Reminds me how in class today, we were talking about the origins of the war, a student said that Putin is like a cornered animal, he’s scared and dangerous.

Thanks Star! I am surprised by how tough this semester has been and I am only taking three courses (next semester I am taking a full five because I want to get this shit over with lol). I can’t wait for it to be over so I can take a break and start properly looking into the one and only masters program I can apply to. Posts will be back after December 19th!

Thank you, comrade! I am almost done with this semester and only have two left for undergrad. Once finals are over mid December I will get back to posting.

In my paper I argued that traditional values in Russia were actually quite different compared to what they’re portrayed as by the government, because there was a lot of… homoeroticism going on. Other aspects of my paper talked about how this particular brand of Russian homophobia evolved through multiple factors such as proximity to the west and as a scapegoat during times of crisis.

I think for my masters thesis I will mention pussy riot and delve into that whole issue because I just didn’t have the time to talk about it in my paper. I did briefly try to find sources but al of them were vey western and very positive, which in a way is good because it shows the impact of pussy riot on the west and how it had to opposite effect in Russia. But I already had too much to add to my paper so I omitted it, I had notes about gay pornography and had to scrap it when writing because it was just too much lol. I submitted it last night and the thing was over 3000 words long, the paper was supposed to be, at most, 2500.

Anyone who talks about this but doesn’t mention the fact that the West and its intelligence services (CIA, MI6, etc.) are known to have fostered and fed pro-Nazi, anti-Soviet movements in the Baltics and Ukraine is lying by omission.

This class is very hit or miss when it comes to talking about western interference or not. It is sad that none of this was mentioned.

The nationalist tensions were fueled and inflamed by the West and turned into armed conflicts throughout the Soviet Republics in the exact same way that they did to Yugoslavia.

Again, western involvement was not talked about at all, except when it comes to Yugoslavia which will be covered in a future class.

There were more people who supported the Supreme Soviet than supported the armed forces sent in by Yeltsin to crush the attempt to save the USSR.

The photos and footage she showed made it seem like the pro-collapse crowd was a lot larger than what you are stating here.

It’s like every time I make a post about this class I am given whiplash, because I feel so defeated in class but then you and other comrades will come in and say that it’s wrong. I was initially very sad to see how many people were okay with overthrowing the Supreme Soviet, but then I am brought back to a more neutral attitude because clearly I need to read more about this.

My midterm post wont be uploaded for a while, but I will give you a brief spoiler: one of the essay questions was about the collapse of the Soviet Union and I answered that “while some people (my professor) argue that the national question was the reason for the collapse, I argue that there were other factors that exacerbated national issues instead.” That’s where I was able to use all of the information you and other comrades provided on what contributed to the fall (like the effects of WWII, global isolation, etc.)

The CIS was barely mentioned in class so I am surprised that it still exists. I wonder why she didn’t mention this, although maybe she just didn’t know.

Thank you for giving the proper names. Pridenstrovie was written in the lecture slides once but the word Artsakh was never uttered. I wish it was because it would’ve been way easier to remember for my midterm but “Nagorno” sufficed.

Okay so I am glad that my suspicions of the whole “Cult of Personality” thing is not just me being crazy. I don’t think my professors have ever mentioned a “cult of personality” surrounding leaders like Hitler or Mussolini, only anyone who is socialist.

Loyal citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul is on my watch list and I will try to get on it as soon as possible. I have seen clips of it and know it’s an important documentary.

Gross is the perfect word to describe the feeling. Because it’s bad enough to hear these sentiments from other people (classmates, colleagues, random podcasters, etc.) but to hear come from people you’re related too? There’s just an extra layer of grosses added on.

I also, weirdly enough, have a DJT supporter in my family but I’ve also successfully pivoted conversations with them to avoid politics since last time that happened we got into a screaming match where I was forced to apologize.

Sometimes people know better and are just spoiling for a fight.

Again, this is the perfect explanation. I know that they know I’m right but they just want to fight. They hate to admit that they’re wrong so they’ll keep pushing until they have nothing else left to argue, and then just stop without admitting their faults. It’s very annoying and exhausting.

It was one of the most painful things I had to sit through and this happens at almost every single family gathering. This is the first time communism has ever been uttered, but at every other event there’s complaints about immigrants and/or trans people. There is also weird glazing over Portugal and apologia for slavery. So it is something I go through very often but never get used to.

I have one year left of undergrad and then will have a few months off before I can start my masters. It’ll be so nice once I can finally stand on my own, preferably in a different country too. Thank you for the well wishes comrade, it means a lot!

