Tag Archives: history

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Krivoj Rog – founded in 1775 by the Catherine II.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As for Crimea:

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

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

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

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

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

Partnership “Triangle” in St. Petersburg.

The largest and wealthiest rubber factories in Russia.

Always needed healthy female workers aged 18-30.

8-10 working hours per day.

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

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

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

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

22nd of June – Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. Remembering the 42 million perished Soviet people in the genocidal Second World War

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The memorial texts below are written by Olga on Putinger’s Cat Telegram cannel. The article sheds new light on the genocide comitted against the Soviet people – predominantly the residents of Belorussia, Ukraine and Western Russia – by the Nazi-German invaders. We remember. As a 2015 article by Georgy Zotov showed, the same was not the case in Germany, where they asked “So many? Really?” Germans do not know how many Russians were killed by their ancestors

In Russia, June 22 is the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. On this day, in 1941, the Great Patriotic War, which became the bloodiest and most destructive in the history of the country, began.

The Great Patriotic War had affected every family. More than 27 million people perished. Owing to the heroism of our soldiers and officers, the enemy was defeated, but Victory came at a high price.

Today, we pay tribute to the memory of all those who went through incredible hardship, those who died, but never gave up for a peaceful future for their descendants. We, the descendants, are full of deepest respect and gratitude for their sacrifice.

The declassified data below were presented at the State Duma hearing on the 14th of February 2017. Archived source is here.

By the beginning of the war, in June 1941, 196.7 million people lived on the territory of the USSR. According to declassified data of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, the losses of the Soviet Union in World War II amount to 41 million 979 thousand, and not 27 million, as previously thought. The total decline in the population of the USSR in 1941-1945 was more than 52 million 812 thousand people. Of these, irretrievable losses as a result of the factors of war – more than 19 million military personnel and about 23 million civilians.

The total demographic losses of the USSR as a result of the war amounted to 27 million people. Military losses were calculated at 11.4 million, including the war with Japan. From this number, it is necessary to subtract 1.8 million who returned from captivity and 0.9 million called up on the territory liberated from the occupation and sent to the troops from among the military personnel who were previously surrounded or missing.

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«2 Years» re-publishing // Переиздание книги «2 года»

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This introduction article is tri-lingual, in:
Denne introduktionsartikel er tresproget, i:
Эта вступительная статья – трёхязычная, на:

THE POLITICS
The 22nd of June 1941.
Leaflet No. 2:

The German-Russian War

In a proclamation signed by Reich Chancellor Hitler, the Germans march on Russia on a front of 2400 km., from Finland to the Black Sea.

To the north, German troops are advancing from Norway along with Finnish divisions, from the Carpathians German and Romanian forces.

Hitler declared that Bolshevism stood in mortal enmity with National Socialism. Russia had been threatening Germany for a long time and eventually there were 160 Russian divisions positioned on Germany’s eastern border. The Soviets had thus broken the Treaty of Friendship. The imminent struggle revolved around the civilized world.

Mines have been laid in the Arctic Ocean and in the Baltic Sea, among other places between Bornholm and Sweden and between Bornholm and the German Coast.

Read THE POLITICS tomorrow
– Copenhagen

80 years ago, in the summer of 1943, the underground Communist Party of Denmark illegally published the book “2 Years” with newspaper clippings from the major German-controlled Copenhagen newspapers. The book is 70 pages long and is a rare historical document of the occupation-era official press coverage of the first 2 years of the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the outcome of which became decisive for the future of mankind.

To honour the Resistance fighters and strengthen the memory of the great Victory of the USSR and the Red Army over fascism, we are now launching a digital reissue of “2 Years”!

The book is photographed and can be studied page by page and read in graphically adapted versions in Russian and English, respectively, as well as in a linguistically edited version in modern Danish. An extensive historical notebook has been added as well as text-to-speech descriptions for the blind and visually impaired of the book’s many fine colour illustrations in silkscreen by artist and resistance fighter Viggo Rohde, with sharp political caricatures of the Nazi Menagerie and the course of the war.

We see our collective memory as an important weapon against the advanced means and methods of modern war propaganda to which we are daily exposed, and, that Dr. Goebbels could not even dream of.

Read, remember, and get historical perspective on your contemporary events!

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

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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.

As an additional reading, in 2015 I translated an article by Georgy Zotov The Sorrow of a Warsaw Woman.Why Poland is not happy to be liberated from fascism?. In the introduction we laid out some thoughts as to why Russia did not reminded the «brotherly nation» of the help that it had got. But every good reason has a limit to it, often hastened by impunity.

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.

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

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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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Man on Moon – Deconstructing NASA’s Audacious Deception

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Year 2019 marked an anniversary of one of the greatest deceptions that USA has so far managed to pull off and get away with.

Alexandr Ivanovich Popov, doctor of Physics and Mathematics, wrote an excellent book, doing a step by step exposure of NASA’s faux Moon landing – from the early preparatory works, to the supposed flight, to the alleged return. What is so special about this book, is that it takes a very systematic, scientific approach to the whole issue. It also covers the angle of the Soviet Moon program, the politics of it in USSR and how it was surrendered to the USA for some questionable economic benefits. The latter is usually overlooked by the Western researches.

The book “Americans on the Moon – A Great Breakthrough Or An Astronomical Fraud?” along with many research articles is published by the author in open domain for everyone to read, but its reach is currently limited only to the Russian-speaking audience. Additionally, the site holds the book “Sojuz-Apollo: The Fraud of the Joint Flight. Facts and Suppositions”

The entire “Americans on the Moon” book is available as a PDF, automatically translated from the source site. The quality of the translation is very good. The book is also available on WebArchive through the entries here and here.

Below, as an introduction, I give my own translation of the front page of the Man On Moon site and the table of contents.

In the 60s of the last century, according to NASA, the National American Space Agency, the Americans made dozens of manned space flights with access to near-earth orbit. Among them are nine flights to the Moon, six of which ended with the landing of astronauts. These reports incredibly raised the prestige of the United States. However, year after year, the number of sceptics who having studied NASA materials about these landings, came to the conclusion that the Americans were never on the Moon.

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

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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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“Kill the Russians.” 105 years ago, the Finnish army staged the massacre in Vyborg. The truth must come out!

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This year there is an anniversary of a dark page in Finish history that Finland studiously ignores – the genocide of the Russian population of Vyborg in 1918. Not only does Finland ignore it, but as was mentioned earlier in the article More on the Finnish finishing NATO move, they are actually proud of it, having release a commemorative 1 Euro coin celebrating the genocide…

In the Soviet Union this topic was “shoved under the rug” for the sake of the good neighbourly relations. Much like one did not talk at all about the part played by Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania in the WWII on the German Nazi side.

But times are changing. Ukraine turning Nazi, committing a massacre of their own in Odessa on the 2nd of May 2014, and Finland now openly supporting the Kiev regime and showing hostility towards Russia, opens up the doors for the truth to be spoken, neigh, shouted!

Below is a translation of an article published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 29th of April 2023.

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

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InfoDefence published on their 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

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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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The Murder of Yugoslavia. The Final Acts. Abduction of Milosevic to the Hague.

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While working on the translation of the documentary “The Murder of Yugoslavia. The Shadow of Dayton.”, I’ve come across several materials that strongly resonate both with the documentary, and the events that are unfolding around NATO’s war in Ukraine, accompanied by the customary blame-shifting. Not least is the farce around the ICC Kangaroo Court in the Hague and their illegitimate arrest warrant against the President of the Russian Federation.

Below is a translation of an article from 2021 that looks at how Serbia, after if was “brought to heel” by incessant NATO bombing of its civilian population, abducted and handed over Slobodan Milosevic to that very same Kangaroo Court, and what rewards awaited the miscreant, who organised the abduction.

The reward in the form of a bullet. How Serbia handed over President Milosevic to The Hague

28.06.2021
Andrey Sidorchik

Milosevic out. Russia is next in the cross-hairs.

In the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s, Yugoslavia was one of the most successfully developing countries in Europe. Having found its niche between the East and the West, the state under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito confidently pursued its independent course.

The Time of Decay

However, Tito’s death was the beginning of a deep crisis that led in 1990 to the victory of the nationalists in the elections of the Yugoslav republics, who set a course for the destruction of a unitary state. The successors of the founder of the socialist Yugoslavia did not have his political weight to effectively resist destructive forces. In addition, the nationalists were actively supported by the countries of the West.

The breakup of Yugoslavia resulted in a bloody civil war that lasted for several years.

In 1995, under the auspices of the United States, the so-called Dayton Agreements were signed between President of Bosnia and Herzegovina Aliya Izetbegovic, President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic and President of Croatia Franjo Tudjman. In fact, they recorded the defeat of the Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, who fought for the preservation of the right to self-determination and accession to Yugoslavia, which by that time only Serbia and Montenegro remained part of.

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The use of Swastika in the pre-Revolution Russia and the early USSR, before it was defiled by the Nazi Germany

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The article you are about to read is an important historical look at a symbol that in 1930s got co-opted and defiled by the Nazi Germany – the Swastika.

As a disclaimer, this article (or, rather, a translation from Russian of fragments of three articles) is by no means an endorsement of Nazism, and looks at the history of the symbol prior to it being hijacked by the Nazis in Germany, specifically, its use in Russia before the Revolution, and in the first two decades of 1900s. Actually, what the Nazi Germany did, was to perform a cultural appropriation and a desecration of a symbol used by other peoples.

The fate of that symbol is not dissimilar to what we are experiencing now with another symbol, that of a carefree childhood – the rainbow.

First is a translation of an shorter article that serves as a good introduction to the topic, and debunks one fake that managed to sneak in among the facts. After that will come a somewhat longer article about the use of Swastika in the Kalmyk divisions in the early days of the USSR, and finally, a lengthy and well-research article will round off the series, looking at the traditional Russian culture of the past centuries and to the period of the early USSR. it also debunks a misconception of the difference between the left-bent and right-bent swastikas. The articles are somewhat overlapping.

Where did the order of the Red Army with a Swastika appeared from?

It was Hitler who turned the swastika into a symbol of Nazism. At the beginning of the XX century, the symbol was perceived in a completely different way.
To “kolovrats” with four beams were even present on chevrons and banknotes in the RSFSR.

Were the orders with swastikas really made in the RSFSR in the 30s of the XX century, or were the awards a skillful fake? What other countries actively used the swastika before the outbreak of World War II?

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What is the origin of the word “Moskal”

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Ukrainians try to insult Russians in general by using the words “Moskal”, thinking that Russians would take offence with it. Far from being offensive, the word has several historical roots or versions of its origin. What Russians may find offensive is the tone the word is spoken with, much like someone make insult out of, say, the word “Londoner” by simply adding a tonal change to their voice.

Below is a translation of a short article that looks into what “Moskal” really meant…

Where did the unpleasant word “Moskal” come from

08 July 2021

Can a swear word have many meanings? Very often, yes, depending on the context. But today we are offering you you not to study profanity in all its diversity with us, but to get acquainted with the origin of one controversial and very ambiguous word — “Moskal”. We will find out what mushrooms, soldiers, merchants who have lost their shame and insects have to do with it.

This word was often used – and is still used – by the other Slavic peoples to refer to Russians, with a negative semantic connotation. One could call someone “Moskal” to offend, or to express their disdainful and contemptuous attitude. We suggest not to be offended, but to study other meanings of this word.

A soldier

Vladimir Dahl wrote in his famous dictionary back in the time that soldiers were called “Moskals”. And again with a negative connotation. Why? Oftentimes the military, due to the lack or absence of barracks and food, stopped for a stay with local residents. Such an additional “load” in the form of young men with an excellent appetite, eating up all the supplies, and even wanting to flirt with the owner’s wife or daughters, was of no joy to anyone. And considering that the soldiers and officers who needed to be fed and cared for came from the capital, they were nicknamed “moskals”.

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

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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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