#no one likes russia in Eastern Europe so much

[unhonestlymirror]

"Most interesting fact is that.... we are closer to russians than to Western Europe in terms of infrequence of FL... But! Looking from the historical perspective in the course of several years, we have severely increasing number of follicular lymphomas! :D And even looking at the DLBCL/FL ratio; it decreased twice. So, even though we are maybe more russians than Western Europe in these terms, we are trying to be closer to the West, I think"

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I love my profs

[openworldadventurer]

I lived in Malmö for six years, so when I heard Eurovision was coming to my old neighborhood, I planned a visit to see friends and watch the festivities in my old park, which was being turned into the “Eurovillage”. Of course, that was before the Oct 7th attacks, Israel’s brutal escalation, and Eurovision’s refusal to hold them to the same standards as Russia.

So while I’ve been in town, I’ve been spending at least as much time checking in with friends and covering the protests as I’ve spent walking around the festivities. And hooboy, the changes to this sleepy little town have been pretty intense.

While the actual arena and filming is being done at Malmö Arena in the commercial suburb of Hyllie, the center of events in the city itself is Folketspark, a lovely old park and event center in the heart of the Möllan neighborhood. And right along one side of the park is a long graffiti wall that runs along a rondel, a cherished centerpiece of public art and protest in the city.

It’s been one of the centerpieces of protest all week, but far from the only one:

Despite the neighborhood being hit hard by gentrification over the last decade, Möllan is still predominantly foreign-born Swedes and immigrants (like me, when I was here). It’s predominantly middle-eastern folks, both immigrants and refugees, including one of the largest Palestinian populations in Europe. It’s also one of the most progressive cities in Sweden, home to the leftist Vänsterpartiet and fairly active queer and antifascist groups. And all of these groups have been uniting for the protests

So as you can expect, the protests around the park and the city have been pretty constant. Entirely peaceful, to everyone’s credit, but absolutely constant. And you can’t go anywhere near the event without seeing Palestinian flags flown from windows and shopfronts in solidarity, or protest graffiti on Eurovision posters.

Meanwhile, the security presence around the Eurovillage has been absolutely wild. In a city where police rarely even carried pistols, there are now approximately ten times as many police, many bearing automatic rifles. When protests threaten to get too close to the park, they shut off entrances and surround protesters with police vans. Helicopters and drones buzz in the skies above, to the annoyance of locals. And local Swedes look at the armored police vehicle like an unwelcome alien from another planet (or worse, like an unwelcome trend from America).

Thankfully, I haven’t seen any particular abuse out here in Malmö, although I know there have been lots of arrests at protests around the arena proper. I’m hoping it stays that way for the finals tonight.

But just know that for every picture you see of the Eurovision events, there’s countless scenes of protest from the local residents, often just on the other side of the camera.

[chut-je-dors]

Now I'm curious cause of your tag. What did Swedish media say about the eurovision thing?

Oof yeah, here's a post detailing it ... here another... Basically they've absolutely flipped over the fact that Finnish public didn't give Loreen points at all (which I find absolutely hilarious) and suddenly started wielding such rhetoric as "the former eastern part of our kingdom" referring to Finland, which is???? like??? do I even need to say how Not Okay that is?

It might seem to some that the Finnish people are reacting to Sweden's (unfair) win and them being sore winners (which, points to them, I didn't know was possible!) with too much drama, but it's all tied to our history together. Finland has traditionally seen itself, and has been seen by other countries (Sweden included) as the sort of "little brother" to the more advanced, better-faring, glorious Sweden. While Sweden to my knowledge doesn't much care about what Finland gets up to (perhaps overlooking/ignoring us and our merits), Finland is always comparing itself to Sweden and trying to live up to it. It's a very common rhetoric and sort of, the atmosphere over here. We know more about Sweden than Sweden knows about us; we're constantly conscious that Sweden exists. Sweden gets talked about in international news; Finland, if mentioned, is often tied to - you guessed it - being Sweden's neighboring country.

We used to be part of Sweden for 600 years. During that time, Swedish was implemented as the language of the culture and the "civilised" whereas the finns living in the eAstErn pArT oF tHe kiNgDoM were seen as "wild" and "uncivilised" and just, generally a lesser people to the Swedish speaking population. We haven't been under Sweden's rule for some 200 years and STILL we can't seem to shake their influence on us. Swedish is still a mandatory language to learn at school (and I have many opinions on that, but that'd be another post). Finnish as a language has been disregarded for its whole existence. Our leading national thinkers and poets in the 19th century, who were the first ones to really push for the Finnish identity instead of us seeing ourselves as part of Sweden or Russia, wrote in Swedish. The first novel in Finnish was published in 1870.

So this is monumental to us, to have the whole word watching Finland and not Sweden. Finland has a lot of merits, especially considering how small a people we are (just 5,5mil). To have a song in our language, in Finnish be this popular, is something we couldn't have imagined. We as a people are humble to the extreme, so much that we might easily scorn anyone who is too successful (not a good thing!), and this is the first time in my life that I'm seeing the whole country rally behind someone like this. When we say "Our Jere" we mean it with our whole hearts. We're so so proud of him, everyone is, and for once Finnish people seem to think in unison that someone deserves all the praise and the success.

SO, to have Sweden in this UNIQUE moment of Finland raising its head and being "we're so amazing", with the rest of Europe going "yes you're so amazing!!", spew rhetoric like this, is just, unbelievable to me. Like I can't just believe that in the 21st century there are people in Sweden who hold up 200 year old thought patterns of our country. It's been shocking 'cos though there's always been rivalry, it's felt more... tongue in cheek. We "love to hate" Sweden over here. It's been "I hate Sweden (affectionate)". But now we find this unbelievably condescending and belittling attitude towards us raising its head, and we wonder, we thought we two were okay?? But have they always held these beliefs???

So there's a sense of betrayal in the air as well. And just, full on disbelief. And maybe we're starting to see that it has been like this all along, but we've decided to turn a blind eye to it? True colours shining through? Perhaps not... but yeah.

Sweden not looking good here!

(here's one more post that says the same that i did but was better at making it SHORT oops)

[tomorrowusa]

Sadly, a majority of Americans are almost completely ignorant about Eastern Europe. They probably don't know the difference between Budapest and Bucharest. (Spoiler: They are capitals of two non-Slavic countries in the region)

When Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Americans were surveyed on the location of Ukraine on an unlabeled map. Just 16% got it right. This map shows one dot for each response.

Yes, a couple of people thought Ukraine was in Memphis. Not sure what's up with those many folks who thought it is in Greenland. Maybe that's why Trump tried to buy it from Denmark.

In history in US classrooms almost nothing is mentioned about Eastern Europe that happened before the 20th century. This short list of items is typical.

A few (usually exotic) personalities like Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, and Peter the Great.

Copernicus (real name: Mikołaj Kopernik) sorting out the Solar System. And that is actually more science than history.

The Siege of Vienna (1683). Vienna is not exactly in Eastern Europe but the siege was lifted by Polish King Jan III Sobieski.

A passing reference to Tsar Aleksandr II freeing the serfs – but only because it happened within two years of the Emancipation Proclamation.

So if you know almost nothing about the location and history of a country, you certainly won't understand its importance to international peace and security.

And that's the case with Ukraine which Putin sees simply as a piece in his country collection in his effort to restore the decrepit Soviet Union in all but name.

As Brendan Simms writes in his linked article up top...

It is worth reminding ourselves what is at stake. If Putin is not defeated and forced to withdraw from Ukraine, this will endanger much more than just the viability of that country. It will enable the Russians to reconstitute their forces facing the Baltic states and Finland, constituting a threat that we will have to face without support from Kyiv. The Ukrainians are thus fighting not only for their own sovereignty but our security as well. Their army is one of the best guarantors we have against future Russian aggression. All they ask is our help. We should give them what they need.

About those so called "red lines" we hear about from tankies and Trumpsters – those lines apparently don't really exist.

Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton at the Washington Post write:

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion keeps crossing President Vladimir Putin’s red lines. Kyiv’s lightning incursion into Kursk in western Russia this month slashed through the reddest line of all — a direct ground assault on Russia — yet Putin’s response has so far been strikingly passive and muted, in sharp contrast to his rhetoric earlier in the war. On day one of the invasion in February 2022, Putin warned that any country that stood in Russia’s way would face consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history,” a threat that seemed directed at countries that might arm Ukraine. If Russia’s territorial integrity were threatened, “we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff,” he said a few months later in September. “The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be ensured — I emphasize this again — with all the means at our disposal,” making a clear reference to Russia’s nuclear weapons.

