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.

  • Star Wars Enjoyer A
    11·
    1 year ago

    My wife and I have been getting into Eurovision as of late, in 2016 Ukraine competed with the song “1944”. Which was about the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars to the CASSR, and about the 2014 invasion of Crimea. I was unfamiliar with the former event, so I did some digging.

    As far as I can find, there was heavy suspicion that the Tatars were collaborating with the Nazis. The previous history of the Tatars backing the whites in the civil war didn’t help their case, and while facing the threat of Nazi resurgence / collaborationist resistance the logical choice was to send possible insurgents somewhere that they’d be unable to cause any real harm.

    it’s not pretty history, but it did make sense. And no, it’s not the same as colonial displacement. For it to be on par with that, the intention would’ve needed to rely on replacing Tatars with Russians. It was simply a tool for reducing the risk of insurgency.