In the West, we spend a lot of time endlessly debating the various generations and their voting patterns, values, and economic niche in our societies. While there are exceptions to any rule, certain generalizations have come into focus about the Silent Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and the Zoomers.
Reading this from my perspective in a West poised on the edge of imperial collapse, staring into the abyss that follows, I can't help but wonder how we will be perceived by the youth of the 2050s. Will our own worldview be schizoid as that of the boomers and the mirror-image broomers, the sovoks?
When you stand back and examine the USSA and the USR, they're far less different than it seemed during the Cold War. Both vandalized urban landscapes with utilitarian, brutalist industrial architecture; both sought purpose through economic production and post-nationalism; both made feminism and anti-racism into official state ideology; both suffered demographic collapse due to breakdown of the family; both erected large welfare states to compensate for the disappearance of familial support structures; both used secret police to monitor and interfere with internal political dissent.
“Unlike the Allies, the Soviets sometimes demonstrated a Realpolitik attitude towards reincorporating and reusing old cadres from the various vassal state that they had conquered which led to lower-level Nazi officials finding official employment in the newly-reformed Stasi, for example.”
This may be true for Western Europe, but the USA was more than happy to make use of their defeated opponents - see Operation Paperclip & Unit 731 for example.
The demographic hole alluded to in your article was indeed no trifling matter. Practically an entire generation of people were felled on the fields of battle, from Stalingrad to Berlin. This vacuum was felt most acutely within the ranks of the CPSU, contributing greatly to the gerontocracy that emerged during the Brezhnev era. While Yuri Andropov represented that generation which actively fought in The Great Patriotic War, he was regrettably too infirm to exert a lasting positive impact on both domestic & foreign policy for the rest of what would be the USSR's final decade.
Had he been healthier, it is my belief that the Cold War would have wound down in terms more favorable to the long term survival of the USSR, and potentially of the COMECON bloc. His protégé Gorbachev--who ascended to power in 1985 with much promise & popular goodwill--proved to be too vacillating & diffident in dealing with the multiple issues weighing down the USSR. An example which comes to mind is the anti-Armenian pogrom in Sumgait, Azerbaijan SSR in February 1988. IMHO; Gorbachev's failure to deal with this inter-ethnic unrest quickly & forcefully was the catalyst not only of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, but of other episodes of inter-ethnic violence and infantile nationalisms (Baltic, Ukrainian, Caucasian & Central Asian) which hastened the unraveling of the USSR.
What a brilliant article, thanks for linking it. And as the comments are open, I will opine a bit (by the way, one thing preventing me from subscribing is how it effectively reduces the reach my comments have, as I always put myself in the shoes of a quiet lurker).
The Soviet period should be viewed through the lens of the final aspiration of the Faustian spirit of Europe. The USSR was a great civilising force to such an extent that even now-destitute museum curators and physics teachers in my native Western Ukraine in 2021 CE were nostalgic about its might, culture, and vision. One should keep in mind that one of the greatest icon of that era remains Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. That was in essence the final flowering of the Aryan race, something that used to inspire billions of Asians, from Egypt to Korea. And so I do view the collapse of the USSR as tautological to the death of the White race in America.
I disagree with the point you apparently hold that the younger Russian generation is devoid of Stalin-veneration completely. Sure, it's not the same as in the West where many youngsters are drawn either to Hitler or to the Incel Theory, as indeed the main Internet counterculture in Russia has for a long time amounted to rabid liberalism. Yet since the 2010s, one could say a certain convergence to have been taking place, with many Western right-wing ideas proliferating on that romantic, Great Power-nostalgic turf.
I also have some ideas about the Galician UPA nationalism. When I went to a local museum ca. 2019-21, I was unironically accosted by the curators with the idea that the Soviets were... patriarchal! And it was the random Ukrainians on the anti-Soviet side in 1919 who were feminist! It used to boggle my mind, but now I think I have cracked it. The local Western Ukrainians do not possess the capability of cultural sovereignty. Even the Russians could not do it in earnest for long, falling in 1991. But the Galicians never had it in the first place - hence the UPA was aping fascism in the 1940s because it was all the rage in Europe, and they effortlessly changed to CIA Anglo stooges in the 1950s because they had no spine themselves.
So even though I could even say "the UPA fighters are rolling in their graves looking at their descendants in bondage to the Jew", this assessment would be ultimately incorrect, because the UPA fighters too were avid for the "lace panties" - and it's not their merit that the lace panties of yesteryear were genuinely glorious.
P.S. Apologies for taking about the Ukraine, but it is objectively one of the lands of Red Russia of old (or Red Ruthenia xd).
Fascinating. Very on point. But I find it shocking that you would mislead your readers about the true meaning of the word "sovok". And I demand you correct it. It does not mean "broom" as you write, it means "scoop", i.e. the spadey plastic thing you use to pick up the debris with from the floor.
I can only explain your ignorance of such domestic tools by you being a real trad husband and never helping your wife. Good for both of you!
Perceptive but wrong, in the same way that Very Smart People who dont listen get to the very same endpoint morons do.
The Platonic "essence " of the Slavs is something we are deaf to. They're different.
And juggling ones emotional reactions to the other , the Slav, for amusement ? Adds no clarity. Napoleon probably thought he he was just unlucky. Ditto, Nazis.
The map is not the territory and your premises are flawed.
