Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Russia, "Ssh! Don't mention the revolution!"
Chatham House ^ | 2017 | Konstantin von Eggert

Posted on 08/11/2017 7:48:50 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a country in which history plays a pivotal role in maintaining the legitimacy of the political regime. Putin sees himself as a leader that has given the Russians back their sense of pride. Ever since becoming president in 2000 he has been hard at work at whitewashing the Soviet period of Russian history and creating an uninterrupted narrative linking the Romanov Empire, the USSR and modern Russia. Not unlike the official French version of history, Putin’s Russian story is all about greatness – but with a twist. While France with all its respect for l’etat still sees itself as the cradle of human rights and dignity, Putin’s version of Russian history is all about the glory of the state and the people’s perennial readiness to sacrifice themselves for it.

For such a narrative, 1917 is a particularly tricky moment. On the one hand, older people, those who remember the Soviet Union, still see it as ‘their’ state. For them, 1917 is a date when this state came into being. These people also happen to be the bedrock of Putin’s support. They tend to see Vladimir Lenin in a positive light. But for most of these citizens, the revolution is rather a part of their Soviet nostalgia than a call to arms. For a significant minority – mostly the electorate of the Communist Party of Russia – it is still a shining example of social justice at a time when Russia, according to a 2015 report by Credit Suisse, is the most unequal among the world’s major economies with the richest 10 per cent owning 87 per cent of all the country’s wealth.

(Excerpt) Read more at chathamhouse.org ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1917; commies; history; puppets; putin; putinsbuttboys; russia; russiasucks; vladimirputin; vladtheimploder; ww3
"On the other hand, the Russian Orthodox Church, quite justifiably, sees 1917 as the year militant atheism triumphed and nearly destroyed religious life in Russia. At the same time its condemnation of the Communist regime that ruled in Russia for the best half of the 20th century is not wholehearted. Patriarch Kirill regularly calls on the Russians to recognize the ‘positive sides’ of the Soviet period of history..."

"...What could have been the year of an honest national conversation about overcoming the tragic past and charting a course towards the future turned into 12 months of tepid enforcement of an imaginary national unity by the leadership that fears historical truth and likes to construct historical myths."

1 posted on 08/11/2017 7:48:50 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

Russia’s GDP is only slightly higher than that of Mexico.

Apparently they have mucho (a Rooskie term for Mueller to ponder...) legacy military hardware.


2 posted on 08/11/2017 8:03:13 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose
Konstantin von Eggert is a longtime Russian journalist from the firm Communist controlled days of Izvestia and Pravda to modern Leftist Russian Journalism and agencies. He runs with the European Elitist Globalist Intelligentsia, and cares about average Ivan and his family as much as American Democrats and Republicans care about Joe Average and his family.

Konstantin is dismayed that a Russian leader would try to bring Russians together instead of set them against each other.

Likely Russia will have to work very hard for unity until the portions of the population that built their lives under Communism age out and die off to rid Russia of the old influence.

Russia was the first victim of Bolshevik Communism, and the first culture to knock it 's evil influence back a whole Hell of a lot after eighty years in power. I may take 'em eighty years to get rid of all of it. At least they're actively trying.

3 posted on 08/11/2017 8:50:05 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (America returns to the Rule of Law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Paladin2

>Russia’s GDP is only slightly higher than that of Mexico.

They also happen to be the only western state that’s reproducing. Russia’s always been an economic backwater, but as it stands now they’re lot more likely to survive as a white and Christian nation that most of Europe.


4 posted on 08/11/2017 11:16:19 PM PDT by JohnyBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot

You may be right about Von Eggert, but Putin is no anti-Soviet and he set the Soviet detox process back. Way back. It was sad for me see while living there for a year. I had initially come in giving him the benfit of the doubt.


5 posted on 08/11/2017 11:31:50 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JohnyBoy

JohnyBoy, you need to live there as I have. Any true patriot of America and lover of Russia and her people would not be pleased with the moral havoc the Putin regime hath wrought.

