Myths about Russians

Hi guys, I am PhD in history, ask me questions about Russia and our history. I've seen weird myths about Russian history multiple times on Sup Forums and would like to cease it.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Mendeleev
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Lomonosov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Lobachevsky
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Pirogov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Russian_scientists
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

Why did you betray us in 1885 and started supporting the serbshits?

Have you a barrel face ?

Why did you shoot down our passenger plane recently?

Are Russians actually vikings in denial?

Have you upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile yet? ;)

have Russians ever contributed anything of value to this world or only held civilized people back through the ages?

Why did the Red Army rape so many women at the end of world war 2?

How was life in USSR after ww2 under the rule of Stalin?
Why do russians still like Stalin?

Liberation when?

No.
Those were not we. It was (likely) a militia group which wad provided with ground-air rockets. Was a bad idea to give such a serious weapon to monkeys.

Well, Russian historiography looks different at it. Russia took away Balkans from Ottoman Empire to make them our sphere of influence. However, there was no point for a new states to be the allies with a weak state which was half-colony itself i.e. Russian Empire so they all started trying to find allies in the West. Bulgaria was not the exclusion. Serbs were prone the most to be allies of Russia because they had direct conflict with Austro-Hungary, and had religious conflicts with other south Slavs so they had to choose an ally who had bad relationships with Austro-Hungary and had big orthodox population to use it as a source of support for "orthodox brothers" so Russian Empire was the best choice for them.

No, Viking influence on Russian history and culture was minimal. Few first Russian princes (I would better say king, but word Knyaz' traditionally translated as Prince to English) were of Viking culture but they assimilated very fast, leaving us only the word "Rus". They didn't contribute to our culture a lot. We also had some trade interaction with Vikings on a Baltic-Black Sea trade route, but we interacted there with almost everyone, from Greeks and Arabs to Vikings and other Germanics.
No.
Well, it's a complicated question. Almost any nation of this planet has contributed to the world cultural and scientific heritage. Russian contributions are periodic table of elements, we were one of the first inventors of radio, soviet science contributed ton of things from electrochemical and electrocorrosional methods of machining to first space flight and so. Russian contributions to world literature and music are pretty big too. But actually there are maybe only few Papua New Guinea tribes and so who have contributed almost nothing.
People wanted revenge. Germans genocided Russians, burned villages, killed people massively, enslaved them. We have lost 27 millions so our soldiers wanted revenge.
Life under Stalin was different. Quality of life during his rule increased drastically, there was created great industry, built thousands of new cities, medicine brought to villages, as well as mechanical labour. People moved to cities massively and country gradually was becoming more and more urbanized. Stalin era was time when our country was built in it's contemporary state. We also won WWII and obtained great influence, becoming the world superpower.
That all has a reverse side though. During Stalin rule 750 000 of people were convinced to death penalty and 3-10 millions (there are different opinions) were in GULAG camps. Many of them were there because of political reasons and died innocently.

>During Stalin rule 750 000 of people were convinced to death penalty and 3-10 millions (there are different opinions) were in GULAG camps. Many of them were there because of political reasons and died innocently.

Are modern russians aware of this or they think that it's just "western propaganda"?

>Why do russians still like Stalin?
Most of population were not affected by mass repressions. There were 750 000 death penalty condemnations while the whole population on Soviet Union was 250 million.
Also repressions held back many positive issues. For example, science was holding back by infighting of scientists who were writing denunciations on each other so some scientists were repressed.

It's told in schools and everyone knows it but most of people think it was price for great advancements made through Stalin rule.

Is it true that the Netherlands and Russia had a very warm relationship under Czar Peter?

A common folklore here is that the Russian flag is even derived from the Dutch flag. Do you think that's actually true?

the dutch flag is just a flipped french flag you faggot

The Dutch flag is older.

What do you think Russia would look like if the White Guard had won?

>Is it true that the Netherlands and Russia had a very warm relationship under Czar Peter?
It's absolutely true and we have been mostly in good relationships since the Petr. Netherlands were one of the main Russian trade partners before 2014.
Petr was acquainted with European culture because hanging out in his youth in a designated foreigner district of Moscow. There were many netherlanders so he admired Europe and Netherlands especially. He ventured so called "Great Embassy" to Europe to start trade and relationships with Europeans and the Netherlands were the place he has spent most of his time in Europe.
>Russian flag is even derived from the Dutch flag
It's a popular folklore here too but in reality it's difficult to trace the origin of our flag. You could have noticed that France and USA have the same set of colours. I think it's just a good colour combination which would be seen well from a distance. We had used flags only in a trade fleet first, it became our national flag later.
Also our flag is bit controversial in modern Russian discourse, I can elaborate it if you are interested in it.

