#lithuanian quote

[antikristvs]

The Devil hides behind a halo 💖

[goldensunset]

i want to properly hit people with the keykid dalia lore but unfortunately i’m a perfectionist and i believe text should be accompanied with pictures in order to have a stronger impact which means i gotta draw which means it’ll never happen

[ourdesignm]

I like how "Hannibal the Cannibal" rhymes even in Lithuanian. "Hanibalas kanibalas".

[wandixx]

Le me, reading "The Last King of Poland", a literal, freacking biography:

With all due respect, mister Adam Zamoyski, how dare you?! How freaking dare you?!

I know history, I know it will end with disaster. How dare you make Stanislaus Poniatowski (last king of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) and Catherine the Great (empress of Russia) (both would get these positions some time later btw) like cross between high-school sweethearts and star-crossed (ba dum pss) lovers. We both know it destroyed the country (not only that and the country was in pretty bad shape beforehand too, but still). It caused wars. I have romanticism and patriotic "fight for the fatherland even if you're guaranteed to loose bullshit shoved down my throat to this day because of shit that went down kinda because of them.

And you still make me actually sad when you wrote "When on 14 august 1758 he left Petersburg, he didn't suspect that next time he'll see Catherine will be thirty years later"

You can't make it look like Stanislaus is the first nice thing that happened to Catherine since she arrived to Petersburg. You can't describe them as soulmates, as two (and Stanislaus' second father figure) against the world. You can't say that he was reluctant to... do the thing with her, even speak with her because she seemed cold and later because she was wife of the future, kinda aggressive emperor and sleeping with her was easy way ticket to Siberia and Siberia is what Australia was to British Empire but really freaking cold. You can't then quote how after first time they spent night together Stanislaus wrote "In that moment I forgot that Siberia exist in this world"

You can't write about how distraught they were when they were apart for few months. You can write how they tried to tip toe around because politics. You can't add tension when they were found out and then have her husband (Paul, I think, I don't care about him enough to check) do one nice thing when Stanislaus confessed and Paul just... woke her up in the middle of the night, put her in front of Stanislaus and went "Well, I hope everyone is happy now"

You can't do all of that and expect me to not get invested. And I wasn't even that huge shipper of historical figures before, like c'mon.

And then they turn toxic.

How could you...

[unhonestlymirror]

Lithuania: - Well, it was long ago, and I'm not Grand Duchy anymore.

Romania: - God had mercy on us.

Lithuania: - 🤨🤨🤨

[uabppgang]

“Chefs butthole lick on god”

- Anonymous source (VictorLUVR69)

[ohmelinoe]

Slow (2023), dir. Marija Kavtaradzė

[paperbackyoga-blog]

Street Fighting Man

By Ed Staskus    Ziggy was ready to go home. He was more than ready. He had been in South Vietnam for one year and 29 days. His tour of duty was going to be officially over on January 30, 1968, which was tomorrow. He had the date circled. Tomorrow was also the beginning of the Lunar New Year. It was a week when families reunited and honored their ancestors, praying for luck, prosperity, and…

[ten-of-imps]

„Jei vienu ar kitu būdu mitas žmonėms nesuteikia galimybės dalyvauti šventume, jis tampa svetimas ir pradeda nykti iš jų sąmonės.“

Trumpa mitologijos istorija pagal Karen Armstrong

[elymaiis]

"However, we cannot avoid the envy and slander of ill-wishers. There are those who, having appropriated the censor's rod, rashly judge our works [...] But slanderers and moths have a natural desire to sting a high thing with low poison. Such are those people that they never feel so happy when they can insult a well-deserved good name. Jealous people, what you are doing!"

Danielius Kleinas, addressing his critics and naysayers in the dedication of his work Grammatica Litvanica ("Lithuanian Grammar"), aka Lietuvių kalbos gramatika ("Grammar of the Lithuanian Language"), 1653

[antikristvs]

The Sun whispers to you, calling you into the Sea... And you shall drown yourself in blazing waters for Her glory. As salt fills your lungs, you shall rejoice, for Her eternal light is your final holy vision.

I have no idea why I wrote this... But, as I was staring at the picture, thinking what to say, I thought of a mortal being taken over by divine madness for the most glorious She-God.

