Welcome to the New, Improved, Two Party System

If you ever had any questions regarding Holodomor or the cultural heritage of Ukraine (and why there is no Ukrainian literature??!! why, oh why!?) - if you don't listen to any other lecture, listen to this one.

If you ever dare to question the 1930's, the reality of Soviet Union killing off Ukrainian farmers without batting an eye, if you ask "but where are the documents" or any other shit like this, and you dare to do this without listening to Timothy Snyder, I hope you choke on your own words.

If you watch this and still question said reality, you are not worth the oxygen needed to argue with you.

also lol @ considering the early ussr "efficient." having one guy in charge does not make things efficient, sorry to say. totalitarianism is not a fix for bureaucratic nonsense!

like, one of the central fantasies of authoritarianism or having a central strongman is that things will Get Done Efficiently, that the government will be capable of taking immediate and drastic action - and no! bureaucracy is a product of a large-scale government made up of multiple people, not of democracy. one guy cannot make every decision that needs to be made and they CANNOT oversee every department.

the exception to this is usually wartime, but even liberal democracies take authoritarian control during wartime.

this is not the defense of the nkvd you think it is

as bad as the dhs may be I’m pretty sure it’s never been run by Lavrenti fucking Beria

if lavrenti beria were in charge of DHS we would already have deported 40% of texas to alaska

hey don’t make him sounds based now

trump wishes he had ethnic deportations lawrence in his cabinet

The funny thing is that I read the first chapter or so of Fitzpatrick’s Everyday Stalinism, but put it down because the tone reminded me so much of a 19th century Englishman writing about barbarous natives. I realize this is like the opposite of Fitzpatrick’s reputation.

Basically, while yes the Soviet Union was economically left-wing, it was also politically authoritarian (elections in which your vote wasn't private and you could only vote for candidates approved by the Communist party, use of military force to suppress dissent and protests, political dissidents being sent to work camps, free speech being suppressed and media being censored) and socially conservative (propaganda that equated homosexuality with fascism, indigenous people protecting their land slandered as "kulaks", disabilities being highly stigmatised because they impaired your ability to work, abortion also being stigmatised despite being legal, cultural and religious minorities being suppressed, widespread antisemitism)

And frankly, when it comes to those three axes, where you stand on the economic one is the least important

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

— Timothy Snyder, "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin"

It's a potem "Czerwona zaraza" by Józef Szczepański. This Home Army soldier and a poet was generally the author of humorous, optimistic song lyrics, so this text stands in stark contrast with his usual works - quite significantly so.

A very rough and not at all poetic translation of the poem, just to give you the idea how bitter and conflicted this is:

Józef Szczepański „Red Blight”

We await you, red blight, To save us from black death, First you tore our country apart Now to be a saviour welcomed with disgust.

We await you, might of the crowd dehumanized by your rulers' whip we await you to crush us like a wave with your boot and your slogan

We await you, our eternal enemy, bloody murderer of our countless brothers, we await you not to make you pay, but to welcome you with bread in our hands

If you ever knew, hateful saviour, How we wish you death in our gratitude And how we clench our helpless hands Asking you for help, insidious torturer

If you ever knew, you who executed our granfathers, Grim legend of Syberian prisons, how your mercy will be cursed By all Slavs, your brothers

If you knew how horribly does it pain Us, children of the Great, the Independent, the Saint [Poland] To be chained by your accursed mercy Stinking of centennial slavery

Your army, triumphant, red, Lay before the fiery glows of the burning Warsaw And feeds its rotten soul upon the torment of reckless few, dying among the ruins

A month has passed since the Uprising began and you delude us with your thundering guns knowing how anguished we'll be to know we were deceived again

We await you - not for us, soldiers, but for our wounded - we have thousands and for the children, and for nursing mothers cowering in blighted basements

We await you, as you delay again and again, You fear us, and we know it You are lying in wait near Warsaw And you wait us all to die

Doing nothing. You've got a choice You can help us - save us all or hold up and leave us for dead Death is not frightening - we're masters of dying

But know this! From our grave New, victorious Poland will be born And you will not walk on this land Red lord of beastly might

many thanks to my son Karol who helped me with this quick translation.

