I've already posted a few videos, often cropped and hard subbed on Twitter. And yet, it may be difficult to navigate through them or to verify their sources. Thus I created a Telegram channel where I will be posting them adding descriptions and links
So far I've only posted 10 videos there, but I'll be adding more. The ones I would recommend the most:
1. Interview with Russian Wagner Mercenary from Feb 26 2. Zhirinovsky speech on Jan 18 on the goals of Z-war 3. TV program on Zvezda channel 4. Sermon by Artemy Vladimirov
February 26, 2022. Wagner mercenary questions the experience that the Russian military got in Syria and predicts that Z-invasion of Ukraine won’t turn out to be a victorious march. He implies that circumstances have changed since 2014 and that the Ukrainian army has changed, too
January 18, 2022. Zhirinovsky’s speech on the future Z-war and its goals. Many of late Zhirinovsky's “hot takes” probably reflected the official position of Kremlin. Zhirinovsky, as a court jester, presented it in a “foolish” manner to test the ground on how they will be accepted
How Russian military are treated by their own higher-ups. TV host Alexey Gudoshnikov yells at a veteran who suggested a minute of silence for “our boys dying in Ukraine”. TV program Открытый эфир, channel Звезда. Notice that it's a channel of the Russian Ministry of Defence
Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov is reading a sermon on the Z-war and its goals. That sermon doesn't necessarily represent the position of the Kremlin but probably reflects the feelings of the Russian nationalist masses and, broadly speaking, the Russian imperialist ideology
Russia appropriated foreign planes leased to Russian air companies. Сompanies ask Minister of transport Savelyev if they'll be ever able to do maintenance abroad. "No, we won't, because we confiscated the other's property". Russia gonna have huge transport problems very soon
Police launched an operation to arrest a sugar dealer. Undercover cops videotaped how they bought a 50 kgs sugar sack "at the above market price" and he openly told he can bring more
Russian TikTok video. This is apparently a truck driver who bought some snacks for his 1000 km trip and is shocked by skyrocketing food prices
Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry points out to the cultural roots of this war. Ukrainians tried to appropriate the exclusive rights on borsch, denying it to Russians and wouldn't compromise. Such Nazism made the war inevitable
Dialogue between Putin and Naryshkin, the chief of Foreign Intelligence Service on what to do in Ukraine. Counterintuitively, Putin's regime is way more personalist than the Soviet one. Politburo debated on policy decisions, while Putin's henchmen are not allowed to question him
On the Day 13 of the Special Operation Russian TV propagandist Solovyov and military expert Kedmi had a pretty depressive discussion on the course of this war. Solovyov argued that this war can't meet the set goals, because it will lead to the destruction of Russia itself
Russian Deputy Minister of Defence Yevkyrov decorated a wounded soldier who lost his leg and wishes him to "get back to his feet again"
A glimpse into the popular Z-mindset. It's not only about Putin or his personal goals, it's about a certain culture, tradition, system of values. Z-war is systemic rather than accidental and the logic that stands behind it is well-rooted in the Russian imperial culture
1991. Sobchak, mayor of St Petersburg and boss of Putin discusses the Ukrainian problem. Sobchak was a well-known liberal and a founder of the Movement for the Democratic Reform. Notice how he weaponises liberal rhetorics in order to delegitimize supposedly too Communist Ukraine
Anton Krasovsky from Russia Today clarifies his position on Ukraine, promising to burn their constitution on Maidan
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1. This book (“What is to be done?”) has been wildly, influential in late 19-20th century Russia. It was a Gospel of the Russian revolutionary left. 2. Chinese Communists succeeded the tradition of the Russian revolutionary left, or at the very least were strongly affected by it.
3. As a red prince, Xi Jinping has apparently been well instructed in the underlying tradition of the revolutionary left and, very plausibly, studied its seminal works. 4. In this context, him having read and studied the revolutionary left gospel makes perfect sense
5. Now the thing is. The central, seminal work of the Russian revolutionary left, the book highly valued by Chairman Xi *does* count as unreadable in modern Russia, having lost its appeal and popularity long, long, long ago. 6. In modern Russia, it is seen as old fashioned and irrelevant. Something out of museum
I have always found this list a bit dubious, not to say self-contradictory:
You know what does this Huntingtonian classification remind to me? A fictional “Chinese Encyclopaedia” by an Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges:
Classification above sounds comical. Now why would that be? That it because it lacks a consistent classification basis. The rules of formal logic prescribe us to choose a principle (e.g. size) and hold to it.
If Jorge Borges breaks this principle, so does Samuel P. Huntington.
Literacy rates in European Russia, 1897. Obviously, the data is imperfect. Still, it represents one crucial pattern for understanding the late Russian Empire. That is the wide gap in human capital between the core of empire and its Western borderland.
The most literate regions of Empire are its Lutheran provinces, including Finland, Estonia & Latvia
Then goes, roughly speaking, Poland-Lithuania
Russia proper has only two clusters of high literacy: Moscow & St Petersburg. Surrounded by the vast ocean of illiterate peasantry
This map shows how thin was the civilisation of Russia proper comparatively speaking. We tend to imagine old Russia, as the world of nobility, palaces, balls, and duels. And that is not wrong, because this world really existed, and produced some great works of art and literature
The OKBM Afrikantova is the principal producer of marine nuclear reactors, including reactors for icebreakers, and for submarines in Russia. Today we will take a brief excursion on their factory floor 🧵
Before I do, let me introduce some basic ideas necessary for the further discussion. First, reactor production is based on precision metalworking. Second, modern precision metalworking is digital. There is simply no other way to do it at scale.
How does the digital workflow work? First, you do a design in the Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Then, the Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software turns it into the G-code. Then, a Computer Numerical Controller (CNC) reads the code and guides the tool accordingly
Relative popularity of three google search inquiries in the post-USSR. Blue - horoscope. Red - prayer. Green - namaz. Most of Russia is blue, primarily googling horoscopes. Which suggests most of the population being into some kind of spirituality rather than anything "trad".
The primary contiguous red area is not in Russia at all, but in West Ukraine. Which is indeed the only remotely "conservative" (in the American sense) area of the East Slavic world. Coincidentally or not, it had never been ruled by Russia, except for a short period in 1939-1991
In the blue and occasionally red sea, there are two regions that primarily google namaz, the Islamic prayer. That is Moscow & Tatarstan
There are two ways for a poor, underdeveloped country to industrialise: Soviet vs Chinese way. Soviet way is to build the edifice of industrial economy from the foundations. Chinese way is to build it from the roof.
1st way sounds good, 2nd actually works.
To proceed further, I need to introduce a new concept. Let's divide the manufacturing industry into two unequal sectors, Front End vs Back End:
Front End - they make whatever you see on the supermarket shelf
Back End - they make whatever that stands behind, that you don’t see
Front End industries are making consumer goods. That is, whatever you buy, as an individual. Toys, clothes, furniture, appliances all falls under this category. The list of top selling amazon products gives a not bad idea what the front end sector is, and how it looks like.