How did Russia manage to turn from a mongol-occupied subhuman steppe into a civilized European society with God-tier culture, music and literature then go back into a totalitarian subhuman steppe again?
>>809574
Russian history have been like Kiev kingdom --> Mongol --> Angry guy --> Giant that likes boats --> Germans and Jews (Aka communism) -->Vodka Stalin --> Cyka blyat ((Yelled into bad microphones))
They imported aristocracy from the western countries. That's probably why they were the last to bloom from it.
However, they also imported the Revolution. And it hit them hardest. That counter-enlightenment (that's what it was, romanticism of the plebs) force brought them to totalitarian communism and before repelling to the reactionary strong man we see today.
>>809587
>>809593
Pretty much. Russians eventually got tired of long-running tsarist rule so they put forward communism as something fresh, new and promising, while eliminating old russian spirit and creating a new communist Russian spirit in it's place, and eventually as decades passed the ideas that made-up communism got stale in the eyes of russians, they'd start losing faith in it, so they allowed it to collapse as well. During it's years of existence this communist spirit would start to rot and decompose, and during the last few decades of it's life communist rule in Russia acted as a bubble that contained sealed various puss and maggotry inside, and eventually as this bubble popped all the puss and maggots got freed in the form of "new russians" and oligarchs. This short decade of post-communist Russia is known as Yeltsin's Russia. Russians like to promote Putin as the savior of Russia after Yeltsin's years, unaware of the truth that Putin himself is one of those 90's maggots, that got to power and as such has managed to put himself and all of his buddies in golden chairs all the while utilizing a mix of pre-communist and communist rhetoric to manipulate the casual russian mass.
So in a tl;dr - hoping something better happens, things just gets worse. Expect post-Putin Russia to be an even worse shithole than it is now.
>>809574
>implying totalitarianism isn't compatible with civilized society
>>809587
>Germans and Jews (Aka communism)
Majority of Russian elites in Romanov era(note elites =/= artists, we're talking about ministers, generals and so on) were German in one way or another. Catherine the Great was from Saxony as far as I remember for fucks sake.
So it's more like Kiev->Mongol->Muscovy->Peter the Great->Germans->jew communists->non-jew communists(Stalin didn't like jews)->troglodytes(everything post-Khrushchev)->kleptocrats(Yeltsin onwards)
More importantly, what caused Russia to have the biggest population in Europe despite always being isolated from the rest of Europe and not having the advantages France had to get a significant population.
Also, the massive depopulations from the 20th century.
>>809574
Slavs named vladimir, duh
>>809754
Sorry, wrong image
>>809709
>eliminating old russian spirit and creating a new communist
Not really, no. This notion is just as stupid as any other ideas on something disappearing without a trace in history. Commies did not conduct genocide, and Bolsheviks were originally a party of Russian and Russified proletariat first and foremost. There's a reason Bolsheviks had a foothold on what we can call Russian lands proper (core Russian territory without any colonies) during Civil War even when their positions were at their worst.
Of course, during 1920s there were a lot of ideas for radical changes for the sake of changes, there even was a "revolutionary calendar" system, for example, but when 1930s came, those experiments had already stopped.
Calling Soviet Union something completely alien for Russia is just as absurd as Germans claiming Nazis didn't have anything to do with supposed real Germans. If anything, a large chunk of problems with modern Russia can be attributed to the lack of any proper desovietization and repentance procedures akin to denazification.
Soviet spirit IS Russian spirit is whamsayin. Collectivism, xenophobia, aggressive militarism, you name it.
>>809593
This. They imported culture but also began to create their own. The actual music and paintings though were based on a cultural movement that was already underway in Western Europe.
>>809593
>communism wasn't a result of the Enlightenment guys, I promise you
>I mean, if people start believing this, it would undermine our entire argument about the desirability of "progress" and rule by intellectuals so let's pretend we dindu nuffin and say that totalitarian communism was reactionary because reasons
>>809587
>>809593
>>809709
These sum most of it up pretty well, but I'd add that World War I played a tremendous role in shaping the future of Russia and surrounding European countries. The war effort reinforced negative public perception of governments as being inept, after millions of people died without ever having a real "winner". People were pissed, rioting in the streets...Lenin takes hold, etc.
If only Gorbachev managed to liberalize the Soviet Union by reverting back to civil society all the institutions created by the Communist Party to serve as instruments of control.
There was a potential there, and it was wasted.
Peter The Great
>>809788
>communism wasn't a result of the Enlightenment guys, I promise you
I didn't even imply that. I explicitly said the revolution was counter-enlightenment. Therefore obviously it was a result of the enlightenment in some way.
Napoleon was basically enlightened principles commandeering the revolution. That's the closest the revolution came to enlightenment. At base, it is completely the opposite: slavish, egalitarian (therefore post-christian "christianity"), politically-motivated, "moral", everyman rather than great men, etc.
The renaissance and the enlightenment were a result of Hellenic ideals managing to take back supremacy from Judeo-Christian ideals.
>>809852
Oh, you some Nietzschean, forget what I said then, I thought I was talking to a certain type of liberal progressivist that always tries to dissociate his ideology from instances where progressivism goes "wrong", as in Russia.
>>809776
>Commies did not conduct genocide
They didn't but they did force communist ideas upon people who couldn't care less, as well as execute those who opposed communist ideas explicitly.
>>809709
>unaware
A good bunch of them are aware, they just don't care enough to do something about it.
>>809574
Because of a few czars, but it will trigger the anti great men people.
It is not due to Russia's geography or environment with few sea ports or desirable locations for centers of heavy industry, finance and services. Norway, the midwest, the outback, Alaska, these places do fine, Russia has enormous potential as well as human capital.
It can be attributed mainly to Russia's dysfunctional culture and society to the point where even Putin and his completely amoral Russian mafia, oil cartel and ex-KGB cronies see a practical need to promote life and soul in the country to try and stave off all the suicides and alcoholism, be it in a very dry superficial promotion of the Orthodox church and patriotism. After the collapse of the soviet union all the high IQ scientists left, gone, the few who thought they had a duty to stay have been brow beaten for 25 years, Russia's socioeconomic situation is comparable to an inner city ghetto.
