KaiserDave's 5 Year AMA

[KaiserDave]

I joined this site just over 5 years ago, in September 2018, it's absolutely unbelievable to me it has been that long, but here we are. And you know, I don't regret it, mostly because of the friends I've made, and for certain you know who you are, but also because of Elections & History Games, and despite it all (and it's a lot), I think this site is pretty neat, and infinitely better then the hellscape of "X." I've done these before, which I regret it was probably over-pretentious, arrogant, and silly, but five years is five years.

Ask Me Anything, Atlas Forum Blog!

(Specifically if you have anything you are wondering about Russian and Ukraine history and politics, because that is what I like to talk about )

[Aurelius2]

1. If you had a magic wand that you could use to reshape Ukrainian national identity, who would you elevate as Ukrainian national heroes in place of people like Khmelnytsky and Bandera?

2. I'm interested in any book recs you may have for:
a. The Russian revolution and civil war.
b. The eastern front of WW2, or Eastern Europe in WW2 more broadly.

Good (or at least serviceable) prose is a must, I've trudged through enough turgid academese.

[Rand]

If you could bring either Osama Bin Laden or Betty White back from the dead, who would it be and why did you choose Bin Laden?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

If you could go back in time and meet one Russian writer or musician, who would you choose?

[KaiserDave]

1. If you had a magic wand that you could use to reshape Ukrainian national identity, who would you elevate as Ukrainian national heroes in place of people like Khmelnytsky and Bandera?

2. I'm interested in any book recs you may have for:
a. The Russian revolution and civil war.
b. The eastern front of WW2, or Eastern Europe in WW2 more broadly.

Good (or at least serviceable) prose is a must, I've trudged through enough turgid academese.

This is a great question Aurelius, and pardon me you asked for book recommendations once before and I neglected to answer.

Firstly, I think it's important to make clear that Bandera is not a ubiquitous uncontroversial national hero in Ukraine. Yes, unfortunately the present climate has increased his visibility and popularity from outside of torchlit marches in Lviv, but his reputation remains intensely controversial. Someone like Khmelnytsky, to the best of my knowledge, is a lot more ubiquitous. He is on the money (which Bandera could never hope for), and his statue in Kyiv is a common national symbol. I just came into possession of a Kyiv pin from the Soviet era adorned with the Khmelnytsky statue. I think that Khmelnytsky should certainly be more controversial considering his horrific massacres of the local Jewish population, but I will also say Khmelnytsky has a much less dangerous legacy than Bandera, whose ideology of blood and soil ultranationalism remains a threat to liberal democracy and a pluralist society.

I'm getting away from your question though. Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Ukraine's premier nationalist historian and one of the founders of the 1918 Ukrainian People's Republic, is an obvious one, though he is already revered. Major General Sydir Kovpak fought a very effective guerrilla partisan campaign against the German occupiers for several years, even in the depths of western Ukraine. If it were up to me, Bandera would be viciously repudiated and Kovpak would be elevated in terms of World War Two historiography. It's very understandable that Ukraine wants nothing to do with the Soviet period, but Kovpak was ethnically Ukrainian and I know nothing of his complicity in the Holodomor or associated Stalinist crimes. Perhaps even better would be his deputy, Major General Semyon Rudnev, who was almost shot during the Great Purge for "Trotskyite sympathies" and assisted in the partisan campaign, being killed by UPA forces. Isaak Mazepa was another UPR figure, a social democrat and a nationalist who was a fierce opponent of Stalinism. The thing is with the UPR is that it was, at the end of the day, a failure. It was a progressive, democratic, socialist (and I mean in the reformist sense) state, but it failed. The future heroes of the Ukrainian nation are being made right now, in what I believe will an ultimately successful struggle to secure self-determination and democratic choice in Ukraine. I am optimistic that someone like Bandera, a violent, detestable fascist criminal will be marginalized in their favor.


As for book recommendations.

• Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore (gripping, engaging, written like a good story)
• Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 (2014) Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941 (2017), Third Book TBA by Stephen Kotkin (this is the book series to read if you want to learn about Stalin and Soviet foreign policy before the war, it is a lot of work but nothing is better)
• Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel (You would love this I think, short stories on the Civil War written by a brilliant Jewish novelist from the time)
• Fall of Eagles (Not a book, but a BBC miniseries from the 70s on the decline of the three great European empires, it is absolutely brilliant and can be found in its entirety on YouTube)

[KaiserDave]

If you could bring either Osama Bin Laden or Betty White back from the dead, who would it be and why did you choose Bin Laden?

https://twitter.com/T_Rozzay3/status/64889433505284096

[KaiserDave]

If you could go back in time and meet one Russian writer or musician, who would you choose?

Definitely Tolstoy, we can talk about or mutual admiration for Abraham Lincoln.

[Rand]

If you could bring either Osama Bin Laden or Betty White back from the dead, who would it be and why did you choose Bin Laden?

https://twitter.com/T_Rozzay3/status/64889433505284096

Space Jam 3 starring “Big O”

[America Needs R'hllor]

I love you Dave

What is your personal hopeful vision for the Russian entity going forward from this current moment?

[KaiserDave]

I love you Dave

What is your personal hopeful vision for the Russian entity going forward from this current moment?

I love you too

Hopeful vision? Oh my. It's hard to have hope. Russia is run by increasingly decrepit and increasingly delusional ex-KGB goons, they are also increasingly desperate. More importantly there is a sense of apathy among the population, it isn't universal but it is common, nobody really seems to care about the criminal war their country is waging. I read this article from this Russian opposition blog, where readers who supported the war submitted their opinions, and they were very common and very vocal. At the beginning of war many of us said "the Russian people don't want this" or "Putin's war." Well, that was not true. The Russian people mostly do not care. Most of the conscripts fighting and dying are from the periphery anyway. Moscow prep school kids needn't worry. There is a sense of apathy that pervades society in general. There are deep social problems in Russia, but it is covered up with pobedobesie and so on. And what is the strongest oppositional force in Russia today? Suicidal ultranationalists who think Putin isn't enough of a sadist.

If I am going to be an optimist, which I usually am not, but I will try, I will say that defeat in this war could lead to a reckoning that has not occurred since the collapse of the Soviet empire. Russia has always tended towards strongman leadership but this doesn't have to stay that way. Maybe it will be a humiliation of the strongmen that could bring about a realization that brute-force imperialism isn't the way. But I don't know. I would like to see a Russia that embraces political pluralism and respects the independence of its neighbors. Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia have much in common, maybe it is possible for Russia to have a relationship with them based on mutual respect and not paternalistic domination.

I've said a lot, but I'll sum it up like this. Defeat in the current imperialist war could lead to a reckoning in Russia that can eliminate some of the worse currents in the country, the currents of apathy and domination.

[junior chįmp]

Happy Atlas birthday

[KaiserDave]

-Snip-

It's very understandable that Ukraine wants nothing to do with the Soviet period

I feel like I should elaborate on this because it's an oversimplification of what I actually believe.

It would be a serious error for Ukraine to pretend that Soviet Ukraine never happened. Soviet Ukraine lasted for 70 years, and like it or not, was not an entirely inorganic phenomenon. There were many Ukrainian Communists, there were many Ukrainians who were proud supporters of the Soviet national project. It would be historically inaccurate, as well as potentially dangerous, for Ukrainian historiography to erase this period from existence, or to simply define it as continued Russian occupation. What do I mean by potentially dangerous? Look at what happened in Canada. The Soviet Union should not be defined as solely a hostile occupation force, because that leads to making out the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS and the UPA as the authentic representation of the Ukrainian people in World War Two. This is not only abominable, but it's not true! At most, a few hundred thousand Ukrainians participated in the UPA, the Waffen-SS, collaborationist auxiliary police groups, and so on. Over 6 million Ukrainians fought in the Red Army. Ukraine must, and should cherish the cause of the United Nations and the USSR in World War Two, World War Two should be remembered as a foundational and profoundly important national accomplishment. Erasing Soviet Ukraine from history would be delirious to this, and lead to the further glorification of fascist criminals.

