Tag Archives: USSR

“Russian Soldier Saved the World” – WWII memorial song by Artyom Grishanov

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Reading time: 5 minutes

Now that Victory Day – the 9th of May – is drawing close, we constantly see the ever-increasing attempts to re-write the history of WWII and to erase the Russian-Soviet victory which cost us 21 million people’s lives.

So does grow the importance of remembrance and of not allowing to have this memory to become sullied. Song has always been one of the strongest conduits of people’s emotions and memory, and the song below is a very emotional tribute and reminder.

Artjom Grishanov has the talent for condensing the essence of a topic into a few well-selected strong words, backed by equally concise and poignant imagery. Russian soldier saved the world shows in no uncertain terms what the West wants to have remaining of the memory, and what we really should be remembering. Please, take a moment to listen to it (with English subtitles) and to remember.

Transcript of the documentary and the song

UPDATE from November of 2023. The transcript below was done for our new Telegram channel “Beorn and The Shieldmaiden”, and published there in two parts: part 1, part 2.

Russian news anchor:
“Polish authorities intend to demolish more than 500 Soviet monuments. We are talking about the monuments erected in gratitude to the USSR for liberating this country from fascism.”

Some liberal speaking in Russian:
“These are all the pillars of the empire. Since the empire has been in the dumpster of history for 25 years, all these pillars must be sent there as well”

Ukrainian nationalists intimidating a WWII veteran (spoken in both Ukrainian and Russian):
“For your own safety, I recommend you to sit at home, calmly, quietly and to not provoke people.”
“Today you are punished.”

Intimidation of veterans on the 9th of May in Ukraine.
“- Get away those red rags”
“- How can you insult the memory of the veterans?”

On a talk show, a liberal, then confronted by the hostess of the show:
“- Yes, a person worries about the most precious and hides it. This is normal, in principle.”
“- Do not mix up a veteran with Pinocchio. He does not hide the most precious thing, he hides what is sacred.”

Some liberal:
“I understand why you hold on to the past so hard. It’s because everything is bad for you in the present, while you probably have no future at all”

President Putin:
“All attempts to distort, rewrite history are unacceptable and immoral. Oft-times, a desire to hide one’s own dishonour is behind such attempts.”

Poroshenko:
“The soldiers of the UPA are remembered as an example of heroism in relation to Ukraine.”

Yatsenjuk:
“We all remember the Soviet invasion of both Ukraine and Germany.

François Hollande, the president of France:
“They were our liberators. France will never forget what it owes to those soldiers, what it owes to the United States.”

Some Polish radio host:
“Why did we all get so used to the fact that Moscow is the place where the end of war is celebrated, and not, for example, London or Berlin, which would have been more natural?”

President Putin:
“It only occasionally seems to us that they are speaking some kind of delirium nonsense. Pure nonsense. That it will slip past and no one will notice. No, you see, this is being implanted into the minds of millions of people.”

US citizens asked on the street:
“Who had the largest role, the most casualties in the fight against the Nazis during the Second World War?”
“- I am not totally [sure?]. Is it not the US?
“- France?”
“- Can you think of another country?”
“- America.”
“- Japan lost. Russia lost.”
“- Seriously? Which country took Berlin? Which army?”
“- The United States?”
“- I say the United States of America.”
“- The United States, Great Britain, France.
“- How about the Soviet Union?”
“- Yeah.”
“- It was the former Soviet Union?”
“- Oh, actually, it was Russia or the Soviet Union that had the most casualties. What’s you reaction to this? Are you surprised?”
“- Just, please, don’t put this on TV.”

The lyrics of the song:

Such a short memory –
It didn’t last even for 100 years.
Such a great impudence –
To cast a shadow over the memory of the victories.

The traitor chokes, spitting fire,
Looking askance at out Parade.
Oh, how he doesn’t like the truth that
Russian soldier saved the world.

Levitan’s radio announcement, chronicles:
“Today, on the 22nd of June, at four o’clock in the morning, without a declaration of war, the German troops attacked our country.”

The earth was torn to shreds
And the people were awakened by the war.
The horde invaded in the early morning,
Burning houses behind them.