Not long ago I finished reading @TimothyDSnyder's book "Bloodlands. Europe between Hitler and Stalin".

I wanted to share some quotes from the chapter on the Holodomor that struck me personally the most. It is difficult to imagine what was happening then. A small but heavy thread:

— From “Executed Jews” in People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn

— Timothy Snyder, "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin"

"The soviet union wasnt that bad, youre just poisoned by american propaganda" BRO THERE WERE GULAGS

Ah yes, stalin killed 9 million people, the official response to political opposition was an ice pick to the brain stem, an entire country was starved by force with the explicit intent of genocide-as-punishment, they did forced imperialism, had a direct hand in the establishment of north korea, and the soviets took the flag in berlin because they originally allied with nazi germany in WW2 until hitler betrayed them and the allies let them have their revenge. But yeah the USSR was a beacon of a communist utopia and everything bad ever said about them is just fake news because if america was bad in the cold war surely the soviet union had to be good

Congratulations everyone this is my first ever post about a political opinion based on historical events that got to 400 notes without someone calling me a fascist and threatening to kill me <3

— Timothy Snyder, "Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin"

Trans flag + sickle&hammer in bio is such a rabid combination. Not only because of completely irrational denial of the fact that they are advocating for the regime that would have had them killed/institutionalised for "perversion"; but also because 10 times out of 10 they are spreading russian propaganda, thus giving a helping hand to the movement that is actively trying to eradicate people like them today.

And it would have been just a sad but funny example of human idiocy, if they weren't tolerated and listened to as a valid source of information.

It's almost as if trans socialists wanted a symbol that showed how they're both trans and socialist . . .

Jeez, I wonder what symbol has been used for the better part of a century and a half by nearly every major socialist organisation globally to portray socialist ideologies?

Y'all really don't understand that to several million people in more than half a dozen countries where the symbol was held and born it represents a regime that did unspeakable harm. Socialism doesn't need to keep riding the USSRs coatails of blood. Pretending the symbol is somehow disconnected from USSR is disingenuous. Like sometimes symbols become so drenched in harm you have to let them go or be very careful how you use them. The swastika has a long history before the Nazis and is still used today, but you don't just put a swastika in your bio then constantly attack a certain group of people who suffered under that symbol then claim it's just a symbol that doesn't mean Nazis.

When those of us from the places where that symbol meant terror, death and suffering, see that symbol the ideology we envision isn't some detached socialist ideal removed from the reality of USSR.

Or that many of these groups who do use it openly promote and praise the USSR more often than the criticise it. So let's not act like it's a blank slate of "socialism" because it isn't.

Hell, half the shit we have to hear is about runic symbols that apparently mean someone is a Nazi, regardless of how old those symbols are or how varied their use may have been. Because there's something to that and we understand this.

The problem is that you lot have decided that the victims of the USSR, which number in the millions and range in origin and ethnicity, are not ones you will recognize. That they all deserved it somehow or whatever makes it feel ok that they suffered for the great experiment id communism (tm). So you don't see the problem of using a symbol that very much does stand not for the theoretical ideology of socialism but a very specific enactment of the idea, one that was arguably a failure and a nightmare.

It's like the way words become slurs and you don't get to tell the target of those slurs that you are going to keep using the word because you don't find its meaning offensive. It's just you don't think our history and experiences matter enough to actually hear that, don't respect us enough as people to try to understand that yeah, wearing that symbol, for an eastern European, or a Crimean Tatars or a Georgian or a Chechen or a Qazaq, or a Fin may be kind of offensive and weird when coupled with claims about being liberal (not liberal with an L as in "I'm a liberal" but simply as opposed to conservative") or for social justice.

So if any of you actual want to build international solidarity with the left and socialists outside of your bubble, you will need to learn this or just admit you're in it for identity making and cosplay not any actual change action.

Lots of problems, zero solutions, thanks.

"All communists are nazis" give me a break.

I'm pretty sure America has killed more people internationally than the entire history of communism but tell me again how they're "the good guys" of history, I'm sure that makes sense. With your logic we should ban the US flag because it has no other meaning to the world other than death.

