#Chernenko

[mockva]

Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Chernenko, Andropov. Four secretaries general in one frame before the parade on November 7, 1981 in Moscow.

[renonv]

Messy messy comic about Erze on her gay journey to meet Ukraine and Gilbert helps out like a champ 👍

[ivanscarf]

some kazakhstan doodles

[cicenice]

ladies

concept art for upcoming AU

[russiantapo4ek]

getting to know the sisters

[kettuccine]

If aph ukraine has no fans I am dead

[takethatshitoffrnbruh]

I forgot her actual name </3

[ministerforpeas]

Problems!

[contemporaryartsgallery]

sergei chernenko

[nxcroflesh]

wahey its my first drawing of adhd legend masha "my boyfriend is an idiot" chernenko in like 6 years

[septembergold]

[funamblrist]

the collapse of the ussr was principally caused by its many contradictions, and the failure of the soviet state to reproduce itself: the contradiction between the level of productive forces and the level of socialisation; the contradiction between a 'whole' society supposedly without class contradictions, and the class societies of the remaining world. so long as the latter existed, the ussr couldn't escape ALL class contradictions, despite stalin and his successors recognising that the 'traditional' role of the dotp had been fulfilled. economically, the ussr failed to a) move from extensive production to intensive production; and b) achieve the abundance of resources required to prevent the re-emergence of classes. material scarcity and the division of labour allowed for individual interests to develop among certain strata -- people who saw the potential to 'move up' if the system changed -- in absence of class interests. all these things and more weren't enough to destroy the ussr on their own but, enabled by political actors like yakovlev, were instrumental in its socio-economic breakdown.

i don't think broad gestures towards 'revisionism' are particularly useful in understanding the soviet failure, especially when there are better works out there now (e.g. zubok's collapse) for us to study.

if you believe that correct theory leads to good outcomes and incorrect theory to bad outcomes

why didnt the USSR prevail? what were they missing?

to a certain degree the USSR was a victim of circumstance - being the first socialist state it was both navigating uncharted waters, as well as holding the attention of the entire bourgeois world - but it did also have a number of theoretical failings which exacerbated and induced issues. we say of stalin's administration that he was 70% correct and 30% incorrect, not that everything done was right! one of the greatest failings of the USSR was its handling of the national question, and its resulting commandism; an issue of the same type as the one that killed Che in Bolivia. obviously the domestic issue of revisionism overtaking the party was the ultimate cause of the downfall of the soviet union, but the cause of said revisionism was the objective situation that the USSR was in - the desperate attempts to undermine the non-aligned movement, the wrong notion of 'peaceful coexistence' the ussr promulgated, etc were all reactions to the fact that the USSR had, like it or not, locked itself into an irreversible nuclear standoff with the USA that it knew it could not actually follow through on. if you want to know what the ussr was missing, look to the state carrying on the torch. the PRC diverged significantly on the questions that destroyed the USSR, and it survived as a result. the USSR tried to divide the world between itself and the US, the PRC instead integrates itself into the entire world; the USSR tried to export revolution and build a dependent bloc, the PRC refuses to interfere in the self-development of other nations; the USSR established the principle of mutually assured destruction, and the PRC stated 'we are against it, but we are not afraid of it.'

[edelweissjpg]

(upd: this has now been kindly updated by one of the admins 🥹, but the info I‘m referring to used to be there since like 2009, so I‘ll leave this post just for info)

oh, c’mon, naming a ukrainian character after one of the most anti-ukrainian figures in history?

I know no official name was given to her, but this shit just pissed me off, why would they list this fact on her wiki page as relevant to Ukraine? Ekaterina II abolished the ukrainian (semi) autonomy Cossack Hetmanate of 1764, ordered brutal destruction of Zaporiz'ka Sich in 1775 (a cossack state-military centre), EXPANDED. SERFDOM. INTO LEFT BANK AND SLOBOZHANSCHYNA DO I EVEN HAVE TO CONTINUE?? Russification?? Crimean Khanate Colonisation?? And that just being of the top of me head?? Hello?

I know it’s not that deep and Hetalia is meant to be irony BUT HOLY SHIT.

And also using russified version of her name Ekaterina as a reference to Katiusha rocket systems, ironically, the descendant of which, (GRAD BM-21) is bombing Ukrainian cities right now FUCK OFF. At least use Kateryna, the Ukrainian version.

From Himaruya’s suggested versions I prefer Maria; as Mariia and pet names Marichka (like ukrainian military mascot hehe), Marusya (a reference to a common Ukranian folklore character, Marusya Boguslavka (a rlly smart woman who helped cossaks out of captivity), Marusya Churai (semi-legendary folk songwriter of 17th century), Marusya from a folk song who poisoned a guy cuz he cheated, Marusya Sokolovska (a female rebel leader during 1917-21 war of independance) AND MANY MORE. I LOVE MY UKRAINIAN MARICHKAS.

