#this is essentially what happened to the USSR

[16woodsequ]

Things People Seem to Forget About Steve Rogers (aka the past is complex)

Things in the future didn't happen in a vacuum, and while Steve missed a lot of stuff while he was in the ice, he would have seen the roots of things like the Civil Rights, Women's Rights and even LGBTQ+ Rights movements in his time.

While I'm sure Steve encountered a lot of people expecting certain right-wing behaviours from him, due to his birth year and the things he missed in the ice, this doesn't mean he would act that way—even right out of the ice.

But first lets take a look at the things Steve missed and see what he did in fact know:

The atom bomb. Steve never saw the atomic fallout, but what did he see? Hydra bombs literally being flown to his home city. There is also a possibility that as a specialty team, he learned about the German Nuclear Program during the war. His unit was tied to the Strategic Science Reserve, so I wouldn't be surprised if between that, and Hydra's bomb initiatives, Steve was well aware of the potential of a bomb threat. I doubt Steve has clearance to know about the Manhattan project, and I think he would be horrified to learn about the impact of the atom bomb on Japan (especially since he essentially thwarted the same thing from happening to New York) but majorly powerful bombs would not surprise him.

• The Cold War. Steve may not have experience the Cold War, but he grew up surrounded by the outcome of the First World War after the Communist take over of Russia. The debates surrounding Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism aren't new. Steve would have grown up with them and would probably be familiar with American pro-capitalist, anti-communist rhetoric. But would he agree?

Here's some things we know about Steve: He's an artist, he grew up during the Depression which was heavily mitigated by socialist measures, he grew up poor, he grew up disabled. As an artist Steve would be well aware of the debates between the political movements, and with his background, and the success of Roosevelt's New Deal reforms, it would not surprise me if Steve leaned more towards the Socialist side of the scale.

All this to say: Steve would not be unfamiliar with the tension between Russia and the USA. Especially since even though they were allies during the war, there were already concerns that the USSR wasn't so much 'liberating' the countries they drove Germany out of, as putting them under new management.

Steve would be familiar with the tensions underlying the Cold War, and his background might lead him to have a critical view of some of the pro-Capitalist propaganda that came out during the Cold War. While I don't think Steve would approve of Russia's methods and the ultimate outcome of Communism there, I don't think he would approve of the Red Scare Witch Hunt that happened in the States either.

• Civil Rights Movement. While Steve missed the major changes that occurred during the 50s and 60s, he would not be unfamiliar with movements for equality. Steve would also not be unaware of the inequality that minorities faced in his country.

For example:

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in 1909 and is still run today. The NAACP fought and fights against discrimination and advocates for equality.

In the 30s President Roosevelt responded to "to charges that many blacks were the "last hired and first fired," [his administration] instituted changes that enabled people of all races to obtain needed job training and employment. These programs brought public works employment opportunities to African Americans, especially in the North" (Link)

"The first precedent-setting local and state level court cases to desegregate Mexican and African American schooling were decided during [the late 1930s]" (Link)

In 1941 thousands of Black Americans threatened to march on Washington for equal employments rights which pushed Roosevelt to issue an executive order that "opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin." (Link)

The Double Victory or Double V Campaign during the war was an explicit campaign to win the war against fascism in Europe and the war against racism as home.

All this to say, Steve would not be unfamiliar with many of the issues tackled during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s.

Not only that, but Steve led a multi-racial special unit during the war during a time of active army segregation. Not only does he have a Black man on his team, but also a Japanese man. This would have most definitely led to backlash from higher command as well as discrimination from other units against Jones and Morita. Steve and the entire Howling Commandos would be explicitly aware of prejudice against two of their members and likely had to fight for them many times.

• Anything space travel. It's true Steve wouldn't know anything about attempts to reach the moon. But there were still several space discoveries he could know about, especially since he and Bucky are clearly interested in scientific discoveries, considering how they went to the Stark Exbo before Bucky shipped out.

Some discoveries:

Hubble's Law: In 1929 Hubble published evidence for an ever expanding universe, and thus provided evidence of the Big Bang theory.

1930: Discovery of Pluto (makes me chuckle to think this is a relatively new discovery for Steve and he wakes up to find it is a dwarf-planet now. You think Millennials are protective of Pluto? I think Steve would be too 😆.)

1937: "the first intimation that most matter in the universe is `dark matter'"

Personally I think Steve would be absolutely amazed by the advances in space travel.

• Women's Rights. Like with Civil Rights, while Steve may have missed the large movements during the 50s and 60s, he was around for the early movements. The 60s movement is called Second Wave Feminism for a reason. This is because there was already many pushes for women equality in Steve's time.

For example:

1920: White women win the right to vote. This means Steve's mother first voted in his lifetime. I feel this alone would make Steve heavily aware of inequality faced by women. (As a side note I feel that Sarah always emphasized voting to Steve since it was such a major development in her lifetime.)

Also in the 20s the Flapper trend rose, along with hemlines. Women's skirts were shorter and they smoked and drank with men. Middle-class and working-class women also worked outside of the home. The 1920s-1930s 'modern' woman is very different from the Victorian vision of a woman in petticoats and skirts.

Early Birth Control movement: Was "initiated by a public health nurse, Margaret Sanger, just as the suffrage drive was nearing its victory. The idea of woman’s right to control her own body, and especially to control her own reproduction and sexuality, added a visionary new dimension to the ideas of women’s emancipation. This movement not only endorsed educating women about existing birth control methods. It also spread the conviction that meaningful freedom for modern women meant they must be able to decide for themselves whether they would become mothers, and when."

1936: A Supreme Court decision declassified birth control information as obscene. Legalised doctor-prescribed contraceptives.

WW2 Watershed: Women serve in the army and work factory jobs. The government establishes universal childcare while women work.

Women also wore pants and form fitting clothes to work in factories. We also see Peggy wearing pants during the last assault on Hydra. While Steve may need to get used to modern fashion, he would already be familiar with the 'morale outrage' over women's clothes in his time, and probably try to manage his surprise in private as well as possible.

• LGBTQ+ Rights. Like with the rest of the equality movements, LGBTQ+ rights movements also started before the late 1900s.

1924: "Society for Human Rights is founded by Henry Gerber in Chicago. The society is the first gay rights organization as well as the oldest documented in America." This organisation was broken up soon after founding due to arrests, but it published "the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom."

In the 1920s and 30s "the gay and lesbian movement started taking shape. Social analysts began rejecting prior medical definitions of "inversion" or "homosexuality" as deviant.