The blow was devastating,
But the victory escaped their grip.
The enemy encountered the unheard of force –
The Russian spirit.

Chronicles:
“Today, not only Moscow is behind us, not only our vast Motherland. Today, the whole world is looking at us, holding its breath.”

It’s not enough to just kill it.
Just try to fell it to the ground.
It will gnaw with its teeth,
Even in an unequal battle.

The force was becoming stronger, day by day,
Just not a step back.
And the news broke out like thunder:
Russian soldier saved the world.
Russian soldier saved the world.
Russian soldier saved the world.

Meanwhile those who surrendered their cities
In the first days of the war,
Do not wish and will never comprehend
The joy of the Russian soul.

In the happy and torn-asunder May,
The Nazis’ hell was stopped.
Remember, never forget:
Russian soldier saved the world.
Russian soldier saved the world.

Then and now.

Quote:
“The gravest mistake is to dismiss the Russians, to consider the Russian people weak.”
“God forbid you mistreat or rob the Russians. They will return, demolishing any obstacle in their path.”
“Russians love peace, Russians build peace, Russians defend peace. Russians do not want war, but they can fight better, than anyone.”


The motto of the 9th of May: I Remember. I Am Proud. In the colours of the St. George Ribbon.

The Magic of the Children’s Films from the Soviet Union

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Reading time: 12 minutes

UPDATE from September 2022: Quite a number of English-translated films listed in this post have disappeared from YouTube since I published this in 2017. I have update “The Visitor from the Future” with the working links, but could not find English translations of some of the other now-missing titles. Still, I am leaving them in the post as a future reference.

One characteristic of the Soviet films that I hold dear, is that they are humane, moral (often without being moralising), centre on the characters, rather than action and events. The films for grown-ups, be it a war-time film or a film about a mundane everyday life, would always have several layers of meaning – good film makers knew how to convey what they wanted to say to the audience without raising the alarms of censorship. All that resulted in films that would have depth, satire, criticism, thoughtfulness in them.

But here I want to write about children films. The films that formed our, my, world view, that taught us about fairness, compassion, friendship, the pitfalls of negative relations. They were a joy to watch, and they left a trace in your heart, a moral compass that no religion can give you, as morality was based on your own desire to do good, rather than fearing a punishment from the holder of the scriptures if you do wrong.

One such outstanding film is “The Visitor from the Future”, released in 1985 and filmed at the Central Studio of Children and Youth Films named after M. Gorky in Moscow. And the bright star of that film is its title song, “The Beautiful Faraway”. In 1985 nothing was outwardly speaking of the time of troubles that lay ahead, in just short 7 years, the Wild 90’s and the Desolation of Yeltsin. But in retrospect, this song turned out to be prophetic, and at the same time it was a testament, an oath of how to conduct oneself in the difficult times ahead, how to stay strong. The song does not promise paradise lands, but rather trials and only asks to not be treated too cruelly along the way to the unknown future, walking the untrodden path towards the future of 2084.

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The Plan to Destroy Russia. Conceived and Started in 1948. Concluded in 1993? Or Not…

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Reading time: 67 minutes

After the hot war phase on Russia(USSR) between 22nd of April 1941 and the 9th of May 1945, executed through Germans, but lavishly funded by US (for example grandfather of the Bush presidential clan), USA did not view 1945 as a year of defeat. Along with preparation for a carpet nuking of the key cities in USSR, USA also devised a plan to politically change and destroy USSR/Russia from within. In the document below, Russia and USSR are referred interchangeably.

The document – U.S. OBJECTIVES WITH RESPECT TO RUSSIA – presented in full below my analysis, is copied from this resource, with an option to download the raw scanned pages of the text.

It demonstrates well the strategy of “divide and conquer” that that US were going to employ, as well as their understanding that the only way to destroy Russia, is from within – something that the “liberal” 5th column is doing in Russia of today. Remember that USSR, is never the stated final objective in the document below – Russia is. On the other hand, they do not understand many aspects of the Russian World, illustrated well by this fallacious statement “Before the revolution of 1918, Russian nationalism was solely Russian.”, as Russian Empire of pre 1917 was also a multi-national and multi-confessional state.

