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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Confidant6198@lemmy.ml to c/comics@lemmy.ml
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[-] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This is completely false. It was seat of Crimean Khanate, vassal of Ottoman Empire, which was also hostile to Poland, Russia AND cossacks. And "deeply intertwined with the Ukrainian economy" was mostly looting, kidnapping, raping and murdering Ruthenian peasants (ancestors of both Ukrainians and local Russians) as part of one of biggest historical slave trades which Russia ended when it conquered that blight of humanity Khanate was.

Your post is deeply ahistorical, disgusting and borders on slavery apologia, and you should be ashamed.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago

That's even further back. I'm talking about the period when the Russian empire controlled the territory. During that time (+100 years), there was far more economic integration with the Ruthenians than there was with Russia proper. It made more logistical sense, it's the same reason for which Crimea was ceded to Ukraine by the Soviets, Kiev due to its positioning was better suited to administratively control it.

The tsar sought to increase his influence over the region and began the process of russification, to tie the valuable region to Russia proper. The Soviets accelerated this, as they did in most of the other Soviet states.

Also thanks to ml mods to shut down any discussion. Come on, you're better than just censoring comments.

[-] Objection@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

The Soviets accelerated this

Do you have any supporting evidence whatsoever for the claim that Russiafication was worse under the Soviets than under the tsar? Because if not, the mods are well within their rights to remove your unsupported claims as misinformation.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago

Sure, here's a source: https://archive.org/details/acrossmoscowrive00brai

The Soviets pursued korenization initially, which actually revived efforts towards Ukrainization. But this was later stopped and reversed to pursue a single Soviet identity with the Russian language. Ukrainian culture was suppressed and even Ukrainian membership of the communist party declined sharply. Russification intensified under Khrushchev and later Brezhnev.

[-] Objection@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Sure, here’s a source: https://archive.org/details/acrossmoscowrive00brai

That's an entire book, about an entirely different topic, written by the British ambassador working in the last few years of the USSR.

Do you at least have a page number where he compares Ukraine during the USSR compared to Tsarist Russia? It is specifically the claim that Donbass was was more heavily suppressed than in Tsarist Russia that I'm disputing.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago

Page 151 has what you're looking for:

The reality was, of course, that Russian and later Soviet imperial rule was at least as brutal as that of other imperial powers. In their campaigns of Russification the Tsars imprisoned and exiled Finns, Ukrainians, and others who dared to practise their national language and sustain a national culture. The Communists continued the practice even more brutally under the guise of eradicating ‘bourgeois nationalism’. Large numbers of intellectuals, especially in Ukraine and the Baltic States, were killed or exiled by Stalin. Under his successors the executions were fewer but the pressures continued. Communist Parties, with their own local First Secretaries, existed in all the fifteen constituent republics of the Union save for Russia itself. Russians saw this as discrimination. In fact it was a sign that the Russians did not need their own party, since they dominated the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and exercised effective central control over the republican parties. Throughout the Soviet period discontent flared up from time to time in one or other of the constituent republics, and was brutally suppressed.

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago

You trust an anti-communist british ambassador at their word?

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

I trust someone who was actually there more than a random user on the internet, yes. If you have a source that shows the opposite, feel free to share.

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago

You're not going to find many books to the effect of, "see how hegemonic we aren't", so you mainly need to look at how the ussr treated republics within it, and especially preserved national minorities.

The USSR academy of sciences published works in many languages, same for the state publishing houses.

There are also some longer works on the languages of the USSR, because there was such a diversity of them and the constitution mandated their protection, but I haven't read them.

Compare with the US (wiped out every indigenous language), or the UK (tried to do the same for Irish and Welsh). It's always projection with these anticommunist westerner historians.

You can see the diversity here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Soviet_Union

[-] jhavok@mstdn.party 2 points 1 month ago

@dessalines @ChairmanMeow Why won't those ungrateful Ukrainians just surrender to Putin's kindly embrace?

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

Eastern Ukrainians weren't grateful to be bombed by NATO-funded banderites for several years in the donbass, nor were most Ukrainians glad to have their government overthrown in a US-backed coup in 2014.

[-] jhavok@mstdn.party 1 points 1 month ago

@dessalines And yet they still fight Putin. Go figure.

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

No they don't lmao. You're literally crying about Russia supporting Donbas secession.

They're the ones resisting Ukraine, they've been doing it since 2014.

[-] mathemachristian 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Surrender? The people of donbass already voted to secede before the raf got involved directly. They don't want to be a part of Ukraine.

[-] jhavok@mstdn.party 1 points 1 month ago
[-] mathemachristian 3 points 1 month ago
[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

Whenever Russia comes up these comments sections devolve into putting the lib in madlibs.

Just nonsensical word salad from people trying to remember what looked like a zinger in another comment section but not knowing when to say it because they didn't know shit then and they sure didn't bother to learn, so they don't know shit now either.

[-] mathemachristian 3 points 1 month ago

madlibs is such a good way of phrasing it, they learn some phrases with a set of conditions for when to use it like and then simply insert keywords. Like an akinator of epic clapbacks.

