Talk:Essay: Russia's long history of many bitter, military defeats

Nazi Russophobes

If anyone takes issue with this essay, please feel free to create the counteressay Essay: Russia has a spectacular record of unmitigated, glorious, military victories in its history. Godspeed. Conservative (talk) 19:43, November 6, 2023 (EST)

I guess saving the planet from Hitler and Napolean is not an unparalleled glorious victory when spoken by a Nazi. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 22:02, November 6, 2023 (EST)

Criticism of Russia destroying the two biggest leftwing movements in the past 200+ years and creating an era of peace afterwards is the Haushofer school of geopolitics, spoken by unconservative, anticonservative, and Nazi types. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 23:34, November 6, 2023 (EST)

Russia got slapped around by Hitler early in WWII because Stalin killed a lot of his officers before the invasion plus he did not make adequate defensive preparations.

Statue of Marshall Zhukov, who defeated Adolf Hitler in the Battle of Berlin, being torn down by Ukrainian Nazis.

For example, "On 11 June 1937, a closed military court sentenced a group of the Red Army’s most talented and experienced officers to execution. Charged with membership of a supposed military-fascist plot, working with the Nazis, and planning to overthrow the Stalinist regime, all were shot immediately after the trial. The executions of Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevskii, Iona Iakir, Ieronim Uborevich, Boris Fel’dman, Robert Eideman, Avgust Kork, Vitalii Primakov, and Vitovt Putna sparked international scandal. Tukhachevskii in particular was world renowned. He was a hero of the Russian civil war and the Red Army’s most capable strategist. Moreover, as soon as this supposed."[1] Conservative (talk) 19:23, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Don't worry, your neo-Nazi buddies are tearing down the statues now of the General who did win the war.

And you still haven't figured out that Stalin was not Russian. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 19:28, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Soviet Union/Russian foolishness before Hitler attacked: "These purges are known collectively as the “Great Purge” and the “Great Terror,” and they led to the disgracement of over 25,000 Red Army officers, many of whom were executed or sent to the infamous Soviet Gulag work camps.7 The Great Purge also claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians who were deemed “counterrevolutionary”."[2] Conservative (talk) 19:31, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Wow. Great observation. You must be one of the bigots who still have the USSR confused with the Russian Federation. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 19:46, November 7, 2023 (EST)

RobSmith, look at your first post on this talk page. You didn't make any distinction between the Soviet Union and Russia. Consistency and logical thinking has never been one of your strengths. Conservative (talk) 20:16, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Ah duh the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic or RSFSR was a union republic of the USSR. You need to learn what the difference is between a Russian Patriot and a Soviet Communist, and why even the Soviets called WWII the Great Patriotic War, despite leftism & multicultural Soviet Communism being violently opposed to Patriotism. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 20:43, November 7, 2023 (EST)

If you had actually read any Solzhenitsyn as you claimed, we wouldn't be discussing this right now.

Your assertions are essentially saying Solzhenitsyn was a traitor. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 20:54, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Frankly, I am getting very tired of your bigotry. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 20:59, November 7, 2023 (EST)

No, man. Acknowledging Russia routinely got slapped around the regional powers du jour is the kind of stuff spoken by historians and is essential for anyone hoping to understand the essential Russian dichotomy of grandiose belligerence and perpetual mewling grievance.

After the fall of Kievan Rus', their deepest cultural memories are of:

1. being Mongol vassals
2. throwing off that yoke only to remain subject to several centuries of Tatar (Mongol) raids
3. perennially scrabbling for - and eventually losing - control over what we now call eastern Europe
4. finally discovering some imperial conquest mileage in a now largely Mongol-free eastern wilderness
5. discovering - much to their chagrin - that they were still a weird feudal backwater compared to other contemporary European empires

