| VGPolyglot said: Do you think that the collapse of the Soviet Union was good, or bad? Do you think that any of these countries should still be part of Russia? (...) |
Well as I understand it, an interesting thing is that they actually held a referendum on whether to break up the USSR,
and it actually didn't pass in all except the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Georgia and Armenia.
But regardless of that vote, the leaders of each republic had a secret meeting in some format not legally authorized,
and decided they would break it up anyways... Probably because it would be simpler for all of them to loot the public companies that way.
So that decision seems to have been technically illegal, but then again, that's how alot of shit happened in the USSR.
That decision was ultimately put into effect, and I don't think it's realistic or productive to try and revisit it now.
If those countries want to get back together in some modern format, that's OK, but it would be starting from current situation,
and would probably be more along the lines of the EU, although Belarus and "Novorussia" might be most likely to merge with Russia.
| Sharu said: On the 'Russian' question - yes, it is common that people say about themselves as 'Belarus', 'Ukraine', 'Moscow, 'Saint-Petersburg', 'Siberian' , 'Vologda', 'Tatar', Pomor', 'Cossack' etc. people. But we still Russians - that's not a nation. But more like a 'superethnos'. |
Probably is Soviet nostalgia or 'anticapitalist' sentiment, but couldn't it also be a reference to that 'superethnos' as well?
People might call it "Soviet" because that was it's most recent form, but it really went further back, to Russian Empire,
with USSR just re-enforcing it with modern mass education, etc...
That's just my take on it from meeting people from ex-USSR, yet called "Russian" in certain contexts (not conflicting with other specific identity etc)
