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PerspectiveCloud t1_ja8jc9a wrote

Reply to comment by canadave_nyc in Putin casts war as a battle for Russias survival by R1ckCrypto

Yes but I don’t feel like the Civil War is nearly a good comparison. It’s a completely different era and the Confederacy was never a Sovereign nation. A succeeded union, sure, but pretty conceptually different. An ongoing civil conflict with a short few years of independence.

Also it’s interesting when Russians talk about Nazi’s, because so many westerners are contextualizing “nazi” to be a universal term. “Nazi” to Russia has never meant “Nazi” the way the US see it. Lots of interesting reads out there on this topic. In short, it is about the invaders from the west that caused the Great Patriotic War, or WW2.

The Nazi terminology in the Ukraine war is much more about the western favoring government that “infiltrated” this ex-Soviet state back in 2014. Which makes sense, since Kiev has suppressed and attacked the Russia-favoring republics of Donetsk and Luhansk for nearly a decade. The Nazi narrative makes some sense when you look at it from that perspective, “invaders from the west”.

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canadave_nyc t1_ja930ci wrote

The "invaders from the west" thing also resonates very strongly with many Russians such as Putin, because the West sent troops to Russia during the Russian Civil War that ended the Russian Revolution. As the Wikipedia page on the subject says:

"Soviet and Russian interpretations greatly exaggerate the role of the Allies in the Civil War and try to portray these as attempts to suppress the Bolshevik revolution and to partition Russia."

So yes, there is a very strong sentiment against "invaders from the west" that doubtless plays a part in Putin's/Russians' thinking.

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PerspectiveCloud t1_jabbkce wrote

It makes sense why the west and Russia fail to see eye to eye on foreign policies when you look at these things. There’s a really good Youtuber, a Russian citizen who interviews folk from all demographics about their opinions on literally anything related to current events. Goes by the name “1420 by Daniil Orain”. Great translations with raw footage.

It really helps grasp why the sentiment is so different.

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