“The Yanks Gave the Order: Fire!” – Witness Testimony of Iona Andronov, a Defender of the “White house”

In my article from November 2015 The ”Wild ’90s” in Russia, as reflected in people’s memory I mentioned in passing a testimony from Deputy Iona Andronov, describing the American involvement in Yeltsin’s coup of 1993. In yesterday’s publication Newspaper “Pravda” commemorating the 30th anniversary of the “Black October” of 1993, the author of the final article made a reference to the same testimony by Andronov.

In fact, this testimony has such significance, that I think it must be translated in full as a separate article. The original document can be found here on the subdomain of the Narod.ru site, dedicated to the events of October of 1993.

Iona Andronov – a historian-orientalist, journalist, writer, the Deputy of the Supreme Soviet in 1993 – also has a homepage on Narod.ru and a blog on Cont. I want to draw attention to a large 110-page long exposing publication in Russian that he has posted on his homepage in memory of the 30th anniversary of Yeltsin’s coup: The Counter-revolution of 1993. Epilog. 30 Years Later. (A chapter from the “Parting Memoirs of a Soviet Journalist”) – also available as a PDF, which expands on the testimony you are about to read, and also adds the descriptions of the actions of the Westward-looking “liberals” and “dissidents” of that time.


The Yanks Gave the Order: Fire!

The 3rd of October 2003
– A version for the press

The plan to storm the Supreme Soviet was developed by Boris Yeltsin’s entourage under the directions of the CIA and the inner circle of US President Clinton. This was told to the correspondent of “EG” by Iona ANDRONOV, a former defender of the “White House”, a deputy of the dispersed Supreme Council, at that time, chairman of the Committee on International Affairs. He is the one who negotiated with the representatives of the American embassy on the night before the carnage, trying to prevent the massacre of the Parliament.

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Newspaper “Pravda” commemorating the 30th anniversary of the “Black October” of 1993

In this post I am continuing with the remembrance of the events of September — October 1993 resulting in Yeltsin’s unconstitutional power grab. After Yeltsin’s coup, the newspaper “Pravda” was forbidden, which was highly symbolic, as “Pravda” means “Truth” in Russian, and so after October of 1993 and for a long time The Truth was forbidden. The previous posts in the series are: Autumn of 1991 as a Prelude to the “Black October” of 1993 and the “Wild ’90s” in Russia and The Bloody October of 1993. Retrospect. The Last Interview with Ruslan Hasbulatov.

The newspaper published a series of Telegram posts and articles, commemorating that turn to the worse in Russian history. Below, I will translate three materials from Telegram, finishing with a longer article by Doctor of Political Sciences Sergej Obuhov, who asks several highly-relevant questions about those times and how the events echo in today’s Russia.

All the images can be clicked on for higher resolution.


Telegram post 1:

“The Black October”: 30 years

A barricade leaflet.

Today, after exactly 30 years, our editorial office publishes the historical Moscow edition of the newspaper “Pravda”, published on the 1st of October 1993 under the general headline “Politics is over. The dictatorship has begun”. It truly became a barricade leaflet, a “battle leaflet” that contained both a chronicle of what was happening, an analysis of the situation, and the thoughts and experiences of the participants in the events. Even now one can see in it the intensity of those events, the nerve of that time of troubles. For the edification of future generations.

In just two days there will be a bloody suppression of the popular uprising in the worst traditions of Pinochet, and “Pravda” became banned for a long time.

Here’s what the deputy editor-in-chief of Pravda, Viktor Linnik, wrote: “…It is absolutely not necessary to admire Hasbulatov and Rutskoy in order to be outraged by Yeltsin’s utterly cynical actions. Although it is precisely today that both Rutskoy, Hasbulatov, and every defender of the “White House” deserve the gratitude of the Russians for daring to throw the gauntlet in the face of tyranny.

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The Bloody October of 1993. Retrospect. The Last Interview with Ruslan Hasbulatov

Motherland Remembers Decree 1400, 21st of September 1993

On this day, exactly 30 years ago, Yeltsin, with the direct blessing from the USA, gave order for the tanks to open fire on the Parliament building in Moscow, that also was known as “The White House”. This ended the confrontation between the defenders of the Russian Constitution and Yeltsin, who was unconstitutionally concentrating more power in own hands, a confrontation that started with Order 66 Decree 1400 that unconstitutionally dispersed the Parliament (also known as the Supreme Council or Supreme Soviet), and the Parliament responding with a preparation for the impeachment of Yeltsin.

30 years is a long enough stretch to time to be able to look at the events of that Autumn with a critical eye, yet short enough for many of the contemporaries and direct participants of the evens to be around to remember what was happening on both sides of the barricades. In a few weeks I will finish translating a documentary that does just that. But first, a short look at the political spread in 1993 both internally and coming from the USA. And this publication will be concluded with a fragment of the last interview with one of the main participants of the stand-off, who defended the Parliament – Ruslan Hasbulatov, who passed away on the 3rd of January 2023.

In the previous post, Autumn of 1991 as a Prelude to the “Black October” of 1993 and the “Wild ’90s” in Russia, I described in short the turmoil of the Autumn of 1991. Back then Yeltsin played a major role in the breakup of the USSR, and it was he who, in a feat of projection, accused the SCSE – which tried to save the country – of being the coup-makers. At that time Yeltsin became an important asset in the US State Department’s arsenal, one that the USA would have been loath to lose. In 1993 Yeltsin had the complete backing of the USA, but his ability to give external control to Russia was severely limited by the Parliament. This lead to passing of the unconstitutional Decree 1400. At the same time the experience of 1991 was again used, with the Parliament being presented as coup makers, and not as defenders, in the public view. The liberal crowd began an assault on the Constitution, basically saying who needs a Constitution like this (meaning, where Yeltsin cannot do anything he wants).

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Autumn of 1991 as a Prelude to the “Black October” of 1993 and the “Wild ’90s” in Russia

This autumn marks a sombre anniversary – 30 years since the bloody events of autumn 1993, which cemented Russia’s fate for the next 7 years and set the stage for the “Wild ’90s” and the “Desolation of Yeltsin” that almost destroyed Russia. I had several posts on the pages of this blog about the “Wild ’90s”, which are easiest accessed through the corresponding tag. Some of these posts are:

This is the first in a series of three articles I have planned for this autumn to remember the events of 1993. In this material I want to start by looking at August of 1991 through a series of short video materials – a time when the USSR was still around, and when it all really began.

First, let’s watch one aspect of the president of the USA G.W.Bush visit to the USSR – his speech before the congress of deputies of the Ukrainian SSR. Pay attention to the wording that Bush used in his speech, what emotions it played on.


(Original publication on Putinger’s Cat Telegram channel)

Three weeks after Bush’s visit, the USSR was engulfed in a coup d’etat, the so-called SCSE – The State Committee on the State of Emergency, or GKChP as it is known in Russian. I remember it as a highly-chaotic time, trying to tune in on some radio stations in Moscow and the “enemy voices” – Voice of America and Radio Svoboda, trying to make sense of what is happening. The information was very conflicting, and it was presented as if SCSE grabbed the power in the USSR, trying to depose Gorbachev.

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The purchase deed of Kiev by the Russian Kingdom from Poland is valid still

As an addendum to the post “An Honest Deal. How Peter I Bought the Baltic Territories from Sweden. With a bonus about an earlier purchase of Kiev.”, I mentioned the purchase of Kiev by the Russian Kingdom, a deed that is still legally binding to this day.

Here is an expanded article, which is a blend of a translation of a WebArchived copy of a Dzen post and the previous publication, mentioned above.

Russia forever bought Kiev from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: the purchase deed is valid till this day

In 1686 Russia acquired Kiev for 146 thousand roubles, concluding an agreement with the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth on “Eternal Peace” – this peace treaty regulated the division of the Getmanate. The de jure agreement is still in effect, by analogy with the sale of Russian Alaska to the United States.

The parties began long negotiations on the price that Moscow would pay to Warsaw “out of brotherly friendship and love” — this is how the diplomats officially formulated the purpose of the payment in 1686. The bargaining for Kiev went on for several months. Although the Polish Sejm ratified the document only in 1764, seven tonnes of silver were paid immediately by the Russians, and the deal was concluded.

Converted at today’s exchange rate, the cost of Kiev at the end of the XVII century amounted to slightly more than 397 million roubles, and if we count using the price of silver, to 133 million roubles. Anyway, at that time it corresponded to about 10% of the annual budget of Russia.