Other facts:

Russia has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world. The practice was embedded in the Soviet culture..(The Soviet Union was the first modern country to legalize it in 1920s.) Yes things are getting better now as is life expectancy, which if you do your research, is currently akin to that of North Korea at 70 years old.

The fastest reproducing demographic in Russia is Muslim. Muslims are even the majority in parts of the Chechen and Volga regions/Tatarstan. Chechnya is effectively a semi independent Islamic-theo fascist state led by Putin’s pal Kadyrov, while the Muslim population in the Volga are isolated from both the Russian state and the Chechen state and has therefore been a hotbed of radicalization and ISIS recruitment.

In case you needed any reminding, terrorism has taken the lives of more citizens in Russia than the recent scares in neighboring Europe. Remember the bombing of hundreds of schoolchildren Beslan? (2004) and more recent ones as well. (The metro bombing in St. Petersburg last April barely registered on the Western media due to Trump and the faux collusion coverage.

Russia’s land mass spans 9 time zones yet they have half the population of the USA and the same brithrate as much smaller European countries.

More Muslims populate Moscow than any European city.

Russia relies heavily on its economic and military partnerships with Iran and Syria.

Some notes:
* Ilan Berman, a Soviet-born Ukrainian-American (who is also quite compliemntary of the Trump administration’s appproach to Russia thusfar) is a great go-to expert with regard to the Russian demographic crisis and the country’s relationship with the Middle East and China.

* As a Christian, I do not believe Christianity is an ethnicity. It is by Faith we are saved. Jesus will lead Muslims to himself as well. Hence the countless conversions in the Muslim world taking place as we speak.


6 posted on 08/11/2017 11:56:50 PM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: JohnyBoy

Also to add to my first response to your message:

In addition to the Soviet holdover culture of abortion and the demographic crisis posed by an increasingly radicalizing and reproducing Muslim minority,

Russia is in the middle of a major HIV epidemic. Currently one of the only places in the world where rates are rising not declining. Feel free to look up what Evgeny Roizman, the mayor of Ekaterinaburg has to say about it.

And the Chinese are eyeing the empty lands of the Russian Far East. (Which at some points in history may have very well belonged to them anyway.)

This all being said, Russia is still an amazing country with great potential to both preserve their unique heritage while integrating with the rest of the world and being a major player for the good.


7 posted on 08/12/2017 12:10:28 AM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

>Russia has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world. The practice was embedded in the Soviet culture..(The Soviet Union was the first modern country to legalize it in 1920s.) Yes things are getting better now as is life expectancy, which if you do your research, is currently akin to that of North Korea at 70 years old.

Had. Had one of the highest abortion rates in the world. It’s been dropping like a rock since the Church was embraced by Putin’s goverment.

>Russia’s land mass spans 9 time zones yet they have half the population of the USA and the same brithrate as much smaller European countries.

Yep. That’s what 70 years of communism and atheism will do to you.

>More Muslims populate Moscow than any European city.

And yet there are no Muslims no go zones, no Russia women being used by rape gangs, and mass terrorist attacks are meet by reprisals by Russians against Muslims groups. In Russia the Russians are in charge. In western Europe the Muslims are in charge.


8 posted on 08/12/2017 1:54:32 AM PDT by JohnyBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

>In addition to the Soviet holdover culture of abortion and the demographic crisis posed by an increasingly radicalizing and reproducing Muslim minority,

Look up the Muslim minority vs Russian white birth rates in Russia. It’s nothing like the disaster that’s going on in Western Europe and America.

>Russia is in the middle of a major HIV epidemic. Currently one of the only places in the world where rates are rising not declining. Feel free to look up what Evgeny Roizman, the mayor of Ekaterinaburg has to say about it.

Rates are high from intravenous drug use and the Russia state not paying for aids meds. The US and other western governments foot the bill for people’s irresponsible behavior in the west. In Russia people die from their bad choices.

>And the Chinese are eyeing the empty lands of the Russian Far East. (Which at some points in history may have very well belonged to them anyway.)

I hope they can live in irradiated wasteland, because that’s all they’d be able to live on once the Russians got done nuking their armies that invade.

>This all being said, Russia is still an amazing country with great potential to both preserve their unique heritage while integrating with the rest of the world and being a major player for the good.

