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jarate-pissman · 4 months

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Silly Doodle of TF2 if they were dogs. I wanted their accessories to resemble their human counterparts, but it can be difficult because putting a dog into human clothes is hard to draw.

Scout: A Boston Terrier. A breed known for being lively and happy, it's friendly and open to strangers. Scout as a guard dog would show you where his owners keep the valuables if you give him even a crumb of attention. Also, they can be bug eyed and derpy at times.

Pyro: A Dalmatian. Duh. With a bag on their head that resembles pyro.

Soldier: Solly is an American Pitbull Terrier. The fact that it's a controversial breed makes it an even better fit! ABPTs were used in combat missions in WWI and II. In WWII they appeared often on war propaganda posters. One of the most well known ABPT was named Sgt Stubby in WWI, and he earned himself numerous medals. Stubby is probably the deciding factor. Soldier has an American flag bandana and his food bowl over his eyes. He smells faintly of rotten bbq ribs.

Heavy: An Ovcharka (Caucasian Shepherd) while originally the breed hailed from Georgia, the USSR pushed to have the breed standardized. The huge dog breed was originally bred for guarding purposes, and has a serious and protective nature. Perfect for guarding his medic. He greatly treasures his Sandvich, a stuffed squeaky toy from the bargain bin at the pet store.

Demoman: A one-eyed Scottish terrier with a sturdy body and a manly beard. My personal experience with Scotties as a dog groomer is that they are absolute assholes who are wary of strangers squeezing their ass glands. I'm pretty sure Demo would bite me too if I touched his asshole. Demo has a squeaky bouncy ball that resembles a sticky bomb, one eye, and a hat that looks like a beanie.

Engineer: An American Bulldog. Mainly this was influenced by their stocky body and their friendly personality. Bulldogs are also a very intelligent dog breed that possess high endurance, agility, and strength. American Bulldogs were bred with the intention that they would be a farm dog. I would have gone with the Blue Lacy, but it didn't feel very Engie, despite being the only breed outta Texas. Engineer dog has doggles.

Spy: A french bulldog. Both the French Bull Dog and the Boston Terrier both descended from the Bulldog, so in a way they are related. While a poodle would have fit Spy as well, Frenchies are pretty expensive in their own right, and the cost of their medical bills might as well cost 5 poodles. They're like the luxury bulldog, and I feel like the fact that Spy and Scout's breeds resemble each other makes it better. Since dogs don't usually wear balaclavas, Spy-dog got his face stuck in a pair of red/blu underwear and started wearing them ever since.

Medic: What dog is more demanding, bratty, and sadistic than a Pomeranian? Pomeranians are extroverted, lively, alert, and highly intelligent dogs of German origin. They can be aggressive to humans and dogs to try and prove themselves. They don't seem to realize how small they are, and somehow wind up ruling the house anyways, even if there are other dogs. I can just imagine Medic-dog commanding Heavy-dog, and Heavy-dog going along with whatever he says. Medic has tiny glasses and a stray hair curl.

Sniper: A dingo. Aloof, mysterious, and a bit scrawny for his size, he's an excellent hunter who can brave the scorching bush and all Australia has to offer.

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scotianostra · 5 months

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First request fulfilled and it's not even lunchtime! @Captainsbestgal request I capture Wojtek.

For those not in the know, this statue in the heart of Edinburgh honours a bear that served in the Polish military during World War II.

Wojtek the Soldier Bear Memorial

Wojtek's story began in Iran in 1943, when a group of Polish soldiers adopted an orphaned brown bear cub.

The soldiers were members of the Polish 2nd Corps, a military unit consisting of Polish political prisoners released from Soviet gulags by Stalin after the Nazi invasion of the USSR. As they left their places of internment and moved west to join the fight against the Axis, the bear cub they adopted quickly became a popular and important boost to morale. By the time the 2nd Corps reached Egypt and prepared to transfer to the Italian war zone, the now-fully-grown bear had learned to salute and carry supplies and enjoyed drinking beer, eating cigarettes, wrestling with the soldiers, and swimming whenever he had the chance.

Going into active combat, however, presented a problem, as soldiers were forbidden from bringing pets into theaters of operation (and by this point the bear had, by all accounts, thoroughly imprinted on the soldiers who had raised him). Thus, the bear was enlisted into the 22nd Artillery Transport Company of the 2nd Corps, and accordingly given an official number, the rank of private, and the name Wojtek—a common Polish name meaning “joyful warrior.”

Private Wojtek served for the remainder of the war, most notably during the Battle of Monte Cassino, in which he helped to move crates of ammunition—with two hands, while standing upright, because he thought he was just another soldier.The Battle of Monte Cassino opened the road to Rome for the Allies. Wojtek was so popular among his fellow soldiers that a graphic of a bear carrying an artillery shell became the official emblem of the 22nd Company.

After the war ended, Wojtek’s company was transferred to southeastern Scotland. Having experienced Soviet repression first-hand, most of the soldiers refused to return to Poland after the Iron Curtain fell, and chose instead to remain in Scotland in exile. Once the 22nd Company was demobilized in 1947, Wojtek was moved to the Edinburgh Zoo. His old Polish brothers-in-arms visited him regularly, as did the scores of new admirers he gained during the remainder of his life. He died in 1963, at the age of 22.

Unveiled on November 7, 2015, the bronze statue in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh commemorates not only the much-beloved bear, but also the Polish soldiers who bravely shared the same harrowing journey and ultimately found refuge in Scotland. The soldier is in short sleeves so I put my scarf on him to warm him up a wee bit.

Commissioned by the Wojtek Memorial Trust, the project likewise pays tribute to the resultant close ties between Scotland and Poland.

#Scotland #scottish #history #Bear 🐻#soldier #Poland #Statue #world war 2 #request

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alatismeni-theitsa · 7 months

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youtube

This is the story of how a small nation played a decisive role in the Axis Powers' defeat.

The Greek victory against the Italians was the first official victory against the Axis,. It shattered the myth of the invincibility of the Axis, as mentioned in the video.

When Greece said No, the entire European continent was under the Axis control and London was getting bombed by the Luftwaffe. The USA were not yet in the war, and the USSR had agreed with the Nazis to invade Poland. Greece was fighting alone.

Greece was exhausted from continuous wars since 1897, and yet it was the only country in WW2 that fought at the same time with four enemies (Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, and Albania).

This small nation had only two tanks and practically no airforce.

Mussolini thought conquering Greece was a matter of days.

However, the Greek army delayed the German invasion of the USSR for about 2 months. By then, winter in the USSR had settled for good, which played a major role in the defeat of the Germans.

Everyone fought because they knew the country was doomed if the Axis forces won. Women climbed the mountains (Pindos) on foot into the snow to bring food, blankets and ammunition, and, afterwards, brought the wounded soldiers back down. The resilience of Greek women was commemorated in songs, as well as the bravery of fighters on the Pindos mountains.

