How would "dealing" look like?

Russian Federation still maintains freedom of travel with most of ex-Soviet republics. Good luck entering Britain without visa being a former colonial subject.

O dear...

Wow.

Looks like youhave exactly two modes of operation:

* Deflecting actual questions

* Deeply chauvunistic remarks in line of "do they love their children"

Given this palette, I'm not really sure how to interact with you.

You appear to play from very familiar playbooks. Been there done that. And if you are sincere, which I doubt, there is actually a wealth of helpers about that'll help you lift the veil, but I know a random internet stranger won't convince you.

Either way, I've seen too many of either to have the energy to start all all the way at the beginning.

That's what I'm talking about. Some people can afford the fancy of believing in belonging to a “state” that has been a single entity through centuries, and introduce mental gymnastics to embrace the “good parts”, and expel the “bad parts” to “the past” to pretend that “modern day person” is automatically different. “We the people”, yada yada. How is Russian Empire the same thing as Soviet Union? You could be killed for making that statement after the Revolution. (There are works that do actually trace the socially inherited features, but they are a bit deeper than newspaper level looking at a name or at a map, and fantasizing about “empires”.)

I am not yet senile, so I do remember that not so long ago everyone living on a stretch of land from Balkans to Bering Straight was a “Russian” with the same thick accent, no matter what they thought about that. That's the level of scientific discourse we're talking about. So current media-induced hyper-attentiveness to proper identification of characters on stage seems a bit hypocritical to me. As I said, there are people from “all those -stan countries lumped together because I'm too lazy to point my finger at any of them”, and also people from Russia who dissect actual dynamics of relationships in local societies instead of winging it with “ugh Soviet empire something something like African slave trade problem solved”.

Let's not forget there were multiple options to emigrate in early '90s. If you had at least some Russian family ties, you could try to flee to Russia. If you had at least some Jewish family ties, you could try to flee to Israel. If you had at least some German family ties, you could try to flee to Germany. Let's say we have twin sisters who were born in Tajikistan, and lived there. One decided to move to Russia (maybe because she had family and kids, and relatives on husband's side), other decided to move to Germany. Assuming they start at the same point in space and time, please tell me when one turns into colonialist, and the other into indirect victim of Soviet forced deportations?

O but I can too. I just know that whatever the Kremlin does, is just barely enough to keep the fantasy alive for its white, Russian citizens. The rest knows better.

Muskovite tradition is one of lies and deceit. You are struggling to understand things because you make the mistake of listening to words. Take a step back, get some actual historians books, and be enlightened. Continuing this exchange cannot be fruitful until you do.

We need you to stop perpetuating nationalistic flamewars (as well as any other type of flamewar) on HN. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

We've had to ask you this more than once before:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31962578 (July 2022)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28322571 (Aug 2021)

We have to ban accounts that keep doing this, if you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.