Tag Archives: Poland

The Liberation of Krakow

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Below are two fragments from chapter 7 of the book «1945. The Red Army’s Blitzkrieg» by Valentin Aleksandrovich Runov, which we initially presented at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

Contrast the following testimony to how Anglo-Americans treated Dortmund, Dresden, Prague, Königsberg, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and more….

Wawel castle and its cathedral

Writer Boris Polevoy shared his impressions of his stay in Krakow on the first day of its liberation:

Yes, it is fortunate that this city was saved. We were driving through medieval streets, and the guide was telling us: the fifteenth century, the sixteenth century, the eighteenth century.

— Please, stop here.

We went out, and the teacher solemnly declared:

— This is the tenth century. The chapel of Felix and Adauctus (https://wawel.krakow.pl/en/exhibition-constant/the-lost-wawel-1). The pearl of Europe.

And indeed, one could admire the example of magnificent architecture. The architecture is strict and at the same time peculiar, unique. The building would definitely be flying, aiming at the sky.

Then the old man took us to some kind of cathedral. We could hear our footsteps somewhere ahead of us, and the echo diligently duplicated our voices, as if responding to us from somewhere under the dome. Excellent sculptures were looking at us, but the guide kept leading us forward, not letting us stop.
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“The World Was Saved By The Soviet Soldier” interactive project

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“The World Was Saved By The Soviet Soldier” is an interactive project that was launched back in 2021 by the “Immortal Regiment” portal.

“As of late, more and more publications, the authors of which reshape historical events of the Second World War, appear in foreign media. We must not forget our common history and must stand together against all attempts to rewrite it. One can only resist with reasoned truth.

Videos created for the project are meant to depict how Europe was liberated from fascism.”

All film-related materials translated by Putinger’s Cat. We present the 30 episodes in the rough chronological order of the events.

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CHINA

China was attacked by Japan even before the official beginning of WWII, with the war raging between July 7, 1937 and September 9, 1945.


Backup at Rumble
Raw video on YouTube

POLAND (Part 1)

World War II began on September 1st, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland. After the Red Army liberated Poland in 1945, the Soviet Union took an active part in bringing Poland back from ruin.


Backup at Rumble
Raw video on YouTube

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On Kiev’s plans to conduct a false flag operation in Romania and Poland

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A commentary by Maria Zaharova:
 
Today, several Hungarian media outlets reported on Zelensky’s plans to carry out sabotage in Romania and Poland with the aim of blaming Russia. Thus, a “Gleiwitz incident” is being prepared in Bankova — with the goal of creating a Casus belli for a war between Russia and NATO.

According to the available information, the Kiev regime’s plan is as follows:

  1. Repair several downed or intercepted Russian UAVs.
  2. Equip them with combat lethal elements.
  3. Send UAVs controlled by Ukrainian specialists disguised as “Russian drones” to major NATO transport hubs in Poland and Romania.
  4. Simultaneously conduct a disinformation campaign in Europe to blame Moscow for everything.
  5. Ignite an armed conflict between the Russian Federation and NATO.

To carry out this provocation, on September 16, Russian “Geran” UAVs were already delivered to the Yavoriv training ground in Western Ukraine, where the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security of the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Academy is located. They were previously repaired in Lvov at the “LORTA” factory.  

As Hungarian journalists write, the reason for Zelensky’s actions is simple — the Armed Forces of Ukraine are suffering a crushing defeat. The army’s rout is no longer at the tactical level but is taking on a strategic character.

If all this is confirmed, then we must admit: never in modern times has Europe been so close to the start of World War III.

Facts about the Red Army’s Polish Campaign on September 17, 1939

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On September 17, 1939, the Red Army launched a military operation in Poland’s eastern regions, also known as the Red Army’s Polish Campaign. The material is from Russian MFA Telegram channel, where one can also watch a short facta newsreel.

