Tolkien’s Beorn as a Personification of Russia

Reading time: 4 minutes

There are times when an article or an idea would sit as a draft for some time before seeing the light of publication, as if waiting for something. This article is of that kind, and it seemed to have been waiting for Lada Ray’s Forbidden History and Forgotten Origins webinars to catalyse me into putting some finishing touches and publishing it.

I first had an inkling of there being a connection between Tolkien’s depiction of Beorn and Rus when I was reading his books. Much later, that feeling returned as I was watching Peter Jackson’s dramatisation of The Hobbit. And the final pieces fell into place, while watching the behind the scenes documentaries on construction of Beorn’s house set and the visualisation of his character. I have created the shortened versions of the two documentaries to showcase the fragments that are especially interesting and telling for the topic at hand:



Before I proceed, let me reference my reader to another article of Lada Ray – Forbidden History: Are Scandinavians Slavs?. Many of the prerequisites are discussed there, so I would be repeating much of that article otherwise.

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UPDATED: Russian Calendar Shows Year 7527, or How Russian History Was Shortened by Peter I

Reading time: 8 minutes

The article you are about to read appears in Russian on The Svarog Day site (Update: the site went off-line in 2021, so the link is update to point to the WebArchive). Before embarking on it, a short contextual and linguistic introduction is needed.

I have been meaning to translate this article for some time, but as with a few other articles that will be coming out around this time, it did not feel like the time was ripe. It is Lada Ray’s forbidden history & forgotten origins webinar series that are now playing as a certain catalyst. Lada addresses this topic and the historical background behind this transition of the calendar in great detail in her webinar. She also addresses the aspects of a supposed impostor that replaced Peter I, which the article below alludes to. She presents arguments that there was no impostor, but that Peter was swayed in his views by his Western advisors during his travels to the West. Later I plan to do a translation of a film that dives into this topic, but for now, back to the topic of the Calendar.

Another note is the word “calendar”, which in old Russian was “kolo dar”, meaning “the gift of the sun-circle”. Lada Ray wrote an extensive article on this topic in 2015: Why Russians celebrate the New Year, and not Christmas, with New Year’s Tree? The Origin of ‘Calendar’ and Christmas/New Year’s Forbidden History. The article to some degree intersects with what I am about to translate, and it also greatly expands on the meaning of the word “calendar”.

The word “year” in modern Russian is written as “god” (год), and the reason for it will become apparent from the article. However, Russian originally used the word “leto” (лето) to denote “year”. In modern Russian the word “leto” means “summer”, but its original meaning is still preserved in different contexts and words, such as “letopis” (летопись, literally: “year writing”), meaning “chronicles”. “Leto” is also used to denote the age or timespan starting from 5 (it seems the reforms of which the article will talk, were only successfully enforced on short intervals), so you’d say “1 god” (1 year), but “5 let” (5 years).

In my translation I will use “year” for both, but will mark the word with either (god) or (leto) in parenthesis, where the context requires it.

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World Cup 2018 in Russia – A Welcoming Echo of the Olympics 1980

Reading time: 3 minutes

Back in 1980 Russia welcomed sports enthusiasts from all over the world for the Olympics. Watching the welcoming and uplifting reports from all over Russia now, during the World cup 2018, I have the theme tune of the Olympics ’80 playing in my mind. It’s the same message of friendship and inclusiveness. See, for example, a collection of video at Russia insider in the articles Moscow Is Basically a Giant Street Party Right Now #WorldCup (Video) and How Many People Are Rocking the World Cup From Which Countries? – Russia Breaks Records

The Olympics ’80 song was written by R. Rozhdestvenskij, with music by D. Tuhmanov and is sung by Tõnis Mägi, a pupolar in USSR Estonian singer. He, alas, betrayed the spirit of this song later in 2014, when he initiated boycott of Steven Seagal, who performed in Sevastopol after Crimea’s democratic reunification with Russia.

Still, whatever his present views and actions are, that is no reason to boycott him or write him out of history. And so, the excellent Olympics ’80 anthem, performed by Tõnis Mägi, with my translation of the lyrics to English below the video frame.

Unfurling high above and calling to us is this golden Olympic flame.
The Earth shall be happy and young!
We must do everything so that the Olympic flame is not extinguished forever,
The Sun is starting into the sky, as if for the first time.
Реет в вышине и зовёт олимпийский огонь золотой.
Будет Земля счастливой и молодой!
Нужно сделать всё, чтоб вовек олимпийский огонь не погас,
Солнце стартует в небе, как в первый раз.

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Newsflash: Ukraine is amassing troops on Donbass border – preparing for an invasion during World Cup in Russia

Reading time: < 1 minute

Reposting the alert from Futurist Trendcast:

This has been in the works for months and DPR and LPR have been warning that Kiev is preparing an all-out attack against both Donetsk and Lugansk during World Cup 2018 in Russia. I warned about it since last year, too.

Ukraine seem to be now fully prepared to escalate the hostilities from their daily shelling of the residential areas and murder of the civilians to a full-fledges invasion and genocide of the population of Donbass!

How the Russian Queen of France Anna Yaroslavna Taught the French to Wash

Reading time: 5 minutes

This is my translation of an interesting article from the 30th of July 2013, containing a letter from Anna Yaroslavna, Queen of France. The original in Russian can be found at the site of the on-line newspaper The President.

This article goes well along with Lada Ray’s “Forbidden History Forgotten Origins” webinar series, where the line of Rjurik and Anna Yaroslavna are discussed in Webinar 8 “1000 Lost Years & Falsified History”.

I have not verified the authenticity of the letter’s text, though given the other historical accounts of the French court of that time, the letter seems to describe the genuine state of affairs. I’ll try researching more into Anna’s letters at a later point.

An English translation of this personal old-Slavic text cannot convey all the emotions and colloquialisms, but should be read as the best approximation.


A Russian girl, Anna Yaroslavna – the Queen of France. She carried out a revolution in a foreign country. It was she who taught the French court to read and write in the XI century. She introduced the French to the bath and forced them to use fork and knife during meals. Anna kept up a correspondence with the Pope. Subjects of a foreign for her France worshipped Anna and called her Red Agnes.

The TV series “In Search of Truth” on STB TV channel with the host Vyacheslav Garmash is dedicated to this topic.

Anna Yaroslavna (also known as Anne of Kiev in the West) signed her name as “Анна Ръина” – “Anna Rhine”. Some translate this from the French “roi”, “Queen Anne”, which is wrong. The word “Ръина” – Rina – should be translated from the old Russian “Ra”, which means, well, “Russian”, (tl. note: or “light”) or “Queen”, which is the same.

Anna was born around 1024. At that time all of Rus was literate. Let us, for example, remember the birch bark letters of that time, of which many have been found. Anna was the youngest of three daughters of Knyaz (King) Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev, wife of French king Henry I, and Queen of France.

Anna grew up at the King’s court in Kiev and received good education. On may the 19th of 1051 she married the widowed Henry I, from whom she later had children.

And so, a very interesting letter from Anna Yaroslavna.


“Hello, my beloved father! Greetings to you, King of all Russia, from your faithful daughter Anya, Anna Yaroslavna Ruricovich, and now the Queen of France. And where did you send me, a sinner? To such a stinking hole, to France, to Paris-town, wishing to never have set my eyes on it!

You said the French are smart, while they don’t even know about the stoves. As the winter starts, they stoke the open hearths. From them soot fills the whole Palace, smoke in the whole room, and not a droplet of heat. I only find refuge here in the Russian beavers and sables. I once called theirs masons, and began to explain what a stove is. I drew and sketched, but to no avail – they do not understand, and that’s it. “Madam,” they say, “it’s impossible.” I answer: “Do not be lazy, go to Russia, we have a stove in every wooden hut, not to speak of the stone chambers.” And they say to me: “Madam, we do not believe. A house with a small chamber filled with fire, and there are no fires? Oh, non-non!” I swore that’s true. They say, “You, Russ, are barbarians, Scythians, Asians, that’s your witchcraft. Madame, see that you don’t tell this to anyone but us, or else both you and we will be burnt at the stake!»

And do you know what they eat, daddy? You won’t believe it – frogs! Even our common folk would be ashamed to put such things into their mouth, while here the dukes and duchesses not only eat them, but at the same time praise them. And they eat “côtelettes”. They would take a piece of meat, beat it with a hammer, fry and eat it.

The Byzantine spoons are still new to them, while they’ve never seen the Venetian forks. I once prepared for my husband, king Henry, the kurnik (translator note: a variaty of a large royal Russian pie, traditionally stuffed with chicken, duck, buckwheat porridge, potatoes and nuts – a few recipes here). He licked his hands. “Anchor! — he cried – More!” I made him some more. He screamed again, ” Anchor!” I said to him: “You stomach will ache!” He asks:” Kes-ke-se? — What is it?” I explained to him according to [the writings of] Claudius Galen. He says, ” You’re a blackbooker (witch)! See that you don’t tell anyone or the Pope will have us burnt at the stake.”

Another time I say to Henry: “Let me teach your clowns to perform ‘Alexandria’.” He replies: “And what is it?” I say, “the history of the wars of Alexander the Great.” — “Who is he?” Well, I explained to him in accordance with [the writings of] Antisthenes the Younger. He told me: “Oh, non-non! It’s incredible! One person cannot conquer so many countries!” Then I showed him the book. He grimaced and said, “I am not a priest to read so much! In Europe, no king can read. Don’t show this to anyone or my Dukes and Counts will promptly stab you with the daggers!” That’s the life here, father.

And also, Saracens came to us. No one, except me, could speak the tongue of the Saracens, so the Queen had to become an interpreter, even if the Dukes with Counts where gnashing their teeth. Yet this is something that I am not afraid of – my Varjags are always with me. Something else is scary. These Saracens invented al’kugl (Arab. — alcohol), it’s stronger than even our beer and mead, not speaking of the Polish water.

And this is why I am writing to you, father, so that not a single barrel of this al’kugl is allowed into Russia. God forbid! That will be the death to the Russian folk. And with this I bow to you in farewell, being thy true daughter Anna Yaroslavna Ruricovich, and by husband, Anna Regina Francorum.”

Such letters wrote the Russian Queen back home to Russia.

A Guide To Moscow from Graham Phillips

Reading time: < 1 minute

Now that the time for the World Cup in Russia is drawing near, the western media are in an overdrive “Russia scaremongering” mode to dissuade fans from visiting Russia. One of the cases in point was when The Sun misrepresented the Serbian photographer Vladimir Milivojevich’s pictures to achieve that goal.

In this context, it is so much more important to get the balanced, honest reporting from Russia. Once such source that I came to trust, is the British independent journalist Graham Phillips. When the coup d’etat in Ukraine happened, he was reporting from Donbass, being one of maybe a handful Western front-line journalists honestly covering the conflict. He also reported from the construction of the recently opened Crimean bridge and the new international airport in Simpheropol, Crimea. His report from Artek children’s summer camp was a much needed counterweight to the lopsided negative reporting from BBC.

Graham’s latest work is from Russia as it prepares for the World Cup. The fist instalment is “Moscow – A Guide To! (2018)”. During the 72 minutes of the film, you’ll visit both the well-trodden and the less-known parts of Moscow, you’ll get to see stunning views and impressions from visitors to Moscow, and you’ll glean some of the capital’s history and unexpected trivia. So, without much further ado, here is the film!

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

Make sure to visit Graham’s YouTube Channel and view his many other reportages.

The ”Wild ’90s” in Russia, more memories

Reading time: 3 minutes

I’ve written several posts on the topic of the devastating “Wild ’90s” in Russia. What I find to be very important is the preservation of the peoples memories of that tragic era. Already there are signs that it has become etched in the Russian “gene pool” on the same level as the Time of Trouble of 1599, the Borodino battle of The Great Patriotic War of 1812 and the memories of The Second Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, along with many other historic turning point events – both in hardship and happiness.

I wrote a translation of one such recollection in the article The ”Wild ’90s” in Russia, as reflected in people’s memory and in the second part of the testimonials translations. Here is another characteristic story from Ankdot.ru site, New Year-themes, yet sad and bittersweet. The author is maybe a little younger than myself. After the main translation, I will present some select comments to the post with more memories of that terrible and confusing time.

The original can be found here.

THE GRANDSON OF SANTA CLAUS

This was inspired by the stories about Santa Claus. A fair warning: it will not be fun. As I remember, my childhood was a happy one though it can hardly be called rich. First came the “perestroika”, then the “fun” of the 90s. My father had died, mother was a kindergarten teacher with a salary equivalent of 10 pounds of buckwheat a month (those who remembers 1992-1993 – he will understand). And all this against the background of the emerging abundance of imported goods. Kids today won’t understand what it was like in the early 90-ies to eat Snickers on a school break or go outside with a cassette tape recorder. As you can gather, with a monthly budget of 10 pounds of buckwheat, Snickers at a break, and especially the tape recorder in the courtyard were not to be dreamt of. I knew better, and didn’t even hint about such things.

So when on January 1, 1993 I received Sony Walkman as a gift – I was close to a shock. First, at the time it was better than both iPhone X and Apple Watch combined nowadays. Secondly, I knew that for the next six months the monthly ration of buckwheat would be halved. “Mom, from where?” “Don’t worry, it’s a present from work.” In short, until the summer I was treated at school, if not like a king, then at least as of particular noble bloodline.

And only a few years later did I learned that for the sake of the player, my mom worked part time as a cleaner in the same garden a few months…

Now I’m an adult of about the same age as my mother was back then. I earn more than well. But I cannot get my mom to agree to any expensive purchase (“You need to save money for a new car/apartment/dacha”. Those, who have parents who survived the 90s as adults will understand me). So I every time have to come up with some excuse for where the present came from. Travel package – “Yes, it’s a promo tour from some acquaintances, with a 50% discount, we must take it.” TV – it’s a bonus from the store, the phone – “we can buy it here twice as cheap, than what you have in Russia”. In my experience, what works best is to get tickets to the theatre “for the bonuses of the mobile operator, which will expire if they are not spent now.”

And also now I bought her tickets to the concert in the Kremlin, “tickets from friends, whose firm is sponsoring the concert”, while with tears welling up, in my inner eye I see a 13-year-old glowing from happiness, with a player in his hands.

My dears, my advice to you while it is not too late – please your parents. They, though they are already old, still believe in miracles. And I told you of some modern versions of the “miracles”.

The Olymp-sized disgrace of IOC and WADA – Political Attack on Russia #noRussiaNoGames

Reading time: 6 minutes

#noRussiaNoGames

The spirit of the Olympics is dead. It was dying for several years, but with each of the recent games, the politics took over the Olympics more and more. The final culmination is now a blanket ban of Russia with an attack on its symbols and language, based on thinly veiled lies coming from an American-sponsored doping criminal who was heading RUSADA and made a runner to the US as soon as his activities started being investigated.

This Rodchenkov character is but the last of the similar attacks on Russia, where the West uses criminals as poster boys. One of the previous ones was the blown out of proportion death of an accountant specialising in tax evasion – Magnitsky – and the con artist Browder, who made illicit billions in the Wild 90s Russia. But I digress.

The Olympic games were used for the past years as attacks on Russia: 08 August 2008 – Georgian invasion into South Ossetia and killing there of the Russian peacekeepers – right after Rice visited Georgia with instructions, and on the opening ceremony day in Bejing. In 2014 Nuland and co was visiting Ukraine, managing to start an armed coup d’etat just as Olympics were underway in Russia. In 2016 in Rio, the athletes were openly humiliated and their lives and training were made impossible. And now, for the games in Korea, the Dark State in the face of IOC and WADA have imposed a blanket ban.

No evidence is presented. The supposed “evidence” (the tempering with the bottles) was debunked by several independent labs, as well as the Swizz manufacturer of the tubes. Incidentally, earlier Russian samples were destroyed by Rodchenkov before he made a runner to the US, so it is now impossible to the earlier years’ tests. More on the game-by-game analysis read Lada Ray’s REPORT: Dirty Geopolitics of Olympics and Globalism – Will Russia Say NO and Start Alternative Games?.

This is a pure attack on Russia in general and one of the attacks before the presidential campaign to interfere in the Russian internal politics. Sample this from McFaul:

In the wake of the Russian Olympic ban, a couple of days ago McFaul wrote that Russians should know that the Russian team, flag and anthem ban are all because of bad Putin. It is Putin who is to blame for the Russian athletes’ predicament, he proclaimed. In doing so, he: 1. confirmed that Russian athletes’ ban is politically motivated, 2. revealed fully who he is working for. It is clear that the whole ‘Russian Olympic ban’ psyop has been designed to divide Russian society and to try to damage Putin’s reputation before the upcoming Russian elections 2018.

The whole “neutral” IOC thing is a pure aggression against Russian symbolism, Russian language, Russian people and Russian sports. It is well-summed in the following caricature:


The red signs read: “Neutral flag”, “Neutral surname”, “Neutral form”. The speech bubble in the German-accented of Bach “This fantastic Vanja. Das uniform is gut for you”.

Here are the details, as reported by RT:

IOC releases Olympic kit requirements for Russian athletes

  • Abbreviation “RUS” is forbidden – only a nondescript “OAR”. (Attack on the country name)
  • Cyrillic lettering is forbidden – only English. (The ever-present urge to latinise Russia)
  • Monochrome or dual-coloured uiforms, but not with the colours that could be combined into the Russian flag (Attack on the state symbol). Russian forums circulate a few jokes that Russia should just design a pure red uniform with buttons formed as hammers…
  • The anthem will not be sounding. And the athletes are strictly forbidden to associate themselves with Russia. As an experience from Rio showed – humming the Russian anthem can disqualify you.
  • In addition on prohibition on humming or singing of the anthem a’capella, the athletes are forbidden to mention Russia in their conversations or in social media and to refer to themselves as Russians.

So what we have, are the Gestapo-level measures to eradicate all things Russian. Something like this was outlined in Hitler’s operation Barbarossa, by the way.

So, why stop now, IOC – just take the extra step and make the athletes wear the yellow star of David!

Shocking as it is, the Paralympics are even more rotten than the Olympic platform. Time to create our own.

