Operation Unthinkable – Marco Rubio’s Speech in Munich

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The article by Sevim Daǧdelen, published on February 18, 2026 in Overton Magazine was translated from German by us on our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

For a contrast, make sure to read “Munich, 2007: The Day the West Was Told No” – an analysis by Gerry Nolan, preceded by the speech and a summary from the Russian MFA, while the wider historical context can be found in How the Anglo-Saxons Promoted Fascism in the 20th Century and Revived It in the 21st – Dmitry Medvedev.


The US Secretary of State views 1945 as a defeat for the West and wants to revise the post-war order, including anti-colonial liberation. At the “security conference”, he received standing ovations, especially from German ministers.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had commissioned the development of “Operation Unthinkable” in May 1945. (Rea also: The unthinkable madness of the Anglo-Saxons. From 1945-49 the US and UK planned to bomb Russia into the Stone Age.) The British General Staff was instructed to devise a plan for an attack on the Soviet Union, which was to take place jointly with US forces and 100,000 soldiers of the German Wehrmacht on July 1, 1945. Due to the high risks, particularly the doubts about whether British soldiers would actually follow a corresponding attack order, the project, which was not published until 1998, was abandoned. However, the plan was in line with a quote falsely attributed to Winston Churchill: “We’ve slaughtered the wrong pig.”

Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference now follows in the tradition of “Operation Unthinkable”, but on a global scale. Rubio views 1945 as a year of defeat for the West, and he wants to reverse the anti-colonialist defeat of 1945 from his perspective. This is also the real reason why the US administration wants to push the United Nations aside.

Rubio’s Colonial Nostalgia

“For five centuries before the end of the Second World War, the West was expanding – its missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers streamed from its shores to cross oceans, colonise new continents, and build vast empires that spanned the globe. But in 1945, for the first time since the age of Columbus, the West retreated,” Rubio’s historical lesson states. Then the decline set in, “accelerated by godless communist revolutions and anti-colonial uprisings.”

Therefore, 1945 is understood as a crisis of Western colonialism, in which the US sees itself as the leading power, but which also needs allies. Therefore, the US Secretary of State emphasised:

“We don’t want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker.”

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“Munich, 2007: The Day the West Was Told No” – an analysis by Gerry Nolan, preceded by the speech and a summary from the Russian MFA

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On February 10, 2007, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of the Russian Federation delivered his famous Munich speech.

During the Cold War, the heads of the defence ministries of the NATO powers gathered in Munich. From 1993 onwards, the event became less militarised and began to invite not only NATO members, but also anyone deemed worthy of attention.

Vladimir Putin’s speech was devoted to the expansion of NATO, the problem in the field of disarmament, the unipolar dominance in world politics, the degradation of the OSCE institution, the vision of Russia’s place and role in the modern world, taking into account current realities and threats. In Western political circles, this has sparked controversy over the resumption of the Cold War.

The full speech can be summarised as follows:

The Cold War left us with ideological stereotypes and other patterns of block thinking. The unipolar world is disastrous for everyone, including the sovereign, because it destroys it from the inside. And it has nothing to do with democracy. Russia is constantly being taught democracy by those who do not want to learn it themselves. Unilateral illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem — there are no fewer wars, even more people are dying in conflicts. The United States imposes its system of law on others, both economically and politically. Well, who would like that?

We need a new security architecture that takes into account the interests of all. The Soviet regime transformed peacefully, so why is it necessary to bomb now at every opportunity? Only the UN can use force, it is not necessary to replace it with NATO or the European Union. Why are they deploying missile defence in Europe? NATO expansion has nothing to do with security. Who is the target of this expansion? What happened to the assurances made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact?

Among other things, thanks to the choice of the people of Russia, the Berlin Wall fell, and now new walls are being imposed on us. The OSCE was created to ensure the security of all, but in fact it has turned into a vulgar tool to ensure the interests of a group of countries. We would like to have responsible partners in order to build a world, in which security and prosperity would be not for a select few, but for all.

Source


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The speech is also available with a voice-over dub at Odysee, Rumble and Telegram.

🎙 On February 10, 2007, President of Russia Vladimir Putin delivered his historic and in many ways prophetic address at the Munich Security Conference, focusing on the state of international relations and the mounting challenges to global security.

❗️ The issues and themes raised by the President have lost none of their relevance.
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Letter to the media from Ambassador Andrey A. Pritsepov – Reblog

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This is a reblog of the publication at the site of the Russian Foreign Ministry, with a condensed version of the article at the Telegram channel of the Russian Embassy in Guyana.

