#але в будь-якому іншому контексті така реторіка немає права на існування

[knightofdeer]

As another Ukranian (з Запоріжжя, не знаю які докази тобі знадобляться але може щось і зможу; далі текст англійською для міжнародної аудиторії), I of course can't blame you personally for not wanting to do anything with Russian culture, but don't present such sentiment as universal position.

Problems of Russia don't start and end with Putin, there are classes of population who are interested in war directly or benefit from it somehow, that's how history works. But it's never all people, because even if most are complicit most are pretty passive.

War criminals on low levels do exist, and since most of Russian soldiers are in it for easy money it's not like it makes a lot of sense to pity them. But also myself saw plenty of those neo-nazi brigades that are used to justify the invasion. Do you see what I am getting at?

Russian opposition will not accomplish anything any time soon, I was personally blocked twice from their telegram chats for asking do they like do anything at all.

But Russian culture is as worthwhile and important as any other culture. I am not a big fan of veneration of any culture, but using whatever crimes committed by current government to stigmatize entire culture, works of which sometimes came out centuries ago and sometimes were made by people who actively opposed such actions.

While Russia commits enough crimes, they are not (yet) close to what British Empire of 19th century or USA of today did. Shall both of those cultures be damned for all time? This is a personal attack, but inconsistency is inconsistency.

There are people who ignore the existence of current Russian war crimes altogether, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with foreigners enjoying Dostoyevsky.

i know people love to use Russian as a marker of "intellectualism" and "counterculture" or whatever the fuck but if I see another "Jason Todd knows Russian/reads Dostoyevsky for fun" headcanon or fic I am going to scream. Like, you do you, but it really is painful for me to read. and it really says unflattering things about you.