The cultural war between Russia and Ukraine is one-sided. For Russians, it doesn’t exist at all – outside of politics, they don’t feel any hostility towards Ukrainian culture and find it quite interesting. Meanwhile, the Kiev authorities continue to seek out divisions to use to their advantage.

In recent weeks, we have seen a new twist. Something which unites people across the two countries. 

In early December, the first episodes of the series The Boy's Word: Blood on the Asphalt were released on Start, the Russian streaming platform. The project did not have a very large budget (around $1 million), the cast mostly consisted of little-known actors, and the plot was rather unusual – based on a novel about street crime in the city of Kazan in the late 20th century.

Nevertheless, the series turned out to be a success – it has been praised by viewers and critics, people started talking about it on social media, and even skeptics admitted that it had “unexpectedly clicked” with audiences. It even set a new online viewing record in Russia.

Trouble started when people in Ukraine began watching. Both Generation Z and older viewers liked it – a fact that angered Kiev’s ideological warriors. Influencers loyal to the authorities (or simply fulfilling their contractual obligations) criticized anyone who watched the “aggressor’s series,” and were indignant that the soundtrack became popular with Ukrainians.  

What caused such a reaction?

The action takes place in Kazan – the capital of the Russian region of Tatarstan – at the end of the 1980s. The war in Afghanistan is coming to an end and the USSR is about to collapse. The city’s districts are governed by different gangs. These haven’t yet become organized crime groups – they populate city streets and yards, but so far don’t engage in criminal activities like racketeering and smuggling. However, they start to realize that “it's time to earn money.”

The groups are made up of both adult men and boys. For them, the world is divided into “pacans”[loosely translated as “boys”] – i.e.  gang members, and “chushpans” – what they call everyone else. Pacans enjoy a high social status, but must follow strict rules – obey the orders of their elders, never abandon their own, and observe certain street etiquette.

The main character is a 14-year-old schoolboy named Andrey, who decides to join a local gang in order to stop being bullied in school. He likes the freedom and respect that comes with the status of a pacan. But soon, the situation on the streets begins to change.

The series does not go into politics. It seems that perestroika, the growth of separatism in the republics, reforms, and political struggles are all happening in a far away world. These problems do not particularly affect the characters. They are not concerned with the big picture, but with day-to-day survival, earning the respect of others, and sometimes love.

However, according to long-established tradition, any successful Russian film project must be accused of some kind of propaganda. This series wasn’t an exception. 

Some critics have accused the series of “romanticizing bandits.” In certain scenes, the image of the gang members may indeed seem attractive – for example, they help each other out, take care of their families, and have their own code of honor. But in the end, honor among thieves is nowhere to be found. The characters don’t become heroes, but rather traitors or victims of their own rules. 

The creators of the series make an important point in one scene, when the pacans’ training is suddenly interrupted by comments on the fate of each of the gang members – one dies in a shootout, another in prison. A happy end awaits no one. 

Apart from the realistic sense of tragedy, inventive camerawork, and the fine staging of mass fights, The Boy’s Word has another unique selling point: the details and characters from the ‘80s and ‘90s which appear only in short episodes, but complement the overall image of the era.

A tired and angry school teacher, a soldier who likes to describe his work in poetry, and a nurse who grumpily allows the bandits to urgently evacuate their friend from the operating room, but absolutely draws the line at taking him out the door legs first. All these characters are familiar to anyone who lived in Russia in the ‘80s and ‘90s or heard about that time from their parents. Many such figures can still be found in modern-day Russia. 

Such realistic details attract even viewers who are usually indifferent to social and criminal dramas. The series may not appeal to foreigners, although it draws on the classic principles of gangster cinema and crime serials. Indeed, in a certain sense it's a ‘descendant’ of such masterpieces of world film as The Godfather or Goodfellas. But for residents of the post-Soviet space, the story and its environment aren’t just familiar, they feel like home. And that’s also true for many Ukrainians.

In Ukraine, all movies made in Russia after January 1, 2014 are legally prohibited. Ukrainians are also prohibited from using Russian streaming services – even pirate sites registered on the Runet. All this is part of the so-called “ideological protection of Ukrainians” from Moscow's influence – the same law that could get a Ukrainian arrested for singing a Russian song from the 1990s.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the sudden, albeit quite natural, popularity of the TV series The Boy’s Word irritates the Ukrainian authorities. Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture had to remind people that this series, like all Russian media content, is prohibited, and viewing it on Russian platforms is illegal.

The Ministry’s Center for Strategic Communications – the main task of which is to fight “external threats” – has prepared an entire analytical report titled “What's wrong with ‘The Boy’s Word.’” In this report, Ukrainian experts claim that the series resorts to the “standard Russian practice: glorifying those who caused a lot of trouble.”

While some people criticize the drama, others direct their anger at the viewers. For example, the former leader of the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian People's Self-Defense ultra-nationalist party Dmitry Korchinsky spoke of Ukrainians who consume it in rather unflattering terms.

