Let me introduce you Vasya Lozhkin - a painter very well-known in Russia, but not so much abroad. It may be a good introduction to Russian visual, and not only visual, meme culture and public discourse (thread)
Triptych 'Abroad vs Motherland'
'Your jazz is alien to us'
'What? You didn't tape your laptop camera?'
'Mr Bad?'
(that's a memetic depiction of political assassination by state security. it's believed that 100% of 'random' ppl present during the event - passerbies, witnesses, are all actually agents. here even street animals are agents)
'Real revolution always starts unexpectedly'
Well, that's a reference to the role of navy sailors in revolution and early building of the Soviet power. 'Revolutionary sailors' are a well-recognised meme
'Your America is over!'
That's a quote from 'Brat' movie. I would say movies Brat and Brat-2 were the most culturally important for post-Soviet Russia and I highly recommend to watch
'Am I allowed to take a cat?'
'Life with beard vs Life without beard'
'Jokes are over'
'A sabre'
'Freemasons invent rock'n roll to destroy the USSR'
'During the Domesday the sky will open and the flame will pour down. All the world gonna die! Only Russia will be saved! Be saved, too! Be with us! JOIN RUSSIA
'It's time to grow up, my son'
'Right bears vs Wrong bears'
'Motherland is listening'
'Your call is important to us'
'We caught an infidel behind the ditch, he's been drinking the Russian oil!'
'No internet for you'
'Now we're gonna start dehumanising you'
again - revolutionary allusions
'And they lived happily ever after'
end of thread
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Let's talk about Russian demography. As you see vast spaces in Siberia & European Russia are depopulating. There are two factors behind. First, low fertility. The only places with natural growth are Muslim areas of Caucasus, Idel-Ural and clusters of indigenous Siberians (thread)
Secondly, migration. Huge areas are depopulating because people are moving elsewhere. Where exactly? Over 90% move to just three locations:
1. Moscow (that large city inland) 2. Krasnodar (Black Sea, near Crimea) 2. St Petersburg (Baltic shore, near Finland)
in that order
Let's talk of them. The case of Moscow is simple: it's by far the biggest and richest city. Moscow agglomeration alone attracts between 50-55% of all internal migrants. All the power's in Moscow -> all the money -> all the economic opportunities. Like in some LatAm countries
How Russia became Polish (spoiler: Ukraine helped)
Russia's been historically affected by many cultures. German impact of 18-19th cc is well-recognised, Tatar impact of 14-16th - only grudgingly. But ppl are unaware of Polish influence that transformed Russia in 17th c (thread)
It all started in 1598 with the death of Fyodor Ivanovich. He was the last Rurikid on the Russian throne - descendant of Vikings who reportedly ruled Russian states since 862. After his death Russia entered into dynastic crisis and quickly spiralled into chaos
Poland-Lithuania first entered the conflict by supporting pretenders - False-Dmitry I and II. Then Poland got involved directly. Poles smashed Russian armies, captured Tsar Shuisky and occupied Moscow. They raided Russia very deep north and east putting it to fire and sword
Many think Putin aims to annex Ukraine. I find that implausible. That's based on assumption that Putin is primarily concerned with foreign policy. But what if his main concern is domestic one? What if the real goal is to keep Ukraine a failed state as an example to the Russians?
Firstly, the territory currently hold by Russians or pro-Russian separatists is small. For example, the border in Donbass more or less stabilised in 2014. And let's be honest - if Kremlin really wanted to expand it, it would. Not as an invasion, but in a form of 'rebellion' etc
So why doesn't it expand it? One possible answer is - because it doesn't want to. Because the point of the entire conflict is not to expand in Ukraine but to keep Russians in line
Interpreting Russian political dynamics through the concept of assabiyah may not be widely-established but is quite well-known tradition in Russia
Some distinguish 3 political regimes with 3 different assabiyahs
1698 - 1825 Praetorians
1825 - 1917 Monarchy
1917 - now Party
Praetorian regime originated in the toy army of Peter I. Peter was formally coronated as a Tsar in 1682 at the age of 10 together with his elder but feeble-minded brother Ivan. However, in practice his sister Sofya ruled as a regent. To please Peter they gave him the toy army
Initially the entire toy army consisted of only 50 boys living in the Preobrazhenskoye village. Peter was to train him both to have fun ("потешные" = for fun) and to learn how to lead the army. With the time passing the toy army grew and part of it was relocated to Semenovskoye
Large threads will be published here every Friday and sometimes on additional days. Also I am now working on setting up a substack - gonna post here when done. At this point let me give a guide to navigate through already published threads - from older to newer
An introductory thread to the federalism (and diversity) in Russia dealing with these two Caucasian republics. I'm gonna do a bigger blogpost on them, but it will be paywalled
2. Introduction to a second cluster of ethnic republics in Russia - Idel-Ural
As a native of the region I find it the most interesting. For example it's the northernmost Islamic land in the world and it has the last authentic pagans in Europe
Political institutions of the Golden Horde (thread)
Imperiogenesis argument is well known in Russia. Some cheer the Horde for laying foundations of vast empire. Others lament the orientalisation of Russia and adoption of 'Asian despotism'. But how did the Horde itself look like?
While the impact of the Horde on Russia was widely discussed, until recently there were few studies on political, legal, institutional tradition of the Horde. A great pile of literature focusing on this subject is appearing right now - there are even very decent works in English
Regarding the early, Mongol period, the honest answer would be - we don't know. General studies mention 'Yasa', the Mongol Code of laws allegedly introduced by Chinghis Khan. But was Yasa an actual document, statute, or a name for the Mongol common law? Scholars still debate