[protectionsquad24601]

I don't think people understand how intrinsically Jewish the Les Misérables musical is. The writers of the original French musical were Claude-Michel Schönberg (Hungarian Jew), Alain Boublil (Sephardic Jew), and directed by Robert Hossein (Moldovian Jew). Schöneberg also composed the music. It was adapted into English by Herbert Kretzmer (Lithuanian Jew).

The lyrics include many references to Jewish beliefs and values. Schöneberg said in an interview, "When I’m writing a show there is always a part that is typically Jewish."

However, the one that sticks out to me especially is a line from the Epilogue:

"They will live again in freedom,

In the garden of the Lord;

They will walk behind the ploughshare,

They will put away the sword."

The origin of the phrase - specifically, the bit about 'ploughshares' and 'swords' - can be traced back to a nevuah (prophecy) by Yeshayahu (Isaiah), a Jewish navi (prophet) from the sefer Yeshayahu (Book of Isaiah). (Sorry, yes, I insist on the Hebrew words first.)

"The Torah will go forth from Tzion (Zion) and the word of Hashem from Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)... They will then cut their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning knives. No nation will lift a sword against the other, and they will no longer learn warfare."

This is a quote about the 'end of days', and the idea of a peaceful paradise free from war was emulated in the song to convey a similar paradise for our barricade boys, the casualties of the June Rebellion. This is only one of the many examples of Jewish themes and references in the Les Misérables musical!

[polish-art-tournament]

paintings* round 1 poll 82

about the artist: Since 2005 he is publisher and editor-in-chief of DIK Fagazine, and has founded the Queer Archives Institute in 2015

Maria Konopnicka (from the series "Poczet"), 2017:

propaganda: I will just quote some text from the curatorial text by Fanny Hauser and Viktor Neumann accompanying the "Poczet" exhibition at Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil, Switzerland (23 August - 1 November 2020), because they talk about it better than I could: "The Polish word “poczet” once referred to the smallest unit of the army of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795), and later came to describe a group of people of common descent or performing a specific role. Most importantly, the word relates to a series of portraits of Polish kings and queens (since 966 to 1795), arranged chronologically and conceived as pictorial representation of Polish history [...]. [...] The artist’s employment of portraiture, traditionally considered a bourgeois genre, constitutes a crucial part of his practice as a means to paraphrase and inquire the aesthetics of a variety of historic artistic movements and practices. Adding another perspective to the common visual codes and historical narratives, this contextual shift becomes a subversive strategy to challenge dominant modes of representation and commemorates those who have been subjected to the patrilinear logic of history. Radziszewski’s "Poczet" is a bold retake on the idea of the formation of national identity as demonstrated by pictures that testify to (or rather construct) the continuity of royal power, exercised by heterosexual, cisgendered males and perpetuated through royal marriages. Forming a gallery of twenty-two ancestral portraits of non-heteronormative Polish figures of the past millennium from fields including politics, science, literature and art, "Poczet" deliberately reaffirms the protagonists’ expression of queerness that has been suppressed or erased from their historiography to a large extent."

The series "Ali", 2015-2017:

propaganda: Taken inspiration from Picasso in terms of style (specially like the nod to Guernica), to pay homage to the real life figure Agbola O’Brown (pseudonym “Ali”), a Nigerian-born jazz musician and the sole black combatant of the Warsaw Uprising, right wing assholes like to definine who and who not belongs, so this work really speaks to me as a counter work.

[misfitwashere]

The 3 Baltic States — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — are all very much aware that they are Putin’s next target if he wins in Ukraine. So they are understandably nervous about our election, as their future is at stake as much as ours.

We just wound up a 10-day trip to the Baltic capitals — Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn — and are now in Helsinki, so I thought it a good time to report on what I saw and heard.

One local quoted to us Putin’s 2005 claim that the collapse of the Soviet empire “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. Not World War I, or World War II, or the Holocaust, and certainly not Stalin’s planned famines, but the breakup of the Russian/Soviet Empire. He means to restore it, including not just Ukraine but the Baltic States. And Byelorussia — but he already owns it in all but name. And Central Asia, and Poland, and anything else he can. He wants to make Russia as powerful, as respected, and as feared, as the old Soviet Union was.