That said, what I said is still true to a certain extent, especially if we're talking about the Stalin period. Stalin beat, shot, and brutalized Ukraine. It's not just the Holodomor. Stalin lined up and shot the Ukrainian intelligentsia, he shot the Ukrainian clergy, he shot the Ukrainian artists. He shot the Ukrainian communists! Vlas Chubar was shot. Panas Lyubchenko committed suicide after being targeted for purging. Mykhailo Bondarenko was shot. Mykola Marchak was shot. Stanisław Kosior was shot. Stalin ran through Ukraine with a machine gun. That's not even mentioning collectivization, collectivization devastated Ukraine, and led to conditions of absolute lawlessness and depravity. The Holodomor was real, a was a state endorsed famine meant to crush Ukrainian nationalism. Stalin was nothing short of a monster, and this is especially true in Ukraine. Of course Ukraine seeks to denounce this period of history as one of despotism and oppression. Of course Ukraine seeks distance from the officials and officers of this regime. And of course there were many Ukrainians at the time who (foolishly) saw Hitler as a lesser evil, we should be aware of this.

I support decommunization in Ukraine. Statues of Lenin do not belong in modern Ukraine. Neither do Soviet place-names or hammers and sickles. But I am skeptical of decommunization when it advances a revisionist view of history that is sympathetic to collaborationists and fascists, or when it feeds into the war propaganda of the enemy. When General Vatutin Avenue (Russian Soviet Marshal responsible for the Soviet forces that liberated Ukraine) in Kyiv is renamed to Roman Shukhevych Avenue (UPA leader responsible for the rape and mutilation of thousands of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia), this is a problem, this must be condemned, this must be stopped. That is not to say that most Ukrainians are walking around honoring the UPA, honoring fascists as Putin says, most people don't know anything about this and are just trying to live their lives. Ukraine is not a Nazi state, it is not a fascist state, it is a state progressing towards evolved liberal democracy and fighting an existential struggle for its right to develop in this way. But like many other democracies, it has struggles when remembering its own history, historians and politicians must be able to talk about this. And in a time where the enemy is desperate to falsely paint Ukraine as a Nazi state, this conversation is pertinent to national security.

[Dereich]

You ran a very successful and fun game on E&H on the waning days of the Weimar Republic. If you were to do it over or to run another game, what would you do differently?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

1. I know you love Russian music, but do you have recommendations for Ukrainian music as well?

2. Who is your favourite character from 20th century Italian history?

3. I am not sure you know enough about this to give a detailed assessment, but I would like to hear all your thoughts about denazification in Germany (and defascistization in Italy) after WW2.

[KaiserDave]

You ran a very successful and fun game on E&H on the waning days of the Weimar Republic. If you were to do it over or to run another game, what would you do differently?

Thank you Dereich I'm very proud of it. I think it's important to recognize I didn't know what I was doing really, I had never played in a real Atlas History game before, my game didn't even have turns! It just sort of existed in real-time almost with events just happening in response to player activity. Now, that isn't a bad thing, but the game could have benefitted from somewhat more structure.

But I liked how I didn't have do much to stimulate conflict. Players created conflict entirely on their own! There was no shortage of personal pettiness and drama. I loved it. At the end of the day I was very thrilled with how it went, and I thank all the players. If it was played today, I think it could be even better, and more clever, and more ruthless by virtue of more experience for everyone involved.

I hoped that my 1917 Russia game would be successful, but I think the history may have been too esoteric, which I understand. I still think it could have been fun, and it would have been better run, by virtue of experience.

I would like to run another historical game, but it is not likely in the short term because of time constraints. I also worry about the fact that I would want to run a game with more esoteric history, but that this is unlikely to work out. I guess I have a lot of thinking to do.

1. I know you love Russian music, but do you have recommendations for Ukrainian music as well?

2. Who is your favourite character from 20th century Italian history?

3. I am not sure you know enough about this to give a detailed assessment, but I would like to hear all your thoughts about denazification in Germany (and defascistization in Italy) after WW2.

1. I listen to more Ukrainian music these days, most likely. My favorite Ukrainian songs are Ой видно село, Розпрягайте, хлопці, коні, Наливаймо браття, Ой у лузі червона калина, Розлягалися тумани, Їхав козак містом, and, of course, Ти ж мене підманула. There are excellent renditions of most of these in both pop and traditional styles.