Reading this from my perspective in a West poised on the edge of imperial collapse, staring into the abyss that follows, I can't help but wonder how we will be perceived by the youth of the 2050s. Will our own worldview be schizoid as that of the boomers and the mirror-image broomers, the sovoks?
When you stand back and examine the USSA and the USR, they're far less different than it seemed during the Cold War. Both vandalized urban landscapes with utilitarian, brutalist industrial architecture; both sought purpose through economic production and post-nationalism; both made feminism and anti-racism into official state ideology; both suffered demographic collapse due to breakdown of the family; both erected large welfare states to compensate for the disappearance of familial support structures; both used secret police to monitor and interfere with internal political dissent.
"Which way, White man?"
LOL, commie blocks or strip malls. 😂 Just too perfect.
“Unlike the Allies, the Soviets sometimes demonstrated a Realpolitik attitude towards reincorporating and reusing old cadres from the various vassal state that they had conquered which led to lower-level Nazi officials finding official employment in the newly-reformed Stasi, for example.”
This may be true for Western Europe, but the USA was more than happy to make use of their defeated opponents - see Operation Paperclip & Unit 731 for example.
Brilliant blog post! Very enlightening to read. I always learn something new when I read your blog.
The demographic hole alluded to in your article was indeed no trifling matter. Practically an entire generation of people were felled on the fields of battle, from Stalingrad to Berlin. This vacuum was felt most acutely within the ranks of the CPSU, contributing greatly to the gerontocracy that emerged during the Brezhnev era. While Yuri Andropov represented that generation which actively fought in The Great Patriotic War, he was regrettably too infirm to exert a lasting positive impact on both domestic & foreign policy for the rest of what would be the USSR's final decade.
Had he been healthier, it is my belief that the Cold War would have wound down in terms more favorable to the long term survival of the USSR, and potentially of the COMECON bloc. His protégé Gorbachev--who ascended to power in 1985 with much promise & popular goodwill--proved to be too vacillating & diffident in dealing with the multiple issues weighing down the USSR. An example which comes to mind is the anti-Armenian pogrom in Sumgait, Azerbaijan SSR in February 1988. IMHO; Gorbachev's failure to deal with this inter-ethnic unrest quickly & forcefully was the catalyst not only of the Nagorno-Karabakh War, but of other episodes of inter-ethnic violence and infantile nationalisms (Baltic, Ukrainian, Caucasian & Central Asian) which hastened the unraveling of the USSR.
What a brilliant article, thanks for linking it. And as the comments are open, I will opine a bit (by the way, one thing preventing me from subscribing is how it effectively reduces the reach my comments have, as I always put myself in the shoes of a quiet lurker).
The Soviet period should be viewed through the lens of the final aspiration of the Faustian spirit of Europe. The USSR was a great civilising force to such an extent that even now-destitute museum curators and physics teachers in my native Western Ukraine in 2021 CE were nostalgic about its might, culture, and vision. One should keep in mind that one of the greatest icon of that era remains Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. That was in essence the final flowering of the Aryan race, something that used to inspire billions of Asians, from Egypt to Korea. And so I do view the collapse of the USSR as tautological to the death of the White race in America.
I disagree with the point you apparently hold that the younger Russian generation is devoid of Stalin-veneration completely. Sure, it's not the same as in the West where many youngsters are drawn either to Hitler or to the Incel Theory, as indeed the main Internet counterculture in Russia has for a long time amounted to rabid liberalism. Yet since the 2010s, one could say a certain convergence to have been taking place, with many Western right-wing ideas proliferating on that romantic, Great Power-nostalgic turf.
I also have some ideas about the Galician UPA nationalism. When I went to a local museum ca. 2019-21, I was unironically accosted by the curators with the idea that the Soviets were... patriarchal! And it was the random Ukrainians on the anti-Soviet side in 1919 who were feminist! It used to boggle my mind, but now I think I have cracked it. The local Western Ukrainians do not possess the capability of cultural sovereignty. Even the Russians could not do it in earnest for long, falling in 1991. But the Galicians never had it in the first place - hence the UPA was aping fascism in the 1940s because it was all the rage in Europe, and they effortlessly changed to CIA Anglo stooges in the 1950s because they had no spine themselves.
So even though I could even say "the UPA fighters are rolling in their graves looking at their descendants in bondage to the Jew", this assessment would be ultimately incorrect, because the UPA fighters too were avid for the "lace panties" - and it's not their merit that the lace panties of yesteryear were genuinely glorious.
P.S. Apologies for taking about the Ukraine, but it is objectively one of the lands of Red Russia of old (or Red Ruthenia xd).
Fascinating. Very on point. But I find it shocking that you would mislead your readers about the true meaning of the word "sovok". And I demand you correct it. It does not mean "broom" as you write, it means "scoop", i.e. the spadey plastic thing you use to pick up the debris with from the floor.
I can only explain your ignorance of such domestic tools by you being a real trad husband and never helping your wife. Good for both of you!
Perceptive but wrong, in the same way that Very Smart People who dont listen get to the very same endpoint morons do.
The Platonic "essence " of the Slavs is something we are deaf to. They're different.
And juggling ones emotional reactions to the other , the Slav, for amusement ? Adds no clarity. Napoleon probably thought he he was just unlucky. Ditto, Nazis.
The map is not the territory and your premises are flawed.