Polish insatiable pit. How much did the USSR spend on the restoration of Poland during and after the War

Some time ago I published a post Reparations to Poland from Russia? And how much does Poland itself in fact owe Russia? that contained, among other points, some examples of what the USSR spent on Poland. Those examples were very superficial, so here is another article that taks a closer look at the financial aspect of the “fraternal love” of the USSR’ western neighbour.


Polish insatiable pit. How much did the USSR spend on the restoration of Poland after the war


Polish peasants harvest on the land liberated from the Germans. 1944 / Georgy Zelma / RIA Novosti

It is difficult to calculate the exact amount that our country poured into the restoration of Poland after World War II, especially since the USSR began to provide assistance to Poland long before the victorious May 1945. Thus, the cost of maintaining the Polish Army, formed in the USSR, amounted by January 1945 to 723 million roubles. At the same time, 60 thousand tons of bread, 100 tons of sugar and 50 tons of dried fruits were sent to the liberated Warsaw as a gift. In addition, the USSR took upon itself 50% of the costs of the Warsaw reconstruction plan.

“Poles bickered for every penny”

In 1971, the leader of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev in a private conversation remarked: “We are a party, not merchants. But it seems that the Poles were fighting with us for every penny, like shopkeepers. As an older brother, we didn’t want to offend the younger one, so we endured…”

They not only endured, but also tried not to be like them and did not stoop to petty calculations. Otherwise, Poland could have been billed a lot — for example, for 16 thousand decontaminated Polish wells that were poisoned by the retreating Wehrmacht. Or the restoration by engineering units of the Red Army of 10 thousand km of railway tracks and 20 km of bridges. Or 465 thousand cubic meters of earthworks carried out in order to restore highways. Then, in 1944-1945, the USSR did not even consider it as help — rather, as an allied contribution to the cause of a common victory over Nazi Germany. No one even remembers of the fact that the Polish peasants were given equipment and inventory free of charge during the war, and the Red Army soldiers assisted them in agricultural work — it seemed to be implied, because how else could it be? Similarly, no one remembers the 150 million boxes of matches donated to Poland at that time. But there, even in the years of peace, the shortage of matches was such that some peasants split the matches into parts…

They did not think about such “little things” in the USSR and did not consider it as “real help”. Big deal — matches! Only in the first half of the victorious 1945, Poland received 45 thousand tons of coal and 280 thousand tons of oil, 150 thousand heads of cattle, 130 thousand tons of food and 20 thousand tons of cotton.

Shared the last scraps

Let us note — it all went to Poland during the war. That is, the USSR helped the fraternal, as it was then believed, people not from a good life. They literally shared the last — they didn’t always have enough themselves, they lived half-starved. However, the same can be said about the first post-war years. The famine of 1946-1947 in the USSR, caused by a shortage of labour and droughts, claimed several hundred thousand lives. However, 700 thousand tons of grain were sent to Poland at that time, and by 1948 the volume of grain supplies had grown to 1 million 400 thousand tons.

And this is only “in kind” help. The USSR provided Poland with loans on fantastic terms — 2% per year. It was at such a ridiculous percentage that, in 1945 alone, 50 million roubles were provided for restoration and 10 million dollars for the needs of foreign trade. But Polish appetites grew from year to year. So, in 1947, Poland was given a loan of $27 million…

A typical example shows how the “fraternal people” repaid their debts. In 1956, it was discovered that Poland, with all the injections into its economy, still owed the USSR 2.3 billion roubles. The USSR, responding to the requests of Poland, simply wrote off this debt. And “as a dessert”, allocated an additional loan of 800 million roubles.

They also forgave the debts

The total amount of Soviet aid to Poland from 1944 to 1960 is about 600 billion dollars. And these are only the direct spendings. There were also indirect ones. Thus, the USSR voluntarily transferred to Poland 15% of the reparations paid by Germany. In total, this amounted to $2.3 billion. Against the background of direct spendings, it seems like a drop in the bucket. But it depends on what one compares it with. For example, France’s share in the US economic aid under the Marshall Plan was $2.5 billion.