It was a very intellectually painful discussion that I was unable to participate in. I wanted to so badly say that communism is the reason why Cuba has been able to survive the embargo, had it been a capitalist country it would’ve been fucked. But alas.

Correct, but she hates them for the wrong reasons lol. She’s just pissed that Mark Carney of the Liberal party won instead of Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party (Canadian politics).

My aunt’s political knowledge is based on our parties and vibes. She doesn’t know what liberalism and conservatism actually means. She just hates that our liberal party is not explicitly racist or transphobic. She does not understand that the Conservatives are the exact same regarding every policy ever. She just hears liberal and thinks of trans people.

Yes, the Komsomols are exactly what I was referring to. I shouldn’t have used the word “forced” as even I didn’t truly believe that when watching the documentary, but the people talking about them made it seem that way.

And you are right, had I grown up in that era I probably would’ve been more willing to be a part of the Komsomols. But I did grow up in the 2000s in Canada of all places so my POV is limited. I do not think the Komsomols were a bad thing for kids, I probably would’ve benefitted greatly from then to be honest, I just know I would’ve initially cried about it due to my shyness and introversion, but I would probably accept it too. The movie did not plain them well enough. I do apologize if my comment made it seem like I personally think the Komsomols were terrible I just know my young self and limits on perspective given the country/culture I grew up round and the era.

I think it’s both since the inside of the book is basically the bible with the citations being scripture, the formatting, and the paper quality being incredibly thin.

My neighbours must have gotten copies but I didn’t really check, which is my bad. There is nothing about my house that would indicate anything about my politics and/or identity (like a pride flag, although I used to have one years ago but it disappeared). When two Latter Day Saints (Mormons, apparently that term is offensive to them) visited I was nice to them but I do not think they left this.

I will not spoil much of what was said during the discussion about the movie but in my humble opinion, I did not like it very much. It wasn’t terrible but I was frustrated with the teacher couple, specifically the husband. There is an anarchist guy who hates the current state of Russia (the one he was living in when the movie was filmed) and was a rock star.

He also criticized how anti-capitalist bands of the soviet-era seemed to change their tune after the collapse. He was quite the character, when he played in front of a crowd he was introduced as being from the Soviet Union, which I thought was interesting.

The business man was also unlikeable as he complained about things that were non-issues (like not being accepted into the military). One of the other female characters, Olga I believe, was odd in that she complained about the Soviet era and its lack of freedom while also complaining about the current era too. There was a lot of contradictions made in the film.

Hearing about the soviet leadership club things that students were forced to be in was intriguing. There was also emphasis on the Soviet system’s love for school (September first bouquets and all that) but the teachers made fun of it a lot. I could not tell if that was because of the classic adult making fun of their own childhood oddities or if they were being anti-USSR.

I know as a child I would’ve HATED being forced to do club-like activities that soviet children had to (maybe it was more voluntary than the film made it seem, I am unsure), but I am an introvert that was born an raised in Canada so maybe if I grew up in the USSR I would’ve enjoyed it. Who knows.

I will check out Traumazone when I have the time.

Interesting. When she showed us the video of his final speech, she told us that when the crowd began to get restless the military/Ceausescu’s police or whatever started firing on them. Then things escalated, while he was calling for an end to the violence he and his wife had to evacuate.

Not long after he and his wife were killed by his generals. It seemed to be framed as both the people trying to fight him and the generals orchestrating a coup although the word “coup” was not uttered. There was also no reference to foreign forces.

Romania is a very interesting case study and based off your consistent debunking and sharing of sources I will definitely being looking farther into it.

I feel the same, what does Paraguay and North Macedonia have against Cuba?

Would love to see what that’d look like

This is why I make these posts, so people can understand what it is like being in a Canadian university and what I have to go through regarding professors, class content, other students, and the university itself.

I am trying to tune out and be unbothered about what the other students say but it is tough. I will get through it, just with a lot of frustration and exhaustion. Thank you for the support!

Thank you for such a detailed post! Your comments about Perestroika and Glasnost were really useful for my midterm. Talking about China’s reforms as well is so important and I will be making a mental note of it for next time something like it comes up. I know for my paper I would like to mention China if it is allowed (I want to briefly compare Russia to China and Cuba).

Talks about the GDR in this class has always been very depressing. People are a bit too focused on the wall, although I cannot blame them as it is interesting. My classmates are just very odd when it comes to the freedom question. Capitalism is inherently free to them but they also acknowledge how much life sucked/sucks after the collapse (purposeful murder) of socialism.