Why ukranians are pretending as if they aren't Russians?

Well, I think we would be fascist state then. Liberals and lefts were a minority among the whites. Most of them were nationalists, and many expressed ideas similar to fascism (Kolchak, for example, or Cossack leaders like Krasnov who fought for Germany in WWII later). That hypothetical regime would be overthrown by another revolution sooner or later because whites (except Vrangel' maybe) were totally unable to solve problems that had lead to revolution before, like agrarian question, national question, great inequality, total illiteracy, Indian tier quality of life and so.

also do white Russians pretend not to be Russian or do they embrace it?

White Russian is "Rusky" in our language t b h.

I don't want to start hohlosrach but Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians were gradually dividing from each other since 13th century and became different nations somewhat in 16-17 centuries. There was division on Russian and Western Russian language first and the latter evolved to Ukrainian and Belorussian up to 17 century. All that happened because they were conquered by Poland and Lithuania and thus were isolated from Russians.

Did the sovjet state fix all of those problems? You don't think a fascist Russia would have been able to bring more wealth to the people due to increasing industrialization?
And England had many of the problems you mentioned as well, but got through all of it with an almost unscathed nobility. What do you think are the most important differences that made this happen?

What do you wish Russia had done differently (ever)?
Bonus points if is realistic for the Russia of that time to have done so.

Do you consider Russian to be truly European?

>And England had many of the problems you mentioned as well
England had the Magna Carta, which limited the king's power. Russia King had total power, or at least I think. Russian guy, is this correct?

>white Russians
It's not a translated term, say Belorus. Belorussian nationalism is basically dead. There are few nationalists and liberals opposing Lukashenko who are very pro-European, anti-Russian and see themselves as successors of Great Princedom of Lithuania. They are not supported by population and Belorussia is one of the most pro-Soviet ex-Soviet republics.
He is talking about Belorussians, they are not called russkiy.

Hohols determine their nationality very tricky. When it is profitable they call themselves U-crane-ians or Russians, depends on situation.

>say Belorus
make me

also does the existence of white Russians implicitly confirm that Russians are in fact not white?

England had those problems, but they were solved, or least tempered, before 1900, due to ever growing worker strikes and tensions.

As aussie said, the King was limited in his powers in England while the russian Tsar had absolute power, with serfdom still being a thing in Russia.

Stupid English language has no difference between words "rosiyanin" and "rusky". So Russian something like American in USA

Why is Russia having the ideology that the whole world is against them while the small neighbouring countries just want to be left in peace.

And you didn't think they would have reacted? Not that I asked "what if the whites had won", not "what if the revolution never happened".
They'd have had a large incentive to change some things around there.

Serfdom was abolished 50 years before the revolution

I stand corrected

So Balts go on "Russia pay moniz for muh soviet occupation" because they want to be left alone?

Just historical tendency. How you realize giant state between Europe and Asia, and nobody would want to conquire that? Russia still exists because it was in everlasting war.

Someone else asked about why Russians like Stalin, I want to ask your opinion on him. As my limited reading to Russian History; he fucked up the economy, commited massacres all around USSR, fucked up demographics highly, population of USSR countries would be much higher if not for him. Also he created arbitrary borders for all countries, which created a problem for ALL the communist countries.

You do realize that if it wasnt for soviet occupation the Baltics would be Finland tier now.

Why Russian politics finance right wing parties to keep influence? Why russian financed companies only steal? Why do Russians have to make it so hard for ex commie countries to get rid of them and to remember them with good (like it would be here) but have to force a long and painful influence removal which makes the majority of the population starts to hate them?

>Did the sovjet state fix all of those problems
Yes, soviet state fixed all of them one way or another.
>You don't think a fascist Russia would have been able to bring more wealth to the people due to increasing industrialization
No, because basic political program of whites was "undivided Russia" so nationalism would have been oppressing non Russians which would cause great tensions in a state where only 43% of population were Russians. They also gave land back to landlords which caused mass hatred of peasants. They would make more and more peasant rebellions, killing landlords, causing great tensions. They also were pro-European and would give industry back to western capitalists making Russia half colony again.
>And England had many of the problems you mentioned as well
It had them during few centuries and they were solved gradually through the course of establishing capitalism. We had to solve them in 20-30 years. They also had pretty different set of problems. For example, they never had their industry controlled by the foreign states.
>What do you wish Russia had done differently (ever)?
Accept another religion, Catholicism or at least Islam to be a part of bigger cultural area than Byzantium and have a science and technology intercourses more intensive. Byzantium was too small and transformed into Ottoman Empire soon. I also would like Petr the Great to do westernization different way: he copied cultural issues, changing little in the basis.
>Do you consider Russian to be truly European?
No, Russia is not European because we had different course of history. Calling anything "European" is cultural issue; basis of culture are geographical and economic realities of the place. Our nature differs from European, our feudalism was different, our slavery was too, it all evolved in another time. We have never had urban freedoms or special urban culture with corporations and guilds that gave out the capitalism in the end, for example.