Well, the fact that since 1963 Poland has received Soviet oil through the Druzhba oil pipeline at a price 30% below the market value, as well as the fact that more than 800 industrial and energy facilities were built there with the participation of the USSR is not worth talking about, according to Poles. This is not help, but cooperation! Maybe it is. But such cooperation is too reminiscent of the well-known fable about a bull who worked all day in the field, and a fly that, sitting on his neck, proudly declares: “How we ploughed!” And this is not a figure of speech. The Polish People’s Republic showed impressive economic growth — in the late 1970s. Poland was among the top 20 most developed and socially secure countries in the world. But at whose expense was this banquet? Here, as they say, do not go to a fortune teller — the last debt to the “fraternal people” of the USSR, which itself was already breathing its last, was forgiven in 1990 — it amounted to 5.5 billion foreign currency roubles.

Black Sea can go up in a fireball – a looming natural disaster

Yesterdays act of terrorism when Ukraine blew up the Kahovskaja HPP dam creates not only a military and humanitarian difficulty for Russia, not only does it create a short-term ecological disaster, killing hundreds of thousands of animals in one swipe, not only does it create a mid-term epidemiological disaster, when ll that has been washed off begins to rot and decompose, it also exacerbates a long-term looming catastrophe hanging over the Black Sea. As it stands now, the sea is already on the verge of going up in a hige fireball, and any additional dumps of the sediments and warm water only hasten that outcome.

Below is a translation of an article by “Argumenty i Fakty” from the 29th of May 2023.


Deep poison. A scientist from Turkey warns of a catastrophe of the Black Sea

Turkish geologist, Professor Osman Bektash warned about the impending danger to all who live on the Black Sea coast. According to him, global climate change is to blame.

The middle layer is thinning

Insufficient precipitation and an increase in temperatures above average values have led to the fact that life in the depths of this sea has become impoverished. The number of fish has decreased, the diversity of biological species has decreased. But that’s not even the main concern.

The Black Sea is practically a closed basin, it is connected to the World Ocean through the narrow Bosphorus Strait. The rivers flowing into it — the Dnieper, Dniester, and Danube — have deposited silt over millions of years, which settled on the bottom and produced hydrogen sulfide as a result of chemical reactions. The excess of this gas with a foul smell of rotten eggs in the depths is the most famous and unusual feature of the Black Sea. It accumulated there for a long time, and since its solution is heavier than water, hydrogen sulfide concentrated in the deepest places.

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NEWSFLASH: Ukraine blows up Kahovskaja Hydroelectric Plant dam – ongoing ecological and humanitarian disaster (with updates)

Ukraine shelled the dam of the Kahovskaja Hydroelectric plant on many occasions throughout the autumn of 2022. This time they managed to blow up the dam in preparation for their hyped-up and many times delayed “spring counteroffensive”. As a result of this act of ecological terrorism by Ukraine, the water level downstream has risen by 10 metres, the cooling of the Zaporozhie Nuclear Power Plant may become compromised. What Ukrainians achieved is to force the Russian army to abandon their dug-in positions, and they also washed away the mine fields. When the water level returns to normal in 3 days’ time, Ukraine will be in a much more advantageous position to attack.

Meanwhile, a humanitarian and ecological disaster is unfolding. Ukraine has severely limited the access to the drinking water for the people on the Crimean peninsular. The wildlife cannot evacuate as easily as people. Many birds are nesting now and whole generation of birds will become lost. The Black Sea – already on the verge of ecological collapse (more on that in a later article) will be polluted even more.

UPDATE: Before the terrorist act, Ukraine dumped large amounts of water from the upstream dams, thus bringing the water level in Kahovskaja dam to the maximum mark. This is seen from the diagram in the post below, and also a dump from the Drepropetrovsk is mentioned in the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Indirect confirmation of Kiev’s guilt in the undermining of the Kahovskaya HPP. Ukrainian publicists write that yesterday the Zaporozhye hydroelectric plant began a massive discharge of water, significantly raising the level of the Kahovsky reservoir. And the picture shows the data of the French monitoring portal The-land: the level rises immediately from 14 to 17.5 meters. After that, an accurate missile strike by the APU and guaranteed destruction of the dam plus a powerful flooding of the territory downstream.

