Monthly Archives: February 2016

How Malorossia Was Turned into the Patch-quilt of Discord that is “Ukraine”

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Lands that are presently collectively known under the name of “Ukraine” had a turbulent history, especially in the last 300 or so years. In this post I want to take a look at a few maps, and present some short historical information, pertaining the term “Ukraine” and how it came to be. I will finish this post with some quite obvious genetic discoveries.

Let us first start with the following 4 maps, and explanation to them, coming strait out of Lada Ray’s excellent Earth Shift Report 2. Ukraine: Truth, Lies & Future Hope. It is a highly recommended, well-researched for-donation report of a size of a small book, for everyone who want to learn what is going on in Ukraine behind the scenes, its history and what lies ahead.

lresr2_map1

This map shows how the size of Ukraine changed through history. NOTE! What is shown here in yellow as ‘Ukraine in 1654’ was in fact the territory of the Zaporozhie Cossacks (Zaporozhskie Kazaki). There was no country or territory called Ukraine before Lenin and Bolsheviks created the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the USSR.

lresr_map2

This map shows one of the ideas of how the division of Ukraine should happen by oblast, if it was done in 2014, before civil war began. It shows one big DNR consisting of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhie, Kherson and Kharkov. For some reason it omits Dnepropetrovsk, which should be within this affinity, but that probably didn’t happen since at the time Kolomoysky was at the helm in Dnepropetrovsk . The center, incl Kiev, remains under Ukraine flag, western Ukraine’s 5 oblasts are obviously under nazi flag. Zakarpatie (Transcarpathia) with Rusins (ruthenians) has its own republic with a flag resembling Russian. Red/white/gold Odessa flag with anchor on it unites Odessa and Nikolaev oblasts (I’d add Kherson and certainly Pridnestrovie, plus possibly Gagauzia – part of Moldova). This kind of voluntary peaceful divorce could have happened if we were dealing with mature people and if Ukraine was a sovereign state, not under foreign occupation.

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Lean Peace. Why Ukraine is not fulfilling its Minsk-2 obligations regarding Donbass?

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The article translated below was published in Argumenty i Fakty on the 12th of February 2016.

The title of the article is reference to a Russian proverb: Lean peace is better than a good strife (or the English proverb Better a lean peace than a fat victory).

Headlines for related articles (in Russian) are also quite telling:

February the 12th marks one year of “Minsk-2” – Donbass agreements, concluded after a night of negotiations of leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine. Kiev is still not in a hurry to fulfilling its obligations.

Meanwhile, as “AiF” discovered, the residents of Donbass still have to go to work over the minefields.

They are still shooting

The main condition for the implementation of the Minsk agreements still remains a complete cease-fire, however not even a full “regime of silence” was ever established in the Donbass. The OCSE mission report clearly states: shooting goes on. Only on the 2nd of February there were recorded “514 explosions of uncertain origin”, “more than 100 firing bursts from heavy machine guns” and “more than 1,000 rounds of small arms at a distance of 3-5 km to the west of the observers’ position in a controlled by DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) railway station in Donetsk”.

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Boris Yeltsin: Demon or Hero?

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On the 1st of February Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation, would have been 85. Commemorating the date, Argumenty i Fakty published a two-polar article about Yeltsin. Two views on what he did to Russia, one negative and one positive. The whole article Boris Yeltsin: Demon or Hero can be read in Russian at the site of AiF.

Here I am only going to translate one view, which reflects the real negative impact of Yeltsin on Russia. I cannot bring myself to translating the positive view by Vladimir Ryzhkov, who was the vice-speaker of the Parliament in 1997-1999 – in the years after the 1993 Yeltsin’s coup d’etat. Ryzhkov’s words are sugar-coated paintings of black as white. IF anyone wants to read them, go to the Russian article above and use Google translate…

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Democracy of Mass Destruction. A Documentary by Pavel Selin (with English subtitles)

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Ever wondered what is the common denominator between Vietnam, Yugoslavia and Iraq? How democratic values are dropped from the US war planes? Why Agent Orange, white phosphorus and depleted uranium are the tools of democracy?

I have earlier posted a short article about two revealing Russian documentaries. Now, translation of one of them is done. The original untranslated video is published here: Демократия массового поражения. Фильм Павла Селина (no longer available after YouTube started enforcing “free speech and democracy” in 2022).

The formatted subtitle file in ASS format can be downloaded separately. Full text of the script is below the video frame.

UPDATE, June 2023: In 2023 this “democratisation” took a new step with the UK providing the Ukraine with depleted uranium munitions. However, before the whole of Donbass could have been contaminated with them , the stash was destroyed by the Russian aerial strike, with the radioactive plume travelling with the wind towards Poland, Scandinavia, and – in a “return to sender” gesture – to the UK. The dangers of the depleted uranium are described in the article Ukraine’s Depleted Uranium Blast: Europe on Brink of ‘Environmental Disaster’ by Dr. Chris Busby, physical chemist and scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk.
After YouTube made the translated video private, removing it from public view, I have now re-uploaded it to Odysee.

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Andrey Karaulov: “Those, who laughed at us yesterday, are no longer laughing today”

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Below is my translation of an interview with Andrei Karaulov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 30th of January 2016. The information in this interview underlines and strengthens what I previously wrote in the articles, pertaining to the Wild 90s: The ”Wild 90s” in Russia, as reflected in people’s memory and another of Karaulov’s articles that I translated, For Russia 90’s Were Worse Than WWII.

One highlight from the article below:

Liberal historian Boris Sokolov counted how many people died over the course of only two years – 1992 and 1993 – during the so-called “reforms” of Gaidar and Chubais. 150.000 more than during the executions of 1937-1938.

Andrey Karaulov was born in 1958 in town Korolev. Journalist and writer, winner of TEFI, Author of TV programmes “The Moment of Truth”, “Russian century”. Author of the documentary films “Unknown Putin”, “Khodorkovskij. Pipes(dead bodies)” (translator note: the inserted character creates the pun), “A Common Fascism”. Author of the books “Around Kremlin”, Russian hell”, and other.

Olga Shablinsky, “AIF”: “It looks as if a new war is coming! We’ve quarreled with almost the whole world,” – it’s a conversation that I recently overheard, expressing the mood of so many… And at the same timet Karaulov writes on his page on the social networks: “Why is Putin not afraid of isolation?” Andrey, are you not worried with these feeling of a coming war?

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Who and How Transferred Crimea into Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1952-1954

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Below is my translation of a very informative article by Mihail Smirnov, published in Svobodnaja Mysl’ (Free Thought).

It is worth noting, that when the author points out the Russian roots in Crimea, he is most probably referring to the Scythians, who are just the same people as Rus, but going under a different name. See my summery of the documentary Yes, Scythians Are Us.

When reading the text below, note one historic peculiarity of USSR of that time. While 14 republics were almost always denoted by their national name – e.g Ukrainian SSR (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) – there was one exception. In USSR no one spoke of Russia, to the extent that the existence of Russia as a republic was largely forgotten. Instead the acronym RSFSR was always in use (decoded as Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic).

At the end of this post, after the main article, I present my translation of the closing speech by K.E Voroshilov from the stenography of the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the 19th of February 1954, which is an important historical evidence, setting the stage for the transfer of the peninsular and the expectations connected to the act.

It was not Hrushov, who made the decision on the transfer of Crimea, but his rabid anti-Stalinism and voluntarism became the propelling power behind this whole undertaking. There were no objective reasons for this decision.

In the history of the presence of the Crimea within modern Ukraine, which, as it is now widely known, began with the official transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 and is associated with the name N.S.Hrushov, you can set apart the pre-history, that is the actually history of decision-making on behalf of the Crimea, from hatching of the idea to the party-bureaucratic mechanism for its implementation.

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”The Shepherd’s Crown” – A Fare You Well from to Granny Sir Terry Pratchett

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It is now almost a year since my blog started transmitting “GNU Terry Pratchett” in the X-Clacks-Overhead of each HTTP header of each response – to keep the name of Sir Terry in the wires. And it is only now that I found resolve to read the final Discworld book – The Shepherd’s Crown.

The Sheperd’s Crown is, just like all the Discworld books, a masterpiece. But it is much more than that. It encompasses both a parting of the author with his audience, a farewell to the beloved characters, who accompanied us for all these years, and ultimately, Sir Terry’s testament and guidance to his readers, no, to humanity at large.