#noRussiaNoGames

The process of deciding which Russian athletes will be allowed to participate under the “neutral” guise is arbitrary. The athletes are sentenced by a one-man jury at IOC without being given any evidence. Here is how the process is described by the Russian skiing champion Nikita Kryukov (who, incidentally, stated that he’ll boycott the games regardless of the verdict):

On the 20th of December the IOC Commission will consider the case of Nikita Kryukov and two other representatives of the national team of Russia in ski racing — Alexander Bessmertnyh and Natalia Matveeva.

The information that appeared newly, indicated that their cases will be reviewed by the Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under the leadership of Denis Oswald. We offer a commentary by Nikita Kryukov, that we got just received:

— Yesterday the President of Federation of ski racing E. V. Vyalbe said that the hearing by Oswald will be held on the 20th. What I expect from this hearing? The same resolution that was delivered the rest of our guys. We are no longer hoping for a miracle. Those, who went to Oswald, told how it all happens – you are only given the final word and then they read out the verdict.

This topic has now become quite boring and no one is surprised that they call out new names all the time.

When I was told that they were waiting for me at the meeting I was, of course, a little shocked. But I’m not the first and probably not the last one to take such a hit. I hope the lawyers will help and we will quickly send an appeal to a civil court.

They will make sure that only the least experienced, weakest athletes are allowed to compete…

In addition, the support teams of the athletes will not be allowed to follow them. It’s like sending a car to Formula 1, but saying that all the mechanics and pit-stop technicians are barred. Only driver is allowed to go. Oh, and the driver will have to do with a car provided by the race organisers.

A follow-up from Nikita Kryukov on the “tribunal” at IOC, where 11 athletes were “processed:

“I was asked only one question: how tightly did I close my doping sample in Sochi? To which I replied: as tight as possible. I always do so, at all doping tests.
Then I was allowed to speak.
— I, personally, was not familiar with Gregory Rodchenkov. I had never heard of any state-support system of doping in Russia, and was not familiar with it, I said.
— I’m for clean and honest sport. I am a clean athlete. I am ready to confirm my words on the polygraph or under oath.
After they listened to all the athletes, the hearing continued.
The day before the hearing we were informed that our samples were tested by the Lausanne laboratory for the presence of the T-shaped scratch marks and salt. Personally, I was told that they checked 3 of the Sochi samples and they all tested negative for the presence of scratches and salt.
But back to the point. The prosecution argued at the end of their speech, that we should not pay attention to the fact that the samples have not yielded positive results. It’s all part of the state system. I will not go in depth here, as I was not able to listen to in in full, but one thing I remember exactly is that when we go to CAS, Rodchenkov himself will already be present there.”

In other words: IOC said – who cares about the evidence. We said Russians are guilty therefore they are guilty!

Another NATO Lie Exposed – Not a Step Eastwards Were Empty Words

Reading time: 5 minutes

Last week saw another major newsworthy event that had the honour of being completely and silently ignored by the Western MSM. And that is no wonder. For one, the news item reaffirmed what was said before, and vehemently denied by USNATO: the reassurance given to Gorbachev that the block would not be expanding Eastwards of the Eastern Germany’s Border once the West (read: USA) got control of the whole of Germany.

The extensive report from the National security Archive, titled “NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard” demonstrates that assurances were, indeed, given from various NATO politicians and military top brass.

However, not even 10 years passed when the military block, having seen no repercussions for invading, bombing and demolishing the sovereign state of Yugoslavia – in breach of the international law, set its course Eastwards, creeping ever closer to the Russian borders, all the while increasing the demonising rhetoric aimed at Russia. You can see the dynamics of the expansion on the map below:

And so, the news, as published in RT:

Gorbachev WAS promised NATO would not expand east – declassified docs

In 1990, Western politicians repeatedly assured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO wouldn’t expand east of Germany’s borders, but broke that promise less than a decade later, say insider archives from both sides of negotiations following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.

Researchers from the respected George Washington University-based National Security Archive, which specializes in obtaining key declassified information from the government, have put together 30 crucial documents that clearly show several top Western officials vowing to Gorbachev in unison that NATO would not expand eastward. Some of these have been publicly available for several years, others have been revealed as a result of Freedom of Information requests for the study.

Other free and independent media published their own articles and commentary to the revelation. Here is an article from Russia Insider, republishing the article from National Interest:

Newly Declassified Documents: Gorbachev WAS PROMISED Numerous Times NATO Wouldn’t Move Past East German Border

Just take a look at the number of assurances given!

The West lied to Moscow and then lied about the lying. It can’t lie any longer.

Gorbachev only accepted German reunification—over which the Soviet Union had a legal right to veto under treaty—because he received assurances that NATO would not expand after he withdrew his forces from Eastern Europe from:

    James Baker,
    President George H.W. Bush,
    West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher,
    West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl,
    the CIA Director Robert Gates,
    French President Francois Mitterrand,
    British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,
    British foreign minister Douglas Hurd,
    British Prime Minister John Major,
    and NATO secretary-general Manfred Woerner.

One very chilling fragment is the quotation of a prophetic interview of the American diplomat George F. Kennan:

“Expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era,” Kennan wrote on February 5, 1997 in a New York Times op-ed. “Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking.”

Kennan’s sage advice was ignored, and the exact scenario he warned about has today come to pass. More than 25 years after the end of the Cold War, relations between Moscow and Washington are at their lowest point since the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed, some have suggested that the United States and Russia are entering into a new cold war of sorts.

USA surely shot itself in the foot there, but, in a way, that was a positive move to awaken Russia from its self-destructive complacency.

Lada Ray offers some more insight in her expanded commentary to the Rt article in:

New Documents Prove US Lied to Gorbachev and Broke Promise of NATO Eastward Non-Expansion

The evidence presented in the video above shows without a shadow of a doubt that US/Germany/EU/NATO lied and swindled Russia and the USSR. The temporary weakness of Russia was used as an excuse to break promises. Moreover, Germany never paid in full the agreed upon compensation for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, and we are talking billions of euros (plus close to 30 years worth of intrest!). This Germany denies as well, but I’m sure the documents to that effect will also come to light in due course. By the way, I have discussed this issue in Earth Shift Webinar 6: THE PUTIN ENIGMA.

