Oddbean

So in Putin's telling the expulsions, mass murders, rapes, and famines, of 1910-1950 either didn't really happen or were just minor mistakes. Sadly, they did and until very late in USSR that was minimised or completely denied in the official history. So people nursed their grievances, passed them down through the kitchen table, told their kids not believe the teachers, told their kids to smile and learn Russian. Told them one day, it will be our turn. Putin (and tbh most Russian's) understanding of their immediate neighbours excludes their rawest and most important unresolved history. That's dangerous and tragic. Countries like Ukraine and Poland who's partisans committed terrible atrocities can and do just blame Russia instead of owning that responsibility. Russia also provokes them every time it errects another Stalin statue or similar. Russia in turn reacts to every criticism or attempt to limit it's influence as a plot by "enemies" as these are "little brothers" it protected and industrialised (even though in fact most were significanly more developed than Russia pre-WW2). Poles have been treated so kindly by us, if they say these things it is the CIA. Or NGOs, gays, whatever. I'm not saying the CIA doesn't do it's best to inflame this. But can I tell you everytime a Russian nationalists opens their mouth on RT it does a thousand times more. No one wants to end up like the Volga Germans, the Karelians, or the Kazan in the 40s. And unlike the average Fox TV viewer they have learned those names at school.

Thanks for the historical/cultural insight. Ultimately the stupidest part of the interview seems to have been the first thirty minutes. If he hadn't gone on that long political history rant the conversation would have been much more rational. In the context of what I have seen in these replies that portion just seems like an over-complicated way to cope with guilt. Is Russia really putting up new statues of Stalin?

Yup. Although do think you have to also set it in the context of Russian history and culture. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/new-monument-soviet-leader-stalin-unveiled-ahead-ww2-anniversary-2023-02-01/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66548485

If you have time, I can recommend "Black Wind , White Snow" to better explain modern nationalist Russian politics. Suggested to me by a Russian friend while discussing his flight from the country ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/06/21/book-review-black-wind-white-snow-the-rise-of-russias-new-nationalism-by-charles-clover/ It's from 8 years ago. And very sympathetic to its subjects. Critical but not a hatchet job.

You may also enjoy ... https://reees.macmillan.yale.edu/vladimir-pozner-how-united-states-created-vladimir-putin Although he's a little too understanding of Russia for many in the region, he's very representative of well-informed liberal Russian opinion. And I think pretty correct about where Putin's sense of grievance comes from.

"In April 2021, Pozner was forced to cut his birthday celebration short and flee Georgia after his hotel was blockaded by protesters calling him a "Kremlin propagandist"." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Pozner_Jr. He also spent most of his life working in Soviet and Russian State media. I mean I genuinely feel I'm trying for a balanced set of sources here 😅