The realisation of 5) set off a few hundred years of queasy see-sawing between serious efforts to catch up with European modernity and lapsing back into periods of reactionary "Slavic" navel-gazing. And all the while, still routinely having their asses handed to them on variously disastrous plates of war. ConwayIII (talk) 18:07, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Yep, and getting slapped around and pummeled by neighbors is how Russia became the world's large country by land mass, I guess. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 18:25, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Generally speaking, people read encyclopedias to gain knowledge and become smarter, not more stupid. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 18:28, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Yeah, man. Empty tundra proved a lot easier to conquer. ConwayIII (talk) 19:06, November 7, 2023 (EST)

For a good summary of Russian history, see Russians With Attitude 5 part series (beginning with part #0 here). RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 19:59, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Which in no part addresses the fact that most of Russia is not exactly prime real estate. MayGodBless (talk) 21:10, November 7, 2023 (EST)

At this point, I would rather learn more about India and the USA. I am bullish on India and bearish about China and Russia. For details, see: International politics essays. Conservative (talk) 20:25, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Ah, yes. The glorious victory in WW2. Yes, the Russians were the good guys. But that does not mean the Russians were good at fighting wars. Generally, when you lose three times as many people in a war, that is not considered a "glorious victory". They won the war in spite of - not because of - their tactical abilities. MayGodBless (talk) 21:10, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Thank you for those Nazi apologetics, they are really helpful in the present context. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 21:13, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Sometimes the good guys are bad at what they do. MayGodBless (talk) 21:20, November 7, 2023 (EST)

Oh, the Nazis were the good guys? Why don't you send more Leopard 2 tanks? RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 21:22, November 7, 2023 (EST)

The Nazis were the bad guys. The Russians won a war by spending 21 millions lives. Not by strategy. But by throwing lives at the meat grinder. MayGodBless (talk) 00:01, November 8, 2023 (EST)

You're sick, and should know better. RobS^{Give Peace a Chance!} 00:25, November 8, 2023 (EST)

Joseph Stalin, the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953, patronised the League of Militant Atheists, whose chief aim, under the leadership of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, was to propagate militant atheism and eradicate religion.

Joseph Stalin's atheistic regime killed tens of millions of people.

Both Hitler and Stalin were evil men.

The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin was a member of the Allies. Politics makes strange bedfellows.

I trust this clarifies matters. Conservative (talk) 05:03, November 10, 2023 (EST)

I trust it doesn't clarify matters. What is this, Blame the Victim Day?

Hitler was democratically elected, Stalin was not.

I trust this clarifies matters. RobS^{Get thee behind me, Satan} 11:08, November 10, 2023 (EST)

It doesn't. Mass rape during the occupation of Germany. Conservative (talk) 13:12, November 10, 2023 (EST)

Rob Urie: Biden Visits Hitler’s Bunker, Sends for a Decorator: Israel and Ukraine Edition. RobS^{Get thee behind me, Satan} 13:31, November 10, 2023 (EST)

False. Hitler was appointed by Paul von Hindenburg. MayGodBless (talk) 22:02, November 10, 2023 (EST)

Hitler was asked to form a government, as in all parliamentary systems, when his party, which he was the leader, won the largest share of the vote in a free, fair, and democratic election. RobS^{Get thee behind me, Satan} 22:31, November 10, 2023 (EST)

All this thread does, which states the Soviet victory in WWII was actually a defeat, is affirm that voices which accuse Russia & Putin in the 21st century of being Communists can rightly be called Nazis & fascists.

User:Conservative was personally warned of this danger in mid-2022, but he tripled down on his fascist trolling anyway. The label will stick until he or Andy Schlafly delete at least four dozen of his fascist screeds, and restore the integrity of Conservapedia as a conservative resource. RobS^{Abnormal is fine. Stupid isn't.} 13:10, May 5, 2026 (EDT)

Stavridis

Saur-Mogila originally marked the site of the border between Christendom and Stavridis beloved Turkish Islam. [3] The Saur-Mogila monument was erected in 1963 to commemorate victory over the Nazis on the same spot in 1943. It was destroyed by Ukrainian Nazis in 2014 (with USAID/CIA funding) and rebuilt by the Donetsk Republic in 2022. [4][5]

