Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
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Wartime Russians Fall Back on an Ancient Survival Strategy
Conformism and acquiescence have a long tradition in a culture of chaos and repression.
Alexey Kovalev | Sept 10, 2023
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/10/russia-war-putin-prisposoblenches
tvo-conformism-adapt-support-culture-history/
One of the strangest aspects of the mutiny that took an army of Wagner Group mercenaries almost to the gates of Moscow in June was the deafening silence of the vast majority of Russians. Even Russian media propagandists and other establishment figures—normally not shy in their demonstrative support for President Vladimir Putin—were mostly invisible for the day and a half that the mutiny was underway. When Putin subsequently praised the population’s cohesion in support of his regime, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Almost complete silence in the face of the most dramatic challenge to Putin since he took power might be hard for non-Russians to imagine. Just think, for example, of Americans reacting to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump in January 2021: They were either up in arms or loudly cheering.
But few Russians—or those familiar with Russian history and culture—were even a tiny bit surprised by a population scrupulously avoiding taking sides, waiting who would come out on top. That’s because for centuries, Russians have been masters of survival in times of repression, upheaval, chaos, or uncertainty, which have permeated and even defined so much of the country’s history.
In fact, they have a special word for their survival strategy: prisposoblenchestvo, which roughly translates to “adaptability to one’s surroundings.” (It’s a mouthful, but the approximate pronunciation is pris-pah-sah-BLEN-chest-vah.)
There is no single word in English that can adequately convey all the word’s subtleties when it is used by Russians. Acquiescence, conformism, opportunism, lying low, and avoidance of conflict only reflect some of its many aspects. What’s more, the evocative word is used almost exclusively to capture Russians’ behavior in their own country’s social and political context. In today’s Russia, not sticking your neck out during a possible power grab by a now-dead mercenary is, in fact, the best possible response.
The prisposoblenets—the person doing the adapting—is a stock character in classic Russian literature, just like the adventurer in 19th-century American novels. In literature, the prisposoblenets is almost always an antagonist, a lickspittle or craven turncoat whose purpose as a plot device is to contrast the protagonist’s passionate rigor or noble self-sacrifice.
Such is, for example, Alexey Molchalin, a character in Alexander Griboyedov’s Woe From Wit, an early-19th-century play that has been a standard part of the Russian school curriculum since Soviet times. In Act IV, Molchalin lays out his worldview:
Make yourself agreeable to all bar none.
The master and the mistress where you lodge,
Your employer, with the key to your promotion,
His servant, so he’ll put your clothes in order,
The doorman, the footman, and the porter,
To keep them sweet, in case they bear a grudge,
The porter’s dog, to stop his yapping.
Yet if excessive agreeableness and avoidance of conflict is an object of derision for authors such as Griboyedov, their fellow Russians often treat it as an existential necessity. Indeed, the concept is deeply embedded in Russian history: Under the despotic rulers that have dominated Russian and Soviet history for centuries, prisposoblenchestvo was an essential survival tactic, even if it often meant a choice between the bad and the terrible.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Sergius I, for example, struck a pact with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1927, pledging loyalty to the young Soviet state. Attempting to preserve what little was left of his flock and clergy under an aggressively atheist regime, Sergius succeeded in preventing the church and its adherents from bei
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Quote:The ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths was 1,000,000 to 1 during Holodomor, which is why Ukrainians fight Russians, now.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Various (realistic) estimates from various battlefields report anywhere from 4-10:1 ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths. Probably closer to 5:1, but whatever the ratio clearly Ukraine is losing far more soldiers than Russia, and won't be able to keep the war going indefinitely because they've already run out of traditional 155 mm shells and sooner or later will run out of soldiers.
Holodomor
https://www.google.com/search?q=Holodomor
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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As usual, you lie like a rug, SECOND.
Ukrainians WEREN'T all that crazy about joining NATO in 2007 -2008, according to polls taken then. They WEREN'T burning with anti-Russian feeling. They voted overwhelmingly for Zelenskiy because he promised unification with eastern (Russian-speaking) oblasts and peace with Russia. (Unfortunately, like most politicians, he lied.*)
Ukrainaians DON'T carry your overwhelming historical grudges. THAT'S YOU.
Aside from YOU saying it, there are no quotes from modern reportage that even mentions the Holdomor. Do you read about soldiers dying with "Remember the Holdomor!" on their lips?
Nah.... That's YOUR INVENTION. Whatever anti-Russian feelings have been whipped up since 2007, they're modern, and a result of western NGOs/ State Dept working in Ukraine.
You seem to think that everyone carries deep historical grudge. YANNO, LIKE YOU, constantly going back to the Confederacy, or Catherine the Great, or some long-dead historical figure who is no longer available to counter your tropes, memes, and disinfo.
