Thread by @JackHua61612601

In one year anniversary of the barbaric Russian invasion of #Ukraine, this brought me back to the time I was in #Russia. Years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I paid my visit to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, previously known as Petrograd. 🧵

It was modelled after #France's Versailles, so, it has its unique elements. My visit started at the main gate of the Palace, where I tried to understand why Russians want to build everything big.

I looked at rooms within the Palace, where I found every room was distinct from one another. My tour guide said that, it is a tradition by Russian Tsars to leave everything separated. That's how they organised their palace, artifacts, books, etc.

Rooms in Winter Palace are worlds of their own. Totally disconnected from one to another. However, I discovered that the Winter Palace, due to its longevity, was actually never truly completed. And some remains hidden from public today.

When I wondered if the Winter Palace still had any hidden secrets, my guide just explained that, the answer was, probably, never to be known. Combined with the gigantic displays of artifacts, but with soulless emotions, that answer probably explained the nature of Russia.

The Russian government probably never wanted to end the construction of Winter Palace. This was why different Russian Tsars changed its designs several times in their history.factinate.com/places/facts-w…

The inconsistency of building the palace played into the zealot idea of Russian imperial eternity. From the Romanov dynasty, to the Bolsheviks, and now #Putin, the Winter Palace simply presents as the symbol of endless power.

Even though the Kremlin in Moscow became the seat of Russia's political power since the #USSR, the Winter Palace actually influenced how Russian leaders view the world.re-thinkingthefuture.com/rtf-design-ins…

Today's Russian historians still stress about the importance of Winter Palace to Russian history, and a symbol of absolutism and despotism imposed on its civilians.

Given the giganticness of Winter Palace, the disconnection of rooms, the possibility of the palace may never be finished of its construction, and its tie to imperial power, the Palace becomes the base for Russian expansionism to live on.

Putin, unsurprisingly, stuck to this past. His expansionist dream, bred within by a despotic, apathetic society, plus added with Tsarist and Soviet memories, rooted from his time working as a deputy in St Petersburg under Anatoli Sobchak.

Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls (I like Gogol's works, a lot), addressed this aspect of Russia. He opened the novel with:

“…And though, Russia, art not thou, too, rushing headlong like the fastest troika that is not to be outdistanced...

…What is the meaning of this awe-inspiring onrush?
…Russia, whither art thou speeding? Answer me!
She gives no answer… Everything on earth is flying
past, and the other nations and states, eyeing her askance,
make way for her and draw aside…”

And from then, we come to understand why previous Russian despots, and now Putin, and possibly future Russian leaders, may continue to go for wars like what happened with Ukraine. All for an intentionally unanswered question lies within the crown inside the Winter Palace.