Posted on 03/05/2022 5:22:25 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
For almost three decades, Putin has been saying and many in Russia and the West have followed him in this that the Soviet Union came apart because the Bolsheviks set up union republics and gave them the right to leave, a right Moscow never expected them to claim but added in the hopes of eventually expanding the USSR to include other peoples as well.
There is no doubt that that Leninist approach contributed to the way in which the USSR fell apart, but it does not explain fully why it did. That explanation lies in two other spheres, demography and popular participation.
When the Soviet Union was created, the ethnic Russian core was overwhelmingly dominant in terms of numbers; but by 1991, the non-Russian nations within that country formed almost exactly half. And because of development, the peoples of that empire were no longer prepared to accept the dominance of one nation, especially one headed to minority status.
In discussions about Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, he, most Russians and many in the West have forgotten that and therefore do not see that whatever territorial gains Putin makes by force of arms, he is bringing within the borders of “the Russian Federation” – and that absurdly now misnamed entity must be put in quotes – ever more non-Russians.
Were Putin to be foolish enough or lucky enough to occupy all of Ukraine, he would change the demographic balance inside “the Russian Federation” in fundamental ways. And if he brings in Belarus as well, he would create a country that he would celebrate as Russia rising from its knees but one that would more or less instantaneously begin to fall apart.
More than half of the people of that new empire would be non-Russians….
(Excerpt) Read more at windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com ...
Well, no. Had any of the republics' representatives claimed their "right to leave" while Stalin as in charge, said representatives would have been labeled "counter-revolutionaries not presenting the true wishes of the people." Then they would have been shot.
Wow. That was chilling. The irony of a beautiful musical anthem celebrating cruel, evil, devilish mendacity is stunning.
Or lampposts...
If communism had a cruel, evil, devilish, mendacious (and therefore honest) anthem no one would fall for it.
When attempting to tempt good people, evil always wraps itself in a cloak of extreme virtue.
China is watching. China is learning. And China will buy from Russia when all else won’t.
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and CCP will continue to sell Yellow Sea YS20 tire brand to Russian military - the ones that will not support vehicle weight over time.
“China may buy from Russia however Russia it too poor to buy much from China.”
But there are parts of Russia that China has it’s eyes. There more than one way to pay for things.
I also have been saying there will be another winner if Russia breaks apart, Turkey.
It’s Russia that has kept Erdogan from his dream of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire. Russia falls apart, he gets the Russian Central Asian part, likely aligns with Iran and China, gets the bomb from Pakistan, makes his move on Saudi Arabia, and gets all of Europe’s Muslims to back him when he makes his move on Europe.
History shows time and time again, when one bad guy falls, a new one takes his place.
But there are parts of Russia that China has it’s eyes.
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Amour River Region of Siberia. The Chinese claim all of Siberia. Two ‘skirmishes’ have been fought over this region with neither side doing well.
So true. It’s kinda like Las Vegas. What you see ISN’T what you get :)
True that. China will do a “Belt and Road” on Russia.
Yup!
That generation saw things realistically.
The nuclear age has made that sort of thing impossible now.
Well yes, I think Senator Harry S. Truman said something to this effect in late June 1941, just after the start of hostilities between Hitler and Stalin (NYT, June 24th, 1941, unfortunately I have no page number)...
...but would the power of the Western allies have been sufficient to defeat the Soviet Union in 1945?
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