The Russian Ministry of Defence placed the definitive blame on the Kiev regime, and so fr the Russian MoD only made statements when they were 100% sure of the factual veracity of the claim.

At night, the Kiev regime committed another terrorist crime: the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power plant was blown up, which led to the flooding of significant territories, Shoigu said.

The purpose of these actions, according to him, is as follows: having failed to achieve success in the offensive, Kiev intends to transfer units from the Kherson direction to the area of offensive operations, thereby weakening positions in the Kherson direction.

Kiev has also begun the construction of defensive positions on the right bank of the Dnieper, which indicates the intention to go on the defensive here, the minister said.

And as usual, the West, in the best tradition of the Nazi Goebbels schooling, are all in unison blaming Russia for the terror act that damages Russia the most.

Western media write that Ukraine is “not to blame” for the undermining of the Kakhovskaya HPP

The handbooks came through after all, and a few hours after the incident, newspapers began to issue such headlines:

Politico: A key Ukrainian dam has been blown up, Kiev blames Russia.

The Telegraph: The Ukrainian dam was destroyed as a result of a counteroffensive.

TFI: Kiev accuses Russia of destroying the Kakhovka dam in order to slow down the offensive.

El Pais: Ukraine has accused Russia of destroying a dam in Kherson, which is why it is flooding the neighborhood.

📰 NBC News: A large dam has been destroyed in the south of Ukraine. Ukraine has blamed Russian forces for the explosion of the Kakhovka dam.

Die Tageszeitung: An important dam is badly damaged. Ukraine blames Moscow for the explosion of a large dam on the Dnieper.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: The Russians blew up the Kakhovskaya HPP.

ABC: Ukraine has accused Russia of destroying the dam and flooding.

UPDATE:

Statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with the destruction of the Kahovskaya HPP by the Ukrainian armed forces

(Also as an official Telegram post)

We strongly condemn the destruction of the Kahovka hydroelectric power station by the armed forces of Ukraine, which led to a large-scale humanitarian and environmental catastrophe.

The explosion of the dam caused a significant rise in the water level downstream of the Dnieper. Settlements are flooded, thousands of people need to be evacuated. The evacuation has already begun. Colossal damage from this sabotage of the Kiev regime has been inflicted on the agriculture of the region and the ecosystem of the mouth of the Dnieper. As a result of the imminent shallowing of the Kahovsky reservoir, the water supply of the Crimea will be hampered, the reclamation of agricultural lands of the Herson region will be disrupted.

The incident is a terrorist act directed against a purely civilian infrastructure. It was planned in advance and purposefully by the Kiev regime for military purposes as part of the so-called “counteroffensive” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Kiev regime not only subjected the Kahovskaya HPP to massive shelling, but also deliberately brought the water level in the Kahovsky reservoir to a critical level by opening the floodgates of the Dnieper HPP.

The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case on the fact of committing a terrorist act that caused significant property damage and other grave consequences.

The Russian side initiates consideration of this crime of the Kiev regime in the UN Security Council, the OSCE statutory and decision-making bodies and other international organizations. We call on the international community to condemn the criminal acts of the Ukrainian authorities, which are increasingly inhumane and pose a serious threat to regional and global security.


Below are several other Telegram posts about the unfolding events:

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Debunking the false claims about the Russian word “Slava” – “Glory”

A few days ago I was made aware of a post in a German Telegram channel that seemed to liken praising “Glory to Russia” with a Nazi salute. This prompted me to write an analytical reply pointing out to the root of this malicious misconception, adding linguistic, historical and cultural references to support the debunking of this claim. But first, here is the post in question, followed by an automatic translation of it to English.