In other words, Putin has been bullshitting.

Ukraine’s Kursk incursion “proved the Russians are bluffing,” said Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former Ukrainian intelligence and defense official, now an associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. “It shuts down all of the voices of the pseudo experts … the anti-escalation guys.”

Vladimir Putin can bluff only so much before people see that he's full of shit.💩 We're already past that point. His imperialist fantasies make him think that he's back in the Soviet Union and all he has to do is say something bellicose to get whatever he wants.

There are now Ukrainian troops on Russia's soil and over 133,000 refugees fanning out from the area telling other Russians of what's really going on near the border without censorship from Russian state media. The weaker Putin looks inside Russia, the sooner his invasion will end.

As I've said before, give Ukraine whatever weapons it wants – except nukes. Ukraine is doing NATO an enormous favor by keeping Putin at bay.

[therealvinelle]

What does Norway think of the us

Far too many things for me to begin to cover in a tumblr post.

Suffice to say: we arguably owe our welfare and current standing in the world and inarguably our liberty as a nation to the US. This has shaped our domestic and foreign policies for the past 80 years, and we are currently breathing into a paper bag about the fact that Uncle Sam is talking about breaking up with us.

Also beware, there are matters in this post which are a matter of political opinion (rare for this blog, I know), and there are nightmareishly long paragraphs in here, so read at own risk and sorry about the long paragraphs.

Readmore for length and in case I need to make edits.

Norway, the war, and the Marshall Help

Imagine: your country is invaded by Nazis in 1940, and remains occupied for five years. When you are liberated, your country's gold reserve is depleted, many places bombed, and the entirety of Northern Norway is so badly ravaged that the population is evacuated and the region deemed uninhabitable (you'll notice, today, the architecture up north is new. All of it.). To say nothing of the human toll: one third of our Jewish population was slaughtered in Auschwitz, the country is littered in war memorials and tombstones of men shot or otherwise killed by Germans, and every family has at least one wartime story.

(I will take a note to say that it's our own occupation that comes to mind when I see the war and genocide happening in Ukraine. The differences are many, but the shared horror of an invasion, the fact that this happens on European mainland and is perpetrated by a country we share a border with, makes it feel extremely close. More, if Ukraine loses... I'll get into that further below, but suffice to say "Norway's defense budget" these days is labelled "Ukraine aid")

What are you going to do when peace comes, and the time to rebuild is upon you? Well, it so happens the rest of Europe is asking itself that same question, and the United States meanwhile sees an opportunity to both help its allies, strengthen our bonds so that we'll be on the same side for the foreseeable future, and weaken the communist sympathies in Europe. It's a win-win type of deal, and so the Marshall aid is launched: billions of dollars ($13 billion then, $178 adjusted for inflation) are poured into Europe, bolstering the post-war economy and allowing the countries which accepted (all of Western Europe, save Spain and Finland. Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union declined as well.) to get back to their feet much sooner.

It's in this context that Norway's government's plans of a welfare society were possible to realize. Perhaps we would have managed it anyway, but the historically recorded fact is we did it with the help of the USA.

Then there's NATO, that beautiful response to not only the Eastern threat, but to the naivety that had reigned prior to World War II. Hitler had... helped himself... to increasing chunks of Europe, and country leaders kept saying "Well I don't want war, and I'm sure he'll be satisfied after that. Oh no, he invaded Poland?! Oh well I'm sure he'll be satisfied with- oh no, he's entered France!"

NATO means "Invade one, you fight us all", and while it may have come to mean "one invades Afghanistan, so now I guess we're all going" and even "boy Ukraine is having it rough huh. But we can't do anything without getting NATO involved, and that'll launch a new world war :/", and de facto "if NATO ever acts against Russia that will be world war three. Hang on, what's NATO for then?", NATO at its core still means "I am in NATO, so Uncle Sam will protect me. :)"

Which makes countries like Norway feel very safe. And, I cannot overemphasize, is why we've felt safe for the past 70+ years.

Which brings us to the next section.

That border. That border!!

If you look at a map of Norway, you'll see a long and happy border to Sweden. There has been much discourse (and war, war, war) over that border, I for one still think it would be nice if they gave us back Bohuslän, but overall we are very close and good allies.

Look a little further up, however. Yes, past the border to Finland.

Is that...

(photo credit)

Oh no, it's Russia!

This hasn't always been an oh no. We lived peacefully side by side frankly always, and the Soviets liberated Finnmark from the Nazis which was wonderful of them. Then Norway accepted the Marshall Aid, however, and while our governing party had had strong communist sympathies prior to the war (and after...) this cemented our ties to the United States. Our side in the Cold War had been chosen.

Border relations with Russia have been good, they have had to be good, but NATO was our safety and security during a very tense period of time. (This comedy skit is very funny but... kind of true... as does the entire Whaledimir debacle (adorable whale charmed the country, but was Whaledimir a Russian spy? Somehow, the answer appears to be yes.) The Russo-Ukrainian war has made relations historically bad, however. (Norwegian news article on the topic, if you feel like translating.)

Where am I going with this?

Norway has a shared border with Russia. Norway would not be capable of defending Finnmark if Russia invaded from the shared border, and having Sweden and Finland join NATO makes us feel better but the defense strategy has still been (and remains) "we defend what we can until US reinforcements arrive". One of the sexiest things the US has done this year was send a massive war ship sailing into our waters, just to say hello and show off their presence. MUCH APPRECIATED.

And, again, this might seem very remote and like the plot of a bad political thriller to the cursory anon and even to many Norwegians, but we were invaded in the last century, we have a shared border, a strategically important coastline and a lot of natural resources (oil!), and should Ukraine (god forbid) lose the war, the question will be this: what does Russia do next? What, specifically, does NATO and the US do if Putin for instance decides to take Svalbard? Is anyone risking nuclear war over Svalbard? What about Finmark? What about cyber attacks, underwater cable att- oh wait there were two underwater cables cut open yesterday.

Gee, that's not worrying at all.

In summation

America is a very important trade partner, and the cultural and political influence you have on us (on all of Europe, really) is immense. I imagine most asked would focus on that, especially on Norway's thoughts on the election, but you asked me and so you get my answer. Your election was a sports match to us (or at least covered by media and social media like one).

I will say this: Trump's first victory had us worried, and we have spent more on defense since then, but his second victory proves the first was not a fluke and the United States is shifting away from us. This is not something we can influence, as it is the will of the American people (or at the very least what they voted for), what we must do is adapt. I, a lifelong opponent to Norway joining the European Union, now see no other way if Norway is to prosper (though the EU also needs a major makeover to survive now, on our own without the US we are all shaking in our knees here in Europe). Likewise, to paraphrase a very good op-ed, Norway's national security neither can depend on a few undecided voters in Wisconsin who aren't thinking about Europe or Norway at all, nor should it.

We have been too dependent on the United States, this has been mutually beneficial and if it was up to us, this wouldn't change (I am now ignoring a faction on the far left which has been saying "Guys, I have a great idea: we should leave NATO :)" and another faction on the far right which is so eager to please Trump-senpai they think Norway is supporting Ukraine's effort because we're stupid), sadly it seems the US wants it to change.

We shall see what happens.

[sweetiecutie]

141 x Eastern European reader relationships hc’s

Warnings: some cussing, stereotypical behavior, pretty much safe, not meant for russians - just scroll past

A/n: I was heavily inspired by this post by amazing @kivino, absolutely go and check it out!!

Pretty much all of 141 were in Eastern Europe with missions - Ghost and Price were with missions in Ukraine, Soap, Gaz and Price were to russia.

All of them worked with Eastern Europeans, so boys are generally acquainted with Slav traditions and superstitions - not to whistle within a building, for example, or not to pass things through the threshold. But working with Eastern European for a few weeks and having a romantic relationship with one - completely different things.

So here are some headcanons of how Task Force 141 deals with their Slavic lover<3

Simon “Ghost” Riley

Starting off - Simon loves your culture. He finds many national quirks amusing; his favorite one tho, is how boisterous and bossy Eastern European women are. Usually people tend to be scared of him due to his intimidating stance and quiet behavior. But these ladies who are barely over 160 cm? They can beat the living shit out of him with a single slipper, and he both respects and slightly fears them for it.

For some strange reason Ghost can’t learn a word you teach him, but all the swearings that accidentally slip off your tongue throughout the day? Ghost knows all of them by heart. And he can’t hide a small smile of amusement whenever he hears you cussing angrily over spilled tea or shattered mug. And his favorites so far are ‘kurwa’ and ‘blyat’

Simon is a huge fan of your country’s cuisine! He’s a big man, so he requires proper nutrition. And all the delicious meals your mom cooks? He’s nomming everything to the last crumb! Simon is especially fascinated with a godly meal called “shashlik” - he is definitely a meat eater, Riley loves him a juicy steak freshly off the fire. And eating a meal that consists purely out of roasted meat - a paradise for him.

Captain John Price

Now, this man is most acquainted with all Slavic traditions of all 141 since he works closely with Nikolai, so throwing him off wouldn’t be that easy. But still, having an Eastern European partner does give him some unexpected experiences. For example, John is really surprised by how easily and lightheartedly you and your family joke about dark topics as death, physical traumas or alcoholism. And while everyone is rolling with laughter Price is like “What the fuck is wrong with you guys🧍🏻‍♂️”

If some of your relatives happened to speak English, John will do his absolute best to speak slowly and reduce his accent to minimum, so that they can understand him better. I think it’s just so sweet of him 🥺

What never fails to impress Price is that how much Eastern Europeans care about their appearance. In UK people don’t bother much about their looks, preferring clothes that are comfortable rather than fashionable. And seeing all these people on the streets wearing luxury brand stuff, women with full on glam makeup, their hair made elegantly - it makes him wonder just how much time and effort these people put into their looks. (He soon learn just how expensive and tedious that is once you two start dating)

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick

I’m pretty sure many Eastern European countries have this magnificent dish - meat jelly. Looks and sounds terrifying, true cultural shock for Kyle’s poor British soul. Or soup called Okroshka - even tho I grew up eating it, I still question its existence, no wonders Kyle gets absolutely weirded out by it.

Many Eastern Europeans, especially in small towns and villages, are very unfamiliar with people of color. It’s not because they mean ill, no, but simply because it’s very rare to see foreigners in such places. So, when Kyle came over to your home for the first time, all neighborhood was quite literally gawking at him. And Garrick, being more closed-off and shy person, was really unnerved by it. What especially set him off was when some random grandmas on the streets asked him “Whose are you?”😭

Oh and he loves, loves, loves when you spill the tea about your family members, sometimes even in front of this exact person bc they can’t speak any English. Sounds mean to do so, but Kyle is very eager to hear about all the drama, glancing discreetly at relative in question. Everyone thinks it’s so cute, watching you two cooing at each other in soft voices in a faraway corner, but in reality you two are just talking shit about everyone in the room😂

John “Soap” MacTavish

What Johnny likes the most about Eastern Europeans is just how generous they are, how they treat all guests with such kindness and hospitality. Usually, when Scottish/British/Irish person invites you for some tea - you do have tea and some sweets. In Eastern Europe though, if you are invited for some tea, you will be having a three meal course of delicious national dishes with incredibly tasty bakery for a dessert, and, of course, tea as promised. And afterwards they will also give you some food in a plastic container so you can take it home. Johnny was genuinely surprised by such warm treatment.

He remembers a lot of random words you say: names of different objects and foods or whole sentences like “turn on the lights” etc in your mother tongue. Johnny likes listening to you talking on the phone with your relatives, his ears perk up slightly whenever he catches a familiar word. But can he actually spell or write these words down? Not really. And if your language uses Cyrillic alphabet? Absolutely no. (This thought came to me based off @kivino’s hc’s)

When Johnny visited your home for the first time, he was actually surprised to see this stereotypical picture: a bratz doll gf and her shreck bf. He was also surprised by how unattractive most Eastern European men are, especially those in their 40s.

Likes, reblogs and comments are highly appreciated! Feedback is very important for writers, give us some love and appreciation<3

[mariacallous]

Targeted outreach to ethnic groups—Latino voters, for example—has long been a staple of U.S. presidential campaigns. But it’s been decades since Americans of Central and Eastern European descent figured much in a candidate’s electoral calculus.

That has changed in this campaign, as became evident during the presidential debate in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, when Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris appealed directly to the “800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania.” Russian President Vladimir Putin, she told her opponent, is “a dictator who would eat you for lunch.” Arguing that Poland would be the Kremlin’s next target if Russia wins in Ukraine, Harris said that if Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump were president, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

Key battleground states that will likely decide the outcome of the November election—including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—have significant populations of Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Hungarian, Slovak, and Baltic Americans. Before the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, these groups were an important electoral factor, often backing Republican candidates who promised to be tough on Moscow, in whose empire their home countries lay. Politicians of either party ignored these voters at their peril, especially the millions of Polish Americans that made up the largest of the Eastern European voter blocs.

But since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of Soviet control over their homelands, these communities have been largely outside the radar of political strategists.

Today, the fate of Central and Eastern Europe is once again at issue amid Russia’s brutal all-out war against Ukraine. Leaders in Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Baltic states speak openly about the danger of Russian aggression against their own countries if Putin is not stopped in Ukraine. And so, Americans connected with these countries are suddenly being wooed again.

Take Pennsylvania, one of the most important swing states, with 19 electoral votes and a margin of victory of only 80,550 votes in the 2020 presidential election. Even a small shift among the state’s roughly 800,000 Polish Americans and more than 100,000 Ukrainian Americans could have a decisive effect.

And while few Americans are single-issue voters, among foreign-born and first-generation Eastern European voters, anxiety over the physical safety of their homelands may prove to be a decisive factor in their electoral choices. But even among voters with a less direct connection to the lands of their ancestors, distrust of Russia runs deep. Eastern European communities in the United States have also mobilized to raise millions of dollars to support Ukraine’s war effort and provide humanitarian assistance.

The Harris campaign began its outreach to Eastern European voters during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, when a range of national security speakers addressed the Russian threat in Ukraine and beyond. This confluence of circumstances has given Harris the opportunity to strike a tone reminiscent of former President Ronald Reagan and other Cold War-era leaders in her discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war: “As president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies,” she said during her convention speech.

During the September presidential debate, Trump twice refused to give a clear answer regarding whether he wants Ukraine to win its war with Russia. Harris, by contrast, made it clear that she sided with Ukraine and pushed back against Trump’s claim that he would end the war. “The reason that … Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give [Ukraine] up, and that’s not who we are as Americans,” she asserted.

Ulana Mazurkevich, a Ukrainian American living in Pennsylvania and the co-chair of a group called United Ethnic Women for Harris-Walz, believes that Eastern European voters could be significant. “We are making the case to conservative ethnic voters that Trump’s unwillingness to firmly support Ukraine represents a grave threat to their countries of origin,” she told Foreign Policy. “We feel our message can move a few thousand Ukrainian, Polish, and Lithuanian voters in Pennsylvania, and this can prove decisive.”

Such a focused stance on the security of Eastern Europe by a Democratic Party candidate has a precedent. In 1992, then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton and his campaign similarly understood the electoral significance of events in Eastern and Central Europe to voters from those regions. The Cold War had just ended, and these diaspora groups would soon turn to mainly domestic concerns. But Clinton also knew that these constituencies wanted their ancestral homelands to transform into prosperous, stable, and secure democracies. For his campaign, I co-authored—with the late Penn Kemble and the support of Richard Schifter—a background paper in which we looked at how Clinton might flip traditionally Republican-leaning Eastern European voters.

During that campaign, we successfully secured the inclusion of a democracy assistance program for East-Central Europe—as well as support for newly independent Ukraine and the Baltic states—in Clinton’s agenda. We also argued that these constituencies would welcome a discussion of early NATO membership for the Central European states, an idea that found sympathy among key Clinton advisors such as Sandy Berger, Anthony Lake, and Nancy Soderberg.

While still campaigning, Clinton soon made large-scale financial and technical aid to Poland, Hungary, and what was then still Czechoslovakia a key focus of his foreign policy message. And he criticized the Bush administration for being too slow in grasping the opportunity to stabilize democracy in Central Europe. In speeches at Georgetown University and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Clinton addressed the concerns of Central European, Baltic, and Ukrainian Americans; he also dispatched his foreign policy advisors and surrogates from the U.S. Congress to meet with leaders and voters from these communities. Not surprisingly, Clinton carried Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—three of which Bush had won during the previous election..

Today, the Harris campaign’s focus on Ukraine and Eastern Europe has echoes of 1992. Two Democratic activists—former U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (who was born in Poland) and Maryland State Sen. James Rosapepe (with whom I worked during the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign)—have established a political action committee named America’s Future Majority Fund. The group runs ads focusing on Russia’s aggression, wrapping its pro-Harris message in Cold War-era realism and mentioning both Reagan and former President John F. Kennedy in an effort to reach centrist and conservative voters.