The Tzar (Ivan V Alekseevich, co-ruling with Peter I) feared that Poland would use the proceeds to modernize and expand the army, but the money were divided among the patrimonial nobility of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and did not contribute to the militarization of the neighbouring state. At the same time, Ukraine became known on European maps as “Okraina” (“Borderland”).

Formally, the purchase deed for Kiev within the framework of the “Eternal Peace” is still valid. Two centuries later, in 1867, Alexander II sold Alaska to the United States for 7.2 million gold dollars.


As a postscript: After the dissolution of the USSR, the borders between Russian Federation (the legal heir of the USSR, the Russian Empire and the Russian Kingdom) and Ukraine (first appeared on the map as a state in 1992) never underwent the procedure of demarcation. As such, it has large legal repercussions for the international relations. The following article gives a good introduction into the matter, also touching on the demarcation of borders between RF and China: Demarcation of borders is … The problem of demarcation. Ukraine did not and did not properly register in the UN the demarcation of its borders as a state

Occupation of Russia by the USA in 1918-1920. The “international intervention” during the post-revolutionary unrest.

Dividing the skin of a living bearA couple of months ago some Gunther Fehlinger, apparently a “Chair of European Committee for NATO Enlargement for Kosovo, Ukraine, Bosnia, Austria, Moldova, Ireland, Georgia, EU” (mostly concerning the places where trouble can be stirred) posted an X-Tweet with an image of a partitioned Russia, under a prettified title of “Why Russia must be Decolonised” and a link to a EuroMaidan article arguing that Russia is not a federation and it is thus an open season on dividing the skin of the not-yet-killed bear (as the Russian saying goes). It does not disconcert them that the exact same argument that they are making can be applied to the USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and quite a number of other candidates for “decolonisation NATO-style”.

Napoleonida

Napoleon’s plan for the division of the territory of the Ukraine (as of 1954-2014):
Grey – Give to Poland
Red – The Duchy of Poltava
Green – The Duchy of Chernigov
Yellow – The State of Napoleonida
Beige – Didn’t partition

This is not something new. The “Drang nach oesten” has been the lead tune in the various invasions of Russia by the Western vultures. We can, for example, recall that before the 1812 invasion, Napoleon had already designated Crimea as a new French Riviera, while partitioning the rest of Russia between France and Poland. We can recall how Germany and its Axis were establishing Reichskommissariats for their “new” territorial possessions.

More can be read in my prior articles Is the West gearing up to invade Russia once again? and Will Russia have to fend off NATO invasion too..?

The 20th century was the most abundant in the attempts to partition Russia/USSR. The map below is from the “American Magazine, published in the March of 1939 after the Munich Conspiracy of 1938 (covered in The Great Unknown War. A must-see documentary about the WWII prelude. By Andrei Medvedev), coupled with the “allies'” reluctance to open the second front until it was absolutely clear that the USSR was winning, shows that area of interest from the American perspective.

Next European War - 14th of March 1939, American Magazine

“American Magazine”, 14th of March 1939

Invasion of the USSR by the USA - October 27, 1951, Collier's magazine

Invasion of the USSR by the USA – the 27th of October 1951, Collier’s magazine

And just as the War was over, the USA did not stop dreaming of that piece of land for their own use, as can be seen from the cover of the “Collier’s” magazine from 1951. “Preview of the war we do not want” reads the hypocritical title while talking about “Russia’s defeat and occupation”. As we now know, if the USSR did not get the nuclear arsenal by that time, this was very much the plan the USA were nuturing. We can also see it from the USA’s own plans for the use of nuclear weapons against the USSR, as I described in two articles in the previous years: 204 A-Bombs Against 66 Cities: US Drew up First Plan to Nuke Russia Before WWII Was Even Over (RI repost) and USA’s plans for the nuclear annihilation of USSR (Russia) and China disclosed. Another declassified document from that post-War era points towards the same desire. I covered it in The Plan to Destroy Russia. Conceived and Started in 1948. Concluded in 1993? Or Not…

In 1993 the USA actually got a total colonial control over Russia without engaging in a hot war, and during that time Russia was also almost partitioned administratively. Luckily, the Americans saw Russia as defeated, what with the “end of history” and other such ideas, and did not bother to fire the control shot in the back of the country’s head, as such cold-blooded killers usually do.