EDIT:
Today Russia Insider published a follow-up article by Eric Magrolis, someone who was there as the historical move and the historical lie happened:
‘Sorry Chump, You Didn’t Have it in Writing’

The Poles, Hungarians and Czechs were brought into NATO, then Romania and Bulgaria, the Baltic States, Albania, and Montenegro. Washington tried to get the former Soviet Republics of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. The Moscow-aligned government of Ukraine was overthrown in a US-engineered coup. The road to Moscow was open.

All the bankrupt, confused Russians could do was denounce these eastward moves by the US and NATO. The best response NATO and Washington could come up with was, ‘well, there was no official written promise.’ This is worthy of a street peddler selling counterfeit watches.

By the way, consider this paragraph, and dwell on the numbers:

Gorbachev was a humanist, a very decent, intelligent man who believed he could end the Cold War and nuclear arms race. He ordered the Red Army back from Eastern Europe. I was in Wunsdorf, East Germany, HQ of the Group of Soviet Forces, Germany, and at Stasi secret police HQ in East Berlin right after the pullout order was given. The Soviets withdrew their 338,000 troops and 4,200 tanks and sent them home at lightening speed.

Soviet Union was not prepared to take that large a number of servicemen back – there was no local infrastructure, no prepared dislocation settlements. All this put a huge additional economic strain on the already ailing economy of the USSR, and was one of the many blows, dealt to it by the West.

204 A-Bombs Against 66 Cities: US Drew up First Plan to Nuke Russia Before WWII Was Even Over – Reblog

Reading time: 8 minutes

We’ve written about it before, how USA was planning to annihilate USSR (read – Russia) just as WWII was drawing to a close. You can read that first article USA declassifies its plans to nuke 1/3 of planet Earth.

But it’s never too seldom to repeat this, and today’s publication in Russia Insider 204 A-Bombs Against 66 Cities: US Drew up First Plan to Nuke Russia Before WWII Was Even Over does just that.

UPDATE May 2, 2025: the original of the RI article disappeared, so the link is updated with the version stored at the WebArchive. We also update this post to include the complete copy of the article, with all the image. The article at Russia Insider was in turn re-published from South Front, here at the new address.

Our reader, JMF, found two more articles of interest on this topic: From 1945-49 the US and UK planned to bomb Russia into the Stone Age and The First Atomic Stockpile Requirements (September 1945).


“Wipe the Soviet Union Off the Map”: Planned US Nuclear Attack against USSR

This video from South Front is based on the research of Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

Below is the full text of Professor Chossudovsky’ article published by Global Research

According to a secret document dated September 15, 1945, “the Pentagon had envisaged blowing up the Soviet Union with a coordinated nuclear attack directed against major urban areas.

All major cities of the Soviet Union were included in the list of 66 “strategic” targets. The tables below categorize each city in terms of area in square miles and the corresponding number of atomic bombs required to annihilate and kill the inhabitants of selected urban areas.

Six atomic bombs were to be used to destroy each of the larger cities including Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent, Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa.

The Pentagon estimated that a total of 204 bombs would be required to “Wipe the Soviet Union off the Map”. The targets for a nuclear attack consisted of sixty-six major cities.
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Agents of Revolution-2. How the Leaders of October Repaid their Debts to the Sponsors

Reading time: 6 minutes

Marking the centenary of the October Revolution, I am publishing translations of three articles from “Argumenty i Fakty”. The second article in a series of two from 18.04.2012, taking a look at how the Western funds invested into the revolution got repaid. The article is by a reputable historian and writer Nikolai Starikov. Read the translation of the first article to learn the role of Valdimir Uljanov / Lenin on the eve of the October Revolution.


Having declaring war on global capital, once in power, Lenin and Trotsky gave up enormous resources to the mercy of their enemies. Was it a repayment for the “sponsorship” assistance in organizing the revolution and the Civil war?

In the previous atricle we told about the adventures Vladimir Lenin and his comrades experienced 95 years ago (note: the article is from 2012) travelling from abroad to Russia, and who aided them in that.

Writer, historian Nikolai Starikov, author of the books “Chaos and revolution weapon of the dollar”, “1917. The answer is “Russian” revolution,” etc., says that the Bolsheviks did not forget their benefactors. And though they did not completed the “order” for the collapse of Russia, they, nevertheless, more than repaid the financial debts.

The Civil war was barely over, when the young Soviet government started showing serious interest in the production of the yellow metal. On the 14th of November 1925, the government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), with a light hand of Trotsky (recall that this fiery Russian revolutionary of Jewish origin spent about 12 years of the early twentieth century in the West and even managed to obtain an American passport), transfers the rights to the development of the gold mines in Eastern Siberia to the company “Lena Goldfields Co., Ltd”. The very same, whose workers were shot in cold blood in 1912, when they were protesting against low wages. The famous Lena massacre gave at that time the Bolsheviks an excuse to denounce the autocratic rule in Russia. While now the Bolsheviks themselves transferred to a British consortium that owned “Lena Goldfields” the rights to mine gold in the basin of Lena river (and not only there) for 30 years! The area of the concession covered a huge territory from Yakutia to the Urals, and the interests of the Western company now went far beyond gold. They included silver, copper, lead, iron…

Under the agreement with the Soviets, a whole group of mining and metallurgical enterprises was handed over into disposition of “Lena Goldfields”. And what did the country receive in return? A measly 7% of the volume of the extracted metal.

Enormous wealth went overseas for virtually nothing. However, this blatant robbery of the country lasted for a relatively short period of time. On the 10th of February 1929 Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Union. And – what an amazing coincidence – in December of the same year “Lena Goldfields” was forced to cease its operations in Russia.

Swedish business

Someone will remark that the looting of the country was happening after the death of Lenin in January 1924. The debts for the sponsorship of the revolutionaries were seemingly returned only by Trotsky, who in spring 1917 arrived to Russia from New York with ten thousand dollars in his pocket? (By the way, not only he and Iljitch [patrimonial of Ulianov {Lenin}] returned to the country back then. Other “agents” came to the revolutionary Russia from the West: V. Antonov-Ovseenko, who later arrested the Provisional Government; the future head of the Petrograd Special Services, Moisey Uritsky, with whose murder starts the “red terror”; V. Volodarsky (Moisey Goldstein) and many others.)

In reality, the Bolshevik government entered into the shady deals with the West also during the life of Lenin. Perhaps the most notorious of these concerned the purchase of locomotives from the factory of the Swedish firm “Nidquist and Holm” (NoH AB).

The volume of the order is staggering – 1,000 locomotives to the price of 200 million gold roubles. It’s almost a quarter of the then gold reserves of the country! Note that until then, this firm could not afford a production of more than 40 locomotives per year. And then it was offered to make a thousand! The order was distributed over 5 years: in 1922, Russia was to receive 200 locomotives, and in 1923-1925 – 250 annually. Why would the Soviet country, in dire need of railway technology, want to buy them from this particular Swedish company and at highly inflated prices? Why would she agreed to wait for the delivery for 5 years, instead of having to buy the right product cheaper and immediately, but in a different place? The people’s Commissariat of Railways, headed in the early 1920s by Leon Trotsky, desired exactly these locomotives so much that not only did they make an advance payment of 7 million kronor, but also gave the Swedish company… an interest-free loan of 10 million kronor “for the construction of a mechanical workshop and boiler room”.

The Soviet magazine “The Economist” wrote about the peculiarities of this affair in early 1922. The author A. Frolov proposed to investigate: why was it necessary to order engines in Sweden? After all, for such money it was possible “to put in order our locomotive plants and feed theirs workers”. The Putilov factory had been producing more than 200 locomotives per year before the war. Why not issue a credit to them? And Lenin indeed sorted out the situation. After consulting with Trotsky, he asked Felix Dzerzhinsky to close down “The Economist” magazine (which also on previous occasions published articles unpleasant for the Soviets), stating: “the Staff of “The Economist” are the enemies of the most ruthless kind. All of them must be sent out of Russia”. The suspicious contract with the Swedes remained unchanged after the intervention of the leader.

So how did the Bolsheviks return the money to the foreign bankers? They obviously could not simply transfer them to the West and write in the “Purpose of payment” column: “Repayment for the Russian revolution and the victory in the Civil war”. A good excuse was needed. Such as to buy something in the West, for example those selfsame locomotives. Trotsky organizes the purchase, but Lenin, it seems, is aware of the transaction and does not prevent it. Otherwise this doubtful contract would have cost Trotsky his career.

In fact, many documents confirm, that the Swedish banking system was used to inject money for the revolution into Russia. And later it was also used to transfer money out. Already in the autumn of 1918 Isidore Gukovsky, deputy of the People’s Commissar of Finance in Soviet Russia, arrived in Stockholm. With him he had crates full of money and jewellry. The value of the goods was estimated at 40-60 million roubles. Millions of roubles were transferred to the Stockholm banks, including “Nya Banken” of Olof Aschberg, whose name often appears in the books on the financing of the Bolsheviks.

A Deal with the Devil

It is difficult to tell the exact number of contracts and concessions issued by the Soviet government to the American firms at the beginning of the construction of a new state. But this includes both $25 million of commissions to the American Industrialists for the period from July 1919 to January 1920, and the concession for the extraction of asbestos that was issued to Armand Hammer in 1921, and the lease agreement issued for 60-years to the Frank Vanderlip and its consortium, which provided for the exploitation of deposits of coal and oil, as well as fishing in the North-Siberian region, with an area of 600 thousand sq. km.

The return of funds allocated for the elimination of the Russian Empire, was obviously one of the agreements between the representatives of the Western governments and the Bolsheviks. And both Lenin and Trotsky carefully observed this agreement. However these new leaders did not meet the other Western hopes. Having been put at the helm of Russia to completely ruin it (and the initial aims of the West coincided with the revolutionary dreams of Lenin), Lenin started instead to put the torn apart country back together. To build a strong and independent state which again plays a key role in world politics.

However, the leader of the proletarians did not have long left to live. I do not exclude that the shot from SR member F. Kaplan, that precipitated his death, was a precautionary measure on the part of his former foreign guardians, so that he would not be getting full of himself. Trotsky, perhaps, was ready to continue to work for the West, but in 1929 Stalin sent him out, and then sent in pursuit an assassin R. Mercader, with an ice pick. As we know, no deal with the devil goes without repercussions.

Agents of Revolution-1. Was Lenin a Spy for Germany?

Reading time: 6 minutes

Marking the centenary of the October Revolution, I am publishing translations of three articles from “Argumenty i Fakty”. The first article in a series of two from 11.04.2012, taking a look at who was Valdimir Uljanov / Lenin. The article is by a reputable historian and writer Nikolai Starikov.


Vladimir Lenin’s journey with a group of friends in a “sealed train” starting from a quiet and well-to-do Switzerland, through Germany and into the revolutionary Russia, that took place exactly 95 years ago (the article is from 2012), gave rise to the rumours that Lenin was a German spy.

This trip that changed the course of the world history, still raises many questions. Chief among them: who helped Lenin to return home? In the spring of 1917 Germany was at war with Russia, and it would have benefited Germans to drop at the heart of the enemy a handful of Bolsheviks who preached the defeat of their government in the imperialist war. But not all is that simple, says the writer and historian Nikolai Starikov, author of the books “Chaos and revolution – weapon of the dollar”, “1917. The answer to “Russian” revolution,” etc.

– If Lenin was a German spy, he would have immediately begun to seek the return to Petrograd through Germany. And would, of course, immediately get a go-ahead. But reality was different. Let’s remember: tiny Switzerland, where Iljich lived, was surrounded by France, Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary, locked in mortal combat.

There were two ways to leave Switzerland: through an Entente member country or through the territory of its opponents. Lenin initially selects the first option. On the 5th (18th) March (here and further the date in bracket is according to the new style. – Ed.) Inessa Armand receives from him the following telegram: “My Dear friend! We are dreaming about the trip… I would love to give You an assignment in England to learn quietly and surely, if I could pass through. I shake your hand. Yours V.U.”. Between the 2nd (15th) and 6th (19th) of March of 1917, Lenin telegraphs to his colleague Ganetsky in Stockholm, presenting a different plan: to travel to Russia under the guise of… a deaf-mute Swede. While on March the 6th, in a letter to V. A. Karpinsky he suggests: “Buy in your name papers for a journey to France and England, and I will use them to go through England (and Holland) to Russia. I can wear a wig”.

The first mention of Germany as a route appears in a telegram to Karpinsku from Lenin on the 7th (20th) of March – on the 4th day of the search for options. But soon he confesses in a letter to I. Armand: “It does not work out with Germany”. Isn’t it strange? Lenin could not agree with the “accomplices” – the Germans – on the passage through their territory and was for a long time inventing workarounds: either to “quietly” go through England, or in a wig with false documents through France, or to pretend to be deaf and dumb Swede…

Conspiracy of the “allies”

I am convinced that even if there had been some secret agreements between Lenin and the German authorities at that point, they were very vague. Otherwise there would initially be no difficulties with his delivery to Russia. The Germans did not expect a successful February revolution, they did not expect any revolution at all! Because, apparently, they were not preparing any revolution. Then who prepared the February of 1917? For me the answer is obvious: Western “allies” of Russia in the Entente. It is their agents who brought first the workers and then the soldiers out on the streets of Petrograd, while the British and French ambassadors were in charge of these events. It happened unexpectedly, not only for the Germans, but also for the Bolsheviks. Lenin and his comrades were not required until February, the “allied” intelligence agencies were able to organize labour unrest and military rebellion without their aid. But so as to bring the revolutionary process to fulfilment (i.e., the collapse of Russia, which would fully subordinate her to the will of the Atlantic powers), it was required to add fresh yeast to the boiler – in the form of Lenin.

There is every reason to believe that in March 1917 it was the “allied” intelligence that in separate negotiations with the Germans convinced them not to hinder the movement of the Russians-Bolsheviks (i.e. representatives of the enemy country, who, according to the law of war, should have been arrested and put in jail until the end of the war). And the Germans agreed to that.

General Erich Ludendorff wrote in his memoirs: “By sending Lenin to Russia our government assumed a special responsibility. From a military point of view his journey through Germany had its justification: Russia had to collapse into the abyss.” After learning the good news, Lenin was delighted. “You will maybe say that the Germans will not provide a carriage. Let’s bet that they will!” he writes on March the 19th (April 1st) to Inessa Armand. And later, also to her: “We have more money for the trip, than what I anticipated… our comrades in Stockholm helped a lot”. Less than two weeks passed between the two letters to his beloved (“Germany won’t let us pass” and “they’ll give [a carriage]”), and during that time, the United States, Britain and Germany decided the fate of Russia. The Americans provided the necessary for Russian radicals money (indirectly, through the selfsame Germans and Swedes), while the British provided the non-interference from the Provisional Government, which they controlled. In Stockholm – where Lenin and his companions arrived after a long journey by train through Germany, and then by a ferry to Sweden – they easily got a group visa to Russia at the Russian Consulate. Moreover, the Provisional Government even paid for their tickets home from Stockholm! The revolutionaries were met by a guard of honour at the Finland railway station in Petrograd on the 3rd (16th) of April. Lenin gave a speech, which concluded with the words: “Long live the socialist revolution!” But the new government of Russia did not even think of arresting him…

The bucks at his bosom

Another fiery revolutionary, Leon Trotsky (Bronstein), was preparing for a journey home from the United States during those same March days. Like Vladimir Lenin, Lev Davidovich received all the documents from the Russian Consul in New York. On the 14th (27th) of March Trotsky departed with his family from New York on the ship “Kristianiafjord”. However, upon arrival to Canada, he and several of his associates were briefly taken ashore. But soon they were allowed to continue – at the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Government, Pavel Miliukov. An amazing request, isn’t it? Not in the least, if you consider that Milyukov was a personal friend of Jacob Schiff, an American magnate, “chief sponsor” of several Russian revolutions. During the arrest, by the way, it turned out that Trotsky was a U.S. citizen travelling on British transit visa and a visa for entry to Russia.

Additionally, ten thousand dollars were found in his possession – a huge amount at that time, which he could hardly have earned only from the fees for newspaper articles. If that, however, was money for the Russian revolution, then it was only a negligible part. Principal amounts from the American bankers were transferred to the correct accounts of verified people. This was nothing new for Schiff and other financiers of the United States. They allocated funds to the Social Revolutionaries and the Social Democrats in 1905, and also helped those who prepared the February. And now came the time to help the most “hard core” revolutionaries. By the way, in the case of Trotsky, this assistance was almost a family affair: the wife of Lev Davidovich, nee Sedova, was the daughter of a wealthy banker Zhivotovsky – companion of Warburg bankers, and those in turn were companions and relatives of Jacob Schiff.


The second part of the article is called Agents of Revolution-2. How the Leaders of October Repaid their Debts to the Sponsors

100 Year Anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917

Reading time: 3 minutes

This 7th of October 2017 marks the 100 year anniversary of the October (old style) Russian Revolution of 1917.

The event itself was both a curse and a blessing for Russia, a great tragedy and a salvation. Like so many times before and after, Russia rose from the ashes, stronger than what her ill-wishers could possibly imagine. Many controversies are floating around the subject of the Revolution, and many inaccuracies.

Let us start with the first – there were two revolutions. One in February, which actually depose Tzar Nikolai II, and one in October. The February revolution carried all the traits of a colour revolution – from the public unrest (justified, but externally directed), to removal of the current order in the country. There is evidence that the abdication note from Nikolai II is forged. After the February revolution, the temporary government did not have any real power, the country was plunged in a state power vacuum, which was ultimately filled in October/November 1917.

From a bird’s eye view perspective, one can argue that the foundation for the revolution (or what one would call nowadays with the ignomous term of Maidan) were laid much earlier – with the first attempt in 1905. Later, creation of the pretext of WWI, dragging of Russia in to World War (despite Nikolai II’s attempts to avoid it), the October revolution, the Versailles Treaty wich basically made WWII inevitable, and ultimately WWII itself were beads of a string of one single event.

WWI laid the foundations putting for economic strain, and thus social unrest on the pre-WWI economically blossoming Russia. WWI gave Britain hope to weaken and do away with Russia, and for Germany to get “lebensraum” (yes, that term was not coined by Hitler, but prior to WWI, and later adopted by him).

By 1917 Germany badly needed Russia to exit WWI as it overstrained itself, Britain still needed Russia destroyed. Lenin gave promises to both sides, thus getting financing from Britain and free passage from Germany. He also delivered on most, but not all of the promises, ultimately saving Russia from destruction.

