The hidden casualties of War… Or Why Russia is Doomed.

In German these are not 3 G’s … Too bad, that would give the infamous 3G rule (Which again only Germans know) a completely new meaning….

In Munich (Bavaria), the real Munich people also have a spoken GGG, which makes it clear to the other person – what kind of rubbish you are telling me again ;-)

Don’t forget about cheap IKEA furniture!

It is not fake.

The cetral and Western parts of Ukraine had a different history to the more northern Rus tribes. They were conquered by the Mongols and were subject to them, then to Tatars. They develop ways to survive agains overwhelming force – byt adapting.

The Northern tribes were never trully conquered to they retained their “pride” historically. This was why the Northern tribes centered around Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod were the ones who eventually united all the tribes of the Rus to get rid of the Mongols, Tatars and the Ottomans eventually.

The “Malorussians” now “Ukrainians” never really had a chance to recover from the destruction of the Mongol invasions to their psyche. Right after came the Poles and Lithuanians, then the Austrians, etc. etc. They are basically a “beaten people” in their psyche and for this reason they always look to a “protector” instead of thinking for themselves. This comes from a lack of self-worth deep within, so trying to “prove” to oneselves by proving (serving) someone seen as “senior”.

All that would not be a problem. The core problem is that the southern and eastern areas of Ukraine were rules byt the Tatars and Ottomas for too long they have pretty much killed all “agricultural” peoples of the land by the time these territories were won by Imperial Russian in wars. When these areas were to be re-populated, they were mostly repopulated by “Velikorussinas” from the northern, inhospitable, places and only partially by Malorussians/Ukrainians who lived on pretty fertile lands so had little incentive to move.

This means there is a true and unbridgeable divide in Ukraine that is not as much ethnical as it is represented by the conflicting ethoses of the societies living alingside. The “Ukrainians” are more along the Southern countries – not used to the hardships so much and more temperamental – while the “Novorussians” are more along the Northern nations – hard working and more systemic/risk-averse. This even shows in wars. The “Southerners/Ukrainians” are easier to get agitated and to give the first blow in a fight. The “Northerners/Novorussians” are more slow to get going into a conflict, but once going, become a very determined force.
Here the problem of the Ukrainians is they have just the first blow. If it works, they win. If it does not, they tend to lose. In a protracted conflict they are worse warriors because they fight emotion-first, while the Novorussians firght brain-first. A classic Hot/Cool heads conflict. Ukrainians being more “likable”, fighting by heart, but the Novorussians being more successful.

This is a divide which would be OK inside a big country as was the Russian empire. But something that is basically unworkable in the context of a 50:50 (or 60:40 after 2014) divided country like Ukraine today – and was so effectively since the 1920s.

The only solution is to divide the governance sufficiently so the conflicting ethoses can make their own choices with only a few common items.
Here a federation would be the optimal setup, with each region of Ukraine given its own legislature and its own government. The central gov in Kiev responsible for the monetary policy plus some other details. That would most likely work and is likely the only way Ukraine can be preserved as a state in, mostly, its current borders. Else it is bound to dissolve into at leaset three, but possibly four separate entities. Crimea, LNR and DNR exluded from that count.

News from Veterans Today should be taken with a bucket of salt, a case of tequila and a bushel of limes.

“Ukraine is a completely and utterly fake nation. ”

Maybe as a *nation* Ukraine is fake, but I don’t think the Ukraine is fake as a distinct culture, or subculture centered in a certain region. That is my takeaway from the figure of Gogol. The documentary that I linked above makes some observations on the Ukrainian language, in which both Gogol and his father were fluent (as well as Russian). The attempt to exaggerate the differences between Ukrainian and Russian for political nationalist purposes doesn’t mean that there are no differences.

It would be interesting to get some perspective on the level of actual differences between Russian and Ukrainian—that is, similar to the level of difference between Russian and other Slavic languages. Or between, say, Spanish as spoken in Spain and the Spanish of Latin America. Or between Hochdeutsch and Bavarian or Austrian dialects (incomprehensible!). French as spoken in Paris and in other parts of France, or Quebec, or francophone countries in Africa, etc.

It is not only “dialects” whose speakers have been exercised to keep them separate from outside influences, such as creating “home-grown” words instead of borrowing (“fernsehen” instead of television, etc.). I think the French have done this a lot.

My point is that if this attempt is somewhat artificial and “top-down,” it has been practiced widely an not only by the supposed “dialect speakers.”

So, it seems to me that there is a genuine Ukrainian culture, but a lot of artificial means have been used to make sure differences are exaggerated, maintained, and reinforced via threats and pressure and has become the carrier for a lot of nasty retrogressive ideas such as racist empowerment against Russians.

It will take a thorough-going reeducation program to retain actual Ukrainian culture but clear out the obnoxious nazification. Unfortunately (as I suggested on on an earlier thread) I think some element of shame will have to be deployed—some kind of cultural revolution.

But it certainly can be done. Look how quickly a saturation propaganda campaign has “turned” the brains of all of the “progressive” liberals in the West.