious themes), the establishment of a court theatre by Tsar Alexis, and the production of Artakserksevo deystvo (1672; “Action of Artaxerxes”), the first court play (in prose), by Johann Gottfried Gregory. The change in literary culture is also evident in the beginnings of prose fiction. Translations of foreign adventure romances appeared, along with Russian stories, parodies, and satires, including the picaresque (and erotic) Povest o Frole Skobeyeve (“Tale of Frol Skobeyev”) and Kalyazinskaya chelobitnaya (“The Kalyazin Petition”). Povest o Gore-Zlochastii (“Tale of Woe-Misfortune”), written in folk-epic verse, combines motifs of temptation, adventure, and salvation.
In the mid-17th century liturgical reforms undertaken by Patriarch Nikon split the Russian church. The dissenters (or Old Believers) produced some remarkable work, including the masterpiece of 17th-century Russian writing Zhitiye protopopa Avvakuma (1672–73; The Life of the Archpriest Avvakum). Avvakum, who eventually was burned at the stake, narrates his life in a powerful vernacular alternating with Church Slavonicisms. Written in prison, his narrative conveys a feel for his fanatic, earthy personality in a paradoxical form that is both autobiography and autohagiography.
The “Ukrainian hegemony” over Russian letters continued during the reign of Peter I the Great. St. Dmitry (Tuptalo) of Rostov, Stefan Yavorsky, and Feofan Prokopovich, the three most important writers of the period, were all educated at the Kiev Academy.
So you see – high culture came to Russia from western Rus and PLC. The Rus of the PLC were far more educated and cultured than was Moscow.
Nonsense. There were very may Orthodox nobles in PLC. More than in Muscovy, probably. Most of the Cossack officers were nobles. You are ignorant as usual.
Exceptions at most, there was no systemic Latin and Polish education in Moscow. In contrast it was typical of local Rus elites in PLC to be educated (often by Jesuits, or at Kiev Academy which was at Jesuit standards) in PLC.
A Rus writing in Latin or Polish is a Rus book. Ignoring such works is indeed a manipulation.
So you have not answered the question. Based on the source you found, what was total volume of works printed in the 18 Rus printing houses versus the one in Muscovy, in Moscow? If a Rus chose to write in Latin it counts.
Only the combination of two things makes a joke funny. One, it is mean to somebody (bound to hurt someone’s feelings). Two, it reflects the reality. The joke I posted is funny, as both conditions are satisfied. Your response confirms it.
Does it? Is there evidence that ethnic Sovoks from Ukraine were more likely to be afraid of Germans than were ethnic Russian Sovoks?
Polish official point of view (Wikipedia) about the prerequisites of Khmelnytsky’s uprising:
“Purely Russian urban population (on Western Russian lands) did not exist – the city was inhabited mainly by Armenian merchants and Jews, as well as poles. ….The country was ruled by magnates (CH. Wisniowieccy, Zławscy, Ostrogscy), consisting of Polonized nobility, which owned huge latifundia. Their Polonization was often motivated by political ambitions and accompanied the rejection of Orthodoxy….. their agrarian policy was to lead to a constant increase in the duties of serfs and lead the peasantry into poverty. Also accumulated hatred of the common people to the privileged, based on national and religious prejudices”
(Czysto ruskie mieszczaństwo właściwie nie istniało – miasta zamieszkiwali głównie kupcy ormiańscy i Żydzi, a także Polacy. ….Właściwe rządy sprawowały rody magnackie (gł. Wiśniowieccy, Zasławscy, Ostrogscy), złożone ze spolonizowanej szlachty ruskiej i zarządzające ogromnymi latyfundiami. Ich polonizacja motywowana była często ambicjami politycznymi i nieodłącznie związana z porzuceniem prawosławia….. ich zaborcza i ekspansywna polityka rolna miała prowadzić do stałego podnoszenia powinności pańszczyźnianych i wpędzać chłopstwo w nędzę. W ten sposób nawarstwiała się nienawiść tzw. prostego ludu do warstw uprzywilejowanych, oparta również na uprzedzeniach narodowościowych i religijnych)
But you can continue trying to whitwash a black dog
So the Hermitage and other pearls of St. Petersburg are famous at the world level. St. Basil’s Cathedral -3.6 million links in Google, the Hermitage 16 million links, Peterhof – 6 million links, Peter and Paul fortress – 17 million links.
If the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral was located in Bratislava, it would still be world-class architectural attractions (as Budapest Parliament for example)
Confirms what I wrote. Civil war between Rus magnates and Rus peasants. The Rus magnates were bad for Poland, because their activities led to the loss of Orthodox territories and weakening of PLC.
Polish wiki might be influenced by Soviet teaching, in leaving out ongoing Orthodox support by the magnates.
Dog is grey, you lie by omission, leaving out the white aspects.
You ignore facts – chief negotiator for PLC was an Orthodox nobleman, 1,000s of Orthodox soldiers fought for PLC, etc. Even Polonized magnates always insisted they were Rus people.
Nonsense, and Budapest parliament is not a world-known building. Kazan Kremlin is larger than Moscow one – who has heard of it?
And this is a normal situation? That is, the indigenous population of the Western Russian lands (Orthodox) was driven out of the cities by Jews (whom the poles settled on these lands against the wishes of local residents) turned into serfs on plantations of Polish Catholic owners, and should feed the foreign elite?
Of course of course, And in the Waffen SS were Jews (mishlinge). All this fundamentally changes the situation.
Budapest Parliament-13 million links in Google, Parthenon-12 million links in Google.
Moscow Kremlin. 0.3 square km, Kazan Kremlin 0.13 square km. Moscow Kremlin by any standards the largest, most original in architecture, and one of the most beautiful castles in Europe. Kazan Kremlin-a pretty ordinary fortress
This cultural influence (quite fruitless) was noticeable in the second half of the 17th century, but was destroyed by Peter (for whom the model was the Protestant countries of Northern Europe). Church hierarchs were appointed from Ukraine, because they (Ukrainians) had no support in the ranks of the Russian clergy, and could not be a dangerous opposition.
The level of education of the “Ukrainian” elite is highly questionable. Here Ivan Nikitin (court artist of Peter the Great) painted a portrait of the Ukrainian magnate (becouse normal artists in the “Ukraine” did not exist).
http://photogallerys.ru/art/08/artonline7018.jpg
And that is the Church which the Russian princes n built in their estates.
http://demiart.ru/forum/uploads20/post-2790238-1509079947-59f2bb8be8ab9.jpg https://photonomy.ru/uploads/images/photos/aSVGJCSCRZba6YbHUQDXdSpP9bd2mdT0.jpg
You can compare with is clearly outdated buildings of Mazepa.
Cities in what is now Poland itself were also mostly Jewish, German and Armenian. Also no evidence of “driven out.” The Rus is Lviv who printed the Orthodox Bible were always in Lviv, they didn’t leave. They became Greek Catholics.
And with this obviously false comparison you tacitly admit that you are wrong. Adam Kisiel was openly Orthodox. He represented the PLC in its negotiations, was governor of Kiev, and member of the Polish Senate. An analogous situation would be if Ribbentrop were an openly devout Jewish person. Instead you compare Kisiel to some half-Jewish member of the Waffen-SS who probably concealed his identity.
More dishonesty. Without quotation marks the google hits simply indicate mentions of the city of Budapest and/or of any parliament.
“Hungarian parliament” results in 936,000 links on google (many of which about politics and not the building itself), compared to 12.4 million for Parthenon.
LOL.
Also, you do not know what a castle is.
Naryshkin style. And what does Russian wiki say about this architectural style?
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8B%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C
However, the influence of secular culture on Russian architecture continued to increase, and some Western European elements also penetrated into it fragmentarily. After Russia’s conclusion of the Eternal Peace with the Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1686 , this phenomenon became more widespread: established contacts contributed to the large-scale penetration of Polish culture into the country. This phenomenon was not homogeneous, because then the eastern edge of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was inhabited by Orthodox peoples, and part of the culture, including purely national elements, was borrowed from them. The combination of the features of various styles and cultures, as well as a certain “rethinking” of them by Russian masters, determined the specific character of the new arisen architectural direction – Naryshkin style .
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Thank you for confirming that the higher cultural level of the Western Rus not only gave birth to Russian literature and classical music, but also helped form Russian architecture.
This absolutely does not change the destructive nature of the Polish “multicultural” policy for the Western Russian lands.
The last of the dinosaurs (and you know it very well). In the 16th century Orthodox magnates might to defend the rights of the population of the West Russian lands, but in the 17th century ( with the transition of the magnates in Catholicism) the indigenous population was completely at the mercy of the Catholics (with their pathological hatred to Orthodoxy) .
the Parliament building in Budapest – 9 million links in Google
And what a castle is?