More recently, Harris campaign ads targeted at Pennsylvania have evoked Polish heroes and focused on the long history of Russian imperialism. The campaign is also supporting a bus tour scheduled for mid-October that will visit Polish and Eastern European communities in the Pennsylvanian towns of Doylestown and Wilkes-Barre. The latter is in Luzerne County, which is the only county in the United States with a plurality of Polish Americans.

Trump has tried to make his case to Eastern European voters as well, claiming that the war would “never have happened” under his watch. (Never mind that Russia and Ukraine were fighting each other in eastern Ukraine during the entire Trump presidency.) He also claims that he will quickly end the war if he wins in November. At the same time, Trump has spoken out strongly against further aid to Ukraine, scorned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for allegedly making off with billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars, and accused him of refusing to negotiate peace with Putin.

This demagogy—coupled with his running mate J.D. Vance’s past remarks that “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine”—are giving some Eastern European voters pause. Whereas Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have embraced a strong pro-NATO posture, Trump has repeatedly argued against continued support for Ukraine and said he would encourage Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to delinquent European allies.

Unlike other, riskier targeted strategies that could alienate swing voters in the political center—a hypothetical move to woo Arab Americans with a more anti-Israel stance, for example—Ukraine has created a clear opening for Harris. Trump’s attacks on Zelensky and calls to stop aiding Ukraine go against the grain of widespread support for Ukraine across both parties’ supporters.

And Trump advisors’ worries that his stance on Russia and Ukraine is unpopular may well have been the reason that Trump—who had initially refused to meet with Zelensky—relented just days after publicly mocking him. In a brief and awkward press conference, Trump refrained from criticizing Zelensky but emphasized his “good relationship” with Putin.

I was in Poland in late September and met with several Polish leaders, all of whom expressed worry about Trump’s position on Ukraine and relationship to Putin. Serious voices in Poland are discussing the high likelihood of having to fight a war against Russia. Without question, this sense of urgency is widely shared among recent Polish and Ukrainian immigrants. At a meeting of Eastern European community leaders in New York City on Sept. 21, the vice president of the Polish American Congress, Bozena Kaminska, reflected this worry. “For years, Poland was a secure democracy,” she said. “Since the war in Ukraine, our security is at risk.”

The votes of Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, and Baltic Americans have returned to the forefront of electoral strategies in a handful of swing states. With the stakes so high and the races so close, small shifts among these culturally conservative constituencies could well provide the crucial margin of victory on Nov. 5. Given their track record on Russia and Ukraine, there is little that Trump and Vance can do to turn the tide in their favor; they will have to hope that Eastern Europeans’ voting decisions will be driven by other concerns.

Harris, in contrast, is betting on a combination of targeted outreach and continued missteps by her opponents on Russian aggression. Once again, a crucial immigrant community could help bring about a presidential victory.

[nrdmssgs]

My geographical CoD headcanons with poor reasoning behind them

This is just the way it works in my head. Don't take it too seriously. Masterlist

König

Tyrolean guy through and through. And I don't even mean Innsbruck, oh no.

I feel like he is used to long walks through the mountains and impenetrable forests from the very start of his life.

So I'm thinking about some Tyrolean village, but not a well-known among tourists one (because let's at least grant him a quiet life when not on duty)

Krueger

Oh, our certified 'enfant terrible'. I feel like he spent some good amount of time in Bavaria.

Actually, not just Bavaria, but specifically the Franconia part!

Like Bavaria is a big deal, when it comes to industry, culture, nature... But its Franconian part is considered by many even more special.

Something about the attitude of this place, about friendly 'we are even more special than Bavarians' banter screams 'Krueger' to me. Special among the special. Best of the best.

Nikolai

Ok, this may sound strange, but see a Saint-Petersburg guy right there.

Yes, he is tough and his childhood wasn't maybe some safe heaven with bully-free schools and pink ponies. But believe me, when I say, Petersburg can be very nasty and depressing.

But also... Nikolais resentment about 'the good old days, when the Soviet Union had not yet ruined everything around' is very Saint-Petersburg!

And the fact, that this town was always considered the most 'European' in Russia, works so good with Nikolai, who is mentally much closer to Price and his philosophy, than to his Motherland.

Also, I headcanon him having a house somewhere in Eastern Europe. Maybe Slovenia. Because it was slightly easier to carry out manipulations with fake documents and construction there (I am not hinting that there are problems with the law in this country, I am sure that wonderful law-abiding people live in Slovenia)

[vvatchword]

You guys remember that post I shared about Andrew Ryan being Belarussian?

I am so fucking embarrassed. I generally have a memory for geography but I swear to god I had no idea that Belarus was even a fucking thing. That might be because Soviet Russia ate it at one point, but that's still embarrassing as fuck. Belarus has only been a country since fucking 1991 and had a national identity even earlier than that. This BBC overview says it was established near the end of 1918.

More than that, it gives SO much more context to Andrew Ryan. Of fucking course. He wouldn't be exempt from all the horrors that affected his fellows. Not only did the Soviets murder and gulag thousands of Belarussians and squelch native cultures, the NAZIS came through and started murdering too. Jesus fucking Christ of course Ryan has a fucking complex.

It's made me realize there's a HUGE gap in my knowledge of Eastern Europe, specifically Slavic cultures. To understand Andrew Ryan I've got to understand Belarus.

Won't lie, I'm pretty excited about reading about this. If any of you have resources or reading material let me know.

OH YEAH and if you know of any good histories about Indonesia I'd like that too thank you bye

[historia-vitae-magistras]

In one of your last posts about Matt and Katya, you mentioned Alfred and Ivan’s dynamic, and that perhaps there is more beyond the hate sex they have had.

Do you mind expanding on that? What is your interpretation of their relationship, if it can even be called that?

LMAO god, gonna make me use the two and a half years I spent special interesting my way through Eastern European history on my way to a degree in 20th Century history, are you? About time I did lmao. Alfred/Ivan is one of those ships I don't enjoy purely as a ship, but it's so compelling. Much too compelling to the history to leave out entirely.

So, at the dawn. You have this old state in Ivan, considered backwards and rural by the Western European imperial powers, which has largely lost its verve for even trying most of the time. He has usurped his sister, who built most of their culture and claimed the power he has from the remnants of several cultures and expanded eastwards. And he comes across this young upstart, similarly held on the fringe of the powers of Western Europe. He's had similar obsessions with Jan when the Dutch Republic was new and a lasting one with François when he was the heart of European culture. Moreover, he's not only interested in and admiring of Alfred and the American experiment, but Ivan likes Alfred. Everyone likes Alfred. It's impossible not to like Alfred. There's an affection and attachment, a kind of love if I want to push. By the 19th century, Ivan wished him success because he and Arthur were locked into the Great Game in Central Asia. He spites Arthur, Matt, and Katya by selling Alaska to Alfred when he and Russia can no longer benefit. He's happy to raise a glass to American success. Alfred was touched by the gestures during his Civil War and the purchase of Seward's Icebox.

Afterwards, things declined quite quickly. Between the end of the American Civil War and the beginning of World War One, over 3 million people from the Russian Empire settled in the United States. But less than 5% of them were ethnic Russians. Most are Jewish, Polish and Lithuanian. Feliks mostly stays in Poland, a firebrand devoted to his survival, but Alfred meets Tolys, and he loves him. He lives with Tolys and his memories, perceptions, and opinions. Matt is up to his tonsils in Katya any moment he possibly can be, with a mouth full of their father's loathing of Ivan and a chest heaving with Katya's life. Alfred is increasingly their father's heir. The Pacific acquisition of Alaska was just the first step. If Alfred is the Christ to Arthur's God and lord knows he thinks of himself as a saviour, the Russian empire just looks shittier and shittier.

But he still has that reputation of being an outsider. He's not quite in with the European powers. He brokers the end to Russia's ultimate humiliation against Japan. Ivan, to a certain if somewhat limited extent, believes Alfred's bullshit. The deal is fairer than he would have otherwise gotten. But this is the high point of the pre-war Kiku, and Alfred's strange, tense and intimate relationship and opinion is still vastly with Japan during the war.