Let me extract the key-points of the doctrine first, and then I’ll let you read through the whole text, leaving to you to decide if there is even a gram of good in the outlined intents…

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The Singing Weapon – The Alexandrov Ensemble (Documentary with EngSubs)

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On the 25th of December 2016, 1/3 of the world-renowned Alexandrov Ensemble perished in a single plane crash, en-route from Sochy, Russia to Syria. This is tragic loss and a strong blow against Russia, against the singing ambassadors of Russia abroad and a bright symbol within.

As a tribute, I translated the following 2008 documentary, titled “The Singing Weapon”, which is how Winston Churchill referred to it after listening to its performance during the 1945 Yalta Conference in Crimea. If it is a weapon, then this ensemble is a “weapon” of peace unity and accord, which it brings with song and dance to all peoples.

The formatted subtitle file in ASS format can be downloaded separately. Full text of the script is below the video frame.

EDIT 11.05.2022

In the recent bout of censorship against all things Russian, YouTube also blocked the VGTRK channel, where the untranslatable original version of the film resided. I’ve now reviewed my translation, fixing a few things, and uploaded the video both to Odysee and to Rumble. The original you-Tube-related text is moved to the bottom of this post, past the transcript, for historic reference.

Back in 2017, when my translated version was taken down on third-party copyright claims, I relayed this development in a comment at Lada Ray’s Futurist Trendcast, and she nailed the overall problem in her reply:

Unfortunately, these silly indiscriminate western capitalist practices have penetrated Russia. Very sad. Those who do it are just like robots. They aren’t paid to think, just to block everything. Those at the helm don’t get it that you are actually helping promote their material by exposing it to wider western audience.

Alas, with this model Russian companies allow Western companies to control and censor what materials are available to the Western audience!

The complete song “Sacred War” (or “Holy War”) with my English translation of the lyrics:

Plus, an older translation in the comments on YouTube:

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Short History of Creation of Ukraine and Donetsk-Krivorog Republics after the 1917 Revolution in Russia

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On the 8th of December 2016, an analyst and blogger RoSsi BaRBeRa – one of the few that I read for their honest and direct approach to the world events – publish an article titled “Ukraine and the new bout for for-free [Euronews journalists are striking because of the refusal to count them as Russians]”.

In short, that article was describing an absurd situation after closing of the Ukrainian office of Euronews. Euronews closed down its Ukrainian-language office in France. It was created in 2011, and as with all the Euronews participating countries, Ukraine was to pay a certain license contribution towards running of their department. (Russian VGTRK, btw, owns 7% of shares of Euronews). After the 2014 “revolution” Ukraine decided that Europe owes Ukraine for the defence of the European values, and stopped paying. The Ukrainian department was then financed by Euronews from the common funds, but was not disbanded as Russophobia was in high demand. At the same time Euronews tried to get the money from Ukraine (€10 mill) through Ukrainian court system. To the European amazement, Ukraine did the same number as they did on the Russian Gazprom – the debtor started dictated conditions. Euronews haven’t got a cent. Now, in December 2016 Euronews shut down the Ukrainian department. And here comes the essence of the story:

The journalists from that department attempted first to apply to the Russian-language department (currently the most profitable in the Euronews consortium, with good salaries), but were refused. The reason from the management was this: Ukrainians do not have enough command of the Russian language and culture to work in the Russian department (after all, that’s what the rabid Ukrainian propaganda was all about all this time!). Ukrainian Euronews journalists – who only the day before were “defending Europe against Russian aggression” – suddenly did a U-turn and indignantly stated that they were all born in USSR, are from the same country, and anyway, Russian department employed Armenians and Belorussians, so why are Ukrainians discriminated. When it became clear that Euronews would not budge on the decision, they did another U-turn and started blaming, who else – Putin for not allowing them to work in the Russian department of Euronews… Curtain.

