80 Years since the Red Army liberated Northern Norway from Nazi German occupation

On the 25th of October 2024 we marked the 80th anniversary of liberation of Finnmark, Northern Norway, from the Nazi occupation. And although the liberators – Russia, as the legal heir of the USSR – were not invited, Russia remembers. At out Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” we dedicated several posts to the event, collating them here at the Beehive.

But first, read last year’s publication For the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Northern Norway, the WWII History Is Being Rewritten There


Statement by Russian Consulate General in Kirkenes

25.10.2024

Dear compatriots, ladies and gentlemen!

Today we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of East Finnmark by the Red Army!

I am grateful to all those gathered at this monument to honour the memory of the brave soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of the world from fascism. After all, it is by remembering that we remain faithful to the fallen, invariably proving that their sacrifice was not in vain.

It is important that the memory of the events of those years be preserved. It is important not to forget how the occupiers left behind only scorched earth when they left. It is important to remember the hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens who found themselves in Norway during the war – and the many thousands who remained lying in Norwegian soil forever. It is important to know about the assistance provided by the Soviet troops: the property that was saved was transferred to the local population, the supply of weapons and food to the Norwegian army was organised, demining was carried out, roads and bridges were repaired, and other work to establish a normal life.

2,122 soldiers – that’s how much the Soviet people lost on Norwegian soil during the liberation of Kirkenes and Northern Norway. But this is only a small fraction of the terrible statistics. Thousands of Soviet citizens lost their lives in the vast expanses of Eastern Finnmark and in the wilderness of the Falstad forest, on the Saltfjell ridges and the rocky shores of Lyngenfjord, on the construction of the Polar and Nordland highways, on the fortifications of the «Atlantic Wall» stretching for thousands of kilometers and in the guerrilla war in the North, in the «Rigel» disaster and in air battles in the sky above Norway. Monuments erected in the North by the Soviet prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners, as well as by the Norwegian authorities and ordinary citizens, will always remind us of them.

These are pages of our common history. It is our obligation and moral duty to protect them and pass them on to new generations. The lessons of the tragic pages of the history of the Cold War were taken into account, when during «Operation Asphalt» *, as a result of haste and negligence in transferring graves to Tjøtta Island, many memorials were destroyed. Today, Soviet military graves are kept in exemplary order, and painstaking work is underway to establish the names of Soviet prisoners of war who died in Nazi camps in the country.

It is an honour for me to stand here today with the descendants and numerous heirs of the Soviet Union’s victory in that war. There is no family in these parts that would not keep the memory of relatives and friends who encountered the war both in East Finnmark and on its many other fronts. I know that celebrations are being held in Russia today as well. In the border area and in Murmansk, local residents and guests from other regions carry flowers to monuments and honour veterans. They do not forget about their Norwegian friends and asked me to lay their wreath at the monument today.

Today we need to talk about another anniversary. On October 25, 1974, the Soviet-Norwegian film «Under Stone Sky» [presented later in this publication] was released. The film is based on real events. Evgeny Leonov, Oleg Yankovsky, Arne Lee and many other wonderful actors very accurately conveyed the heroism, self-sacrifice of ordinary Soviet soldiers and local residents who liberated Kirkenes to save the innocent. I will definitely review it today and recommend it to everyone.

Thanks for your attention!
Consul General N.A.Konygin

🔥🔥🔥
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Ukrainian SSR of 1991 vs. Ukraine of 2016: Shocking statistics of the pogrom (with “Fainting Piglet”)

Today is Ukraine “independence day”. It’s definitely a day of independence from common sense and brains for that forlorn territory…

The author of the “Fainting Piglet” satirical cartoons made an impromptu film for the occasion, citing as her inspiration an article with statistics from Free Press.

Here is what the author of the series said on her Telegram channel:

I made the video in one day, so there are bugs in it. And it was also very difficult to write a song in Ukrainian when you don’t speak it. But the goal was not so much a video as an advertisement for a very useful article that I would like you to read. An article about the degradation of Ukraine since its separation from the USSR. It specifically shows the degradation from the moment of the collapse of the USSR until 2016, so that they would not start shouting “we are degrading because you are bombing us.” No, Ukraine started rolling towards its grave much earlier.

