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Political influence does not equal cultural influence. There are innumerable instances throughout history of powers politically influencing smaller states but w

Political influence does not equal cultural influence. There are innumerable instances throughout history of powers politically influencing smaller states but without making any significant impact on their culture. Why you keep trying to assert Russian cultural influence on Romania without evincing any actual familiarity with the country, or being able to produce any concrete examples, is baffling. Just admit that you don’t know this region very well and are operating from vague stereotypes.

keiferski 3y ago
Romanian culture becoming communist didn't happen because of Russian political influence? They just decided to become communist entirely on their own? The Romanian communist government wasn't put into place by the USSR? And all the communist cultural elements in Romania from 1945 to the 1990s didn't exist? P.S., I live in the region in an ex-Soviet country.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  The Romanian Communist party was famously tiny before the war, it was never any major force bringing Russian culture into Romanian culture. While Soviet Russia as World War II victor did elevate that party to rule, that determined only the organization of the state, it did not introduce any distinctly Russian cultural influences into the Romanian population. Then, the “Communist cultural elements in Romania from 1945 to the 1990s” changed significantly in the 1960s as Romania went its own course. Thereafter, Romanian communism was increasingly blended with Romanian nationalism.[0] > P.S., I live in the region in an ex-Soviet country. That doesn’t make you qualified to speak on Romanian culture and history. The Eastern Bloc was not a monoculture, and many countries in the region are poorly understood by their neighbours. Romania is unusual in the region in its culture being marked by two traits besides Greek-aligned Orthodox Christianity: francophilia and dacomania. Those circumstances left very little room for Russian culture to make inroads. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_communism_in_Romania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_communism_in_Romania
  - keiferski 3y ago
    There are innumerable instances throughout history of powers politically influencing smaller states but without making any significant impact on their culture. Again: you're telling me that communism in Romania didn't happen because of the Soviet Union, and that the Soviets implemented a communist political structure but this had zero effect on the culture? There was no communist culture in Romania? Zero? That's what you just claimed. You do understand that just because Romania shifted away from the USSR a couple decades later doesn't change the fact that the communist party was still in power and only became in power in the first place because of the USSR? This is a bit like arguing that Japan has no cultural influence from America, even though America conquered the country and replaced its government with a westernized one.
    - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
      Viewing the Communist regime in Romania as an example of distinctly Russian culture is questionable inasmuch as it initially claimed to be internationalist, its first years involved a cult of personality of a man from Georgia and then local acolytes of that man, and aside from Russian teaching in schools that (as is well known) had extremely limited impact, it operated entirely through the local language where special Communist terminology was overwhelmingly of French or other Western origin, not from the Russian language.

keiferski 3y ago

Romanian culture becoming communist didn't happen because of Russian political influence? They just decided to become communist entirely on their own? The Romanian communist government wasn't put into place by the USSR? And all the communist cultural elements in Romania from 1945 to the 1990s didn't exist? P.S., I live in the region in an ex-Soviet country.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
The Romanian Communist party was famously tiny before the war, it was never any major force bringing Russian culture into Romanian culture. While Soviet Russia as World War II victor did elevate that party to rule, that determined only the organization of the state, it did not introduce any distinctly Russian cultural influences into the Romanian population. Then, the “Communist cultural elements in Romania from 1945 to the 1990s” changed significantly in the 1960s as Romania went its own course. Thereafter, Romanian communism was increasingly blended with Romanian nationalism.[0] > P.S., I live in the region in an ex-Soviet country. That doesn’t make you qualified to speak on Romanian culture and history. The Eastern Bloc was not a monoculture, and many countries in the region are poorly understood by their neighbours. Romania is unusual in the region in its culture being marked by two traits besides Greek-aligned Orthodox Christianity: francophilia and dacomania. Those circumstances left very little room for Russian culture to make inroads. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_communism_in_Romania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_communism_in_Romania
- keiferski 3y ago
  There are innumerable instances throughout history of powers politically influencing smaller states but without making any significant impact on their culture. Again: you're telling me that communism in Romania didn't happen because of the Soviet Union, and that the Soviets implemented a communist political structure but this had zero effect on the culture? There was no communist culture in Romania? Zero? That's what you just claimed. You do understand that just because Romania shifted away from the USSR a couple decades later doesn't change the fact that the communist party was still in power and only became in power in the first place because of the USSR? This is a bit like arguing that Japan has no cultural influence from America, even though America conquered the country and replaced its government with a westernized one.
  - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
    Viewing the Communist regime in Romania as an example of distinctly Russian culture is questionable inasmuch as it initially claimed to be internationalist, its first years involved a cult of personality of a man from Georgia and then local acolytes of that man, and aside from Russian teaching in schools that (as is well known) had extremely limited impact, it operated entirely through the local language where special Communist terminology was overwhelmingly of French or other Western origin, not from the Russian language.