Certain (pseudo)academic circles and mainstream media in the West intentionally promote an excessively biased interpretation of these events seeking to equate the Third Reich and the USSR and cast our country as an aggressor.

❗️ Such approach is completely at odds with the historical truth.

Britain and France, which had played their role in fostering Hitler’s aggression in Europe and redirecting it eastward, were not willing to fulfill their alliance commitments to Poland, having just formally declared a war against the Third Reich, and refrained from direct military confrontation.

Traffic directors
A caricature by Boris Yefimov showing Britain and France as traffic directors, leading Hitler’s war gang along the way to the USSR, while stopping his progress to Western Europe. The caricature is not marked with year, but presumably depicts the effects of the Munich Conspiracy.

The French army did not even attempt to prevent the redeployment of the Wehrmacht units to the East. As Nazi general Alfred Jodl later testified at the Nuremberg trials, “if the Reich did not fail in 1939, it was only because during the Polish campaign, approximately 110 French and British divisions, stationed in the West, took no action against Germany’s 23 divisions”.

Thus, Warsaw, which completely relied on support of Britain and France, was, in fact, abandoned by the allies and had to face Hitler’s aggression. Poland was doomed to meet the same fate that had Czechoslovakia a year earlier. Betrayed by its allies and falling victim to its own political miscalculation, the Polish leadership — which for years had prioritized collaboration with Nazi Germany — ultimately led its nation to catastrophe.
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“Situation in several European countries with the desecration and destruction of monuments dedicated to those who fought against Nazism during World War II” – Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s report

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Read the full report at the site of the MFA!

Since the end of the World War II, approximately 4’000 monuments to Soviet soldiers have been erected in Europe. A total of more than one million Red Army soldiers are buried in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. In general, the peoples of the USSR and Europe paid a much higher price for the Victory over Nazism, measured in tens of millions of lives.

Vandalised Soviet soldier graves in Germany

The Soviet army liberated Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria (the eastern part of the country and Vienna), Romania, Yugoslavia and a number of other European countries from Nazism.

The majority of Soviet monuments were erected specifically in these countries. There are also monuments to the Soviet soldier in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, and France.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many memorials ended up on the territory of states bordering Russia that emerged from the former Soviet republics. In several of these countries, the chosen course toward reviving Nazism and rewriting history has had a serious impact on the memorial legacy of the Great Patriotic War.

❌ Decommunisation, the destruction of monuments to our common history and culture, the desecration of the graves of fallen Soviet soldiers, neo-Nazi torch marches, the glorification of Nazis and their collaborators, the physical elimination of ideological opponents — many of these practices, and often all of them at once, have become commonplace in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as in Poland, the Czech Republic and a number of other European countries.

These very countries are the focus of this report. Under the guise of “decommunisation” laws and by dismantling monuments to Soviet soldiers, the governments of these countries are attempting to “reinforce an anti-Russian front”.

At the same time, monuments to Nazi criminals are being erected, their protection is being enshrined in law, and rare acts of activists opposing Nazi memorials are harshly prosecuted. The key objective of such steps is the complete erasure of historical memory.

This report has been prepared as part of the Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s efforts to draw attention to the manifestations of various forms of Nazi glorification, neo-Nazism, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance in foreign countries.

The report focuses on the actions of certain countries, primarily the Baltic states, Poland, and Ukraine, which, using Russia’s special military operation aimed at denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine, as well as the protection of the peaceful population of Donbass, as a pretext, have sharply escalated a long-standing practice of destroying Soviet, Russian, and often their own memorial heritage on their territories.

📄 Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s report on the “Situation in several European countries with the desecration and destruction of monuments dedicated to those who fought against Nazism during World War II” contains a detailed account of the unlawful actions by authorities of Ukraine, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland, Finland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, targeting Russian and Soviet monuments.

The report can also be downloaded as a PDF file.

The report is long, but should be read, or at least skimmed through, by all – including its 262 soure references!