“Today, I was told that there is a Muscovite TV series called ‘The Boy’s Word.’ It’s very popular now and many young people in Ukraine watch it. They don’t feel sick, they are happy to watch it, and its soundtrack is in the list of top songs on Ukrainian YouTube. These idiots – and we are a nation of idiots – make up the majority on YouTube,” he said.

And, of course, some Ukrainians even want to “hand over to the SBU [Security Service of Ukraine]” anyone who watches the series – including their parents.

https://www.rt.com/russia/589315-russian-tv-series-ukrainian-politicians/

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MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

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Western nations that expect Russia to collapse are misguided and should instead let their economies benefit from cooperation, President Vladimir Putin said at a government meeting on Thursday.

The US and its allies have targeted Russia with unprecedented sanctions in a bid to punish Moscow for the Ukraine conflict. The country has largely adapted to the pressure however, according to the Russian government and Western analysis.

Putin raised the issue during a meeting of the Council on Strategic Development and National Projects, during which he described Russia’s booming commercial ties with non-Western nations. He noted, however, that Moscow is not closing the door on the West. 

“It’s time for them [Western leaders] to stop playing the fool and waiting for us to collapse. Everyone realizes by now that if they want to benefit from cooperation with Russia, they should do so,” the president said.

Western nations have a choice between following “ephemeral considerations” motivating them to seek Russia’s destruction and “the interests of their own nations and peoples,” which require cooperation based on a “new foundation of a multipolar world,” Putin stated.

Moscow has weathered Western economic attacks by reorienting its economy toward trade with countries that declined to join the Washington-led sanctions campaign, including Asian powerhouses China and India.

Russia has also taken measures to decrease reliance on Western-controlled financial institutions, switching to alternative payment methods and national currencies in commerce. During a visit to Beijing on Tuesday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said the US dollar has almost fully been replaced in trade with China. 

Meanwhile, EU nations have seen energy prices surge after rejecting Russian supplies in order to supposedly reduce dependence and cut Moscow’s profits. In particular, Russian pipeline natural gas has been replaced with more expensive liquified natural gas (LNG), sourced primarily from the US and Qatar. Russia is also among Europe’s LNG suppliers and has made record deliveries this year, according to a report by Kommersant earlier this month.

Some factory owners in Germany, the EU's leading economy, have been forced to shut down due to increased operational costs. The Credit reform credit agency reported this month that it expects 18,100 German companies to file for insolvency this year, marking a 23.5% increase on 2022.

https://www.rt.com/russia/589452-putin-western-nations-collapse/

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MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

The jury of the Grand Continent Prize 2023 chose to reward Złodzieje żarówek (The Light Bulb Thieves) by Tomasz Różycki (published by Czarne, 2023).

CONTINENT 2023

Facing Mont Blanc, at an altitude of 3,466 meters, the jury of the Grand Continent prize rewarded the Polish writer Tomasz Różycki. As Poland returns to Europe through the ballot boxes and the Union wants to expand, he calls for us to look further, drawing inspiration from Ukrainian courage, to understand “that our great continent is even greater than we think.” believed him.

Tomasz Różycki “speech”:

Taken by the emotion and surprise of this announcement, of this trip made to Courmayeur yesterday to join you, I send all my thanks to the jury of the Grand Continent Prize, to the magazine which organizes this prize literary, and a salute to the other finalists of this edition who are, like me, European writers.

My book begins with this sentence: “Listen, ladies and gentlemen, how my mother jumped. » It is a book which tells, through the eyes of a boy, a childhood in a communist country, in a huge, working-class building, inhabited by different people, of different origins, of different backgrounds, of different political opinions. Everyone lives there because they have to, because they have no choice. They live there, under a regime based on lies. They live there and they struggle with a permanent crisis and a continual lack: of water, electricity, heating, sugar, butter. These people are being hunted down by the secret police, they must thwart a false narrative. But despite everything, they preserve their dignity because they resist. And they have something more: solidarity, which allows them to get by, to organize with and despite the crisis. This is how the Solidarność movement was born, which overthrew the system, reversed a tragic destiny and unscrewed the Soviet bloc.

I am speaking to you facing the summit of Mont Blanc, which is a magical place in Polish literature. In 19th-century writer Juliusz Słowacki's masterpiece Kordian, which is still taught to all Polish high school students today, the hero, a romantic megalomaniac figure, climbs to the top of Mont Blanc. And up there, he is struck by a mystical crisis. He understands that if everything in front of him were to break, if the sky hit the glacier, he would be the first to die. This image perhaps anticipates an ecological concern which takes on its full meaning today when we see the glacier retreating year after year.

