The Russian army has never showed up anywhere near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, but this didn't stop Russian officials from creating a database of its buildings to proclaim them the property of Russia. Let's take a look at Russia's "paper annexation" of Zaporizhzhia. 👇
Russia's Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, "Rosreestr," has included Zaporizhzhia in its real estate database. This means that the entire city, with all its streets and buildings, is listed there as belonging to Russia. Take this example: 2/
On this yesterday's video, kids walking in one of the central parks in Zaporizhzhia watch with horror as a Russian missile flies just over their heads and, moments later, hits one of the main hotels in town. Russia essentially claims that the hotel is within its borders. 3/
Its address, Mayakovs'koho Ave, 19, is in the database. 4/
Curiously, streets are mentioned there just as they are called in the real – Ukrainian – city (or were called as of 2022). This means that the "virtual" Zaporizhzhia, "possessed" by Russia on paper, has Independent Ukraine St. 5/
Russia also officially claims to have Heroes of the 93rd Brigade St. 6/
No matter how ridiculous it sounds, Russia will not abandon its claims on Zaporizhzhia unless it's stopped. In the meantime, Russia's claims on the city result in the never-ending horror as Russian attacks take the lives of its residents on the daily basis. end/
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Few people know that in Tianjin, the Russian colonial concession (brown on the map) was second only to the British in size. There, a Russian merchant could ride a rickshaw down Zheleznodorozhnaia Street toward the railway station, or stroll along Russkaia Embankment.🧵
Established in 1900, after Russian troops—the largest contingent of the international expeditionary corps—helped occupy the city, the concession was the latest tsarist foothold in China. 2/
As one contemporary described it, “The Tianjin concession is the best prize of the recent war. Watered with Russian blood, it may bring millions in profit and become a beautiful and profitable place—an ornament to the city and the envy of foreigners.” 3/
For Ukraine’s Independence Day, here’s a telling document from the 1668 Cossack rebellion against Moscow rule. Hetman Ivan Briukhovetskyi—who had himself helped bring Ukraine under Moscow’s dominion—now wrote of “Ukraine, our sweet fatherland,” ... 🧵
... divided the year earlier between the Tsardom of Moscow and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and now “plundered and devastated” by both, who sought to “eradicate the residents of big and small towns.” 2/
The hetman described attacks on Russian garrisons across Ukraine, which he had enabled just three years earlier:
“We did not wish to drive them out of Ukrainian cities by the sword, but intended, without bloodshed, to escort them safely to the Muscovite border.” 3/
Saying Alaska was “part of Russia” is like saying India under the East India Company was “part of Britain.” A textbook overseas colony of the empire that, according to Putin, “never colonized anyone,” Alaska was the Russian imperial state’s most peculiar possession. 🧵
Administered by the joint-stock chartered Russian-American Company, which created its own system of governance, exploitation, and resource extraction, Russian America emulated the practices of St. Petersburg’s Western colonial rivals, with British India as the prime example. 2/
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, as company rule came under fire and Britain imposed direct crown administration, similar debates were unfolding in the tsar’s halls of power. By 1865, the RAC’s inefficiency prompted the government to take control of the colony. 3/
A massive blast wave from a Ukrainian drone strike on an arms depot near Toropets in central Russia shook the grave of one of the most notorious figures in Russian imperial history. Who was he? This 🧵will take you through some of the darkest chapters of Russia's colonial past.
On September 18, the “Ukraine war” made a sudden visit to every household in Toropets, shattering windows and knocking down doors. Standing silently before the towering mushroom cloud was a bronze monument to General Aleksei Kuropatkin, the region's most famous native. 2/
Today, his name would hardly ring any bell for anyone unfamiliar with the history of imperial Russia. But in the early 20th century, Kuropatkin's name was known worldwide. He embodied the quintessential colonialist—wherever the empire expanded, he was there to serve it. 3/
Among the reasons Crimea holds a special place in the Russian imagination is its prominence as the theater of military action during 1854–56. However, the Crimean War was also Russia's first major encounter with the peninsula, 70 years after its annexation.🧵
As the war erupted, a massive flow of tsarist troops surged into Crimea from the Russian provinces, while in return, letters, newspaper articles, and travel notes flowed back from the Crimean shores to the metropole. It seemed that everyone who could write was eager to share their impressions of the unfamiliar land they were encountering for the first time. 2/
After Russia's disastrous defeat, the flow of impressions only intensified. Officers, journalists, and other members of educated society sought to explain the significance of this place, where so much blood had been spilled. Among them was Aleksandr Pogosskii, a publisher of influential journals aimed specifically at rank-and-file soldiers, such as Soldatskaia beseda and later Dosug i delo. 3/
Showcasing migrants in an exhibition to emphasize the allegedly negative aspects of their impact on the urban life of a metropolis is not something we expect to see today. Yet, this is precisely what a current exhibition in Moscow is doing. Why?🧵
The man in the photo above is taking a selfie in front of a kebab shop. This entire scene is part of an exhibit, and the man is the chairman of the Moscow City Duma, visiting one of the largest and most ambitious exhibitions held in Russia's capital in recent years. The exhibition, titled "Moscow 2030," depicts the city as a techno-utopia come true, seemingly untouched by the realities of war. 2/
Visitors to the Manege Exhibition Hall are invited to explore two contrasting visions of Moscow: the "vibrant" city of today, boasting cutting-edge transport infrastructure... 3/