Then comes the Russian Revolution and the Polar Bear Expedition. Alfred is keener to do business with Ivan's new government when revolution breaks out. It must be an improvement over the Tsar, surely. He's not entirely in his complete form yet; he gets looped into the Entente's support, but he's pretty vocal about this thin line of hope that this may go well. The way his revolution went. There's this brief moment where Ivan and Alfred look at the world with a thought to a common future. They're looking at each other again with an ancient hope, maybe some mutual admiration. This may work. Maybe Ivan will get his shit together. Maybe Alfred won't become the heir to Arthur's Great Game. Maybe, maybe.

And then it goes up in fucking flames. Even American leftists became disillusioned with the USSR somewhat quickly. He helped lay down new states in the newly free Eastern Europe; God knows Tolys and Matt are doing their best to keep Alfred on-side. It took almost fifteen years, until 1933, for the US to acknowledge the USSR. Alfred is repulsed by the USSR even if he does cool his jets as interwar isolationism has slowed the process of him stepping into the fray as the head of his family.

By World War Two, Alfred is happy to write his redemption story and just dump treasure and materiel at the USSR. He's the balance of power between Arthur and Ivan, and Ivan is delighted to see Alfred snap at Arthur whenever he fucking pleases. But he's also miserable that he is the one dragging himself on his belly over the broken glass and ruins of Eastern Europe and doing the largest share against the Nazis. But there's a little hope that Alfred and Ivan will rule the world when this is over and find common ground in their power. It's only in the waning days of the war when Alfred's clearly suffering from the campaign in the Pacific and Eisenhower lets Zhukov have Berlin, that they shack up in some way or form. Alfred has more hope than Ivan, but Ivan is at least a little satisfied to see that Alfred has had a piece carved out of his idealism by his war against Japan.

It doesn't last. Alfred might be happy to take Arthur down a notch, but when the crown comes upon his head, as has been arranged, he wears it with a certain ease no one expected. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but what is the weight to a man who fancies himself Atlas and Prometheus all in one. And it comes with the confidence to hate Ivan's ideas and opinions even as he revels in their fucking. Sex isn't love, and the feelings he gets throughout all of it are not love to Alfred. I still somewhat adhere to the thought that McCarthy almost denounced Alfred as both a communist sympathizer and a homosexual in the 1950s for this apparent attachment, but the intelligence apparatus intervened and prevented it.

And that is where I will leave off because I'm damn near at 1000 words RIP.

[danvolodar]

Pathologic and the Town's Russianness: 1

For part 1, let's explore the naming conventions Pathologic uses, and whether its Town characters have Russian surnames.

The names of the townsfolk are remarkably non-Russian

The Kin, of course, have their names in their own Steppe language, which is a conlang that Ice Pick Lodge conscructed based on Mongolic and Turkic (mostly Buryat) tongues. So, no questions with that.

But what about the Town itself, and the names of the people living in it?

For starters, it must be noted that the foundational workings of surnames in Russian are pretty much the same as in most European languages: a surname denotes someone's ancestor's relation to craft (such as the most common surname both in English - Smith, and in Russian - Kuznetsov, meaning exactly the same), kin, appearance feature, or other such concept.

As an inflected language, however, Russian adds special suffixes to its usual roots to arrive at surnames. The most well-known of them is, of course, -ov. In the example above it turns kuznets (smith, as an occupation) into Kuznetsov (Smith, as a surname). It is also used to form the archetypical Russian surname: Ivanov, that is, related to Ivan. It is, however, by far not the only suffix used, and there are multiple others: -in, -tsyn, -shyn, -ev, -tsev, -y, and more.

Most of these allow to construct feminine forms by simple addition of the ending -a (Saburov - Saburova); but some are more complex (Olgimsky - Olgimskaya). Such complexity usually marks suffixes used in other Slavic tongues: -y in particular is often seen in Belorussian and Polish.

With all that in mind, let's explore the names we find in the Town-on-Gokhon. And the thing immediately striking is just how little surnames formed from Russian roots and Russian suffixes there are.

First, there are obviously non-Russian surnames, such as Ravel, Block, Longin, Feugel, Yan, Croy. Most of them appear to come from other European languages.

Is that probable for a Russian Empire stand-in? Yes. It was a multinational state, and there were enough Europeans among the elite for Vyazemsky to bemoan in mid-XIX century that "the Russian God" is "God whose favour falls on Germans". (Then again, hardly surprising under the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov dynasty, ethnically German and only taking German wives for generations, despite ruling Russia).

Then, there are the surnames with Russian suffixes: Saburov, Stamatin, Lyuricheva, Olgymsky, Dankovsky. But the thing is, none of these have Russian roots! Saburov is based on Tatar (patient, hardy); Stamatin on Greek (persistent, stable); Lyuricheva, Olgymsky and Dankovsky are Slavic-sounding, but appear to be unique to the game's characters. As a side note here, Dankovsky is apparently based on a name from Gorky's Old Izergiel (Danko, a brave who ripped his own heart out to light the way for the rest of his peope).

Now, is that probable? It's stretching the suspension of disbelief a bit. Yes, there had been Tatars among the Russian elite since before the day Kazan was conquered by Moscow, which reflected in their surnames. Yes, priesthood surnames could include Greek roots. And yes, the Western Slavs were also in the Empire. But it's hard to imagine all of these coinciding to entirely drown out the surnames based on Russian roots!

All in all, this distribution sounds like a conscious artistic choice, making such an assemblage less likely for historic Eastern Europe rather than Central one.

As a sort of postscript, for these who could be bothered to read this far down. There's an interesting quirk about the female surnames in the game: in Russian, unless a surname ends with one of the Russian suffixes, it retains its basic form (same as the masculine) even when women use it. Thus, Lara's surname is Ravel, same as her father's; same thing with Croy. But there's a curious exception: the Kains. Their surname is obviously based on the eponymous Biblical character, Cain. The only thing is, Cain is not a Russian word, and thus the women of the family should apparently still have the surname Kain. Yet they do not, they use Kaina - which suggests that their surname uses the Russian suffix -in: just someone related to something called Ka-, perfectly normal, totally a word, no primordial killers in sight.

Whether that is simple wordplay, a way to show the lineage deeply assimilated, a way to take the focus off the Biblical relation, or anything else, is up to the reader to decide.

[linnetagain]

Hi! I’m not sure if you’re comfortable answering questions about your fics here so please feel free to ignore this if you’re not.

I’m a russian queer who left a comment under chapter 3 of The Season and I’m super qurious why you decided to make Астарион :), Cazador and Halsin russian. In Good Men and Monsters you mention that Astarion has been called upyr, does he have Eastern European background in that universe as well?

I’m completely enamoured with and fascinated by your works and wait for new updates religiously. Thank you so much for sharing them with us, you’re a солнышко! 🖤

Hello friend!! I am slow to answer but happy to! I can't promise I'll be very eloquent or be able to provide a satisfying answer but I'll do my best.

First of all, I haven't specified Astarion's background in Good Men and I likely won't, so if you want to read him as Eastern European please do! I can absolutely see how it fits. In the context of that discussion it's the concept of Vampirism and the folklore surrounding it that is focused on Eastern Europe rather than he himself. I am absolutely not going to touch some of Stoker's vampiric lore because he was a xenophobic Victorian man (the boxes of dirt... goddamn, Stoker, what the fuck - the grave dirt of course is relevant in Good Men but it's 'the soil the vampire was buried in' not 'fifty boxes of soil from his homeland'). I could write a whole essay on the symbolism of the outsider as a threat and the crossover of the ostracized sections of Victorian society in Dracula (non-english, lower class, homosexual, the list goes on and fucking on) but this is already a long reply so I'll spare you and look at Season.

There are a couple of reasons that it fits, for me, and a lot of it is to do with the Russian history of competitive ice skating. Writing a modern AU Astarion who wasn't a vampire meant I knew I needed to find another way to have that aspect of his character where his life hasn't been his own, where it's been shaped by other people for their own purposes, and even as an adult and being 'free' to make his own choices, he's living with the legacy of who they made him, and working to be more than that. Competitive sport definitely has that aspect already, unfortunately, and ice skating even more so.

I also never wanted him to be the only Russian, because then of course you're risking tokenizing him. Cazador made sense for obvious reasons, but Halsin too. I considered him because he's the other high elf companion, but also because in game he's the one with a history of war. Transferring him to a modern day context was harder than a lot of the other characters, but I wanted him to have that similar ground with Astarion that he has in game, even if they never address it. Unintentionally, it means that in Season he and Astarion have very different experiences of their culture and identity, especially in context of the diaspora, which is something I really enjoy exploring.

