Yes, the majority of the population. Everybody wanted to go to the USSR and the Eastern Bloc in general. That is why they built the Berlin Wall and heavily guarded all the borders with Western Europe. To stop all the migrants ;) (I prefer to trust people living at that time than the nostalgia.)
I agree that it is worse in Russia now than it was in the post-Stalin Soviet era, though.
Well, I’ve also grown up in the former Eastern Bloc. So 1:1. Maybe you were part of the privileged group profiting from the Soviet imperialism? ;)
Also: Do you deny the Gulag, the oppression of all opposition, including any forms of self-organization, the Holodomor genocide, and the ethnic cleansing, e.g., of the Crimean Tatars?
Yeah, the “secret protocols dividing Eastern Europe” are a tiny, tiny detail. The UK and France decided to declare war on Germany because it was attacking independent countries. The USSR decided to join Germany in the war efforts, as long as they could. They also made programs of ethnic cleansing, mass incarceration and mass murder parallel to the Nazi ones. (They themselves admitted they were basically the same thing, claiming for years that the Katyn massacre was done by the Germans and not the Soviets). The power in the Soviet Union was concentrated in the hands of a very few people at the highest ranks of the Communist Party. Any independent self-organization, including independent workers’ unions, was forbidden. Explain to me: What was so wonderful in all of that?
Okay. Even if this is correct, then we have: If the UK and the US had not stood up to Hitler, we would have a Stalinist regime spreading across all, not half of the continent. Nice.
Also, a reminder: The Soviets first collaborated with Hitler, attacking Poland together in 1939. They intensified rather than stopped the colonial practices of the Russian Empire.
Alright, that is a bit uplifting.
I have one more skeptical comment/question: I would imagine the difference between 70s and now is that the new aircrafts have some digital component to them. And that the US could ensure they can use the digital part to “turn the aircraft off” for their “national security”. I have a very limited knowledge on the subject, so maybe this is all inspirational thinking…
Can’t the US shut them down?
I have too many people into arthouse around, but especially when it comes to movies I have long been watching more European than American stuff.
Ruben Östlund makes both movies that are fun and deep (e.g. “Triangle of Sadness”, “The Square”).
I love Kusturica’s movies. A touch of magical realism and humour from the Balkans. His political views are… let’s just say you do not have to agree much with the views of an artist to enjoy his work ;)
“Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” is a great recent comedy from the Romanian Radu Jude.
“Blue Is the Warmest Colour” is a beautiful lesbian love story.
Petro Almodovar has made incredible melodramas.
I can also very much recommend “Cold War” by Paweł Pawlikowski (another love story, but this time with a very sensitible perspective on Central European history in the background).
Lukas Dhont makes very touching movies, I have rarely cried as much on a movie as on his “Close”.
It is a weird niche, but if you like fckd up cartoons like South Park or Rick and Morty, then check out the Polish series Exorcist (on Netflix, though I am sure you can also find it elsewhere…)
I’ve heard DeepL Write can replace Grammarly. Has anybody checked it?
I have a DeepL plug-in in my browser and a DeepL app. I highlight text, and press to translate. This is great if you want to learn a language (I compare my understanding of a sequence with the translation, check what the one word I didn’t understand meant, etc.)
For me, just the default URL gives “detect language”… (https://www.deepl.com/en/translator).
Amazing. They are the best app for hiking (Komoot might be nice for planning, but nobody has the paths mapped so well - middle of nowhere, north of Sweden, Georgia, Mauritius, everywhere ti had silly small paths mapped for me).
I hope they can also be an option in the city. I don’t drive, but I need to check their public transport coverage, and accuracy of opening hours ‿