Let us also salute the brave British, New Zealander, and Australian people who fought with the Greek troops and died for Greece in both the mainland and Crete. It's scary to thing what Europe would be today had the Axis Powers won. You're all heroes.

#oxi day #october 28th #ww2 #second world war #history #greek history #Youtube

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girlactionfigure · 10 months

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The Night Witches

They didn’t even have parachutes.

The “Night Witches” were a regiment of daring female fighter pilots in the Soviet military who played a crucial role in the Allied victory against Nazi Germany.

The unit was formed by Marina Raskova, aka the “Soviet Amelia Earhart.” Maria was the first female navigator in the Soviet Air Force and held many long-distance flight records. She traveled all over the USSR and everywhere she went, she was approached by women who wanted to fight Nazis. Watching the German aggressors kill their brothers and husbands and destroy their homes and villages made these brave Russian women want to do more for their country than knit sweaters. They were determined to fight.

Marina used her personal contacts to get a message to dictator Joseph Stalin, asking for permission to form a women’s fighting battalion. Stalin immediately issued orders to deploy three all-female air force units and create the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment. The women’s mission would not be to drop bombs, but only to return fire. The Soviet Union was the first country to allow women on the front lines of battle.

As soon as the new plan was announced, thousands of women submitted applications for 1200 positions – four hundred for each of the three units. The women ranged in age from 17 to 26, and were mostly students. Those selected for this dangerous job moved to Engels, a small town near Stalingrad, to train at the Engels School of Aviation. There was no time to spare and the women learned in a few months what most airmen take several years to understand. Each woman had to be trained and fully prepared to fill four roles: pilot, navigator, maintenance, and ground crew. They faced mockery and harassment from male soldiers and officers.

The women of the 588th received bargain bin equipment. The military had to outfit them on the sly, giving them hand-me-down male uniforms to wear, including boots that were so large they had to stuff them with rags. Their planes were primitive 20 year old crop dusters made of wood and canvas, providing no shelter from the harsh elements. Flying at night in the Soviet winter, the female aviators endured sub-zero temperatures, fierce winds, and even frostbite. The planes were too light to carry parachutes, radar detectors, radios, or guns. Instead they navigated with low-tech items such as maps, compasses, flashlights, watches, rulers, and pencils – which doubled as eyeliners. They were fierce fighters, but they found ways to add a feminine touch, wearing makeup and putting flowers in their planes.

Each plane could only carry two bombs at a time, one under each wing. Every night, the regiment sent out 40 two-person crews. They flew 8-18 missions each night. The flimsy planes struggled under the heavy load of bombs, and they had to fly at very low altitudes, making them easy to shoot down. This danger is why the 588th Regiment flew only at night.

Each unit had a nightly routine – the first plane would go in as bait to attract German spotlights, which illuminated the path for the other planes. The next plane would release a flare to light up the target. Then the last plane came in, idled its engine and swooped in silently for the kill. Germans called them Nachthexen (night witches) because the whooshing sound their primitive wooden planes made sounded like a sweeping broom. This eerie sound was the only warning Germans had that the fearless women of the 588th were about to attack; the planes were too small to show up on radar.

The Nazis were so threatened by the Night Witches that any German soldier who killed one was automatically awarded the prestigious Iron Cross.

The fearless Night Witches flew over 30,000 missions over the next four years, dropping 23,000 tons of bombs on advancing German armies. They lost 32 pilots including sadly Marina Raskova. She died on January 4, 1943 when her plane was shot down heading to the front line. She received the first state funeral of World War II and her ashes are buried in the Kremlin. Twenty-four of the fliers were honored as “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

For flying into battle with primitive equipment to defeat the Germans, we honor the 1200 brave women of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, led by as this week’s Thursday Heroes.

#Thursday Hero

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slavicshadow · 1 year

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« alicia vikander, 32, she/her, mcu (& some 616) » ∙∙ loading case file for natalia “natasha” romanova. known aliases, if any: black widow. current location: new york, new york. current occupation: shield agent. she has been known to be disciplined and guarded, so proceed with caution. their current alliance: avengers. (claire, she/her)

(tw: death, murder, red room etc etc)

Character Basics

Character’s full name: Natalia “Natasha” Alianovna Romanova (anglicized: Natasha Romanoff)

Nicknames: Nat, Romanoff (prefers the anglicized version of her name to distance herself from her background)

Meaning of name: (born on) Christmas Day/birthday (of the Lord)

Birth date: November 22, 1990

Age: 32

Zodiac: Sagittarius

Superpower: advanced espionage training, master martial artist, master assassin, etc; artificially enhanced physiology (modified super soldier serum) -- enhanced strength/speed/reflexes/healing/longevity

Alias: Black Widow (natalie rushman; slavic shadow; red death; laura mathers; nadine roman)

Nationality / Species: Russian / human

Languages Spoken: Russian (first language), English, Latin, French, Spanish, Mandarin, German, Japanese, among others

Orientation: Pansexual

Pronouns: she/her

Physical appearance

Height: 5′7″

Body build: athletic

Eye color: green

Hair type and color: red (maybe natural, maybe dyed, genuinely no one knows), usually worn shoulder length and straight

Glasses or contacts: n/a

Face claim: Alicia Vikander

Distinguishing marks: assorted combat scars, healed bullet wounds on abdomen, birthmarks on right cheek and left side of nose

Tattoos: none

Voice / Accent: American; she trained the Russian out of her voice a long time ago, but can still put on a flawless accent when required (she can do most accents when required, tbh)

Clothing style: dark, lots of leather, lots of black tank tops, lots of heavy boots--she favors discretion and movement above all else

Personality

Good personality traits: resourceful, practical, disciplined, brave

Bad personality traits: guarded, secretive, combative, isolated

Personality Type: ISTP

Archetype: The Warrior, the Orphan

Goals/desires: finding an identity of her own. making a life as a real person.

Fears: never escaping the Red Room’s training; never being seen as more than a piece of weaponry.

Enneagram: type 6, the loyalist

Temperament: choleric

Moral Alignment: true neutral

Element: wood

Past

Hometown: Volgograd, USSR (now Russia)

Childhood: Her past is a bit of a mystery (even, sometimes, to Natasha herself), but the basic facts are these: A fire destroyed her family home when she was very very young, and her dying mother’s final act was to throw her to a passing soldier, Ivan Petrovitch. Ivan led Natasha to be raised in the Black Widow Ops program, a covert KGB operation training little girls to be master spies, killing machines. Fun stuff.