👉 In July of 2023, documents were leaked from the NATO summit in Lithuania, where one of NATO’s action points was the targeted destruction of Soviet monuments. Tsargrad reported back then:

The destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers and generals in Europe is not just the whim of individual Western politicians, but the official course of NATO. Hackers have declassified the alliance’s documents, revealing the conspiracy.

The hacker group “From Russia with Love” has gained access to documents collected by the organisers of the NATO summit, which is taking place in Vilnius these days.

It follows from them that the systematic destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators, which began before their time, is not the Russophobic manifestations of individual Young Europeans, but the official course of the West, adopted at the NATO level.

The documents say that the destruction of Soviet monuments is an extremely important job. This vandalism allows us to destroy the “Russian narrative” that Europe was freed from fascism thanks to Moscow.

In addition, the destruction of monuments, according to the NATO leadership, contributes to the international isolation of Russia.

The European Genocide of the Russian People

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Preamble

April 19th – Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Soviet People. The crimes committed by the Nazi occupiers and their accomplices against the civilian population of besieged Leningrad were recognised in 2022 as “a war crime, a crime against humanity and genocide of national and ethnic groups that represented the population of the USSR, the peoples of the Soviet Union.”
This decision was made by the St. Petersburg City Court.

The northern capital was under blockade from September 8th 1941 to January 27th 1944. As a result of the analysis of archival documents, it was established that during the blockade, at least 1 million 93 thousand residents of the city died – more than a third of the population at the beginning of 1941 – and not 649 thousand, as was determined in Soviet times.

In addition, it was proven in court that representatives of 11 countries took part in the siege of Leningrad. Besides to the Germans, these are citizens of Finland, Belgium (Volunteer Legion “Flanders”), Spain (“Blue Division”), the Netherlands (Volunteer Legion “Netherlands”) and Norway (Norwegian Legion), as well as individual volunteers from among Austrians, Latvians, Poles, French and Czechs. The trial in St. Petersburg became the ninth trial in Russia to recognise the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices committed in the country during the Great Patriotic War as genocide.

Previously, similar hearings were held in the Novgorod, Pskov, Rostov, Bryansk, Oryol regions, Krasnodar region, Crimea, and Leningrad region.

As the leading Russian researcher of the history of the Leningrad blockade, Doctor of Historical Sciences Nikita Lomagin, said, in addition to the fact that the court decision gives a precise legal definition of the events of the hard times of war, it “also has important international significance, being a reminder to the current generation of European politicians about the crimes committed by Nazi Germany and its accomplices during the war.”

“Europe in a United Front against Moscow”
Such was the title in the German Nazi mouthpiece “Völkische Beobachter” from June 23, 1941. Does this sound familiar?
The headline was followed by a secondary heading:
“The countries of the continent acknowledge Germany’s historic mission”.
After the ingress, the article starts with the mention of a publication in the Spanish Madrid-based newspaper “Informaciones” — “Europe united and aligned against the Soviet Union”.

Introduction

You are about to read a translation of an extensive article that tells in unadorned detail what The Third Reich was doing to the population of the Soviet Union, and what they were yet planning to do, had they not been stopped by the Soviet Union. World War II was indeed The Great Patriotic War for the survival of own kind, fought against all of the “united collective West”. Additional materials were included from the TopWar article “Hitler’s Palace in Ukraine”.

Those Ukrainians (and Bulgarians) who think that Hitler had as his intention to “liberate” Ukraine (as the brainwashing in Ukraine goes these days), they should read the article “The text of Hitler’s statement on the extermination of Slavic peoples has been published in Russia for the first time”.

One first-hand testimonial of how the German Nazi plan affected the Soviet population can be read in the article The Great Patriotic War in Ukraine. A historical retrospective by Rostislav Ischenko

The European Genocide of the Russian People

14.12.2020, by Konstantin Odessit

Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces

One remark first: by the Russian people I mean the Eastern Slavs, with the exception of the Galician Uniates (whose dialect and world-view are closer to that of Poles, a Western one).

