Russians doing nothing wrong whatsoever.
So how should Russians react to Butthurt Belt whining about muh repressions, calls for reparations, etc?
I would recommend an indifferent aloofness.
After all, Russians did not vote for the Bolsheviks; it was imposed on Russians by Latvian bayonets. Communist brutality towards Russians exceeded that towards its East European satellites by several orders of magnitude; in a non-Communist timeline, just the territory of the present-day Russian Federation would have twice as many people. Even disregarding the Lenin/Stalin period, it’s worth noting that the Novocherkassk massacre happened exactly halfway between the Hungarian Uprising and the Prague Spring in time. It was a regime that hated, despised, and actively repressed Russian culture and traditions, despite Russophobe attempts to equate Russia and sovok. So what exactly is there to apologize or “answer” for?
There can, to be sure, be differing levels of empathy.
Objectively speaking, the Czechs (whom I like) really did get the short end of the stick. Bad for them. But at least by the Communist world’s dismal standards, they did pretty well in the 20th century. No large-scale democides, relatively successful economics.
Conversely, the Germans (1953) and Hungarians (1956) have no grounds to complain whatsoever.
As for Latvia, in a perfectly just world it would spend the next millennium tyrannized by an immortal Stalinist superintelligence. Instead, even in the USSR, it got to enjoy being a “window on socialism”. Life in Riga was incomparably nicer than in Rzhev.
Anyhow, whatever. I don’t really care.
That said, the one thing I am curious about is why Butthurt Belt-style rhetoric against Russia doesn’t (AFAIK) really exist in East Asian countries that were also mauled by the USSR.
After all, the Koreans were practically dismembered as a nation. They have been separated for far longer than the two Germanys, and the economic and cultural differentiation is much deeper. Ossies were mostly just poorer Germans; Best Korea is basically an alien civilization at this point. It seems doubtful they will ever reunite now, even after the Kim dynasty falls. But South Korea gets on pretty well with both Russia and China. Russia has visa free travel with South Korea. Not only do Koreans view Russia more positively than most Europeans, but also much more positively than the Japanese, who are the only people in East Asia who actually dislike Russia – even though American nukes ruled out a Hokkaido People’s Republic.
The Chinese outside China have no particular reason to like Russia either. Apart from all the broken lives, Maoism lost China around 20 years worth of development – though I suppose this was mitigated somewhat by Chinese Communism being a genuinely grassroots movement, and Mao’s early break from the Soviet camp. Even so, not only is China Russia’s strategic partner, but there are no problems with Taiwan either.
It’s not like the East Asians even care or understand these Soviet vs. Russia disputes. They are just more pragmatic, and don’t carry a chip on their shoulder with respect to Russia – or rather more cynically/realistically, they reserve their parochial squabbles and rivalries for their own immediate racial/cultural neighbors (it has been demonstrated that genetically closer peoples go to war more frequently, and yes, that’s after adjusting for geography). This is a good hint for Russia – if any more are needed at this stage – that its better prospects lie to the East.
“After all, the Koreans were practically dismembered as a nation.”
True. But North Korea (which, unlike the Soviet Union, still exists) continues to be the brunt of dislike, and Taiwanese and Koreans do have the USSR to thank them from going to war against the Japanese occupiers. Japanese butthurt is mainly due to the Soviet decision to declare war on Japan in WWII.
Good post, Anatoly!
That said, I would also like to point out that Russia and China both have a problem with Islamic extremism at home and thus can also collaborate on this.
In that graphic, I assume that is Russia getting pummeled by all those people. Now there is a very large protruding appendage in red near the bottom right. Is that a leg or perhaps…
The context seems weird, but the look on the guy’s face may state otherwise. He seems to be enjoying getting pilloried…perhaps a bit too much.
Peace.
How was it with Jews right after the war? And now look at them, milking reparations left and right. So lets give this idea a try for a decade or two.
I would be more sympathetic to Karlin’s statement that Russians didn’t vote for Communists, so its not their fault if not for the fact that most Russians consider USSR to be Russia under a bit different name and themselves to be heirs of Soviet achievements. Some good and a lot of bad, and you cannot separate them.
Gib money.
Curent Polish government is demanding reparations from Germany. Even though Poland already got reparations in 1950s from FRG. Poles are trying to collect reparations from both Russia and Germany at the same time.
They are shitty people, this is what they do.
That graphic is if I recall a meme version of a photograph from a “slutwalk” somewhere in Latin America. A group of raging purple haired feminists on parade was met by a male counter protestor who decided to drop his pants and flash them. The photographer captured the moment with the male counter demonstrator with a shit eating grin on his face while being accosted by a pack of angry women.
Non-Russians couldn’t care less about Russian victims of communism, nor “traditional Russian culture”. Russians barely even care about those things for that matter. Even people who are woke on the Jewish, Georgian, and Latvian questions will simply say “the Bolsheviks may have been non-Russian but their henchmen were Russian”. So pointing out that the Soviet Union was a fundamentally anti-Russian project would do nothing to decrease Russophobia in those countries. The image of the drunk Asiatic Russian soldier raping 2 trillion women is so strongly entrenched that no amount of apologizing or historical revisionism will ever get rid of it.
Russia should focus on cleaning up its own social problems (drugs, abortion, crime etc.), desovokizing, regaining a decent cultural output, clamping down on Islamic immigration, becoming the largest economy in Europe etc. Over time it will be socially and politically possible for Central and Eastern European nations to have normal, friendly relations with Russia. As is, they have very few reasons to be positive towards Russia even if American influence was taken out of the picture.
Disregarding statistics and consulting the much more exact science of anime watching, I’d say the Japanese are somewhat fascinated by Russia and it enjoys certain respect and admiration.
Russian anime characters are also usually portrayed well.
A consistent theme in anime is that Russians are always military/martially formidable, including in animes where the action is in space or otherwise in the future, where usually after Earth gets mostly fucked up, the last center of resistance is often somewhere in Russia – for example in Aldnoah Zero, the headquarters of the United Forces of Earth is in Novosibirsk. Aldnoah Zero is a nice anime btw, I think Anatoly may like it. The protagonist is a hyper rational autist who at some point starts merging with an AI that he implanted in himself.
In Valvrave (space mecha anime) the coolest faction is Dorssia, a military-aristocratic space empire apparently created by the merging of Deutchland and Russia.
There are countless Russian characters in all kinds of animes and overall they are portrayed infinitely nicer than in Hollywood movies.
This is true for a majority of Russians. But what about the murderous minority? When I meet a Russian in the back of my head I wonder what his/her father or grandfather did for the Regime? Were they in Cheka, NKVD, KGB? How much blood is on their hands? How did they benefit from their actions? What happened to the original owners of the nice apartment they have? How did they get to university and become the new successful intelligentsia? Why them and not somebody else? Blaming Latvians will not absolve you from your own sins. People, including Russians, have agency and free will.
My friend, you have to stop watching anime. There comes a time in life for a boy to put down boyhood things and behave like a man. Just because the Modernity inverts this natural law and advocates perpetual adolescence isn’t justification to submit to it’s perverse incentives.
.
I am not sure that is true. Czechs were among the big winners in the 20th century Europe. With minimal sacrifices (mostly being killed by Germans in WWII), Czechs created a homogeneous, prosperous, rich country in the heart of Europe.
