Posted on 03/18/2014 9:10:05 PM PDT by varmintman
I'm not the world's foremost expert on Russia... But I believe I know enough to at least try to clear up a few of the misconceptions I see on forums and have been listening to on talk radio for the past few weeks.
A bit of Russian history for starters... Slavic farmers invited Vikings (Verangians) into what you'd now call Russia and set up the Kievan state which adopted Christianity around 988 AD so that the territory controlled by the city of Kiev was the dominant power in Russia prior to the Mongol invasion in 1236. In other words, they'd fought Polovyetski/Cumins and other nomad tribes to a sort of a standstill which appeared to be a workable state of affairs and then they got run over by a military avalanch and an empire whose military technology was 300 years ahead of the rest of the world.
Russia spent the next 140 years or so under the "Mongol Yoke" before the princes of Moscow managed to win a huge battle over the Golden Horde at Kulikovo in 1380, only to have the white and golden hordes unite a couple of years later and plow Russia under foot again where she would have remained for another century or two, nonetheless shortly thereafter Tamerlane came through and annihilated the Golden Horde. Unlike the situation with Genghis Khan who had utterly competent heirs, Tamerlane's empire began to crumble shortly after his death in the first few years of the 1400s, leaving much of Russia a sort of a shambles and Southern Russia what was called "wild fields". Jews living in what had been the remains of the Khazar kingdom prior to that time finally had enough and started moving to Poland and Germany and for a period of a century or so until Russia started to get organized again, Poland and Lithuania began to look like serious countries on maps. In those days, the Ukraine was part of Poland and one of the biggest if not THE biggest celebrations there ever was in the Ukraine was when Russia took it over in the 1700s.
The Ukrainian language is basically the language of the principality of Kiev while modern Russian is basically the language of the principality of Suzdal and the city of Moscow. At some point, the languages of the various places which comprised Russia must have fused, which is presumably why you have more than one system for verb formations and declension endings. The difference between Russian and Ukrainian is similar to the difference between our English and Chaucer's and anybody in the Ukraine who isn't retarded can speak Russian.
The city of Moscow featured the most paranoid design for a city in the history of the world, basically a system of concentric rings, each more difficult to break into than the last. That is because up to a very late date, Crimean Tatars, remnants of the Golden Horde, used to ride into the city as far as they could get, capture children and stuff them into baskets on their horses and ride off to sell them so that the word "Slav" morphed into "slave". The fact that any Crimean Tatars remain alive at all strongly indicates that Russians are an unusually tolerant people, less given to holding grudges than most.
The official title of the tsars was "Tsar of all the Russias", meaning primarily 'Great Russia' (Russia), 'White Russia' (Belorus), and 'Little Russia' (Ukraine). That is the heart of the Slavic Orthodox world and Ukraine is the breadbasket of that world. The Ukraine could feed everybody from the Volga to the Atlantic and that in fact was Hitler's plan; the idea was to build a super-gauge train to haul foodstuffs from Ukraine to Europe and, as I read it at least, to get Western Europe pretty much out of the food business altogether.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitspurbahn
"Early plans for routes considered India and Vladivostok as the ultimate goals of the railways, but [b][i][size=150]by 1943 the planning was focused exclusively on European cities.[1] Ukraine and the Volga Basin were seen as especially important targets, as these areas were viewed as the future granaries of the Nazi empire[/size][/i][/b],[1] potentially through the "settlement strings". orSiedlungsperlen of the proposed Wehrbauer settlements within the conquered Lebensraum territories, which would also be linked by the planned easternmost reaches of theReichsautobahn freeway network.[5]...."
But you get the idea. The idea that anybody should have expected Vladimir Putin to just sit there and watch George Soros, Monsanto, and the US state department to just walk off with the Ukraine is idiotic. For that matter, the Crimea had been part and parcel of Russia for at least a couple of centuries before Khrushchev gifted it to Ukraine in 1954; it didn't seem to make much difference when everybody was a citizen of the CCCP one way or other, but expecting Russia to just let go of he Crimea under present circumstances is doubly stupid.
Moreover, there is a very big problem with language convergence. Television and the Internet are radically shrinking the world. TV has in fact killed the Southern accent in Texas so that I hear it only amongst people over 60; I expect TV and the internet to kill most of the world's languages in the next 30 years. My guess would be that languages which will still be in use by 2050 will include:
Basically, Ukrainian is a dead language walking and the idiots who just took over Kiev know that, which accounts for at least some of their irrational behavior. Ukraine has a border with Russia, their culture is tied up with that of Russia, and Russian is the main language of those which will survive, with which they are most familiar. My money says that in 20 years, Ukrainian will be spoken only amongst people over 60. The future of the Ukrainian people clearly lies with Russia.
That brings up an obvius question: what are the people in the US state department smoking? What did they expect to see happen?? Another question is, what reasons could there be for wanting to start a major war over any of this stuff?
A century or two ago the reasons for starting wars were simple: Gold, land, women, treaties... That stuff was heinous enough but it was at least comprehensible. In today's world, unfortunatley, you have to at least consider the most paranoid possibility i.e. that the LaRouche group may be right and that the idiots may actually have in mind to start a nuclear war to reduce the human population of the planet to less than one billion as per their stated ideology, for the glory of Gaea.
It turns out the sniper killings around Kiev a month ago were the work of the hoodlums WE are supporting, and not that of Yanukovich or Russians:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-05/behind-kiev-snipers-it-was-somebody-new-coaltion-stunning-new-leak-reveals-truth
We have now seen two of these false-flag ops in the past six months (Syria and Kiev). At some point, the world has seen this **** one too many times and gets wise to it, and starts to look on Americans as a bunch of lunatics. It's hard not to get the idea that somebody in the US State Department is trying to start a major war.
Aside from that, the world can clearly see that Vladimir Putin is the best Ruler Russia has ever had since Tsar Peter, and that Bork Obunga is just as clearly the worst ruler any advanced state has ever had since Nero and may in fact be WORSE than Nero since I don't view Bork as being bright enough to play a fiddle. More likely we'll get to listen to rap while America burns.
Vladimir Putin is the main force responsible for bringing the global warming lunatics into global disrepute and disrepect. Putin apparently got a number of Russia's best hackers in a room and said something like "Guys, I'm not gonna wreck Russia's economy over a bunch of bullshit, I want you to blast your way into that East Anglia Email Database and spread to the four winds whatever you might find there", and they did that:
http://www.climategate.com
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?221759-Is-Putin-behind-the-leaked-Climategate-e-mails
In other words, aside from needing to learn how to pronounce the guy's name properly, commentators like Limbaugh and Hannity need to understand that Putin is primarily responsible for their not needing to rub sticks together to make fire.
I mean, how many times does that make that Russia has bailed our hiney's out of some really awful kind of ****? Picture living in a world in which Sweden was a major power, i.e. picture yourself cruising in a 57 Volvo:
Guy a half mile up the road had one of those when I was a teenager. The thing was so ugly that just having it parked at the curb reduced housing values within a three-block radius. Tsar Peter saved us from that ****:
I EXPECT libtards and demoKKKrats to be clueless; it's painful to listen to stupid **** coming from right of center commentaters like Limbaugh and Hannity. Again they should start by at least learning to pronounce the guy's name properly:
"vla-DEE-mir POO-Tin" The accent is on the second syllable in Vladimir and nobody swallows a T or pronounces it like a D in Russia.
There is a question of communism in the picture and the thing you have to grasp is that the Soviet state had an absolute monopoly on weapons under the CCCP so that there was no possibility of the people ever rising up and overthrowing that system. That system fell because the people running it finally realized it couldn't work and gave it up. There is zero possibility of Russia going back to socialism or communism.
They ARE however going back to their original Christian roots and aside from building some 200 Christian churches in and around Moscow, they have actually rebuilt that gigantic cathedral which the commies tore down and made into a swimming complex:
Aside from all of that, Putin and the people around him have clearly taken a hard look at the ongoing suicide of the West and determind that Russia is not going to participate in any of that happy horse-****. Not allowing gays to recruit or prosylitize in schools or allowing girl bands to desecrate a church are signs of a recovered righteousness.
I mean, if I've missed anything or left anything important out here or gotten anything wrong, somebody let me know, but this is the picture I'm seeing. I don't see anything not to like with Putin or the vision of the current Russian government.
ping for later read.
It is a 53 page report. This is just a brief summary.
Who’s paying me? Thank you for asking. George Soros and Alex Jones.
All you Ukrainians, 80% of whom don't want to belong to us, belong to us.