But the first time when the West came closest to realising that wet dream of partitioning Russia and laying its hands on the Russian resource happened in the wake of the 1917 Revolution when Russia was plunged into the Civil War, while it had been weakened by WWI. The article that I translate below illustrates one of the areas where such partitioning almost happened.

Reading the article below, think also of the historical parallels with today, of the ongoing civil war in Ukraine and how the Western intervention is prolonging the conflict, making it more bloody, than it was initially shaping up to be.

The link to the original article on the site of Russian Information Agency (RIA) may not work, as the West, in its pursuit of the the purity (of the “freedom”) of speech, blocks RIA. You can alternatively view the WebArchived version of the original article.


The American-style occupation. 100 Years Ago, the US Army Invaded Russia

Published: 08:00 15.08.2018 (Updated: 11:37 03.03.2020)

American troops during a parade in front of the headquarters of the Czechoslovak Legion in Vladivostok. 1918

American troops during a parade in front of the headquarters of the Czechoslovak Legion in Vladivostok. 1918

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Western songs of the ’90s that codified the youth of the USSR – Pet Shop Boys and Scorpions

Back in the early 90s I, just as lots of other youths in Russia and the post-Soviet space listened to a multitude of Western pop groups, like Scorpions, Pet shop boys, A-Ha. With my command of the English language becoming more solid, I was also starting to understand the lyrics – remember, there was no Internet to check the texts, so you got by with what you understood on your own.

And the understanding was that of a warm and fuzzy welcoming feeling – the West invitingly offering to become the best friend of Russia. Or so it seemed. Later, in the naughts, came other musical preferences, and Scorpions with PSB faded into the background.

Now, many decades later I re-listened to some of my favourites from that time. And, what is more important, re-watched the clips. It’s important to keep in mind that not all music of that time had a political undercurrent or agenda, in fact, the majority of the clips were perfectly innocent in this regard. And then there were occasional musical items that failed the smell test of time.

“Wind of Change” by Scorpions seemed like a nice peace-building work of musical art, a hand of friendship outstretch to the new Russia… until 2023, when they changed the lyrics to suite the new political agenda of pandering to Ukraine, with Ukraine becoming the new target for this song.


Pet Shop Boys has two clips that drew my attention with the modern knowledge of the past events. Watch closely “Go West”. I always thought of it as addressing the wider Soviet audience, luring people into the sweet embrace of the West (that with the hindsight turned out to be a sweet honey trap). Yet, watch closely the clip.

Pay attention to the blue-and-yellow “Ukrainian” colour scheme…

…the gesture of the OUN-UPA Bandera Nazi collaborators nonchalantly thrown at three places in the clip…

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Is it “Kazahs of Kazahstan” or “Kazaks (Cossacks) of Kazakstan (Cossackstan)”?

Some time ago I took A short look at the short history of Kazahstan through the lens of a 1922 map. In the article now I want to translate another short look at its history, but from a linguistic perspective. What is the name of the people populating the steppe?

Before we proceed, a brief detour into the notation of two Cyrillic letters is in order. Russian letter “Х” is pronounced as “h” in “home”, “he”, hold”, but for some reason it is noted down as “kh” in the Latin notation – the name “Khrushev” has absolutely NO “K” sound in it! So, “Казахстан” is pronounced as “Kazahstan”, even though in the Western notation it will have an extra “k” (Kazakhstan). This brings us to the title of this article: “Казах” is a “Kazah” with the “h”-sound at the end; while a Cossack in Russian is “Казак” – “Kazak” with a trailing “k”.

So with this in mind, let me present a translation of an article that appeared on Cont on the 8th of January 2022.


Is it “Kazahs of Kazahstan” or “Kazaks (Cossacks) of Kazakstan (Cossackstan)”?

Good afternoon, dear readers, today I’m talking about Kazahstan. But we will not talk about what is happening in the republic, but about when and how such a state as KazaHstan appeared…

Quite a long time ago, back in September of last year, I published an article “What have the Russians done for Kazahstan? Just a tiny bit – they built all the cities of the country …” – under it there appeared such a comment that not everyone understood…

Baibek Baibekov
Alexander, It’s true, the Russians really invented the word Kazah, how nice it is to meet a knowledgeable adequate person among the rabid Nazi Fascists, because in fact we are Cossacks, since the middle of the 16th century, that was the name of my people.