Dream job: ballerina

Education: extensive espionage training, equivalent of college-level education (claims to have a college degree; logistics of this unclear)

Family

mother: unnamed, deceased

father: unknown, presumed deceased

foster father: ivan petrovitch

foster mother: melina vostokoff

foster sister: yelena belova

Present

Current location: Manhattan, New York

Currently living with: n/a

Pets: Liho, a black cat

Occupation: SHIELD agent

Religion: atheist

Political Affiliation: it’s so complicated

Favorites:

Weather: an early spring day, the frost of winter just beginning to clear

Color: red

Music: classical

Movies: old action movies, especially Bond films. will not tell anyone she’s enjoyed a few romcoms in her day.

Sport: baseball

Beverage: red wine. will happily drink vodka or a beer, too.

Food: peanut butter & jelly

Animal: cats

Short Bio

raised in the shadowy red room in russia, natasha romanoff was bred to be a weapon. she became the black widow, the best assassin they had, an international fairy tale. a series of missions led her to shield, led her to the avengers, led her to questioning her allegiances and identity (if she had ever had either at all). escaping the grasp of the kgb, she has begun to forge a new life for herself, a real one this time. just don’t call her a hero.

FULL BIO

#intro #tags tbd

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qqueenofhades · 2 years

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Can I ask in your opinion if Russias invasion spills into NATO countries how fast will this become a full scale war in Europe?

Welp. That is... a question, and the fact that it has to be asked is (yet another) terrifying hallmark of the darkest timeline we are, unfortunately, still living in. The image of people wearing face masks to protect themselves from a deadly plague, while they flee their country where the site of the world's worst nuclear accident is now under enemy control and isn't clear whether it's stable, while maybe-maybe-not-WWIII rages around them is... yeah.

In other words, humanity really, really sucks sometime. By which I mean powerful egomaniacs addicted to wreaking pain, cruelty, and control for absolutely no reason, because at the same time, the actual, individual humans that we see are either fighting back, protesting, or trying to help each other in terrible circumstances. Including in Russia, where any hint of systematic and public dissent comes with automatic and severe consequences, and where these brave people KNOW they'll pay a tangible price in ways that western keyboard jockeys are probably never going to choose to face. So.

That said: this situation is absolutely terrible, and there are plenty of ways in which it still can get much, much worse, but for now, I would advise (so much as it is possible) not to catastrophize ahead of time. This is already not going the way Putin planned. Russian troop morale is allegedly very low, we've had reports of Russian battalions surrendering because they too were unaware that they were sent for a full-scale invasion and were lied to by their leaders, and the Committee for Soldiers' Mothers, a USSR-era organization that is still considerably powerful in the eroded remains of Russian civil society, is up in arms over their sons -- often largely untrained young civilian conscripts, due to Russia's policy of mandatory male military service -- being beaten, tricked, and threatened to head to the Ukrainian front lines. Don’t mess with mothers, or -- as anyone who has ever been to an Eastern European country knows -- the babushkas, who in Ukraine are literally willing to pick up AK-47s and fight.

In all Putin's posturing and paranoia about how Ukraine and Russia should be one country, he's forgotten that many, many citizens of both countries have friends and family in the other, and it's going to get a whole lot harder to convince them to keep up this indiscriminate destruction. Obviously, there are, unfortunately, still plenty of Russian soldiers who are willing to follow orders and proceed with the invasion, but it seems fairly clear that they're encountering a whole lot more resistance than they did in 2014, when the Ukrainian army barely existed. Putin is an opportunist, and he (usually, at least) tries to pick fights that he's sure that he can win. This one, however, is much less clear. Even if (God forbid) the Russian army does take Kyiv and the country, it's going to wreck Russia's international cachet pretty much worldwide. Even China, the ultimate opportunist and no friend to the West, is tilting to the side of telling Putin to back off and return to diplomacy. Given that Xi and Putin were so cozy at the Olympic Games last month, I think that's a sign that China doesn't see any long-term advantage of turning themselves into a pariah too, which they might do if they thought Russia had the upper hand here.

Likewise, although Russia's foreign ministry is back to issuing dire threats to Finland and Sweden not to even think about joining NATO, this strategy of unbridled denial, aggression, and destruction is... just not going to work in the long term. I know that because I'm a historian and, well, it never does, and it's already proven that in Russia, multiple times. Yet again, for all Putin's appeals to a glorious imperial history, he has forgotten that the USSR's disintegration was hastened by the refusal of Soviet troops to fire on Soviet citizens, and that while he has gotten plenty of advantage out of the divide-and-conquer strategy, eventually you cut everything into too many little pieces and it collapses. Longtime Putin observers say that he's gone off the handle; this kind of reckless, all-chips-down attack isn't in character for him, he's gotten openly more deranged, he's been living in a COVID bubble for years where he's become more and more the mad king advised by sycophants who only tell him what he wants to hear, there have been long-term rumors of serious health problems, and so forth. While it's terrifying, and he can do a lot of damage on the way out, it also means he's at the twilight stage of his downfall, not the ascendancy.

Anyway, if nothing else, this horrible situation has brought NATO together like no other, and while Putin is bullying Ukraine because he thinks he can get away with it and knows that the West has already said it wouldn't bring forces in to oppose him, it would be a HUGE blunder for him to try to take the attack beyond that, and the Russian armed forces and military command knows that. I have another ask about whether the West should send boots-on-the-ground troops to Ukraine, which I'll answer after this one, but thus far, Putin is still calculating on the Ukrainians having to face the Russians by themselves. Russia has something like the third-largest army in the world, and the terrible truth is that Ukraine is probably going to come under some amount of Russian military control before much longer. However, I wouldn't lay odds on whatever figurehead regime Putin tries to set up lasting very long. Ukrainians are furious and motivated like no other, Putin has absolutely no international support to speak of, and even troublesome, hard-right-leaning EU members like Poland and Hungary are coming together to work with the rest of the team. Turkey, a NATO member but an unsatisfied one taking its own authoritarian turn, has likewise stood firm with the rest of the alliance. Because when you see what's happening in Ukraine right now, it's pretty hard to actually want that in your own backyard.

Anyway: this is a fairly long-winded way of saying that while everything is terrible and horrifying right now, and there is absolutely a lot of room for it to get much worse, it's better to talk about all the reasons this is going to horrifically fail for Putin, whether in the short, medium, or long term, rather than worrying that he has the ability to drag the entire world down with him. He's a strongman on the outs, trying desperately to make his enemies think that he has the power to totally ruin them if they don't capitulate to everything he wants, and that rests on frightening them as much as possible. So if you can, don't conceptualize scenarios where this turns into the end of the world, but keep talking instead about why it's a sad action by a sad little man who history is going to vilify, and why, for that reason and many others, it's never going to actually work or get him what he wants, and the Russian people he claims to speak for and act on behalf of have a lot more room to get fed up and know exactly how to deal with tyrannical dictators. Slava Ukraini.

#anonymous #ask #russia ukraine war

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hello-nichya-here · 2 years

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Why do you think so many people call pretty much every villain a nazi?

