russia and ukraine, get back together!

[-Jarema-]

Indeed, Russian self-respect is so low that it makes these poor people start questioning the very existence of other nations.

Some Russians are just weird, primitive and aggressive. Not all - but quite a few. Once this aggressive behavior meets low self esteem - B O O M.

TLW is a by-product of such a sad and pathetic convergence of ideas.

Moreover, since they (Russians) are unable to respect themselves - they do not have the ability to respect others. Submission becomes the key notion substituting respect. This might summarize the Russian History - a history of an ASIAN country placed (by mistake) in Europe.

That is why Ukraine will never be accepted by such an average Russian mindset (only by force). Ukraine is mentally Europe √ Russia is ASIA. They cannot be together ex definitio.

Jarema

[Zbyszek]

Hello Jarema!
Witam Waszmosci/Moji najkraszczi pobazannia s Varshavy

You see, the most of Russian historians still feed a Pereyslav complex and they still instill it into their folks.
They still read unfortunate Chmiel's step as his sovereign
decision.
Pereyslav era has come to an end!. Russian people have to get over it never mind how frustrating it might be.
Russian history texbooks should be redefined (or maybe they have already been?????).

BTW Jarema welcome again to our merry company!

However,let me disagree with you about the Asian culture of Russia. It has rather been Asian influence in its POLITICAL culture being a deplorable result of Tartar invasion.

[johnstruthers]

There is lots of evidence for that complex that causes Russians to chop down the tall blade of grass, i.e., the neighbor who succeeds. I don't know where the hell this comes from, but it goes back a long way, well before communism. I'm allowed to say that, because my bloodlines are Russian, though the family seems to have been in Ukraine a long time. It's just a fact.

But I also think you have to forget the facial features and admit that Russians are not just contaminated by Asian political tendencies through Tatar influence. They are Asian at the soul. That this results in Tatar-like political thought is a given, but it is matched in the social sphere just as strongly. This is where the Pan-Slavic arguments come unglued: Russians are not like Poles, and the Poles should be the first to agree.

And Ukrainians have always been stuck in the middle on this question.

I don't have the erudition to back this up with someone's writings. Sorry. I just know it.

Viva la difference.

[Nickolas]

Viva la.

[Zbyszek]

Hi Vanya, I will tell you that Juzef Pilsudski, the only European leader who effectively resisted Lenin and the one who knew Russians well, expressed the following opinion:
common Russians are good, agreeable people but there is something difficult to understand about them: they agree to be subjugated and will lay down on the floor in front of any Tsar whether White or Red one. Their heroic individuals always fail to lead the Russian masses onto the way to freedom and to keep this direction for a long time. Personally, I do not fully support this view although I can not reject it totally.
I always wondered whether Russians just had a bad historic luck or they have got born in resignation. John, would you agree with Pilsudski's opinion?
Well this kind of reasoning could explain some Russian claims that Poles spoiled or "infected" Western Ukrainians with the unbearable disease of a fierce fight for independence. Russians kept saying about the "Latin" i.e. Western contagion of nervous need for constant change instead of being faithful to the primary, orthodox values.

[johnstruthers]

Zbyszek,
Pilsudski has something there, the symptom, but not the disease. Russia is the easternmost of the west, if you will. It is remarkably isolated, and peasants really had nowhere to migrate, except to Ukraine or Poland, which many had done. The Tsars were able to keep them subjugated not by dint of a natural Russian disposition to servitude, but by their miserable circumstance.

And the story is not complete: There have been many, many, many Russian peasant rebellions, large and small, over the centuries. They do not go down in the annals, because the nobility does not record them. They all turn out the same way, with mass slaughter. Some rebellions were small, some were large. There is a body of folk lore and music that celebrates this, including the famous Stenka Razin.

So Pilsudski turned a pathetic circumstance into an attribute, which is pretty insulting.

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by johnstruthers
Zbyszek,
...

So Pilsudski turned a pathetic circumstance into an attribute, which is pretty insulting.

Vanya, I agree with you on this. It was said almost a century ago and Pisludski has seen the horrors of the October revolution. I think the peasant social rebels were one thing but Pilsudski meant a national fight encompassing all social classes.