Of course that then raises the question of the current geopolitical state of Russia and the wider Slavic regions. Having real world issues as a basis for plot is always somewhat fraught, but it's also something very close to my heart and that I want to write about. I also didn't want to make them all British to avoid any of that difficulty, that would be both unrealistic and uninteresting.

I think the ultimate reason is that fiction, even fanfiction, is our way of processing and reflecting on and exploring our world. It's less obvious in fantasy settings, but it's still very much there. The ultimate reason I choose to do anything is because it's interesting - and usually, in a real world context, that means it's fraught and complicated. I want to write about things that matter, to me and to anyone who might read it, and I want to do it in a way that means anyone reading from a different context might feel seen.

The reason I started writing in the first place, however many years ago, is that I didn't see any asexual rep in fiction and I knew that if I needed it, someone else needed it too. I do the same now. I have queer Russian friends who feel like the world has moved on from what's going on in Russia at the moment, or that all Russian people are being treated like they MUST agree with what the Russian government are doing. The nuance of the situation and their identity is erased by oversimplification. I suppose part of writing this is just me wanting to do anything I can to combat that. It's not much, but I hope it's something, to know that you're seen and still being thought about, and people still care.

Writing characters who have dealt with miscarriage, drug abuse, xenophobia, chronic pain, emotional neglect and all those kinds of things is because I have feelings about these subjects, I want to discuss them, I want to explore what it means to live through something like that and how it affects you as a person. Fiction is a space to do that, and to invite people into those conversations that we wouldn't have otherwise. Art has always been a starting point, and it's always been at the forefront of social and political change. I don't write fanfic thinking it's going to change the world, obviously, but I do write it with the intention of treating real life situations with the respect and consideration they deserve, rather than just using them for drama or brushing over them because it's a difficult thing to talk about.

I know that Season is a love story. That's the ultimate goal, and I presume that's why people are still reading. But it's also, to me, a story about what it means to be queer in our world today. What that looks like, how far we've come and how far we still have left to go. I want to give people a story that is real, in that sense. That takes in all the fucking awful shit that can come with being queer and out and open, and still have hope and a happy ending. It's not easy, and I don't ever want to pretend that it is. But fiction also gives us a place where we can imagine what a happy ending might look like, in a world that doesn't provide them as often as we'd like.

So. Sorry for the essay as a response, but. I suppose I made Astarion Russian because it made sense for his character, but also because I want to write with hope, and not manufacturing false hope by turning away from the world as it is. I want to write all the awful, difficult, horrible things, and believe that happiness and hope are possible anyway, despite, and including them. We don't live in an ideal world. Sometimes I want to cave to despair and think that things will never be better. I write because I don't want to believe that's true.

[hero-israel]

So I'm Christian & I'm Sierra Leonean and Irish & I'm like, the biggest Zionist in my town 😅

Today someone brought up the recent post Bassem Yussef (idk that i spelled that right) (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBIspyMJjZu/?igsh=NzhvOHhkYTA3OHZl) made, about how Jews only tie to the land is religion, but they wanna claim Israel is not a theocratic state. & I sorta blew up at the chick who brought it up & now I'm doubting my accuracy. & since you seem to know your stuff, I figured maybe you could approve or give me a hint, so I can correct my claims before she fact-checks me on it 💀

Basically, my argument was -

He can't be that stupid. History. The answer is history.

In and outside of religion.

It's just like most of Cyprus and Turkey could justifiably be called and claimed by Greece (and has been attempted to do so) (due to historical & archaeological proof, which is based on and revolved around Ancient Greek Religion).

Israel's archaeological history proves the claim and origin of the Jewish people.

Now, no one can really argue that no Arabs today should have any claim to the land, I'm sure Jews converted in Arabic Palestine and when they were slaves in Roman and Christian Europe. & I'm sure at some point genealogy becomes a untraceable mix.

But historical fact also proofs that not many people ever converted to Judaism (it was just not practical, or popular or save to do so.)

So, most Judaism today is the only inherited trait the then slaves taken by the Romans (and possibly refugees) still share.

And genetically, most of them can actually be linked in some way. Judaism is the only/mosy persistent historial tie to the land. The only thing descendants of Roman slaves still have in common.

Black people have skin colour to indicate their heritage and getting rid of melanin takes quite a while.

But take, say native Americans out of the US for 500 years, send them to places like North Korea or Belarus, or Russia or China & allow them to mix with the them - there's not going to be much of a traceable indication of who they were left, except the stories, believes and rituals that past generations pass down them. That doesn't diminish their claim to the land or their history tho.

And it's the same for Jews. I'm sure there's tons of European Christians or Middle Eastern Muslims or Indian Hindus, who have Roman slaves (or Ancient Palestinian/Israeli refugees) as ancestors & have ties to the land.

But we have forgotten our past & let go of our connection, somewhere along the family tree. And that is okay.

We're allowed to forget. We're allowed to accommodate others. But you cannot deny the history or the truth.

Thank you for writing - and for helping to spread the word about our right to live in our homeland in peace!

I try to be patient with Bassem Youssef, I really do. He's very telegenic and he's not at the hatemongering level of a Mehdi Hasan or Mohammed El-Kurd. The question he asked wasn't inherently unfair - it's just that it also wasn't very meaningful and someone who had read a book about Jews and Israel could have firmly answered it in ten seconds.

Yes, as you said - our history links us there. It is very literally the Jewish homeland, you don't have to believe in talking snakes and burning bushes to be able to dig up archeological sites mentioned in the Torah and still bearing Hebrew writing.

Youssef is being disingenuous re: whether the Jews have "more" of a right to the land than Palestinians. Is he talking about in the 1940s, when for decades "Palestinian" had meant Jew and the modern understanding of a Palestinian Arab identity hadn't really formed yet? Or is he talking about today - when Palestinians live under Palestinian governments in Palestinian territories? He can argue for improving Palestinian rights and sovereignty, or he can morally preen and splutter about "how DARE those Jews of all people!" - he really can't do both.

And note that while he's not full hatemonger level, he is pretty explicitly denying that Jews are a people or ethnic group - we can ONLY be a religion, so anyone who is an atheist can't be Jewish and can't press any claim to the land. The concept that Israel is a "theocracy" is in itself laughable, as is the notion that any country with a favored religion must be one; Denmark and the UK certainly aren't. Note that his "all you Zionists in particular are atheists" snotglob is basically a copy-paste from pseudohistorian Ilan Pappe.

[murfpersonalblog]

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IWTV S2 Musings - Romania BTS deets! (Pt2: Tentative Timeline Revisions again)

So, a few days ago I stumbled upon Carol Cutshall's Instagram posts about Daciana, Emilia, etc, which I discussed in Pt1. I didn't have the brain capacity, time, space or energy to also address this other post she made even earlier, back in July, which also includes Louis & Claudia's Eastern European itinerary!

The text is SMALL AF so I can barely read anything, but already I see major discrepancies:

Everything up until 1944 makes sense AFAIK, it's not contradicting any of the dates mentioned in 2x1 which I laid out here (x x):

I REALLY wish we could read that list in full, cuz I had wondered what was going on with the Nazis calling them "Black Ukranians;" and if they were trying to enter OR leave Ukraine.

Funny enough, AMC seems to have forgotten that in 1x4 Claudia's diary also says they were in Romania on September 8, 1941--not that that means they couldn't've been there; just that the itinerary doesn't mention it (was that a mistake/oversight, or was the itinerary made before 1x4 was written/aired? 🤔).

So yeah, I'm fine with the 1941-1944 dates.

So here's another revised timeline for anyone interested:

(EDIT: I dunno if we should consider this (old? obsolete?) itinerary as CANON, since the show itself never mentions them in any of these places/dates--this is a truly meta revision; so I'm keeping my original timeline as-is until we're told differently.)

Apparently, the "circuitous routes around the mad army" Louis said they traveled took them from:

Bouras, Bulgaria: they arrived via boat from Greece (so they probably crossed the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar, and bypassed Western Europe entirely)

Winter 1941 - Crimea, Ukraine: went northeast, crossing the Black Sea

Fall/Winter 1942 - Roslov, Russia: northeast

Winter 1943 - Kiev, Ukraine: northwest. Something about a church, but I can't read the rest *squints.*

Spring 1944 - Tiraspol, Moldavia: was the "ruined castle" supposed to be Cezare Romulo's!? that's super interesting if so, cuz that means at some point he lived in Romania near Daciana, to have killed that circus troupe IN SIBIU (Romania) & stolen their show bear, LOL. Why did he move to Moldavia? My headcanon says he wanted independence (like the IRL Moldavans), to break away from the Romanians/covens in the west and do his own thing out east--Daciana said "he was always a droll one." 👀 Vampire beef!? 😂🤣 Regardless, this might support my suspicion that although AMC filmed Cezare's castle at Tocnik, that was just for convenience's sake--we're probably not supposed to take any contextual clues from the IRL castle, the way I did for Daciana. So Cezare could be from ANYWHERE, really. Very cool!

Spring/Summer 1944 - Botosani, Romania: northwest

But it's as soon as we hit 1945 that a few snags appear.

While it's very cool that we now have an exact location for where Emilia's factory & Daciana's home would've been located (Biertan, Romania--so I was right that AMC was pulling inspo from Biertan!), there's a BIG problem:

Louis & Claudia couldn't've been in/entering Biertan, Romania in Fall 1945, and in France's Saint-Jean Lespinasse in Winter 1945, based on what we saw in the episode itself--namely:

In 2x1 Lou & Claudia were on the convoy delivering the Venus de Milo to Paris, which was already back in the Louvre by July 2, 1945. It had been hidden away with the rest of the Louvre's art for safekeeping during WWII in Château de Valençay (x x)--which is in a totally different commune from the Saint-Jean commune (which is much farther south). But the truck they were on would've still been IN France during the Spring/Summer 1945, NOT way out in Eastern Europe during the Fall/Winter 1945.

(What's interesting is that a famous art piece was indeed (temporarily) hidden in Saint-Jean, at the Château de Montal, but it wasn't Venus de Milo. It was THE Mona Lisa, which was also returned to the Louvre even earlier, on June 16, 1945.)

So there must've been a change at some point where the writers decided to add Venus and just ignore this itinerary--they even make a point to have Louis reunite with Venus later on in 2x4:

So it's not as if it was just an accident that Venus kept showing up in post-war Paris--just as Louis was starting a new romance with Armand under THE Goddess of Love/Lust's auspices.

So this just REALLY make me wonder WHEN that itinerary was mapped out, wrt to what we actually got on screen and in the S2 transcript (and ofc whatever was going on with the writer's strike); cuz it just doesn't make chronological sense to hold those last 2 dates at face value; they're just wrong. :\

*sigh* This is equal parts fun & frustrating; AMC, have mercy~! 😅

[ballet-symphonie]

Hello, First your blog is amazing and I am happy that you are back as much as you have time! I wanted to ask if you have seen the NZ 7 grade Vaganova Academy exam class that is posted in Vaganova's youtube channel? If so or if you have time at some point to watch it, I would love to hear your opinion about it. Would be also interesting to hear if some dancer / student specially caught your attention and why? I wish you all the best rest of your season!

Hey Ale, have you watched the Vaganova Exam made by Nikolai Ziskaridse? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts about it! In my opinion his dancers are beautiful and modern, but not "Vaganova" anymore. They look way more athletic (not that this is a bad thing) and have other qualities like quick jumps and turns but lack precision in the extensions and the in-between-steps. Also there was no real Adagio, which was for me always the main part in a Vaganova-Exam. When I watch these girls, I can see them in Europe and the US, but not so much in Russia.

Do you think the other teachers will adapt to this style or might it be just this one class?

Two questions about the latest VBA exam, I'll bundle them together.

I honestly wasn't very impressed, but I haven't been impressed by Tsiskaridze's ventures as a pedagogue with boys. The girls are talented, especially the girl who is the 'point' of the pyramid section. They are all clearly strong and can get through some grueling and sometimes nonsensical combinations but they seem to lack the finish, extra stretch and generous epaulment. The precision and polish that Vaganova is so often championed for is just a little bit lacking, most notably in the shape and turnout of the passe, the super stretched lines and the plasticity of the spine. This exam looked less polished than the majority of others I have seen, there were numerous issues of musicality and just some moments of sloppiness that normally get ironed out.

I also think some of the little details were neglected in favor of flashy combinations and harder elements. In the coda combinations at the end, the much harder pirouettes sans pose are better executed than the simple stuff like the tour pique and saut de chat. There are also a lot of little things, girls not walking to their places with perfectly stretched feet, exists from the room looking a bit haphazard...you won't see this in Kovaleva's exams.

Now onto the structure. I felt like the combinations of the exam were poorly designed, confusing and without cohesion. It's hard for me to tell the goal of each combination. There are 4 or 5 pseudo adagio combinations but intermixed with some jumps here and there, and then there are the multiple mini pointe work ballets that just don't feel like exam material. Some parts of the exam are so overly choreographed with formations that it's difficult to really see the skills of all the girls. Especially at the end, certain girls are dancing much much more than others, the exam is about allowing the panel of judges to asses all of their skills and grade them....hard to do that when girls are offstage and not dancing all the combinations.

Yet the content is challenging for sure, consecutive grand degage, hops on pointe with double ronde, and all at a blistering pace, which is another big change. Gone are the luxurious and dreamy adagios that seem to go on for forever, executed with mindblowing control.

Seperately, there is a huge conglomeration of different port de bras, lots of more stylized arm positions that are associated with different ballets. Stylized port de bras has normally been reserved for character exams or for the acting exam, also the mix of so many different styles (Spanish, Hungarian, 'eastern') in the same combination at times feels strange and quite out of place? Like what is the point/benefit of that choice?

The music selection doesn't help either. Each piece of music combination kinda blends together, but it kinda feels messy and lost? And sometimes the movement seems choreographed over the music rather than to it. Where does one start and the next begin? And why is almost everything at such a quick pace? I wish there was more emphasis on finesse and detail, rather than speed, especially when they're still in school.

What is mostly absent, curiously, are the inclusions of famous passages from the classical heritage. I think I saw only two brief ones, and one at nearly double time. The most famous professors of VBA (Kovalava, Vaseileva, Udalenkova, etc) often interweave sections of variations or famous choreography seamlessly into the exams. Professionals will catch these references instantly, which I always thought was an excellent way of showing the students' level of preparedness for the stage.

TLDR: I haven't liked what I have seen from Tsiskaridze's past classes of boys, and I don't think the choices he made in structuring this exam are beneficial to the development of the girls.

[mariacallous]

When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, annexing the Crimean Peninsula and bringing turmoil and destruction to Ukraine’s eastern regions, many people—both outside Ukraine and inside it—found it easier to ignore the violence unfolding in the country’s east than admit that war had returned to Europe. This included creative artists, who rarely mentioned the war in their works, not least because they feared scaring off the Russian fans who constituted much of their audience.

As Ukrainians all over the country woke up to explosions on Feb. 24, 2022, the truth could no longer be ignored: The “big war” had truly begun. Today, the country’s art is catching up to the truth of war.

Before 2022, few Ukrainian artists and entertainers openly mentioned the ongoing war in their works. In fact, many pop stars like Ivan Dorn or Luna continued to perform in Russia and created works aimed, first and foremost, at the Russian market and in the Russian language. When criticized for this by their Ukrainian fans, many dodged the subject, claimed to be “apolitical,” or explained their actions as “trying to build a bridge” between Russia and Ukraine.

“My music isn’t about politics, it’s about healing souls,” Luna said in a lengthy interview with Russian opposition journalist Xenia Sobchak in 2021. “That’s why I don’t pay attention to the critics back home trying to make me feel guilty for giving concerts in Russia.” Similarly, Dorn claimed that by interacting with Russian listeners he was “trying to capture as many people as possible with my music so that they would never attack my own country.”

But the main reasons were pragmatic ones: The large and relatively rich Russian market has long been attractive to Ukrainian performers, much like the American market for the English-speaking world. Making films or music built around a Ukrainian context could scare off Russian fans, so the overwhelming majority of content made in the 2000s and 2010s was tailored to sound and look as neutral as possible, devoid of any references to local events or personalities. There were, of course, notable exceptions.

Musicians, such as singer and veteran military paramedic Anastasiia Shevchenko, better known by her pseudonym СТАСІK, wrote songs openly referencing the war in their lyrics and music videos. Indie rapper Stas Koroliov released an entire album in 2021 of tracks inspired by the war and society’s apathy toward it. It contained lyrics like “I now understand that to become a messiah you just need to state the obvious: My homeland is at war with Russia.”