User:Conservative: You didn't qualify your main source for this Essay properly. James Stavridis is of Turkish background. As a DEI hiree, he is an expert in knowing how the Russians kicked Turkish butt in Crimea, Donbass and Caucuses (Republic of Georgia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, etc.) in the days of Imperial Russia & the Ottoman Empire). His Russophobia, which the CIA/Pentagon made official DEI hiring policy during the Cold War, you now have made your own. RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 01:55, March 5, 2025 (EST)

Stavridis is little more than an apologist for Islam's defeat at the hands of the Russians in the Caucuses, a perspective User:Conservative now obviously shares. RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 02:21, March 5, 2025 (EST)

Two problems (in addition to User:Conservative's failure to qualify deep stater Stavridis properly):

1. The Duran never said Russia's victory is "pyrrhic" as implied in this Essay. A reversal of the paragraphs would clarify that it is the author's opinion, not The Durans;
2. Neither Mercouris nor Christophoru are "pro-Russian", as the author's confirmation bias implies. This is another result of the author not being conversant in foreign policy & international affairs (as he freely admits [6]). RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 16:07, March 7, 2025 (EST)

Let me tell you a little more about Stavridis. He was involved in the illegal weapons smuggling, against UN Resolutions, to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and Al Qaeda in the Maghreb and the murder of Gaddafi. It was his ships as NATO commander that transported captured Libyan weapons to Turkey and Syria to arm the Islamic State. It was that operation at the heart of the Benghazi massacre that got US Ambassador Christopher Stevens killed. Stavridis is up to his eyeballs in Obama war crimes along with Hillary, John Brennan, and Samantha Power. Yet User:Conservative has no compunction about using this bigot for his own confirmation bias to neutralize more than a dozen years of research by multiple Conservapedia editors, myself, User:Joaquin Martinez and others. Not to mention strengthening and legitimizing anti-Trump attacks. RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 23:55, March 8, 2025 (EST)

Here's another problem

Anything that departs from USAID-funded propaganda you label as "pro-Russian". You have done this for years, turning Conservapedia into a neocon globalist echo chamber.

Does this include all the sources Conservapedia has compiled over the past 10 years in the Russiagate hoax series? Apparently so. RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 21:36, March 8, 2025 (EST)

According to Conservapedia, World War II was pyrrhic victory

"Don't be afraid of nuclear war." - Friedrich Merz

CP WWII page, Allied casualties 61,000,000 Axis casualties 12,000,000. RobS^{Zelensky Must Go!} 00:10, April 2, 2025 (EDT)

• Mearsheimer: Alliance System Collapses & Risk of Nuclear War.

It's ironic...

Russia fought many bitter wars against the Muslim Iranians & Turks while defending Christendom (which User:Conservative now mocks). Russian sanctions imposed by the United States have now drawn Russia & Iran closer together, and NATO ally Turkiye opposed the United States arming Kurdish proxies to launch a ground invasion against Iran. (Apparently, Turkiye was correct in calling America's Kurdish proxies "terrorists" cause the weapons the US gave the Kurds in January 2026 to aid the allege "peaceful protesters" in Iran to overthrow the Iranian government never made it to the rioters). Now NATO ally Turkiye is considering joining Iran in fending off secular & transgender American Imperialism, and American support for Kurdish terrorism.

User:Conservative's understanding of geopolitics reminds me of a discussion I had with Trent Toulouse or one of his lackeys in Rationalwiki many years ago (yes, unlike User:Conservative, Karajou and others, being capable of carrying on a civil discussion with adversaries doesn't make you one of them). The naive Rattroll automatically supported breaking up Iraq & bringing "freedom & democracy" to an independent Kurdistan - until I explained a landlocked Kurdistan would not prosper or survive tariffs imposed on its imports and exports to and from the outside world, and it would do better to remain a minority within Iraq. In the meantime, user:Conservative has turned Conservapedia into an echo chamber of Rationalwiki & The New York Times with his anti-conservative, racist, and crackpot Essays and ideas. RobS^{Abnormal is fine. Stupid isn't.} 11:37, May 5, 2026 (EDT)

1,200 Years of Historical Analysis: Is the USA or Russia the heavyweight champion of war?

