"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

They certainly had some decent tech for the times but how much of that was Soviet derived v stolen? AK-47 v Stg 44. B-29 v Tu-4. Soyuz v GE Apollo. Etc, etc. Same for their production capacity. They stripped away everything they could from Eastern Europe to rebuild their industrial capacity. And the quality. Even back then the quality was not good.

More a pirate empire than a super power but yeah, they were able to hold onto what they had and marginally improve for a few decades after the war.

Eh, the US basically gave the Soviets the blueprints for the B-29 during WWII, along with a lot of other military hardware. We shipped them all kinds of gear, and related technical info, with no concern about them copying it, because we wanted to win the war. If Stalin hadn't been such a paranoid fuck, the Soviets could have remained a US ally after the war. ("And I liked the little son of a bitch." Truman after he realized Stalin had double-crossed him.)

I suppose that's a difference in perception. Western Europe didn't invent Algebra, the finery forge, paper, gunpowder or modern medicine. Hell, the concept of hospitals and universities were imports from the Muslim world, and the mechanical clock and compass from China. But they did take those ideas,built upone them with their own, and then dominated the world for 500 years. Is the Soviet Union treating Eastern Europe as their colonial possessions any different than Great Britain raping India for resources? What Empires weren't piratical? The fact is they could do it and did.

Anyway, IMO an interesting aside. I definitely agree with your assessment of their standing for the last 50 years, and certainly now.

We really didn't. The B-29 was the most expensive weapons platform in world history at that time, costing $3 billion, $1 billion more than the Manhattan project. Stalin wanted them under Lend Lease, both FDR and Truman said no. However, 4 damaged B-29s landed in Soviet controlled territory and the Soviets impounded them. They then reverse engineered the planes. When they were revealed in 1949 the US military was very concerned. This meant that the Soviets had the ability to drop atomic bombs on North American cities.

As to remaining allies, that seems unlikely. And of course Stalin was suckered by Hitler. They had a deal against France and Germany, and Stalin provided Nazi Germany with a tremendous amount of raw materials (steel, grain, oil) in 39-40 which negated the Western Allies blockade. The Soviet Union even formerly requested to join the Axis, and gave the Nazis a U-boat base on Soviet soil to attack allied shipping, Basis Nord. Hitler strung him along with currency payments and promises of technology (including the most modern Luftwaffe fighter planes and even plans for their super-battleship the Bismark). Stalin was warned of the attack on Russia but couldn't believe Hitler would betray him, clearly their alliance was helping both sides. That's one of the reasons Soviet response was so poor, Stalin locked himself in his room and had a nervous breakdown for ten days when Barbarossa started.

With the Iron Curtain descending and Western Industrialists clamoring that Communism was the #1 threat in the world I have a hard time seeing a viable scenario where the US and Soviets remained allies after the war.

Things the Soviets did get under lend-lease, however, were all kinds of sophisticated machine tools, and all kinds of other gear. During the war we knew that the Soviets were knocking off a bunch of our shit, and we didn't really object. What with us having a common enemy and all.

Oh, like we didn't reverse engineer everything we got our hands on, regardless of who made it.

But what made us really shit our pants was Sputnik.

Again, this has to do with Stalin being a paranoid fuck. All the Allies were quite happy to overlook the actions of certain members of the German government and military after the war because Stalin was a paranoid fuck who decided that the US wanted to go to war against him. (And while certain folks like Patton did, I think we can all agree that it wasn't necessarily the position of most folks.) Outside of WWII, the various Allied nations have been more than happy to overlook the atrocities committed by any number of other countries if they thought that they'd be able to gain from it. I mean, JFC, check out this series on Henry Kissinger. Motherfucker happily approved other countries committing genocide just so that we could have a chance to negotiate with China.

I don't know who might have taken power in the Soviet Union if Stalin had died of a stroke in early 1945, but you can bet the post-WWII world would have looked a fuck of a lot different than it did with a Stalin who lasted until 1953.

Oh snap; I’m a prophet! (j/k this tweet is 18 hours old, just hasn’t seen it until now)

Certainly looks like Ukraine has ATACMS.
https://twitter.com/oalexanderdk/status/1560743445748076546?s=21&t=Jm7F8bjGtVcRF_tO_J_Afw

Puts Ukraine’s shaping operations in the south in clearer context. Shit about to get real real real fast. Would be surprised if there are Russians west of the Dnipro come Oct.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM-140_ATACMS?wprov=sfti1

Now something to keep in mind is that all the damage we’ve seen so far from the HIMARS has been firing GLMRS rounds. ATACMS is the next gen.

But even it is already in the process of being phased out (lucky for Ukraine, lots of surplus) to make way for the PSM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_Strike_Missile?wprov=sfti1

I’d say it is a difference in degrees.

For instance while the British Empire certainly plundered it wasn’t nearly to the extent of the post-War Soviets. Pretty much everything not nailed down was looted (most of central and Eastern Europe had had Nazi puppet governments so the countries were fair game). With the exception of the British Museum that was the general policy of the Empire.

As to tech. The results speak for themselves. Yes, we all stand on the shoulders of giants but the progress should continue. Russia was able to squeeze some good tech out of their looted (or gifted in the case of Lend Lease) equipment and their Nazi scientists but aside from stealing western tech they made very little progress once they had burned through their post war spoils.

Stealing GE’s Apollo proposal and improving it into the Soyuz was probably their greatest 2nd gen (after war) tech advancement but that strategy would later backfire.

One of the ways Reagan actually did help end the Cold War was allowing the Soviets to ‘steal’ a computer program for regulating natural gas pipelines. They were building a brand new pipeline to Europe that would have been an economic lifeline that might could have allowed them to survive Afghanistan.

Until the Trojan activated and hyper pressurized the pipeline and it went ‘splody.

Oopsies.

Not in dispute. And we provided a tremendous amount of gear to the Soviets, but the most impactful were the industrial and non-military technologies, from trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, trains, and radios. Over 50% of their munitions and 60% of their aviation fuel came from the West. Honestly we were pretty naive when it came to the Soviets, especially considering the hate they still had for the Western powers sending military into Russia during the Revolution to support the Whites. They never forgave us for that.

Well, that's a nice whatabout. Again, not in dispute. And of course we weren't so behind in anything that we made literal copies.

Again, yes, but that's kind of my point. They were a real rival with enormous capability in the opening years of the cold war.

Well, the Western powers had invaded them, the Nazis nearly destroyed them. So yes, Stalin was paranoid, but it wasn't without reason. Unless the Soviets allowed free political self determination in Eastern Europe it seems pretty unlikely that the US would remain allied with them, especially as Soviet espionage was already impacting the West. The Cambridge Five, Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, Morris Cohen, George Koval, hell the assistant US Treasury Seretary was a Soviet spy. Most of this was Beria's doing, and if Stalin died earlier it's likely him, Molotov or someone in Stalin's inner circle would have become the next premiere. But of course pure speculation at this point.

Oh, I'd say the British Empire was quite successful in its looting, especially in India. When they conquered India its GDP was 25% of the world. When India finally had self-rule it was down to 3%. This included the only diamond mine in the world at that time that still is responsible for the vast majority of the most precious gems ever discovered, including the Hope Diamond, the diamonds used for the British Crown and regalia, and those sold to other European powers including Russia and Germany for their own royal regalia. Look up Golconda.

An economic analysis of how much value was taken from India came to $45 trillion in today's dollars. https://historyofyesterday.com/how-britain-looted-45-trillion-from-india-2e923dfb2efb

And when the Brits freed their African slaves in the Caribbean they replaced them on a 1 for 1 basis with indentured servants shanghaied from India - and then never paid the majority of them.

Until we needed them to make up our cricket team.

And FDR had to launch political campaigns to get the US to support the UK. FDR got King George VI to eat a hot dog to get the public to support the UK. Something about events in 1776 being necessary for that to happen.

