Восстановим ГРАНИЦЫ СССР. 100 тысяч ИСТЦОВ против Горбачева,

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So in other words, you are saying that the purpose of supporting Ukraine is to weaken Russia. How are Russians supposed to feel then?

And, by your own words, they don't necesserely care about Ukraine; they care about weaking Russia. They wouldn't get involved in some conflict somewhere in Africa. But when they want to weaken Russia then they suddenly care about Ukraine. Again, how are Russians supposed to feel?

I've always cared for Ukraine, that's where my paternal family comes from, that's where plenty of people I know come from. I want these people to be happy and this land to fluorish, overcoming a mess of post-Soviet corruption just like Poland and Baltic States do.

QFT, AFAIK, you're living in USA. Why did you choose it over Russia?

Back in Russia my mom used to work at the Oral school for the deaf where they were teaching deaf kids to speak without sign language. My mom was invited to the conference in Palo Alto to tell similar school as to what they were doing in the Russian school. As it happened, my mom's friend was taking care of old lady in Berkeley (across the bay from where that school was). She had her father in Israel and her father was really sick so she had to go to Israel to take care of him. So she wanted my mom to replace her during her visit to Israel. My mom really didn't want to do it because she was supposed to return back to Russia after that week is over. Her friend kept assuring her she would be back by that time, but my mom didn't really believe her. But then her friend was begging and crying so my mom finally agreed. Then by the time the week was over, her friend wasn't back, just like my mom thought. So she called the school for the deaf to ask them if she could stay longer. They told her that she could stay as long as she likes because they were getting bankrupted (it was 1992 and Russian economy was collapsing). Meanwhile, in the USA they liked the talk that she gave and so they took advantage of the fact that she stood there longer and were inviting her more and more, until they finally gave her an offer of a permanent position as teaching consultant. Now, for a long time my mom was thinking it was all temporary and so she would eventually return to Russia. But in 1994, when two years passed, she realized it was a lot more permanent than she thought, so she invited me and my dad to join her. She didn't get along with my dad so my dad returned back to Russia in 1997. As far as that lady she was taking care of, her friend never returned to US, so she was taking care of her all the way until she died in 1995. As far as her job, yes she worked there for many years but then eventually they no longer needed her since they learned everything she had to teach them. But, by that time, we both got US citizenship so she stayed. After she quit the job at the school for the deaf she worked at Jewish Family and Children Services for a few years and then eventually she quit that job too and right now she teaches Russian at the university; not as a professor but as a lecturer.

But, back to your question. Back at the time I moved to the US, I was 14. So it wasn't me who chose to go to US, it was my parents who made that choice for me. One thing that my parents were afraid of is that I would be pulled into army if I was in Russia so they wanted me to stay in the US. Now, there are few reasons why I can't be pulled into army. One reason is that throughout my adult life I was always a student somewhere. And students are exempt from army. The reason my parents questioned it is that I was student in the US rather than Russia. But, according to the law, it doesn't matter what country I am a student, as long as I am a student anywhere in the world that is enough. But my parents were worried Russia might not follow their own laws. As a matter of fact there were rumors of some people coming to the Russian university lecture halls and getting a couple of students who then would just disappear and later it would turn out they were pulled into the army. In any case, the other law is that they can't pull into the army anyone older than 26. So, after I crossed 26, there was no reason to worry. But my parents still did since, again, they were concerned that Russia might not follow their own laws. And then yet another reason that I wouldn't get pulled into the army is that I have dual citizenship. So, as a Russian citizen, I shoudl go to the army, but my American citizenship would be an exemption from it. But, again my parents were thinking Russia won't follow their own laws. Well right now I am far too old for the army so right now my mom knows I won't be pulled. But she still worries that they might not let me return back to the US if I go to Russia. She read somewhere about them not letting dual citizens exit the country. And also she remembers herself there was one time they didn't let her board the plane for whatever reason and she had to go on a different plane few days later after going through some beurocracy. But she never explained what happened.

But in any case, I myself am not nearly as paranoid about Russia as my parents. My own attitude basically boils down to being comfortable wherever I lived the longest. So when I just got to the US, I kept wishing I could return back to Russia. But now that I lived in US all those years, I am more comfortable in the US. But feeling that one country or other is my home because I lived there for very long isn't going to affect my opinion about the countries otherwise.

And by the way, I am, in fact, contemplating returning to Russia. But that is because I can't get a job as a theoretical physicist at the USA so I am thinking maybe in Russia I would get the job more easily since there will be less competition.