2. Who but Garibaldi? It is a cliche answer that may leave you disappointed, but what a man. What a man. A true great man of history, and a brilliant personality. I'm not sure how anyone could say anyone else. The annals of history will sing of his greatness for all time....ohhhh, you said 20th century. I see. This is what happens when you don't read. I'm not sure if I know enough to say, most everything I know is during the fascist period and everyone is pretty evil. I will say Enrico Berlinguer, because of my love for wholesome material-issues socialists who call themselves communists but are probably closer to the center left, I am looking at you as well Kazuo Shii.

3. I don't know enough to give a comprehensive answer. But I will just tell you there is a sense of revulsion one feels when they read about the history, and unrepentant butchers such as Graziani (who fought for the Salò Republic!!!) get off more or less scot-free. Perhaps the amnesty in Italy was politically necessary, I do not know, but there is a sense of disgust. Even for one like Badoglio, who played a key role in the end of the fascist regime, there is disgust. He is covered in Ethiopian blood. I am not saying for certain Badoglio should have received the same treatment as Jodl and Keitel, but it all feels very sickening and uncomfortable. I think there should have been stronger efforts to purge Italy of the institutions and culture of fascism, but I cannot say for sure what that should have looked like because I do not know enough. Similarly in Germany it probably didn't go far enough, but the historiographical revolution that should have taken place in the late 1940s did eventually take place in the 1990s.

[Sunmerica United - A Sunrise Production]

I have no questions, just simply to say that KaiserDave is a truly good guy and good friend!

[KaiserDave]

I have no questions, just simply to say that KaiserDave is a truly good guy and good friend!

Many thank Sunriso

[Upper Canada Tory]

You're awesome, KaiserDave.

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

when will you finally stop avoiding the responsibility

[S019]

If you had to name the three main policies/accomplishments of each Canadian PM, what would it be?

[Continential]

A few odd questions:

1. What do you see the future of the Vermont GOP being?

2. What's your favorite part of each NYC borough? 

3. Since you are pursuing a history degree, what do you like and dislike about the state of academic history? 

[KaiserDave]

If you had to name the three main policies/accomplishments of each Canadian PM, what would it be?

This would require a very long answer that I don't really want to type out, you're free to ask me privately though. It's possible I can write a longer answer when I am less busy, and have less of a headache.

A few odd questions:

1. What do you see the future of the Vermont GOP being?

2. What's your favorite part of each NYC borough? 

3. Since you are pursuing a history degree, what do you like and dislike about the state of academic history? 

1. Irrelevance. I think they can elect Governors and maybe row officers if they run Phil Scott-like candidates, but otherwise? Their brand is repugnant, and I see no reason this is likely to change. It is not as if the state population is getting more conservative. The State Party insists on being out of touch conservatives, and the base seems to want right-wing candidates to win primaries. What more is there to say? 2022 was the worst election for the VTGOP in the last two decades. The nicest thing I can say for the VTGOP is that maybe they have hit rock bottom. There is some possibility to get more out of the NEK and flip Orleans or Caledonia county in statewide elections (it was thought Trump could win them, he didn't), but this does not change the balance of power functionally.

2. Queens has to be Flushing, where the Mets play and where the US Open is played. Manhattan...probably Greenwich Village, though I'm not a huge fan of Manhattan. Brooklyn? Everywhere, it is a perfectly beautiful kaleidoscope with something for everyone. Brooklyn Heights is very nice.

3. I don't feel like I can give a comprehensive answer at this time, but I will just say whatever the problems are, they pale in comparison to the fraudulence of academic political science.

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

What's your favorite song?

[KaiserDave]

What's your favorite song?

(Cheekily bumping this because I missed this)

Depends on my present mood. But right now? It's probably something in Yiddish, my ancestors would be very proud. Daniel Kahn has a lot of good stuff.

Through my girlfriend I have been exposed to Taylor Swift, so, I have been thoroughly indoctrinated. But most of the music I listen to is from Eastern Europe.

I cooked a very large sirloin steak with my roommate while playing Ode to Joy, that was fun! The music hit its climax when we took it off the pan. Unfortunately, we overcooked it. I like my steaks medium or medium-rare, my roommate prefers well done, I cannot speak to his lack of taste.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Which is your favorite Canadian province? Which province comes second?