The year of the 75th anniversary of the Great Victory is coming to an end. Looking at modern supporters of Hitler among the Russian/Ukrainian Nazis and the liberoids, like “Kolya from Urengoy” (BATS note: see the open letter by Andrey Medvedev in Commemorating the 9th of May – No One’s Forgotten, Nothing’s Forgotten! with a strong response to that boy Kolya) apologising for the “cruel treatment” of German prisoners of war (who were forced to work), the question arises: “Who are they?”
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Reunification of the Left Bank of the Dnieper with Russia. With re-blog of a detailed article by Vladimir Putin.

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Our re-blog of the publication by the Russian Foreign Ministry on the anniversary of the reunification of the Left Bank of the Dnieper with Russia, followed by the complete re-blog of an article by Vladimir Putin ”On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians“.

A small linguistic/phonetic aside. The name “Khmelnitsky” is pronounced “Hmelnitsky” (with “h” sounding as in the word “home”); and “Hetmanate” is pronounced “Getmanate” (with “g” sounding as in the word “get”).

On April 6, 1654, Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia Alexey I Romanov, “The sole ruler of all Russia Great and Little”, granted his royal charter to Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The document secured the reunification of the Left Bank of the Dnieper with Russia.

In the late XVI and the early XVII century, all groups of the Orthodox population in the lands of Ancient Rus, controlled by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, were subject to an increased religious and ethnic pressure from the Polish-Lithuanian gentry, which sought to fully assimilate local residents through a policy of Polonisation and Latinisation.

After the Union of Brest was adopted in 1596, a majority of Orthodox priests became subordinate to the Pope. Those who remained faithful to Orthodoxy became outcasts and were deprived of hierarchical leadership, since Metropolitan of Kiev Mikhail Rogoza had also joined the Greek Catholics.

Amid forced Catholicisation, the loss of noble titles and lands, and ongoing persecution, the local Orthodox population began searching for ways to escape oppression. All attempts to come to an agreement with the Polish king failed as the Polish gentry firmly refused to acknowledge the autonomy of the Orthodox Cossacks and nobility.

✊ In 1648, a major liberation movement was sparked, led by the renowned military and political leader Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The Cossacks rebelled against the Polish oppressors to defend their faith, identity, and the right to self-determination.

Recognising the need for a stronger alliance, Khmelnitsky made several appeals to Tsar Alexey I of Russia, requesting protection and support, and asking him to take the lands of the Hetmanate under “his royal hand”. In 1653, Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky approached Tsar Alexey I, asking him to accept “all of Little Russia (Malorossiya) and the entire Zaporozhian Host into his eternal possession, allegiance, and protection” Later that year, in May, the Zemsky Sobor convened in Moscow, where an unequivocal decision was adopted in favour of the integration of Malorossiya into the Russian state.

On January 18, 1654, Pereyaslav Rada made a historic decision — the Zaporozhian Cossacks declared their allegiance to the Russian Tsar. On April 6, Tsar Alexey I of Russia signed the royal charter, which mentioned the Russian monarch’s title “the sole ruler of all Russia Great and Little” for the first time, emphasising the historical continuity of a unified state.

❗️ The Pereyaslav Agreement reflected a natural historical process of returning the ancient Russian lands to the unified Russian state and reuniting parts of a single nation, divided by civil strife and the Golden Horde yoke.