British king George V, while granting asylum to a jeweller Carl Faberge, refused such courtesy to cousin of Nikolai II. Britain did not need any legitimate continuity of rule in Russi, it need Russia weakened and dismembered, and Lenin was the demolition man, though luckily for Russia he did not prove as cooperative as Britain had hoped, once in power.

There is an enlightening article at RT, Why didn’t Britain’s king save deposed Russian cousin after revolution? with this photo. Can you tell George V from Nikolai II?

Lada Ray conveyed the above and more in her post What is the Truth about 1917 Bolshevik Revolution? Striking Festival of Light in St. Petersburg, as well as in her informative Webinar INVERTED COLLAPSE USSR’S PAST – WEST’S FUTURE.

I planning on translating three articles from Aigumenty i Fakty pertaining to the financing, ties and movement of Lenin in 1917. Stay tunes.

USA Rushes to Destroy the Very Foundations of The International Law

Reading time: 5 minutes

We’ve all become quite accustomed to how USA flagrantly violates international law, starting from interfering into other counties political process (Ukraine being one of the hundreds of Examples), through instigation of violence and military conflict, and to outright bombing and invasions, like in Korea, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, and many many other countries turned by the USA into wastelands.

However, until recently, USA did so trying to cover is naked aggressiveness by a thin transparent layer of legality, and observed at least some semblance of following the international law.

Staring in December, with Obama’s departing expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, and seizure of Russian diplomatic and private property, USA took a step towards behaving like an outlaw, and outright street robber. In her August the 1st article Russia-US 4D Wars: Putin expels 755 US Diplomats; New Sanctions and Nord Stream 2 War, Lada Ray describes what and how USA stole:

Obama also took away two Russian diplomatic resorts, where the children of diplomats could go to summer camp and where families went for R&R. One such resort was not far from Washington DC. In 1977, The Soviet government officially purchased the compound for $1.2 mln.

Usually, such diplomatic compounds would be swapped between countries, based on mutual agreement. For instance, there was an agreement between the USSR, inherited by Russia, and USA about mutual exchange of properties in each country, to be used for diplomats and their families as private resorts or other needs. If the US allotted a piece of such real estate to Russia (USSR) in the US, a comparable piece of real estate had to be allotted to the USA in Russia.

The problem is that the resort near Washington DC wasn’t even a part of the exchange deal. It was purchased for $1.2 mln fair and square, and was fully owned by Russia. Therefore, taking away that particular resort amounts to an illegal expropriation of private property by the US government, using threats and force. This never happened even at the height of the Cold War. And you still think the USSR was bad?

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Scary Death Throws of a Dying Empire

Reading time: 4 minutes

The American Empire is on the decline. That is for the whole word to see already – from the American fake news, fake accusations, unprovoked aggressions, provocations, unfounded sanctions. Some may call them “fits”, but they look more like death throws of a dying empire. The bigger an empire is the harder it falls, and it seldom happens peacefully. It took 2 world wars and aggressive policy towards Russia (resulting in the 1917 coup d’etat) for the British Empire to fade away. The American Empire is bigger and far less sophisticated, yet much more aggressive.

The Empire sees a world war as an only way to salvage itself, and is thus doing everything it can to start such a war – from inflamation of the Middle East, to provocation of North Korea, to provocation of Russia and alienation of the Western Europe. It is now (as always) up to Russia to balance things out and to prevent a disaster. It happened before – with the Teutonic knights, Napoleon, Hitler, and countless others who dreamt of world domination… (I would refer readers to Lada Ray’s Great Balancer theory, which puts the geopolitical and historical events into a perspective that makes perfect sense.)

This time, though, it seems the US are about to raise the stakes and risk total human extinction by the means of weaponised viruses. As revealed by the following article:

‘Weaponizing viruses’? US Air Force places ad for bio samples from Russians

The US Air Force is looking to acquire samples of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and synovial fluid from Russians, according to a government website used to place tenders. The reason behind the order hasn’t been specified.

The Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command has placed a listing on the Federal Business Opportunities website asking for at least 12 RNA samples from Russian people of a European ancestry, as well as 27 samples of synovial fluid.

Suppliers of the samples must meet a number of requirements.

“All Normal Human Fresh Frozen (FF) Synovial Tissue and Normal Human Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) samples must be Russian / Caucasian origin,” reads the contract’s technical specifications. “All FF Synovial tissue and RNA samples must come from normal donors, who have no musculoskeletal injuries. This shall be confirmed by pathology. All FF synovial tissue must have a weight greater than or at a minimum of 0.25 grams.

“All RNA samples must be frozen. Synovial Tissues and RNA samples can be unmatched, meaning from different donors. All Synovial Tissue and RNA samples must be HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis negative.”

All samples must “be collected from Russia and must be Caucasian. The Government will not consider tissue samples from Ukraine,” the contract added.

The thing is, as previous genetic studies showed, Ukrainian (Malorossian), Russian, Belorussian, Rusin genomes are identical. It would not be far fetched to say, that such a weaponised virus would also target Serbians, all central European Slavs, and Scandinavians. Moreover, tiny mutations and unforeseen consequences may lead to the virus wiping out the entire human race, maybe leaving chimps and gorillas on the face of the Earth, but maybe taking them out too.

In other words, the above is the single most scary piece of news that I’ve read these past years – worse than all of the American saber-rattling combined!

As as post-scriptum: Russian Empire

A reader may ask why I did not mention the Russian Empire and the USSR when talking about collapsing empires. In a way, both USSR and the Russian Empires were anti-Empires. Neither displayed the traits of a classic imperialism. They never had overseas or distant colonies – all lands ascended into Russia on the request of the local elites or through trade treaties. They never pumped resources out of the periphery regions, rather the opposite – such regions as Georgia, Moldavia, the Baltics were developed and invested into at the cost of the core Russian population/territories. They were organised as federations with local regional governments having a lot of say in local affairs (Finland even had its own gold currency, but that was more of a confederation construct).

So, Russia, Russian Empire, USSR, and now Russian Federation experienced difficulties throughout history, and under Western pressure they seemed to disintegrate, to fall. However, if you take a step back, Russia still stands within its more or less same borders, and the parts that got chipped away through military or political machinations eventually discover that they became weakened and depleted by their Western “benefactors” and eventually seek back to strength and security in unity.