I am grateful to the people who write such articles. This makes it much easier for me to search for information. Today, the lands of Ukraine are actively sold to foreign corporations not in order for the Ukrainians to live happily on them. The West does not give a damn about the population of Nezalezhnaya and its ecology. Almost every one of us has relatives, loved ones, friends or acquaintances living in Ukraine, so we DO care, but for the West we are all second-class people for whom there is not pity. It is a shame that Ukraine has not caught up on this yet. Therefore, when she celebrates independence day from Russian protection, it is like a patient in the last stage of cancer would happily celebrate oncology day.

As an aside, we would like to note that back in 2014 we published on the pages of this blog an article Two Ukraines – with a Statistical and Historical View at Novorossia, where there was a comparison of some of the statistics for the Ukrainian SSR anno 1990 and and Ukraine of 2013.


Ukraine vs. the Ukrainian SSR: Shocking statistics of the pogrom

by Svyatoslav Knyazev

After the collapse of the Union, Nezalezhnaya [translator note: a by name for “independent [Ukriane]” in Ukrainian] had every chance to become one of the most successful countries in Europe

The escape of European Ukraine from the “totalitarian Soviet hell” is going according to plan. As of late, it is difficult to surprise anyone with an analysis of the collapse of the Ukrainian economy compared to the “pre-Maidan” year 2013. But the topic of socio-economic changes that have occurred in Ukraine in comparison to the Soviet period has been undeservedly forgotten. So more the pity! After all, the main “scapegoat” enemy of Kiev today, along with Russia, is its – Ukraine’s – communist past. A separate law is dedicated to the fight against the spiritual heritage of the USSR (even the Russian Federation is not awarded such an “honour”). All Soviet symbols are officially banned. As of August 2017, a total of 2,389 monuments objectionable to the Kiev regime were demolished in Ukraine, most of which glorified the achievements of the Soviet era.

It is very curious that they decided to start an active war with the “spirit” of the USSR almost 25 years after its collapse and more than 30 years after Mihail Gorbachev began dismantling the classical Soviet system, when only those who were either just under or well over 50 remembered the real manifestation of domestic socialism. Until a new “desovietized” generation grew up, the authorities of the “Nezalezhnaya” did not dare to conduct such experiments…

I was prompted to write this material by a small note about the statements of the Ukrainian economist Sergei Korablin. This Doctor of Economics, professor and former director of the Monetary Market Analysis and Forecasting Department of the Ukrainian National Bank estimated back in 2015 that Ukraine had set an absolute global anti-record, showing the worst n planet earth GDP dynamics, managing to bypass even Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic. Having become curious about what I had read, I decided to find out what Ukraine had actually lost by seceding from the USSR and abandoning everything Soviet. This was helped by open data from the State Statistics Service of “Nezalezhnaya” and Ukrainian experts.

Given the complete uselessness of nominal GDP dynamics in the context of what we are investigating, I decided to look for data on changes in the level of gross domestic product of Ukraine at purchasing power parity. It is clear that this indicator is speculative to a certain extent, but it allows one to at least start from something.

Wikipedia, with reference to IMF data and taking into account extrapolated values, claims that by 1991 the GDP (PPP) of the Ukrainian SSR reached about 505.5 billion dollars. The indicator of independent Ukraine in 2016 is approximately 353 billion. The drop is over 30%. This is indeed an absolute world record. Zimbabwe’s similar figures for comparison over the same period are only 2-3%…

However, given the fact that the very methodology of calculating GDP (PPP) leaves some room for manipulation, I decided to look at how specific socio-economic indicators, which can be, figuratively speaking, “touched with one’s hands”, changed in Ukraine compared to the Soviet times: from sausage production and pig population to the number of schools and hospitals.

So, only dry figures, some of which I directly borrowed from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, and some from tables collected by VOX UKRAINE on the basis of data from the same State Statistics Service.

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The Art of Timely Betrayal. Why the Finnish SS avoided punishment?

