Drawing on the Chinese example, PuYi abdicated in 1912, then in 1934 the Japanese put him on the throne as Emperor of Manchukuo. 20 years of being just a regular guy (in theory) did not diminish his usedulness as a figurehead.

That’s pretty much the “strategic situation” I mentioned - there was real risk of them falling into the hands of the Whites. What I meant to point out is that there was no good reason to just up and kill him at the time. Its not like he was in command of the movement or anything.

More broadly, the focus on the Romanov children is just a vector for the spread of anti-communist propaganda.

Sure, but not coming from me. Still regrettable, not something to replicate.

The propaganda aspect is especially obvious since OP’s friend invoked the nonsense emotional appeal of “would you shoot the Tsar if he were me?”

Yyeap. Even modern monarchist schitzos get some people into their bullshit by riling them up about it and many don’t wanna hear nothing about there having been no orders from Moscow afterwards.

There is a reason Soviet textbooks talked about the topic sparingly if at all. It wasn’t something that went as planned or desired at all.

"Would you shoot the Romanov’s even if it was me?! " “No sympathy. And yes, I would shoot regardless of personal connections”

What for though? Where is political pragmatism?

The amount of memes on the subject I see from western leftists makes me question if there are very few sources available in English or it’s just juvenile cruelty. It was local initiative, strongly influenced by strategic situation during the civil war in the region. Nicolas was “citizen Romanov” by then and the party had a 1001 reason to keep him and his family alive, including plans for a public trial. Lenin was pushing for their evacuation to Moscow. Also…moral implications of killing a couple of teens that were there, anyone? Kill them, because they were born into the wrong family? How very conservative… Not to mention penty of nobles up to and including at least one Major General of the Imperial army I can remember went on to form the core of the Red Army.

Consider the implications for propaganda too. Why create a bunch of martyrs for the Whites? Using exactly this argument, later that same year Maxim Gorky convinced Lenin let Nicolas’ sick second cousin go. Lo and behold - no one remembers Gavriil Constantinovich Romanov.

How many people attended his funeral?

For all of his fairy tales about support of the majority ~12k. And that’s fucking Moscow(population ~13million). For comparison ~50k attended funerals of Motorola and Givi in wartime Donetsk (population ~1 million). And those definitely didn’t have brainwashed libs traveling from afar to see the coffin of their dear Alexey Goebbels Jr. either. They sure did have the risk of an ukronazi terror bombing though.

How many are being arrested for attending?

Well, even your Ministry of Truth says that under a hundred, buddy. Wanna bet they were antagonizing the cops sent to provide security as a standard procedure for large gatherings?

You’re right not to. The news is probably better - far as I understand DPRK administration is much more pragmatic than exchanging artillery shells and short-range missiles for consumer products. Their military probably got some tech help from ours. Sure seems weird DPRK had it’s first successful launch of a spy satellite in november of 2023

Marx and Engels were who?

Checkmate, tankie!

Like…officially? Because there have been plenty of intercepted communications in Polish and mysterious coffins returning to certain NATO countries.

I mean…did you read the article? It glosses over the western involvement in the coup and goes on to paint everything with the usual “le ebil Russkies” brush. Warriors of light from CIA are just helping a sOvErEiGn NaTiOn to defend itself from the Horde and the pre-Euromaidan government was OBVIOUSLY pro-Kremlin anyway. It’s the kind of bullshit their audience eats up and begs for more.

Does anyone know what going on with that?

Not much. I found numbers from 55 to 400 arrested country-wide in two days. They’ll get 20 days and a fine at the very worst. I think you can surmise how widespread and consequential these protests are. As I saw someone say on TG Navalny’s hamsters remaining in the country can probably be caught on one camera shot from a drone if they were in one place.

although it seems lightly implausible (but not impossible) that they infiltrated a Siberian penal colony just to kill a guy so he could be used as a martyr.

Well, they wouldn’t have to, really. It’s not that hard to pay a crooked prison guard these days. But yeah, my money’s on a prison beyond the polar circle being bad for you, especially when you’re not that healthy to begin with, as well.

Edit for the fans of conspiratorial version: his lawyer visited a couple of days prior, so maybe not even a guard, or a guard was paid not to search the lawyer to zealously.

It’s not just the ~300 days in prison. It’s not like it was hard to kill him at any point prior. Not to mention the dumb fuck did more to die himself with that “poisoning”(probably an OD).

Honestly, I don’t see a single reason why Putin would do it. The situation was perfect for him as it was - Navalny was largely forgotten and had no bearing on anything. If anything, he won’t appreciate a minor shitstorm on the Internet a month before the elections.

But hey, “great” people can’t just die of health issues, it’s always someone!

Pathfinder: Meth of the Righteous

Pathfinder: Methmaker

Vampire the Masquerade: Methlines

Endless Meth

Tales of Meth

Meth Hunter

Deus Ex - Meth Revolution

The Incredible Adventures of Meth Helsing

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Meth

XCOM: Meth Within

Need for Meth: Most Wanted

Warcraft III: the Meth Throne

Warhammer 40.000: Meth Trader

Salt and Sanctuary

There is a comment like that under the video already)

I mean, who are we trying to fool, really? Surely, this was done under the threat of execution of entire families and the guy got the idea in the first place under the influence of oppression nanobots in the Chinese air.

Well, if the party approves

Kinda. But not in any way you need to worry about in your lifetime.

Many religious teachings mesh with communism pretty well as far as their moral core goes. If you’re willing to accept that the associated church or whatever holy office is a wordly organization run by fallible people and probably has a role in the exploitative shitshow of capitalism, you’re good. That one seems to be a bit of a problem for some denominations though, like Catholics, what with the concept of papal infallibility. There are difinitely leftist movements withing Abrahamic faiths at least, which is hardly surprising, you wouldn’t expect the sort of god they worship to be in favor of exploitation, really, it’s just that you don’t hear much about them, cause why would someone advertise them?

What a brazen act of exploitation of your fellow workers!

One million years GULAG once you’re done celebrating!

As we like to joke here in Mordor, I can’t wait to vote for Trump on Gosuslugi.

It’s a choose your own adventure style news reporting.

N I C E

I’m stealing that.

Goddamned Russian agents in NYT. Everyone knows there are lines of people willing to die for the free world in Ukrainian enlistment offices. In fact, Ukraine has so many of these fine people that many of them aren’t even in Ukraine. They’re protesting and shit in Europe.

Or, you know, crazy thought, Putin told them the truth and anti-corona restrictions are still in effect in the Kremlin. Strange how that perfectly explains why he was meeting with kids before the ceremony and why he’s behaving the way he is in UAE.

I mean, that’s not as flattering to the British sense of self-importance, but maybe, just maybe Putin didn’t snub 3 diplomats from hostile countries at the expense of the other 18 attending.

I’m with you there, buddy. Would’ve been nice to see FPS officers faceplant the brit into the floor.