The Wagners and Russians would be outraged if they had to read this.
This is and remains a fascist salute.
The Russians have expelled the Heil-Hitler-Schreier from their country and will certainly not shout Heil Russia.
Anyone who brings such a saying has nothing, but also nothing, understood.
But you have already noticed here more than once as a provocateur.
There should be an @admin looking there!

It seems that the author thinks of the Russian words “slava” (слава) – “glory” as as some kind of Nazi salute. The root of this misconception lies in the association of the Russian «Glory to Russia» to the Ukrainian Nazi slogan “Glory to Ukraine”. However, anyone making such an extrapolation is not only demonstrating ignorance, but is also playing into the hands of those who are driving smear campaigns at Russia from all thinkable angles.

There is one fundamental, crucial difference: «Glory to Russia» was never used to greet the German Nazi invaders, it was never used as a slogan to which terrible atrocities were committed, as was the case in Ukraine under the Banderite rule.

Ukraine has a two-fold problem with their slogan: first OUN-UPA used it, basically binding the whole country in blood. They didn’t take «Glory to Bandera» as their slogan – even in Germany the slogan was limited to «Heil Hitler» and was not a «Heil Deutchland». And even then no one says that the German word «heil» should be removed from the German dictionary.

The second half of the problem came when Ukraine doubled down on the OUN-UPA legacy and continued to use that particular slogan in their modern neo-Nazi state-building policy.

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The 9th of May 2023 – Remembering the continued fight against Nazism

On this Victory Day, the 9th of May 2023, I want to remember not the Victory on the 9th of May 1945 in the Great Patriotic War and the World War II, I want to remember the continued struggle against Nazism, a struggle that Russia once again had to hoist up on its shoulders.

The perfect way to remember it, is another 9th of May celebration that happened a year earlier – in 1944 – when the Crimean city of Sevastopol was liberated from the German Nazis, who had been rampaging Crimea for almost 2 years, not unlike how the Ukro-Nazis had been rampaging Donbass for the long 8 years since 2014.

In a small way the liberation of Sevastopol was a Victory, but more struggle was still ahead, just like today.

6 years ago, when Artjom Grishanov made this clip, the continuation of the fight was only starting, the warnings in the documentary portion of the clip were not heeded, the “delirium” that Putin spoke of back then, has engulfed the “garden”.

And now, the article co commemorate the continued fight.


Liberation of Sevastopol from the Nazi invaders

The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Ruins of Sevastopol

On the 9th of May 1944, during the Great Patriotic War, as a result of an offensive operation that got the name of “Crimean”, the city of Sevastopol was liberated from the German Nazi troops.

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Nazi-gold in the Swiss Banks and Nazi-officers in NATO. Connecting the Dots.

A few days ago Inessa S posted on her Telegram channel a list of the Nazi-officers who subsequently entered the NATO service at the highest level.

The NAZI officers in charge of NATO. You read that right…

  1. Adolf Heusinger, Hitler’s Chief of Staff, went on to become Chairman of NATO Military Committee in 1961-1964.
  2. Hans Speidel, NATO Commander of Central Europe (CCE) 1957-1963
  3. Johann Steinhof, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, 1971-1974
  4. Johann von Kleimansegg – NATO CCE, 1967-1968
  5. Ernst Ferber – NATO CCE, 1973-1975
  6. Carl Schnel – NATO CCE, 1975-1977.
  7. Franz Josef Schulze – NATO CCE, 1977-1979.
  8. Ferdinand von Senger und Etterlin – NATO CCE, 1979-1983.

Everyone also read about the troubled Credit Suisse that as good as went under.

And now the dots, vaguely connecting these two seemingly disjointed news items. Yesterday “Argumenty i Fakty” published and article that places under scrutiny the finances that came to Switzerland during WWII. This article can also serve as a auxiliary material to the bigger documentary, which I translated some time ago: The Great Unknown War. A must-see documentary about the WWII prelude. By Andrei Medvedev.


Accounts with swastikas. Switzerland still keeps the money of the Third Reich

Gold rings that the Germans removed from their victims. Gold was found by the Americans in a cave near the Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany. 05.05.1945.