Without post-WWII communist-Soviet influence there was almost no chance that 3 million Sudeten Germans would be ‘removed’ to Germany. With the Sudeten Germans remaining, Czechia would not exist today, it would be a messy ‘federated’, mostly German speaking, fully dominated by Germany. Communists had huge faults but they also homogenised Czechia, built some essential infrastructure (yes, maybe it would be built anyway, but IT WAS NOT built pre-communists, why not?), and avoided the sad multi-cultural fate that Western countries are going through.
And the cost for Czechia? The total number of victims of communism was established at 500 dead, out of those 80% were genuine WWII criminals (revenge killing), and around 10,000 who spent between 1-2 years in labor camps in the 50’s. To compare, Germans murdered 80,000 Czechs between 1939-1945.
So based on data, 1945-89 was not that bad. Maybe Czechs should thank the Latvians.
Aldnoah Zero should have ended in the first season.
Well that explains a LOT – thanks!
Peace.
True, but at least for a time it was cool.
In the current Europe, I think it is essential that Poland maintain its vision of being a sainted nation. It is the only antidote to being called Nazis, as Jews well-know.
In my experience, Koreans are generally ignorant of their history and, more or less, put the full blame on the US which is easy to do given the US being so interventionist. Their movies also seem to be anti-American. Personally, I think we (the US) should get the hell out of Korea. Maybe being generous and giving them a few years to ramp up their defences.
There is undoubtedly a qualitative difference to being invaded and not being invaded, but, at the same time, one wonders at the effect of the USSR’s involvement in different countries. South Africa and Rhodesia (probably fracked anyways). The USA. Western Germany as in the Red Army Faction, which gave Putin his first car, if the rumors can be believed.
Indifferent aloofness is bad advice.
I recommend you remind them Russians were victims of communist repression too, and blame it all on latvians and jews.
Which you are kind of doing so you know, continue, but also empathize.
In Japan, Russia is viewed mainly in its Soviet era (other historical eras do not seem understood).
So there are Japanese communists who cosplay in Red Army uniforms on Victory Day, and join events with Russian embassy in Tokyo.
But some of these Japanese communists themselves are a radical and brazen group within Japan’s society, associated with terrorist groups – so it is not so good to be only seen in this way. (To be popular amongst unpopular groups within a country).
In the West, by comparison at least, there is strong awareness of other historical eras than just the Soviet years: for example, Tolstoy is read and beloved in all Western societies. But do Japanese read Tolstoy?
Tolstoy really needs to be converted into anime, especially as he was himself admiring Japan, saw Buddha as another Jesus, and was extremely unhappy with the Russo-Japanese war.
Relations will gradually improve into the future, optimistically, with current admiration of Japanese culture in Russia.
Yes, AK is right.
Russians dindu nuffin
120 millon Russians had Sovok mentality before Soviet Union and like sheeple allowed 35 000 Latvians to do with their homeland whatever.
Russians are truly disgusting sheep to let it happen.
At least Russians dindu nuffin
That were all Latvians, Caucasians, Jews, Germans who did anything good or bad.
120 millon Russian Dindus.
I think Japanese appreciate the aesthetic of Russian Communism just as they do of German Nazism. IMO, it is a very weird phenomenon when attempts are made to shame Japanese school kids for wearing Nazi-like regalia, as one sometimes hears of.
https://sputniknews.com/art_living/201609051044985857-russian-maid-cafe-japan/
I’m sure a slew of Soviet-era canteen posters will be appropriate.
And Prague didn’t do so badly either, in comparison to other Central and Eastern European major cities.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Warsaw_Ghetto_destroyed_by_Germans%2C_1945.jpg/1200px-Warsaw_Ghetto_destroyed_by_Germans%2C_1945.jpg
OT: Mr. Karlin, perhaps you do have the revolutionary spirit after all.
Why Revolutionaries Love Spicy Food
http://nautil.us/issue/62/systems/why-revolutionaries-love-spicy-food-rp
You, sir, apparently don’t know anime well. There are dozens of shows aimed at adults which feature copious violence and sexuality. They’re even able to freely portray characters who (gasp) smoke cigarettes!
There are some shadows, quite long, cast over the beautiful success of Czechia post WW1.
It is generally known that the ‘Czechoslovak Legion’ involuntarily played a big role in the Civil War. In its retreat through Siberia they came to fight on the side of the Provisional Siberian Government and supported Kolchak, ‘But Kolchak was not a democrat. He created the government with Cossack and ataman’s help so his government was not very democratic. So Czech forces started to be neutral in fighting in Siberia’. Kolchak, supposedly installed by the Entante, was not loved by the Americans who insisted for his removal. The Czechoslovak Legion extended a helping hand and Kolchak was arrested and executed, and the Legion was rewarded with a wagon of gold of the confiscated ‘Kolchak’s gold’.
So, what was the ‘Kolchak’s gold’? A good summary of the story by Oleg Budnitskii, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia @http://russiasgreatwar.org/media/international/kolchaks.shtml
“Kolchak’s Gold: The End of a Legend”
“Kolchak’s gold” was the name of the major portion of the Russian Empire’s gold reserve which came into the possession of Admiral A. V. Kolchak’s government during the Civil War. Originally housed in Petrograd, the gold was evacuated to the city of Kazan in 1915 owing to the threat that the capital city might be occupied by German troops. For various reasons, gold stored in the Moscow and Samara offices and the Tambov branch of the State Bank was also moved to Kazan’. By the summer of 1918 the State Bank’s vaults in Kazan’ held more than half of all Russian gold reserves… At the beginning of August 1918, Kazan’ was captured by units of the Czechoslovakian Legion and portions of the Komuch People’s Army under the command of Lieutenant Colonel V.O. Kappel’ (who would later became one of the most celebrated White Army commanders). The gold was brought to the State Bank’s Omsk branch on 13 October 1918. Just over a month later (18 November), Admiral Kolchak was pronounced Supreme Ruler of Russia. The gold that had previously arrived in Omsk would henceforth be known as “Kolchak’s gold.”…
The total amount of gold at the admiral’s disposal was valued at 645.4 million rubles. In physical terms the gold, consisting mostly of coins and ingots together with a small quantity of blanks, weighed approximately 1,080 lbs (490.448 kg). Along with Russian currency, the horde was comprised of coins from fourteen other nations including 24,080 German marks (valued at 11.2 million rubles), Spanish alfones, and 532,000 British sovereigns (equivalent to 5.02 million rubles). American dollars, French and Belgian francs, Japanese yen, and Greek drachmas were also present. The most “exotic” part of the collection were 36,000 Chilean condors valued at just over 2.78 million rubles.
At 9:55 pm on the night of 15 January 1920, Allied forces at the Innokent’evskaia railway station delivered the former “Supreme Ruler of Russia,” Admiral A.V. Kolchak, to the plenipotentiary representative of the Irkutsk SR-Menshevik Political Center. In addition to the admiral, the Polical Center also took possession of “Kolchak’s gold.” Soon, both the admiral and the gold were in Bolshevik hands.
Kolchak was shot on the night of 7 February 1920. The gold that had reached the Bolshevik (approximately 409.6 million rubles worth) was transferred to Kazan’.
But what had become of the remaining gold, valued at almost 236 million rubles?”