For the same reason they'll call any scary villain that says "equality" a lot a comunist: Hollywood.

After WWII ended and the whole world (instead of just the goverments) became aware of all the absolutely vile shit the nazis did, the US had one major goal in mind: making people forget that not only did they not defeat the nazis on their own (and had to be helped by the fucking USSR), they almost didn't join the war at all and many nazis were welcomed into the US as if they had not been involved in the most horrifying event of the century.

There are A LOT of hollywood tropes that are either born or get insanely popular on the years following WWII and all through the cold war, and even after it was all over: the mad german scientist that does inhumane experiments on his victims, the brave americans that do not tolerate any sympathy towards nazis and defeated them all on their own, the unrelenting japanese soldiers that cannot be stopped (until you drop two atomic bombs on civilians) the evil russian spy, the poor traumatized american soldier that suffers from PTSD after the Vietnam war (the war that made the whole world see the US as the bad guy), the totally innocent and benevolent interest of the US on South America that definitively won't lead to dictatorships to "protect them from the comunists"...

Pretty much all of Hollywood drank the "america is the best and can do no wrong" propaganda kool-aid, and the ones that didn't were labeled as traitors. Even Disney was not above it: "Saludos Amigos" and "The Three Caballeros" were made to show how "friendly" the US was to latin america, and one short cartoon had Donald Duck having a nightmare that he was a nazi, and then as soon as he wakes up he sees the statue of liberty he is oh so grateful that he is american.

So yeah, it's no wonder that so many people assume that any bad guy is a nazi even when it makes no sense - they were literally trained to believe that.

#asks #nazis #american bullshit #hollywood #important

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jangirus · 2 years

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I wanted to write something about gay relationships and so on. But my life gets busier, and I have no time to write whole English text there.

And then this happened. I mean special denazification operation, I mean war.

This is terrible on so many levels. The worst things is memory about WW2 is deep in our hearts, we honor all the dead soldiers, we praise the ones who are still alive. We got soldier statues, monumets in memory of it everywhere. All those stories and all those sacrifices made me think that we won't allow participation in any war. (we are not counting previous war conflicts that took place here, cos everything was great on tv).

But then we attac our neighbour country. Ukraine was a part of USSR, and after USSR broke up the cituation in this country never was great, partly because of us.

But so many people live there, who are relatives of people who live here. We are basically are one nation, we are the same people. And we murder each other. This is terrible. This should never happened.

And there is noone on tv who says that. All of them say that it is so great to peacefully denazificate Ukraine, how good we are to do that.

All actual information about what is going on is banned. And more of that they will ban YouTube and Instagram for spreading "fake" information about war. You can go to jail for naming this situation as war. Of course they already blocked all the independent media in Russia.

People believe Putin here, and I see how can they be in love with him, cos they don't need to do more research.

So, more and more Z symbols are appearing here. Its our national symbol. For a reason its not Cyrillic, lol. It looks like swastikas already.

I came to meeting against war, there was about 100 scared people, and about 100 ready to fight policemans. Its not like in big cities, yeah. Moscow and Saint Petersburg surprise with number of activists who are not afraid of everything. They a gorgeous and brave people. But noone on tv here would ever see it. I hope you foreigners see it. Most of us are against it. I hope.

Zelenskiy is a hero. I hope Ukraine will destroy our army and Russia will lose. We already lost, by starting it all. Justice must be done.

Glory to Ukraine. РВП ПНХ. Нет войне.

#no war in ukraine #notes #no war

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nevermindirah · 3 years

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I’ve seen Black Widow

thoughts below the cut

I loved it. I cried.

It’s pretty standard white feminism, nothing groundbreaking, but as a small story about a human being struggling with her identity and her place in the world, chef’s kiss.

There were enough callbacks that it didn’t feel like they’d taken Natasha out of her context, but it wasn’t an Endgame-style victory lap and rightly so. There were more callbacks to things that had previously happened in this one movie than there were to all 6 of the previous movies she’s appeared in. The fucking fireflies. They got to me. And the whistling? OUCH MY HEART

I didn’t realize until the moment Yelena handed it to her that that’s the vest Natasha wears in Infinity War. That’s when I started crying.

The set pieces were inventive as hell. I was genuinely surprised by: the avalanche, the Red Room being in lower Earth orbit, Natasha and Malina switching places with the masks from Winter Soldier, and especially, fuck, little Antonia who Natasha thought she’d murdered turning out to be the Task Master.

I loved that there wasn’t some big reveal like Malina was her birth mother or some shit. I loved that it’s left open how much or even whether Natasha keeps in touch with this one of her two families — while she and Yelena might be able to have an honest relationship after “It was real for me too,” Malina and Alexei showed realistic (which is to say, meaningful but fucking small) character growth. Those two are never going to be parents to Natasha, not how she deserved, not how every child deserves. I loved how honest this movie was about that.

The opening credits sequence was fucking traumatic, though, and here’s where we start the criticism of white nonsense. Yes, girls are probably the world’s greatest underappreciated resource. Especially girls of color. Who we see in this movie all over the place as nameless soldiers under the most extreme mind control yet seen in the MCU. Widows of color suffer and die repeatedly in this movie. It absolutely tracks that the Red Room would expand its post-Soviet operations and steal baby girls from all over the world, but they could’ve picked more of the white extras to be the ones to die painfully.

I know they did this so they wouldn’t be criticized for having an all-white cast. But they still had an all-white lead cast. I was charmed half-naked (of course my mask was still on, I saw this movie in a theater!) by the very pretty man who kept setting Natasha up with gear, but I can’t remember his name, and his only defining characteristics are pretty, charming, and frequently asleep. The moment at the end where she called him a friend would’ve been a fuckton better if she’d called him by name several times by that point so we could remember it, and if she’d, I don’t know, mentioned something that shows she pays attention when he talks, that shows she cares about him as a person even just a little bit beyond how he’s useful to her.

And you know what would’ve been a better way to get the Task Master off the field at the end? The Black teenager (fuck she looked so young) who went to her could have said, “Hi, my name is ___, I’m your sister and I’m going to get you out of here. What’s your name?” Instead her much shorter one line was entirely focused on helping the white girl. A different Black Black Widow was the one who said to Yelena something like of course we came back for you. We see Yelena holding her hand, but if we could only have one and not both, the screen time would’ve been better spent on learning this young woman’s name. A piece of her humanity that isn’t just using her newfound agency to choose to save the white lead.

They could’ve taken this opportunity to give us at least one Black Widow who was both Russian-born and visibly Asian. You know, since Russia is an enormously multi-ethnic country and even before modern immigration you don’t have to leave Russia to find people of color. We could’ve gotten a few sentences about the scientist who invented the deprogramming gas. We know she was in Malina’s age cohort so she was more likely to have been born in the USSR, and we know she had to have been exceptionally smart and brave even for a Black Widow to invent this formula and ensure it would free some of her sisters. Handled badly, this of course could’ve gotten into Asian math-nerd stereotype territory. Handled well, this minor character would’ve had a name — I think Yelena called her Oksana as she watched her die? — and a layered backstory. Malina could’ve even shared a memory of her, one thing that she and Oksana shared when they were baby Nat and Yelena’s ages.