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Donbass is the Heart of Russia

Donbass is the Heart of Russia. It is not just a slogan, it is a reality that everyone was acutely aware of back in 1921, which is the year when the poster below was printed. Donbass is pumping live-giving industrial blood to all the major cities that you can recognise today – Moscow, Petrograd, Tver, Vilna (Vilnius – more on it in Lithuanian Blockade of Kaliningrad – the suicidal move by a limitrophe to please its master), Kiev, Minsk, Uralsk, Harkov…

At the dawn of the USSR, the Donetsk-Krivorozhie Republic was part of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), but on the 17th of February 1919 Lenin issued a decree that the Donetsk republic should be transferred to the Ukrainian SSR with the following formulation: “To ask comrade Stalin through the Bureaux of the Central Committee to liquidate Kriv-Donbass.”

And yet, in 1921, the poster issued in Moscow still showed that “Donbass is the Heart of Russia”.

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The myth of the Holodomor. Reblog of a detailed research article

Below is a complete re-blog of an excellent, thoroughly researched and objective article about how the myth of “Holodomor” of 1932-1933 was created and neutered in the West and then picked up by the nationalistic forces in Ukraine. The article is written by Olga of the Siberian Matrëshka Telegram channel.

There is only one additional comment that I want to make about the name “Holodomor”. The article mentioned why “H” was chosen as the first letter. The fact is, the Russian word “holod” means “cold”, while “famine” or “hunger” is “golod”; “mor” means “mass death”. So the official “Western” name actually means “death from freezing”, but as will be come apparent from the article, the choice of the leading “H” was intentional.


The myth of the Holodomor

Olga🪆July 21, 2023

The myth of the Holodomor is blatantly at odds with reality. Supporters of the Holodomor theory argue that the Soviet government and Stalin personally wanted to destroy the Ukrainian people. This statement is not supported by facts: the famine of 1932-1933 covered the territory of several Soviet republics, and in Ukraine it was not at all widespread. Well, did the Soviet government starve Ukrainians selectively, depending on the territory in which they lived?

The forces that are now planting their blatantly anti-historical “Ukrainianism” in Ukraine attach great importance to the theme of the “Holodomor”. I invite the reader to first get acquainted with how the myth of the “Holodomor” was created – a famine allegedly artificially organized by Stalin for the purposeful destruction of the Ukrainian people. And only then move on to historical realities.

The famine of 1932-1933 is a bitter page in our real history. But this famine, firstly, was far from the first in the history of Russia. And, secondly, it affected not only Ukraine, but also the Don, Kuban, Volga, Central Black Earth, Kazakhstan. However, the Ukrainizers immediately, in hot pursuit, tried to isolate the “Ukrainian” component from this tragic event, which affected many regions of the USSR, and make the theme of the famine of 1932-1933 an irrelevant one. in Ukraine as an instrument of struggle against the “communist regime”.

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Italy jumps on the bandwagon of the Golodomor myth. Maria Zaharova’s comment.

The «Golodomor» myth (intentionally misspelled in the West as «Holodomor», more on that in a later post that dispels the myth) has gripped Europe, engulfed in the fervent russophobia. Italy is the latest to jump on the bandwagon of this hoax.

As it is asked in the expanded comment by Maria Zaharova of the Russian Foreign Ministry, what about those who were starving in those lean years in the Volga basin area. The term «golodajushie Povolzhja» – «the starting of the Volga basin» has become an idiomic part of the Russian language to describe someone in dire need for help.

And the famine of those years engulfed all of the Southern and Eastern Russia. In my own family, my grandmother’s grandmother died of hunger at that time. The catch: that branch of my family lived in the Altai Krai of Russia, that is, in Sibera.


Comment by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, M.V.Zaharova, in connection with the recognition by the Italian Senate of the “Holodomor” as a genocide of the Ukrainian people

On July 26, the Senate of the Italian Republic adopted a resolution recognizing the so-called Holodomor as a “genocide of the Ukrainian people.” Earlier, a similar document was approved by the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the start of a special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

We regard this anti-Russian step as another evidence of the short-sighted policy of official Rome aimed at encouraging the most unbridled Russophobic manifestations actively promoted by the Kiev authorities and their patrons.

