History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


You behave like an idiot.

Off-Topic / Things People Say in Ireland - Even though Novichok thinks they can't. [66]


I don't know.

I think China will be a huge component of it.

Russia alone cannot hope to endure in a confrontation against the richest billion people in the world. Therefore, the only thing that could balance the scales, would be the ability to tap the virtually infinite manpower reserves of China. Then, as the more experienced party, Russia could act as the "elite" firefighting component, while China plugs the holes everywhere else through its sheer mass.

But even having China on-side, is no guarantee that we can outlast the West. Brazil, India, Egypt, Iran, South Africa, and Indonesia will have to decide where they throw in their lot.

The end goal, as I see it, is to redraw the security and trade infrastructure created after WW2, to more objectively reflect the shifting power balance in reality.

Off-Topic / Things People Say in Ireland - Even though Novichok thinks they can't. [66]

@Novichok

We're headed for a big war - I feel. Maybe 5-10 years out. It's gonna make the conflicts of the past seem like small peanuts.

Off-Topic / Personal Pan-Slavic Manifesto [37]

I'm ashamed to admit, I really don't know anything about Slovaks - except that they fought for Hitler during the War.

Are they reasonable people? What should one know about them?

Off-Topic / Things People Say in Ireland - Even though Novichok thinks they can't. [66]

It's funny... when small countries do it, isn't it?

Nobody bats an eyelash when a Buryat calls himself Russian, a Japanese an American, an Indian a Brit, an Algerian a Frenchman.

But if it's a Syrian claiming Irishness, it does cause some cognitive dissonance.

But why should the rules that apply to large states, not apply to smaller ones as well?

Off-Topic / Personal Pan-Slavic Manifesto [37]


We have 4 times more Slavic people, than there are people living in Ukraine.

There are also a substantial number of non-Slavic people in Ukraine. Mostly the usual suspects, like Azeris, Armenians, Jews, Georgians, and Tatars. However, there are also some more "exotic" flavors, like Greeks, for example. Obviously, what's missing in Ukraine in comparison to Russia are East Asians and Central Asians.

Sort of off-topic, but one thing that surprised me about Ukrainians when I started talking to more of them, is that they really are quite a bit more racist than Russians (who are themselves, not exactly enlightened people). I think the whole "Europeanness" with which they have been recently obsessed, went to their heads a bit. Sometimes, I hear a seemingly educated and normal Ukrainian, spout off something about Azeris, that would really never fly in polite society in Russia. This tells me, it must be more normalized there.

No Eastern European nation does very well in terms of attitudes towards blacks, but Ukraine is definitely the champion when it comes to racism against Africans. I find this very peculiar, since even Africans are smart enough not to emigrate to Ukraine, or even transit through it on the way to gaining refugee status somewhere else. Quite literally, there are many countries in Africa with higher per capita income than in Ukraine. Algeria, Egypt, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon - all have a higher gdp per capita (PPP). Yet, any article about something to do with Africa will have the comment section full of monkey gifs.

Recently, on a Ukrainian forum which I visit, one guy was pointing fun at how the "apes" in Thailand were "idiots" for bulldozing luxury cars which were confiscated from criminals and tax dodgers. Others were agreeing with him - "what can you do with these natives...". This really got under my skin... for a lot of reasons - not least because they were seemingly getting angry about a country taking corruption seriously.

I ended up arguing that Thailand has an economy 3X larger than Ukraine's, and that an average Thai earns almost 2X more than an average Ukrainian. They became very sour after this, and started nitpicking about nominal vs ppp numbers (neither really helps their case).

I hope the next time one of them goes to Pattaya again, he won't lord it over the locals as if they were untermenschen.

P.S. - I'm sorry Kania for polluting the thread. I still have to write my Pan Slavic Manifesto.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


With all due respect, not only.

Rokossovsky (before becoming head of the Polish Armed Forces, and a Marshal of Poland himself), was head of the 1st and then 2nd Belarusian Front. It is often said, that the battles fought in Belarus as part of Operation Bagration, were the most decisive battles of all of World War 2.

