Seriously? Links to the Holodomor, which Western propaganda portrays as a Ukrainian genocide, ignoring the simultaneous famine in many regions of the USSR, the assertion that Ukraine was a satellite state and not a literal part of Tsarist Russia and the USSR (With that logic, Hawaii is an American satellite state, lmao.), links to obviously biased Ukrainian sources in support of a completely slanderous article about attempts Russians to destroy the Ukrainian language? Dude, don't try to sell crap to someone whose ancestors lived in Ukraine for centuries. In the Russian language there is still a meme “helping the starving people of the Volga region,” referring to the zone of this famine in a place completely far from Ukraine.
Ukrainian nationalists simply turned this into a convenient propaganda tool, pretending that the famine only happened in Ukraine and that Stalin, for some crazy reason, decided to kill all Ukrainians (just because he's evil, yeah). In fact, local officials literally told him that everything was fine and were subsequently shot for negligence and forgery of documents. The same thing with the supposed “preparations for an attack on the West,” when Stalin, stupidly, until the very last minute, did not believe that Hitler would attack him and even devalued the Soviet intelligence officers who reported this (for example, read about the sad fate of Richard Sorge, who died warning Stalin, but he did not believe him). Or how the command of the Soviet fleet literally risked their careers and lives to prepare the fleet for a potential Nazi attack despite Stalin's skepticism. But with clowns like you, he SUDDENLY went from a the fool who trusted the lies of the Nazis to a master of secret plans, lmao.
At least try to google what Ukrainization is and what genre the most popular Ukrainian band Chervona Ruta played (Ukrainian folk rock in a country that supposedly oppresses Ukrainian culture, yeah). The main Ukrainian Soviet film studio named after Dovzhenko literally specialized in films about Ukrainian history and culture. Gross mistakes that you simply don’t realize due to lack of the necessary education. The Soviets literally promoted national culture in all its manifestations within the framework of socialist international ideals. Especially in areas that suffered from Tsarist Russia. To such an extent that asking about roots in the USSR was considered vulgar and ugly, because by showing interest in this, you showed that a person’s personality is determined for you by ethnicity. Therefore, the USSR always promoted internationalism and national revival.
Or how the Baltic countries received endless resources from Russia (just like they are doing now from the EU). This continues in modern Russia, Russian nationalists constantly criticize the authorities for funding various national republics.
And you're literally trying to defend learning history on YouTube with "you didn't provide yours"? You still have the nerve to demand that I justify myself, lmao. Dude, I've lived here for over 30 years, my ancestors include Russians, Ukrainians and Jews of all different political views and social backgrounds. Just enough. What you are trying to attribute to the USSR is true for most Western capitalist or monarchical regimes, but it was never characteristic of the USSR as a socialist state.
And don't even try to put your scarecrow on me, I never claim that communism was the ideal ideology, I was even a critic of communism for most of my adult life myself. But this does not mean that I will buy all pseudo-historical nonsense and propaganda clichés just because I am biased against communism as any radical ideology. Especially when it concerns my country and even goes so far as to justify Nazi propaganda. This is my last answer, I’m not going to spend half my life here discussing nonsense that someone found on YouTube or modern Ukrainian nationalist journalism.
I don’t believe Ukrainian sources are unreasonably biased in this case. I don’t think there’s much use in deeming it propaganda if you don't explain the source’s flaws. I’m from the US so I may not understand some context but I’d be surprised if you claim it to be outright lying. Additionally, who else would write on Soviet attempts to expunge Ukrainian culture and language than Ukrainians?
I don’t think you can spin the Holodomor as a myth. It killed at least 2.5 million Ukrainians according to a quote from Timothy Snyder, whose credentials would suggest he is a reputable source.
A breakdown of my understanding of the holodomor:
1. Caused by the Soviet government, intentional or not
2. Wider famine killed around 8 million or so, but majority of deaths were Ukrainian even in broader context
3. Deeply scarred Ukrainians (as a massive famine killing millions would)
The USSR was expansionist. The US was too and continues to exert global influence. It’s fine to point out bias in my sources if you acknowledge your own. If you are ethnically Russian I think that inherently means you carry some bias. It seems to me that you present your Ukrainian ancestry as a defense against views that seem in the least, uncharitable towards Ukraine. I see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a continuation of Soviet expansionism. Ukrainization as explained by Wikipedia was a reaction to Russofication and a revival of Ukrainian culture which had been suppressed, namely under Peter the Great.
I don’t like Nazis in the slightest. I don’t like Neo-nazis in the slightest. I don’t care why the USSR and Nazi Germany started fighting and the USSR was likely the lesser of 2 evils (Stalin was not a good leader, even if he had some accomplishments). That doesn’t mean the USSR was not expansionist just like the Russian empire preceding it.
I think the Soviets promoted a national Soviet identity which leaned on Russian culture. The USSR was a place hostile to all sorts of intellectuals such as writers, composers, and playwrights.
I’ll admit I know little substantive about Eastern Europe history. I don’t think you have inherited all of your ancestors’ knowledge however. I think the Aral Sea is an irrefutable example of Soviet mismanagement. The USSR is a communist state. A defense of the USSR is in part a defense of communism in its attempts to function as a government.
I don’t really know what you’re arguing beyond that my understanding lacks depth. You don’t seem to have identified concrete flaws and rather argue for different interpretations or suggest nuance. The popular existence of Hawaiian pizza (regardless of its actual origins) does not mean the US was hands off with Hawaiian culture.
I am essentially arguing that
1. The USSR often made flawed decisions which harmed its people greatly
2. The USSR sought to increase its territorial land holdings, regardless of whether it was founded on historical grounds or not in the instance
3. The USSR did not unilaterally support cultural expression in its member states but rather supported Soviet cultural expression
4. The bias in my sources does not conflict, at least in my eyes, with the information I am presenting. I don’t believe I am spouting alternate history