It’s not Naryshkin style, so you’re wasting time copying Wikipedia. The first Dubrovitsy Church (built by Prince Boris Golitsyn in 1695) is a thing in itself (in Russia there is no second Church built in the same style), the second Church (built by Prince Gregory Dolgoruky in 1714-22) is a sample of Petrine Baroque.
Here is the Church in Dubrovitsy (built by Boris Golitsyn) inside https://static.tildacdn.com/tild3732-3766-4335-b331-643063636430/____1.jpg
And this is the inscription which decorated the Church https://bmstart.ru/public/screenshot527090e0.jpg (Yes, its Latin)
Compare with the churches that Mazepa built (obviously provincial and outdated)
In other areas, the situation is the same. Tatishchev (Pskov nobleman, who was in charge of metallurgy in the government of Peter) was the first to study medieval Russian Chronicles. He (Tatishchev) discovered mammoths for science, and marked the modern border between Europe and Asia. The first scientific work translated into major European languages written by Krashenninikov (Krashenninikov was a petty nobleman from Moscow) . The first engineer to leave a mark in the history of technology – Andrey Nartov from Moscow:
“constructed many lathes of different types and made a number of innovations. Of special value was his copying lathe for the purpose of ornamental turning, which allowed the user to make ornaments with the same precision as that of handicraft work of that time. In 1718 Nartov invented what might have been the first lathe with a mechanical cutting tool-supporting carriage and a set of gears ”
The list goes on. This cannot be explained by the small number of the Western Russian population. In 1700 “great Russians” numbered no more than 10 million people, “Western Russian” population together was no less than 6 million people. That is, as you can see the version of the high level of education of the “Western Russian” population is not confirmed at all.
No, it produces 189,000 results. Without quotes you get link about parliaments and Budapest, not that specific building. You don’t know how google works?
Last only because after him the Rebellion had its effect. Moreover, not the only one. Thousands of Orthodox fight against Khmelnytsky. Kiev Metropolitan opposed the civil war/rebellion, before coming to terms with it.
You confuse times. Prince Wisniowecki, convert to Catholicism, also spent lavishly on Kiev Academy (Orthodox) and Orthodox monasteries, because he was a proud Rus.
Basically, during Counter-rformartion (early 17th century) Orthodoxy was persecuted, persecution was lifted, but after rebellion and as a result of slaughter of Greek and Roman Catholics by rebels persecution resumed.
A single building. The kremlins in Russia are fortified complexes. An impressive example of those is Kamianets-Podilsk, where Polish and Ukrainian forces defeated the Turks:
https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-kamenetzpodolsk-fortress-near-kamianetspodilskyi-450w-626746307.jpg
https://d.radikal.ru/d25/1902/41/ed5ccfc997db.png
The Orthodox faction in the Lithuanian-Polish government has been shrinking for a century. He was last of the dinosaurs with or without rebellion.
“ze spolonizowanej szlachty”. The rebels exterminated such people-and had every reason for such actions.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Windsor_Castle_from_the_Air_wideangle.jpg/990px-Windsor_Castle_from_the_Air_wideangle.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/94/cc/5c/94cc5cec2fa5e0b660c1da6292ba62f5.jpg
The American larper insults an actual Slav on confusing the English words for ‘castle’ and ‘citadel’. Evidently you don’t even know the latter term, ‘fortified complex’ is a phrase pulled straight from Wikipedia that nobody uses.
Okay, so you don’t know how google works.
If you don’t place quotation marks around the phrase, you get a lot of websites that aren’t about the actual building but about other parliaments, about the city of Budapest, etc.
Actual building gets 189,000 results. “Hungarian parliament” gets more.
We don’t know, because of the rebellion.
And Stalin had his reasons to exterminate peasants. So?
He was a Rurikid prince, legitimate lord over his lands. Proud of his background as a Rus, he spent large amounts of money on Orthodox monasteries and funded the Orthodox Kiev Academy, and his private army kept Rus lands safe from Tatar predations.
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And now you try to argue that a fortress is a castle or vice versa. Hint: sometimes castles are inside a fortified complex.
I probably speak more Slavic languages than he does and most certainly my ancestors produced more Slavic history than did his.
Since the guy is arguing the point he probably deserves to be made fun of a little.
Italian architect and foreign builders hired by a barbarian to make this one-off building, not a native tradition like Naryshkin style.
The people who made it probably couldn’t speak Russian.