With the Finnish President Alexander Stubb complaining that Russia “invaded” his country during World War II, the level of history re-writing goes off the charts.

On our Telegram Channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden” we previously addressed the “Finish question” through the poster of the “United Europe”, and Boris Yefimov’s caricatures “The Finnish Shapeshifter Cooking The Books” and “An Awkward Camouflage”. And in the previous posts in the blog: “Kill the Russians.” 105 years ago, the Finnish army staged the massacre in Vyborg. The truth must come out! and Finland – Life after NATO.

The article below was published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 18th of March 2023.


The Art of Timely Betrayal. Why the Finnish SS avoided punishment?

by Andrey Karelsky

Marshal Mannerheim, along with a German general, welcomes Finnish soldiers to the occupied Soviet territory. Finnish Military Archive sa kuva

About 80 years ago, in the spring of 1943, the Finnish SS battalion “Nordost” ceased its activities and was soon officially disbanded, while the volunteers who were part of it returned to their native Finland. Thus, the Finnish “SS men” did not partake in the fate of the other followers of the Third Reich, and did not suffer any punishment for war crimes committed on the territory of the Soviet Union.

Moreover, until now, it was believed in Finnish society that they did not commit any atrocities – and even if they reached the foothills of the Caucasus as part of the troops of Nazi Germany, it is rather a reason to be proud of the military prowess of the “hot Finnish guys”.

In Suomi, they didn’t want to hear about the killing of civilians, the shooting of prisoners of war and the massacre of Jews.
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A 1935 conversation between I.Stalin and Lord Keeper of the Seal of Great Britain, A.Eden

The documentary by Andrey Medvedev, “The Great Unknown War” mentions an episode taking place towards the end of the meeting between Iosif Stalin and Anthony Eden in Moscow on the 29th of March 1935, illustrating that the Soviet leadership were fully aware of who igniters of the coming war are, and the inevitability of a war in Europe, despite Soviet Union’s best efforts to prevent it.

The League of Nations.
The Geneva Lawyer: “Where do you see war? Which war? I have no war registered here.”

This 1932 caricature by the famous Soviet caricaturist Boris Yefimov illustrates the reservations regarding the potency of the League of Nations, that the reader will notice in the transcript of the entire meeting, which adds more eye-opening details of the British-German-Soviet relations. And ponder, how similar this is to the West turning a blind eye on Ukraine – with the OCSE “not noticing” the regular shelling of Donbass by Ukraine between 2014 and 2022. (This caricature is presented in our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”)

Additional reading: President Vladimir Putin on keeping the records of the pre-WWII time straight.



Stalin I.V. – Recording of a conversation with the Lord Keeper of the Seal of Great Britain A. Eden

March 29, 1935

The source: Stalin I.V. Works. – Vol. 18. – Tver: Information-publishing center “Soyuz”, 2006. pp. 86-91.

The visit took place in the Kremlin, in the office of comrade Molotov. Attended by: comrades Stalin, Molotov, Litvinov, Maysky, and from the British side – Eden, the British Ambassador, Chilston and the head of the League of Nations section in the British Foreign Office, Strang. The whole conversation lasted about an hour and a quarter.

After the first greetings, Eden began the conversation. He said something like this:

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Exhibition of Samples of Trophy Weapons (1943-1948). An article and a documentary.

The article you are about to read is dedicated to the exhibition of the weaponry from Germany and their accomplices, trophied after their invasion of the USSR on the 22nd of June 1941.

On the 22nd of June 1943, exactly two years after the Nazi Germany invaded the USSR, the central park of Moscow, bearing the name of Maxim Gorky, opened its gates to an extensive exhibition over the trophied armaments of Nazi-Germany and its accomplices. The exhibition lasted until 1948.

The article consists of three parts: first comes the cinematographic essay, filmed in 1943 to give an overview of the exhibition, then a short note with the documents from Moscow City Archive, and finally, a portion of a historiographic work, dedicated to the exhibition.

