I was arguing with someone in the V**shite subreddit because I’m a masochist. That was the first time I’d ever heard the term “little green men.” Apparently, not knowing who these guys are disqualifies me from having an opinion on Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, so I’m trying to learn. Who are these people? Did they do something awful and genocidal that I’m not aware of? Or is this person just talking out of their ass?

In my research, I encountered more of Stalin’s infamous deportations, namely that of the Crimean Tartars to the Central Asian SSRs. It seems downright ghoulish to me that he would do that, especially given the death and suffering it caused. Is anyone familiar with the rationale behind these deportations? Is it not as bad as it seems, or is this a black mark on his record? If it’s a black mark, how do we make sense of that while still upholding Stalin’s legacy?

And of course, whenever Russia comes up, the radlibs and the anarchists all flock together to insist that Russia is a colonizing, imperialist power. I’m aware that imperialism is something pretty specific, and not something that Russia can be rightfully accused of. Even so, I have to admit that I’m not fresh on what DOES count as imperialism. Will someone elucidate this for me?

Thanks in advance.

  • cfgaussian
    20·
    1 year ago

    The “little green men” are a myth born out of propaganda lies of the western and pro-Maidan media. There is literally no evidence for this. What there is evidence for is massive defections from the Ukrainian military and police to the side of the rebels in Donbass at that time, as well as lots of regular people in Eastern Ukraine picking up weapons and joining the militias to defend their home towns from the fascists. There were a few volunteers who came over from Russia but they were an insignificant minority.

    As for Crimea, Russia didn’t need to send anyone over there covertly, not only did they already have a military base in Crimea that they had been leasing from Ukraine ever since its independence, but Crimea was always an autonomous region of Ukraine with its own parliament and constitution, and it was its own local authorities who organized the referendum. Polls in Crimea have always showed a much greater affinity for Russia than for Ukraine among the population there, Russia didn’t need to manipulate anything.

    So whenever you hear that expression know that the person using it is invoking a literal conspiracy theory.