The same could be said about Germany during WWII. And yet it turned into a good country and nobody minds its existence nowadays despite its past. By your logic its existence had to be stopped right away back in the 40s as well, same for Japan and Italy who supported Hitler in that time. USA can also be called a bloodthirsty conqueror which built its civilisation on murder, slavery and destruction of native culture. And don't forget all the European crusades. Every country had its sins and you can count a plenty for every each but the list of good deeds, achievements and tributes for the society is equally long for each country. Russia's input in science and art is as incredible just as much as its war crimes and as already mentioned above the same can be said about almost every country. You can give me as many proves of Russia being the worst country as you want and I'll accept it but I'll also give you the same amount of proves of the opposite. So, if you're against nationalists, don't act like one, buddy.
If you want to compare Russia to Nazi Germany to say "it never improved" unlike the latter then here's some historical remark: Russia improved after Stalinism regime of the 30-40s, there was a period known as "Khrushchev thaw" notable for fighting against the Stalin's personality cult, demolishing of all Stalin monuments, renaming cities and places named after Stalin, giving more freedom of self expression to artists who were literally turned into political propaganda tools under Stalin, and having cultural exchange with other countries. Iron Curtain wasn't as solid as you think, there were American science achivements exhibitions in USSR, Russian delegations in US, 80s Olympics and many more. Life in USSR during Khrushchev and later leaders still sucked, communistic ideology still aplied a stressful pressure on people life but it was still a great breakthrough compared to Stalin era which is the closest you can get to Nazi period in Germany.
And modern Russia is night and day compared to USSR. Modern generation is much more immune to propaganda and harder to fool compared to more shallow and closed soviet people, mainly thanks to internet providing free access to the world and all its information, people became more cosmopolitan in their views.
The KGB is a literal evil organisation that has Russia in a vice grip.
What do you mean by it HAS? KGB is a Soviet organisation which officially existed only in 1954-1991 period lol.
But beyond that, enough of the Russian people have a sickness in their souls that causes them to think they are right to commit genocide in Ukraine.
Are you really sure about that? Do you have any statistics or maybe poll results to prove your point and convince me, the person who actually lives in this country that we have "enough" people "sick in their souls" that causes us to think we are right to commit genocide? Considering your "knowledge" about KGB I don't think your opinion over Russia is trustworthy.
Then say FSB instead of KGB, what's the point, it's like saying USSR still exists. Even though it's still full of bad people who once worked for KGB, the difference between two organizations is immense.
The mentality is the same. Absolute visceral hatred for the West. Belief in Russias right to commit genocide on its neighbours and to torture and murder its own people.
They are the main reason Russia is what it is today
So maybe we just need to get rid of these assholes along with a murderous bastard president to give those innocent Russians who also suffer from their hegemony a better future instead of just wishing an entire country to disappear and never exist anymore? Even Nazi Germany had good people who didn't want to support Hitler and when WWII nightmare was over they were happy to get a second chance to fix their cruel leader's mistakes and make a better country. Why not consider the same fate for Russia and dream about a painful death for its dictator and all his henchmen to give the country another chance instead of dreaming about just nuking it all down?
You can pull up Wikipedia. When has Russia not been brutally murdering its own people and conquering its neighbors? Truthfully, I’m most bitter about Russia “liberating” Eastern Europe into Soviet occupation, but the widespread terrorism Russia is conducting against Ukraine today is even more heinous.
Also, a vast majority of wars in this list is not just "Russia alone against somebody", many of them are more just big wars where Russia was a part of a big allience fighting together with 5-10 more countries as its allies and many of these wars weren't even started by Russia itself. So, Russia was a very supportive ally for the rest of the world all throughout its history in a military sense at least, it wasn't always a black sheep of the world which is always against everybody. You can talk shit about Soviet Russia and even modern Russia if you want, it's surely not the best periods in our country's history, like why should I like living with the same asshole dictator president for 25 years which is almost my entire life but it's foolish to say that Russia was like this for its entire history and was always nothing but an entire world's enemy and "cancer". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Russia
Russia is not unique in that they seized on any opportunity to expand their influence and territory. Especially in the early years, it is not one sided. Muscovy is the victim as much, if not more than it’s the aggressor. I understand why expansionism and paranoia is such a core belief, Russia did not have good neighbors.
That said, I can’t overlook that Russia was particularly brutal to its enemies and own people. I’m not super sympathetic to “I need to murder my neighbor first, because he might attack me (or someone else might attack through them)”. Once Russia became the biggest imperialist power around, they are complete menaces to everyone unfortunate enough to border them. I really wish that changed after the fall of the USSR, but history marches on and now it’s a dictatorship bent on war (which is pretty on brand for the last 300 years).
Alright, I'm not a historian but I pulled up Wikipedia as you asked.
47 year period of no wars between Siege of Constantinople (860) and Rus'-Byzantine War (907)
35 year period of no wars between Rus'–Byzantine War (987) and Yaroslav the Wise's attack on Brest (1022)
56 year period of no wars between Bolesław IV the Curly's raid on Old Prussians (1147) and Campaigns of Rus princes against the Order of the Sword (1203)
23 year period of no wars between Alexandr Nevsky Lithuanian campaign (1245) and Battle of Wesenberg (1268)
13 year period of no wars between Lithuanian–Muscovite War (1406–1408) and Muscovite War of Succession (1425–1453)
12 year period of no wars between Fourth Muscovite–Lithuanian War (1512–1522) and Fifth Muscovite–Lithuanian War (1534–1537)
And the list can go on. I'm not even counting all the numerous small periods of 1-10 years of peace which are VERY present. Russian war history is not unique, if you love to use Wikipedia as a mean of proving your point then check out lists of wars involving United States or Germany for example, the lists are no less rich and the amount of long periods without wars is almost the same as in Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_wars_involving_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Germany
And if some war in this list goes for over 20 years it doesn't mean that the country was a bloody murdered all throughout that period. Hell, American War in Afghanistan went from 2001 to 2021! And there were numerous other wars US was involved in parallel for varied period of time in the same period. Does it mean that US was a bad country for this entire time? It was spilling the blood of people all this time too after all. No, nobody talked about it in the same tone people talk about Russia now. I'm not trying to excuse to all the horrible things happening because of Putin's actions now but I'm just giving you a response to your attempt to judge the country and its reputation by its war history record.
The bar of murdering your own people and conquering your neighbors is low, but your own examples are brief in peaces in between periods of civil uprising and conquest during a 1200 year timespan. Duchal Muscovy, although aggressive, was not the great imperialist power that got established in 1547. From that point onwards its fairly consistent wars with Poland-Lithuania, the Ottomans, the Khanates, Sweden, and the unfortunate natives that lived in Siberia. After they killed the khans, they fought with the Chinese, and eventually the Japanese. In the modern day, we have Russia allying with the Nazis to carve up Poland. In living memory, immediately after the fall of the USSR Russia is supporting separatists in Transnistria (1992), invading Chechnya (1994, 1999), Georgia, and Ukraine.
This is not to mention their brutal repression of their own, and conquered, people. Russian serfdom was particularly brutal and peasants had far less privileges and protections than in most of Europe (and these people were not treated well). Russian serfdom existed as chattel slavery for over a century, and by the time it was abolished (in 1861) nearly 40% of Russians were slaves. It’s always been a backwater.
Fyi people from this sub are dumb as horseshit and MOST OF THEM mean entire country with it's people when they name the country itself. Check all other comments below if you dont believe me...
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u/Dorkseid1687 2d ago
Russia is cancer