Pratchett introduced a new character his final book – Geoffrey, who is a male witch and a “peace-weaver”. I felt an instant liking to this character – we need more such peace-weavers in our Roundworld gone mad, someone who can talk reason and calmness in the situations when the elves of our world are souring not just beer, but the good neighbourly relations between peoples, putting peoples at loggerheads.

I am not one, who cries when reading a book, but one chapter, where as a result of a monumental shifting event, almost each of the key characters of Discworld made a cameo appearance, made me cry. Those were the bitter-sweet tears of parting, coming out despite all the admonishing that we should not grieve the passage of those, who left the world as a slightly better place, than how it was, when they found it…

And so, the window that we had into the living, breathing, working world of Discworld has closed, after being open for just 32 years. We were privileged to be able to peek into this world! And as we leave it, we know that it will continue to live and function somewhere out there in the multiverse, unbeknownst to us, as the great narrator of Discworld, Sir Terry Pratchett, is no longer here to relay its story.

The First to the Orbit, Moon and Mars – Remembering Sergei Korolev

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16th of January 2016 marks 50 years since the death of a the brilliant Russian space engineer, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Everyone remembers the heroic deed of Yurij Gagarin, the first man to fly into space. But it was the visionary thought and ingenuity of Korolev that made that flight, as well as many other “firsts” in space exploration, possible.

Russian news weekly “Argumenty i Fakty” published an article about this outstanding man. About his illness and death, about his life and work, about the repressions, about his realistic view on USSR’s outlook for taking the lead (he though that USSR would only be able to take the second place in the space race), and how he, with his out-of-the-box thinking managed to prove himself wrong on that account.

In this post I want to concentrate on translating two infographics. The first is the list of the “firsts” in space, largely achieved thanks to Korolev. The second is a short collection of ideas and sketches that Korolev had, but which were never implemented.

The following infographics was taken from AiF article “The First to Mars and Moom. The achievements of our space exploration.” Translation follows below the image.

The First

Moon program

  • 3rd of February 1966. Soviet lander “Luna-9” is the first to make a soft landing on the Earth’s satellite and transmits images of the lunar surface.
  • 21st of September 1968. Return of the probe “Zond-2” after making a flight around the Moon. The probe contained living creatures: tortoises, fruit flies, worms, bacteria.
  • 24th of September 1970. Station “Luna-16” returns to earth first samples of the Moon rock. This was the first automatic space probe that brought to Earth extraterrestrial material.
  • 17th of November 1970. The first in history remote-controlled rover intended for exploration of an extraterrestrial body arrives to the Moon. It was the Soviet “Lunokhod-1”. It worked there for three times as long as initially designed, covered 10.5km and transmitted to Earth 25000 images.

Exploration of Venus

  • 1st of March 1966. The first in history flight of a probe from Earth to another planet. Station “Venera-3” reached the surface of Venus, delivering there the pennant of USSR. It is noteworthy that the probe was launched while Korolev was still alive, but he didn’t live to see the end of the mission.
  • 18th of October 1967. Station “Venera-4” for the first time in history performs a flowing descent in the atmosphere of another planet.
  • 15th of December 1970. Probe “Venera-7” made the first soft landing on the surface of Venus.
  • October 1975. Probes “Venera-9” and “Venera-10” sent to Earth the first photo images of Venus’s surface.

Exploration of Mars

  • 27th of November 1971. Soviet station “Mars-2” reached the red planet. That was the first man-made object to end up on the surface of Mars.
  • 2nd of December 1971. Lander “Mars-3” for the first time in history performs a soft landing on the Martian surface.

Couplings

  • 30th of October 1967. The first coupling of 2 unmanned vehicles is performed – “Kosmos-186” and “Kosmos-188”.
  • 16th of January 1969. “Sojuz-4” and “Sojuz-5” perform the first in history coupling of two manned space ships.

Orbital Stations

  • 19th of April 1971. The first orbital station/laboratory “Saljut-1” is placed into orbit. It existed for 175 days.
  • 20th of February 1986. The basic module of space station “Mir” is placed into orbit. This was the first in history orbital station with modular composition.

The first “freighter”

  • 20th of January 1978. The first automatic cargo transport cargo ship “Progress” is sent into orbit.

The infographics below was taken from AiF article “Into Space despite the rules. How Sergei Korolev ensured USSR’s leadership in space”. It showcases some of Korolev’s sketches, which were realistic, but never implemented as finished projects. Translation follows below the image.