Or they could’ve recast Scarlett Johanssson with an actress of any Asian ethnicity that could plausibly have been found in the USSR in the 80s, but, you know.

It is extremely not lost on me that both ScarJo and Rachel Weisz are Jewish and I wondered if they might do something in the direction of making Jewish Natasha canon. I’m relieved they didn’t go there in the end, and I’ll happily keep my Jewish Nat headcanons here where I can play with them and keep them safe from corporate bullshit.

To wrap this up, that post-credits scene made me so happy. I am so here for Yelena trying out every “the 90s are back” fashion trend she missed out on the first time around all in one outfit. What’s her name from Falcon & Winter Soldier turning up as Yelena’s boss or whatever and assigning her to kill Clint was exactly the right amount of crossover. We’ve only just met this character, I love her, and I’m fucking delighted that instead of spending yet more screentime on any of the white dudes who’ve already had plenty of it in the 23 previous MCU movies, we got to spend these last moments of the movie with Yelena.

Natasha Romanoff will return in my Sam Wilson and Nile Freeman are Cousins WIP (where she will be having a heart-to-heart with Andy)

Yelena Belova will return in Hawkeye (if Marvel knows what’s good for it)

#black widow movie #black widow spoilers #natasha romanoff #yelena belova #fandom friends #marvel

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fakeboitherottengirl · 2 years

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I'm watching the debate go down and I don't really agree with Uteri on a lot of points, but she is correct that German propaganda at the end of the war did favor the US over the Soviets. You have to understand, it was clear at the end defeat was coming and the US was far far more ideogically aligned to the Nazi's values than the USSR. The upper leadership had also (correctly) come to the conclusion the us would go softer on some of the leadership.

She makes great points and has great sources and I conceded that EVERY army at the time was in a rape-frenzy, but like I said no article can compare to a weeping old woman showing me her scars and describing how her infant sister was raped to death by soviet soldiers in their kitchen and then her dying body being thrown on the lit fireplace. I don't believe the Soviets treated opposing women any better or worse than the Americans did, but when German people talk about the two groups they talk about the Americans as their Saviors from Nazi rule and the soviets as raping murdering torturing barbarians. Even if we aren't going to say "the soviets were rape-happy monsters who ransacked entire cities to the point where people preferred suicide" I think its fair to say "There was a serious problem with the rape of civilian women and children in postwar Europe and the soviets, like all invading armies, committed their fair share of atrocities" But like I said after extensively speaking to survivors of WW2 who were civilians at the time, I believe their stories. Almost every women I spoke to who had the soviets take their village reported mass rapes of women and children and reported being some type of rape survivor themselves (and most of them were only children when it happened, the oldest person I talked to was a woman in Demmin who was in her early 20's, the one who was forced to throw her younger siblings off a roof to their deaths). These are women who I had a face to face conversation with who personally report being the victims of soviet rape, and not just rape but brutal gangrape of entire families. I believe them. I also believe the women I spoke to who admitted that they were raped by Americans (which was very brave for them to admit to the face of an American but I have a lot of respect for the German people for telling it like it is). IDK, there is a lot of revisionist history on all sides about what happened during that time period, Im always going to believe the information that came straight from the mouths of the people who survived it.

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a-stitch-in-time-and-space · 4 years

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Cardassians aren’t Nazis (and also not quite the USSR, but I see where you’re coming from)

TW: for much discussions of Nazism, fascism, persecution, no details

So tottering around as a lover of DS9 and (disclaimer) as a major fan of the Cardassians as a not-yer-generic-villain type villain that then become less of a villain, because you can’t assign villainy to a whole species + also being German and hearing/watching/reading a lot of analyses that compare them to Nazis is inspiring me to write this (gasps for breath at the end of that sentence).

@tinsnip , @handsome-anne

1. Who were the Nazis that the Cardassians are specifically being compared to (versus neo-nazis/alt-rights, etc. that they’re not being compared to)

Short version: Post WWI the Versailles Treaty fucked over Germany in a way that left it wide open to the sort of megalomaniacal little bastard on a powertrip that fed on people’s fear and pushed them into a far-right disaster. The Nazi party itself didn’t have a ton of members, but it basically eroded any kind of democracy the country had and decided it would scapegoat Jews, Romani, communists, queer people, and other “intelligent elite”/political dissident and then spread those ideals across the world like a demented wannabe roman Caesar state. This didn’t last too long in the grand scale of world history, but left a body count of 6 million+ dead, mainly Jewish.

2. Germany and its relationship to this history

So Germany tries pretty hard to teach people this history in schools, through memorials, in film, etc. It’s not perfect by any means, there’re still discussions on how to make reparations, as well as neo-nazis and other far-right people around still, sadly just like in the rest of the world.

But it’s not covering up these atrocities, because there’s a belief that the way to make sure it doesn’t happen again is to be honest. Sadly, not everyone around the world gets as detailed a history surrounding its origins, happenings, and aftermaths, nor does every country engage with its own past like that.

3. Let’s get fictional (Cardassians, first impressions)

The Cardassians are a species that we mainly meet first through their subjugation of the Bajoran people, and then on DS9 following the immediate aftermath of the occupation on Bajor and everything that follows on from there. Throughout the story we discover various bits about what they had done - labour camps, mass executions, forced prostitution, and in that one Voyager episode I’m not a fan of because it didn’t have the range, experimentation.

On the surface, pretty comparable to the nazis, I get it. Hell, often that’s definitely “the source” of where the writers are getting their ideas.

4. So they’re... Nazis?

The problem comes when using one fascist regime as a go-to for these atrocities. It ignores the reality of fascism beyond this particular point in history and also it’s just not that simple.

When looking at Nazi Germany we also have to look at the source of its making, the climate around it (countries like the UK having a nazi party, Italy and Spain having fascist dictators, hell, the list of dictators that were/are not German is disgustingly long, the worldwide anti-semitism making surrounding countries apathetic or even sympathetic to the Nazis, etcetc.) and the aftermaths of WWII.

The Cardassians are not Nazis. (As an aside the Federation are not the brave allies, but that’s another post for another day.) I’ve seen them compared to the USSR - both by official writers and fandom - which I won’t comment on seeing as I am not from anywhere that was affected by that (I’m not East German, but I do have East German friends), but at least this points out that one cannot compare Cardassians to a specific atrocity that happened at a specific time with specific connotations surrounding it.