So, not in touch with the here - and -now, ARE YOU, SECOND? Whipping up false narratives to whip up hate, are you, SECOND?
Of course you are!
Most soldiers fighting in Ukraine are fighting for, like most drafted soldiers everywhere, for their individual survival and (sometimes) their immediate squad/platoon. Altho at this point, given the loss rate, I doubt there is much squad/platoon cohension: Veteran soldiers look at new recruits and consistently say "Most of them will be dead in a few days/weeks" so I doubt there is much bonding going on.
And, of course, surrender is highly frowned on, and any Azov-style commissars will willingly shoot you in the back if your squad/ platoon/ company turns around or refuses orders. Yanno, maybe fragging would come back in style, except they're afraid to issue ammo too early to frontline soldiers bc they're too afraid they'll disable thmeselves by shooting themselves in the foor/leg, or checking out entirely and committing suicide. (According to quotes)
Save your catoonish POV for others, SECOND. Except for THUGR (who IMHO is unable to think beyond how he was conditioned) everybody here knows you're a liar. And, over time, they get to see how deeply you're saturated with lies.
*Yanno, you lie so easily, so often, and in such self-contradictory fashion, why are you wasting your time here? Go RUN FOR OFFICE. You've got everything it takes to be a successful politician.
Except YOU prefer to be string-puller. Don't you, SECOND?
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:First thing, learn how to spell Ukrainian, Signym.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
As usual, you lie like a rug, SECOND.
Ukrainaians DON'T carry your overwhelming historical grudges. THAT'S YOU.
Aside from YOU saying it, there are no quotes from modern reportage that even mentions the Holdomor. Do you read about soldiers dying with "Remember the Holdomor!" on their lips?
Nah.... That's YOUR INVENTION. Whatever anti-Russian feelings have been whipped up since 2007, they're modern, and a result of western NGOs/ State Dept working in Ukraine.
Second thing, the Russians deny Holodomor happened, claiming it is a myth to make Russia look bad. The Ukrainians are well aware of what Russia did and it motivates them in the same way as the holocaust motivates Israel.
Signmy, please google Putin Holodomor because Putin is the biggest denier of Holodomor in Russia. https://www.google.com/search?q=putin+holodomor
Or read "Why does Russia still deny the Holodomor?"
https://holodomormuseum.org.ua/en/news/why-does-russia-still-deny-the-
holodomor/
The Ukrainians will continue to fight the Russians because the alternative is four million or more deaths of Ukrainians, which is what happened the previous time Russia conquered Ukraine during Holodomor.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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I don't give a fuck if Russians claim the Holdomor never happened*
That's NOT on Ukrainian's minds right now, and hasn't been for 50 years.
Stop propagnadizing, and get right with reality, SECOND.
*BTW that's NOT what Russia claims. As usual, you lie like a rug about that, too. 
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Fuck Ukraine.
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How you do anything is how you do everything.
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Quote:Sure, Signym. The Ukrainians are Nazis and that is why they fight Russians, not because Russians have murdered four million Ukrainians and would do it again if the Ukrainians surrender.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I don't give a fuck if Russians claim the Holdomor never happened*
That's NOT on Ukrainian's minds right now, and hasn't been for 50 years.
Stop propagnadizing, and get right with reality, SECOND.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Ukrainians are fighting bc once they're drafted they don't have much of a choice. Meanwhile, Kiev is busy drumming into civilian heads that Russia wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map and invade the rest of Europe".
Not true, stop lying.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Don't forget, Finland and Sweden joined NATO because those countries have leaders who are Nazis, same as the Nazi leaders of Ukraine. Sadly, the poor people are being drafted into an alliance that THEY DO NOT WANT, an alliance against their good friends in Russia. The Swedes and Finns will have no choice but to fight Russia.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Ukrainians are fighting bc once they're drafted they don't have much of a choice. Meanwhile, Kiev is busy drumming into civilian heads that Russia wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map and invade the rest of Europe".
Not true, stop lying.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Yanno, if you were to learn some ACTUAL HISTORY (as opposed the the propaganda reel running continuously in your head) you would have learned that far from being "civilized democratic states" that respected "European values" and "human rights", MOST European states have a barbarous history of grabbing each other's territory (including invading Russia), fighting over religion, and capturing foreign colonies. Sweden and Poland-Lithuania figure into that!
Also, you would have learned that many modern European nations have STRONG PRO-NAZI histories, and that includes France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine, Hungary, and Franco's Spain.
But mainly, the cabal of manipulators are busy pumping fear of "Soviet conquest" into people's heads.
Why Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/23/why-finland-allied-itsel
f-with-nazi-germany
****
So, no, Russia is not going to "wipe Ukraine off the map". After all, they need a viable neutral buffer state. And, no, Russia is not going to go ravening
thru Europe. They just really, really want to get those NATO missiles off their border.
You're a waste of CO2, you troll.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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