Communities of men and women with same-sex affiliations began to grow in urban areas. Their right to gather in public places such as bars was tenuous, and police raids and harassment were common." (Link)

WW2 Watershed: While many LGBTQ people lived in rural areas or outside 'queer neighbourhoods' the war brought people from all backgrounds together. "As with most young soldiers, many had never left their homes before, and the war provided them an opportunity to find community, camaraderie, and, in some cases, first loves. These new friendships gave gay and lesbian GIs refuge from the hostility that surrounded them and allowed for a distinct subculture to develop within the military."

They still had to hide their identities for fear of persecution and a 'blue discharge', however "Gay and lesbian veterans of World War II became some of the first to fight military discrimination and blue discharges in the years following the war."

It's unclear how much Steve would have known about the gay and lesbian rights movement. But in the comics he has a gay friend Arnie Roth, and there are many meta posts (X X X) about how Steve may have lived in a queer neighbourhood.

And, according to my history professor, gay and lesbian soldiers were often protected by their friends in the army instead of outed. This is not to downplay the discrimination and pain outed veterans faced, but there was a comaraderie and understanding that developed between soldiers that protected many gay soldiers.

• Computer and the internet. The seeds of modern computers began during World War Two. Arguably it began earlier with Ada Lovelace. While technology has changed a lot for Steve, there is a long history of it's development.

Colossus Computer: Kept secret until the 70s, it's unclear if Steve's association with the SSR, Peggy (who was a code breaker before SSR) and Howard, would have led him to know anything about the "the world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer", but we see electric screens and machines being used in Captain America: The First Avenger. So he would know something of those mechanisms.

Also the first American TV was broadcasted in the 1939 World Fair, And since Steve and Bucky are already shown going to a science fair, I believe it is reasonable for Steve to know about the concept of television, though it looks much different in modern day.

• Rise of Neo-Nazis. Steve already saw the rise of fascism in his own country before the war, so while I think he would be horrified and saddened to learn of the Neo-Nazi movement, I don't think he would be surprised.

Because:

Eugenics: A large part of the Nazi campaign, this part of the movement originated and was inspired by the United States Eugenics movement. "It is important to appreciate that within the U.S. and European scientific communities these ideas were not fringe but widely held and taught in universities."

Lobotomies and institutionalisations were part of the treatments for disabled and 'weak-minded' individuals during Steve's time. With Sarah being a nurse it is likely Steve knew of these treatments and more. And as a disabled child of immigrants, I have no doubts Steve brushed up with eugenics beliefs many times.

1939: More than 20,000 people attended a Nazi rally in Madison Square while "[a]bout 100,000 anti-Nazi protesters gathered around the arena in protest".

In the comics Steve canonically has a Jewish friend, Arnie Roth. If he wasn't part of the protests against the Nazi rally, he would have heard about it and known about the rise of antisemitic sentiment in the US before the outbreak of the war.

So Where Does That Leave Us?

Steve has a history of anti-racist behaviour. While he would still have a lot to learn from the Civil Rights Movement and no doubt has unconscious biases he grew up with, he also explicitly builds a multi-racial team that would have led to clashes with systemic racism in the army. This would have inevitably led to him and the Howling Commandos taking an anti-racist stance in protection of their members.

Would Steve say the N-word? Likely not. The N-Word already held negative connotations by the 19th and early-20th century. I doubt Jones would be willing to follow a man who would knowing use the insult. 'Coloured' or 'Negro' were seen as the more acceptable terms. So Steve may use those words at first, instead of 'Black' or 'African-American'. 'Negro' is a controversial term for some Black Americans, so this would be something for him to learn, but he would not purposely by insulting or hurtful. And I believe he would adapt as quickly as possible upon learning.

Steve saw the early steps of many social movements. Given what we know about Steve—artist, disabled, immigrant, poor, raised by a single mom, gay and Jewish friend, potentially lived around queer people, worked with Peggy and smiled when she punched a sexiest, and built a multi-racial team—Steve would not only be aware of the social movements of his time, but he would be happy to learn of the developments after he went into the ice.

While it would take some time for him to learn all the changes that happened, Steve's background would led him to be pleased with the changes in society. This is the opposite of being racist, sexist, and homophobic. Some things might take some adjusting for Steve to get used to, but he is already open-minded and has a frame of reference for many of the social changes that happened.

People sometimes bring up Steve's Catholic upbringing to argue about some beliefs he might have. But while I do think this upbringing would lead to some biases, I think Steve's life experience helped counter, or helped him unlearn some of those biases, even before he hit the ice.

Also, as an Irish-Catholic, Steve would have faced some discrimination of his own. It is most certainly not on the same level as other minorities, and things were better in the 20th century. Being very clear, any discrimination Steve faced for being Irish-Catholic would not be systemic or commonplace like racism. But adding his heritage to the rest of Steve's background helps give us a better idea of why he was already open to social movements like the Civil Rights movement before the ice. And it may have made him already more understanding of LGBTQ+ people, who he may have lived around, even if he grew up being taught certain biases.

Other Things We Forget About Steve

He is quite tech-savvy. While Steve would have a lot to learn, we know he is capable. There are a lot of jokes about his technical know-how in Avengers, but I think he's actually managing very well considering it's probably only been a few weeks or months since he came out of the ice.

Examples:

Deleted scene where we see Steve using a laptop in his apartment. He presses the spacebar to pause a video, which is a keyboard shortcut. So not only can he set up a laptop to watch a video, but he already knows key shortcuts.

Deleted scene where waitress mentions 'wireless'. Steve is confused and thinks she means radio. But I think he actually knows about wi-fi at this point, but probably had never heard it referred to as 'wireless' before. By this point he knows radio is not as common, so his real confusion is why the waitress is offering him 'free radio'. If she had said free wi-fi (the more typical phrase in my opinion) I think he would have understood.

Canon scene of Steve helping Tony fix the Helicarrier engines. This is my favourite evidence because Tony asks Steve to look at the relays and Steve makes a quip that they 'seem to run on some sort of electricity' indicating he is out of his depth. But we never see Tony tell Steve what to do. Steve figures out how to fix the relays himself. Tony is busy with the debris in the rotors and the next thing we see is Steve telling Tony the relays are all good.

Steve is much better at adapting and figuring out technology than we give him credit for. This doesn't mean he won't be anxious or uncomfortable with the sheer amount of stuff he has to learn (especially if everyone keeps making jokes about it to him). But by 2014, it's clear he's already mastered all of it, which is amazing when you think about it, because that's only two years of learning.

Steve is very book smart. In the comics Steve goes to art college, implying he finished high school. Even if he did drop out of high school to work, we know Steve is very smart.

We see him unloading a whole suitcase of books in the barracks before he got the serum.

The mental math is must take to throw the shield at the right angles for it to bounce back is insane.

Steve is also known as a master tactician. So it is clear he has the brains and smarts to run his team during the war. Not only that, but he is not just Captain in name. He actually has that rank, which means he passed the Captain's exam. I also have a feeling he would have needed to pass some kind of evaluation to get the serum in the first place.

We see in Steve's 2014 apartment that his bookshelves are full of history books. Steve is a veracious reader and spends a lot of his time catching up on what he missed. Things he didn't learn or were taught differently growing up would definitely exist, but Steve is actively working to counter that.

Steve would swear. Swearing has been a constant throughout all of history. So too, the backlash against profanity. Even if Steve grew up being told not to swear he would have heard it. And, Steve became a soldier. If he didn't swear before the war, he most definitely picked up some of it then.

I think Captain America isn't supposed to swear, and I think Steve would be aware of this perception of the symbol of him. But I think when Steve is comfortable with people, he would swear. We see in Avengers he doesn't swear, but in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he does.

We joke about Steve and the "Language" line, but I think that line has something to do with Steve's history of being perceived as a symbol and as Captain America since he said it 'just slipped out'. So, while Steve may have been encouraged not to swear growing up, and expected not to swear as Captain America, I fully believe that soldier, veteran, and Irish man Steve Rogers does swear.

Wrap up

I hope you liked this deep dive into Steve's history and character.

I think it can be easy to take the past as a lump sum and view everyone in the past through one lens. We know the past was racist, sexist, and homophobic, so we view everyone from the past that way.

And while it's true things were different back then, people were most definitely fighting for change and aware of the issues. There is also a lot of nuance to the past, and a lot that can be gleaned from what we know about Steve.

It's true that Steve would have a lot to learn when it comes to terminology and specific technology, but I believe Steve's background would prepare him for a lot of the social changes that happened after he went into the ice.

[centrally-unplanned]

Thought this was a very straightforward summary of what is right on the tin - how is Cuban agriculture so bad? And it is bad, well below its peers and where it could be given its inherent assets. It is of course a story of regime incompetence, but what is revealing is that it was always a mess. Most communist countries had a phase we can describe as "revolutionary incompetence" - when they first come to power, they believe their own hype and think the Spirit of the People can substitute for fertilizer and proper incentives. They try it, it crashes, and then at some point they wake up and the technocrats take power and partially right the ship. This happened in some form in Cuba, but only marginally - throughout the Cold War Cuba was essentially propped up by subsidies and forced markets via the Soviet Union, and the problems of the system were left to wither on the vine (zing). After the Cold War, forces like rapid urbanization made reforms harder to pursue, and things like revenue from the tourism industry and handouts from Venezuela continued to allow the state to push the problem off. Cuba is definitely in another of its periodic crises, but those didn't really dislodge things in the past.

The article does spend a bit too much time going "no, the US trade ban isn't a major cause of anything", which is understandable but like everyone already knows that so it is a bit annoying. Otherwise it is very well written.

Honestly makes you think that the worst thing that ever happened to Cuban Communism was that none of those CIA assassinations of Fidel ever hit the mark. The deaths of Mao & Stalin were absolutely what allowed China & the USSR to enter their more reasonable phases; Cuba just never got the same opportunity because that damn founder clinged to power for so long. Who knows ofc, but does seem ironic!

[universal-casey]

Can you explain more abt your $wap au? I wanna know more abt America and such, is America kinda evil and such? or?

Also anything cute that $wap America does? or Russia? USSR?

Side note: My CH lore is not as consistent in the $wap AU because it’s my fun AU, hence why Russia is a kid and not in his 30s-50s like he usually is!

$wap’s basic premise is “What if Cold War, but Soviet is the USA and America is the USSR”. In this world, Soviet’s revolution occurred in 1776, and his father survived the revolution and has chilled out considerably now that Soviet occupies previously Russian Empire land.

America’s revolution happened in 1917, in where he was originally a country bumpkin type. Britain was a much more ruthless nation, and was in turn killed. This allowed England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland to govern themselves once more.

Socialism is more of the norm in this AU, because of Soviet, and capitalism is what America brings to the world as a rising popular economic system: highly focused on individualism, being the best, and how others perceive you.

Socialism is more subdued. Essentially it’s my perfect vision of an economic system lmao.

$wap America ($am) is loud, opinionated, flamboyant, an idea thief, and very judgmental. He’s a loan shark who is only out for himself and no one else. What eventually kills him (as he falls in 1991 like modern Soviet), is both radiation poisoning, and actually becoming a better person as he gets to know Soviet and his children.

$wap Soviet ($oviet or $ov) is still rather stoic, but has a goofy side to him. He’s very fatherly, loves his kids. Loves his dad, too. Just a very teddy bear kind of guy. He’s an Olympic-level archer as well. A bit of a people-pleaser, which has led to Soviet and his government stagnating a bit. America brings that spark back to him and instills a sense of urgency (American tech evolves VERY FAST compared to Soviet’s snail’s pace). Beurocracy (however the fuck that’s spelled) is Soviet’s biggest weakness. Misses his wife.

$am dresses in drag VERY often. In fact, he bonds really strongly with Belarus because he takes her to every mother-daughter event he can.

Russia wants to be an archer like his pops, so he’s often begging to go on $ov’s hunting trips. He likes $am, but he likes poking fun at him way more.

Ukraine’s $oviet’s musical genius. You wouldn’t catch $ov DEAD missing one of Ukraine’s concerts.

All three kids visit Russian Empire often (usually when Soviet and America are enjoying each other’s company).

Overall, it’s a chill AU with a bit of a bittersweet ending, as Soviet and America make each other better rather than worse, and it ultimately ends in America giving up his hold on the 50 states and dissolving, leaving poor Soviet with two dead partners lol

[mesetacadre]

i genuinely am asking this in good faith, but what's "leftcom" ? leftist/left communist ? i don't really understand the terminology. aren't most communists leftist ? i'm fairly new here so i know it's a stupid question, sorry

It means left-communists, called this because they're mostly concienved as the "left" opposition to Leninism. I'm not actually sure on where the term comes from specifically, but the main theoritician you'll see talked about is Amadeo Bordiga, one of the founders of the Communist Party of Italy. My main interactions with leftcoms have been, as what the post that prompted this question says (I assume it's that one), regarding various criticisms of the USSR, focusing on Stalin. It has been a while since I engaged with these, but the main one is the existence of commodity production within the USSR, and that therefore it wasn't a socialist economy (I've seen some calling Stalin a social-democrat for this. which. lmao). But essentially, the rationale between conceptualizing it as being to the left of Leninism is that leftcoms believe that the transformation towards communism should happen much, much faster. At least that's how I've conceptualized it. The difference with trotskyism lies in that trotskyism (nowadays) is more a different conception of Leninism based on Trotsky's criticisms of Stalin's period, while leftcoms don't generally hold leninism in a very high regard. Even more synthetically and maybe oversimplying too much, trotskyism is an offshoot of leninism while left-communism is a departure from it. That's as neutral a definition as I think I can give, hope this helps

[keepsmagnetoaway]

X-Men Origins: Colossus (May 2008)

Chris Yost/Trevor Hairsine

X-Men Origins was a loose series of a dozen one-shots published by Marvel from 2008 to 2010, each exploring the early days of an X-Man in a single issue (Marvel evidently having concluded that unless you were a really big deal, like Storm or Wolverine or Wolverine or Wolverine or Wolverine, you couldn't support a full prequel miniseries). Generally these picked up on existing but not fully explored canon, going back and depicting incidents that had been referred to but not shown, expanding on brief flashbacks, stuff like that. These are, so to speak, the last bits of X-Men pre-history, each of them leading right up to the first appearance of the characters, and they're the last things we're going to read in our Era 0 ... era (with the exceptions of the issues for Deadpool and Gambit, which I'm not reading yet because we haven't got to those guys in the main read yet). Got all that?

For whatever reason, the series started with Colossus, in an issue that both establishes the overall tone and quality of these (which is, basically, "meh") and has a really deeply weird vacuum at its heart - a vacuum which is present in the rest of the series but is a particular problem here.

There is, of course, no need to really rehearse the details of Colossus' past: it's simple and pure, just like Colossus himself. Farmboy turns to steel, saves his sister, goes off to save the world. It's all very Superman. You know, this Superman.

Ah, right, yes. Here's the thing about X-Men Origins: Colossus: it isn't set in the fucking Soviet Union.

Oh! The Federal Security Service! Of what country, pray tell? Never mind. (The closest we ever get is "Russia".) And what kind of farm does Piotr Rasputin grow up on? Just...a farm. Just a regular farm.

This sucks, man. It's right there in the first sentence of his appearance, what kind of farm it is!

This Origins update is, of course, an emanation of the so-called "sliding timescale" of the Marvel universe, the principle where by the past moves along behind the present to ensure that all these characters who debuted in the 1960s aren't now 70 years old. But more than most of these characters - more than almost all of them, I would argue - Colossus' origin in the Soviet Union meant something, and had been explored on that basis before. Piotr believes in certain "Soviet" values - the common good, the collective before the individual - and he exists in a world different from the one in which he was raised. These things cause him considerable angst, and this is essential to his character. You could even have written a story about him growing up during the fall of the USSR, which could have updated the timeline but still would have used and further explored these themes! Instead we get this...nothingness, with nothingy designs and nothingy characters.

This issue gets Colossus to where he needs to be by the end of it, but reading it is an utterly bizarre experience of watching a character's story get hollowed out. Claremont wasn't doing anything especially radical by featuring a Soviet character to emphasise the internationalism of his team - it was a trick that dated back to, at very least, Chekov on Star Trek (another member, along with Piotr Rasputin, of the "uhhhh, quick, think of a Russian surname" club) but to strip even that radicalism out thirty-whatever years later really is depressing.

Also, WTF is happening with Storm's face. Anyway, Jean is next.

[transmutationisms]

hi! a while ago i think you mentioned that “mutually assured destruction” is a really reductive way of explaining what happened in history, so i’m wondering what you’d say is a more accurate way of describing what happened?

damn i forgot i said that. you would get a more interesting & complete answer from someone better read on the cold war but i think what i meant was, just calling it mutually assured destruction tends to collapse all distinctions between the us and ussr's foreign & nuclear policies, & the importance of the sort of jockeying for power that they were doing. like it's true that eventually both feared a total nuclear event, but part of the reason the us state dept and such have embraced the mad explanation is because as a framework, it relies on the idea that both parties are essentially in the same bargaining position and are acting rationally; this all obscures the us's position in the cold war as an imperialist power, its perception that the ussr threatened its global reach, and its particularly risky and boneheaded decisions. fwiw i think some in the us military intel sphere have pushed back on the idea that they operated on principles of mad because they don't like the idea even now that the ussr was a powerful enough player on the world stage to have been a threat to the us, which like. lmao. anyway again it's not like the entire idea is irredeemably bad or totally inaccurate but i do think it's worth asking how the mad framework functions and whose interests it promotes in many cases

[dasha-aibo]

A big rant about the Russian opposition

Well, you said you wanted it, so here it is.

Be warned: this will be long, rambly and unfocused. But I will try to split it into several parts.

Where it all began. The 90s.

Following the collapse of the USSR, Russian opposition was left in a weird state. Big Soviet-era opposition figures like Yeltsin now held all the power, yet, at the same time, the government was full of ex-Soviet party members. See, ol' Boris didn't want to do a lustration. I don't have his exact motivations, but, if I was put at a gunpoint and forced to guess, it was because Russia, even without all the states that left was a BIGHUGE country and needed people who knew how it all worked. And all of them happened to be party apparatchicks.

Yeltsin also left the KGB eseentially untouched. This is not well-known, but KGB were actually supportive of the fall of the USSR. Now, late-Gorby KGB is not the same as KGB during Stalin or even Khruschev. They were de-fanged and forced under too much supervision. Which they didn't like. So they were allowed to change their name, had some reshuffling and re-emerged as FSB. Ostensibly, just there to fight crime and protect the state, no disappearing people allowed anymore.

This is important to understand as we go forward.

90s were, overall, a time of terrible, terrible poverty and unimaginably, unprecedented freedom in Russia. If you knew what to do and was willing to do it, you could become a millionaire overnight. If you didn't have a particuarly marketable set of skills or was just unwilling to adapt, you'd be on the brink of starvation. And that's me not even touching the organized and disorganized crime which was absolutely rampant.

Then there was the privatization. Essentially, Yegor Gaidar, the prime minister during Yeltsin's first term decided that the best course of action was to take this lumbering 70-yo communist system and crash it head-first into capitalism. It was even called "shock therapy".

Now, in hindisght, we can say that his policies very much saved Russia and lead to economic prosperity later on. But man, shit was HARD for regular people. Especially hordes of state workers.

His most infamous project, however, was the privatization. Essentially, since EVERYTHING in USSR was state-owned and we were moving towards a capitalist system, someone needed to become the owner of all this state property. Privatize it, so to say. Of course, regular people could privatize their cars and apartments, which most everyone did. But the big bucks were in all the factories and natural resource mines. And this was done in the most ass-backwards way possible. People with connections got to bid on very lucrative property in the dead of the night with only one announcement in the local newspaper nobody read. Shit like that.

Everyone disliked that.

This is how Russia became saddled with it's giant oligarchy class.

I promise all of this is relevant.

Another really important thing happened in the 90s: the 1996 election. Yeltsin wanted a second term and he REALLY didn't want commies, his main opposition, to win. So he played dirty. Unlike what many later said, he didn't outright steal the elections. He did, however, do everything in his power as a prez to ensure a victory.

Everyone disliked that. Which is how we got Putin.

But 90s also saw the rise of several important opposition figures. And there really was actual freedom of speech and very little crackdown on opposition and protests. It still happened, don't get me wrong, but it was so minor compared to what's happening today, that it's barely worth mentioning. Anyway, back to opposition figures.

I will note three main one. Boris Nemtsov was the biggest - he was a favorite of Yeltsin's, was even a Deputy Prime Minister at one point and was considered as Yeltsin's heir at the same point. Things didn't work out. But he was the big face of liberals and democrats of the era. A guy who's "against everything bad and for everything good".

Then there was Mikhail Khodorkovsky. An oligarch and a philantropist, he was genuinely interested in the future of Russia and making it a big important country on the world stage through education and commerce.

Lastly, Gennady Kasparov. Yeah, the chess guy who lost to a computer. He wasn't really political in the 90s, but I still consider him part of the "old guard".

Part 2 in a reblog, because this is getting unreadable.

[spandexual]

doodling and trying to put together some Actual Lore for my Star Trek cruise ship OCs (Ferengi Girlboss Nelba, Bimbo Vulcan T'Shirt, Romulan Pop Star Reval, Klingon Soap Opera Starlet/Pro Wrestler K'Thot, Angsty Andorian Dabo Girl Thalla, Bored Cardassian Reclaimed Borg 12 of 12)

and by that I mean I am mostly thinking about Reval the Romulan pop star becoming a Federation sensation like peak Lady Gaga and that includes all the backlash too. She's considered the peak of Romulan beauty, tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped and small-chested with sharp, angular features, but has long been ostracised from Romulan society for being Too Lewd and Too Radical. The pose in the first pic is suggestive by human standards but by Romulan standards it's more confrontationally sexual than like Nicki Minaj's Anaconda cover lol. However the post-Dominion alliance with The Federation allowed her to find her niche & her latest album went 2x Latinum on 20 planets. pm the only time homeworlders have approved of her is when she managed to hold an event of Ferenginar (a traditionally patriarchal, misogynistic society) dressed in traditional Romulan (not canon but imo an implicitly matriarchal society) garb + makeup to "empower" Ferengi women. I love her sooo much she's like what if a femboy Lady Gaga was a lesbian girltwink David Bowie. but it was the 80s american hair metal scene. and also if she was from the USSR during the Cold War. and wore latex.

Also like, why would a Vulcan (even a stupid one) be on a Ferengi pleasure cruiser? Well simply Nelba (the cunning fee-male Ferengi captain) saw her in a bikini on Risa with her massive jugs and oblivious nature and saw all the potential customers flocking around her.

Nelba: well hello there ms vulcan... u know a ticket to board my pleasure cruiser is 2 bars of gold-pressed latinum... but for you id be willing to do a special one-off price of 1 bar... T'Shirt: your generosity is noted. however i find it illogical to assume a vulcan has money. Nelba: u make a fine point ms vulcan… hows abt this instead. i give u free board AND an opportunity to make profit… all u have to do is enjoy urself… as long as u do it where everyone can see u… T'Shirt: hm. i will leave tomorrow evening. provide a contract before then.

the only reason why T'Shirt hasn't gotten like trafficked or anything is because her family is quite powerful and well-known on Vulcan... and her sister had her fitted with a biotracker bc of how often she would get lost and end up playing dom-jot with some Breen or some shit. some may consider the terms of her "employment" under Nelba to be trafficking-adjacent as she is essentially an attraction but she truly is just chilling (Sexily). Vulcans being STRONK keeps her safe but it's in Nelba's best financial interests to keep her safe too so she's Fine lol. like there's lots of leering and suggestiveness going on yeah but most creeps lose interest when they realise they can't embarrass her bc 1) too dumb to realise they're trying to cause her shame 2) she's a Vulcan she doesn't feel shame anyway 3) it is illogical to feel ashamed of Being Hot. she's not a hooker (those are aboard, she's just not one) but she is dtf if you don't turn her off. she likes bars but doesn't drink. she provides oo-mox whenever Nelba wants and often just reflexively to Ferengi guests. suffice to say Nelba made her money back and then some lol

fwiw Nelba's cruise ship is largely geared towards fee-males but men are allowed on board, the majority of them just happen to be drag queens, pet twinks of lesbian couples or 24/7 total power exchange type submissives LOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLL it's just that she's a Ferengi Fee-Male Making Profit And Wearing Clothes so basically a superradical spacefeminist and also a lesbian lol so most events, activities and shops aboard are geared towards women with males being an afterthought in a total reverse of Ferengi culture

examples being: Reval the Romulan pop star (aggressively punkishly sexy androgynous openly lesbian, heavily matriarchal but that's just Romulan nature not affected like Nelba's feminism) K'Thot who is literally a soap opera star. like what if on Dynasty Krystle and Alexis shoot fought. what if WWE was real but still also scripted. you get it. maybe you don't but I do Thalla is just a dabo girl but she's of the sort that is going to appeal more to lesbians (less smiley chirpy Customer Service Voice more Sexily Annoyed At You For Even Asking) and Dozen is just a curiosity but Nelba wasn't going to turn down a ?reclaimed? Borg (Dozen is reclaimed in the sense that she has been separated successfully from the hivemind but Cardassians saw no need in removing her implants the way Federation surgeons would so she still looks entirely Borg. especially as she was grey to start lol)

more to come. invite your OCs to the cruise idk

[shituationist]

You're a weird political dissonant and I love that despite me having nooo understanding of your vibe. Quick! Opinions on rand paul and the peristroika?. I'm only partly trolling

Thanks. Rand Paul is a disappointment compared to his dad. Both represent an essentially petty bourgeois standpoint, but Ron Paul was a significantly more authentic libertarian than Rand. That might speak to consequences of the libertarian movement being swallowed up by the GOP in ~2010 with the Tea Party movement. I don't know.