Oh right! You don't care about middle Eastern lives and are just using western imperialism as a framework from which to claim we can't use a symbol. Also, calling communism "the great experiment", do you want to sound like a Liberal or what?

Cause you're not a socialist if you use these talking points. Chernobyl was awful but let's forget three mile island I guess.

Just love it how you can easily pick aside between western and communist ideologies without questioning the side you've chosen.

Also, the swastika is still used by Finnish airforce, but yknow we can't have nuanced discussion about symbols and their meanings because someone can't deal with fact every country in the 20th century has a bloody history of rapid change and industrialisation. But sure, it was communism that killed them, cause it was communism killing them before the revolution as well I guess . . .

When the symbol pre-dates the "atrocities" (which in the west we'd call "collateral damage" since capitalism kills millions every year in poverty but it just doesn't get reported on that Britain caused a famine.

Look my point is, if you're not using the hammer n sickle, what are you using? What logo are you organising under? Or do you suggest we have none, and just don't organise?

You want "solidarity" but you also want to be worshipped for being the "good socialist" whilst we're all here for the looks? Get bent.

You can acknowledge a system had flaws jut that's why it changes because the core principles of socialism are worth fighting for. There are so many factors that went into those deaths that blaming it all on ideology is just naive.

Fascism has no core belief worth fighting for, that's the difference. And Stalin was a fascist who used communist symbolism to push a fascist agenda, like how China uses communist symbolism today despite being a capitalist hellhole.

But no, you shout at other leftist online and then call for "solidarity". If you knew anything about socialism, you'd know we don't all agree but that doesn't mean we can't organise, I just wanna know what banner you want us organising under? Since you provided no alternative ideas as to a solution, you just wanted to blame me for atrocities I had no hand in and I'm using a symbol that ALL socialists have used for over a century.

Are you gonna tell a Hindu to never wear a swastika or are you gonna show your ass on that political symbolism discussion as well?

I didn't call all communists Nazis. I didn't make any excuses for America. I didn't make most of the point you think you're responding to.

Literally where did I make any claims America is good/better? Or suggest capitalism is the way to go? I didn't say Hindus and Buddhists can't use those symbols, in fact I said they can but context and nuance matters.

Also don't see how I'm suddenly the arbiter of all socialists and need to make a new symbol simply because I explained why your dismissal of legitimate grievances wasn't justified by your argument. It's absurd, no matter what I suggest it's not like you're going to take it up or convince others.

But if you want solutions and you lack your own imagination... There actually are others

Rose and fist are common among many parties in different countries. These are just a sample that feature common images used frequently.

These are more specific

Ukrainian socialist party uses this

I'm sorry, but the only strawmen here are ones you created.

Have a nice day I guess.

@bramblefrump the tursaansydän “swastika” isn’t used by Finnish air force anymore. I wonder can you discuss any political topic without mentioning america? I know you are all about centering america so it’s very tempting but it’s making these discussions quite hard. In many eastern european countries hammer and sickle symbolize one period in Russian imperialism. Two headed eagle and currently the Z are also these type of symbols. So if we see someone for example with a trans flag + hammer sickle, we can either assume they are american/western and/or perhaps ignorant, maybe even self hating. I know there’s usamericans who say they are proud americans&leninist&anti-imperialists etc in the same breath but it makes little sense to me personally. good for them i guess. as a trans person i’m not sure these people care about our safety.

Much of a Muchness Tuesday! I didn't mean to post a chapter on American election night, but, y'know, long chapter, late update.

The art: a frame from the wonderful short film Louise, which is more or less an adaptation of/response to Degas and Halévy (from my last post).

More frames under the cut, because this film is exactly how I imagined the world of this fic, and Louise does look how I imagine Nikoleta looking:

fucking hilarious how 90% of the time the reevaluations of soviet stuff is "previously we assumed that the fluctuates in behavior were due to changes in the orders from above, but now it becomes clear that nobody knew what they were fucking doing and everyone was arguing constantly"

i think artyom sergeyev looking at the train car with a plane engine strapped to it that for some reason crashed and killed his father and then saying "this must be TROTSKY'S fault!" sums up the situation in with regard to the USSR in the 20s and 30s.