What year is it?
Cossacks deployed to Moscow
Xavier Thompson
Julian Anderson
Aren't those the same fuckers who joined the white army?
Why are they still a thing?
Eli Diaz
Vlad you're smarter than this
Daniel Thompson
Cossacks are just another name for Kazakhstanis
Brandon Allen
Cossacks are an ethnic group that lives in the northern Caucasus region and eastern Ukraine. They were originally Russian peasants who fled to the frontier to escape serfdom, and were actually /ourguys/ in lots of ways (practiced democracy, gender equality, racial egalitarianism, fought the Tsar) but after losing two wars to the Tsars they were allowed to keep their autonomy in exchange for service. Since then they have basically been the hired muscle of the Russian government (with lull in this during the Soviet period for obvious reasons).
Jack Morris
is he really though
Thomas King
Wrong
Wrong
Hudson Jenkins
The absolute state of the Russian government
Andrew Roberts
Cossacks isn't an ethnic group Cossacks is a social class within Polish and, particularly, Russian society.
They originated spontaneously, as robber barons and bandits in no man's land between Russia, Poland, Tatars, Ottoman Empire and Steppe Raiders. East Slavic in core and adopting many Nomadic traditons. They were coopted by Poland, and, heavily so, by Russia.
In Russia, they became a privileged warrior (more so enforcement/repression) class, and cultivated a separate identity, scoffing at other people and loyal only to Church and the Autocracy. They were granted autonomy and tax exemptions, for the price of service for life, coupled with having to do their own training and equipment. (Despite the sweet deal, Porky and their innate hierarchy ruined their little idyll anyway).
During the Revolution, they, actually, were the most disloyal repressive force of the Imperial government, who mutinied en masse and well before everyone else, and fell to socialist agitation, giving revolutionary movement a strong boost (remember, Porky ruined everything, and they had pretty much archaic and autonomous hierarchy, compared to a standard mustering of European army and police).
During the Civil War, it was a different story. Having aligned with Bolsheviks originally, they Fuuuued, as they tried to equalize them with the rest of the plebes, and, Cossack regions have essentially split 40/40/20 between reds, whites, and bands, gravitating to some anarcho-reactionary-agrarian-Nomadic-barracks-socialism.
Jose Lee
He did not send them at all. However, when a reactionary org declares their undying love and loyalty to you, and proceeds to do some retarded and unoptimal things being involved with suppressing some dissent, you are in a bit of a pickle. Are you going to suppress them too, while suppressing the dissent itself? Or turn a blind eye? It's a tough question, and a question that never reaches Vlad too, but is a dilemma for some police Major.
Sebastian Scott
Was Stepan Razin comrade #1?
Anthony Carter
They're basically PMC/racketeers who wear cosplay. Cossacks don't really exist as a caste anymore, but some people really want them to because Tsarist Russia wank is in vogue.
Camden Peterson
makes me think…
in all seriousness it depended on the cossack group and the social class within cossak society. soldier cossacks were radicalized during the russian revolution for example
Aiden Moore
meant to add your >wrong greentext
Easton Ward
1905?
Nicholas Sanders
wow
Benjamin Hernandez
IT'S 1917
Owen Nelson
user studying Russian lang, pol and his here.
Basically what is happening is a culmination of three main reasons for dissent:
- Anti corruption
- Repression of civil liberties
- Organised political resistance (can be subdivided between liberal and socialist)
The first of these is low level but always in people's minds: the burning down of the Kemerovo shopping centre caused localised protests because it was the fault of corrupt inspectors. Now the next is way more interesting and pertinent: recently the Russian state has tried to shiutdown a P2P messaging app called "Telegram" (i don't personally know it, I assume it is like whatsapp). Now this has caused escalating protests because it unites two groups: anti-Putin liberals and the comptuer literate youth. These protests have been growing and are mostly seen with mass throwing of paper planes (apparently it is the app's symbol). These protests have been going on for a month and will likely continue.