The Baltic states are doing more than watching Russia in Ukraine; they are acting. All 3 states, but especially Lithuania (being the closest) have taken in many many Ukrainian refugees. Ukrainian flags fly on official buildings in all 3 capitals, and in many other places. I didn’t get a chance to visit the Russian embassy in Vilnius, but in Riga and Tallinn, there are protest signs and messages — some quite nasty — in front of and facing the embassies there. (See the photo on top for an example.)

These are not exactly actions calculated to make the Russian bear play nice. Putin already hates the Baltic states, Lithuania in particular, because their declarations of independence in 1991 are what helped trigger the final breakup of the old Soviet Union. (It’s more complicated, but that’s a decent short summary.) Yet the Lithuanians, the Latvians, the Estonians are speaking and acting in ways that will anger Putin even more. Their love of freedom, pride in their heritage, and sense of responsibility all demand it of them. In one city, we visited volunteers making camouflage netting for Ukrainian soldiers, and even helped (or tried to help) weave a few strands. More important than trying to help, though, was our showing up, hearing their stories, and encouraging them to persevere. They are spending as much as 5% of their GDP on their defense (the exact numbers are not clear). They are preparing for war. One expert told us that it is an open secret that their plan is to hold out for 72 hours, long enough for the West to respond.

Which we will be obliged to do. All 3 nations have been members of NATO since 2004, and entitled to Article 5 protection which proclaims that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all, and that all will respond to such an attack with all means necessary, including armed force.

This is why I called the Baltic States the canary in the coal mine in my title. They are members of NATO, while Ukraine is not. If Putin attacks any of them, the United States is obligated to come to their defense. Putin is very well aware of this, and so will only attack if he has calculated that we will not respond as we ought. When we read reports about Russian interference in our elections, we must understand what Putin is trying to accomplish: the destruction of NATO so that it will not be able to respond when he invades a NATO ally like Lithuania, or Latvia, or Estonia.

We are with a group of Americans and not supposed to discuss US politics, but I managed several private talks with locals, including a diplomatic contact. All of them are very aware of our upcoming election and very concerned about what it will mean for them if Trump manages somehow to regain power. They know very well what he’s had to say about our NATO responsibilities.

The US has generally been fortunate in its wars (the Civil War being a major exception). We have not had to fight on our home ground; when we go to war, we fight on other people’s land. That allows an illusion of safety which we can no longer afford. It’s not just the missile threat; it’s cyber threats and terrorism. A Latvian reporter for the New York Times wrote the other day about how Putin is able to reach out anywhere in the world to attack individuals who oppose him (or who even decline to support him by joining the army): Putin Is Doing Something Almost Nobody Is Noticing

There are also the hundreds of thousands of Russians who left home because they did not want to have anything to do with Vladimir Putin’s war or were forced out, accused of not embracing it enough. These low-profile dissenters are subjected to surveillance and kidnappings, too. Yet their repression happens in silence, away from the spotlight and often with the tacit consent or inadequate prevention of the countries to which they have fled. It’s a terrifying thing: The Kremlin is hunting down ordinary people across the world, and nobody seems to care.

One cannot travel to the Baltic States without becoming aware of just how fragile our freedoms really are. ALL our freedoms — for if the Baltic States fall, so too will the rest of Europe, and so too will we. It is critical to defeat Trump and elect Harris for many reasons, including reproductive rights, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to dissent, freedom to think. In addition to that, it is critical to stop Trump in order to stop Putin (with the recognition that Putin will still keep trying even if he fails to put Trump in power). In the United States, this can seem a bit abstract. Here in the Baltic States, it is much more immediate and real.

[mariacallous]

The Kremlin has a problem with democracy – also with the European Union’s democracy. According to the Kremlin’s claims, there is not enough of it: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is an unelected leader. Russian state outlets conveniently forget the Spitzenkandidaten or the Lead candidate process(opens in a new tab) that establishes a political link between the nomination of the President of the European Commission and the political composition of the European Parliament. Ursula von der Leyen ran successfully in that campaign.

The Queen’s army of bureaucrats

Ursula von der Leyen is now accused by Russian state outlets with global reach like RT, Sputnik and others of plotting a coup against the member states in order to militarise the bloc and lead it into war against Russia. She is allegedly assisted by an army of Brussels bureaucrats, equally unelected and unaccountable. In Moscow’s story, von der Leyen’s administration is based on an imperial Presidency: she is ‘Queen Ursula’, according to RT(opens in a new tab) [Russia Today]; a Russian state-run influence and intelligence operation disguised as a media outlet(opens in a new tab). RT has been under EU sanctions(opens in a new tab) since early March 2022; more about RT here.