But Kordian also looks further and undergoes a metamorphosis. He looks at Poland, crushed by Russian despotism. He then decided to turn his energy towards all peoples, and to return to Poland to fight the Tsar. In doing so, he remembers a legendary episode in history, that of the knight Arnold von Winkelried. To win a decisive battle, Winkelried sacrifices himself, and turns all the enemy's lances on himself so that the Swiss can win and be saved. Kordian compares his and Poland's future role to the fate of Winkelried: a nation that must sacrifice itself to free all of Europe from despotism.

In turn, from this summit, I look towards the East, and I see that our great continent is even bigger than we thought. Today I received questions from readers who asked me if this building was in this or that place, because they thought they recognized their own windows there, their own lives. It is not only the fate of the Poles that I am recounting, it is the fate of all of post-Soviet Europe, that of millions of people.

When I look towards the East, I see once again a people who are fighting for this dignity of man, for freedom, against a Russian despotism - still today -, and who, in doing this, are the most successful people. most European there is. It is a people who die for our values. I am of course thinking of Ukraine, where Słowacki was born.

Even if you jump from Mont Blanc, you don't fall.

Let us stand together, and we will win against evil.

—————————

This is a simplistic idealistic view of Europe. We deserve better. The blood from World War Two has been cleaned up from the street, but the nasty ideals still remain in the heart and brains of many people.

OUR POST “next stop, berlin” has been read 275,761 times as of today — possibly because people think it’s a travelog or a railway timetable… 

But really, the cartoon explains clearly that Germany could wish revenge against Russia for having been defeated in 1945… Without Russia’s sacrifice, the West would have been crushed by Germany, despite winning a few piddly battles here and there in Africa, Italy and so forth.

“Ukraine” (the Kiev government) is run by NAZIS. Many Ukrainian (and German) Nazis ended up “protected" in many European countries, in Canada (as seen recently) and in the USA. Why?

Nazis are useful front troops against communism, which Russia is presently not — and was honourable enough to release countries such as Poland, and self-destroy the USSR from the “yoke of socialism”… 

To a great extend, PUTIN is in the mould of GORBACHEV. But the West is hypocritical and does not want to recognise this BECAUSE PUTIN PREVENTED THE RAPE OF RUSSIA BY THE WEST, which had been an American dream since 1917. Dear Tomasz, if your ideal of Europe is NATO, then go and get FUCKED…

YOUR ARE A FAKE IDEALIST.

You understand nothing, not even the western platitudes.

ENJOY YOUR PRIZE....

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Only 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in two years of fighting with Russian forces, President Vladimir Zelensky has declared, alleging a casualty figure far below even the estimates of Kiev’s Western benefactors.

Speaking on Sunday in the country’s capital, Zelensky claimed that “31,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in this war – not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us.”

Zelensky offered no estimates for the number of Ukrainian soldiers wounded or missing. He claimed “tens of thousands” of civilian deaths in areas occupied by Russian forces, but he conceded that precise figures weren’t available. “We don’t know how many of our civilians they killed.”

The purported death toll marks the first official casualty figure reported by the Kiev regime since the conflict with Russia began in February 2022. The Russian Defense Ministry has pegged Ukrainian troop losses at around 400,000, including more than 215,000 in 2023 alone. That estimate was released last month, before Russian forces reportedly took out more than 1,500 Ukrainian troops while liberating the key Donbass stronghold of Avdeevka last weekend.

US officials told the New York Times last August that about 70,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed and as many as 120,000 had been wounded. Those same unidentified officials pegged Russian casualties at up to 120,000 killed and 180,000 wounded. Washington’s estimated casualty ratio was sharply at odds with Putin’s claim last June that Kiev was losing ten times as many troops as Moscow. Western intelligence agencies reportedly estimated troop losses of 150,000 on each side in the first year of the conflict.

Zelensky’s figure of 31,000 deaths may sound familiar. He offered the same estimate for Russian combat deaths in June 2022, less than four months after Moscow’s offensive began. He claimed on Sunday that Russian forces had suffered 500,000 casualties, including 180,000 troops killed.

Although Zelensky has downplayed Kiev’s troop losses, the casualties were apparently high enough that, according to him, the Ukrainian Army requested the mobilization of up to 500,000 new soldiers in December.

https://www.rt.com/news/593145-zelensky-gives-ukraine-casualty-estimate/

THIS IS WHY "UKRAINE IS WINNING AGAINST RUSSIA" IN ZELENSKY'S OWN MIND (I DON'T THINK HE BELIEVES IT, BUT HIS JOB IS TO PROMOTE THE CRAP).... HE IS A DESPICABLE NON-INTELLIGENT LIAR, EMPLOYED BY WASHINGTON TO FIGHT THE RUSSIANS TO THE LAST YUCKRAINIAN, AND LIE... HE WILL PASS HIS USED-BY-DATE SOON....

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

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SEE ALSO: https://www.rt.com/russia/593113-ukraine-another-retreat-donbass/

SEE ALSO: https://www.rt.com/russia/593122-kiev-victory-plan-resource-shortage/