Korolev

Martian project

The most ambitious and beautiful of Korolev’s visions. It was planned to send to Mars a crew of 3 people. Start of the expedition – 8th of June 1971. Return on the 10th of June 1974. A Heavy Interplanetary Spaceship (HIS), weighing 83.1 tonnes was to travel to Mars. To build the system in Earth’s orbit, 15 launches of super-heavy rocket N1 were planned, each having the length of 105 metres and having a lifting capacity of 100 tonnes.

The development of the project was started already in 1959. The Council of Ministers of USSR and the Central Committee of the Communist Party approved the Martian project in 1960. However, it was shut down because of the “Moon race”.

Lunar expedition

On the 3rd of August 1964, the Central Committee of the Communist Party sets Korolev the following goal – to bypass Americans in landing on the Moon. A Lunar expedition project is initiated in all haste.

A robotic lunar rover was to be sent first. Its task would be to scout the landing site and to act as a radio beacon.

It was also planned to build the ship in orbit. 3 launches of the super-heavy rocket N1 were to deliver there the components of the Lunar space ship, weighing in total 180 tonnes. The ship carrying a crew of 3 was to reach the Moon. Soviet cosmonauts were to spend 10 days on the Earth’s satellite. It was planned to implement the project in 1968.

Lunar base

To be more precise – the whole 2 bases. The first was to become a satellite orbiting around the Moon and act as a kind of base of operations en route between the Earth and the Moon. The second was to be assembled on the lunar surface. 9 modular blocks-cylinders – 3 living quarters, command centre, workshop, medical centre with a sports hall, kitchen with the canteen, laboratory. Capacity – 12 people. The development of the project was started in 1962 and finished in 1971. Later the defence minister of USSR, Ustinov, rejected the project, citing too high price tag – 50 billion roubles.

Heavy orbital station

In a note to the minister of defence, dated 23rd of June 1960, Korolev writes: “A manoeuvrable station weighing 60-70 tonnes and having a crew of 3 to 5 people, could perform the following military tasks: surveillance, battle actions against enemy vessels, destruction of the enemy’s ballistic rockets…”

In 1965 a draft project was initiated and a mock-up of the station was built.

A special note about Korolev’s manned lunar landing project, and how it contrasts to the American faked lunar landing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj5r3jXhV2Q

After sending living organisms to fly around the Moon, it looked like Korolev was aware of the need for proper shielding of the crew – thus the design of a super heavy space craft, which could require multiple component launches and in-orbit assemby.

Korolev was truly a visionary and such a man, about who it is usually said: He was born ahead of his time.

Ukraine: Still Smouldering Tinderbox (I) [Re-blog with comments]

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Below is a re-blog of Michael Jabara CARLEY’s article Ukraine: Still Smouldering Tinderbox (I) published at the Strategic Culture Foundation site.

But before I present the text, I want to add a few comments of my own, which the reader can keep in mind while reading the article.

The city of Odessa was founded in 1794 by Russian Empress Catherine II and was the first free trade port in Russia.

The city of Nikolaev was founded in 1789 by Russian Count Potjomkin as a ship-building docks. It got its present name in commemoration of the victory by the Russian troops, when Turkish fortress Ochakov was taken in 1788 on the day of St.Nikolaj.

Regarding what the American handler of the Ukrainian puppet government, Proconsul Pyatt was saying, that Russia wants to “create Novorossia”. Russia has no need to create Novorossia. Novorossia is actually an old concept – it was an administrative region within Russia at the time, when the European emigrants were still stealing the land from the Native Americans. For an in-depth look at Novorossia, see my article Two Ukraines.

Ukraine is indeed a smouldering tinderbox. For a look at what is going on, I recommend watching the English-subtittled Donetsk Republic’s Ministry of Defence Briefing: Jan. 29, 2016 Ceasefire Violations by Kiev, published at Lada Ray’s blog.

And finally, I disagree with the author’s conclusion in the last paragraph. Putin is not intimidated, but is rather trying to resolved the conflict and free Ukraine from the American occupation diplomatically and not militarily. There was also no homogeneous resistance in Donbass, but rather several groups with varying interests, which were united by not wishing to cow-tow to the coup government. This cost Donbass the loss of momentum. The situation is all to close to what Russia (an by that I also mean Ukraine) experienced after the coup d’etat of 1917 and the subsequent civil war and Western interventionism…

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