While mainstream comedies that wanted both Ukrainian and Russian box office sales steered clear of any references to recent domestic events, independent movies were more willing to process the violence taking place in Ukraine’s eastern regions and the loss of Crimea. Wartime dramas such as Tymur Yashchenko’s U311 Cherkasy (named after the naval mine sweeper blocked by Russian forces during the capture of Crimea) and Maryna Er Gorbach’s Klondike addressed specific events of the Russo-Ukrainian war, while Nariman Aliev’s 2019 drama Homeward was a meditation on what the loss of Crimea meant for its indigenous Tatar population. Other films, such as Volodymyr Tykhyi’s dramedy Our Kitties, tried to find humor amid the heartbreak and horrors faced by the Ukrainian soldiers stationed on the frontlines.

Everything changed in early 2022, when war—previously treated as a niche subject that was likely to scare off people looking for light entertainment—quickly became the only topic most Ukrainians were interested in. As missiles rained down, entertainers suddenly realized that they could not remain apolitical bystanders any longer.

Almost every popular musician spoke out against the invasion, with several (such as Dasha Astafieva and Vitaly Kozlovskiy) apologizing for performing in Russia and platforming their Russian colleagues in recent years. “I felt like a zombie while performing in Russia. I’d arrive, smile mechanically at everyone, do the set and return home. Russia has a lot of money but it’s a soulless place,” Astafieva wrote in a social media post shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion. Many artists—such as Antytila leader Taras Tolopya, singer Yarmak, and most of the lineup of cult Kharkiv-based hip-hop group TNMK—took up arms and joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while others took to volunteering by raising funds and sourcing equipment for Ukrainian soldiers, performing on the frontlines, or training as medics.

Some of their personal stories exemplified Ukraine’s modern civic identity, which has little to do with ethnicity or where you were born. Instead, for many, it’s a choice. Take Yulia Yurina: The Russian-born musician first came to Ukraine as a 18-year-old student in 2012 and soon joined forces with Ukrainian-born Stas Koroliov to form critically acclaimed pop-folk duo Yuko. Today, Yurina—still formally a Russian citizen despite publicly renouncing her citizenship and applying for a Ukrainian passport—is not only a beloved performer, whose recent album encapsulates much of the anger and grief felt by the average Ukrainian, but also a volunteer working tirelessly to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with weapons and equipment. “I dance through the bullets as air raid sirens sing to me,” Yurina sings on one of the album’s tracks. “I am disgusted by what you’ve done here, you’re killing souls but you won’t be able to kill our dreams. We are not your friends, your family, or your lovers.”

During the first months of the war, a new subgenre of locally produced music arose. “Bayraktar-core” (the semi-ironic name came from how often these songs mentioned the Turkish drones used to great effect by Ukrainian forces in the early stages of the war) songs were simple, composed over a mere few weeks, catchy, and characterized by their aggressive optimism, constant references to recent events, local politicians, wartime memes, and foreign allies (Boris Johnson, then British prime minister, was mentioned often).

What these songs lacked in lyrical nuance and musical innovation they more than made up for by giving millions of Ukrainians a sense of unity and community amid the chaos and horror. “Occupiers came to Ukraine, wearing new uniforms and driving military vehicles,” go the lyrics of one of the most popular “Bayraktar-core” songs. “But their equipment was soon ruined by the Bayraktar!” Some, such as a viral mashup sampling a folk tune and a phrase spoken by Johnson, made the leap over to English-language social media.

While simple war-themed entertainment (or even anything vaguely patriotic and uplifting) might have been enough for listeners and viewers in the early months of the war, the artistic questions got sharper as the fight went on.

Did performers who left the country soon after the full-scale invasion have a right to make money off of songs mentioning the horrors others faced while staying in Ukraine? Could writers who hadn’t personally experienced life under Russian occupation use the devastation in say, Bucha or Mariupol, in their stories? And what if they conducted interviews with the people who had? Many of these questions lack definite answers, but the public response to various works inspired by the war have been noticeably different.

When writer Daria Gnatko announced in late 2022 that she would be publishing a novel set in Russian-occupied Bucha, many pointed out that not enough time had passed to properly process the events that had transpired in the town, and wondered whether writing a story like this without conducting in-depth interviews with the survivors of the occupation was a form of exploitation. The book, along with another upcoming work by Gnatko, a novel inspired by the destruction and occupation of Mariupol, was postponed indefinitely by the publisher after a wave of public criticism.

Likewise, popular writer Kateryna Babkina’s latest novel Mom, Do You Remember? was met with controversy after the author, who had spent much of the war abroad, announced that the plot would be inspired by the occupation of Bucha. Some reviewers were concerned that not enough time had passed since the liberation of Kyiv Oblast and that the subject was still too triggering for most readers, while others darkly suspected Babkina had only mentioned the tragically famous town when announcing the book to draw more attention to her work.

However, most of this criticism was limited to social media, while the reviews in local publications were much more enthusiastic about the novel—which is told from the perspective of a teenage girl narrowly escaping from Russian occupation with her infant half-sister and trying to build a life for them both abroad—and described it as a touching and delicate work full of compassion.

“If for some Ukrainians the book is therapeutic, for foreigners, in particular for Poles, who can already read Babkina’s story, it gives a more internal context about what war victims experience—who walk the same streets and visit the same shops as they do—actually go through. What challenges and problems they face, what they feel, why some do not learn the language and choose to return home despite the missile attacks, and what is happening in the hearts of millions of children who were forced to grow up one day when their world was destroyed by Russia,” wrote a reviewer for the Polish-Ukrainian outlet Sestry.

The truth is that when it comes to describing experiences as traumatic as an ongoing war, there isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all perspective or approach. Some readers find works written about or vaguely inspired by something they or their loved ones went through therapeutic, while others find them triggering or even offensive.

When it comes to film, meanwhile, the pre-2022 offerings were earnest but often unwatched. Reviewers treated these movies as important pieces of cinema, but ones that described horrors most Ukrainians preferred not to dwell on for too long. After the full-scale invasion, however, a dark realization dawned: The wartime dramas were now reflections of our own collective experience, and no romantic comedy or workplace drama was going to stop you from thinking about shrapnel and blood.

That was supplemented by the belief that Ukrainians had to bear witness. At a time when many civilians felt abandoned by human rights organizations’ failure to document Russian war crimes (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally called out the International Red Cross over its inaction after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, while Amnesty International found itself in hot water after publishing a much-criticized report accusing Ukraine of endangering its own civilians), filmmakers took this challenge upon themselves. Documentaries shot during the siege of Mariupol, after the liberation of Bucha, and during the near-constant shelling of Kharkiv became a powerful tool for cultural diplomacy, encouraging non-Ukrainians to support Ukraine, and an instrument to counter Russian propaganda and war fatigue in the West. Perhaps the best-known example is the Oscar-nominated documentary film 20 Days in Mariupol, which garnered universally positive reviews at home and abroad and offered viewers a unique glimpse into the horrors faced by the residents and defenders of the besieged city.

One unexpected wartime challenge is creating entertainment aimed at children. How do you keep kids of vastly different ages entertained while sitting in cold, poorly-lit bomb shelters for hours on end? How do you teach them the rules of wartime safety in an accessible and easy-to-remember format? How do you help them process the heartbreak of losing loved ones, having parents on the frontlines, or living in constant fear of missiles and drones? And perhaps most importantly, how do you begin to broach the topic that there are people who want these kids and their entire families dead? This is when Patron—a real-life sapper dog who became an unexpected celebrity among both kids and adults alike—came in handy.

The wildly popular Jack Russell Terrier, who works as a detection dog and mascot for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine first caught the public’s eye in early 2022, when the dog was awarded a medal for locating and helping defuse unexploded mines left behind by Russian forces after they were driven out of Chernihiv. A video of the bulletproof vest-wearing puppy went viral, and the newly famous dog was soon making charity appearances, visiting kids harmed by the war in hospitals across the country, and even got his own animated web show and book series. Content starring Patron is produced in partnership with UNICEF and aims to teach Ukrainian kids the importance of staying away from abandoned landmines, avoiding suspicious objects left behind by the invading army, and staying brave under difficult circumstances.

Undoubtedly, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has led to a heightened interest toward local art both among Ukrainians and foreigners, as well as provided an entire generation of artists with stories of sacrifice, courage, and defiance—stories that, despite their complexity, simply must be told, and that may well become modern classics at an international scale. When Penguin Press bought the rights to Ukrainian writer and soldier Oleksandr Mykhed’s autobiographical novel The Language of War, publishing director Casiana Ionita described the book as “a war book that will be read 10, 20, 50 years from now.” But it’s unclear if enough foreign publishers are ready to break their long-standing tradition of viewing events in Ukraine solely through the eyes of their Moscow-educated authors and allow Ukrainians on the frontlines to speak for themselves, like Mykhed, before the war claims them too.