Only one thought to add – the tradition that started during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 has now seen a rebirth during the present-day Patriotic War, with the exhibition of the weaponry of the Nazi Germany’s successor being displayed on the Poklonnaya Mountain in Moscow from the 1st of May 2024.

We publish about the trophy exhibition, past and present, at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”, for example in this and this post.

Let’s go!


Trophies of the Great Battles

A short cinematographic essay, filmed in colour, presented the visible testimony over the ongoing victories on the battlefield over the invading horde.

The essay is full of jabs and snide remarks, mixed with facts and figures – just the way we like to watch the parallel present-day events unfold now, 80 years later.


Visible evidence of our victories: The Moscow Main Archive tells about the exhibition of captured German weapons

23.04.2020

The Main Archive of the capital contains documents documenting the creation of an exhibition of samples of weapons and military equipment trophied by the Red Army in battles with Nazi troops and their allies. The exposition was opened on June 22, 1943 and operated until 1948.

The decision to create an exhibition pavilion “Trophies of War” on the territory of Gorky Park was made back in December 1941, when the successful counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow provided residents of the capital with exhibits of the most diverse kind. In 1942, the exhibition pavilion began to operate. However, it was located deep inside the territory of the park, near the border with the Neskuchny Garden, and did not attract mass attention. A more impressive demonstration of our combat achievements was needed.
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The 27th of January – Lifting of Leningrad Blockade and the Liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet troops

A year apart, two dates that must be remembered by the humanity happed on the 27th of January

On our “Beorn and The Shieldmaiden” Telegram channel, we commemorate both events with a series of thematic posts – Lifting of the Blockade of Leningrad and Liberation of Auschwitz

80 years ago, on the 27th of January 1944, the Blockade of Leningrad that lasted 872 days and cost 1,093,842 lives was finally lifted. The Blockade is recognised as an act of genocide against the Russian people.

79 years ago, on the 27th of January 1945, 25,000 Soviet soldiers and officers opened the gates of Auschwitz, saving the remaining survivors of the Nazi death machine.

To the Warrior-Liberator – Glory!
By V. Sachkov

Soviet poster, commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by soldiers of the Red Army on January 27th 1945.

No one is forgotten. Nothing is forgotten.

Last Year’s Snow Was Falling – Soviet New Year Animation, 1983

A small New Year present to our readers, first published on our Telegram channel Beorn And The Shieldmaiden yesterday! ☃️

No New Year is complete without this plasticine animated film from 1983, directed by Alexander Tatarsky and voice acting by Stanislav Sadalsky.

The film plays on many Russian folk tales, but with unexpected twists. It reached a cult status after its first appearance on Central TV. The aphoristic remarks of the characters, full of absurd humour, turned into colloquial proverbs.

The flight of a Soviet MiG over Israel that prevented a nuclear war in 1973

In the previous article we showed how the USSR played a key role in the creation of Israel. However, any hopes that the USSR had, showed to be misplaced and on the 10th of June 1967 the USSR broke the diplomatic relations with the Israel over its unleashing of the 6-day War, and the diplomatic relation were first restores eight days before the disintegration of the USSR, on the 26th of December 1991.

MiG 25 R / Bezhevets Alexander Savvich

During that time the USSR criticized and warned against the Zionism on par with the Ukrainian nationalism as the children of the same bourgeois imperialism. We have shown several caricature from that time on our Beorn and The Shieldmaiden Telegram channel. Here is one of them:

The caricature «The Family Portrait — Blood Brothers» is from a 1981 edition of the Ukrainian satitical magazine «Perec», and was drawn by S.Gerasimchuk.

The text over the caricature reads in Ukrainian:

«Imperialism, together with the father of the same crooked sons as Zionism and Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism.»

The Ukrainian nationalism holds the microphone of the «Radio Svoboda» («Radio Freedom»), while Zionism has a scroll with the «Plans of aggression» tucked under the arm.

The USSR was also forced to take some very specific military steps to contain the Israeli Zionism, as will become apparent from the following article.


