Thread by @EasyRid04682094

For those surprised by pictures from Bucha, a little 🧵

1570. Ivan the Terrible terminates autonomy of Veliky Novgorod. Women and children were massacred, churches burnt and looted. About 20 thousand people died, numerous were deported. Following famine did the rest.

Novgorod was a biggest city of Rus', a prosperous merchant republic, member of Hanseatic League. Moscow regarded it as a competitor and subjugated it a century earlier. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth remained passive; Novgorod was simply too far away to bother the Polish king

1708. Peter I the Great destroys Kozak Hetmanate, a self-governing political and military entity between Poland and Russia, a predecessor of an independent Ukraine. It capitol, Batouryn was burnt and all inhabitants including women and children, executed.

1794. Russian army conquers Warsaw, a last act of Poland's partitions. Inhabitants of Praga, the eastern Warsaw suburb, including women and children are massacred; up to 20 thousand dies. Suvorov, Russian commander-in-chief is promoted to field marshal by Catherine the Great.

1863-1864. Repressions after January Rising on the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Governor General of Vilna, M. Muravyov nicknamed 'hangman' bans Latin alphabet, executes publicly combatants and deports 9.000 of them to Siberia, imposes enormous contributions

Muravyov was a true forerunner of what is labelled 'denazification" by Putin today, and which is, in fact a brutal and forcible russification. It was him who rooted out Catholicism in Belarus and turned it into a Russian-speaking country. He was widely cheered in Russia as a hero

One of the executed leaders of the January Rising, Konstanty (Kastuś) Kalinowski is regarded as a national hero by many Belarusians today. About 200 Belarusian volunteers fight currently in the Ukraine in the batallion named after him.

1917-1920 Red Terror on the Polish and Ukrainian territories during Bolshevik Revolution, Polish-Bolshevik War and Ukrainian-Bolshevik War. For 3 years looting, raping and killing raged between Vistula and Dnieper; prisoners of war were routinely killed by the Red Army.

Particularly infamous was the Cavalry Army of Semyon Budyonny. Atrocities committed by Konarmiya were documented by Isaac Babel in his famous short stories collection, published in the 1920s in Soviet Union. Authorities regarded brutality towards 'counterrevolution' as plausible

1932-1933. Holodomor. Terror Famine, purposely induced by Stalin on the territory of Ukraine resulted in at least 2,5 Mio deaths according to lowest estimates and up to 10 Mio according to the highest. Though directed against landowners, it affected mostly ethnic Ukrainians.

1939-1941. Soviet occupation of eastern Poland. Approx. 800.000 were deported to barrens in the North and East, many of them died.
7.000 were executed, 110.000 imprisoned, 150.000 forced to join Red Army. Same policy was pursued by the USSR in the annexed Baltic countries

1941. Red Army forced to retreat by advancing Wehrmacht; NKVD however still had time to execute (mostly political) prisoners in the cities of Soviet-occupied Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian territories. At least 10.000 were hastily shot.

1943. Discovery of mass graves in Katyń, at that time occupied by the Germans. At least 21.768 Polish citizens, mostly officers and policemen were shot by NKVD in 1940. Nazi propaganda exploits the massacre but Stalin coldly denies everything and accuses Germany of the killings.

It was not until 1990 that M. Gorbachev officially acknowledged Soviet responsibility for the mass murder and made documents accessible. Yeltsin even said "sorry". Russia never explained however, what happened to approx. 100.000 Polish officers which remained missing since 1939.

1944-1945. Europe. Mass rapes were notorious on every territory 'liberated' by the Red Army. Not only in Germany which was to be 'punished' but also in Poland, where mass-raping in 1945 led to a pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Raped were women 9-80, often gang-raped.

1945-1947. In all countries 'liberated' by USRR, Soviet&local security forces hunted down all who might oppose the communist rule. In Poland only, 6.000 were executed after mock trials and some 100.000 repressed; most of them soldiers of the anti-Nazi resistance and war heroes.

1945. Smiersz, Soviet military counterintelligence led by Ivan Sierov organizes a major manhunt in Augustów (postwar northern Poland) to eradicate anti-communist partisans. 7.000 people detained in filtration camps and tortured; approx 850 disappear without a trace.

1956. Hungarian revolution against communist rule, Red Army intervenes. 22.000 imprisoned, about 300 executed. Approx. 200.000 flee Hungary

1968. Prague demands autonomy, Red Army intervenes. Approx 100 people killed. 270.000 emigrate.

1979-1989. Soviet 'intervention' in Afghanistan. Approx. 1,5 Mio inhabitants died, 90% of them civilians. Country was completely destroyed. Mass killings were conducted on a regular basis (check Laghman, Kulchabat, Rauzdi, Padkhwab-e Shana massacres), toys were set as booby traps

1989-1991. Minor massacres during the gradual fall of the Soviet Union: April 9 Tragedy in Tbilisi, Georgia (19 people killed by Soviet military, mostly with spades); Bloody Sunday in Vilnius (14 victims) and Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania.

1994-1996. 1st Chechen War
1999-2000. 2nd Chechen War
Up to 100.000 casualties, mostly civilians. Grozny, the capitol, destroyed. Filtration camps, kidnappings, tortures. Gang rape as purposeful torture method against men. 70% of households destroyed.
Chechen terrorism is born.

2006. Deportation of Georgians from Russia.
Several thousand ethnic Georgians were forced to leave Russia in the wake of orchestrated kidnappings, unlawful arrests, expulsions and overall mistreatment, some died while in Russian custody. Soft ethnic cleansing before the war.

2008. Russo-Georgian War
Highly remarkable, no massacres were recorded. Apart from deliberate bombing of civilian population centers with cluster bombs. Oh, wait, it was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign state and thus a breach of UN-Charta. Somehow nobody cared.

2014. Russo-Ukrainian war starts
Until 24 Feb 2022 total number of civilians killed was estimated at 4.317. Illegal detention, abduction tortures and intimidation of people contesting DPR and LPR were routine. Mass graves were discovered on the territories regained by Ukraine.

So, next time you are going to be 'surprised' and 'shocked' by the achievements of Russian army and Russian political leadership - don't.
And don't say that you didn't know.
EOT

Addendum: some further reading and, as it happens, almost everything I have omitted to keep my thread clear and compact: