4 ms·

Is it just me or is romanticising soviet era tech in weird if not actually bad taste just now?

dillondoyle 5y ago
I'm guessing this was posted because of the video of the Ukrainians asking the Russians to stop shelling the plant... ;( It looked exactly like this.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
warning26 5y ago
Honestly it's too bad that Putin's obsession with the Soviet era isn't at all focused on the things that were good about the Soviet Union. Things like this, or its space program. Instead, it's all the bad parts (territorial conquest) with none of the good.
- the-dude 5y ago
  The program which supplies the ISS and ferries US astronauts, uhh cosmonauts, you mean? What about it? Or did you mean Afghanistan?
  - warning26 5y ago
    Roscosmos, the space program that's still flying the exact same equipment that it did in the 60s and has made no efforts to improve since then? Yes, that one. Buran+Energia was a generational leap forward, and it all fell apart when the Soviet Union collapsed. Considering that I described territorial conquest as "bad", I think we can safely say I did not mean Afghanistan.
- lnsru 5y ago
  Could you please elaborate more on what was good about Soviet Union? Especially from local citizen’s perspective without having dollars in the pocked. Space program made them proud once in a while, but half empty shelves in grocery store were way more common.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    Free college for everyone who can pass the entry exam, even in the most prestigious institutions like MSU or MIPT.
- p_l 5y ago
  To be honest, Putin isn't much obsessed about Soviet era...
kadoban 5y ago
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's not the control rooms' fault that Putin is a warmonger.
- bigfudge 5y ago
  I agree. I don’t want to overstate it. But I guess im also squeamish about people into Ww2 merch too(it’s a thing in the uk… people dress up in 40s dresses and pretend the war is on). It seems a weird period to be rosy tinted about.
  - dr_dshiv 5y ago
    Hmm, I just saw “Red Dawn” last night, so this just balances things out.
freetime2 5y ago
I think it’s a fair question. Russia has put much of the world on edge right now, and has turned life into a waking nightmare for millions of Ukrainians. I could see how this romanticization of Soviet tech could be upsetting to some people. On the other hand, I think it’s healthy to take a step back and remember that even in dark times and people that you may hate, there are positive qualities. And even things like this that can be strangely beautiful.
dr_dshiv 5y ago
Maybe it’s actually a good idea for intelligent people to be curious about Russian ideas, design and history. Especially now. Seems like a treating the curiosity as “bad taste” could lead to unhealthy deliberate ignorance.
scaramanga 5y ago
I dunno, I come from an era where at the moment we were destroying Afghanistan, or Iraq, the BBC would be publishing articles about the various missiles we were using, marvelling at their technological sophistication. In one article it was said that "we mustn't forget that, above all, this is a JDAM war." Which is strange, cos I felt that, above all, it was a criminal and savage war of aggression with a tremendous human cost. I guess we don't all have the same sort of humanitarian feelings. Or a lot of us can quite easily put them aside. Which is fair enough, it is stressful to think about that after all. In the middle of all that is going on in bad taste right now (eg. Condoleeza Rice doing an overnight 180 and deciding wars of aggression are bad), this seems to hardly even register.
p_l 5y ago
Current events are, arguably, a refutation of soviet ideals (for all that they were often broken) and even practice - Putin explicitly talks in points related to Tsarist Imperial Russia, and a core argument of his invasion is that Ukrainians aren't a separate nation with separate language, and Ukraine "isn't a real country". Things that, for all the oppression, were accepted and obvious part of USSR - there was Ukrainian SSR, not Ukraine as region of Greater Russia. Even with effective forcing of Russian language for all technical uses, even Stalin at his worst dealt with USSR as union of many nations, even if some artificially created from displaced people (in order to create single-nation autonomous regions).

I'm guessing this was posted because of the video of the Ukrainians asking the Russians to stop shelling the plant... ;( It looked exactly like this.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

warning26 5y ago

Honestly it's too bad that Putin's obsession with the Soviet era isn't at all focused on the things that were good about the Soviet Union. Things like this, or its space program. Instead, it's all the bad parts (territorial conquest) with none of the good.

the-dude 5y ago
The program which supplies the ISS and ferries US astronauts, uhh cosmonauts, you mean? What about it? Or did you mean Afghanistan?
- warning26 5y ago
  Roscosmos, the space program that's still flying the exact same equipment that it did in the 60s and has made no efforts to improve since then? Yes, that one. Buran+Energia was a generational leap forward, and it all fell apart when the Soviet Union collapsed. Considering that I described territorial conquest as "bad", I think we can safely say I did not mean Afghanistan.
lnsru 5y ago
Could you please elaborate more on what was good about Soviet Union? Especially from local citizen’s perspective without having dollars in the pocked. Space program made them proud once in a while, but half empty shelves in grocery store were way more common.
- int_19h 5y ago
  Free college for everyone who can pass the entry exam, even in the most prestigious institutions like MSU or MIPT.
p_l 5y ago
To be honest, Putin isn't much obsessed about Soviet era...

kadoban 5y ago

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's not the control rooms' fault that Putin is a warmonger.

bigfudge 5y ago
I agree. I don’t want to overstate it. But I guess im also squeamish about people into Ww2 merch too(it’s a thing in the uk… people dress up in 40s dresses and pretend the war is on). It seems a weird period to be rosy tinted about.
- dr_dshiv 5y ago
  Hmm, I just saw “Red Dawn” last night, so this just balances things out.

freetime2 5y ago

I think it’s a fair question. Russia has put much of the world on edge right now, and has turned life into a waking nightmare for millions of Ukrainians. I could see how this romanticization of Soviet tech could be upsetting to some people. On the other hand, I think it’s healthy to take a step back and remember that even in dark times and people that you may hate, there are positive qualities. And even things like this that can be strangely beautiful.

dr_dshiv 5y ago

Maybe it’s actually a good idea for intelligent people to be curious about Russian ideas, design and history. Especially now. Seems like a treating the curiosity as “bad taste” could lead to unhealthy deliberate ignorance.

scaramanga 5y ago

I dunno, I come from an era where at the moment we were destroying Afghanistan, or Iraq, the BBC would be publishing articles about the various missiles we were using, marvelling at their technological sophistication. In one article it was said that "we mustn't forget that, above all, this is a JDAM war." Which is strange, cos I felt that, above all, it was a criminal and savage war of aggression with a tremendous human cost. I guess we don't all have the same sort of humanitarian feelings. Or a lot of us can quite easily put them aside. Which is fair enough, it is stressful to think about that after all. In the middle of all that is going on in bad taste right now (eg. Condoleeza Rice doing an overnight 180 and deciding wars of aggression are bad), this seems to hardly even register.

p_l 5y ago

Current events are, arguably, a refutation of soviet ideals (for all that they were often broken) and even practice - Putin explicitly talks in points related to Tsarist Imperial Russia, and a core argument of his invasion is that Ukrainians aren't a separate nation with separate language, and Ukraine "isn't a real country". Things that, for all the oppression, were accepted and obvious part of USSR - there was Ukrainian SSR, not Ukraine as region of Greater Russia. Even with effective forcing of Russian language for all technical uses, even Stalin at his worst dealt with USSR as union of many nations, even if some artificially created from displaced people (in order to create single-nation autonomous regions).