Is the Obsidian Order the Gestapo or another secret police? Which secret police? Is Garak “the good Nazi” trope - but then how does that align with Cardassians living under a repressive regime for centuries, not a few years, and therefore take into account an indoctrination and climate of fear created over several generations? No child “born” into the nazi regime became an adult while it was still lasting, unlike the Cardassians (and many other real life dictatorships and fascist states - as well as "democratic” states that have similar kinds of surveillance, oppression, mass-imprisonment and disappearances, and camps).

Is every Cardassian soldier a “nazi”? How does one compare that to polish and french prisoners (see Pierre Seel for a particular harrowing account, all the trigger warnings apply) who were forced to fight for the Germans and put on the front lines?

Eugenics, labour camps, and every other atrocity has been practised by numerous regimes, both in history and now, can we shrug off every country that’s participated in them for the sake of making the metaphor “easier”?

How does the aftermath of the Cardassian Union - when they’re attacked by the Klingons and themselves occupied by the Dominion and then have their main planet bombed to the point of millions dead - align with Nazi Germany?

5. It doesn’t.

It doesn’t. It doesn’t neatly align with any other fascist or military dictator-led regime either. This is not saying that there aren’t aspects obviously borrowed from history (and can easily apply to now). This is saying that in trying to bend the Cardassians into Nazis specifically, people are ignoring every other aspect about them and in my opinion doing a disservice to those who suffered under the actual regime. This is a fictional world, with fictional people that is based on an oppressive society template. It is also a fictional world in which the people themselves are oppressed (especially if you align with what’s written in Andy Robinson’s book) - I’ll be getting back to that point in a bit.

I would argue that making it “about Nazis” is too easy. This isn’t about “us” this is about “them” those evil bastards from wwii. It strips the Cardassian story of any current-day relevance. One can look no further than one’s own society to see people struggling against acknowledging histories, being treated as second-class citizens, etc. No need to go back in time to do so.

It also strips the Cardassians of any three-dimensionality. If they’re just villains then why are we rooting for their uprising to succeed at the end of season 7? Why do we want their society to flourish, their people to no longer have a broken court system, and their secret police to stop training and recruiting children if they’re Nazis, the convenient shorthand for über-evil?

Cardassia isn’t about a past society, it’s about our society. If we empathise with the Cardassians and don’t cast them as villains, then it’s a discussion about our own oppression and privilege. And it’s a damned good scifi allegory (even if I sometimes don’t think the writers and showrunners quite understand it themselves - death of the author and all that).

6. To conclude

I didn’t mention Bajor as much in this, because I was very focused on Cardassians, but I would argue that while there is value in casting them as “space Jews” (as I’ve seen here and there) because I understand the value of representation and I am not taking that away from anyone (I hope), similarly if one reads this take as the only valid one it ignores the reality of religious oppression on a wider scale and also that the Bajorans’ oppression at the hands of the Cardassians didn’t happen for the same reasons as the Jewish genocide at the hands of the Nazis - I would also argue that in making Cardassians = Nazis / Bajor = Jews, we similarly ignore that the Nazis were and are not alone in perpetuating anti-semitism, which kinda again leans into the “Good Federation (the Allies) Versus Evil Cardassians (Nazis) - because none of the Good Allied Countries have ever/are currently involved in persecution or dehumanisation *stares into the void*

And lastly - bringing back a point I made earlier about Cardassians themselves being oppressed by their own government - something that is often forgotten when people talk “Nazi tropes in genre fiction” is that the first country the Nazis occupied was Germany. I’m mentioning this, because it’s interesting in the metaphor, but it’s also conspicuously is absent in the simplification of how these reads are applied. It’s easy to cast the Cardassians as a whole as Bad People, but it makes for worse story-telling and has uncomfortable undertones of how the world reads Germany’s people as being at fault as a whole as well, without taking into account the specific events that we were globally complicit in - and once again the metaphor falls apart, because allegory doesn’t work so easily, and it shouldn’t.

TL; DR In general I am uncomfortable by “Nazi’s used as tropes” in any fictional world. One shouldn’t sacrifice analysis nor simplify history for the sake of making it easier to make a quick point about “bad guys” and forcing allegories into one shape makes them lose their power.

Also watch German films on Nazism and European ones on WWII if you’re looking for some better takes (also Cabaret, one of the best movies ever made).

#ds9 #st: ds9 #star trek #cardassia #bajor #cardassians #bajorans #ds9 meta #star trek meta #tw: nazi mention #tw: discussions about genocide #this is a looong breakdown basically summed up as *stop simplifying allegories*#but I've seen *nazi tropes' thrown around so casually not just here but in so much fiction that I kinda *nope*#so it feels like a post that I needed to get off my chest

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kavkasia · 4 years

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hey jade I know you said you're busy but 👉👈 could you tell us more about your georgia of? i love the vibes I get from him and I'm not very well versed in the history of the caucasus so I'd love to hear more about him 👀

You know the way to my heart... ❤️

I’m going to ramble, so if you want me to expand on anything don’t be afraid to send an ask about it! I’m just trying to compact my notes and not write one giant paper LOL.

NAME

Human Name: Giorgi (Ilias Dze / Ilyich) Davitashvili

Giorgi — His first name actually started as a joke (Georgia... Giorgi... very clever) but it also works well. The patron saint of Georgia is Saint George: a military saint which has been popular in Georgia for centuries (parts of Georgia post-Christianization are believed to have combined the cult of Saint George with the cult of the pre-Christian moon god Armazi). Giorgi is also the most common male name in Georgia and the name of many Georgian kings.

Ilias Dze / Ilyich — He doesn’t actually use his patronymic anymore, but during the USSR he did have one because Obligatory Russification Time™. It’s after Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, a major contributor to the revival of the Georgian national movement in the late nineteenth century and widely considered to be the “Father of the Nation”.

Davitashvili — A Georgian surname roughly meaning “David’s child”. It’s a reference to the Bagratoni King David IV of Georgia (also known as David the Builder) who is famous for keeping the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia at the Battle of Didgori. It was under his reign that Georgia began to experience its Golden Age and much of the Caucasus region fell into Georgian hands.

AGE

He is around 2500 years old (physically he is in his mid-late 40s).

He considers himself to be an ancient nation like Armenia and Iran. Not that he’s wrong! It’s just not often acknowledged by others who aren’t familiar with him.

PERSONALITY

[steals bits of this from my RP blog because I got tired from linking wikis in an upcoming section oops]

MBTI: ESFP

• hospitable • sociable • stubborn • prideful • short-tempered • charismatic • confident • passionate • brave • spontaneous • lazy • sincere • boisterous •

Ok, listen. He is a bit of an asshole I’m not going to lie LMAO.

He is the type of guy that argues a point even when he knows jack shit about it (he knows more than a professional!!).

He has an opinion on everything.

He is super prideful to the point where he genuinely believes his culture is superior and his language/food/people/etc. are the best.

He has a bit of a temper (the kind that just jumps out with some build up) and he is sensitive to feeling slighted.

