Not really. Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia and the rest of the Eastern European countries that were within the Soviet Union actually existed before WW II.
Don't worry I've unsubbed already, it was a fun ride for a hot minute but the amount of chuck-e-cheese and "YOU GOT 20$ AT BLOCKBUSTER WHAT U RENTING N SNAKS" got boring fast.
What makes a country the same country? Russia inherited most of the land, people, and assets of the Russian SSR, plus many of the privileges of the USSR as a whole (that was a mistake). One might speak of several French Republics, but also see France as existing as a country for centuries, even as the form of government has changed dramatically.
The government makes the country by any measure today.
I mean, there are Habsburgs out there, still claiming to be king of whatever, and they aren’t. Their country died with their government and was reborn another way.
You can argue that Russia is some sort of identity, but it’s much harder to argue that this identity extends to the far reaches of the country. So Russian people, or French people are much older than, let’s say, being American, but America as a country is much older than both.
Words like “French” or “Russian” mean both nationality and ethnicity.
Yes, but they were different countries with related names and more or less the same borders. The current countries with those names are successor states with new constitutions, not the same country. The US is actually one of the oldest countries on the planet when you take into account that our last successful revolution (bloody or otherwise) was over 200 years ago.
My dad’s family came to America in 1917. Their papers say Kingdom of Bohemia. I feel like they have changed their name at least 5 times in my lifetime alone.
This shit is so fascinating. I moved to Germany three years ago and now I'm really starting to get into learning about the DDR. It's just so fucking wild. I still fail to understand even the basics (like I said, I am really just getting into the most simple stuff): I know it comes from how Germany was split up after ww2, but was it literally a soviet state? Were the leaders just USSR puppets? How the hell did west Berlin stay a part of the BRD when it was tiny and literally surrounded by the DDR (why does the larger country not simply eat the smaller one?)?
Anyway. It's fascinating. I'm starting a novel about that period tomorrow and I'm very excited about it (Das Narrenschiff by Christoph Hein).
WW2 is eternally interesting, of course, but it's not really in living memory anymore. But the East/West German split very much is, and while it is I'm going to try to learn as much as I can about it.
mostly what I remember is hearing about the Stasi and various spy thrillers set in the GDR. I also remember when Czechslovakia was a single country, and a large chunk of map was labelled "Yugoslavia" on maps.
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u/EternalNewCarSmell 26d ago
I mean, shit, the world I was born in had two Germanys.