Speaking of this, here is a good reason for me to want to be in the US. Some people tell me that in Russia the academics don't get paid that much and need another job. To me that sounds pretty weird. I mean if I was told this back in the 90-s then nobody was paid much, so there is no surprise. But now economy recovered under Putin and people in some professions, including business, get paid a lot. So if non-academics get paid much more than academics, that would sound like Russia is not a very academic country. But thats not true: Russian education is far better than US education. So, as a country with such a great education system, it makes no sense why it wouldn't want to pay its academics once its economy recovered. Yet thats what I was told.

So I guess the reason to go to Russia is that I can get hired there more easily and the reason not to is that I won't get paid much. Those are my reasons anyway.

I must say it for your parents: it's hard not to be paranoid after having lived in Soviet Russia.
You were young and autistic so you were probably pretty oblivious to the problem their decisions resolve around: the state not keeping to its own laws, basically putting everyone in unpredictable risks people have to constantly navigate via gossip and guessing.
"Little green men" in Ukraine are just another symptom of this problem.

I have no interest in "weakening" Russia. You're ascribing a meaning to my statements which just does not exist. In fact, I'd rather that Russia be "strong." I have a great admiration for Russia. I just don't have much regard for Putin. Much of Ukraine doesn't want to become a Russian satellite again---just like in Soviet days.

Ukraine doesn't want to "weaken" Russia; Ukraine just wants Russia to leave them alone.

I feel, should Russia conquer Ukraine, that the world balance will be detrimental to NATO. Putin seems to want to return to the days of the USSR, and perhaps even Tsarist Russia.

Neither the USSR or Tsarist Russia were especially friendly to intellectuals and scientists

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 08 Feb 2022, 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well, as it is, NATO is much stronger than Russia. So in order to have "world balance" one would want to strengthen Russia and weaken NATO.



I don't know about tsarist Russia, but as far as USSR it was certainly pro-science. Because USSR education was much better than American. Now, as far as current Russian education, it gets worse: largely because it borrows American education system. And excellent education is one of the many things people miss from Soviet days.

The USSR government was quite similar to Trump in at least one regard:

They sought to control what scientists said, and they cracked down on people who didn't agree with the government autocracy (those people whom they cracked down on were called "dissidents."

I never said education in the USSR was lousy. They had a great educational system. But people didn't have freedom of thought (which is an indispensable part of education).

We used to have a much better education system in the UK a few decades ago as well. Its decline is largely due to meddling by politicians and an obsession with egalitarianism, but we've also borrowed one or two dubious aspects from the US system, including 'proms', lol.

I think the conquer itself and lack of reaction to it would have set a very dangerous precedent to the fragile world balance - sending away the message we get back to the age of imperial conquests.
Quite encouraging for China about Taiwan it would be...

I, for one, don't want a return to the Cold War.

Should the Ukraine invasion be successful, this would create Cold War conditions.

In case of another Cold (hopefully not Hot!) War, I definitely want to be west of the new Iron Curtain this time.

I always felt the world was a pretty safe place, at least as far as the East-West thing was concerned, when we had the likes of Brezhnev running the show in the Soviet Union. Everyone knew pretty much where they stood, and there was very little chance of anything 'kicking off' on the nuclear front, despite all the propaganda and ideological window-dressing. Things became a lot more worrying when Gorbachev came along, followed by that clown Yeltsin.

Just my two kopeks, folks.

^Many Russians share your sentiment---and are nostalgic for the days of the USSR. From their viewpoint, they lived a good life. They were secure.

But this state of affairs wasn't good for people who aspired for more than an existence dependent upon the good will of the government.

From your safe distance...

The instability of Gorbachev and Yeltsin's times were exactly the opportunity for people here.

I was rather referring to the international balance of power during the 'Cold War', rather than the domestic economic situation of the Soviet population under Communism. You and I were far too young to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I rather suspect it was great theatre and a gift to the news media, rather than a real existential threat to world peace. Hard-headed realists like Kennedy and Krushchev were always in control of things, I would.ve thought, and were never going to press the nuclear button or anything like that.

I don't remember the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I wish I would have remembered Khrushchev; he was quite a character.

I remember the days under Brezhnev-----when there was a specialty known as "Kremlinology."

The Soviet government didn't care for dissidents like Alexander Solzhenitsyn; I was upset when they refused permission for him to receive his Nobel Prize for literature.

The Politburo reminded me of the people who purged many people in the 1930s. "Darkness at Noon" was quite a seminal work for me.