At the same time, Rome does not take into account the millions of people who became victims of the famine of 1932-1933 in the Russian Volga region. We invite Italian citizens to ask their government: is such disregard of facts caused by ignorance of world history or is there an undisguised segregation of people on a national basis?

It is quite obvious that the continuation of the line on the “Ukrainization” of the Italian political class and society, expressed, among other things, in the thoughtless execution of the increasingly brazen and unceremonious demands of the Nazi Kiev regime, may lead in the not so distant future to the adoption by the Italian Parliament of resolutions on perpetuating the memory of the anti-Semite S. Petliura or the Nazi collaborator S. Bandera.

Such decisions of the Italian legislators, who in this case did not show any depth of analysis of historical events, nor political foresight and wisdom, certainly make the prospects for normalization of Russian-Italian relations more distant.

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Reblog: 80 Years Ago – The Battle of Kursk: Largest Tank Battle In History

On the 22nd of June 2023 we published on these pages a commemorative re-issue of the Danish underground publication “2 Years”, marking the 80th anniversary of its initial publication in Denmark in that turbulent year of 1943. The events depicted in the book end just before the Battle of Kursk – or the “Kursk Arch”, as it is better known in Russia – unfurled and drove the final nail into the German-Nazi coffin.

It would have been interesting to be an observer as to how the German media presented the Kursk Battle – just like with the preceding 2 years, it is sure to have provided ample parallels to the current battle against Nazism in Ukraine.

Not having such a chance, let us simply commemorate the 80th anniversary of that monumental battle that lasted between the 5th of July and the 23rd of August 1943. Below is a partial re-blog of an article published at SouthFront on this occasion:


80 Years Ago – The Battle Of Kursk: Largest Tank Battle In History

Written by Dr. Leon Tressell

German Leopard tanks have been destroyed in Ukraine’s ongoing summer offensive in combat with Russia forces. There is a delicious sense of irony that this is happening on the 80th anniversary of the largest tank battle in history at Kursk in July 1943. Just as in 1943 these much hyped ‘wunderwaffe’ have failed to break Russian defences much to the chagrin of the collective West.

Following the calamitous defeat at Stalingrad in early February the German Wehrmacht faced a series of Red Army offensives which were designed to bring about the destruction of Army Group Centre and Army Group South as well as the lifting of the siege of Leningrad. These simultaneous assaults on all three German army groups, across a thousand mile front, envisaged the liberation of Ukraine the second largest republic in the USSR. These over ambitious attacks tore great holes in the German front lines as the Red Army advanced 150 miles westward. The German armies which had threatened Moscow during 1941-1942 had been driven westward removing the threat to the capital of the USSR. The offensives in the south led to the capture of major cities in Eastern Ukraine such as Kharkov, the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, in the north the southern shore of lake Ladoga was swept clean of German units and a land corridor was established between the starving inhabitants of Leningrad and the rest of the country.

As the Wehrmacht was being mauled all along the entire front Field Marshall Manstein, commander of Army Group South, observed how the Red Army had over extended itself with its over ambitious offensives and launched a series of counter attacks which led to the recapture of Kharkov. The Red Army’s attempt to liberate the Donbass and reach the Dneiper river had been frustrated. Once the spring thaw (Rasputitsa) had set in a large salient, about half the size of England, jutted into the German front. At the centre of this salient lay the city of Kursk.

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Russian Tzars Didn’t Even Think That They Were Founding Ukrainian Cities

A photocopy of an article from “Komsomolskaja Pravda” dated 14.04.2014 caught my attention a few days ago. The short article was published just as the Nazi coup in Ukraine unseated the last legitimate government of the failed country, and Ukraine firmly set its course on becoming “not Russia”.

Russian Tzars Didn’t Even Think That They Were Founding Ukrainian Cities

Politicians, historians and bloggers on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian border are arguing today, breaking microphones and keyboards, whose ancestral land is the South-Eastern Ukraine, or, as it was called earlier – Malorossiya (Rus Minor) and Novorossiya. Who worked it? And monuments to whom should stand here – to Bandera or, for example, to the Russian tzars?

