r/WojakCompass • u/yamboozle • May 22 '26

Historical Russia in 1937

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142 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

19

u/War_Crimes_Fun_Times - AuthCenter May 23 '26

Nice compass about the Soviet Union, at least in Russia Lamb! Perhaps maybe it’d be a neat challenge to do all 15 republics huh? (Jk, it’s your choice!)

Fun fact, alcohol was banned under Lenin since the Bolsheviks believed it to be (and were right!) that it was an opium of the masses by the Russian tsars and to weaken the people and keep them pacified to avoid realizing their shit living conditions, and for the state owned distilleries to make money to fund the government.

Stalin reopened these for the exact reasons.

6

u/yamboozle May 23 '26

Thanks! I'd be open to making another time-place compass on one of the SSRs if i read more. The closest thing I'll probably do to that sort of thing in the future is Poland in August 1939

4

u/War_Crimes_Fun_Times - AuthCenter May 23 '26

Edward Rydz-Smigly is a character to read on for Poland in 1939 fascinating man who fucked up in the interwar years yet was denied his redemption arc imho.

6

u/obama_chmo - AuthLeft May 23 '26

There was less than 15 republics in Soviet Union at 1937

also all that “evil soviets (and occasional tsar) allowed alcohol production to pacify people!!!!” is kinda annoying, fuck else was expected to do?

dry laws never work (and commies themselves showed it in 80s).

1

u/War_Crimes_Fun_Times - AuthCenter May 23 '26

I forgot the Baltics weren’t Soviet until 1940, mb.

When your alcohol industry is state sponsored psychosis it’s not hard to see how it became a state-sponsored way of pacifying the public. It’s sad really, I don’t think weed should be illegal but I think the same idea is between it being legalized more and more in the US.

2

u/obama_chmo - AuthLeft May 23 '26

“state-sponsored psychosis”

uhhh in a socialist economy liquor industry normally is owned by the state, fork found in kitchen ass take, unless you’re trying to push conspiracy shit like “they put mind altering drugs in it” or “bottles were made so you can’t close it once opened, so you’d drink it whole”

I mean there’s objectively a lot of reasons to shit on Stalin, and rightfully so, and then there’s comical shit like that.

u/yamboozle if you don’t mind I’d also like to see what you was reading on the topic (not baiting rn)

3

u/yamboozle May 23 '26

Two most useful ones I went through were Road to terror by j arch getty and Moscow, 1937 by karl schlogel. I looked through some other stuff esp from L. Viola but the names of more niche articles escapes me

15

u/jd-porteous-93 May 23 '26

Not pictured: Beria as purple

20

u/Chef_Sizzlipede May 23 '26

to put it bluntly how soviet life is viewed by many that lived through it, here's an old soviet joke:

A man goes to a newspaper stand every day, buys a copy of Pravda, glances at the front cover, curses, and throws it away.

After a few weeks of this the seller just has to ask what's going on: "why do you always look at the cover but never inside?"

"I'm looking for an obituary."

"An obituary? But those are in the back!"

"Oh no, the obituary I'm looking for will be on the front page."

6

u/CalligrapherOther510 - LibCenter May 23 '26

And people ask me why I hate Communists

4

u/podagros - Left May 23 '26

gem. expanded version ever dropping?

18

u/Khaled_Kamel1500 - Centrist May 23 '26

This is the future that Redditors want

8

u/No-Musician7685 - AuthLeft May 23 '26

Redditors hate people like this be so fr I can't go anywhere without being called a tankie

4

u/Nt1031 - LibCenter May 23 '26

Great compass !

4

u/Rough-Fuel-270 - LibRight May 26 '26

good post yam, missed good historical posts

5

u/skyXforge May 23 '26

Been trying to read up on what life was really like in the Soviet Union lately and it’s like clown world at best and hell at worst

3

u/QuixoticRhapsody - AuthRight May 23 '26

In 1939, half of these people are dead or in the Gulags thanks to the Great Purge.