The Origins of Russian Authoritarianism
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as a good introduction to Russian authoritarianism, though some commenters say it is flawed or wrong on many points.
What it is
Kraut traces centuries of political development, from Mongol rule and the Orthodox church to Muscovite autocracy, that shaped Russia's authoritarian state. It uses countryball animation and compares Russia with Europe and China.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2022 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends bilegeek · 2022-07 · on “Tor is fighting and beating Russian censorship”
>How does it get to this point? I would imagine because, going back to even before Soviet times, all the people who do care are either disappeared or flee, leaving behind only the people who are too jaded to effectively resist. Russian absolutism is generally more, well, absolute than other places. Though it's imperfect, a video[1] by Kraut gets the gist across. [1] [this video]
Recommends throwaways85989 · 2022-08 · on “Mikhail Gorbachev has died”
It was not really a base for capitalism to take hold and effect. It needs a basic rule of law and democracy to work. All it got was brief window of chaos, before the kleptocracy returned. Best description of the cultural background i found so far was this: [this video]
Recommends lambic2 · 2022-12 · on “Facial Recognition Tech Gets Woman Booted from Rockettes Show Due to Employer”
I doubt this question can be answered in a short comment. The differences stem from thousands of years of diverging cultural influences, history and geography. As for Russia, this video gives a good introduction to the origins of Russian Authoritarianism (with comparison to power structures in China and Europe over history), that go all the way back to the 5th century A.D. with the Huns and the unique geography/climate of Russia: [this video] .
Cites scottLobster · 2023-04 · on “Russia is persecuting dissenters by taking away their children”
Russians have never had any real individual rights. Throughout their history the common people have just been resources enslaved to brutal overlords. The Soviets were perhaps somewhat softer overlords on average, but the principle remains. The state will dispose of disobedient people the same way it would dispose of rotten potatoes. [this video]
Critical aurizon · 2022-03 · on “What the Russian Invasion Has Done to Ukraine”
Total BS, NATO was a totally defensive alliance against the well known expansionary aims of the USSR - who fostered conquest and dictatorial regimes that gave zero power to the people. How many communist regimes have democratically elected governments? Write it on this piece of paper - no pen needed - there are none at all. [this video]
Critical dhdjjd · 2022-03 · on “What the Russian Invasion Has Done to Ukraine”
It's just wrong on so many points it's just difficult to argue it. Russians didn't build castles: they did and they also had castle-like monasteries (even the Moscow stone Kremlin has been built during the Mongol yoke). Using Polish flags of the 16th century as an illustration is also at best misleading [this video] The black plague had almost no impact because the black plague was very limited in Russia. All this stuff about aristocracy competing for the favor of the monarch just disregards that almost every Romanov monarch was a result of a coup by aristocracy Russian church was independent till Aleksei Mikhailovich and we still have old-believers. It completely disregards the fact that during