Let us not get involved in this argument, but rather list those who founded the main cities here:

Harkov – founded in the 1630-s by the Russian Tzar Aleksei Mihailovich Romanov. Sailors who fleeing from the Poles from the right bank of Dniepr settled there.

Sumy – founded not later than 1655 by Tzar Aleksei Mihailovich Romanov. The tzar allowed
refugees-Malorossians, who were killed by the Poles, to settle here.

Kirovograd – founded in 1754 by the Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna under the name of Elisavetgrad as a fortress to protect the southern boundaries of Russia from Tatars.

Zaporozhie – founded in 1770 by the Russian Empress Catherine II undere the name of Alexandrovsk.

Krivoj Rog – founded in 1775 by the Catherine II.

Dnepropetrovsk – founded in 1776 by the Catherine II under the name of Ekaterinoslav.

Herson – founded in 1778 by Catherine II for the construction of the Russian fleet. The Russian Count Potemkin built the fleet and the city.

Mariupol – founded in 1778 by Catherine II. She allowed Greek immigrants from
Crimea to settle there.

Nikolaev – founded in 1789 by Catherine II. At that time Russian Count Potjomkin was building there the ship “St. Nicolas” (“St. Nikolai”).

Odessa – founded in 1794 by Catherine II at the site of a fortress previously built by the Russian Commander Suvorov.

Lugansk – founded in 1795 by Catherine II. People from central and north-western counties of the Empire came to work here at the iron foundries.

Donetsk – founded by the Russian Emperor Alexadner II in 1869 during the construction of the iron foundry in Yuzovka.

As for Crimea:

Sevastopol – founded in 1783 by the Russian Empress Catherine II at the site of a fortress previously built by the Russian Commander Suvorov. The Russian Count Potjomkin was building the city.

Simpferopol – founded in 1784 by Catherine II. Count Potjomkin was building it at a site of a military camp of the Russian Commander Suvorov.

Worker’s social benefits in Russia seen through a 1913 recruitment advertisement

Today I came across a copy of a recruitment advertisement from 1913 Russia published by the Russo-American rubber company “Triangle”. The company was recruiting female workers and listed some pretty decent social benefits. They advertise themselves as a prosperous company, yet to stay competitive and within the legal framework of the country they had to offer such incentives. In a capitalist world, that Russia was entering at that time, a company, even a wealthy one, would have naturally tired to cut costs.

This reminded me of a series of articles that I translated in 2017 When Rouble Was Golden – Russia that we lost in the ashes of WWI and the coup d’etats of 1914-1917 and how well it illustrates that Russia was not some backward country before 1917, as is the common view in the West and in Russia alike.

Partnership “Triangle” in St. Petersburg.

The largest and wealthiest rubber factories in Russia.

Always needed healthy female workers aged 18-30.

8-10 working hours per day.

Until own accommodation is found – full accommodation free of charge in up to ___ weeks.

Our factories constantly employ 15000 people.
Our factories have:
 Free nursery for 500 children of the workers,
 Free school for 500 children of the workers,
 Free medical assistance to male and female workers,
 Own medical cabinet, doctors, nurses, midwives,
 Free apothecary,
 In the city hospitals there are reserved free beds for our male and female workers,
 After illness, in case health restitution is needed, there is free rest in our special colony in a healthy dry forest area.
 Support for the old age, accident insurance.
 Premiums for long-term employment.
 Several large houses with well-equipped apartments for workers with families.

The factories are located along the Ring Canal of St.Petersburg.

The Partnership of the Russo-American Rubber Manufacture under the trade mark of “Triangle”

“The Black Book. Atrocities of the modern Banderites – the Ukrainian neo-Nazis in 2014 – 2023” – by Maxim Grigoriev & Mihail Myagkov

Back in 2014 the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation started out gathering evidence and publishing the White Books of the Ukrainian atrocities in Donbass. The work quickly became overwhelming with the sheer number of materials. I wrote about the White Books in my blog, and the copies of those materials are available for download in both Russian and English.With the sheer volume of materials, the Ministry stopped updating the books, focusing on internal evidence gathering.