Reminders of the events of 80 years ago in Europe occur with frightening regularity. This time the topic of close ties between Swiss bankers and the Third Reich came up.

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What the Third Reich planned to do with the Soviet population in case of a victory

Below is a translation of a short and concise article on the Nazi German plans regarding the occupied territories of the USSR – in the first place, those of Ukraine, Belorussia, Russia. They didn’t wait for the victory, but started implementing this plan right away as they occupied new lands, so they German actions spoke louder, than any documents – surviving or not.

It is worth mentioning here two quotes from the Danish press, which are reprints of the German publications of the time:

2nd of September 1941.

–––work is now being done to save the harvest on the conquered territory. A German army commander has issued a proclamation to the rural population, in which they are held responsible for ensuring that the crops are not destroyed.

30th of November 1941.

From the German side, as is also evident from the wording of the army report, they make no secret of the fact that the war of extermination, which they now intend to unleash against Rostov, is directly aimed at the city’s civilian population.

And then re-reading the following article: The Great Patriotic War in Ukraine. A historical retrospective by Rostislav Ischenko, in which the author tells of the Nazi German occupation of Ukraine, quoting what his grandmother told him of that time.

As further reading, there is a more detailed article (in Russian) General Plan “Ost”: What awaited the Peoples of the USSR after the Victory of the Nazis?

Now, to the grand Nazi German plan at hand, a plan that, thankfully was stopped in its tracks by the Soviet Union.


What the Third Reich planned to do with the Soviet population in case of a victory

February 3, 2021

Long before the invasion of the USSR, the leadership of the Third Reich knew what it would do with the occupied territories and their population. Hitler had a grandiose goal – to forever turn Germany into the strongest country in the world. The resources captured in the USSR were to serve this purpose: minerals, fertile lands and free labour.

Hitler and his strategists planned, as a result of the blitzkrieg, to reach the “A-A” line (“Arhangelsk – Astrahan”) in the autumn, to establish and strengthen the new border of the Reich on it (mainly along the Volga line). In subsequent years, they wanted to advance it to the Urals.

Leave 25% of the Slavic population as a labour force

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False Flag Warning! Russian MoD warns: Kiev plans a chemical false flag!

As usual, the best way to avert a looming false flag is to alert about it. And the best false flag is the one that ultimately does not materialise. So, in view of this, here comes a die warning:

The Message from the Russian Ministry of Defence:

⚡️Joint Coordination Headquarters of Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine

❗️According to the available information, confirmed by several independent sources, a large-scale provocation is being prepared under the leadership of the Ukrainian president’s office aimed at discrediting the Russian Federation on the international scene.

◽️ In order to distract the attention of the international community from the facts of numerous war crimes committed by the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and militants of nationalist formations published by the UN, Kiev regime has planned a special information campaign.

◽️ For its implementation, within the last two weeks, in Akhtyrka in Sumy region, an allegedly ‘advanced defence line of the AFU on the line of contact with the Russian troops’ has been prepared.

◽️ The bodies and remains of dead Ukrainian servicemen, whose deaths allegedly occurred as a result of hit by ‘Russian’ artillery ammunition filled with ‘poisonous substances’, are planned to be delivered to the equipped pseudo-positions.

◽️ Kiev regime envisages the treatment of this area and the remains of the Ukrainian servicemen with a poisonous substance. This will allow invited experts from the Western countries currently on Ukrainian territory to document the alleged ‘use of ‘chemical weapons’ by the Russian armed forces’.

◽️ To make the provocation more plausible, Ukraine’s special services have been instructed to prepare and publish on social media fake radio intercepts allegedly discussed by Russian servicemen preparing to use ‘chemical weapons’, as well as fabricated orders to receive special ammunition for Grad MLRS units.

◽️ According to Kiev regime’s intention, this provocation will make it possible to launch another media campaign to discredit the Russian Federation in the Western media, including an attempt to initiate UN Security Council meeting with accusations against the Russian Federation.


⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ URGENT! Poisonous substances have already been delivered to the region for Western experts to record the “use” of “chemical weapons” by the Russian Armed Forces

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“The Murder of Yugoslavia. The Shadow of Dayton.” A Documentary by Alexei Denisov with English subtitles.

In 2015 the Russian news agency VGTRK release a documentary “The Murder of Yugoslavia. The Shadow of Dayton.” Back then I wrote about it in Two Documentaries: “Murder of Yugoslavia” and “Democracy of Mass Destruction”, and also translated the summary, but did not undertake the translation of the documentary itself. With the parallels in today’s Ukrainian conflict and NATO’s role in it, this documentary has become even more current than in 2015. In addition, with YouTube blocking the VGTK channel in lieu of the West’s crack-down on the freedom of speech and democracy, the original untranslated documentary became impossible to watch even in Russian.

But before we proceed to the documentary, there is another material that provides additional context and outlines many parallels with the civil war in Ukraine.

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The Conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad in the Soviet Journal of Combat Operations

The Battle of Stalingrad mini-exhibition published on the 80th anniversary tried to maintain a human angle on the monumental stand-off. Only the human Toll video makes a mention of the numbers. This article is somewhat different in this regard. Here we will take a look at a few pages from the “Journal of combat operations of the Front troops” pertaining to the Battle of Stalingrad.

Such journals were logged in accordance with the military regulations and recorded which units and troops performed which tasks on any particular day; where the units were moved; which losses they suffered; what victory trophies they gained. The journals would sometimes include copies of relevant orders and documents.

All materials from WWII were declassified by Russia several years ago and can be found on the site of People’s Memory. The journal that interests us holds the records from the 1st of January to the 5th of February 1943, over a span of 310 pages. It was logged by the Don Front, and is now archived in Fund 206, File 262, Case 189.

Even such a dry document, logged by scribes, contains glimpses into the emotions and the contemporary realisation of the historical significance of the unfolding event. Let us first take a look at the preface – the very first pages of the journal.

Each page can be enlarged by clicking on it.



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Commemorative Exhibition – 80 Years of The Battle of Stalingrad

Today is the 80th anniversary since the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, when on the 2nd of February 1943 the world saw the turning point in the course of The Great Patriotic War – the Second World War.

This blog marks the occasion with a series of historic flashbacks, found on the pages that can be accessed either through the top menu or by diving into the link below!

Battle of Stalingrad 1943-2023

Named Родина-мать зовёт! — Rodina-Mat’ zovyot! — The Motherland Calls!
The statue on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad with Nazi Germany.
Photo: Kim Lau

A letter from grandfather “Tiger” to his grandson “Leopard”, sent to Ukraine

This humorous continuity, or historical parallel that there’s been so many of lately caught my eye on the TopWar site. So, without further ado, here is a translation that tries to preserve the wit of the original.


A letter from grandfather “Tiger” to his grandson “Leopard”, sent to Ukraine

24.01.2023

Grandfather and grandson

Guten morgen, mein lieber grandson! I am infinitely glad that you decided to continue “Drang nah Osten”. The Russians have a lot of good fertile land. But for some reason they cling to, and do not want to give it to us, the Aryans. After all, only we are able to administrate this wild land and the barbarians that inhabit it.

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Rostislav Ischenko on the Anti-Russian Racism: Operation “Derusification” or a global attempt to abolish the Russians

It has been a while since I last translated an article by Rostislav Ischenko. In the past I translated such articles as The Great Patriotic War in Ukraine. A historical retrospective by Rostislav Ischenko and Ukraine celebrated its independence – from what?. His political and historical analysis largely centres around Ukraine and the parallels of the present-day historical process to those of the past. Recently he published a number of articles that were mostly of interest to the domestic reader. The one you are about to read now, however, touches upon the wider theme of the anti-Russian racism that has engulfed and consumed the Western world.


Cemetery near Paris: Operation “Derusification” or a global attempt to abolish the Russians

Rostislav Ishchenko, Columnist of MIA “Russia Today”
January 16, 2023

The French authorities are hypocritically sad to announce that they will be forced to close the Russian cemetery in Saint-Genevieve-de-Bois, since Russia has stopped paying for its maintenance. However, Russia stopped paying because the French authorities stopped accepting payments as part of the imposed sanctions.