That was a pre-history, now comes the story…

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Behind the EuroVision politics – the Truth about Tatar Deportation of 1944

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This is a re-blog of Lada Ray’s article Eurovision’s Dirty Secrets: Another Instrument in anti-Russia Proxy War and Crimean Tartar Card, which shows how highly politicised and rotten the EuroVision become. But we all knew that…

More importantly, it covers the context and history behind deportation of Tatars from Crime in 1944. Below is a fragment in question from the article:

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Project ‘Ukraine’. Documentary by Andrei Medvedev (with English subtitles)

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Reading time: 56 minutes

This is a dispassionate chronological look at the history of Galicia and Malorossia, and how those Russian lands were being gradually turned into Ukraine. The film presents a trove of documents, citations, documentary footage and gives it all to the viewer to draw own conclusions. The documentary also takes an introspective look at where Russia went wrong with its handling of the budding extreme nationalism in those lands at the turn of the 19th-20th century, and introspection is a good sign – a nation, which does not view itself as exceptional, which has the capacity to understand its mistakes, has a hope for the future…

The original untranslated video is published here: Проект ‘Украина’. Фильм Андрея Медведева.

After watching the documentary, I can recommend reading the following articles:

UPDATE 13.03.2020: YouTube has globally censored up to a 1000 Russian-originating channels, including those aimed at only the Russian audience, where the video was hosted.

UPDATE 13.03:2022: One should also watch two documentaries from Oliver Stone: a 2016 Ukraine on Fire and 2019 Revealing Ukraine, which pick up the thread of Andrei Medvedev’s documentary.

The formatted subtitle file in ASS format can be downloaded separately. Full text of the script is below the video frame.

UPDATE 14.03.2022: All YouTube-related materials have been moved to the bottom of this post.

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Boris Yeltsin: Demon or Hero?

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On the 1st of February Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation, would have been 85. Commemorating the date, Argumenty i Fakty published a two-polar article about Yeltsin. Two views on what he did to Russia, one negative and one positive. The whole article Boris Yeltsin: Demon or Hero can be read in Russian at the site of AiF.

Here I am only going to translate one view, which reflects the real negative impact of Yeltsin on Russia. I cannot bring myself to translating the positive view by Vladimir Ryzhkov, who was the vice-speaker of the Parliament in 1997-1999 – in the years after the 1993 Yeltsin’s coup d’etat. Ryzhkov’s words are sugar-coated paintings of black as white. IF anyone wants to read them, go to the Russian article above and use Google translate…

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Andrey Karaulov: “Those, who laughed at us yesterday, are no longer laughing today”

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Below is my translation of an interview with Andrei Karaulov, published in “Argumenty i Fakty” on the 30th of January 2016. The information in this interview underlines and strengthens what I previously wrote in the articles, pertaining to the Wild 90s: The ”Wild 90s” in Russia, as reflected in people’s memory and another of Karaulov’s articles that I translated, For Russia 90’s Were Worse Than WWII.

One highlight from the article below:

Liberal historian Boris Sokolov counted how many people died over the course of only two years – 1992 and 1993 – during the so-called “reforms” of Gaidar and Chubais. 150.000 more than during the executions of 1937-1938.

Andrey Karaulov was born in 1958 in town Korolev. Journalist and writer, winner of TEFI, Author of TV programmes “The Moment of Truth”, “Russian century”. Author of the documentary films “Unknown Putin”, “Khodorkovskij. Pipes(dead bodies)” (translator note: the inserted character creates the pun), “A Common Fascism”. Author of the books “Around Kremlin”, Russian hell”, and other.

Olga Shablinsky, “AIF”: “It looks as if a new war is coming! We’ve quarreled with almost the whole world,” – it’s a conversation that I recently overheard, expressing the mood of so many… And at the same timet Karaulov writes on his page on the social networks: “Why is Putin not afraid of isolation?” Andrey, are you not worried with these feeling of a coming war?

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Who and How Transferred Crimea into Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1952-1954

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Below our translation of a very informative article by Mihail Smirnov, published in Svobodnaja Mysl’ (Free Thought).

It is worth noting, that when the author points out the Russian roots in Crimea, he is most probably referring to the Scythians, who are just the same people as Rus, but going under a different name. See my summery of the documentary Yes, Scythians Are Us.

