Drugs, clubs, hitlerites. Unique post-soviet drug-retailing techniques. Albania, Kosovo, and Zelensky's drug habits. "They can now tell by the smell whether it’s Colombian or Costa Rican"
A heartwarming twist to the Azov-DMT guy I just found out now
It turns out that during his DMT trip, he realized the futility of war, killing and dying. Because of it, he decided to leave Azov and return to civilian life
He is himself from a small Donbass town, and originally joined Azov because 'they seemed like educated, high-minded people'.
I find it interesting that the Kievian hipsters and ravers were covered by Vice it feels there coverage was like voyeuristic like look at these eastern european they want to be like us doesn't suprise me that they form the base of the ukrianian far right, but vice has always been pretty edgy, nihilistic, and sybaristic. Now, both Gavin Mcinnes + shane smith are pretty but shows like the ideogically emptiness of this milleu sorry for rambling on.
Yeah it was very voyeuristic and also fetishistic. A sort of new ‘civilizing mission of the west’, ‘liberating easterners from authoritarianism through raving’
When I was in Kiev in 2011 and 2013, it seemed a lot to me like Russia in the 1990s (or how I imagined it -- I arrived in Russia in 2000, so I got only the very tail end of that period). Very corrupt and nihilistic. According to this piece, it seems even more like that in 2021, only with lots of Nazis.
My brothers from Moscow came to visit in 2021. They also said it was like the 90s - mainly based on the way that the metro is filled with ads (mainly gambling), and the chaotic street vendors in the underpasses
I remember that there was a floating brothel in Kiev. What the Hell
I have a theory that what was important in pulling a country out of the post-Soviet collapse situation was not so much WHAT model of state or government was used, but THAT THERE IS A MODEL AT ALL. By which I mean that you have a country that is able to unite around a common idea and policy and implement them -- which the Baltics, Russia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan, say, have all done, despite having very different ideas and policies. But in a country like Ukraine, where everything always turns into a divisive narional issue, this never happens.
The other really bizarre thing was that all the signs were in Ukrainian, but nobody seemed to be speaking it. I think I only heard Ukrainian in recorded announcements at the train station. It was as if the whole city was pretending to be something it isn't.
The connections between foreign anarchist/Trotskyist fighters in Kurdistan and Ukraine is also interesting. I’d love to see some takes on that from Events in Ukraine.
I imagine it might have fizzled out at this point or at least people I knew have all but left Ukraine entirely behind them. Still I’ve seen anarchists fundraisers in Poland, Germany, Spain, etc to buy combat material for anarchists on the frontlines so it’s either a shill or they’re still at it.
Funnily enough in the Kurdistan years they coincided with the Stalinist milieu that also volunteered in Donbas and I’ve heard some of those anarchists claim that they supported the Donbas initially and then turned away from it “when Putin destroyed the communist elements there”. Of course the other main difference being that when some of those Stalinists chose to return to Western Europe after their stint in Eastern Ukraine they were arrested and sent to jail for a couple of years. Fighting for the Kurds or Kiev seems not to bring on that sort of heat though 😅
That would be an interesting topic; I'd heard of a couple of attempts of Rojava-allied people trying to fight in Ukraine but failing due to lack of infrastructure and resources. Funnily enough I'd heard (but never confirmed) that Anarchists in e.g. Greece or Communists in e.g. Israel also preferred the separatists. Some of it is existing connections, some of it is optics I guess.
Kurdistan was blessed with more left unity - I can't think of an organisation I know that thinks their struggle is unjust! But they're less controversial because of their geopolitics; they've had to ally with almost everyone at some point, so they've sadly had to compromise with Assad's and America's forces because Turkey will eat them up otherwise.
A heartwarming twist to the Azov-DMT guy I just found out now
It turns out that during his DMT trip, he realized the futility of war, killing and dying. Because of it, he decided to leave Azov and return to civilian life
He is himself from a small Donbass town, and originally joined Azov because 'they seemed like educated, high-minded people'.
I find it interesting that the Kievian hipsters and ravers were covered by Vice it feels there coverage was like voyeuristic like look at these eastern european they want to be like us doesn't suprise me that they form the base of the ukrianian far right, but vice has always been pretty edgy, nihilistic, and sybaristic. Now, both Gavin Mcinnes + shane smith are pretty but shows like the ideogically emptiness of this milleu sorry for rambling on.
Yeah it was very voyeuristic and also fetishistic. A sort of new ‘civilizing mission of the west’, ‘liberating easterners from authoritarianism through raving’
* forgot to add far-right in the last sentence.
When I was in Kiev in 2011 and 2013, it seemed a lot to me like Russia in the 1990s (or how I imagined it -- I arrived in Russia in 2000, so I got only the very tail end of that period). Very corrupt and nihilistic. According to this piece, it seems even more like that in 2021, only with lots of Nazis.
My brothers from Moscow came to visit in 2021. They also said it was like the 90s - mainly based on the way that the metro is filled with ads (mainly gambling), and the chaotic street vendors in the underpasses
I remember that there was a floating brothel in Kiev. What the Hell
I have a theory that what was important in pulling a country out of the post-Soviet collapse situation was not so much WHAT model of state or government was used, but THAT THERE IS A MODEL AT ALL. By which I mean that you have a country that is able to unite around a common idea and policy and implement them -- which the Baltics, Russia, Belarus, and Uzbekistan, say, have all done, despite having very different ideas and policies. But in a country like Ukraine, where everything always turns into a divisive narional issue, this never happens.
The other really bizarre thing was that all the signs were in Ukrainian, but nobody seemed to be speaking it. I think I only heard Ukrainian in recorded announcements at the train station. It was as if the whole city was pretending to be something it isn't.
Hello, really interesting read as always but I can’t help thinking that the first Azov photo seems pretty obviously photoshopped.
Interesting style and, in general, everything is interesting!
i almost went to both that punk show and that night at HVLV when nazi kids harassed them.
The connections between foreign anarchist/Trotskyist fighters in Kurdistan and Ukraine is also interesting. I’d love to see some takes on that from Events in Ukraine.
I imagine it might have fizzled out at this point or at least people I knew have all but left Ukraine entirely behind them. Still I’ve seen anarchists fundraisers in Poland, Germany, Spain, etc to buy combat material for anarchists on the frontlines so it’s either a shill or they’re still at it.
Funnily enough in the Kurdistan years they coincided with the Stalinist milieu that also volunteered in Donbas and I’ve heard some of those anarchists claim that they supported the Donbas initially and then turned away from it “when Putin destroyed the communist elements there”. Of course the other main difference being that when some of those Stalinists chose to return to Western Europe after their stint in Eastern Ukraine they were arrested and sent to jail for a couple of years. Fighting for the Kurds or Kiev seems not to bring on that sort of heat though 😅
That would be an interesting topic; I'd heard of a couple of attempts of Rojava-allied people trying to fight in Ukraine but failing due to lack of infrastructure and resources. Funnily enough I'd heard (but never confirmed) that Anarchists in e.g. Greece or Communists in e.g. Israel also preferred the separatists. Some of it is existing connections, some of it is optics I guess.
Kurdistan was blessed with more left unity - I can't think of an organisation I know that thinks their struggle is unjust! But they're less controversial because of their geopolitics; they've had to ally with almost everyone at some point, so they've sadly had to compromise with Assad's and America's forces because Turkey will eat them up otherwise.