Here is an enumeration, from Soviet sources, of the resources at Rokossovsky's command:

"В состав группировки войск входило 20 общевойсковых, 2 танковые и 5 воздушных армий. Всего группировка насчитывала 178 стрелковых дивизий, 12 танковых и механизированных корпусов и 21 бригаду. Поддержку и прикрытие войск фронтов с воздуха осуществляли 5 воздушных армий. Общее количество войск составляло 2 500 000 человек, более 6000 танков и самоходно-артиллерийский установок, более 45 000 артиллерийских орудий и миномётов, около 7000 боевых самолёт"

Translation:

"The group of troops included 20 combined arms armies, 2 tank and 5 air armies. In total, the group consisted of 178 rifle divisions, 12 tank and mechanized corps and 21 brigades. 5 air armies supported and covered the front troops from the air. The total number of troops was 2,500 000 people, more than 6,000 tanks and self-propelled artillery units, more than 45,000 artillery pieces and mortars, about 7,000 combat aircraft"

How many divisions did Pilsudski have again? How many tank armies? How many air armies?

Were there even 2.5M soldiers in the Polish army during Pilsudski's time?

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History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]



Most epic Pole the Soviet Union ever produced - Marshall Rokossovski. Apologies to Iron Felix.

Your Marshal is small peanuts compared to this Marshal.

Off-Topic / Personal Pan-Slavic Manifesto [37]

@Torq

My own path to growing sickly curious of Slavdom - I could write a 12 tome series.

So to distill it into something that is pleasant for people to read - that is very difficult.

Off-Topic / Personal Pan-Slavic Manifesto [37]

@Torq

It will take some time for a reply, apologies.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


Does your mother know you are gay? "Yes" or "No" answer, please.


A veritable treasury of good ideas, my anus is.

History / What should Russia and Poland do to become if not friends, then at least not enemies? [945]


Maf tells me we will incinerate millions of Ukrainians once we take over the country.

Usually, his extreme partisanship, despite being annoying - elicits some degree of respect. Simply - I have never seen a Westerner engage with anything from our region with such passion. He reads a lot of Russian sources, and generally seems more realistic than Neuf and some other clowns.

However, him thinking we are going to put millions of Ukrainians into the oven really made me laugh at my stupidity for taking him seriously.

A more realistic scenario is that some Ukrainian comes to power in Russia again, and grants Crimea back to Ukraine as a "gift".

History / Can a nation totally change its characteristics and national character throughout history? [79]


It was a hard decision - I'm not gonna lie.

I have private reasons.

Life / Has feminism and lesbianism progressed in Poland? [645]

History and empirical observation, teach us that there is only one way to truly increase birth rates.

If you want Poland to have a seriously big baby boom, things have to be "rewound" a little bit back in time. First and foremost, there must be an exodus from the cities, towards rural areas. Poland must become an agricultural country again. Borrowing from the Mennonites - any labor-saving machinery should also be outlawed. No tractors, no pumps, no excavators, etc.

Second, women must be made into second class citizens (no legal recourse against men in courts), and contraception totally outlawed. It would be good even, to perhaps shift from Catholicism to Islam - so that some of these policy prescriptions could truly stick.

The last stroke, would be a large civil war, that would result in most Poles living in dense refugee camps. I don't know what it is about refugee camps, but fertility levels really explode there.

After reaching a more comfortable population level of around 100 million Poles, you can slowly begin reintroducing aspects of a post-industrial society.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

You left Poland the year I was born. Wow.

You really are an Alien.

News / Army of Poland and other kin Slavic countries [39]


Honestly... WTF. Those toys are crazy in their detail.

This was truly a most generous gift from young Kania, to the brotherly socialist republic of Bulgaria.

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How to know you were the son of a Soviet oligarch? If you had the following toys.

1) Pedal car
2) Basketball arcade game
3) Soviet Gameboy

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News / Army of Poland and other kin Slavic countries [39]

Actually, in addition to the French-licensed Indians, there was a series of toys made in Donetsk - which were licensed from the American manufacturer Louis Marx. I'm kind of embarrassed, that we could not make a plastic mold without licensing it from capitalists. See below:

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News / Army of Poland and other kin Slavic countries [39]

Are you talking about the Uhlans below, or some even nicer ones? I saw these before, but they were very rare.


Ah, so even then you were a diplomat.

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The only military toys in "color" that I know were Soviet made, were the Cowboys and Indians. They were licensed from a famous French toy manufacturer. These were made at the Moscow-based "Ogonek" factory.

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News / Army of Poland and other kin Slavic countries [39]

@Torq

Damn. Poles had high quality toy soldiers.

Soviet toy soldiers (that I still had to play with in 90s):

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News / Army of Poland and other kin Slavic countries [39]

Too much to translate, sorry... PRL uniforms by branch of service. 1970s.