>Why is Russia having the ideology that the whole world is against them while the small neighbouring countries just want to be left in peace.
>Building rockets arround Russia, wanting peace.

I don't give a fuck what you easterlings are up to, but if America started paying states to start building rockets around Austria, the last thing I would think of, is "they want peace".

And modern Russia is the only responsible party?
It's like being in a bus crash and then suing the guy two seats to the left.

Is it true that there were people who lived through the soviet era without knowing the revolution had happened because they were so isolated?

Urban myth

Yeah, fucking commies came into Baltics, built them shcools, houses and factories, so they cannot become second Finland rrrrrrrrr

>No, Russia is not European because we had different course of history. Calling anything "European" is cultural issue; basis of culture are geographical and economic realities of the place. Our nature differs from European, our feudalism was different, our slavery was too, it all evolved in another time. We have never had urban freedoms or special urban culture with corporations and guilds that gave out the capitalism in the end, for example.
Commie pls

Why Russians love Putin so much?

Yeah. Because we totally couldn't build anything ourselves.

>Why Russians love Putin so much?
Only bidlo and oldsters love him. But mostly this is just propaganda and results cheating.

No one cant openly opposite Putin in Russia, we are stuck with him until his death or BIG revolution.

May be because he is "best of all evils" for Russia

Why didn't the soviets continue the war with Finland? Saving face on the international stage?

Answer me Russian

Guess

My father called his friend 'Soren(Soviet Union)' in junior high just because her face was big.

Karelia is enough for booffer zone.

>bidlo
which are 85% of russian people

What is bidlo?

I guess it's also a geographical issue. Saint-Petersburg is definitely European, but what about the great masses living around Moscow, Kazan, Irkutsk etc. ? They are plain Russian, without the same western inflence as found in St. Peter.

What are your opinions on Holodomor?

Who did Katyn massacre?

Russians are very diverse, we have all kinds of appearances, from chinese-tier asian to nordics-tier white. Our nation is mixed to a very high grade with all the peoples of Russia and Russia is a very multinational state. "White Russians" are called belorus and they are called like that because white colour of their national suit.
It was unlimited, but that was not a real problem. World have ton of examples of states which had unlimited king power and became successful (France for example). The main reason are shitty geography and economical retardness caused by it as well as isolation from world centres of thought.
Because all the post-soviet states are ruled by clans of oligarchs and it's very beneficial for them to force nationalism to control population. Also we have many real enemies.
I have answered already, read the first posts.
It's very controversial. Finland had a lot of industry and was rich in Russian Empire already while Baltics were not. In 1917-1939 Finland performed successfully developing their economy while Baltics were a meme states.
>Why Russian politics finance right wing parties to keep influence?
Same reason why USSR financed left wing parties. Russia is a very right wing state now and government supports their ideological friends, especially if they would say that Europe is decaying on Russian TV and promote Russian agenda.
>Why russian financed companies only steal
Again, Russia is a classical right wing state with rule of oligarchy and authorities melted together. Such states always suffer extreme corruption.
>Why do Russians have to make it so hard for ex commie countries to get rid of them
Russia doesn't want to lose influence, it's obvious.

Bydlo
Originally this word came from Russia. This term is used to describe lowest layers of society - non-educated factory workers, street gangsters, poor family children etc. Bydlo is mostly used for agressive and unclever people.
This word can be related to the term "redneck".

>bidlo
which are 85% people
fixed.

>They are plain Russian, without the same western inflence as found in St. Peter.
What? Do you realy think that St. Petersburgins are different from another russians? They just a bit arrogant, otherwise they are not different. Just bidlo like everywhere else.