Saint-Genevieve-de-Bois is a monument to Russian emigration. Emigrants of the Civil War era of the early twentieth century, and then the emigrants of all the subsequent waves are buried there. In addition to Drozdovsky and Drozdov’s followers, Alekseev and Alekseev’s followers, Rodzianko, Yusupov, Grand Duke Gabriel Konstantinovich, Bunin and Gippius, Galich and Nuriev, Taffy and Tarkovsky, Lifar and Merezhkovsky lie there.

This cemetery is a monument to the Russian history of the twentieth century, with all its problems and contradictions. But at the same time it is a monument to the Russians who did not get along in Russia. Some being the losers of the Civil War, some – of the political struggle, whether they left Russia in search of a better life or professional self-realization. But it is also a monument to the Russian culture in its highest manifestations, in which sense it constitutes the integral part of the world culture.

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Bahmut or Artyomovsk? A historical look at the name of the city

The battles for Bahmut/Artyomovsk have been raging for some time, the city becoming the focal point of defence the the Ukrainians were building up over the last 8 years, while hiding under the fig leaf of the Minsk peace accord. The Western/Ukrainian publications stick to the name Bahmut as a true “Ukrainian” one. (Incidentally, the name Bahmut has a Turkic sound to it.) The Russian side sticks with Artyomovsk. The article that I am going to translate below looks at the history of the name, and may be an eye-opened for both parties.

And so, the article in question, published in Deita.ru on the 26th of December 2022. Note that the names may alternatively be transliterated as Bakhmut and Artyomovsk.


Bahmut or Artyomovsk? What is wrong with the city’s name?

The conflict in Ukraine is being fought not only on the battlefield – with artillery and missiles, but also in the information space, where symbolism becomes the main weapon. The city of Bahmut, where fierce battles continue, has become a mini-field of a global information and semantic struggle. The Ukrainian modern name of the city is Bahmut, while Russian media and bloggers persistently use the Soviet toponym Artyomovsk.

This material of IA DEITA.RU is about where both names of the city came from, why the heated argument, and what is the problem with the position of our information attack.

Bahmut vs Artyomovsk

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“Fainting Piglet”, aka. “Unconscious Piggy” Satirical Cartoons Explain the Core of Ukraine and Why SMO Was Unavoidable (with future updates)

In the August of 2022 the CGI animator Evgenia from Krasnodar Krai started creating something that grew into an in-depth satirical reviews of all what was failing Ukraine, and explaining the Special Military Operation’s goals.

The character personifying Ukraine became a little wayward, Nazi-tainted piglet. The Russian title of the series is “Свинка в обмороке” (Svinka v obmoroke), which is a play on the shortened name of the Special Military Operation (SMO) – SVO in Russian. In English the series have got several varying names, trying to convey the essence: “Unconscious Piggy”, “Fainting Piglet”, “Piglet in a Swoon”, “Swooning Pig”.

All episodes are released at the official Telegram channel of the Fainting Piglet. Evgenia writes in the description: “The Piglet is not the whole of Ukraine, but only her demented part!” I have additionally uploaded them to Yandex Disk for easy download.

While the later episodes were released bilingually, earlier episodes require translation (and most of them also require some context for the Western audience, who have been subjected to the heavy Mains Stream Media censorship). This honourable task was undertaken by the admin of The Putinger’s Cat Telegram channel.

As more and more episodes get release and translated, they are becoming increasingly more difficult to trace. And, additionally, not everyone has Telegram. That is why I decided to upload them to Odysee and create this collated post that will get updates as new episodes see the light of day.

But first, a very short clip that cuts to the chase, and shows the very essence of the conflict and the role Ukraine plays in it!


The very first Unconscious Pig episode – “What is Russia Punishing Ukraine For?” or “Why do Russians support the SMO?” – is finally translated! (Translation at Putinger’s Cat)

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