SO ON THIS PAGE AT LEAST, SHE’S CALLED MARIIA (MARICHKA/MARUSYA/MARI) CHERNENKO. FIGHT ME.

[heedzhee-art]

more of my yapping about the fandom-given hetalia Ukraine name

I don't like the Katyusha Ukraine because in my opinion it doesn't suit her, and people constantly use the name incorrectly. basically, Katyusha is like a playful version of "Kateryna/Katya", but people write it like a formal first name pretty often (Katyusha Chernenko), no blame since it comes from a place of unfamiliarity with slavic languages, it's just a bit annoying. plus the word is associated with that one russian song that became popular during World War II god it just doesn't suit her at all in my opinion 😭

"Katyusha" is a diminutive form of the name Kateryna, except it's of russian origin; in Ukrainian the diminutive forms of the name are "Katrusya", "Katerynka", or less commonly "Katrunya"

historically, the russian empire and later the soviet union promoted russian at the expense of Ukrainian, leading to the suppression of Ukrainian culture and language. of course, some Ukrainians use Katyush/Katyusha as playful nicknames, because the blending of Ukrainian and russian, that's been caused by reoccurring russification, migration, and political influence, lead to mixed usage in everyday speech – it's a normal thing (surzhyk). it's not a crime to use this word or anything, I just find it ironic that the character that represents a nation constantly oppressed by russian imperialism, in hetalia only exists as a dependant and less important character to give russia more endearing relationships and make him more interesting, and then the Japanese fandom coincidentally has also chosen the russian word for her name (I assume it's after that popular soviet song)

really I feel there's not much Ukrainian about canon hetalia Ukraine, which seems to be a very common feeling among many of my Ukrainian friends who know about the character :/ they think she's cute and pretty, but when it comes to national identity and culture, she is not relatable even on a stereotypical level, and has little depth as a character

anyway, if you want some Ukrainian first names, here's a list of the ones I think sound fitting (SUBJECTIVE OPINION 😡)

🇺🇦🔱🌻🍲🇺🇦🌾🌻🍞🇺🇦🍲🌾

Myroslava (love this one) - slavic origin, a combination of мир and слава, meaning peace and glory. it suits resilient and strong people

Olha/Olya (ОЛЯ UA!!!!!!!) - scandinavian origin (ukr. variant of Hélga). yea it's a really old and really common name that associates with the Kyivan Rus era, anyway I use it because of a meme and due to every Olya I've met building this collective Olya in my head that's literally how I also see Ukraine. she's such an Olya. it's hard to explain

Olena (not Olyena) - greek origin (ukr. variant of Helénē) came to Ukrainian through Church Slavic "Yelena" (not Yelyena)

Lesya - Ukrainian name deriving from "Olesya" which in turn derives from "Oleksandra". I'm very biased about it because it's one of my favourite female names, and also many Ukrainians associate it with Lesya Ukrayinka, which is the self-given title of an outstanding Ukrainian writer, translator and cultural figure

Halyna - likely greek origin and comes from "galēnē". I like it because I get to call her Halynka/Halya, I think it sounds cute

Tetyana - common slavic name, likely of roman origin, it just has a tender and pretty sound to it

these names are common in some or all other slavic languages, differing in varied phonetics

😑 I am NOT gatekeeping people from calling her "Kateryna", I just personally dislike Katyusha or russian Yekatyerina for her, and in my opinion the old russian-speaking fandom did a better job naming her Olha, even if that popularized the russian transcription for this same name (Olga)

my Ukraine is named Olha Tkachenko. I just like it the most and I've kind of grown used to it. whateva

I will kiss you.

[soup-mother]

imagining one of those really sorta...aggro communist blogs but who always gets the soviet leader wrong.

"Gorbachev should have kept going west"

"Andropov should have gulag'd your family"

"Brezhnev didn't kill enough kulaks"

"Chernenko is the reason your country even exists "

etc. just something to think about.

[tanadrin]

Created an account just for this question: what was the proposed partition for the rest back before USSR collapsed?

There isn’t a map in the book or anything, but Andropov’s idea was non-ethnic roughly-sensible economic divisions—a few dozen even. He was by no means a democratic reformer like Gorbachev, but he was in favor of substantial economic reforms, and he explicitly didn’t want these new republics to be loci of nationalism. But he was replaced by Chernenko rather than his protege Gorbachev, so all his reform ideas got shelved until Gorbachev finally came to power, and by then things were even more dire.

I think the later sketches under Gorbachev were for a smaller number of republics to replace the RSFSR but by then there as just much less political and practical room to maneuver. And Gorbachev’s focus was divided—he wanted to reform economic policy, reform politics, *and* reform the USSR’s foreign policy, and in any case the only one of these things that didn’t get him yelled at was the last one—you get the sense that the West is so pleased that he’s ending the Cold War he just wants to spend all his time hanging out with Western leaders and collecting accolades and not dealing with the chaos in Moscow.