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

To be fair, it’s a winning strategy on Reddit and almost every other social media platform in the imperial core.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

Perhaps also read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification then, which is linked on that page. It explains how the Soviets:

  • Forced other languages to use cyrillic if they didn't before, aligning the spelling of words with Russian
  • Made Russian a mandatory subject in schools
  • In mostly urban areas made sure education was primarily provided in Russian
  • Made indigenous people learn Russian, but Russian immigrants to those areas did not learn the indigenous language there

These were all policies aimed at "unifying" the various cultures in the Soviet Union and strengthening control.

Early Soviet Union is as you described, promoting various cultures and languages. Lenin saw that as a way to gain favour with the local populations. Later leaders however went down a different path.

[-] Objection@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

I wonder if you'd apply the same standard in reverse. If a Chinese ambassador says something about the US, should I just take them at their word with no further evidence, until someone can prove that their claim is wrong?

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

If said Chinese ambassador wrote a book that was also sourced (like this British ambassador's book is in a fair few places), their claims aren't disputed by any factual evidence and is generally corroborated by historians, I'd be inclined to believe them yes.

I wouldn't expect said ambassador to have a scientific study backing up every single sentence in the book. If he's writing about his experiences, that can be a valuable perspective on things. I wouldn't treat it as gospel necessarily but I can still apply critical thinking to ascertain whether or not they're a credible source.

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

Ok, point at those fair few (lmao) places. That was the original question.

Spare us the hot dogging, show us verifiable facts or shut up.

[-] Objection@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 month ago

The reality was, of course, that Russian and later Soviet imperial rule was at least as brutal as that of other imperial powers. In their campaigns of Russification the Tsars imprisoned and exiled Finns, Ukrainians, and others who dared to practise their national language and sustain a national culture. The Communists continued the practice even more brutally under the guise of eradicating ‘bourgeois nationalism’.

So the British ambassador asserts that the Soviets did the same thing as the Tsars but it was "more brutal." What, specifically, does "more brutal" mean here? As in, more people affected? What were the numbers? Where did he get those? Am I just expected to take his word for it?

Large numbers of intellectuals, especially in Ukraine and the Baltic States, were killed or exiled by Stalin. Under his successors the executions were fewer but the pressures continued.

This is kind of interesting considering that you've claimed that the repression was most severe under his successors.

Communist Parties, with their own local First Secretaries, existed in all the fifteen constituent republics of the Union save for Russia itself. Russians saw this as discrimination.

Where does this information come from? Were there polls on whether Russians saw this as discrimination? Or is it anecdotal/vibes based, something that the British ambassador simply assumes the Russians must have felt?

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

This is kind of interesting considering that you've claimed that the repression was most severe under his successors.

I claimed the russification process was more severe, not the executions. It's well known that as a part of destalinization the executions largely stopped. That doesn't mean the Union stopped promoting russification.

If you have a source that claims the opposite, feel free to share it.

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

You're making the claims, you get the source. It's really not that hard.

You don't have a source? It's ok. Don't make claims, only repeat things you checked the source for.

No investigation, no right to speak.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

I've already provided a source.

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago

You provided a second claim from somebody else. That's not a source. Sources include verifiable facts.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

If you actually bothered to read the book at least a little bit, you'd have read he actually sources a fair bit.

He's also providing an eyewitness account from his time there. I'm not sure how much more primary you want to get.

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

If you had actually bothered to link the specific instances where he sources those claims, we would have read them.

But you didn't, because you probably didn't read a book you want us to go on a wild goose chase for. Eyewitness accounts from anglos are only good enough to wipe your ass with and even then there's better alternatives.

No facts then? Cool, I thought so.

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

That's... A claim, not a source. A printed claim is still a claim ffs.

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

The soviets did not expand russification, it was the opposite. They preserved and made official tons of minority languages (yiddish comes to mind), even establishing publishing houses in these languages. In addition to the SSRs that preserved the national identities and cultures of the given republics, the soviets instituted protections for minorities within these ssrs.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago

Initially this is absolutely true! Under Lenin particularly this was very much promoted "indiginenisation" iirc it's best translated as in English. But particularly under Khrushchev and later Breznhnev this very much changed, focusing on the single Soviet identity.

They didn't really prosecute these minorities mind, just very much promoted the Soviet culture and Russian language in a large variety of ways.

[-] Grapho@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

Not two comments ago you were saying the soviets accelerated the Tsarist policies of forced russification. Either you know fuck all about Tsarist Russia and it's pogroms (and thus you're doing genocide apologia) or you don't know shit about the Soviet Union. Either way you should stop commenting on it and replying like you're aware of everything and that's just the thing you meant.

Unless, of course, disinfo is the point.

[-] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

Tsarist Russia started with the russification process. The Soviets initially under Lenin reversed course, but this later changed under Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev. They accelerated the process. None of this is contradictory to what I've said.

The pogroms in tsarist Russia are horrible acts of genocide, but they were fairly simply anti-Jewish in nature. They were not a part of the russification process and should be considered separate. Hence when I compare the russification between tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, I'm obviously not taking any pogroms into consideration. It's horrible, but unrelated to the subject at hand.

[-] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You dont get to post vibes base ahistoric nonsense (like you again did) then cry about mods "censoring" you.

this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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