On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians

– Article by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, July 12, 2021

During the recent Direct Line, when I was asked about Russian-Ukrainian relations, I said that Russians and Ukrainians were one people – a single whole. These words were not driven by some short-term considerations or prompted by the current political context. It is what I have said on numerous occasions and what I firmly believe. I therefore feel it necessary to explain my position in detail and share my assessments of today’s situation.
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Oscar-winning film lies about the Red Army. A re-blog of MFA statement

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The re-writing of history is happening in two planes – the erasure of the actual history through the destruction of the monuments, and the implanting of a “new” narrative in the minds of the people. We told about the destruction of the monuments through a video clip from the film “Warsaw ’21” in the article “Warsaw ‘21” – a political thriller with a fragment on the essence of the Polish destruction of the Soviet memorials, while the alteration of the history with the “new narrative” is happening though the films, like the one criticised below.

For an additional story about the liberation of Poland, and how that event gets malformed in the minds of the Poles, see our 2015 article The Sorrow of a Warsaw Woman. Why Poland is not happy to be liberated from fascism?

Soviet and Polish soldiers plant the victory banner. Warsaw, January 1945. The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

Oscar-winning film lies about the Red Army

Nikolai LAKHONIN, Chief Counselor, Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department
March 17, 2025

The annual Oscars Academy Award ceremony attracts attention of the whole world. Recently, another such show took place. We would like to talk not about the American film Anora (rated R) with Russian actors (we congratulate them on their great success), but about the drama A Real Pain (rated R) directed by Jesse Eisenberg.

It is also an American film, made by Americans primarily for Americans and about Americans. This is important. The picture is about historical memory in the perception of American descendants who survived the Holocaust. The genre is a road film: the main characters travel to memorial sites, get acquainted with monuments in the Polish capital and go to the Majdanek concentration camp museum. The picture has already been seen by millions, and after it received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, even more people will see it. The screenwriters of such films lay down powerful narratives. And since they contain a distorted view of the most important events related to our country, we cannot remain silent.

The myth of the Red Army

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Europe: Destined for Conflict? – George Friedman, 2015

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On February 4, 2015, George Friedman held a talk at the Chicago Council for Global Affairs. The complete recording of this revealing presentation is available on YouTube.

We created a 14 minute long extract from the Q&A section of the talk with what we feel are highlights of the American plan for the Ukraine in particular and Europe in general, adding a few of our comments and illustrations.


Backup at Rumble.

Now, 10 years later we can all safely say that the American plans were playing out before our eyes as outlined in the talk.

From our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”

“Warsaw ‘21” – a political thriller with a fragment on the essence of the Polish destruction of the Soviet memorials

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In the summer of 2024, Russian on-line cinema “Okko” released a series called “Warsaw ’21”, with a fictional, but highly-realistic plot.

During the election race for the presidency of Poland, the famous journalist Kozelski is cynically killed. Polish TV channels immediately pick up the version of Russian interference in the internal affairs of the country in order to support Silesian separatists and destabilize the situation. As evidence, an audio recording of a conversation between Russian Ambassador Konobeyev (Anatoly Kotenev) and one of the presidential candidates Dombrovsky (Sergei Yushkevich) is being played on TV, which was allegedly sent from the mail of the murdered journalist. A small spark is fanning a geopolitical conflagration that can cause enormous damage to the interests of the country. A compromised employee of the diplomatic mission goes to the hospital with a heart attack, and crisis diplomat Vyacheslav Vasiliev (Dmitry Miller) arrives in his place. He will have to prove that the accusations against Moscow have no basis in fact.

Plot

The corpse of journalist Adam Kozelsky, known for his scandalous materials on political topics, is found at an expensive Bristol restaurant located in the center of Warsaw. Presidential elections are about to take place in Poland, so the situation in government circles is tense. It is known that Kozelsky received an audio recording of a secret conversation between Russian Ambassador Konobeev (Anatoly Kotenov) and presidential candidate Dombrovsky (Sergey Yushkevich). The results of the election race could change dramatically if the recording is made public. This is exactly what the journalist planned to do.