“George Soros, Monsanto, and the US state department to just walk off with the Ukraine is idiotic.”
No evidence of that given...yet we know that economically, the Ukrainians are tired of a corrupt government and were willing to die to change it. You sound like you have bough the communist line their.
There is nothing to admire in Putin. He is a KGB thug who has somehow managed to acquire great wealth during his “reign”. He is a narcissistic fool running around pretending to save people from attacking tigers, etc. He is an unconvincing liar claiming that he is saving Crimea/Ukraine Russians from fascists as he invades a sovereign nation.
People may admire Putin because he is decisive, he knows how to use his power/influence. The same could be said for any number of powerful leaders - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, etc.
Some minor errors, yes, but otherwise very good work. For instance, Malorossia is not exactly the same as Ukraine, actually it is the South-Eastern part of Ukraine, this is important: we may yet see a Malorossian state emerging from the ruins of Ukraine in its S-E part. And tracing Ukrainian to Kiev and Russian to Suzdal is an oversimplification.
Do you find being an idiot painful?
Who is supporting it? The voices in your head?
You want to people to respond to fabrications you are making up?
cool locomotive pics. look like they’d be a bit top heavy in a turn though.
96 out of 100.
"But as Ukraine's dilapidated tank units moved to muddy berms in the fields south of Donetsk city as part of face-saving mobilisation, the guns of T-64 and T-72 models were this time pointed towards Russia.In responding to a reported Russian military build-up, however, Ukraine's military immediately ran into groups of activists who tried to obstruct their movements. In the village of Elenvola on the edge of the great plain, there was anger at the manoeuvres from their own countrymen.
"Russians and Ukrainians don't want to fight each other," said Ivan Inozemev, a prison warder. "We would be happy to be part of Russia if that's what happens."
I mean, does that sound like the guy is terribly worried about being taken over and enslaved by Vladimir Putin and his Russian hordes??
I assume that the reason that some of these Freepers hold Putin in such high regard that he is making a fool out of Obama. The problem is that we must live with the consequences. We are very close to hostilities in the Ukraine. And the impact will not be confined to just Ukraine and Russia.
They can't bluff him,
They can't bully or intimidate him, and
They can't bankrupt him.
Since the last military operation in Afghanistan, at the time of Soviet Union in 1980, Russia hasn't invaded any country, contrary to the allegations in the Western media. Russia didn't "invade" Chechenya, wich was included in the Imperial Russia in 1859.
Russia didn't "invade" South Ossetia, which was an automoumous provice and declared independence at the break of the Soviet Union in 1991, and it's still an independent Republic, not part of Russia.
Russia didn't "invade" Crimea, it already had there some 17,000 troops according to the treaty signed with Ukraine in 1994. Crimea has been part of Catherine the Great' Imperial Russia since 1774.
Contrary to the West allegations, that V.Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union, this is not his goal. What he wants is to regain the greatness of Russia as set up by the great precursors Peter and Cathrine II, at the end of 18th century, but a new, modern Russia. It is not a coincidence that the Russian Federation adopted the Imperial Russia's colors and coat of arms.
At that time the actual Eastern and South Ukraine, called "Malorussia" (Little Russia) was integral part of the Russian Empire since 1654, the natural border being on Dniepr river.
With this data in mind, one can understand Putin's foreign policy. He is not interested in Latvians , Poles or other Romanians, but only in rebuilding his country prosperity and greatness as he understands it.
You need to cut back on the reefer. Ukrainian forces in the Crimea do not constitute a “sovereign nation(TM)”. The Crimea was illegally gifted to Ukraine in 54 by Khrushchev and 90+ percent of Crimeans just voted to rejoin Russia. That’s as simple as it gets.
Do you support the invasion?
I understand, but I have also heard some Poles express concerns that the “Banderowcy” have too much sway in the new Ukrainian government. And while the Russian propaganda may be exaggerating it to a degree, the facts I see suggest that as a Pole I would be bit concerned about that. Anyone who would consider Bandera as a hero, is as evil as any Russian Communist.
Well, Obama is a fool and he’s making America look weak everytime he does or says anything. He’s a puss.
I see you posted a pic or Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot in your collection. Do you feel she was treated unjustly for her actions in The Cathedral in Moscow?
Does her promotion of abortion, and homosexuality-LGBT, and other western values give her a pass when she invades a place of Worship?
Russia invaded Crimea.
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.