Of Soviet gear, probably not. Of German and British gear, absolutely. If you want a laugh, find the History Channel program on the history of the Packard Motor Car Company. During the war, Packard was the company picked to make clones of various Rolls-Royce engines. Packard was the Acura of their day, and on the History Channel program, you can see the official Rolls-Royce historian cringe at having to admit that the engines Packard built were every bit as good (if not more so) than those made by Rolls.

They seemed to be. As we later found out, the Soviets weren't really as capable as we thought them to be. The entire Soviet manned program to land people on the Moon hinged on one guy. When he died, so did their hopes of landing people on the Moon. Remember, one of the things we learned under Ike was that the Soviets didn't actually have all that many aircraft. US intel assumed that all the planes flying over the May Day parades in Red Square were different. Once we got photographic satellites in orbit, we discovered that the massive numbers of Soviet plans flying over Red Square were an illusion.

Exactly. It's not like when Stalin kacked it that there was an orderly transition of power.

The daughter of Alexander Dugin aka Putin’s Philosopher/Putin’s Brain - the guy behind the concept of novorossiya and the annexation of Crimea - died this evening when her Land Rover spontaneously combusted outside of Moscow.

https://twitter.com/tadeuszgiczan/status/1561098991382589440?s=21&t=DJE1rT73-zXdM8LgPHdEuQ

Fuck em’.

Was his daughter complicit?

Seems pretty bad taste to be celebrating her death if she wasn't.

I mean Uday and Qusay were assholes in their own right.

She's apparently the Russian version of a Fox News grifter. So, I weep for her about as much as I would if the same thing happened to Tucker Carlson (getting blown up, that is).

Yeah, on some Googling:

Zero fucks deserved or given.

So we’re all in agreement that Putin tried to kill this Rasputin looking motherfucker in order to blame it on Ukraine and instead fucked up and killed Rasputin’s daughter right?

The West ultimately benefited a lot from Soviet theft/cloning of computer technology in general.

The USSR initially had a competent computer development program, albeit one running a little behind. Then they were able to make rapid advances by copying Western tech. However in doing so they didn't develop the ability to develop their own from the ground up, and reached a point in the 70s and 80s where it was no longer possible to just build copies without also having the R&D base that would allow them to make it from scratch anyway. So their computer development stalled.

China learned well from this, and while coping a lot of tech has also invested heavily in their own R&D programs.

Nope. Pretty sure it wasn't Putin.

Why? A new group has claimed responsibility. The below is their platform.

So it could be as claimed, a Russian liberation group opposed to Putin.

Or it could be an external group trying to astroturf that movement, either Ukraine or a Western Intelligence agency.

Seems pretty damn unlikely this would be Putin himself though, he doesn't have much to gain by terrorist activities in Russia. Remember there have been a LOT of bombs going off in Russia, including some of their most secure facilities.

This explains why Ukrainians are so good with drones: They use more of them in agriculture than anyone else in the world. https://odessa-journal.com/ukraine-became-the-world-leader-in-the-growth-of-drones-for-agriculture/

I'd be quite surprised if the PRC doesn't quietly have them beaten on drone-based agriculture, but excellent innovation by Ukraine.

Drones aren’t quite as cheap as Uighur slave labor.

When you’ve got as many people as in the entire United States to work the fields, labor is cheaper than drones. It’s actually somewhat surprising that Ukraine, with its low wages, developed drone-based agriculture.

Precision agriculture is a big deal in China - I've reviewed some of the funding applications for UK-China science partnerships and drone tech features heavily. Though in more recent years the emphasis has shifted to reducing antimicrobial resistance in bacteria so they can avoid issues with zoonosis due to close proximity of livestock and humans at markets... and that was BEFORE the COVID pandemic.

So uh… The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has put out a video defending/celebrating the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

NOT THE ONION.

https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1561963305320779776?s=21&t=HHha7iQZMioGGImS6ha1BQ

This war has unearthed a whole slew of crazy people I never knew existed

Low wages, but also historically quite an industrialised society working with high tech things like nuclear power, aircraft manufacturing, and rocket parts.

President Erdogan says that Russia is required by international law to leave Crimea and give it back to Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1562136831164137472?s=21&t=Y2zX90vUbri85GJe6iWqZQ