Now for political resistance to the Putin regime (the term regime btw, I use in its political science sense of a consistent set of rukes thay a state operates under, Putin's government has set such rules to an extent that it is now a regime and a appointed sucessor would follow them). As I said they are split between Liberals (Navalny & Sochak, if those names ring a bell) and socialists (KPRF, Left Front). Now their motivations and aims are not important perse, but they have both (in parallel, not together but not in open conflict) been escalating activites recently: most notably at Putin's inauguration and on Victory Day (the picture comes from a communist march on Victory Day, it says "THIS IS NOT THEIR [Putin's, the modern Russian army's] VICTORY").Now what is big about this is that a load of protesters from the liberal and socialist sides were arrested and beaten. With the Cossacks now in play, that makes death a far more likely chance. Someone dies and shit goes off.
Someone asked what year this is, this is 1905.
Luke Ward
How do you not know telegram? It's the pozzed version of signal.
Adam Taylor
Not much of a techy, v rarely use phone nowadays and only thing I really use my tablet for is leftypol, messanger, twitter and youtube. Laptop has been broken for a while, so I live a less tech-ridden existance now.
Oh and a titbit for you all: Putin is using the Cossacks to police the world cup.
Asher Lewis
Oh and the involvement of the Cossacks fucks something else too.
So in short Putin created this riot police called the Rosgardiya made up of Chechen war vets, mercs, kneecappers or all of the above. This org is directly loyal to the president. Now there was a big shitshow with the FSB getting pissed off that the Rosgardiya were getting their roles & power, and then they had the job of policing the election. Now nothing happened in terms of violence on election day likely because the FSB scared them (no joke, Skripal poisoning might be the cause of that, even longer story). Now Putin is using the Cossacks instead of the Rosgardiya shows some of a few things:
He can't control them as much as he thought
He is worried they won't do what is required
He is worried they will fight with the Cossacks
He is worried that other orgs can't do the job instead of the Rosgardiya
The use of the cossacks instead of the Rosgardiya or other state security service is a sign his power is far weaker than people realise. The entire regime might be about to fall apart.
Jason Gomez
telegram was name of some "messenger" app you autist
Blake Bailey
Let's hope the communist organizations have some initiative and seize the moment before the liberals do.
Thomas Taylor
Well it all depends, even if the liberals win now they could fail hard: their plan involves forced neoliberalisation and thus lots of unemployment.
The two way Putin falls is through either a political crisis (which the libs will likely get the best off) or an economic one (where the communists will triumph). You see, even if the libs win they will still be hit by an econ crisis (be it caused by their own "reforms" or by a global financial meltdown), so the communists can still win overall. What they MUST do in the case the lobs win for now, is use the breathing space to organise a far larger communist movement. The Russian left has a chance, it just has to play its cards wisely.
Kayden Rogers
I hope so, either the left takes advantage of it or United Russia falls apart and some psycho like Zhirinovsky takes power and turns Russia into Eastern Orthodox ISIS
Austin Jones
Where can we read more about the involvement of the Skripal poisoning?
Jace Reyes
Lol no Zhirinovsky has no power whatsoever nor influence. Henis a sideshow and will have zero impact on events to come. I am talking about the actual liberls, Navalny and Sobchak.
You can't, but in short: the theory is that the FSB poisoned Skripal to threaten the Rosgardiya, showing "We can kill a motherfucker 5 timezones away". Since then the entire FSB-Rosgardiya conflict has died and become nothing for some reason, despite the fact it was expected Putin would giventhe Rosgardiya way more powers in the month following the election.
Juan Richardson
Isn't this pretty much what the Makhnovschina was though
Jaxon Jenkins
More like 1905.
Putin still holds his throne firm but once his authority is shaken God knows what will happen.
Ryan Turner
I don't want to wait 12 years.
Leo Thompson
Dr. Peterson can help you, eh.
Jose Thomas
I for one cannot wait for another 9 years to Europe to shred itself to pieces in another world war.
Jason Sanchez
You need to read about Jungian archetypes, bucko.
Caleb Campbell
A European war is garunteed to end with nukes