Ukraine Set to Surrender 25% of it's Territory to Russia
(media.communities.win)
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This is why Russia has been hosting meetings with Hamas over the past couple of years.
The Soviet Union was a corrupt communist dictatorship that was literally ruled from Moscow by the successors to the Bolsheviks, a totalitarian Marxist-Leninist state famous for its gulags, command economy and lack of liberty, a dictatorship, Putin happily served as a KGB officer. It's not surprise many of citizens wanted to be free of it. Half the population was outside Russia.
**Displaced? **
If you lived and worked in Latvia or Uzbekistan, you still lived and worked in Latavia or Uzbekistan.
The USSR remember? The R stood for Republics, it was supposed to be a federation of individual republics. Millions of Soviet Citizens were in different countries before the Soviets took them over. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia were invaded and taken over in WWII. Eastern Poland was taken over when the Soviets and the Nazis divvied up Poland
It wasn't like someone shook an etch-a-sketch and everything was just erased. People who lived in Minsk and Vilnius and Baku and Odessa still used their old papers. The papers weren't magic, they didn't make people forget the USSR just broke up.
Notice that Putin called it a "geopolitical" catastrophe, an not a humanitarian one. He was upset by Russia's loss of power. And I mentioned he wanted to undo this catastrophe by all his others actions specifically celebrating and rehabilitating Stalin and the czars.
And it didn't happen overnight. It was the culmination of years of reforms and calls for liberation. There was a law passed on that allowed Republics to secede from the Soviet Union. Where people could vote to leave.
https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991-2/shevarnadze-resigns/shevarnadze-resigns-texts/law-on-secession-from-the-ussr/
The KGB that Putin served that tried a coup against Gorbachev to prevent his reforms.
Artillery Shells
Yeah, it's speculation. But the logic is sound and like you I found various counts of shells used. I have seen higher figures than 10 Million in 2022, so it didn't seem off base.
It's also based on analysis, of changes in how many Russia is firing. The Wagner mutiny came after weeks of begging for more ammo.
Yes, while some would dare say in response to the alleged ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Yes yes, that's what the given story is, but what Russians evidently recall is different from what you're describing.
And you know for a fact that those laws of secession were followed to a T? And what about Ukraine preventing ethnic Russians from crossing the conflict line to renew their papers?
You seem to know a lot about this and are clearly impassioned about this subject. Perhaps you can shed some personal light from the ground?
Gorbechev's economic reforms (because that's what many Putin included opposed) are akin to what Joe Biden and the Democrats are trying to do right now. And it didn't work out for Gorbechev. In fact it hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union. Of course that's a good thing, but it didn't exactly feel good for the regular people that lived there day to day who really had no alternative.
Let's not pretend the Gorbechev was some Saint. He was firmly behind saving the Soviet Union is some form or fashion. Yeltzin was the one to undermine everything Gorbechev tried to accomplish between 1989 and 1991.
It's sad that I can take everything you say here, and it pops up as a headline for The Guardian, or Reuters/the AP.
The USSR was in pretty terrible shape when Gorbachev came. It was called the era of stagnation. It needed not just economic reform, but also political reform. It needed to be less oppressive, but basically what Gorbachev found out is repression was the only thing holding the USSR together. If you argued for some reform, the people, especially outside Russia, especially in the conquered republics would want REAL reform and unless you were willing to send the tanks back in, it wouldn't hold.
Gorbechev's reforms went WAY beyond economic.
Perestroika
This referred to the restructuring of the political and economic systems. Gorbachev tried to decentralize decision making in the USSR.
Glasnost
This was the big one. Glasnost referred to openness and transparency and was an easing of Soviet censorship. It let citizens actually criticize the government and suggest solutions. How bad was censorship, the USSR had been jamming foreign radio broadcasts for 40 years, they banned photocopiers. They actually begun to discuss the crimes of Stalin. A reporter who was there said
Demokratizatsiya
They actually had nationwide elections in 1989. Where people could select from multiple candidates (within the Communist Party) Yeltsin got elected over a the Communist Party's endorsed candidate. And this election led to an actual opposition block in their congress for the first time ever
I don't think I was. Let's not pretend Yeltsin is a saint either.
Right, Gorbachev wanted to rescue the USSR economy, but he did not intend to abandon the centrally planned economy entirely.
Price controls remained in place, and they still controlled the means of production. By 1990, the government had virtually lost control over economic conditions. Government spending increased sharply as more unprofitable enterprises required state support and consumer price subsidies continued. Tax revenues declined because local governments withheld tax revenues from the central government in a climate of growing regional autonomy. The elimination of central control over production decisions, especially in the consumer goods sector, led to the breakdown in traditional supply-demand relationships without contributing to the formation of new ones. Thus, instead of streamlining the system, Gorbachev’s decentralization caused new production bottlenecks.
Good post.