He is a flirt but it is not cool at all. He is an attractive guy (I have a reason lol) but he uses the worst pick up lines.

At the same time:

He is very devoted and loves genuine relationships. If you gain his favour he will do almost anything for you (there is also the reverse of this though).

He is so hospitable he is famous for it.

He treats his guests with the utmost respect.

He can be very chivalrous towards women (but it can come from a sexist place oops).

He is very friendly once you break through his initial serious shell.

He loves jokes and anecdotal humour.

Miscellaneous:

He loves rugby, wrestling, football, singing, dancing, wine, this movie, and eating absurd amounts of (hopefully Pasanauri) khinkali.

He hates rules, not having enough money for cigarettes, if you put on a seat belt when he’s driving, criticism, refusal, and being called “Gruzia.”

He also plays the panduri.

TIMELINE

Before I start, I have to say Giorgi is not a collective personification of Georgia. Giorgi is actually the personification of the Kartlians! He just has the title of Georgia and so represents the nation on the international level (and also the domestic level depending on the situation).

Start (~5th century BC)

I pinpoint his “birth” to be around when several Anatolian tribes settled in Eastern Georgia and merged with the local tribes. He had a couple caretakers who were like siblings or sibling-parents.

Kingdom of Iberia (Kingdom of Kartli) (302 BC–580 AD)

In this period he gets baptized, starts loving God and Jesus (becoming the second nation in the world to adopt Christianity) and says no to paganism (but lowkey-highkey pagan practices were kept up for a long time).

Also, Iberia is the Greco-Roman name that is used for the area. When you see Iberia, know that it’s Kartli.

Principality of Iberia (588–888)

He is just trying to live his life but the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Iran are ruining everything by fighting over the area. He also continues to love God and Jesus.

Kingdom of the Iberians (888–1008)

Lots of politics. Honestly, I hate it here.

Kingdom of Georgia (1008–1490)

The Battle of Didgori happens during this period and it was the best moment of his life. He has several amazing rulers including King Tamar. Lots of wars against the Byzantine Empire, various Turkic states and more. Eventually, the kingdom breaks up.

Kingdom of Kartli (1478–1762)

Here he gets fucked over by Safavid Iran multiple times and also works as a weird slave soldier too so life is great.

Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (1762–1801)

He has a short marriage to Kakheti that ends after he gets completely fucked over by Russia and then forcibly annexed into the Russian Empire.

Georgia Governorate (apart of the Russian Empire) (1801–1917)

There were actually several governorates in this period but for the sake of simplicity I’m going to list it as that one.

I have a small write up about the time here.

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (1918)

The Caucasus splits off from Russia. Giorgi represents Georgia and the TDFR (Armenia and Azerbaijan are also there as co-representatives of the TDFR). The Entente will later say they need to stick together but they forget one crucial detail:

Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–1921)

Georgia splits off from the TDFR. Time to create a republic with a socialist government! Amazing! Too bad he’s the wrong kind of socialist according to the Bolsheviks and gets brutally stomped by the Red Army in 1921!

All his neighbours want to fight in this period as well. The Entente also won’t commit to helping Georgia until it’s too late because they were suspicious of him after he had been forced to ask the German Empire for protection in 1918.

Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1921–1991)

Listen, the USSR was terrible, but at least Georgia was actually one of the nicer Soviet republics because he won the geographic lottery. He even got stereotyped as being the rich republic.

We just aren’t allowed to talk about Russification or the purges or the discrimination or the fact they would only print Georgia’s most iconic piece of literature in Russian.

(Oh, it’s also my headcanon that until 1936 he shared the title of USSR with the other republics.)

Georgia (1991–present)

1990s sucked. 2000s sucked. 2010s sucked. 2020 sucks.

Summary:

NOTABLE RELATIONS

Ukraine

Best friend. Best girl. His Suliko. He loves her.

(I also have way too many dumb AUs for them 😭)

Lithuania

Other best friend. They call each other by their proper names because fuck Russian names. Also, this video is them (Giorgi is the wrestler).

Kakheti

They were married at one point in time. He is closest to her out of all the other Kartvelian regions (it’s the Eastern Georgian solidarity).

Armenia

He is like a brother but they only really acknowledge that when they’re in a good mood or when one wants something from the other. It’s a love-hate relationship that has gone on for centuries.

Russia

Azerbaijan

They are... okay. They go from tolerating to disliking each other pretty quickly. He hates when he hangs out with her and Turkey and they only speak Turkish to each other so he ends up being a third wheel that didn’t want to be here in the first place but his economic situation means he has to show up.

Iran

They had major issues but things are fine now, I guess.

Okay, Giorgi actually still has some issues, but Iran just wants to come over for a vacation sometimes.

EU and NATO

BUT YEAH UM... that’s Giorgi. This is all mostly surface level stuff so again, if you want me to expand on anything just ask. Thank you for the ask and ily. ❤️

#YOU CAN SEE WHERE I BECAME A MEME I'M SORRY LOL #my headcanons #aph oc georgia #aph oc #jade replies #portu-cale-main

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iwantyoutostony · 4 years

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i finally made my first animation and no, it's not about stevetony. It's dedicated to soviet women (well, actually, it's dedicated to women AT ALL, but from the prism of USSR women) during the World War II.

there are so many stories and i tried to tell at least 4 of them.

why we should talk about it? because in russian alley of glory you won't see woman's face, because there's no domestic violence act in Russia still, because little girls have been told that 'courage' and 'strength' are only the 'men's qualities'.

because nowadays the names of women in WWII are buried under ground of memory, because some people think women shouldn't be brave and powerfull.

NIGHT WITCHES, EUDOKIA ZAVALIY, EKATERINA PETLYUK, LYUDMILA PAVLICHENKO-BELOVA — just a tiny bit of these names.

hope you'll enjoy this little drawing of mine.

NIGHT WITCHES

was a World War II German nickname for the all female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, known later as the 46th "Taman" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, of the Soviet Air Forces. An attack technique of the night bombers involved idling the engine near the target and gliding to the bomb-release point, with only wind noise left to reveal their presence. German soldiers likened the sound to broomsticks and named the pilots "Night Witches".

"They called us WITCHES, through witches were from 15 to 27 years old"

EUDOKIA ZAVALIY

the only female platoon commander of the Marine Corps during the Great Patriotic War, Guard Colonel. For eight months she fought along with the marines, posing as a man, and was wounded several times.

"We captured a German general. When he heard that the platoon commander was a girl, he did not believe it and was offended: You could not think of the worst bullying!"

EKATERINA PETLYUK

soviet tanker, participant of the Great Patriotic War. During the war years, he was a driver-mechanic of the personalized light tank T-60 - "Malyutka (Baby)", built with money from preschoolers in the city of Omsk. Before taking Katya into the service, they made all the exams as difficult as possible, but she passed them perfectly. And the Malyutka tank reached Berlin.