• 1,200 Years of Historical Analysis: Is the USA or Russia the heavyweight champion of war?, International Politics Insights blog.

I trust this clarifies matters. Conservative (talk) 11:08, May 6, 2026 (EDT)

1,200 Years of Historical Analysis: Is the USA or Russia the heavyweight champion of war?, International Politics Insights blog

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” ― John Adams Conservative (talk) 12:06, May 6, 2026 (EDT)

Stick with gay bathhouses. You've been obsessed with them for twenty years since Conservapedia was founded. 'International politics', as you call it, is outside your league. RobS^{Abnormal is fine. Stupid isn't.} 16:07, May 6, 2026 (EDT)

Vladimir Putin's current situation: "The Victory Day parade scheduled for this weekend has been scaled back over fears of a drone attack. Oil depots are burning at an unprecedented rate. Problems are piling up on the front, while on the home front, citizens are no longer afraid to criticize him openly. The skies are darkening over the Russian president, who appears to be losing his grip while also stepping up his security."[7] Conservative (talk) 16:14, May 6, 2026 (EDT)

Stick with gay bathhouses. You've been obsessed with them for twenty years since Conservapedia was founded. 'International politics', as you call it, is outside your league. RobS^{Abnormal is fine. Stupid isn't.} 22:38, May 6, 2026 (EDT)

As economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin’s war on Ukraine. ‘We can’t even take one region’ - Fortune Magazine, May 3, 2025

• As economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin’s war on Ukraine. ‘We can’t even take one region’, Fortune Magazine, May 3, 2025.

It looks as if RobSmith's Russia triumphalism had a weak structural foundation. Conservative (talk) 22:13, May 6, 2026 (EDT)

Stick with gay bathhouses. You've been obsessed with them for twenty years since Conservapedia was founded. 'International politics', as you call it, is outside your league. RobS^{Abnormal is fine. Stupid isn't.} 22:39, May 6, 2026 (EDT)

User:Conservative proven wrong, AGAIN

This trolling crap is never qualified properly and only tells half the story (i.e, confirmation bias). For example, How did Russia become the largest land power on the planet? Or the primary source for this screed is James Stavridis, and misrepresents his views.

• On March 2, 2025 the London Telegraph reported former Supreme Allied Commander US Navy Four Star Admiral James Stavridis said that since the Trump administration made it clear that aid to Kyiv could become a "geopolitical miscalculation of colossal proportions....We may be witnessing the last days of NATO".
• Whenever a rising power (in this case China) confronts an established power (the U.S.) over the past two thousand years, the outcome very often leads to a global conflict. This occurs despite the fact that in most cases there is no advantage to either side in launching into a war.

• Bloomberg News op-ed: Stavridis: NATO Should Give Trump a 2-Year Timeout until a new administration takes office. See also Essay: Properly qualifying sources.

How did Russia become the largest landowner on the planet?

Map of Russia.

Approximately 7% of Russia's land is arable and suitable for agricultural production.

Because of extreme geography, about 80% of Russia’s population lives on just 20% of its land. While most of European Russia is densely populated, regions like Siberia and the Far North have very few residents. Overall, an estimated 60% of Russia sits on permafrost, making most of the country practically unsuitable for large-scale, permanent human settlement.The vast majority of Russia's uninhabited or sparsely populated areas are concentrated in the east. The primary factors limiting habitation include:Severe Climate: Long, brutal winters with temperatures that can drop to -60°C.Frozen Ground: Roughly 60% of the land is defined by permafrost, which makes building and sustaining infrastructure extremely difficult and costly.Swampland: Regions like the Western Siberian Plain contain some of the largest bogs and swamp areas in the world.

And with Russia having a demographic crisis the rural villages could disappear.