>Holodomor
Just part of Ukranian propoganda. Nobody starved them to death. There was also Povolzhee starvation. But nobody tells about it.
>Who did Katyn massacre?
commies of course

But it could much easier keep influence here if itn just fucks off, people here like Russia since ottoman liberation, what is happening now is just that this turns from like to hate because the parties financed from you a literally mafia corporation stealers

Yes, starovery sectarian groups deep in taiga forests.
Propaganda and he improved us a lot in 00s but fucked up everything later. Putin is a twin brother of Erdogan.
Mass soldier loses and we moved our border far from Leningrad so it was not so dangerous anymore.
Poor low class uneducated people.
SPb is a city built specifically by European standards by Petr as a new face of westernized Russia.
>Holodomor
It was not genocide of hohols. There was famine in some areas in Southwest of Russia because peasants of this region refused to work because they were not sure if collectivization would leave them land.
>Who did Katyn massacre?
Soviets, it's proven by documents.

>"White Russians" are called belorus
zmagar, plz

Maybe, but I am not Putin. His political style is very rude.
What does it have to do with communism? We just had different course of development in history and that resulted in a different cultural issues than European ones.

Who was behind the 1917 revolution?

Are you retarded. Belorus means white Russian if read literally, but it has nothing to do with whiteness in a racial terms, they are called like that because of national suit. No one say бeлыe pyccкиe in Russian, we say бeлopycы. That's why we foreigners should call them belorus too.

Good thread desu

>What does it have to do with communism?
This internationalism, brainwashing people (putting them against Europe). A rejection of capitalist values (But let's remember the vast class of Russian merchants). All that you described are pretty much detects that you are the communist.

Jews and Germans

Agrarian question: peasants barely had land of their own, it was owned by landlords mostly.
National question: Russians were only 43% of total population of Empire while state religion was an orthodoxy and government opressed non Russians, making pogroms on Jews and so.
Industrial question: most of Russian industry was owned by Europeans who exploited Russian workers harsh.
War question: Russia was in WWI without any serious reasons except French credits, people didn't wanted to die in war for no reasons and war drained all resources from Russia.

I can call myself even redskin, So what? Rusky is national term, but belorus just citizen of Belarus. So that means you retarded.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Mendeleev
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Lomonosov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Lobachevsky
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Pirogov
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov
More russian scientists you can find here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Russian_scientists
We dont.
Soon (no)
Its true, Peter was a euroboo.
We dont know, too hard question.
>What are your opinions on Holodomor?
Not only ukrainians were victims of holodomor, but also russians.
>Who did Katyn massacre?
commies.
commies, ofc.

>brainwashing people (putting them against Europe)
Lol, I don't put anyone against Europe, I just say we are not European. It doesn't mean that we should notblearn from them etc.
>internationalism
Are you poltard? It's a natural thing for educated person.
>rejection of capitalist values (But let's remember the vast class of Russian merchants
Wut? If you want to discuss merchant class in connection to being or not being European, it would be obvious that our merchant class was very different from European too. First of all, it did not opposed the capitalists as bourgeoisie did in Europe; it was highly linked to Tsar and nobility and they mutually supported each other. It differs from Europe too.

If you think of the age before internet and communications, say 150 years, 100 years, 50 years ago... So the regional differences are huge in big countries like Russia. Look at the United States: there is a massive difference between people from Seattle or from Los Angeles, even though they are from the same coast. Or Texans vs. New Yorkers.

When talking about roots, you have to look beyond 10 years.

> it was highly linked to Tsar and nobility and they mutually supported each other.
just like today.

Yes. And unlike it was in Europe.

Thanks lad

How is life in the gosoudartsvo?

Wew, Ivan, some solid work you do here. Taк дepжaть!

Why is Russia the most evil country in the world?

Because there's no fun being good

Because it wants to become as stronk as Poland, but can't.

But Mother Russia can into space

How do Russians fell about the Gulag?
Dozens of millions have been sent there, im currently reading Alexandre Soljenitsyn s book The Archipel of Gulag and shit was tough

did romanovs got executed because of rothschilds?

What would've happened if the Bolsheviks never took control?

Would Russia be a normal European country with normal people?

>starovery sectarian groups
Have any more information?
A link or something?

Not the PhD guy, but: mostly people don't care too much. They think only traitors and spies went there. While Gulag prisoners were "enemies of the state", they were more often than not falsely accused or the punishment was too severe (like, telling a joke about Party could lead you there). So, people overlook the fact that Gulag was needlessly violent, and generally think that "those traitors deserved it".

Did Catherine the Great really fuck a horse?

What is your general opinion on starovery (old believers) and the divide of eastern orthodoxy? Do you side with them or Nikon? Who's to blame for the outcome? Do you think the reformation was necessary or beneficial for the church and Russian people?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Believers

>Also our flag is bit controversial in modern Russian discourse
Why would it be?

>They think only traitors and spies went there

wow shit really?
that s sad...