LUDMILA PAVLICHENKO

was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II, credited with 309 confirmed kills, making her the most successful female sniper in recorded history.

"Gentlemen, I am 25 years old and I have killed 309 fascist invaders by now. Don't you think, gentlemen, that you have been hiding behind my back for too long?"

#my art #Animation #Russia #Feminism #music is Polina Gagarina's acoustic version of the Cuckoo

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3milesup · 4 years

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Forever grateful

I know this fandom is mainly focused on the US military history, but the Americans never stepped on our ground. Yet, that ground is soaked with blood and on this day of Victory, I want to commemorate those who gave their lives for freedom of my homeland.

No matter what the geopolitical tensions are, history stays the same and mustn’t be negotiated.

The photo above was taken today at the largest war memorial in Central Europe and the best kept Soviet war memorial, for that matter. (The little carnations are from me (: ) Nearly 8 000 Soviet soldiers are buried there, over 60 000 in total across the land.

Along with them, over 10 000 soldiers of the Romanian Royal Army (pictured below), second only to the USSR in number of casualties, and Bulgarian partisans helped liberate my country (and my city in particular).

Also 200 French partisans (most of them refugees from POW camps) bravely fighting in the depths of our forests during The Uprising - their contribution had later been described as the biggest French Resistance operation outside France.

Some of those men chose to come over, some were passing through on they way to Berlin, they all helped us in the darkest of days and their courage and sacrifice shall never be forgotten.

Thank you.

💜

#wwii #ve day #ve day 75 #world war ii #history

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alexsmitposts · 3 years

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Why do modern Europeans believe that the United States won the Second World War

History is a science that serves politics. This often leads to distortions in the interpretation of events. According to polls, 50% of Europeans are convinced that the United States won World War II, 22% - Great Britain and only 14% know about the role of the USSR in the destruction of fascism.

Neighbors-distort as they can

In Russia, as the successor of the USSR, the most accurate idea of the history of those terrible years is still preserved. But in Belarus, history is already taught in a truncated version, focusing on the partisan movement and on the fact that most civilians died in this country.

In Polish schools, the history of the war is taught as the story of the battle of two dictators – Hitler and Stalin. It is said that Poland was first invaded by Germany. and then the Soviet Union. Teachers focus on the atrocities of the UPA* and the shooting of officers in Katyn.

In Estonia, it is still difficult to hide an awl in a bag – too many people studied in Soviet schools. But the Day of the liberation of Tallinn on September 22 is now celebrated as the Day of Resistance to the USSR, and they teach that on this day the Soviet Union occupied the state.

According to the historian Vladimir Simindei, the situation in Latvia is similar: textbooks tell how bravely the Latvian SS men mobilized by Hitler fought with Soviet soldiers, and it is said about the Nuremberg trial that " it was highly politicized, especially because it was influenced by the Stalinist USSR."

In the textbooks of Moldova, it is written that Romania fought on the side of Hitler with the "good" goal – to return Bessarabia, which was supposed to go to the country of the Soviets under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and then "switched" to the side of the coalition. There are many mistakes in the books, the emphasis is on maps of military operations, but there are no major distortions.

The "Allies" want to forget the USSR

But things are different in the camp of the allies of that time. They acted according to the precepts of Hitler, who wrote in Mein Kampf: "I do not want history to be crammed, I want it to educate", and changed everything.

In some US textbooks, they teach that Hitler was defeated by America. Schoolchildren are sure that the American marines "caught" Hitler in the mountain bunker "Eagle's Nest", where they destroyed him. Since the Americans can not show the public the remains of the dictator, American journalists are looking for him in Brazil, then in Bolivia.

But many people know the truth. For example, the actor and director Clint Eastwood inserted in his film "Train to Paris" an episode where the main characters go on a tour of Berlin, and a German guide tells about the USSR and shows the place where Hitler's body was burned.

Students are told about the bombing of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a retaliatory strike against the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The historian Stanislav Kulchitsky points out that in Western schools, the turning point is called the defeat of Rommel in Africa and the emphasis is on lend-lease.

Russian Russian history textbook Modern World History (California Edition) says about the USSR that the country was not ready for the attack of the Nazis, the troops were not modernized, and if it were not for the Russian winter, the Russians would have had a bad time. However, this textbook does not say that the US won, but it says that "the war is over".

According to a survey by the Washington Post, the American philistine believes that the USSR during World War II acted only "as an assistant."

Approximately the same thing, but with an emphasis on the actions of the British military forces, is taught in the Foggy Albion. They teach that the victory in the Second World War is solely the merit of this country. According to ITAR-TASS, since 2007, the mention of Joseph Stalin, as the leader of one of the three countries-the Syuznik, about Adolf Hitler himself, and even about him, has been removed from high school textbooks... Winston Churchill!

The British government explained this act by saying that "we need to keep up with the XXI century."

Historian Holger Nehring points out that English textbooks focus on the European Theater of war, they deny the leading role of the United States and, even more so, the USSR.

The vanquished don't want to remember the shame

In Italy, children are taught that the United Kingdom and the United States won. Basically, the brave Italians fought with the allies. The leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox community, Oles Gorodetsky, pointed out in an interview that the books do not mention either German or Soviet commanders.

In Japan, they try to avoid the topic of war at all costs. Students know that there was a war, that the United States, the British and the Russians fought on one side, and on the other – Germany, Romania and Italy. Japan was an" ally " of Germany. It is touching to talk about how elephants died of starvation in Osaka, but try not to touch on the topic of the Nanking massacre, when Japanese soldiers slaughtered 300,000 Chinese. Japanese teachers themselves admit that schoolchildren practically do not know the history of the XX century. The role of the United States as a winning country is emphasized.

In Germany itself, they would like to belittle the role of the USSR. Russian emigrants, whose children study in German schools, say that in the books there is such a thing as Siegermächte – the winning countries, which include the USSR, the United States and Great Britain. The same sounds from TV sets. About the war itself in schools, they speak concisely, without emotion. They mention the theory of the superiority of one race over all, almost do not talk about the death camps and the atrocities of the SS. In the minds of young people, they put the idea that everything would be fine if it were not for the war with the USSR.

What do other countries think?

In Israel, they honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, but they almost do not know about the heroism of Soviet soldiers. They also hold the opinion that the war was won by a coalition of countries. Likud MP Avraham Nagosa admits that Israeli students should know about the heroism of Jewish soldiers who fought in the Red Army.

In India, people think that the greatest contribution to the victory over the Nazis was made by the United States.

African countries where there was fighting: Algeria, Egypt or Morocco, whose volunteers took part in the liberation of Europe, also teach children that the winner in World War II was the United States.

And only in China, schools teach that a huge role in this was played in the USSR and honor the memory of Soviet heroes.

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