As it stands currently, only Hungry, Poland, and Russia are likely not to be consumed by the Islamic hordes the left is importing in Europe. Look to your own before you start trash talking others.


9 posted on 08/12/2017 1:59:18 AM PDT by JohnyBoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: JohnyBoy

JohnyBoy, I have both French and Russian ancestry and deep current relational ties to Russia. It is a place I will likely live again in the future.

Putin has whitewashed the Soviet part of Russia’s past and that is a big no-no to me as a Christian. I am critical of his narrative and did not resort to ad hominem attacks. For someone who claims to care so much about the faith, you sure don’t sound...I mean write like one. Tone is mean. Soviet even.


10 posted on 08/12/2017 2:13:23 AM PDT by GoldenState_Rose
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose

I think Putin’s sympathies follow one rather simple rule. Revolution made Russian Empire smaller so he doesn’t want to talk about it. Stalin’s time brought Russian Empire to the largest size ever so now Kremlin propaganda is rehabilitating Stalin. Collapse of the Soviet Union made the empire smaller again. Putin calls it the greatest geographical catastrophe of the last century.

Maybe not the full truth, but I believe the theme is there.


11 posted on 08/12/2017 2:28:45 AM PDT by Krosan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: GoldenState_Rose
Putin is no anti-Soviet...

That MAY be true, however the critical question is: Is Putin Pro Russian ahead of all else, and there is considerable evidence he is.

...and he set the Soviet detox process back. Way back.

I would propose that Russia is undergoing the first ever national and cultural Soviet "detox" in world history, and as such, there is no history to compare, or a completed successful "detox". "Way back" may not be anywhere near accurate. It may require a strong and ruthless nationalist leader and significant time, to pull a national culture through Soviet Communist detox, we don't know, it's never been done before.

I would point out that Putin did not set any of this up, but he must deal with it and succeed to conserve Russian culture. Muslim Jihadis, Globalist shills and American Democrats certainly will not.

12 posted on 08/12/2017 10:39:46 AM PDT by Navy Patriot (America returns to the Rule of Law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot

Lenin and Trotsky wanted to eliminate Russian Nationalism from the Soviet Union.

Stalin, on the other hand, ordered the “Russification” of the Soviet Union.


13 posted on 08/12/2017 10:42:51 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Lenin and Trotsky wanted to eliminate Russian Nationalism from the Soviet Union.

Stalin, on the other hand, ordered the “Russification” of the Soviet Union.

Both statements are true, however both failed their intended goals significantly.

Lenin and Trotsky were both Western European manufactured Communists from the Socialist climate that went International in the second half of the Nineteenth Century, and over time, morphed into the current (European) Globalist far Leftist Cabal.

Lenin and Trotsky were effectively trained and primed to take Russian Communism International, and Lenin immediately did while Trotsky took Communism International to save his own life, yes, I am smiling.

Interestingly, Stalin, (a Rus denigrating Georgian shill) looked to the Rus to use the power of tribal loyalty and devotion. He certainly did not value the Rus as a people or individuals, because he killed and filled his gulags with so many of extraordinary high value to the Russian Nation and culture.

Stalin did build an Empire, ...but it was built by theft from the Rus and Slavs and handouts from the West, not innovation and productivity.

14 posted on 08/12/2017 4:40:38 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (America returns to the Rule of Law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot
Interestingly, Stalin, (a Rus denigrating Georgian shill) looked to the Rus to use the power of tribal loyalty and devotion. He certainly did not value the Rus as a people or individuals, because he killed and filled his gulags with so many of extraordinary high value to the Russian Nation and culture.

You could say almost the same thing as Hitler, an Austrian by birth, about the Germans.

15 posted on 08/12/2017 4:48:17 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
You could say almost the same thing as Hitler, an Austrian by birth, about the Germans.

I see your point, but let's try to steer the conversation back to what can be done to help Russia shed remaining Communist policy and continue to move toward economic, political and religious liberty without license.

16 posted on 08/12/2017 5:22:54 PM PDT by Navy Patriot (America returns to the Rule of Law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson