This would be his 147th birthday

what is Soviet Occupation day? Well, it’s a day of remembrance in Georgia (The one in Europe), it’s essentially a Memorial day that commemorates the Invasion of Georgia by the Red Army in 1921, the holiday was first formed in 2010, but it’s first actual Observance wasn’t until 2011. The Georgian announcement of the holiday was in line with another Soviet Occupation day, in Moldova, but it was replaced by its Judiciary in 2010. Another Soviet occupation day to be noted, is the Latvian Soviet Occupation that is recognized and embraced every June 17th.

In 1973, four young Armenians built a homemade airplane to flee the USSR. The KGB caught them before takeoff.

Part of my family repatriated to Armenia at the time and later tried to escape by foot (the two men in the second picture). They too were caught and spent years in prison.

Watch it here - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQ4anqyjCbz/?igsh=eTBzdm9nNzZkam04

The video is in Armenian but has English subtitles.

Vasili Kvachantiradze.

https://x.com/rinalu_/status/2121333919018778939

I tried asking this questions in AskHistorians but apparently talking about Ukraine is "too modern"...

Anyway from what I remember the Red Army was able to reconquers nations that split away from them including the transcaucasus, the Ukraine, Belarus, etc.

During the cold war they were able to conduct various operations and even suppress rebellions in nations like Hungary.

The Red army was able to march to Berlin. They were a force to be reckoned with and the United States didn't dare confront them directly out of fear that direct confrontation would ensure mutual destruction.

Compare this to modern Russia, the successor rump state of the USSR. Within the first few months of the invasion, they were performing quite poorly and lost many generals and eventually coordinated a partial retreat to avoid further losses.

Sure they gained the upperhand in the war of attrition and sure Ukraine has gotten a lot of Nato support. But Russia's military looked very disorganized and ineffective at conquering a country they had controlled for 100s of years.

So can anyone explain why Russia's modern military and army is much less effective than when they ruled as the Soviet Union?

Stalin was really a great guy

(don’t believe that western propaganda comrade)

If USSR lived longer, would it face issues such as: lower death rates/low fertility rate (population decrease) emigration into other countries (in soviet case, high amount of people escaping to west) higher amount of death rates (also leading to population decrease)?

I live in a western country that is becoming quite communist, a trend that is accelerating in the past 10-15 years. Big government, a culture of collectivism rather than freedom and high taxes and laws that stifle small business. It is very different to the place we grew up in.

Someone I know well is intelligent, a hard worker and gets excellent reviews at their job, working in the local clinic of a multinational corporation. We both agree she should be able to get a higher paying job elsewhere, but these are limited in our location. She does not have political/social connections that might help her. The location is a regional area, not a big city and neither of us want to move to a city due to the excellent lifestyle here. We know it's a paradox and ironic.

This got me thinking about the stories of Soviet women employed in the typing pools, earning low pay, where there was no typing to be done because business was slow, but they couldn't leave the desk or get another job easily, they just had to file their nails or read a book or something, waiting until a manager asked them to type something.

I guess I'm asking if there are lessons or advice from people who lived through a communist system, for getting ahead when you're overskilled or overqualified for the job. Or is this a matter of 'be glad for what you have and try to live frugally, getting life value from other pursuits'?