Heya! You can call me Tino! I'm 19, Hungarian and agender. I'm autistic and one of my special interests is the USSR, which is what this blog is for.
To be clear, I do not support the USSR. Don't come on here with Stalin apologist tankie bullshit. I will mainly use this blog for reblogs and rants, might occasionally post some essays I do! I will occasionally talk about general politics or other parts of history as well!
If you'd like me to explain anything related to the USSR, feel free to ask! I might know about it!
Masterlist of educational posts, essays, and others.
# historical - to do with history, usually about the USSR. Look at Soviet tag if you want to see all the soviet stuff.
# political - to do with politics or political theory.
# educational - essays or longer educational posts.
# non-soviet - historical stuff that ISN'T about the USSR.
# sources - list or link to a source(s) or resource(s).
# info - important information about current politics.
# a better future - my ocs.
# other - anything that doesn't fit into the above.
In honour of the newest addition to the collection (see: previous post), I made a display box for my medals so they're protected!
The box itself is a jewellry box from Clas Ohlson that I ripped out the partitions from. Then, I bought an extra outdoor furniture pillow from the local textile store and took out the foam block. I cut it to size and covered it with some left over satin like red fabric I had! (It's much darker irl).
I'm SO happy with it, it came out exactly how I wanted it to!! The medals are very secure in the foam and won't budge even If I shake the box.
The newest addition to my collection! I've been wanting this one for so long, so I got it for myself as a treat after passing my first round of uni exams. So worth it!! Straight from Ukraine from Ebay.
Fun fact about the design: The radiation pathway line design are based on a famous radiation experiment by Rutherford! However, they are inaccurate and technically could not exist, since the deviation on the alpha ray is significantly larger than that of the beta ray! There was a whole paper on it published in 2019 :) Sketch from the Rutherford experiment below.
The newest addition to my collection! I've been wanting this one for so long, so I got it for myself as a treat after passing my first round of uni exams. So worth it!! Straight from Ukraine from Ebay.
Given that the USSR comprised of Kazakhstan as well, and that camel are quite resilient creatures, you'd think I'd be less shocked to hear about their usage in WW2. I'm not.
Near Stalingrad (although after the battle), these beasts were used for the transportation of ammunition, fuel, food, and anything else you can think about. While unusual, Stalingrad is quite close to Kazakhstan and is surrounded by the Kalmyk steppes. As mentioned before, camels are quite resistant, large, and don't need much water, so they are not an illogical choice for mode of transport in the area. (It is worthwhile to note that the Red Army was heavily under-supplied, including trucks, and many of the equipment was outdated and falling apart or simply couldn't brave the unbeaten paths around them.)
More specifically, there was one 'famous' camel who travelled with the 308th Rifle Division named Kuznechik (meaning grasshopper). The camel apparently accompanied them all the way to Berlin (and allegedly spit on the ruins of the Reichstag). To add to the humour of the situation, the 308th Rifle Division was comprised of mainly Siberians.
Siberians in Berlin with a Kazakh Camel. How Soviet.
I meant to make this post a while ago so I'm sure it's been discussed, but here are all the medals I could identify belonging to Ilya's father and what they tell us about his character. The following analysis assumes that the choice of medals is intentional and actually tells us something about Ilya's father.
From left to right:
1. For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945
Created 6th of June 1945, this award was given to industrial workers who worked 1 year or longer (6 months if there were exceptional circumstances).
We gather from this that Ilya's father worked in the industry, but not necessarily as a civilian, as many disabled military veterans also worked in the industry. Based on the other WW2 commemoration awards, I believe Ilya's father belonged to the latter group, however there's also a possibility he worked in the industry before being conscripted.
2. Order of Lenin
Created 6th of April 1930, this is the highest civil award of the USSR although soldiers received it as well, and the second highest overall (only outranked by the Hero of the Soviet Union). It was given for 'outstanding service to the motherland' and was awarded to only around 460,000 people.
Based on the WW2 commemoration awards and the medal of bravery (discussed later), I believe Ilya's father exhibited outstanding bravery during WW2 and was awarded for it. It's also possible that he was born into an already politically influential family. Even if he wasn't, this award would have made him into a big deal. This was an insanely big honour.
3. Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945
Quite self explanatory, this was a jubilee award, created 25th of April 1975, thirty years after the victory in WW2 (called the Great Patriotic War in the USSR). Everybody who participated in WW2 was awarded one.
Small flex; I actually have this one in my collection. This is our final confirmation that Ilya's father is a WW2 veteran. It's interesting that he displayed this one but not the 40 year anniversary, although there may be some cultural or traditional behind it that I'm missing.
4. 50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR
Created 27th of December 1967, this award was given to celebrate 50 years after the establishment of the Soviet Armed Forces. There's quite a lot of groups covered under this medal, like active and retired military personnel and those awarded medals for bravery and the like.
While Ilya's father could be in any of these groups, I believe there are two categories we know for sure he is covered by: combat veteran and those awarded an order for individual service or bravery (Order of Lenin).
Order of Courage
A post-Soviet Russian award first established in 1994, awarded for 'selfless courage and valour'. It's not strictly a military award and is given to those who fits the criteria, like fire fighters or rescuers.
Given Ilya's father's age, I believe this was a way of commemorating whatever brave act he committed while in the military (although it is possible he went on to do something courageous again). It does however show us that Ilya's father continued to be a big deal after the collapse of the USSR.
Summary
While this is all speculation, this is what I believe to be the most likely series of events:
Ilya's father served in WW2, and either before or after his service he was in the industrial work section, most likely in a factory. During his service in WW2, he committed some kind of act of bravery that most likely left him disabled or injured in some way. Once the war was over, he was properly decorated for it and became well respected in many high end circles, if he wasn't already. As for the act of bravery itself, it's hard to judge, but based on the frequency of types of acts of bravery, I'd say he saved someone or a group of people by putting his life in danger directly OR he was an exceptional serviceman (sniper, mortar man etc.) with many attributed deaths.
If you'd like to know more about the awards, I have cited the Wikipedia page as the source for this post and linked the individual page for each!
It's late in the day but today is the anniversary of the start of the 1956 Hungarian revolution.
Although it has been coopted by the government for their own agenda, I feel it is important to remember the actual victims and the ones that lead the revolt.
The thing I noticed a lot of people from non-postsoviet countries don't understand and frankly don't care about is the importance of NOT calling the Soviet Union just Russia and soviet citizens just russians. Because it wasn't just Russia, it was a multicultural state with lots of nationalities in it and after the collapse of the USSR they all finally gained independence. It was not just russians who fought Nazis in the WW2, it was not Russia that were destroyed and exploited by them the most.
You don't call the whole European Union just Germany or France or whatever because it's not, it's a union (that also acts like a union and not like a totalitarian regime that suppresses all the national identities and forces on everyone just one specific identity that it deems to be superior).
By calling USSR Russia people enable and support russian narrative of all the countries that were a part of the Soviet Union being also a part of Russia. Which is not fucking true and is actually the driving force behind the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The amount of scientific progress made in the few years of the Cold War will always amaze me. The Atom and Hydrogen bomb, space exploration, the race of the periodic table, countless new surgeries, the new technology, and more and more and more
I moved recently for university, so here is the newest Soviet memorabilia set up! I had to downsize because it's uni, but I couldn't not bring them. The rest of my collection is waiting patiently back in Finland :)