When reading the text below, note one historic peculiarity of USSR of that time. While 14 republics were almost always denoted by their national name – e.g Ukrainian SSR (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) – there was one exception. In USSR no one spoke of Russia, to the extent that the existence of Russia as a republic was largely forgotten. Instead the acronym RSFSR was always in use (decoded as Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic).

At the end of this post, after the main article, I present my translation of the closing speech by K.E Voroshilov from the stenography of the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the 19th of February 1954, which is an important historical evidence, setting the stage for the transfer of the peninsular and the expectations connected to the act.

It was not Hrushyov, who made the decision on the transfer of Crimea, but his rabid anti-Stalinism and voluntarism became the propelling power behind this whole undertaking. There were no objective reasons for this decision.

In the history of the presence of the Crimea within modern Ukraine, which, as it is now widely known, began with the official transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 and is associated with the name N.S.Hrushyov, you can set apart the pre-history, that is the actually history of decision-making on behalf of the Crimea, from hatching of the idea to the party-bureaucratic mechanism for its implementation.

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USA declassifies its plans to nuke 1/3 of planet Earth

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USA has newly declassified its plans to nuke 1/3 of planet Earth. Seemingly, there should have been a massive public outcry, but… these revelations were met by deafening MSM silence.

U.S. Cold War Nuclear Target Lists Declassified for First Time

Washington, D.C., December 22, 2015 – The SAC [Strategic Air Command] Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959, produced in June 1956 and published today for the first time by the National Security Archive www.nsarchive.org, provides the most comprehensive and detailed list of nuclear targets and target systems that has ever been declassified. As far as can be told, no comparable document has ever been declassified for any period of Cold War history.

The SAC study includes chilling details. According to its authors, their target priorities and nuclear bombing tactics would expose nearby civilians and “friendly forces and people” to high levels of deadly radioactive fallout. Moreover, the authors developed a plan for the “systematic destruction” of Soviet bloc urban-industrial targets that specifically and explicitly targeted “population” in all cities, including Beijing, Moscow, Leningrad, East Berlin, and Warsaw. Purposefully targeting civilian populations as such directly conflicted with the international norms of the day, which prohibited attacks on people per se (as opposed to military installations with civilians nearby).
…

Russian EDaily published information about this report in Russian, titled:

Man-eater in the role of a global leader: The plans of US nuclear war against USSR have been declassified

In summary: In the first stage of the planned American nuclear war, all Soviet and Chinese airports would have been turned into craters from powerful nuclear explosions. Among the relevant test, it is known that the detonation of a thermonuclear warhead munition with the equivalent of four megaton explosion creates a vast area of ​​devastation with diameter of almost 12 km and the heat wave is causing 3rd degree burns within a radius of 21 km. The second stage of the nuclear attack by the US assumed total ruthlessness in destroying with nuclear weapons most of the Soviet cities and key cities in China and Eastern Europe. Where US nuclear planners did not reckon with any international conventions and rules of warfare in the planning of mass destruction of civilians. It is obvious that the published document – this is the first documented evidence of the absolute cannibalistic plans for the destruction of millions of people by the American military. Previously, such plans of mass destruction of cities was known a priori. Now it has documentary evidence.

This is not the first times, when USA’s plans to annihilate USSR through the massive nuclear strikes becomes known. Here is an article from 2012:

Jimmy Carter’s Controversial Nuclear Targeting Directive PD-59 Declassified

What can I say? Those brave souls, who assisted USSR in getting a nuclear bomb in the nick of time, are true heroes, who saved hundreds of millions of lives! What Hitler did during WWII, killing 27 million people in USSR alone, is a child’s play, compared to USA’s plans…