What Czech scholars say? Prof. Ivan Šedivý is a specialist in modern Czechoslovak history at Prague’s Charles University:
“Nowadays we can read in many Russian newspapers that this gold was stolen by Czechoslovakia. To tell the truth, there is no evidence it was so. On the other hand no one can argue it was not.. a telegram found in the archives talking about the transport of a gold cargo, ostensibly for medical use, through the port of Trieste for Czechoslovakia lends some support to the Tsarist gold story. But the Czechoslovak legion had branched out into many money spinning ventures during its time in Siberia and the gold could have also stemmed from them.
“The Czech legions had a very wide economic infrastructure and had this financial office and this office carried out very broad scale business with products and with currency and gold. So it is possible that many financial and gold resources later deposited in the so-called Bank of the Czechoslovak Legions, which was created, I think in 1920, were mostly from the economic transactions of the Czechoslovak legions and not from this gold of the Tsarist family.
We must have in mind that the legions were about three years in Siberia and made business with the Russians, with the Chinese and with the Japanese and so on. What is more, they obtained some part of the money from the soldiers.
World War I was long over by the time the last members of the Czechoslovak legion shipped out of Vladivostok by April 1920. Many of the newly returned found posts in the army with their long combat service a major factor in their favour.
“They accounted for approximately one third of all men in the newly created Czechoslovak army but absolutely prevailed in the high command. Almost all generals were legionaries, especially those from Russia. These were people such as General Syrový.”
So, the new state of Czechoslovakia had foundations of gold and a golden future.
East Asians emphatically DO carry massive chips in their shoulders with regard to each other. The depredations of the Imperial Japanese Army are far more keenly felt than much more recent atrocities in which Chinese and Koreans abused and tormented their own countrymen.
The Japanese have a crazy mixed up attitude towards the rest of Asia. They are well aware of their cultural debt to China, but prefer to think about the Chinese as little as they can. They were the first to develop and one of their leading intellects in the 19th century actually wrote a book called Datsuaron – “On leaving Asia”. Now you occasionally here the phrase Datsuoron (On leaving Europe).
The Hoppo Ryodo question really matters to a lot of Japanese. They consider the Kuriles stolen territory and Japan really emerged onto the world stage as a result of victory over Russia at the Battle of Tsushima.
Japanese Nationalists that hate Russia may be more retarded then the Japanese Nationalists that protest outside of Korean schools. No tactical or logical sense and dickless. They never protest like that outside of a US military base after a Japanese school girl gets rapped and killed by a US POC “service man”.
There isn’t the same resentment over communism in Asia because countries like Vietnam etc were not conquered by the USSR and instead the USSR supported popular movements of Civil Wars so they had a good part of the population genuinely on the same side.
If the Reds had won the Civil War in Finland in 1918, it wouldn’t have created direct resentment of Russia since half of our own fought for the Reds so it would be seen mainly as our own national choice. There would now be a post-communist Finland that might even have a positive or neutral attitude towards Russia like Mongolia has.
On the other hand the Finnish Communist Party that the USSR was “offering” as the new Finnish government in 1939 consisted of those exiled Reds who had spent two decades licking Stalin’s boots so that they could execute their Finnish Red rivals. These people had no chance of gaining the level of support that the Reds had in 1918 had and if they had been successfully installed in Finland, today there would be a post-communist Finland that would resent Russia even more than it does today (if that’s actually possible).
Similarly, in 1918 we were debating whether to join the Civil War in Russia on the White side. If we had and it would have somehow managed to tip the scales towards White Russian victory, Russians wouldn’t have resented White victory as a Finnish imposition. But in 1941 we didn’t find any significant Russian faction welcoming Finnish soldiers. If we had won the war and Finland would have been handed a piece of Russia to rule as a colony, we would have installed some Russian opportunist in charge to arrange annual celebrations of Finnish liberators and Russians under that regime would probably have become rather resentful.
The amount of resentment foreign involvement leaves behind is related to how much of a subversion of popular will it is and after World War II in Asia Russia sponsored factions that significant support among Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese etc while in Eastern Europe Russia tended to sponsor factions that had very little support. Eg. the Czechoslovak protests were leftist, not right-wing, so we can see that the puppet regime didn’t have even most of the left on their side.
Every choice has pros and cons and the immediate pro of working with any opportunist that is willing to become a puppet is that Moscow can get its agenda through fast but it has the long term con of creating resentment and lack of legitimacy for the puppet rulers who were overthrown as soon as Moscow stopped sending tanks to prop them up. The Americans chose a strategy of having less direct power over their Western European vassals which has had the result that these countries sometimes refuse to support the American agenda (like Iraq) but they’ve also been much less eager to permanently break with America.
Hah. I always thought it would be fun to go to a maid cafe, but the little Japanese girls give me the creeps. These Russian ones are cute, though. I’ll have to look them up next time I’m in Tokyo.
The issue isn’t morals or ethics. The issue is reparations and gibsmedats. Russia is the legal heir of the USSR and has lots of goodies to plunder.
(Eastern Europe is really a disgusting place in many ways.)
If genetically close people go to war with each other more often… would this not be an argument in favour of multiculturalism and against ethnonationalism? How to square the circle?
Genetically close nations almost always live closer to one another.
brainlet.jpg
490.448 kg does not seem to be much. It can’t be 409.6 million rubles.
Actually Democide Man, Rudy Rummel, reckoned that over 26o,000 people perished through Communist Democide in Czechoslovakia. Considerable numbers considering the size of the country.
Of more relevance, 2.4 million Germans were forcibly expelled from May 1945 onwards and their property was confiscated. 15 to 30 thousand were killed or died as a result.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Germans_from_Czechoslovakia
This was done with the connivance of the allies, particularly the Soviet Union. You may say that this was done on a much larger scale in Poland, but there Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia had to accommodate the very large numbers of Poles expelled from Eastern Poland.
By contrast, in Czechoslovakia, Czechs were able to take over the Sudetenland, expand the area under their control and expropriate some of the world’s most advanced plant and machinery – for free.
What’s not to dislike if you are a Czech nationalist. Praise be to Uncle Joe, which is what they did. In the ( fairly ) free 1946 election the Communist Party got 38% of the vote, still a record for any Communist Party in a free election in Europe.
Despite the little contretemps in 1968, Russia, in its previous incarnation as the Soviet Union, has been hugely beneficial to the Czech Republic.
It is clear that what the Professor implied was that it was not ONLY the gold:
“So it is possible that many financial and gold resources later deposited in the so-called Bank of the Czechoslovak Legions, which was created, I think in 1920, were mostly from the economic transactions of the Czechoslovak legions and not from this gold of the Tsarist family. We must have in mind that the legions were about three years in Siberia and made business with the Russians, with the Chinese and with the Japanese and so on. What is more, they obtained some part of the money from the soldiers.”
Where and how the soldiers got the money from (and how much) is anyone’s guess.
“Maoism lost China around 20 years worth of development “. Twaddle.
Mao started with rubble and starving drug addicts and–despite primitive communications, a population doubling in size and longevity, shaky logistics, four revolutions, embargoes, military incursions and nuclear threats–he doubled GDP every decade for twenty-five years while keeping the economy debt-free and society egalitarian.
When he stepped down, China had satellites, atomic weapons, thousands of dams and its infrastructure was far in advance of anything China had known.
No one in history has done more good and less harm to so many people. Do you think the ten million Chinese who visit his birthplace each year are stupid?
http://www.unz.com/article/mao-reconsidered/?highlight=mao
Yes.