Russian state-owned outlets tried to tarnish and denigrate the June 2024 European parliament elections in a long-running campaign which we unmasked in this series of articles. The campaign continues now with these claims criticising President von der Leyen and the EU leadership in general.

The start of the second von der Leyen Commission by 1st December 2024 has prompted another flurry of copy/paste attacks against President von der Leyen, some of the incoming European Commissioners, and the European Union in general.

Claiming ‘Russophobes’ are in charge

The main issue Kremlin-controlled outlets take with the next European Commission concerns its members and where they come from: ‘nonentities with inflated self-esteem(opens in a new tab)’, according to the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, a onetime presidential seat-warmer himself.

According to this narrative, the incoming European Commission has handed EU foreign policy to ‘Russia-haters’. RT opined(opens in a new tab) and singled out the former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the nominee for High Representative/ Vice President, Josef Sikela, the former Czech Minister of Industry and Trade as the EU Commissioner for International Partnership, and the former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius as the Commissioner for Defence, whom RT called ‘Commissioner for War against Russia(opens in a new tab)’.

These accusations are but the latest in a string of personal attacks against Kaja Kallas in particular, who is framed as a hysterical Russophobe from a country run by Nazis(opens in a new tab).

Achieving ‘Defence Union’

Not only does Moscow want to undermine the individual commissioners but the policy is also a problem – in particular, the idea of an EU ‘Defence Union’. Some Russian officials take these plans as a sign that the EU is now turning into a military alliance, which will be subservient to the United States and NATO.

The European Union threatens to ‘provoke a new big disaster with its militarisation’, according to Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the official Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control. Gavrilov was quoted as saying(opens in a new tab) that Russia was ‘closely monitoring the growing trend towards the militarisation of the European Union, which indicates the intention of this once purely economic and political association to continue confrontation with Russia’.

Going Nazi – again and again

One outlet attributed(opens in a new tab) the move towards a Defence Union to ‘fear-mongering by the Baltic states, Poland and some other Central and Eastern European countries’. According to the Strategic Culture Foundation(opens in a new tab), which is found to be another Moscow influence operation(opens in a new tab) with dubious background(opens in a new tab), the problem goes even deeper: imperialism and Nazism.

The claim goes: ‘NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is the continuation of Western imperialism to subjugate Russian territory that was previously pursued by Nazi Germany’. The further disinformation suggests that the EU has abandoned its traditional pacifism and has now turned into a ‘financial war machine’ for NATO.

The Nazi theme is an obsession, which has dominated Moscow’s propaganda since late 2021.

Seizing power

A final charge against President von der Leyen claims that she is planning a ‘seizure of power(opens in a new tab)’ to turn the Commission into a supranational, authoritarian authority that can punish EU member states(opens in a new tab) that disagree with EU policies decided in Brussels.

According to pro-Kremlin outlets these policies include: first, the EU’s unwavering support of Ukraine as the country defends itself against the illegal and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Russia.

Secondly, the EU’s push to ‘divert cohesion funding’ to ‘arm against the Russians(opens in a new tab)’ and ‘overthrow(opens in a new tab)’ those national governments in Member States that oppose the EU’s alleged militarisation.

No other topics were nearly as prominent in the pro-Kremlin coverage of the incoming European Commission as the EU’s wartime approach(opens in a new tab) towards Russia and its alleged transformation into a militaristic bloc.

Stay tuned as we at EUvsDisinfo continue to track and expose these narratives over the next European Commission term. Don’t be deceived.

[marykk1990]

My next post in support of Ukraine is:

Next site, the Styr River (річка Стир), which starts in Lviv Oblast, then flows through Rivne Oblast and Volyn Oblast, before flowing into Belarus. The cities of Lutsk and Varash are located on the Styr River. In 1651, the Battle of Berestechko took place on the river. That was a battle between Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossacks and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. It was also important during other battles in history, between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the "russian" empire, and also during WWII.

#StandWithUkraine

#СлаваУкраїні 🇺🇦🌻

Here's another Volodymyr Zelenskyy quote, one which I feel is especially important.

"In today's world, where we live, there is no longer someone else's war. None of you can feel safe when there is war in Ukraine, when there is war in Europe."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy