#western russia

[songs-of-the-east]

Kalmykia Europe's only Buddhist Republic

Kalmykia is an autonomous republic located in the steppes of western Russia formed while Lenin was the leader of the USSR. The republic was created for the national-self determination of the Kalmyk people, Europe's only indigenous Buddhist population.

Kalmyks are mainly descendants of Oirats from Dzungaria who migrated through the steppes and first inhabited the Volga region in western Russia, but as a group they've also mixed with ethnic Russian peasants, Don Cossacks, North Caucasian people, and Kazakhs.

Due to internal strife among different clans in Kalmykia, many Kalmyks sought refugee in the neighbouring Don Cossack lands. Eventually most of those Kalmyks became a part of the Don Cossack Army, and developed into their own sub-ethnic group known as the Buzava or Don Kalmyks. The Buzava adopted much of Don Cossack culture, and intermixture between both groups was common; however, they were able to preserve a unique identity due to maintaining their own language and religion though most also spoke Russian. In the flag of the Don Cossacks the first blue vertical stripe represents the Kalmyks, with its origins in a law formulated during the existence of the temporal Don Republic stating: "Three nationalities have lived on the Don land since ancient times and constitute the indigenous citizens of the Don region - the Don Cossacks, Kalmyks and Russian peasants. Their national colours were: the Don Cossacks - blue, cornflower blue, the Kalmyks - yellow and the Russians - scarlet. "

Photo source: "Kalmykia, Chess, and Buddha" - Tomas van Houtryve

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

I've almost reached my breaking point with this genocide in Ukraine. I'm older than most Tumblr users, so I was being yelled at in university tutorials in the early 00s for talking about the Holodomor, and being told that "If it happened, Ukrainians deserved it for being Nazis".

I was out there in 2007 when we had the worldwide march for the Holodomor to be recognised as a genocide, only for so many countries (the USA being one of them) to tell us that they won't do it because it might upset russia.

I remember when russia invaded in 2014 and Obama said it wasn't his business, and that russia can decide what happens in Ukraine. And then he sent Ukraine fucking helmets and "hygiene kits" instead of the military aid he was supposed to.

My family in Donetsk walked out of their homes with their lives packed in plastic shopping bags nearly eleven years ago. But people prefer to believe the russian lies that Donbas wants to be part of russia.

I remember sitting at home on the 17th of July 2014, hearing about russia shooting down MH17, and feeling my blood run cold because the initial reports said the aeroplane was full of Americans. Being so sure that the USA might finally live up to the Budapest Memorandum and get involved in the war.

Of course they didn't.

And then the Malaysians went and protested at the Ukrainian embassy, as if they were to blame for being invaded by their genocidal neighbour.

I remember being at a protest at the russian embassy in Canberra just after Crimea was annexed, and the only people who turned up for us were other Ukrainians. Soon after there were massive protests for Palestine and BLM from Melbourne to Dublin and beyond. Ukrainians are too white for leftists and too foreign for right-wingers to care about.

More people dumped buckets of ice on their heads than supported us.

I spent Easter 2016 in a hotel in Ukraine. 8.5 years ago I was the only guest who wasn't a soldier on leave from the war.

Now I go on reddit and see that Americans are discussing how Ukraine "has a neo-fascist problem". Um, you guys just voted for Donald fucking Trump?

Then I see an Australian journalist say that the US election result means that America is "becoming like Eastern Europe". No. Eastern Europeans aren't Nazis. They suffered more under the Nazis than anyone.

We're always on our own. Millions upon millions of Ukrainians have been killed in the last ninety years, millions more sold into slavery in Germany (including my grandparents), hundreds of thousands sent to gulags (including the entire population of my grandmother's village), and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands dead or missing now, but we're still not seen as worthy of caring about.

I have family members whose dead bodies have been lying on battlefields for over a year. One killed in Bakhmut, a city that no longer exists. Another taken hostage from Mariupol, a city russia bombed to the ground. The mass graves there can be seen from space.

We can't get the bodies back because russia has colonised the area. I have a relative who was moved on from fighting in Vovchansk because there was no point fighting for another city that no longer exists. My relative who was taken hostage in Mariupol was starved and tortured for 2.5 years.

And then last week our city's magazine had a three-page interview with the russian ambassador, explaining why his country "has" to commit genocide in Ukraine. The editor laughed at my aunt when she phoned to register a complaint.

But teenaged tankies on sites like this will mock Ukrainians' deaths, stick a fucking hammer and sickle in their profile, and lecture people like me about things they know nothing about.

The world needs to end its ridiculous love affair with the russian federation.

[adskadrochilnya]

it blows my mind that some bitch, sitting in her safe and warm apartment in a country protected by NATO's nuclear arsenal, sees a post about how Russia hit several hospitals in Ukraine with cruise missiles (one of which is a children's hospital for children with cancer) killing dozens of civilians and her first reaction was to write crap about a Ukrainian tennis pro, again writing "fuck Ukrainians who talk about their genocide" and not "fuck hypocrites who don't allow talking about other genocides in sports" and 40k fucking people agreed with it

[mariakov81]

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov (Russian, 1848-1926) The joy of the righteous in the Lord, 'The threshold of heaven,' Details, ca.1885-96

[swamp-cats-den]

This is so funny.

When the westerners see a post complaining of russophobia they imagine a young queer intellectual stuck in russia, hating the regime to the core and being all bleeding heart for the suffering Ukrainians.

Meanwhile, the same very person complaining of russophobia in one post boasts about literal war trophies brought from the occupied Ukrainian territories by their war criminal father in another, fills their artworks with modern russian military symbols, and tags the posts about their relatives participating in invasion with 'lol memes'.

It is honestly funny how much goodwill russians are still given for absolutely nothing while Ukrainians have to constantly prove that we deserve, well, to at least not be massacred.

[enjymemink]

Notice the difference between headlines?

Ukrainian children are killed.

Palestinian children are found dead.

Ukrainian children murderers are mentioned

Palestinian children are just dead by ??

[nastylittleman]

[love-promethea]

and when the guilt consumes you, what will you hold onto

[ink-the-artist]

truly not trying to detract from the very russian art of the generational trauma wolves, and i know the colors are from the ussr + russia flags, but it also spoke to me as a hispanic person. especially w respect to misogyny and how machismo tears families apart, and how trauma that comes from outside the family units gets repeated/expressed within the family unit. idk.

absolutely it applies to more than just russians, im glad it speaks to other ppl :)

[snovyda]

I mean, why wouldn't russia bomb Chornobyl NPP, after the literal ABSENCE of any reaction from the rest of the world to it destroying the Kakhovka Dam? They know there will be no reaction now, as well. They know the rest of the world is totally fine with it doing literally ANYTHING.

Why wouldn't russia escalate its violence?

This world is literally not worth the effort that it takes to live in it.

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

[3liza]

I'm glad western streamers have been gettinto indie games from Russia and Asia, especially horror games since horror is such a communicative genre and says so much about cultural mores, but I wish these cavalier white dudes would have a little more curiosity about the foundations of the imagery and neuroses the games are communicating with. whenever I see or play games from outside my home culture I'm always desperately curious about what I'm MISSING as a white American and it's always so satisfying and educational when I am able to have it explained to me or if I can look it up, even though I know I can only perceive it as an outsider. just stuff I'm ignorant about, like for some recent examples I can remember, stuff like Buddhist funeral objects or symbolism, Japanese vowel order, Russian Orthodox convent history, apartment layouts and community organization in Soviet housing blocs, uhhh let's see what else. candle and food symbolism around death and traditional forms of ghosts in the Philippines. customs and uses of, and gender issues around, communal bath houses in rural Japan. that kind of thing. i really really miss the few years where you really could type any of those topics into the Google search bar and usually get some kind of factual information written by humans. it's not impossible to look stuff up anymore but I can't express how easy it used to be.

[justacynicalromantic]

Imagine this is you:

And this is the body of your 10 year old daughter being carried out of your house, completely destroyed by a missile, all because a dictator in a neighboring country decided that he absolutely needs your country subservient to him, and because all your country's allies refuse to let your country strike the aggressor's military airfields

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Henryk Siemiradzki (Polish, 1843-1902) Game of dice, 1899 State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

[swamp-cats-den]

Oh to be a Ukrainian and accidentally check the notes about yet another genocidal act of russians against your people only to discover a tumblr user marxizm4eva reblogged by blorbostalin go at the Ukrainian OP with 'well, actually, here's the truly reliable kremlin source saying poor little russia didn't do it, you uncultured American spy!' because, apparently, anti-american imperialism implies believing that only westerners can post on the internet, there's surely no way those backward wildlings from Eastern Europe could have WiFi and know English!