PS. Lots of words, no comparative numbers.
PS. Just a reminder that you had a greater chance of dying on the job than getting fired under late Maoism.
From Mao Zedong: A Political and Intellectual Portrait 1st Edition
by Maurice Meisner:
Despite all the failings and setbacks, it is an inescapable historical conclusion that the Maoist era was the time of China’s modern industrial revolution.
Starting with an industrial base smaller than that of Belgium’s in the early 1950s, the China that for so long was ridiculed as “the sick man of Asia” emerged at the end of the Mao period as one of the six largest industrial producers in the world.
National income grew five-fold over the 25-year period 1952-4978, increasing from 60 billion to over 300 billion yuan, with industry accounting for most of the growth. On a per capita basis, the index of national income (at constant prices) increased from 100 in 1949 (and 160 in 1952) to 217 in 1957 and 440 in 1978.
Over the last two decades of the Maoist era, from 1957 to 1975 (a period held in low esteem by Mao’s successors), even taking into account the economic disasters of the Great Leap, China’s national income increased by 63 percent on a per capita basis during this period of rapid population growth, more than doubling overall.
The Maoist economic record, however flawed, is nonetheless the record of an era when the basic foundations for modern industrialism were laid. Indeed, it is a record that compares favorably with comparable stages in the industrialization of Germany, Japan, and Russia—hitherto the most economically successful cases (among major countries of late modernization.
In Germany the rate of economic growth 1880-1914 was 33 percent per decade.
In Japan from 1874-1929 the rate of increase per decade was 43 percent.
The Soviet Union over the period 1928-58 achieved a decadal increase of 54 percent.
In China over the years 1952-72 the decadal rate was 64 percent.
This was hardly economic development at “a snail’s pace,” as foreign journalists persist in misinforming their readers.
This economic achievement was all the more remarkable in that it was accomplished by the Chinese people themselves on the basis of their own meager material resources, with little outside assistance or support.
Save for limited Soviet aid in the 1950s, which was repaid in full (and with interest) by the mid-1960s, Maoist industrialization proceeded without benefit of foreign loans or investments.
It was as much a hostile international environment as the once hallowed principle of “self-reliance” that imposed conditions of virtual autarky until the late 1970s.
At the close of the Maoist era, China was unique among developing countries in being able to claim an economy burdened by neither foreign debt nor internal inflation.
Although it has become unfashionable to recall the accomplishments of Mao’s time, it remains the case that the Maoist regime made immense progress in bringing about China’s modern industrial transformation, and it did so under adverse internal and external conditions. Without the industrial revolution of the Mao era, the economic reformers who rose to prominence in the post-Mao era would have had little to reform.
The higher yields obtained on individual family farms during later years would not have been possible without the vast irrigation and flood-control projects–dams, irrigation works and river dikes–constructed by collectivized peasants in the 1950s and 1960s.. By some key social and demographic indicators, China compared favorably even with middle income countries whose per capita GDP was five times greater”.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQALPJP0SA6_3SrnFIN7XbmwlyB3d5Sq-5U9uiAC9YWCBGH-6AFLQPf2FukkvWzRu5InfRNPcp19Rtg/pub
Actually, no. Post-1989 a whole industry of investigating and measuring communist crimes has existed in Czechoslovakia. Government Institute of Memory (really) has counted all victims, very broadly defined, e.g. all WWII war criminals were included, even a few bank robbers who robbed banks for ‘freedom’ under communists to start an uprising were included. Still only 500 total victims between 1945-89, with almost all between 1945-53.
If you include people in prison, a few tens of thousands served on average 12-18 months, mostly priests, peasants refusing ‘collectivisation’, and quite a few communists from wrong factions. Some also include people who emigrated, around 100,000 in 40 years. But the number of emigrants since 1989 is about twice that, should we blame democracy for that?
Data is data, we need to stick with actual facts and not silly fairy tales about ‘Democide’. Czechs did exceedingly well under communists. When it no longer suited them, they discarded it. There is a lot to admire there. And a lot to lie about, since opportunism is not good for myth-making.
You are absolutely right about the German Sudeten removal. A lot of assets fell into Czech hands cost free. That was also only possible because of communists/Soviets. Although most enthusiastic German bashers in 1945-48 were actually Czech nationalists returning from London. And Czechs did vote 38% for communists in 1946 – still a world record.
Except for when they you know do do that. The Japanese appreciate that the US left their culture in tact for more than if a couple million drunk illiterate Russian soldiers had raped their way through the home islands.
My advice to Russians is pretty simple stop being drunken violent boors. Ten years of that and you’ll be amazed at how much more people like you.
Government Institute of Memory
Wow!
And we are stuck with the public and private Institutes for the Rectification of Memory.
Interesting, thanks. The Legion was formed from Habsburg soldiers (Czechs and Slovaks) who switched sides. Needless to say, it was a risky thing to do. It says a lot about the Austria-Hungary Empire that tens of thousands of their citizens were willing to risk it. We should remember that when Euro-liberals today claim that our past was a harmonious paradise until the evil ‘totalitarians’ showed up in the 20th century.
(I had two ancestors in the Legion, time to dig through their backyards for the missing gold.)
The Professor could be several orders of magnitud off. 490kg of gold is only $20 mil in todays money. If Czechs stole it all it would only $200 per soldier of the Czech Legion in todays money.
LOL! I’m sure that they’re gripped with trepidation at the possibility shit tier Murrican stormfags might not like them.
This is also cool:
South Korean view of Russia is a bit of mishmash.
There is a Marxist faction that has somewhat warm feelings from the Cold War days (usually there is an overlap with the “Yankee go home” crowd). But there is also a fervent anti-communist crowed that harbors dislike of the Russians. Both factions tend to be older, as younger people are less ideological.
Some Korean intelligentsia types appreciate Russian high culture (“The only foreigners who translated Kim Sowol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Sowol) into their own language are the Russians!” “Russian poetry is soulful and reflects suffering like ours!” etc.).
Some Koreans view Russians as being culturally more similar (“more Asiatic”) than are Western Europeans and North Americans. There is probably some truth to this.
However, in South Korea, Russian men generally have a reputation for being drunks and Russian women are viewed as prostitutes. Many non-Russian European and American women complain about being approached with the question “Are you Russian?” by creepy Korean men while in South Korea (that question in this context is “Are you available for hire?”). This reputation might date from the period immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union when, indeed, South Korea was flooded with Eastern European prostitutes.
I’ve often wondered what would have happened had the Czech 1948 coup not occurred and the planned for 1948 elections taken place. I believe the communist party vote would have plunged, but would Czechoslovakia, which didn’t have Soviet occupying troops at the time, been able to create a free space like Finland?
This mismanagement of allies is probably correct and part of the story – but the main underlying problem is that in 1990s, America was strong and ascendant (economically, militarily and culturally), and Russia was weak. Aside from the economic and increasing military weakness, there was the loss of the ideological basis for managing allies that had been used for the majority of the 20th century.
Even if relations with states like Czechoslovakia had been managed with perfect finesse and competence in the Soviet era, the weakness of the 1990s would not have been forgiven, and movement of former allies like Czech Republic and Slovakia into NATO was an inevitable result of that (whether there had been mismanagement – as was the case – or even in a parallel universe without it).
America is not beloved in Europe. But it is powerful, wealthy and culturally dominant – with full-spectrum dominance during the 1990s. It was always inevitable, considering this, which side these countries would choose.
“Maid cafe – this is the creepy side of Japanese culture.
I’m pretty sure Japanese businessmen want to feel “at home” or “infantilized” in these places after their stress at work – so they will usually prefer one with Japanese girls and Japanese food anyway.
–
What is happening with increasing Japanese cultural power now, is interesting as it increases every year (they have much more influence over teenagers now, than they did ten years ago) despite their decline as an economic power.
With Russia, nothing like this is happening. But perhaps its like the English condition – England was succeeding in a similar way about 50 years ago. And even now, their real power (as a share of the world) falling, while their cultural influence still flourishing.
Lol
I think not. Leftists in Czechoslovakia after 1945 were ascendant, it was the war, poverty, anger at elites, desire for social benefits. Communists got 38% in 1946, socialists another 15%. And the other parties were quasi socialist too. It was the era. Early socialism had very popular policies: suddenly health care was free and available, schools free, jobs plentiful (although badly paid). The downsides with lack of consumer goods, travel, religion, came later. In 1948 communists (and their allied socialists) were popular, they had an effective majority. So the talk of a ‘coup’ is silly; they won the elections, they had massive support.
This is hard to accept for the latter day democrats, so they rewrite history, invent coups and talk nonsense. The truth is that they lost, and were not very popular. How bad do you have to be to lose an election to communists? There is a lesson there somewhere.
This is a complete fabrication. They did not win the elections because the coup occurred prior to the election. Why would you go on record with this level of mendacity. It cripples your ability to be a good Putinist shill when you lie like this.
That said silly low time preference Russians really blew it with the coup by uniting Europe and allowing for a remilitarized Germany. Basically the Cold War was over the second the silly Russians bungled their way into Prague. Will they ever learn? Nope it’s just not in their genes to be ants always gonna grasshopper.
No Stalin was unwilling to accept any non-communist states within the Russian sphere of influence. The Comintern was committed to subverting the Chech government in the event of a anti-communist election result which the Russian officials admitted was basically inevitable because of how shitty the local communist party had behaved in power.
It certainly says a lot about the ill-fated hybrid Austro-Hungarian Empire. But keep in mind that the Habsburg soldiers who took the risk to switch sides were prisoners of war and defectors, not only in Russia, but in Italy and France also (the nucleus of the French were the Czechs and Slovaks volunteers in the French Foreign Legion). Russia resisted the formation of Czech Army until the February Revolution. For all practical purposes the Legions were formed only in 1917, when the idea of dismantling the Habsburg Empire along national lines gained steam and the principles of auto-determination were announced as a war aim by President Woodrow Wilson. Until the war Czechs were mostly operating in the frame work of ‘Austro-Slavism’ and federalization of Austro-Hungary, or a “great Slav empire” under the House of Romanov in which Bohemia would be an autonomous kingdom ruled by some Romanov grand duke. That was the view of Karel Kramar (former Minister of Finances of Austria) was imprisoned during the war for treason. He was disillusioned by the February Revolution and Bolshevism who abandoned any ‘Panslav’ dreams and he therefore abandoned his dreams of Bohemia becoming a Russian fiefdom, joining the Wilsonian line of Masaryk (which initially was the same). So, Czechoslovakia’s independence came rather by accident, becoming the time-bomb for WW2.
Offtopic – it seems Japan’s economy is not so badly, when you factor in their falling population.
Article (direct link paywall)
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/04/09/1523246400000/Japan-s-economic-miracle/
Saved version of article to avoid paywall
https://hghltd.yandex.net/yandbtm?fmode=inject&url=https%3A%2F%2Fftalphaville.ft.com%2F2018%2F04%2F09%2F1523246400000%2FJapan-s-economic-miracle%2F&tld=ru&lang=en&la=1534643968&tm=1535080863&text=https%3A%2F%2Fftalphaville.ft.com%2F2018%2F04%2F09%2F1523246400000%2FJapan-s-economic-miracle%2F&l10n=ru&mime=html&sign=757c8601625185705854b97fc6031277&keyno=0
The English journalist Robert Wilton was rare among westerners in that he had a deep sympathy for the Russian people. His book, Russia’s Agony, told the story of the imposition of Communism in Russia. https://archive.org/details/russiasagony00wiltgoog
When women want to divorce their husband they start reeling off a similar rationalization spiel.
Don’t act like a woman (well, unless you actually are a woman) and start acting like you have testicles.
Blew what exactly? Russia isn’t aiming to rule the world or Europe. Quite the opposite, in fact. That’s a job Russia spent centuries trying to avoid.
I have some Maidainistas in my circle, and one of them was aghast and shocked by the following thing:
Middle aged South Korean man:
“Excuse me, are you Russian?”
Reasonably attractive Maidanista
“NOOOO I AM UKRAINIAN!”
Middle aged South Korean man:
“Ukraine? Great, so you are cheaper then a Russian!”
No, the election that communists won was in 1946. The so-called coup was in 1948. So you are – as anglo ignoramuses often are – either lying or simply out of your depth. Learn something before you aspire to rule the world.
The post WWII elections in Czechoslovakia was in 1946, it was free and communists/socialists won. There were no Soviets in Czechoslovakia in 1946, they came in 1968. Get these basics right.
About the so-called coup in 1948: communists after winning the elections (in 1946!) were the government. There were also non-party members in the government, socialists, and three smaller democratic parties. All by the book. In 1948 the democratic ministers resigned in order to bring down the government, maybe seek a new election, whatever. But they were betrayed by the socialists and the ceremonial president (Benes) who didn’t join them. That was it. After that communists with socialists (who joined them officially) were fully in power. A government cannot stage a ‘coup’ against itself, it is illogical. It was a parliamentary f..k up (by the democrats), not a coup.
Cold War started in 1946-47, before any of this happened. So your mindless musing on ‘Russians blew it’ is beyond uninformed. You seem to live in a completely propaganda created reality. Look into it, it cannot be good for you. Truth is liberating.
The saved version is not working…
Good thing they portray sexuality, because Japan apparently has little normal male-female sex otherwise. They’re even more emotionally stunted genetic deadenders than modern white people. So distracted by frivolous and bizarre nonsense that they can’t be bothered to do the hard noble work of having children. You know, actually perpetuate their families and their nation. But hey, that anime is cool.
The Comintern was dissolved in 1943.
You are wrong. Japanese tfr is somewhat higher than in most European countries. It’s also slowly inching up. And they have basically no immigrants other than the Koreans.
Don’t worry about them, worry about white peoples.
Doesn’t seem factual. Apparently here has been a drastic reduction in alcoholism and vodka consumption in Russia in the last 15-20 years. One of my Russkie cousins can confirm with data, hopefully; I’ve seen it here on unz recently. Old stereotypes (this one quite accurate until recently) die hard, and that’s understandable to some degreee.
As for violent boorishness, which government has engaged in more nondefensive, nonretsliatory attacks, invasions, occupations, drownings, bombings around the world in the last 25-30 years, Russia or the USA?
It was doomed once it was obvious that Habsburgs were incapable of moderating the more nationalist Magyar and German desires. More than 50% of Austria-Hungary were different Slavic nations, and demography matters.
Today there is a lot of careful language about the brutality of Habsburg Empire. Karel Kramar and the top Czech leaders were all sentenced for treason to death, they were not just in jail. The old Emperor fortunately died in 1916 and the new Emperor was reluctant to sign the execution orders – that’s how they survived. But they were in jail. Thousands of people were killed, including soldiers, tens of thousands were in jails for disloyalty or expressing wrong views. It is today unpopular to mention it, all we hear are the brutalities that followed later in the 20th century. An impression is created that was an anomaly, but it was not, it grew organically out of some very brutal policies by the previous elites.
You’re right, I AM worried most about white European peoples, my ancestral peoples.
But Japan either has a TFR at replacement or it doesn’t. It doesn’t,
The fact that white populations are shrinking and aging doesn’t ameliorate or change the fact that Japan’s Native population is also shrinking and aging drastically. The salient difference is that Japan has been wise and brave enough to refuse Muslims, Africans.
Japan and Europe are dying out, with Europe being actively colonized by hostile alien races. Yes, I’d rather have Japan’s near future than europe’s. But the Japanese people need to turn it around demographically and in terms of self-respect and confidence as well.
That’s DRONINGS….
Correct, I cover it in my demographics uodates. The Russian alcoholization epidemic is bad, but from the 1970s to the 2000s it was catastrophic.
Sam is an American boomer who strongly dislikes Russia. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it does I think color his perceptions of Russia realities to a large degree. (John Derbyshire has a similar complex, I think).
It was partially free. Essentially, the Soviets thought they had it in the bag, and did not try as hard as they would have in another less atheistic country. The result was actually considered an embarrassment, since it wasn’t a majority.
The communist didn’t actually win the elections in 1946. I just assumed you were a liar not a senile old fossil. My mistake gramps. Maybe some fish oil with the prune juice old timer.
I’m twenty seven Anatoly. Yes that probably makes me your youngest reader but that’s kind of an Unz problem most likely. This isn’t a site that attracts many people who aren’t cankered with self hatred after years of disappointment and loneliness.
It’s hilarious the assumptions you make about people. I’d love to know what you based this comical assumption on.
FT has a filter, so you have to sign in, if the article is not accessed via search engine, and I guess Yandex saved link only remains for a few hours.
If you write “Japan’s economic miracle | FT Alphaville” into search engine and the article is accessible there.
I won’t copy whole article – just the first part.
Just to focus on minor point in this article.
On this forum a few weeks ago, Felix and AP were having an argument about GDP of Ukraine.
Felix argument was that GDP between countries were not always perfectly comparable, because services in Ukraine are worst, but for GDP PPP will be equalized. And this is interesting in this article they also discuss this: “But the quality of services and technology also made a difference to living standards. To GDP, an elegant Mitsukoshi department store was the same as a Walmart, and a clapped-out British commuter train did just as well as a Japanese Shinkansen travelling at 200mph and arriving with a punctuality measured in fractions of a second.”
It’s also the same kind of thing which applies in Russia – why living standard in Russia is often lower compared to Japan, than GDP PPP difference indicates (services in Japan are better, but will have the same value in GDP figures).
I mean do you even find this sour grapes argument compelling. Russia made a bid to be the global hegemon and got curb stomped. If pulling the we weren’t trying to win anyways gambit makes you feel better by all means- not less pleasant than Russian with his ego shattered but don’t try and convince me of something you can’t even possibly believe yourself.
While strange Japanese and white people wile their lives away WATCHING sex, most of the rest of the world is actually HAVING sex — normal, procreative sex between a man and a woman, which is apparently outmoded and uptight in the West and too icky for the Japanese.
So, the lands held by white and Japanese people will eventually not be ours, pretty soon in the case of most european countries, probably much later for Japan.
Enjoy the costumes as our peoples die out.
Japan still not even coming close to avoiding massive population loss:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/06/21/editorials/fertility-rate-dips/
I don’t give nations that try and swing their dick around when they are strong credit for not being aggressive when they were weak. For the period from 1945 to 1973 (after 1973 the USSR realized they were cooked) when the us and the USSR were roughly at parity in terms of strength the record of the USSR was infinitely more blood-soaked and thuggish. The fact that the USSR got curb stomped and thus couldn’t feed its people much less bully it’s neighbors for twenty years after 1991 doesn’t warrant praise. Much less does Russia deserve credit for not having developed drone technology and instead having to rely on radiation poisoning. Hegemony comes with violence Russia wanted desperately to be the hegemon- but Russia didn’t have the will or the brains to pull it off. Human wave attacks and shooting your troops if they retreat might work against a county the size of Germany but it just isn’t gonna be enough to take down a big dog like the US. Dems da breaks.
I don’t hate myself, my beautiful intelligent and loving wife, our multiple children, or my successful career. But you can keep on guessing and slandering total strangers.
If I were to respond in kind, foolishly, the usual tired rhetoric is “why don’t you get out of your mom’s basement….” Stupid all Around, isn’t it?
Having said that, good to see a younger guy on here, invite your friends. In time you’ll realize that one can be quite successful economically and personally, and still rightfully get indignant, pissed off, crotchety, frightened, resentful, name a negative emotion, about the accelerating decline of our nations.
Also, if you haven’t had any serious disappointments and setbacks by the time you reach middle age, you probably haven’t been trying enough things!
Alcoholism is elevated in Russia. But since we are talking about Japan.
17% (both sexes) have “alcohol use disorder” in Russia.
29% of men in Russia have (what WHO call) “heavy episodic drinking”.
In Japan by comparison.
28% of Japanese men have “heavy episodic drinking” (according to WHO).
And Japan has still the highest life expectancy in the world – yet heavy episodic drinking for Japanese men not less than for Russian men.
–
So some heavy episodic drinking (at least), is not the reason for differences in life expectancy here. (Japanese men are doing heavy drinking at the same rates).
Cominform not really a typo that made my meaning at all unclear but whatever
Ok you are one of the exceptions I guess which i provided for in my comment- which again was in response to a weird baseless insinuation by AK and as such was intentionally somewhat aggressive.
How you could possibly construe slander from a comment that wasn’t even directed at you does make it apparent where you hyper defensiveness of Russia comes from though. And contra AK I don’t really hate Russia either- I just match the tone of anti-Americanism with a similar tone of anti-Russian sentiment. I’m a big believer in reciprocity- the worst motives are attributed to the US here and so turn about is fair play.
I share your hatred of anime though so I’ll end on that somewhat conciliatory note.
You have a point there, up to a point.
I’m not naive enough to be confident that Russia wouldn’t be more aggressive and expansionist if it had the power to do so without terrible consequences for itself.
Besides, like the USA and China, the Russians often didn’t acquire that large territory peacefully. (The Chinese presumably well remember this, as to the Russian far East.). That’s the way of the world.
As for radiation poisoning, the facts as we know them so far don’t seem to support Russia poisoning the skripals. The case against Russia seems embarrassingly weak, with circumstances pointing more likely to a false flag by formerly-great formerly Britain. Or are you referring to Alexander Litvinenko from 2006 (a case I know less about)?
The result for Japan is they have to work until they are older. And they will have some financial problems.
On the other hand, the labour shortage results in very low unemployment rates.
This year they are allowing a gasterbeiter program, from China, Vietnam and Nepal (of 500,000 workers).
But the workers are going to be for jobs which Japanese probably are too skilled to work anyway (agricultural jobs). And they are not giving them Japanese citizenship, but some kind of shortterm work visa.
The graph in this article is adjusting for age population 15-64.
So relative to number of people in this age group, Japan’s GDP per capita is growing really fast. Economic activity of Japanese working age population is growing faster than any other major economy. (Just total real GDP not growing very much, as the population in this age group is falling).
Japan has plenty of sex: active red light districts. Having children, though, not so much.
That’s a problem with modernity and urbanity in general, compounded by having a low time preference to maximize investment into children(both time and money) for status maximization; unsurprisingly, the one Japanese province that briefly was able to double its TFR was agricultural, and a huge amount of the funding went into agri subsidies. Cities and crowding just are toxic to family formation, even for Asians.
Sam Haysom. God, what a stupid name. Who named you, some halfwit with a stutter?
You’re not the youngest, and even if you really are twenty-seven, if you talk like a Boomer, don’t be surprised that people think you are one.
I love comments like this. Not even trying to hide the fact I’m kicking your ass with facts and under your no doubt wrinkled and oily skin.
I agree you kind of talk like a pedophile so I’ve always just assumed you were one. It will take a lot to dissuade me of such.
I was referring Litveneniko case and i wasn’t being entirely serious. I do believe that if Russia has pioneered drone technology they would be using it in a similar manner to the US.
I’m pretty sure that Spisarevski could outdrink you IRL.
Undoubtedly unlike the bulk of Puritan descendents I’ve kept to the old ways. Heavy drinking once you’ve left college is pretty silly.
Actually over 500 alone died whilst in the uranium mines. Over 80,00o were sentenced by the Communist authorities to penal servitude in the uranium mines. The death figures do not include those who died after their sentence. Given the dismal working conditions, this must have been many thousands.
http://ceskapozice.lidovky.cz/czech-historian-produces-death-tally-for-communist-uranium-camps-p9q-/tema.aspx?c=A120405_111622_pozice_62798
The Government Institute of Memory is obviously far from comprehensive. Very likely from the fact that the Czech State is still very much in the business of uranium mining.
Oops at Beckow *41
Mao stalled China’s development by 20 years in 2 separate ways.
Rejecting a subordinate junior partner role with the Soviet Union after 1960. The Soviet Union had offered China vast technical assistance and loans in the 1950s and the results were very evident in rapid industrialization. CIA estimates put technical assistance in 1959 at cumulatively 3 billion dollars. That’s like 5% of Soviet GDP in 1960? https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000313442.pdf
Rather than being hostile to Russians based on the Cold War, Chinese should recognize how dumb it was to be led by Mao in destroying the one helping hand that could have quickly assisted in industrializing China.
#bringit
Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening
Does this kind of trash talk work on Sailer’s side of the fence?
So much for your stated love of reciprocity. You make wanton assumptions about people in this thread alone, yet when certain assumptions about you are made based on how you talk generally you get very defensive.
I’d love to see some demonstrations of my defensiveness. This kind of projection it’s the kind of thing that might get you called a Jew around these parts. Tread carefully.
It does make it unclear because it makes a difference. The Comintern was practically liquidated by Stalin during his ‘Great Purge’.
The Declaration of the Executive Committee of the Comintern of 5 May 1943 stating that “long before the war it became increasingly clear that, to the extent that the internal as well as the international situation of individual countries became more complicated, the solution of the problems of the labor movement of each individual country through the medium of some international centre would meet with insuperable obstacles”, asked the member sections to approve:
“To dissolve the Communist International as a guiding centre of the international labor movement, releasing sections of the Communist International from the obligations ensuing from the constitution and decisions of the Congresses of the Communist International”.
Stalin could not accept a ‘non-communist’ country within Russian sphere of influence for geopolitical reasons. Czechoslovakia was not in the Russian ‘sphere of influence’, but the Russians could not let it to fall into the sphere of influence of the ‘West’. The Czechoslovak Communist Party was not operating on a Cominternist platform anymore, although full of former Cominternists, who were liquidated in the Slanski ‘show trials’ for ‘Trotskyite-Titoite-Zionist conspiracy’. The Communists were not imposed by the Russians, who evacuated Czechoslovakia in December 1945, but elected in a certainly not rigged elections in 1946. It was a self-inflicted blow.
“I don’t give nations that try and swing their dick around when they are strong credit for not being aggressive when they were weak.”
Now this is where you are wrong.
First of all, you are confusing USSR and RF.
Secondly, I don’t think USSR was weak to the point that disintegration was inevitable. It actually had the support of the solid majority of its population.
It was a conscious, and very naive, decision taken, I’d say, in good faith, to end its existence.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the naked aggressiveness and the unbearable hypocrisy of the West, in contrast to the good faith and peaceful nature of Soviet Union’s disintegration, has put the ball firmly in the American court. That is entirely your fault.
Now, US is seems to be in similar situation as the former USSR, not being able to control and maintain its empire. Will USA show similar grace and good faith?
Hahahaha that’s not defensive that’s just applying your stupid logic right back onto the sloppy mind it came out of. You sound infitinely more like the kind of guy who preys on underage girls (maybe it’s not intentional maybe you are just lonely) than I do a Boomer. Clearly I hit some kind of nerve though.
Those numbers are not supported by any actual documents. They are purely ‘one old lady said‘ kind of semi-nonsense talk. Czech government has spent a lot of effort digging through all available documents and there is nothing there about ‘500 alone died in mines…’. It is not true in a way you describe it.
I am sure some people working in the mines died. And some got sick. By the way, working in coal mines was almost as dangerous all over the world at that time. But that is a very loose definition of ‘victims of communism’. I hate to be flippant, but by that logic literally thousands (maybe millions) of people who died premature death in capitalist (or feudal) societies because of over-work, bad working conditions, or simply accidents, should be listed as ‘victims of capitalism’. Life has been tough for most people, most of the time. You cannot have a different standard and excuse deaths caused by working conditions in the West, and demonise them elsewhere. It is nonsensical.
Over to you vma..
Lol Google Docs. Speaking of which, Google is a very anti-China company. Much influenced by the background of co-founder Sergey Brin.
Recently, I migrated some of my stuff from Google Docs to Weiyun, Tencent’s cloud storage service. (See https://gmachine1729.com/2018/07/29/a-kudos-to-weiyun-%E5%BE%AE%E4%BA%91-tencents-awesome-cloud-storage/.) 3 TB storage for only 10 RMB (< $2) / month. Too good to pass, so I set up WeChat Pay in the process too. Since you love China so much, maybe you can also switch away from Google. Yes, for email, I set up a foxmail.com (also Tencent) account too, and use it now for my personal exchanges. I've also told some Chinese lately that they shouldn't exactly trust Gmail or Google with their personal information.
Anatoly’s output has been considerable in the last couple of weeks. This is now a dated piece. However, I think I can add some additional information and perspective.
Most histories of the revolutionary period in the Russian parts of the Russian Empire (1905-1918) focus on St Petersburg with some comment about Moscow. There is almost nothing in English about events in the provinces. It turns out that one of the few exceptions, the only one I know of, where a professional historian has considered the provinces, concerns Saratov, my base in Russia. The historian is Donald Raleigh.
Saratov during this period was the third biggest city in what is now Russia. It was a wealthy service, food processing and port centre for the Russian part of the Black earth region with major exports to Germany. The provincial boundaries are larger than they are now and included Tsaritsin (Volgograd). The countryside was inhabited by Great Russians, Little Russians (arguably the original Slav settlers, certainly in the West), Germans, Tatars and Mordavians (a sort of Finn and the original inhabitants). despite being on some of the poorest land, the Germans, who held land privately, noticeably outproduced the Russians. Saratov contributed two important personalities to the revolutionary period. Peter Stolypin, a conservative who might have saved the Russian Empire and Alexander Kerensky, a founder of the Russian Labour Party which then merged with the Social Revolutionaries. He was prevented from creating a democratic socialist Russia by the Bolsheviks.
The serfs (slaves) were partially emancipated in 1861 but it was a failed emancipation. They were not given personal ownership of land. Serf communities held land in common. This meant that they were obliged to pay rent and taxes as a community. This led to the community regularly reassigning land to the households in proportion to the available labour force. Private purchase was discouraged. The periodic reassignment meant that land improvement such as adding manure was neglected. productivity was low. Saratov because of its German heritage had an unusually large number of Free Peasants who owned their land on a private basis.
Stolypin, born in Dresden of a wealthy Russian family with very storng influence in Saratov province, noticed that the peasants with the private plots, not just the Germans, outproduced the communal peasants. When appointed Governor in 1903, he immediately introduced land reforms that allowed peasants to permanently assign community land to private owners and other measures to encourage land ownership. Stolypin seems to have been given authority beyond Saratov as he had powers to introduce his reforms along the Volga from Kazan to Astrakhan and inland to Penza and Voronezh. The reforms were popular with the richest peasants who prospered mightily and the very poorest who immediately sold their land (allowing rich peasants in communities that did not agree to divide their land to go private anyway). The resulting inequalities were not popular with the Communal Peasants.
In Saratov, the 1905 revolution was not particularly strong in the city. It was strong in the countryside. However, Stolypin did not use the army to suppress the revolution. he already had the best organized police force in Russia. The identities of the rebel leaders were known. A few castrations later and the rural rebellion lost its momentuum. Stolypin also took charge of antirevolutionary tactics in neighbouring provinces using the same punishment scheme. The rural rebellion faded away. There was an urban rebellion too. In this case, Stolypin left Saratov for a few days. While Stolypin was away, the Black Hundreds, a grouping of Orthodox Church members from the richer peasantry and the petty bourgeois took over the city. They faded away when Stolypin returned. Somehow, the revolutionaries had disappeared. Stolypin used the Black Hundreds in other urban communities, not just in Saratov. The provinces controlled directly or indirectly by Stolypin were the ones most quickly brought to order in 1905.
After this, Stolypin was swiftly promoted to teh national government and started to introduce his land reform project across Russia. It was amazingly successful, In five years, grain production rose 14%. Back in Saratov, 25% of the peasants converted to Stolypin Peasants. Stolypin hanged so many opposition members that the noose came to be called Stolypin’s necktie. He was assassinated in 1911 possibly in a plot arranged by Rasputin with whom he violently disagreed. He left behind him a system for electing Duma Representatives that was heavily based on property ownership.
Kerensky was born in Ulyanosk, a small city further up the Volga than Saratov. His parents were school teachers. They taught the young Lenin. The boys and the families were friends. Kerensky moved to Volsk, across the river from Saratov. He founded the Russian Labour party, a moderate socialist party like its UK namesake. As a democratic socialist he escaped Stolipyn’s worst attentions. his manhood remained intact, although he did secretly ally with the SR’s in 1905. He was elected to the national Duma as the representative for Volsk in 1912. The party had to buy him a house to give him the property qualifications to stand as a member. he was exactly the sort of person Stolypin had been trying to keep out.
The February Revolution in Petrograd spread to Saratov by way of the Military. There were 150,000 soldiers in the city and half a million under control of the Saratov commanders in a region from Kazan to Astrakhan. The soldiers, mostly young officers, formed a Military Committee to democratize rather than replace the chain of command. Their first acts were to arrest the Tsarist Governor, the senior police officers and the leaders of the Black Hundreds across the province. Other provinces followed later, although in Volgograd, the Social Democrats (in the Volga Region the split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks was not particularly important at this point) made the running.
The City Duma, as intended by Stolypin, was not particularly democratic, being restricted to property owners. It was felt that while the Duma should continue and run the city for day to day administration, there should be a more democratic body to represent the Provisional Government in Saratov. So, a Provisional Executive Committee was formed. This was a mixture of ex officio candidates, mostly Duma members and notable lawyers and representatives from self appointed “democratic” bodies such as the Military Committee (dominated by SRs at this time), some SD’s mostly nominallly Bolshevik from a rival but not very powerful Soviet set up by the SD’s and of course the SR’s themselves who were dominant. So Saratov city and military district was more or less securely under the control of Kerensky loyalists. Only in Volgograd were the SD’s genuinely significant. Kubiyshev in Samara was making a name for himself as one of the few committed Bolsheviks in the region. The army in Saratov included the 3rd and 4th machine gun regiments, essentially half of the best equipped troops in the Russian army. Meanwhile in the countryside, the Communal Peasants and the Stolypin Peasants, including Little Russian speakers and Germans were at war with each other. Deserters from the army were everywhere trying to hold on to their entitlement to land at risk because would be Stolypin peasants might redistribute the land while they were at the front.
Then Lenin returned to Russia. Within days of his arrival on 3 April, his two sisters arrived in Saratov. Suddenly the Bolsheviks became an identifiable group. They had access to resources. The Military Committee voted to join the Soviet and withdrew support for the Provisional Executive Committee. There was now a real struggle for political control of the city. Large numbers of Latvian and Lithuanian workers in Saratov for the war, joined the Bolsheviks (a pattern here Anatoly?). Frontniki in the countryside suddenly became organized and formed Soviets to take over the Zemstovi. Some of this was a response by the soldiers to Kerensky’s proposal to continue the war. Even in Saratov that was not popular. The military switched from 3/4 SR to 2/3 Bolshevik. Could Lenin’s sisters have brought German gold with them? No one is really sure. Unlike in Petrograd, until Lenin’s sisters arrived, the SR’s were always dominant, the Soviet weak. Even in the elections to the Constituent Assembly held after the October Revolution the SR’s gained 56% of the Saratov provincial vote while the Bolsheviks took 24%, their national average. The Ukrainian nationalists at 5% came third, just ahead of German autonomists at 4.6%. However, as elsewhere, the Bolsheviks were heavily concentrated amongst industrial workers in the city. In the city, the Bolsheviks won with 37% of the vote (+7% Mensheviks) with the Kadets in second place at 20%.
I haven’t finished the civil war part but it seems the Bolsheviks only held on because of the machine gun regiments. Saratov and Volgograd were taken by force, not public acclamation. The countryside and large parts of the military declared for the whites. All the towns of the province other than Saratov, where there was death on the streets and Volgograd, where there was a bloodless coup d’etat, were taken by the Whites or Cossacks (Tsarists). Kubishev’s Bolsheviks in Samara had a similar close shave. The Bolsheviks had the strategic advantage of enjoying support in key communication centres. They were not the People’s Choice. More like the German High Command’s. It was the narrowest of undeserved victories.
And per person in work, it is even stronger.
Not to mention Cheburashka (a literary character made by the late Eduard Uspensky) is popular in Japan. I’d be thankful if Mr. Karlin would tell us how he came to his conclusion.