The Road to Victory – My Grand-Uncle’s Path from Moscow to Berlin

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This article, first published on the 22nd of June 2015 at 04:00 in the morning, is a living, often-updated, tribute to my grand-uncle, who fought that war from the very first days and until the victorious end. Moreover, it’s a tribute to all 27 million Soviet citizens, who perished in that war, and tens of millions more, who suffered hardships and losses to bring about the Victory. It is therefore, when the Western “leaders” refused to attend the Victory parade in Moscow on the 9th of May 2015, they effectively did a dance of glee on the bones of those 27 million perished people, and were perceived by all Russians (and here I use “Russian” in a broad sense, encompassing all 200+ nationalities that live in the Russian Federation, all the normal people of the former USSR, and all the foreigners, who sympathise with Russia) as modern-time Western heirs to Nazism. I previously translated an article, written by the President of the RF, V.V.Putin, describing his family’s struggle in the blockaded Leningrad. In this article here, I will touch upon my own family’s history.

In Memory of Georgy
In 2015 the Russian Ministry of Defence launched a new web-site, consolidating, digitalising and geo-tagging all the newly-declassified information about those Soviet citizens, who fought (and died) in WWII, in the Great Patriotic War. The site is aptly called People’s Memory. A good English language article about it can be found at Russia Beyond the Headlines:

The new People’s Memory website, launched by the Russian Defence Ministry, is the largest of its kind in the world. The site, dedicated to those who served on the Eastern Front in World War II, allows users to locate the resting places of soldiers whose burial sites have remained unknown to their relatives until now, as well as acquire knowledge about their military careers.

Knowing my grand-uncle’s name, family name and patronymic, as well as his year of birth, I managed to locate him, and what I learnt, confirmed those disjointed memories I had of him from my childhood. I vaguely remember his face, and more his blazer, covered in orders and medals. He used to visit us in Moscow between 23rd of February and the 10th of May, celebrating Victory Day and meeting with the ever-thinning numbers of his brothers-in-arms. From the stories, re-told by my mother, I knew that he fought in the War as part of a tank division. That he was at one point surrounded, cut off from the main force for several months. That for some time he was presumed dead, until their company managed to reunite with the main force. That at another point he received a heavy concussion, but returned into the ranks. And that he finished the War in Berlin. But not much more. People’s Memory allowed me to go deeper and see his path and the deeds that lead to the awards.

There is memorial public initiative in Russia, The Immortal Legion, where people add photos and what information they remember of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, lest it is forgotten. I have enlisted Grand-Uncle Georji into the legion, publishing what I found here at the authentic Immortal Legion’s official site.

Moiseev Georgy Mihajlovich, born on November 11th, 1920 in Altai Krai in Siberia. At the age of 18, he was conscripted to the regular service as a tank mechanic in October of 1939. The regular service lasted at that time for 2 years, and in 1941 he would have been demobilised. But so came the War. He first became demobilised from the active army 23.11.1946. This date, over a year after the end of WWII in the European direction, makes me think if grand-uncle Georgy might have been deployed to China to liberate it from the Japanese occupation. However, I do not have any documentary evidence for that, besides this strangely late date.
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And what about the restoration of the territorial integrity of Russia..?

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A few days ago, after having been insultingly absent from the memorial Parade in Moscow commemorating the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism, Frau Merkel again started saying something about restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

With this in mind, I want to address in this article a large pink trumpeting elephant in the room, that all but a few Western politicians are studiously ignoring:

What about the restoration of the territorial integrity of Russia?

Ron Paul noticed in one of his articles that whenever forces are set in motion to split off a bit of Russia, these forces are hailed as democratic (like it happened in the 90’s with NATO-armed Islamic terrorist insurgency in Chechen Republic), and conversely, whenever peoples try to join Russia, they get vilified and demonised. As it happened with 2.4 million Crimeans, who for their democratic choice were put under sanctions, disconnected from international payment systems, and Apple and Google closed accounts of those that have some on-line data or development.

Over the last century, Russia’s territorial integrity was violated both illegally and illegitimately on many occasions – in the North, West and South of Russia. In this article I touch upon only three cases pertaining the state, still known today as Ukraine.