Therefore, the murder case is under the strict control of the current president himself, Zbarazhsky (Andrei Ilyin). And the best detective in the country, Agata Kvyatkovskaya (Valeria Shkirando), is appointed to lead such an important investigation — a strong-willed and unscrupulous investigator who perfectly manipulates people. She is instructed to report any information received directly to Interior Minister Luisa Brylskaya (Natalia Vdovina). Poles are sure that Russians are involved in the crime, but there is no evidence of this version.

The Russian Embassy also understands the sentiments of Polish politicians, which only exacerbates the already tense situation. After the meeting with Dombrovsky, Ambassador Konobeev suddenly became ill, and he was urgently sent to Moscow for treatment. Vyacheslav Vasiliev (Dmitry Miller) has been appointed temporary attorney, the nature of whose business conduct is radically different from his predecessor. First of all, he must conduct his own investigation to understand what happened to the ambassador and what he has to do with what is said on the record. After all, the Russian diplomat and the Polish politician discussed support for the independence of Silesia, an industrial region on the territory of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.

There are too many characters involved in this political scandal, and everyone has their own interest and their own benefit. It will not be easy to find the truth, and every mistake by Vasiliev entails consequences on an international scale.

♦️♦️♦️

The essence of the Polish destruction of the Soviet memorials

The film series “Warsaw ’21” has a very poignant scene, characteristic of the state of affairs in Poland specifically, and in the NATO countries in general. In the film, one monument is saved from destruction, but how many have already been demolished, and how many more will be demolished still?

‼️ People who don’t know their past don’t have a future.

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The Sad State of the Modern Ukrainian Anthem

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Ukraine hasn’t died yet…

Those who have heard the present-day Ukrainian anthem wondered what it is they’ve just listened to. It’s such a sorry wailing, indeed… In fact, one a capella performance inspired a netizen to overlay it with Frédéric Chopin’s “Marche Funèbre” (Funeral March), which resulted in a perfect match! Many think that the Ukrainian anthem starts with the line “Ukraine hasn’t died yet…”, and while not exactly correct, there is a grain of historical truth to it.

But it wasn’t always like this. As a republic of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had a joyous anthem, starting with the words “Live, Ukraine, beautiful and strong,…”. But then came 1992, and Ukraine – like the rest of the former republics of the Union – traded its heroes for ghosts.

State Anthem of the Ukrainian SSR (1949 – 1953)

More about this edition of the anthem at our Beorn And The Shieldmaiden Telegram channel.

State Anthem of the Ukrainian SSR (1978 – 1992)

More about this edition of the anthem at our Beorn And The Shieldmaiden Telegram channel.

The article below is one of a series tackling the myths surrounding Ukraine, addressing the history of their modern anthem. Some of the surrounding events are also described in Project ‘Ukraine’. Documentary by Andrei Medvedev (with English subtitles)

Myths about the origin of Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Myth 4. A requiem instead of an anthem

The origin of the anthem of Ukraine, like everything related to Ukrainians, is shrouded in a fog of lies. When you listen to the Ukrainian anthem, its tedious, drawling melody, there is no desire to cry with pride for the country and admire this symbol of the state. Many people don’t even want to stand up. It is not so much an anthem, but a requiem, a memorial song.

It cannot be said that when listening to the anthem, there is a feeling of weight and spaciousness. On the contrary, the very first line of the anthem (“Ukraine hasn’t died yet…”), combined with the melody in minor tune, creates a feeling of heaviness, monotony, sadness and oppression. Why is that? Why is the Ukrainian anthem – a carbon copy of the Polish anthem, which outlines the program for the revival of the Polish state?

Before talking about the authorship and melody of the anthem, it is worth recalling the historical period when this anthem was written. It is 1862, Poland as a state has not existed for more than half a century. It is divided between Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Polish uprising of 1830 was suppressed, and a new uprising was being prepared, which would also end in failure in the following 1863.
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Brutality of the Polish landowners as the driving force for the Pereyaslav Rada in 1654

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The article you are about to read continues the topic of the Pereyaslav Rada from yesterday’s article Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 – the story of Zaporozhie Cossacks joining Rus, which looked more at the events surrounding the Pereyaslav Rada, which the present article explores more of the preceding decades and reasons while Malorossia wanted to escape the Polish yoke. The introductory note about the term “Ukraine” apply equally to today’s article. A highly-recommended documentary, Project ‘Ukraine’, has a mention of these events as well.

“We wish for the ruler”. The Pereyaslav Rada united two parts of the Russian people

“Argumenty i Fakty”, 18.01.2024

Alexey Kishchenko, “Bogdan Hmelnitsky. The Ascension of Malorossia”, 1880 / Commons.wikimedia.org

It is generally believed that the Pereyaslav Rada marked the reunification of Ukraine with Russia. However, a structure called “Ukraine” did not exist at that time.

370 years ago, on the 18th of January 1654, cries were heard in the city of Pereyaslavl-Russkij (Pereyaslavl-Russian): “We are wishing to be under the Tzar of the East, the Orthodox one! Oh, God! Approve it! Oh, God! Strengthen it! May we all be one forever!”

This is how the people who gathered at the Pereyaslav Rada reacted to the letter of Tsar Alexei Mihailovich, which confirmed that the Russian sovereign “ordered them to take them under his high hand.”

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Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 – the story of Zaporozhie Cossacks joining Rus

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The article below was first published on Dzen on the 18th of January 2021, but it seems to be from 2020. It covers the historical background for Pereyaslav Rada (Accord), the result of which was the so-called unification of Ukraine and Russia”. It this regard, it is worth noting that “Ukraine” was not established as a geopolitical term at that time. One rather spoke of the Zaporozhie Getmanate (or of “Gulyaj-Pole” – “Free-for-all field” in the sense of the lawlessness on those territories). Before 1800-s, “Ukraine” featured in its dictionary form of “borderland”. The term “Ukraine” first became descriptive of a geographic location in the political sense in the first half of the 1800-s. And it was only after the October revolution of 1917 that “Ukraine” acquired the true meaning of geopolitical entity.

As an aside, I am puzzled by some in the Communist circles who distance themselves from the factually correct statement that “Ukraine was created by Lenin (as a geopolitical entity)”. In doing so, not only do they do a disservice to Lenin’s legacy, but also play into the hands of the Ukrainian nationalists. There is nothing wrong with Lenin creating Ukraine in the sensibilities of that difficult time. The similar sensibilities governed the establishment of the Far-Eastern Republic on the shores of the Pacific, and the creation of then tiny Belorussian Republic. What Lenin did made sense in that historical context, short-term. But he could not foresee and cannot be held responsible for how the decision played out long-term. That was something for the future generations to solve. And that future is happening now.

For more details, see the earlier article How Malorossia Was Turned into the Patch-quilt of Discord that is “Ukraine”.

Ukraina – thus were called the South-Western Russian lands of Rzeczpospolita. This name was never official, it was used only in private conversations and became common in folk poetry. It is difficult to define the boundaries of the lands, known as “ukrainnyi”, more so that this name was not permanent and at different times covered varying stretches of land…

With this in mind, let us continue to the article at hand…

Pereyaslav Rada: How Ukrainians were seeking to come under the wing of the Russian Tzar, while in Moscow they’ve been thinking for the longest time

January 18, 2021

Pereyaslav Rada, 1654

The beginning of January 2020 was marked in Ukraine by regular “Bandera” marches of nationalists, which caused a timid protest from the ambassadors of Israel and Poland. Meanwhile, in addition to the birthday of one of the leaders of the Ukrainian nationalists, another historical date falls on January, which is carefully hushed up and ignored by the current authorities of Ukraine. Meanwhile, no matter how hard Zelensky and Co. tried to sweep the inconvenient facts under the rag, it was that date that determined the choice of the Malorossian (Rus Minor, Ukrainian) people for several centuries to come.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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