Letter to the media from Ambassador Andrey A. Pritsepov

The article was denied publication in Guyanese newspaper “Stabroek News” for political reasons.

Dear Editor,

It was not without interest I read the article “Ukraine in outreach to Guyana” from January 24, 2026 in Stabroek News and acknowledged editor-in-chief’s admiration for the Ukrainian flag as well as for focusing on in-depth analysis of the international events. It makes it easier to comment.

As I wrote before, I remain the strongest supporter of the Maxima by your President H.E. Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali stating that real diplomacy should be based only on truth and the facts. So here, I feel privileged to remind the readers about the truth and the facts on Ukraine.

1. Ukraine is ruled by a neo-fascist, corrupt and illegitimate ex-president. His presidential term expired on May 21, 2024 and according to chapter V of the Ukrainian constitution could not be prolonged. He came to power by promising peace to all Ukrainians and deceived them all by launching the bloodiest war in the history of modern Europe while being sponsored, encouraged and supplied by NATO. Europe spent more than 270 bln USD on Kiev in order to defeat Russia on the battlefield.
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The French-Lithuanian falsification of WWII history by SBS

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On 8 February, SBS aired the film The Anti-Soviet Fighters (French-Lithuanian co-production), which is built entirely on lies and a cynical falsification of history.

Members of the “Forest Brothers” armed gangs are portrayed as heroes who “waged a decade-long fight against Soviet control in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia”.

In fact, the core of this “movement” was composed of former military personnel of the Baltic states belonging to the territorial SS battalions. They were involved in bloody crimes against civilians. The Nuremberg Tribunal designated all persons officially admitted as members of the SS as criminals.

According to official figures, between 1944 and 1956, the “Forest Brothers” killed more than 25’000 people in Lithuania, including over 1’000 children (52 of them were under the age of two), more than 2’000 in Latvia and 800 in Estonia. The overwhelming majority of the victims were local common people who supported the Soviet authorities or simply refused to assist underground bandit formations.

❗️This film is an attempt to brainwash the SBS audience, revise the outcomes of the Nuremberg Tribunal and glorify murderers depicting them as “freedom fighters”.

Rewriting the history of the Second World War is a dangerous path to revival of Nazism and to tragedies which must never be repeated.

From: Russian Embassy in Australia

The Liberation of Krakow

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Below are two fragments from chapter 7 of the book «1945. The Red Army’s Blitzkrieg» by Valentin Aleksandrovich Runov, which we initially presented at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

Contrast the following testimony to how Anglo-Americans treated Dortmund, Dresden, Prague, Königsberg, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and more….

Wawel castle and its cathedral

Writer Boris Polevoy shared his impressions of his stay in Krakow on the first day of its liberation:

Yes, it is fortunate that this city was saved. We were driving through medieval streets, and the guide was telling us: the fifteenth century, the sixteenth century, the eighteenth century.

— Please, stop here.

We went out, and the teacher solemnly declared:

— This is the tenth century. The chapel of Felix and Adauctus (https://wawel.krakow.pl/en/exhibition-constant/the-lost-wawel-1). The pearl of Europe.

And indeed, one could admire the example of magnificent architecture. The architecture is strict and at the same time peculiar, unique. The building would definitely be flying, aiming at the sky.

Then the old man took us to some kind of cathedral. We could hear our footsteps somewhere ahead of us, and the echo diligently duplicated our voices, as if responding to us from somewhere under the dome. Excellent sculptures were looking at us, but the guide kept leading us forward, not letting us stop.
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Firebombing of Königsberg by the British Air Force in 1944

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We present a translation of an extensive historiographic article “Why the British bombed Königsberg asunder?” by Stanislav Pahotin. Several fragments from it were first presented last year at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.

Read also: “Accidental” bombing and sinking of ships with KZ prisoners by the British Royal Air Force. With new testimonies, declassified by the Russian FSB!

On the night of August 27 and 30, 1944, the British Air Force carried out a raid on Königsberg, which resulted in the deaths of over 6,000 civilians and the destruction of the city’s historic center. These raids have sparked much debate among historians and experts, who have raised questions about the effectiveness of the carpet bombing of Königsberg, the Hintertraugheim district, and the Rosgarten district.

Questions without answers

On the night of August 26-27 and August 29-30, 1944, the British Royal Air Force carried out bombing raids on Königsberg. There are bombings during the Second World War that are known all over the world, such as the bombing of Stalingrad and Dresden. The bombing raids on Königsberg, on the contrary, remain little known to the general public. If you ask the question of why the Royal Air Force bombed Königsberg, then it will not be difficult to answer it. The Second World War was unleashed by Germany. Britain fought against Germany, led by the National Socialists, and was an ally of the Soviet Union, the United States, and other countries. There is no doubt that the struggle was against a misanthropic ideology. Based on this, we can answer the question “Why?”. Because it was a German city, because Germany was under Nazi rule and Britain was fighting against the Nazis.

But why did the British Air Force bomb only the historical center of Königsberg, and not train stations, barracks, port facilities and other military installations? Why were the raids carried out at a time when the Red Army was already on the outskirts of the borders of East Prussia?

480 tons of aerial bombs

Let’s turn to the well-known facts. The first bombing raid on Königsberg took place on the night of August 26-27, targeting the northeastern parts of the city, including Hintertraugheim and Rosgarten. The operation involved 174 four-engine Lancaster bombers from the 5th Squadron of the Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force, led by Major John Woodroffe.

Approximately 480 tons of ammunition were dropped, with one-third being fragmentation bombs and two-thirds being incendiary bombs. The Supreme Commander of Bomber Command, Sir Arthur Harris, considered this ratio necessary in order to arrange a real fire tornado in the city and thus destroy the maximum number of inhabitants. He is often referred to as Bomber Harris, but the pilots nicknamed him differently: Butcher Harris, perhaps because they realised the consequences of his orders.

During the first bombing, about a thousand Königsbergers died. The second raid, which involved 175 Lancaster bombers and dropped 480 tons of ammunition, took place on the night of August 29-30 and resulted in the destruction of the entire central part of Königsberg, including its historic neighbourhoods. These include Altstadt, Kneiphof, and Lebenicht, the Royal Castle, the Cathedral with its Wallenrod Library and many cultural treasures, the old warehouse districts of Lastadie, the beautiful Baroque churches of Königsberg, the old university, its new building on Paradeplatz, the opera house, the famous Grafe und Unzer bookstore, the city’s historical museum, which housed many exhibits related to Kant (displayed in four rooms), and the state library with its valuable first editions. It was all destroyed. About 5,000 people were killed in the raid, but the exact number of deaths has never been determined.

‼️ Konigsberg is just one of 131 German cities that were destroyed by British aircraft in a similar way between March 1942 and April 1945.

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“The World Was Saved By The Soviet Soldier” interactive project

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“The World Was Saved By The Soviet Soldier” is an interactive project that was launched back in 2021 by the “Immortal Regiment” portal.

“As of late, more and more publications, the authors of which reshape historical events of the Second World War, appear in foreign media. We must not forget our common history and must stand together against all attempts to rewrite it. One can only resist with reasoned truth.

Videos created for the project are meant to depict how Europe was liberated from fascism.”

All film-related materials translated by Putinger’s Cat. We present the 30 episodes in the rough chronological order of the events.

Read also:

CHINA

China was attacked by Japan even before the official beginning of WWII, with the war raging between July 7, 1937 and September 9, 1945.


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Raw video on YouTube

POLAND (Part 1)

World War II began on September 1st, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland. After the Red Army liberated Poland in 1945, the Soviet Union took an active part in bringing Poland back from ruin.


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The fig leaf falling off the myth of “Wehrmacht’s purity”

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Georgy Zotov, in his recent Telegram post explains, using a hands-on example, how the history of the Second World War was distorted.

Read also Nazi-gold in the Swiss Banks and Nazi-officers in NATO. Connecting the Dots.

In 1950, a so-called “Himmlerod Memorandum” was created in West Germany. It was signed by top officers of the Wehrmacht, gathered by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in the Himmlerod Abbey.

As is well known, in August 1945 in Potsdam, the USSR, the USA, and the UK decided that the military officers of Hitler’s Germany should be subjected to denazification, and the former Reich should be demilitarised so that it could not create its own army. However, after the start of the Korean War, the Americans changed their opinion: they thought it was time to revive the German army to resist the Soviet Union.

After the discussions from October 5 to 9, 1950 in Himmlerod, the following was established:

  • It was necessary to “let off steam” on the criminal cases of military criminals.
  • To stop the “slander” against German soldiers in the media.
  • To take measures to change public opinion about the Reich army.

The Return of Hans Speidel
A biting caricature by the Soviet art collective “Kukryniksy”, drawn in 1957, depicts Hans Speidel, who has medals for “War against France” and “War against England” on his chest.
He is the perfect candidate for the hat of NATO’s European Army with these allegiances: German Empire, Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, West Germany, NATO

In January 1951, Dwight Eisenhower, the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Europe, held a meeting with former Wehrmacht generals – Heusinger and Speidel, saying:

“I learned that there was a real difference between the German soldier and Hitler’s criminals. And I don’t think the German soldier lost his honour.”

Soon, many Wehrmacht officers were granted pensions, and Adenauer declared in the Bundestag – “The Germans fought honestly”.
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‘We are back in the Middle Ages’: How the EU literally starves dissenting experts – A reblog of an article by Eva K. Bartlett

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Below is a reblog of an article by Eva K. Bartlett, published by RT on January 27, 2026. Eba Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years).

‘We are back in the Middle Ages’: How the EU literally starves dissenting experts

No one is safe from the ‘Russian propaganda’ sanctions – even those who never touch Russian sources

On December 15, 2025, the European Union slapped sanctions on former Swiss intelligence officer and ex-NATO employee Jacques Baud. No day in court, no charges filed, just abrupt, suffocating, sanctions.

Why did the EU sanction Baud? For “Russian propaganda,” of course, although many of the sources he cites in his reports on the West provoking war with Russia years prior to Russia’s military operation are Western and Ukrainian – including the SBU and Aleksey Arestovich, a former adviser to Vladimir Zelensky.

Welcome to the latest EU insanity.

Widely respected for his deep knowledge and analysis, much of which is based on his own research while working with NATO, Baud has grown increasingly popular over the years, appearing on numerous podcasts and interviews, authoring numerous books and articles as well.

Since Russia began its military operation in Ukraine, Western media have been howling about an “unprovoked invasion.” Baud has written and spoken extensively about realities which counter this claim: facts on the ground prior to February 2022, going back (unlike most legacy media who have developed selective amnesia) to even before the 2014 Maidan coup.

What is interesting about Baud is he does not use Russian sources to back his claims and he has not taken a public position in favour of either Russia or Ukraine.

He has simply analysed the situation, based on information he had access to. How did he have access to this information? In 2014, when working for NATO in charge of countering proliferation of small arms, he was tasked with investigating accusations of Russia supplying arms to Donbass resistance.

He wrote of this in 2022, noting, “The information we received then came almost entirely from Polish intelligence services and did not ‘fit’ with the information coming from the OSCE – despite rather crude allegations, there were no deliveries of weapons and military equipment from Russia.

“The rebels were armed thanks to the defection of Russian-speaking Ukrainian units that went over to the rebel side. As Ukrainian failures continued, tank, artillery and anti-aircraft battalions swelled the ranks of the autonomists.”

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“Их традиции” – Илья Эренбург, 1944

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Илья Эренбург был военным корреспондентом и публицистом, и его слова стали одним из самых мощных интеллектуальных орудий в борьбе с нацизмом. Его тексты укрепляли волю к сопротивлению, вселяли надежду и формировали нравственное самосознание того времени. Его вклад в победу до сих пор считается неотъемлемой частью исторического и культурного наследия.

Казалось бы, все статьи, написанные Ильей Эренбургом, должны быть известны и описаны. Действительно, на сайте Военной Литературы есть хронологический список его произведений военного времени.

И все же в датском издании произведений Ильи Эренбурга от 1944 года мы наткнулись на название, которого не было в списке. Да и основной текст (переведенный с датского на русский) не появился бы ни в одной антологии. Мыыпедставляем вашему вниманию: “Их традиции”, переведенные с датского обратно на русский.

По-фашистки – “победитель”, а по-нашему – грабитель
Карикатура Дмитрия Моора на военную тематику, одна из многих, представленных на цифровой выставке библиотеки имени Некрасова “Художники победы”.