Product of higher native culture. So while Moscow barbarians hired Italians, a Western Slav (Stepanovich) created this:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/2005-08-11_Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra_157.JPG/800px-2005-08-11_Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra_157.JPG
Another Western Slav created this:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Bohoyavlensky_cathedral.jpg/215px-Bohoyavlensky_cathedral.jpg
It is in black and white because Bolsheviks had a particular taste for destroying Ukrainian native-made churches.
Here is the work of a Ukrainian architect (born in 1670), in Russia:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Gate_Church_of_the_Theotokos_of_Tikhvin_%28Donskoy_Monastery%29.jpg/250px-Gate_Church_of_the_Theotokos_of_Tikhvin_%28Donskoy_Monastery%29.jpg
Regarding Item no. 2, I had the same thoughts. At least three commentators on the same article at Russia Insider are calling Mr. Karlin out on this.
I remember reading a speech Putin once gave where he touts Russia’s multi-national diversity as a strength. For instance, general Shoygu is half-Tuvan and half-Russian.
Oh, and make of the following what you will:
https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/russia-and-the-east/
Oh, that’s an interesting twist. So “Ukraine” is of late 17th early 18th century, it is not an Outpost of Western civilization, but rather the preserve of traditional values, a repository of aboriginal culture.
However:
“The Gate Church of the Trinity was built in 1106-1108, as part of the Pechersk Lavra fortification, atop the main entrance to the monastery. The church was founded by the grandson of the Prince of Chernigov, Sviatoslav II”
Reconstruction of the original Church:
http://www.kievlavra.ru/txt/img/1arhit17b5.jpg
“The church retained its Ukrainian Baroque exteriour after restoration in the 17th-18th centuries by Master V. Stefanovych. During restoration, a new cupola was erected and interior paintings were added.”
This is a dubious achievement-to ruin the appearance of a unique Church of the 12th century
If you search for the real relic of “native” architecture it is the castle of the Metropolitan of Rostov (late 17th century)
http://russianasha.ru/files/lib/images/e3/c5/rostovskiy-kreml-1.jpg
But the point is not that. European architecture (not Ukrainian/naryshkin “Baroque”) first appears in “great Russia” (and then Ukraine), European painting first appears in “great Russia” (and then Ukraine), sculpture first appears in “great Russia”, historical studies first appears in “great Russia” (and then Ukraine), scientific research (which translate into European languages) first appears in “great Russia” , technical invention first appears in “great Russia” etc., etc.
If we are to believe what you wrote previously, the West Russian lands were ahead of Petrine enlightenment for a 100-200 years. But as you can see it is not confirmed by the facts.
No, it’s Boris Golitsyn’s Latinomania. He even wrote letters to Tsar Peter in Latin.
Golytsin’s builders were foreigners.
You have difficulty understanding things that are written clearly. Ukraine of late 17th-early 18th century was an outpost of Western civilization and culture that was produced by native Western Rus.
Russia at that time was a barbarian land whose lords had to hire foreigners to produce their examples of Western culture. This is the difference. Western Rus were able to build Baroque buildings themselves (even if “provincial” by Western standards) whereas Muscovite Rus had to hire people from Italy to do these things for them, they themselves were too backward.
Ukrainian baroque is Western.
This part is correct. I suspect this is because Poland itself did not have a great painting tradition, as Russia did/does.
Literature and classical music first appeared in Ukraine.
Nonsense. From Adam Kisiel’s Orthodox monastery, in style of northern Italy:
http://www.dziedzictwo.org/web/pageFiles/projekty/62/IMGP0549_-_Kopia_1000x750.JPG
Russia was decades behind.
Maybe then they’ll regret losing the “stupid looking Canadian money”. “Stupid” from an American perspective, but “normal” from the perspective of, say, an average Russian. Heck, Russia has been using colorful banknotes for decades.
The Canadian $1 coin (“loonie”) was introduced in the late 1980s, and the $2 coin (“toonie”) came out in the 1990s. Both replaced the equivalent notes successfully. On the other side of the border, to this day, the Sacagawea dollar has not seen as much support, and as a result we are stuck with using $1 bills that last less than two whole years, and vending machines give out change in stacks of quarters. There’s nothing stupid about competently replacing bills with coins.
I am honestly starting to believe that Anarcho-Supremacist said it best. I also wholeheartedly agree with AquariusAnon (197) when he/she said this:
Throw in as many ad-hominems as you want, but
My apologies, the original comment timed out before I could finish editing.
No amount of ad hominem attacks will negate what AquariusAnon said.
Now I’ll stop going off-topic; this article is about Putin, not about the sovereignty of the three Commonwealth nations, let alone Canada.