The 2023 article Russia has failed as a state published by Modern Diplomacy indicates: "Britannica explained that a failed state is the one that “cannot protect its national boundaries". April 26, 2023 head of the Russian Committee of defense of the Russian State Duma suggested that Russian citizens should be mobilized to protect Russian borders acknowledging that Russia has no resources for that, comparing the current inability of the state to the previous mighty USSR."

Ukraine, which has a much smaller population of Russia, invaded Russia in 2024. It did so in the southern Kursk region of Russia (See: Russia-Ukraine War: Ukraine's Surprise Attack in Russia's Kursk Region, video and Ukraine invades Russia: Russian civilians seek shelter as fighting rages, video). Russia was caught completely by surprise and was unprepared for the attack. In addition, Ukraine used innovative drone tactics to blind Russian S-400 air defenses and take out Russia's Khalino Air Base which is located in Kursk Oblast, Russia (See: How Ukraine Took Out Russia’s Khalino Air Base with Advanced Tactics, Kyiv Post, December 23, 2024 and Ukraines Masterstroke - Russian Khalino Air Base TOTALLY OBLITERATED, Military Show YouTube channel, 2025).

On August 22, 2024, The Hill published the article Another Russian mercenary leader has turned against Putin which stated:

“

A little over a year ago, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin’s former cook and the founder of the notorious Wagner private military company, launched a coup attempt that fizzled quickly. But, significantly, the Russian military and security services did nothing to stop it. They just watched — hardly a sign of their loyalty to Putin. A few days ago, Georgy Zakrevsky, another head of a private military company, effectively called on Russians to get rid of the “Great” Putin (his modifier, not mine). When the guys with the guns start making fun of your greatness, it may be time to read the writing on the wall... Here’s Zakrevsky’s diatribe against Putin, in my translation: “Our country is not just on the brink of disaster or already right next to it; our country is already in trouble. In big trouble. Drones are flying all over central Russia, right up to Moscow and St. Petersburg. They even attacked the Kremlin. Our Black Sea fleet is being pushed out. It’s being pushed out as if we were not a great power with a great fleet, but some third-rate country. “Our air force is practically not working because it is also being pushed out. We are standing in the same positions that we took more than two years ago, and partly in those to which we retreated. The population is dying out, becoming impoverished, drinking itself to death: no one cares. All they have time to do is bring in migrants.” Zakrevsky minces no words in assigning blame for this sad state of affairs: “And all this was done by the so-called ‘president.’ The ‘Great’ Putin.”

”

"Russia is a declining power, and it will only get weaker with time." - International relations scholar John Mearsheimer

'I Can See' America From Here: Bleak Life In Russia's Chukotka

Watch the video: 'I Can See' America From Here: Bleak Life In Russia's Chukotka

Watch the video: 'I Can See' America From Here: Bleak Life In Russia's Chukotka

I trust this clarifies matters. Conservative (talk) 14:51, July 11, 2026 (EDT)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty? The pro-gay globalist-captured propaganda network that Kari Lake, DOGE, and Elon Musk just tried to cut out? [8] OK. RobS^{Do straight normies spend 20 yrs obsessing over gay bars, bathhouses and drag queens?} 14:58, July 11, 2026 (EDT)

Deny that most of Russia is on permafrost and lose all crediblity.

Next, 1,200 Years of Historical Analysis: Is the USA or Russia the heavyweight champion of war?. I trust this clarifies matters further. Conservative (talk) 15:05, July 11, 2026 (EDT)

Irrerlevent to the key question of whether April 2022 was a pivotal moment in the future of world politics for the foreseeable future.

Bottomline: You never bothered to properly qualify your sources for this Essay, be it Stavridis or Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

James Stavridis, who provided the basic source material for Essay: Russia's long history of many bitter, military defeats.

Stavridis is a long-time Anti-Trumper and Elon Musk has referred to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as "just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money."

The more you spam, the more you document your own confirmation bias. RobS^{Do straight normies spend 20 yrs obsessing over gay bars, bathhouses and drag queens?} 15:32, July 11, 2026 (EDT)