this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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"No bobs or vagene for you. But avoid the army and you'll face torture" perfectly sums up the state of orcland these days.

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[–] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

They have a centuries-long history of extremely brutal and downright psychopathic rule. You really need to read up on Russian history if you think that Putin is the reason things are the way they are.

edit: just ran into this relevant article: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/4560963-is-the-problem-putins-russia-or-mother-russia/

Analysts of Russia differ about many things, but the most important difference concerns their interpretation of the roots of Russia’s ongoing aggression. One side argues that Russian history and political culture are to blame — or, to put it more simply, uniquely Russian characteristics are the cause of Russian aggression. The other side argues that the causes are not uniquely Russian, but typical of the behavior of certain kinds of states, regimes, societies and leaders.

Unsurprisingly, historians of Russia and Ukraine tend to fall into the first camp

[–] Zeritu@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They also had Gorbačёv. It's not like all their leaders were psychos, it's just that when they get one who isn't, they hate him.

[–] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Eeeeeeexactly. The few times Russians have managed to produce or acquire leaders who weren't sociopaths, they were fairly universally hated.

It's just incredibly short sighted of people to think that Putin is some kind of an anomaly and that he alone is the reason why Russians are so fucked up, when they have a centuries-long history of genocides, violent repressions by various secret police organizations, colonialism etc. Nobody seems to even understand that Russia is still a colonial empire, just one with contiguous borders

EDIT: Some Russian genocides and ethnic cleansings over the years

Just to drive the point home, here's a list I copied from an earlier comment of mine of just the easiest to find genocides and ethnic cleansings perpetrated by Russians that I found with a minimum of searching based on what I remember from history. Note that there's some overlap between these, so you can't just sum the "victims" column to get a total victim count.

Date Event Victims
1785 – 2017 Chechen genocide 500,000 – 900,000 deaths
1800 – 1870 Circassian genocide 1,500,000 – 2,000,000 deaths
1850s – ongoing Cultural genocide by Russification in colonized areas Hard to estimate. Millions, with many minority cultures lost
1920s – 1930s Genocide of the Ingrian Finns Ingrian population reduced from 140,000 – 160,000 before the persecution to 19,000 today
1920s – ??? Ethnic cleansings on the Kola Peninsula Nordic population of the Kola peninsula dropped from 20% to 0.2%
1930 – 1952 Cultural genocide by forced migration in the Soviet Union 6,000,000 deported
1932 – 1933 Genocide of Ukrainians in the Holodomor 3,800,000 – 5,300,000 deaths
2015 – ??? Syrian, Russian forces carrying out ethnic cleansing around Aleppo, Turkmen accuse Russia of ethnic cleansing in Syria air strikes Tens of thousands displaced and/or dead
2022 – ongoing Genocide in the current Ukraine war ???
2023 – ongoing Pogroms in the Caucasus ???
[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Well I hope we are both differently wrong and we get a peaceful Russia some time soon. Doesn't seam possible with Putin and there doesn't seam much hope after him, but let's hope there is.

[–] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 7 months ago

Oh yeah, I wouldn't mind being wrong, but unfucking Russia would be an absolutely monumental task and like you said it doesn't seem like there's much hope of it happening. Here's to hoping, I guess