How did the MiG’s flight over an Israeli city prevent a nuclear war? The risky mission of the Soviet pilot

15th of June 2022

We have heard a lot about the Cold War and the Caribbean Crisis, but not everyone knows that apart from the confrontation in Cuba, the world once more stood on the brink of nuclear war in 1973. Open information is still contradictory, so there are several versions of events. But the fact remains the same – it was the flight of the Soviet MiG that led to the calming of a conflict, which could have ended with an exchange of nuclear strikes.

In early October 1973, a military clash began between a coalition of th Arab States led by Syria and Egypt, and Israel. Coalition forces successfully crossed the Suez Canal and inflicted a tangible defeat on Israel in the Golan Heights area.

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The History of Creation of Israel – The Soviet Side of Story

The political sensibilities of a historic period may lead to decisions that result in unforeseen and undesired consequences down the historical road. The approval of the creation of Israel by the Soviet leader Iosif Stalin is one such event. True, shortly after wards the USSR would break the diplomatic relations with Israel, once its real natur became apparent. The USSR would even have to perform a little-known military operation against Israel to “dissuade” it from using nuclear weapons on its neighbours.


How did the USSR and Stalin personally create Israel, and why did the Jews betray the Soviet Union after that

6th of February 2021

In 1948, US President Truman was the first to recognize the State of Israel. And the Israelis do not get tired of reminding us about this till this day. Schools, libraries and hospitals in Israel are named after the 33rd President of the United States. For this reason, many mistakenly believe that the United States created the state of Israel.

But few people know that the key role in the creation of Israel was actually played by the Soviet Union and personally by Iosif Stalin. But how and why did the Soviet leader create Israel?

In January 1946, with a difference of only 2 days, Stalin received two letters. One was on behalf of the Jewish National Liberation Committee. The other came on behalf of the Arab committee. The authors of the first epistle asked Iosif Vissarionovich to help in the creation of a Jewish state on the territory of Palestine. The authors of the second one – to not let this happen. A year and a half later the whole world would learn of the decision that Stalin had made.

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Myths about Stalin. Where do legs grow from? Reblog of a detailed research article

Black myths have always been attached to the Russian leaders who looked after the interests of the country and did not fall under the spell of the outside influences. Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin is one such leader, whose memory was defamed and desecrated both by the internal political rivals, like Hrushov, and by the external enemies. I plan to publish several articles that take aim at debunking these black myths surrounding the historical figure of Stalin. As always, when looking at history, one must remain dispassionate and look at the events not through the prism of modern sensibilities, but as a contemporary to the events, with all the challenges that the leadership of the USSR faced at that time.

Today, on the 145th anniversary of Iosif Stalin’s birth, I want to start with a reblog of an excellent article by Olga of the Siberian Matrëshka Telegram channel, which I can warmly recommend.


Myths about Stalin. Where do legs grow from?

Olga🪆July 21, 2023

First of all, there was no Communism in the USSR. The USSR had a communist state ideology and a socialist system.

One of the most terrible and destructive myths about the Soviet Union is the lie about the “bloody regime” of Stalin, who allegedly destroyed tens of millions of innocent people. Few people know that this myth was created back in Nazi Germany, and only later it was used by the United States in the information war against Soviet civilization.

Despite a number of fundamental studies based on the factual material of the archives, which showed the inconsistency of Joseph Stalin’s accusations of mass repressions and terror, the false myth supported by slanderers like Solzhenitsyn, Radzinsky, Suvorov-Rezun continues to dominate the information field of Russia and the world community. The dirty work of denigrating Russian and Soviet history continues, within the framework of the global historical and informational confrontation between Russian civilization (Rus) and the West. Citizens of Russia (especially young people), not to mention Ukraine and other post-Soviet republics, continue to be stuffed with horror stories about death and murder in labour camps of the GULAG (Main Directorate of Camps and Places of Detention), stories about millions of people who died of starvation and were deliberately destroyed in the USSR, about the alleged premeditation of the Holodomor in Ukraine, about the inhuman cruelty of the Soviet punitive system, “the bloodiest in the world”. The repressions against the kulaks and the “fifth column” take on an absolutely fantastic character in these stories, and Stalin becomes a villain of a literally galactic scale. All this is superimposed on the image of the USSR-Russia in the world – as an “evil empire” and “Russian Mordor”, where there live “fierce” Muscovites, scoops-padded coats, ready at the first opportunity to drown in the blood of all dissidents in Russia itself, as well as to drive to their “concentration camp” and the surrounding peoples.