"Democratization" in the USSR came too little too late, and liberal political mechanisms combined with the restoration of capitalist relations of production set the stage for post-Soviet Russia to become an aspirationally (if not actually) imperialist nation, the war in Ukraine being one consequence of that. With Yeltsin, pretty much exactly what the communist "hard-liners" feared would happen ended up happening. The population of the former Soviet Union was decimated as liberal reforms tanked living standards and sent millions fleeing to the West where they would serve as part of the industrial reserve army of labor, putting downward pressure on wages and shoring up the profitability of European capital. The US intervened politically to make sure Yeltsin would stay in power despite or because of the wreck he was making of the Russian economy. This story culminates in Putin and United Russia coming to power, who stabilize the Russian economy (mostly) under a kind of plutocratic-kleptocratic dirigisme and enter Russia into Great Power competition with the US.

[silent-calling]

And now time for: Echoes of History, first installment.

So I saw this tweet earlier,

- and thought "huh, that seems odd anyone might celebrate a Nazi." so, I did a little bit of digging, and found the Politico article to read for myself what the hubbub was about.

Now, I'm on principal skeptical of headlines, so I read through it, and the article details the ovation was for one Yaroslav Hunka, a 98 year old WWII veteran from modern day western Ukraine. He was heralded as a hero, not just to Ukraine, but to Canada as well, having been cited as a freedom fighter against Soviet rule.

However, at least one Jewish advocacy group took issue with this, because this man was a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier division in the Shutztaffel, 1st Galician unit (Wikipedia article, well sourced) - meaning, this man served in the Nazi party's paramilitary forces, along with a collection of men from Galicia, which can be seen below.

Pretty shocking, huh? How could we possibly honor a man who obliged to such a heinous group as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, commonly known as the Nazis?

Well, the answer might surprise you, if you're not familiar with the history of the region.

See, Nazi Germany marched through Poland in 1939, same years as the Soviets. But what happened prior to these invasions is arguably as heinous or moreso - the Holodomor, or "terror famines," of Ukraine. Ukraine was subsumed by the USSR, and in the aftermath the farmers of fertile Ukraine would be forced to surrender nearly all their yield to the Party for redistribution, which led to the starvation of between 3.5 and 7 million Ukrainians and some of the worst famines across Europe. Those who didn't starve were often rounded up, executed or imprisoned, and their land redistributed to the comrades of the Party.

Needless to say, Ukraine and her neighbor Poland were in dire straits.

Well, here's the thing about this scenario: the terrors of the Soviet Union were largely hidden from the outside world, and would remain such until the 1960s, when we got a peek into the Iron Curtain to see what Stalin's Party was doing. And what we would learn years later was the depths of depravity the USSR had went to in order to bring forth the great revolution.

Many Ukrainians and Polish saw the Soviets are, believe it or not, worse than Nazis, because of the simple fact that the Soviets were much less discerning on who they killed and how - any opposition, no matter how small, against the Party would be a death sentence. So, they got desperate, and some would opt to side with the devil they don't know, who wasn't actively genociding them, over the devil they did. This is where the 14th Waffen Grenadier comes in.

See this unit would become disbanded and reformed before the conclusion of World War II, being renamed toward the end as the First Division, Ukrainian National Army. Further, during its formation, one of the three major concessions made by the Germans at the request of the Ukrainian-majority unit Was they would not be sent westward, but would remain in the east to fight "Bolsheviks" - the old name of the Communist Party. (citation here)

Essentially, the unit was stood up as a sort of freedom fighter against Soviet oppression.

They would then surrender to the allied forces in 1945 at the end of the war in Europe.

And that is how a man who fought under the banner of the Shutztaffel could possibly be heralded as a hero to Ukraine - because he essentially joined a group of Ukrainian men in using Nazi equipment to fight Soviet oppression.

[maya-the-skaven]

Much Ado About Rats: A Skaven Story

Greetings everyone and welcome to the very first of my series of posts that will follow as I write my fanfiction about Skaven in the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar setting. While my fanfiction is something rather private and will probably go through a long and thorough process of writing, editing, proofreading and even rewriting before I am comfortable publishing it, I would still like to talk about its worldbuilding, its characters and my personal headcanon on all matters Skaven.

It's easy to consider Skaven as just cannon fodder for the good guys of the setting, nothing but a mass of hungry and inherently if not comically evil vermin that exist only to multiply, destroy and die, not too dissimilar from the Tyranids of the 40k setting. They represent all the worst traits both on individual and societal level and, more importantly, they're not human and kind of ugly and monstrous, you'd get weird looks if you told anyone you empathise with them, similar to reactions you'd get from the common audience if you said you feel nothing but pity for the orcs of the Lord of the Rings setting.

However, to me the Skaven are much like the Imperium of the 40k - they are independent individuals trapped in and molded by from their very birth to their rather short death by a highly institutionalized and hierarchical society with ruthless inner politics, warlordism and a merciless system of economics and labour. The Skaven who are not ready to do everything in their power to survive and chase the power are either destined for death or slavery. They fanatically worship a god that doesn't care that much for his children if not bestows constant malice onto them, but any deviation from that worship is tightly controlled by a tyranical sect of wizard-priests. The Skaven either conquer, ruthlessly exploiting their surroundings until their utter desolation, or stagnate forced to literally cannibalize each other to survive. They are essentially trapped in a vicious circle where the society forms natural selection where the most power-hungry, cruel and vicious individuals win and these individuals, in turn, do all in their power so that this society stays that way, with them in power and their subordinates in various forms of slavery. I don't know about you, but most of the above doesn't sound to me that different from average life of an Imperial citizen in a Hive World. Moreover, isn't that also what happened in real world many times? How the ultra-rich of today stay in power, how Nazis brainwashed the entirety of Germany into genocide and complete ruin, how medieval tyrants and their aristocrat countries held entire countries in serfdom, how USSR bureaucrats reproduced their own power by what amounted to negative selection?

The main difference between Imperium and the Skaven is that, while the Imperium also exists in a constant flux of decay, misery, exploitation and treachery, it still gets many stories about individuals that manage to represent better aspects of being human, in spite of their culture, their upbringing, their status. Skaven, however, are for some reason excluded from humanity and human stories, despite having the same sapience and free will as humans do, they almost never get any stories that center them and everywhere else they are just there to do something horrible (and sometimes funny) and then be defeated by the heroes of the story. Despite this, we got more intricate glimpses of Skaven in the Queek Headtaker novel, it turns out they can be loyal, they can have a conscience, they can be brave, they can reflect on the poor state of their species, they can actually care for each other for other reasons than power, however rare that is and however corrupted and abusive that care might be.

Skaven also make me reflect a lot about our own world. In a way they are kind of like Ferengi from Star Trek series, their culture on one hand seems completely alien from ours, but on the other hand it has direct connection to our culture because it is a huge exaggeration of it. We exist, function and prop up systems that cause suffering, we compete even if that means that someone else will go hungry, we punch down our most marginalised and miserable, we entrap people into economic system where the line must go always up propped by extremely underpaid labour or everyone will be scrounging for food, we exploit and destroy our environment without care for neither other living creatures nor even other humans, our current cultural mindset is thoroughly hierarchical and power-seeking with even those critical our the current state of things rarely escaping from it. It's easy to sneer at the Skaven as the utterly evil "monster" species of the setting, but they are only doing what we are doing, but dispensing with our dislike of grotesque, with our flimsy morals and with our ever so cautious self-preservation instinct. But in our world we have many stories of people prevailing despite tyranny, misery, poverty, people going to great lengths to help each other, people protesting and fighting injustice, even if their mind was still polluted by bigotry, cruelty or selfishness. If Rom from DS9 can unionize in spite of his entire species and culture, why not give a chance at better characterisation and characters for Skaven that doesn't revolve around being comically evil? Something akin to Queek's bravery and care for Ska, even if completely insane and abusive by our standards, Ska's unquestioning loyalty, Gnawdwell's refined composure and genuine pride for Queek, Sharpwit's recognition of Skaven being doomed to be trapped in their vicious cycle and never learning from any mistakes.

Source: https://twitter.com/nan_ivel/status/1460612547887910914

My motivation for writing a fanfic about Skaven is thus motivated by this unfair treatment of simultaneously portraying the Skaven as sapient and free willed individuals completely capable of forming a society woes many traits and woes of our own and other similar societies in fiction, while they are always treated as non-persons, never get any kind of diversity despite numbering trillions and stories about them that delve deeper into their psyche are practically non-existent. My story will be focused on a band of Skaven finding their own ways and detaching their personalities from the society that made them what they are, it's an escape story, a story of change, a story of experiencing and feelings things you could never put a name to. This is not necessarily a story about redemption, bad guys becoming good, the Skaven being goodie-two-shoes, it's much more about a seed of hope that exists even for cruelest and vilest of beings to change in whatever way, it's humanising Skaven in a way how our own evil is deeply human and it's about negating the idea of evil being ontological and immutable for sapient persons of free will.

The fact that there are trillions of Skaven and tens of thousands of clans should be, on the contrary, taken as a reason for the fans and creators to experiment with imagining diverse environments, individuals, sub-cultures of the Skaven society, sprawling like a tumour, growing in every which way. Similarly the fact that there is not really a lot of actual established lore about the Skaven and either very old bits that can be easily considered not even close to canon, short paragraphs that describe the trope of Skaven, but rarely go into any nuance or expand on them or things that could be very easily supplemented by additional lore, rather than be contradicted.

For example, what is the true nature of Great Horned Rat, is he even a real god of Chaos, as his aspects, domains and character seems to change all the time? Or maybe he is the truest of them, since even his nature changes chaotically, usually following the constant dynamic flux Skaven as a whole find themselves in? What is the relationship of Skaven with gender? Are breeders just an irrelevant lore tidbit that could be disregarded, or maybe it could be expanded, for example, how clans that don't have the means to purchase Moulder monstrocities operate? What of cloned Skaven? How is Skaven biology influenced by their constant misuse of warpstone, permanent overexertion, starvation and lack of sleep? Are we to believe Black Hunger isn't a psychological reaction that a half-starved sleepless human couldn't experience? A lore purist could disregard all these questions, but they'll end up without a backbone to their faction and barely anything interesting to write or ponder, apart from them being just mindless characterless beasts of ruin.

Next posts will answer these questions and go more into detail about some of my personal headcanon that informs my fic, such as diversity and function of Skaven society, their biology and its relationship with warpstone and exertion, their reproductive cycle, basic details of Blight City are the protagonists come from and what Great Horned Rat represents in essence. But, of course, that’s just my interpretation.

[katatonicimpression]

..

Niche vagueblog here but how are you going to sit there and mourn the loss of eastern European representation that monet being real supposedly entails while also thinking that "yugoslavian girl named yvette rendered deaf mute by war trauma" is a massive missed opportunity.

1) they seemed to have forgotten that penny is still around (they = the poster but also the writers at this point) so her being a yugoslavian is still plausible. It's got nothing to do with monet, leave her alone.

2) Yvette's a French name lol. Idk this has always bothered me. If they ever remembered penny and gave her a real name, I would hope they'd pick something slavic lol...

3) I don't think that what is essentially the plot of the Who's Tommy is necessarily great disabled representation

4) "transia", "latveria", "sokovia" are all fictional marvel countries in the balkans, with the latter being former yugoslav. I'm Polish, and honestly yeah I do complain about the depictions of eastern Europe in media; I do care. But I can't imagine wanting more from marvel on this. Like, they do three things with slavs in these comics: "ooh transylvania scary", depictions of Russia that feel like the writers don't know the ussr collapsed, and occasional depictions of the holocaust. I don't need more of this.

Maybe I should delete this because no one cares but every now and then you see these posts from people who've discovered that there were retcons and alternative ideas in the gen x series and they throw this shit. But they're basically arguing that my favourite character shouldn't exist, or that a lot of the things that make her interesting shouldn't be canon, because they weren't the original plan. Which is deranged.

No one would seriously argue that we should take the writers discarded plans as more legitimate than what actually happens in canon normally. It does feel like people are mad that penance turned out to be a black Muslim and not another white girl. Whatever the fucking intention, that's how it came across

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

We need to stay out of Iran-Israel.

Buckle up I'm about to say something real unpopular again...

We need a policy of nob intervention. Give them the bare minimum required by treaty, which is arms not men.

Iran entering this fray is EXACTLY what has been needed. Because Iran may have absolutely psychotic leadership, BUT they are the ONLY power in the region that can pose a real threat to Israel. (Otherwise it would take a full coalition of Arab nations which isnt going to happen for many reasons.)

Iran has pretty much no real allies to drag in and make this global. Iran is a big enough threat to force Israel to the table or at least agree to moderate their fucking genocidal tactics.

If Israel proceeds against all reason and logic (bc one thing absent from everyone involved thus far has been fucking reason and logic, I'm including both Hamas in the 10/7 attack -- no do not try to tell me why they were justified, I grasp the fucking nuances of why terrorism happens ffs, I'm fucking Irish not that long back -- and the fucking lunatics in charge of both the Israeli government and the IDF), Iran can press hard enough doing enough damage that WE will have a bargaining chip again.

Because Israel doesn't need us to murder Palestine. But if Iran really wants to commit to this fight, they DO need us to beat Iran without being absolutely crippled and easy pickings over old grudges. Essentially Iran can serve as the USSR did as a reason why Israel has to listen to us.

[universal-casey]

I know you said that Sovime was in the hospital after losing his eye, but roughly how long was he there, and what was his reaction when he realized he was missing an eye? And how did Soviet hide that Sovime was there?

(sorry for all the questions but i love this AU and thinking about the logistics behind things)

Hey no worries! I love questions like these. Makes me think lol. Also helps me not forget to post!

He was in the hospital for about a week or so. The gouging to his eye was severe and Soviet fractured the entire eye socket so there was a lot of bone reconstruction. It’s a miracle the only visible scars are the claw marks.

As for America’s reaction to his missing eye? It wasn’t as dramatic as you may think. He knew his eye was gone the moment he saw it hanging off the rake like a bloody water balloon. So he wasn’t too surprised when the doctors told him that there wasn’t anything they could do to save it. Of course, it was still traumatic so his brain kept forgetting he didn’t have an eye and he’d freak out a little when he noticed his vision was essentially halved.

It’s pretty easy for a government official to keep a hospital visit under wraps. Soviet had taken America to a military hospital so he had even more control over the process than a civilian one. It also helped that the actual incident happened in a garden shed away from any witnesses. Really easy for Soviet to lie through his teeth about what happened. He also claimed that America’s cries of “You took my eye! You took my fucking eye!” were deluded statements due to shock.

As for the press? Well the press of the USSR was government controlled and had no “reporter’s rights” like we have in the good ol US of A. So that was a cake walk really

[warsofasoiaf]

I still have my question about how the books should handle the White Walkers in a thematic and narratively satisfying way. Because I always thought they should have a bigger presence rather than be wiped out after barely touching Westeros.

Well, there are plenty of ways to go about it, all depending on what you want to emphasize for your narratively and thematically successful presentation.

For example, say my current prediction of the three heads of the dragon flying north beyond the curtain of light at the end of the world to destroy the Others, that essentially has the thematic purpose of leaving the world to humanity. They saw what happened when they neglected the dangers that were encroaching, and now it's up to them to remember the lessons. From that point, every success, and drawback, are humanity's own to make. So there are cosmic destiny trappings, but the cosmic forces annihilate each other, and it leaves room for the mundane people to stand.

Contrarily, if, as it was in the show, that humanity goes back to bickering over its little iron chair following the Others, then the thematic purpose is much more cynical. That while humanity might pitch in to fight the true problems, they'll turn on each other at the first opportunity. Certainly, that's a *true* sentiment in a lot of ways - Reagan often joked that the one thing that would get the USA and the USSR together would be an alien invasion (and Alan Moore had that happen successfully in Watchmen, at the cost of New York City). Or, alternatively, it could be taken as a cautionary tale, to mind the dangers that effect all of us, which fits GRRM's own lived experiences, having grown up in the shadow of atomic warfare.

Thanks for the question, Ikac.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[pandoramsbox]

Sci-Fi Saturday: Cosmic Voyage

Week 17:

Film(s): Cosmic Voyage [AKA The Space Voyage] (Космический рейс, Dir. Vasili Zhuravlov, 1936, USSR)

Viewing Format: DVD

Date Watched: 2021-09-24

Rationale for Inclusion:

My partner and I are not just science fiction nerds, we're also space race history nerds. Part of the interest in watching any Soviet produced sci-fi films is better understanding the cultural context for the later real life firsts associated with Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin. As we moved into the 1950s section of the survey, we frequently found ourselves asking, "Had Sputnik happened yet?" and that milestone will no doubt be invoked when I get to that decade of films.

The other reason Cosmic Voyage [AKA The Space Voyage] (Космический рейс, Dir. Vasili Zhuravlov, 1936, USSR) was of interest when I ran across it during my titles roundup for this survey was that it is a silent film.

If you've been paying attention to this series, then you may recall that the last silent film discussed was Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond, Dir. Fritz Lang, 1929, Germany). Histories of the Hollywood film industry have the silent film era ending in 1929, with some notable exceptions, mainly made by Charles Chaplin. In other countries their silent eras lasted longer due to the complications and expense of technical conversion and/or artists who accompanied the films not wanting to give up their jobs. In Japan, for example, silent films continued to be produced until 1939 due to katsudō benshi narrators being an essential component of the country's filmgoing experience. 

In Soviet Russia, their film industry began converting to sound around 1930 and had essentially stopped producing silent films by 1935. Cosmic Voyage is an outlier largely due to its prolonged production, which began in 1932 amid the overlap of formats. The creation of futuristic sets, special effects to create the illusion of space travel, and stop motion animation sequences took awhile to create and combine in the analog era.

Once Cosmic Voyage finally was completed, it only had a brief theatrical run in 1936. In the middle of its four year production, the Soviet leadership had declared in 1934 that a doctrine of socialist realism would govern the written and visual arts throughout the Soviet Union. Having the goal "to depict reality in its revolutionary development," the censors found Cosmic Voyage with its use of special effects to be too fanciful for widespread public consumption. If they knew that pioneering rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky had been a consultant on the screenplay, it may not have factored into the censor's decision process.

Amid cultural shifts in the 1980s, Cosmic Voyage began making the rounds at international film festivals and gradually came to film nerd consciousness.

Reactions:

Like The Woman in the Moon before it, watching Cosmic Voyage comes with the joy of how many things the filmmakers got right about spaceflight and microgravity. It also has the same narrative structure and concerns that would be oft repeated in the 1950s films about experimental space flights.

As a late silent film, unencumbered by early sound technology, the cinematography is quite wonderful, and shows off the amazing set pieces. We were particularly amused by the fact that the spaceship is effectively shot out of a rail gun. I like the symmetry of the first space flight silent film that we watched, A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la lune, Dir. Georges Méliès, 1902, France), and the last one using the same means of launching their spacecraft.

Overall, Cosmic Voyage is a nice piece of cinema that straddles where spaceflight movies had been thus far, and what they would evolve into.