In 1917 a violent coup d’etat happened in Russia. It carried many of the characteristics of what later became known as “colour revolutions” – a small minority group, financed largely from the West, carried out a “red” revolution. As the result of this coup Russia became fragmented, large chunks of it being split off. Some, like Finland and Latvia had only lose affinity to Russia (and yet, Finland chose a Russian navy flag from the time of Peter the Great as a template for their own national flag). Other, like Georgia, joined Russia of their own accord to protect themselves and enjoyed centuries of such protection, while remaining largely self-governed. And then there were integral parts of Russia, part of its heartland – Belorussia, Malorossia, Novorossia, Crimea.

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Victory Day – 70 Years’ Anniversary of the defeat of Nazism in Germany.

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No one’s Forgotten
Nothing’s Forgotten

Today marks the 70th Anniversary of the Victory in WWII and Great Patriotic War.
Much can be said commemorating the sacrifice of the 27 million Soviet citizens, who lost their lives on the way to victory. But the best tribute to it is in the words and the imagery of the following immortal song of Lev Leshenko – Victory Day – performed by Iosif Kobzon (who is, incidentally, under the EU and US sanctions for his courageous and outspoken defence democracy, human rights and the right of peoples for self-determination).


Victory Day!

Victory Day how far away it was from us,
As a smouldering piece of coal in an extinguished fire.
There were miles, burnt and dusty, –
We hastened this day however we could.

This Victory Day
Has become permeated with the smell of gunpowder,
It is a celebration
With greying hair on one’s temples.
It is a joy
With the tears in one’s eyes.
Victory Day!
Victory Day!
Victory Day!

Days and nights in front of the hearth furnaces
Our Motherland didn’t shut her eyes.
Days and nights conducting a difficult battle –
We hastened this day however we could.

This Victory Day
Has become permeated with the smell of gunpowder,
It is a celebration
With greying hair on one’s temples.
It is a joy
With the tears in one’s eyes.
Victory Day!
Victory Day!
Victory Day!

Hello, mama, not all of us returned…
Would be nice to run barefoot on dew!
Half of Europe have we walked, half the Earth –
We hastened this day however we could.

This Victory Day
Has become permeated with the smell of gunpowder,
It is a celebration
With greying hair on one’s temples.
It is a joy
With the tears in one’s eyes.
Victory Day!
Victory Day!
Victory Day!

It is a slap in the face of those 27 million perished Soviet citizens, that some of the Western “leaders” decided to boycott the memorial parade in Moscow on May the 9th 2015. This especially shames Angela Merkel of Germany. This denial to commemorate the defeat of Nazism unpleasantly signals that the ugly head of Nazism is again rearing over Europe and USA. I just hope that this attitude is not representative for the people that those “leaders” are representing.

“Life is such a simple, yet cruel thing” – recollection of the Great Patriotic War written by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin

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This recollection of the War was written by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and published in Russian Pioneer on the 30th of April 2015. Soviet Union lost 27 million people in that War, and almost every single family has a recollection of losses and hardships connected with it. And the family of the President of RF is no exception. Read on my unofficial translation from Russian below…

Frankly, father did not like even to touch the subject. Rather, it was like this: when adults were talking to each other and remembering something, I was just around. All the information about the war, about what happened with my family, came to me from those conversations between the adults. But sometimes they addressed me directly.

Father served in Sevastopol, in the detachment of submarines – he was a sailor. He was drafted in 1939. And then, after returning from service, he just worked at a factory, and they lived with my mother in Peterhof. I think they even built some house there.

He was working at a military enterprise when the war started, giving the so-called “reservation” that exempts one from conscription. But he wrote an application to join the party, and then another application – that he wants to go to the front. He was dispatched to the subversive detachment of the NKVD. It was a small detachment. He said that there were 28 people in it, and they were deployed into the near rear for carrying out acts of sabotage. The undermining of bridges, railway tracks… But they were almost immediately ambushed. Someone betrayed them. They came to a village, and then went out, and when after a while they returned, the Nazis were already waiting for them there. They were chased through the woods, and he survived, because he climbed into a swamp, and spent a few hours in that swamp, breathing through a reed. This I remember already from his own story. And he said that, while sitting in the swamp and breathing through the reed, he heard how the German soldiers were passing nearby, just a few steps away from him, how the dogs were yapping…

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