Now, almost 10 years later more materials are coming to light:


The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation has published a book by Maxim Grigoriev, Chairman of the International Public Tribunal for Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis, and Professor Mihail Myagkov:

“The Black Book. Atrocities of the modern Banderites – the Ukrainian neo-Nazis in 2014 – 2023”

The preface to the book was written by the Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (translated below in its entirety):

Today, Russia is resisting the aggression of the collective West, also including on the battlefield during the Special Military Operation (SMO). At the same time, the West treats the territory of the former USSR as a springboard for the splitting and subsequent destruction of the Russian Federation.

The agression against Russia was being prepared since the early 2000s, when our country declared the restoration of its state sovereignty. The active phase of the implementation of Western plans began in 2014 immediately after the coup d’etat in Ukraine, when the neo-Nazi regime came to power in Kiev. Over the next eight years, the Ukrainian army and the punishers of nationalist battalions killed and tortured to death more than eight thousand civilians of Donbass who were trying to defend their human dignity, their civil rights, their native language. In the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics that were proclaimed as a result of national referendums, in Novorossiya, Ukrainian neo-Nazis killed and tortured people protesting against the Kiev regime. It thus happened in the Odessa House of Trade Unions on May 2, 2014, where dozens of people were burned alive. What is this but a crime requiring a fair trial in a democratic State? But the perpetrators of the massacre, whose names are known to everyone, remained at large. Moreover, they are honoured as national heroes.

Russia had to stop this bloody violence, the roots of which go back to the genocide committed by the Nazis and their Ukrainian accomplices during the Great Patriotic War against the population of the Soviet Union. Just like back then, we are talking about the life and death of people under the rule of a terrorist anti-human regime. People who have chosen the path of life as part of Russia or who want to be together with Russia have the right to believe in justice and inevitable retribution dealt to the war criminals for their deeds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly stated: “We have not started any hostilities, we are trying to end them.” That is why on February 24, 2022, he made an appeal to the citizens of the country, in which he announced the beginning of the special military operation.

“Its goal,” the President stressed, “is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years. And for this, we will strive towards the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, as well as bringing to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Neo-Nazis in Ukraine are not even trying to hide whose heirs they are. Crosses on the APU equipment, symbols with swastikas at the national battalions, the Nazi greeting “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” and, most importantly, the ideology of “Ukraine above all!” (a carbon-copy from the Nazi “Deutschland über alles”) — all this clearly shows what kind of enemy we are dealing with.

Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought for their native hearth, their homeland in the Great Patriotic War. Our heroic fighters are fighting for their home, their country today in their own zone. But, as 80 years ago, we must convey to the enemies an immutable thought — none of their war crimes will go unpunished.

The Investigative Committee of Russia and the Main Military Investigation Department are collecting and documenting thousands of facts about the atrocities of militants of Ukrainian national formations and military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Trials are already underway and sentences are being handed down to those persons whose specific guilt in the destruction of civilians and prisoners of war has been proven. The work continues. And it will not end with the victory of the Russian army in the SMO. Those Ukrainian war criminals who will not be destroyed on the battlefield will still face a fair trial. Their crimes have no statute of limitations.

The Russian Federation, the successor state of the USSR, has a solid experience in punishing war criminals. Beginning in 1943, open trials of German Nazis and their accomplices from among local traitors took place in the Soviet Union. Such trials took place in Donetsk (then Stalino), Krasnodon, Harkov and Kiev. Hundreds of murderers of civilians and Soviet prisoners of war received harsh sentences, including the death penalty by hanging.

Modern Ukrainian neo-Nazis, their leaders and the Armed Forces of Ukraine should also remember the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1946 to Nazi war criminals.

Despite the fact that Western countries and the Kiev neo-Nazi regime have forgotten about the need to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law, the Russian Federation will achieve their implementation during and according to the results of the SMO.

This “Black Book” contains terrible evidence and facts of torture, violence, murders that were committed and are still being committed by the Ukro-Nazis and the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The task today is to make as many people as possible know about them in our country and abroad. So that the pain and grief of people affected by Ukrainian neo-Nazism will never be forgotten. For the Ukrainian prisoners, acquaintance with this book may be the first step towards realizing the abyss into which they were driven by the criminal actions of Kiev.

The existing regime in Ukraine will be defeated, and the evil that it brings to Russia, the Ukrainian people themselves and the whole world will be punished!

Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation
Army General Sergei Shoigu

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