The myth of the “bloody Stalinist regime” was created back in Nazi Germany. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, they used information and psycho-technologies to properly indoctrinate the population. The Minister of Propaganda was Joseph Goebbels, who propagated dreams of a racially pure people living in Greater Germany, an empire with vast living space. This living space included the territory to the east of Germany, the Russian lands, including Little Russia-Ukraine. The conquest of living space meant a big war, a war with the USSR. Therefore, the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, headed by Goebbels, launched an information campaign around the alleged genocide organized by the Communists in Ukraine, the terrible famine (Holodomor) organized personally by Stalin. The purpose of the Nazi propaganda was to prepare the world community for the “liberation” of Ukraine by German troops from the “bloody Bolshevik yoke”. Later, the Ukrainian Nazis (Bandera) used the same lie about an artificial famine to sit on the neck of the people of Little Russia-Ukraine.

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In memory of the start of Operation «Uran» at Stalingrad on the 19th of November 1942

Stalingrad Counter Offensive

(UPDATE: 28.11.2023 – additional Telegram posts)

On 19th of November 1942, The Red Army launched the legendary counter offensive at Stalingrad.

In a series of Telegram posts we will commemorate the glorious feat of the breakthrough that led to the decisive victory over the Nazi-german 6th Army on February 2nd 1943.

As we know, the victory at Stalingrad marked the great turning point of the Great Patriotic War, and marked decisively the geopolitical reality that defined the strength ratio of WWII and gave hope and encouragement to antifascists and resistance fighters in all occupied counties. 

Read on either on our Telegram channel Beorn and The Shieldmaiden or through the embedded messages below. Additional posts will be appended to this blog post as we publish more materials on our Telegram channel.

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For the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Northern Norway, the WWII History Is Being Rewritten There

(Updated 28.10.2022 – added an afterword)

On the 25th of October 2019, the Norwegian state TV channel NRK 2 aired a 3 hour 20 minute long TV marathon, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of liberation of Finnmark, Northern Norway, by the Soviet troops. The documentary went under the title “Saved by the Russians”.

Save by the Russians

It featured a wide range of materials – interviews with the surviving witnesses, official ceremonies, both Norwegian and Russian documentaries, the efforts to locate the unburied remains of the fallen Soviet soldiers, interviews with the politicians and historians, a cultural part, where we could even see the choir of the Russian Northern Fleet sailors performing the Norwegian anthem.

Here are the chapter titles to give an idea of the scope of the documentary: Russians are coming; The King is giving his thanks; Russian liberation; The last days of the war; The battle of Neiden; Mothers and children in a war; War-zone Murmansk; Russian captives; The partisan Trygve Eriksen; The history of the partisans; The choir of the Northern Fleet; Forced evacuation on the North; The liberation anniversary in Kirkenes; The Prime Minister is giving a commentary; The battles on the Litsa front; The big losses of the Litsa dale; Dead soldiers in Litsa dale; The year under Russian governorship; Nidviser speaks about the local population; The children of war; The Swedish children; Child-soldier Alf Rafaelsen; Still finding the remains from the war; The culture of memory; The cooperation across borders; The choir of the Northern Fleet.

At a time when the rest of Europe was descending into a historical amnesia when it came to the events of World War II, with the history being actively re-written, this Norwegian program was a bastion of steadfast remembrance of history.

Norway will never forget the Soviet army’s heroic efforts.

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Israeli Zionists follow in the footsteps of the German Nazis. Genocide and Holocaust of the Palestinians. Destruction of World Heritage

Over the past weeks, the civilised world was watching in horror and condemning the atrocities committed by the Israeli Zionists against the Palestinian population. Everything that we are witnessing has been done before by the German Nazis against the Slavic and Jewish people, and against the Communists of Europe during WWII. At the same time USA, Ukraine, NATO and EU were egging the Israeli Zionists on to commit more crimes, which is fully expected – the Bidens, Stoltenbergs, Netanyahus, von der Leyens and Zelenskys of today are following in the footsteps of Hitlers, Banderas, Quislings and Mussolinis of the past.

Israel iS Starting to turn the
Gaza Strip
into a
Gas Chamber
for the
Holocaust of the Palestinians

After the number and the scale of atrocities committed by the Israeli Zionists, it is, by now, fully justified to start calling them “Zionazis“!

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A brief history of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabah

The conflict over Nagoro-Karabah (“Mountain-top Karabah”) has been going on for a little over a century. In the later years Russia tried to be a mediator and bring a resolution that would satisfy both Armenia and Azerbaijan, in accordance with the Russian saying of “both the wolves are fed and the sheep are whole”. However, the West’s darking Pashinyan did everything in his power to sabotage and discredit Russian efforts, to flirt with USA and France, and to actually lose Nagorn-Karabah to Azerbaijan.

After that, Russia could only try to save the Armenians living there and ensure their safe passage to Armenia poper:

Incidentally, at the moment there are more Armenians living in Russia, than in Armenia itself, but even bigger – or, more influential – Armenian diasporas can be found in France and the USA, which explains the political pull those two countries exert on Armenia.

USSR 1922In this article I want to present a translation of a publication from Dzen that recaps the history of the contested land.

For reference, see the map that I posted in relation to Kazahstan in the article A short look at the short history of Kazahstan through the lens of a 1922 map (inset in the lower left corner).



Nagorno-Karabah: Why Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting over it for 100 years

Before the revolution of 1917, there were practically no monolithic ethnic groups anywhere in Transcaucasia, the peoples lived mixed. At the same time, the territory of the future Nagorno-Karabah Autonomous Region was populated overwhelmingly by the Armenians.

In 1918, the newly independent states – Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia – began to divide Transcaucasia among themselves. At the same time, ethnic deportations began in the region.

The situation was complicated by the foreign intervention. Both the German-Turkish, and the British occupiers who replaced them, supported Azerbaijan’s claims to Nagorno-Karabah. The ethnic sympathies of the Turks are obvious, while for the British, the desire to gain control of the Baku oil fields by supporting Azerbaijan was probably crucial.

Although an Armenian National Council was established in Karabah, the attempt to annex the region to Armenia ended in failure. Karabah remained under Azerbaijani military control.

In 1920, the Sovietization of both republics took place. However, the dispute over Karabah has now continued between the Communists of both sides. It is noteworthy that the Russian Bolsheviks also supported Azerbaijan.

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Autumn of 1991 as a Prelude to the “Black October” of 1993 and the “Wild ’90s” in Russia

This autumn marks a sombre anniversary – 30 years since the bloody events of autumn 1993, which cemented Russia’s fate for the next 7 years and set the stage for the “Wild ’90s” and the “Desolation of Yeltsin” that almost destroyed Russia. I had several posts on the pages of this blog about the “Wild ’90s”, which are easiest accessed through the corresponding tag. Some of these posts are:

This is the first in a series of three articles I have planned for this autumn to remember the events of 1993. In this material I want to start by looking at August of 1991 through a series of short video materials – a time when the USSR was still around, and when it all really began.

First, let’s watch one aspect of the president of the USA G.W.Bush visit to the USSR – his speech before the congress of deputies of the Ukrainian SSR. Pay attention to the wording that Bush used in his speech, what emotions it played on.


(Original publication on Putinger’s Cat Telegram channel)

Three weeks after Bush’s visit, the USSR was engulfed in a coup d’etat, the so-called SCSE – The State Committee on the State of Emergency, or GKChP as it is known in Russian. I remember it as a highly-chaotic time, trying to tune in on some radio stations in Moscow and the “enemy voices” – Voice of America and Radio Svoboda, trying to make sense of what is happening. The information was very conflicting, and it was presented as if SCSE grabbed the power in the USSR, trying to depose Gorbachev.

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