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History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


Seems less than two years was enough for them to break his mind. Then in another few months of being in the loony bin, he "died".

Soviet prisons were no picnic. Most Gulag sentences were less than ten years, but it may as well have been 40 in terms of the toll on the health and mind.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]



Not all was hostile between the USSR and Poland in the 1930s.

Caption on the photo reads:

"The Polish port of Gdynia was visited by a Soviet naval squadron. Soviet sailors also visited Warsaw. In the photo: Commander of Baltic Fleet, Comrade Haller, being greeted at Warsaw Train Station."

I can add a little bit of history, re: Haller...

Lev Mikhailovich Haller - naval officer, from 1932 to 1937 - commander of the Baltic Fleet. In 1947, together with admirals N.G. Kuznetsov and others, was put on trial in a "court of honor" on charges that in 1942-1944 they allegedly handed over to Great Britain and the United States materials on a secret torpedo design, samples of these weapons, maps of two islands, and a map of the southern coast of Kamchatka. The Court of Honor found them guilty and transferred the case to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. In 1948 he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. At the beginning of 1950 he was placed in the Kazan psychiatric hospital of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he died on July 12.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]


It only became clear it was a "failure", towards 87-88 and onwards. In 1981 the Soviet Union, could boast of achieving all its goals in Afghanistan. A masterful special operation, had neutralized the previous government with minimal bloodshed. Socialist government was installed across the country, and aid was pouring in.

The CIA and the Arabs only really "turned on" much later.

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Regarding Jaruzelski, in the book from which I was paraphrasing different parts of his biography, everything Kania said is confirmed from the Soviet side. The book is Russian, and to some extent benefits from Soviet archival resources which I am not sure the author of Kania's book had access to.

1981 was the last year before Brezhnev's death. According to the so called "Brezhnev Doctrine", the type of things happening in Poland were to be promptly suppressed. However, Andropov (yes, Lord Voldemort himself), Suslov, and Jaruzelski convinced Brezhnev that it was a terrible idea.

Without the voice of Jaruzelski, some sympathetic members of the Politburo, and his wild gambit whereby he took all the men out of the barracks, Solidarity would have been crushed.

History / Can a nation totally change its characteristics and national character throughout history? [79]


Oh no!


Is there no end to Polish lawlessness?


Being beaten and arrested, is a little bit different than to have your skull crushed by a sledgehammer after witnessing your wife and daughter being raped.

History / Can a nation totally change its characteristics and national character throughout history? [79]


Ahh, so now you think the Russians were very gentlemanly for quietly taking some several thousand officers into the forest and shooting them?

No women, no children. No nailing people to crosses. Just quiet, methodical killing in a basement. Of a people that you fought 20 years before, and who will almost definitely organize to resist you again if you let them live.

Off-Topic / Has Palestine ever existed? [70]


Something called Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Have you heard of this?

It's an interesting bit of history, if one has the stomach.

Off-Topic / Has Palestine ever existed? [70]


Finally me and you are in agreement.

Off-Topic / Let's talk about shoes [317]

@Alien

I don't think very much about shoes, except like Forrest Gump - about the places they must have taken their owners.

History / Pol-Shorpy Photo Thread [950]

I don't understand these jokes about women not wanting to clean snow or fight wars.

It's normal for a human being to change their mind.

Yesterday, she "wanted it all", today she maybe does not "want it all".

Do you think we should take away their right to vote, and make them second class slaves again?

Their "feminism" movement, yielded some concrete results. Good for them.

Off-Topic / Has Palestine ever existed? [70]


I know what I don't like about all this pro-Israel talk.

Its subcurrent, is that the Jews are just such better stewards of the land.

"They made the desert bloom!"

"They have more start ups than San Francisco."

"They just wanna live in peace, and discuss philosophy."

I don't like this. It's like Germans saying that Silesia is richer, because it was German, or Kaliningrad because it was Koenigsberg. Some German or Englishman could do so much more with the bounty of land in Russia. In other words, Russians are spoiled by land, and don't deserve what they have.

I hate this. If I want to live in an irradiated wasteland, using my outside toilet, and saluting a portrait of Putin every morning - that's my God given right. No Jew, or German, or Japanese is gonna make my dump bloom.

I'm like Shrek. I love my swamp, and I don't want Prince Charming coming and fixing everything up.

Even if it takes Palestinians 10,000 years to live like Jews in 2023, that's their right.