Их традиции

Передо мной письмо, написанное лейтенантом Рудольфом Шакертом. Посмотрите, что хочет сказать этот немецкий офицер, который находится в госпитале за линией фронта:

“Ты поймешь меня, дорогой Эрнст, моё сердце вот-вот разорвется. Пока ты сидел на крайнем севере, я сражался за Крым. Там погибли мои лучшие друзья. Со школьных лет мы помним, что земля, которая пила немецкую кровь, – это немецкая земля, но, по-видимому, Крым скоро будет эвакуирован. Ханс Тильт говорит только об одном — он не может вынести эвакуации Житомира. Я утешаю себя одним: мы завоевали эти земли своей кровью, кровью лучших, и даже если из-за предательских действий плутократов мы проиграем эту войну, Германия никогда не забудет, что ее дети были на Украине и в Севастополе. Волгу можно назвать походом, но Украина и Крым – это завоевания. Если я пройду через это, я расскажу Отто о садах Крыма, и он будет мечтать о том времени, когда вырастет и сможет вернуть утраченное. У меня такое чувство, что началась столетняя война; возможно, будут паузы, но мы добьемся своего…”

Я прошу читателей задуматься над письмом Шакерта. Он не одинок в мечтах о новых войнах: таких немцев много. Недостаточно того, что мы прогоним немцев. Мы также должны отправиться в Германию. Это необходимо для судьбы будущих поколений. Мы должны отучить немцев от многого — и этого не добьёшься проповедями и речами.
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“Their Traditions” – By Ilya Ehrenburg, 1944

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Ilya Ehrenburg, as a war correspondent and publicist, his words became one of the most powerful intellectual weapons in the fight against Nazism. His texts strengthened the will to resist, gave hope, and shaped the moral self-understanding of the time. His contribution to the victory is still considered an indispensable part of the historical and cultural heritage.

It would seem that all the articles, written by Ilya Ehrenburg would be known and annotated. Indeed, there is a chronological list of his War-time works at the Military Literature site.

And yet, in a Danish edition of Ilya Ehrenburg’s works from 1944 we came across a title, not listed anywhere. Nor would the body of the text (translated to Russian) would come up in any anthologies. so here it is: “Their Traditions”, translated by BATS to English from Danish, and first published at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”. In the next post we will also re-translate the publication back to Russian, to bring back this lost, but found article.

In fascist-speak it’s ‘a victor’, while in ours, it’s ‘a robber’
A War-time caricature by Dmitry Moor, one of many on display at the digital exhibition of the Nekrasov library, “The Artists of Victory”.

Their Traditions

In front of me is a letter written by Lieutenant Rudolf Schackert. See here what this German officer, who is in a hospital behind the front, has to say:

“You will understand me, dear Ernst, my heart is about to burst. While you were sitting in the high north, I was fighting for the Crimea. My best friends were killed there. We remember from school days that land that has drunk German blood is German land, but apparently the Crimea will soon be evacuated. Hans Tilt speaks of only one thing — he cannot bear the evacuation of Zhitomir. I console myself with one thing: we have claimed these lands with our blood, the blood of the best, and even if the treacherous actions of the plutocrats should cause us to lose this war, Germany will never forget that her children were in Ukraine and Sevastopol. The Volga can be described as a campaign, but Ukraine and Crimea are conquests. If I get through it, I’ll tell Otto about the gardens of Crimea, and he will dream of the time when he grows up and can win back what was lost. I have a feeling that a 100 Years’ War has begun; there’ll probably be pauses, but we’ll get there…”

I ask readers to think about Schackert’s letter. He’s not alone in dreaming of new wars: there are many such Germans. It is not enough that we chase the Germans out. We must also go to Germany. It is necessary for the fate of future generations. We must wean the Germans off a lot — and that will not be achieved with sermons and speeches.
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The anniversary of Ilya Ehrenburg

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135 years ago, on January 26, 1891, the Russian and Soviet poet Ilya Ehrenburg was born. We translated at out Telegram channel a commemorative post by the Russian Embassy in Germany.

Ilya Ehrenburg among army newspaper staff, August 1, 1943. Photo by Sergey Loskutov

🖋 Ilya Ehrenburg has gone down in Russian and Soviet history as a writer, poet, journalist, war reporter, and photographer. His words became one of the most powerful weapons in the fight against Nazism. His contribution to the victory is rightly considered an inseparable part of the heroic heritage of our people.

🖋 Ehrenburg was born in Kiev in 1891 and spent part of his youth between Russia and Europe. He lived, among other places, in Paris and Berlin, where he exchanged ideas with artists and writers of European modernism.

🖋 As a writer, Ehrenburg created novels, essays, and memoirs that became important testimonies of their era. Works such as “The Unusual Adventures of Julio Jurenito,” which paints a multifaceted, mosaic-like picture of life in Europe and Russia during the First World War and the Revolution, or his autobiographical memoirs “People, Years, Life” combine literary form with political analysis and personal experience.

🖋 Particularly influential was Ehrenburg’s role during the Second World War. As a war correspondent and publicist, his words became one of the most powerful intellectual weapons in the fight against Nazism. His texts strengthened the will to resist, gave hope, and shaped the moral self-understanding of the time. His contribution to the victory is still considered an indispensable part of the historical and cultural heritage.

🖋 After the war, Ehrenburg advocated for understanding, peace, and cultural dialogue. He was a voice against antisemitism, against new enemy images, and for the right to remember. Of particular significance was the “Black Book” about the genocide of Soviet Jews, which he co-edited with Vasily Grossman and was the first major documentation of the Shoah.

🖋 In 1954, Ehrenburg also wrote the story “Thaw,” which was published in the magazine “Znamya” and gave its name to an entire era of Soviet history.

Battle for Donbass – a documentary to the song ‘Kukushka’

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A documentary, created by Aleksey Korablin, to the song by Victor Tsoi “Kukushka”, performed by Polina Gagarina. First published at our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”.


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Video source on YouTube

The footage is from 2015 – 2016, when Ukraine, after the US-sponsored Nazi coup of 2014, was in full swing in their genocide of the Eastern Ukrainian (Russian) population of Donbass.

Watch this footage and let the hypocrisy in Macron’s words, spoken ten years later, in November of 2025, sink in!

“Russia itself chose the path of war, nothing justified this war, not a single real threat, only fakes. All this is in complete disregard of the truth, influenced by the reflexes and instincts of a state that cannot reconcile with its history”

Debunking the myth that “The West industrialised the USSR”

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“The West industrialised the USSR” – another propaganda slogan that confuses trade with exploitation. Russian Baza Telegram channel scrutinises it and breaks it down.

Concessions had nothing to do with Stalin’s industrialisation!

👉 Concessions were deals where foreign companies came into the USSR, used its resources, like fish, forests, and gold, made big money, and gave the country almost nothing in return.

Foreign concessions were a product of the New economic Policy (NEP) era of the early-to-mid 1920s, under Lenin.

But when Stalin came to power and recognised them for what they were – legalised looting – he shut them down fast.

By 1931, nearly all foreign concessions were terminated or nationalised.

Because they were predatory, unprofitable, and violated national sovereignty.

Still think it wasn’t legalised looting? Take a look:

‼️ Fishing concessions – Foreign companies fished in Soviet waters, exported the catch, and kept up to 85% of the profits. The USSR got scraps in return.

‼️Timber deals – Western firms were given access to vast Russian forests. They clear-cut massive areas, caused environmental damage, and left behind only token fixed payments.

‼️Lena Goldfields concession – A British company ran gold mines in Siberia, made millions, and treated Soviet workers as cheap, expendable labour.

‼️Oil concessions – Foreign companies were allowed to drill and export Soviet oil with little oversight, often paying far less than market value while shipping profits abroad.

‼️Mining rights in the Urals and Central Asia – Western firms extracted coal, copper, and rare metals under contracts that gave them near-complete control of operations and revenue. Local workers endured the risks; foreigners took the profits.

By the early 1930s, Stalin had seen enough – most were shut down or nationalised.

Stalin’s industrialisation was built through trade, not concessions.

In the 1930s, the USSR bought what it needed: Equipment, designs, factory blueprints from the U.S. (Ford, Albert Kahn), Germany, Britain, Italy, and others. It paid in gold, grain, and hard currency.

These were strict commercial contracts, not Western gifts.

No one “helped” the USSR. It paid dearly, often for outdated or overpriced tech.
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Donbass helpers were arrested in Germany

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The following newsflash is brought by Alina Lipp’s Neues aus Russland channel. She herself is under German sanctions for her reporting from Donbass!

Donbass helpers were arrested in Germany

Statement by Friedensbrücke Kriegsopferhilfe e.v.* on the arbitrary arrests on January 21, 2026 in Brandenburg

The arrests of two alleged supporters of the so-called “People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk” carried out today are a blatant expression of politically motivated justice in Germany, which has increasingly become a tool for discrediting and criminalising humanitarian aid and legitimate political expression.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office classifies the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as “terrorist organisations” in complete disregard of historical and political realities. This one-sided and tendentious assessment deliberately ignores the legitimate struggle of the population in eastern Ukraine for self-determination and their resistance to the illegitimate government in Kiev, which came to power in 2014 through a coup-like act and has since pursued an aggressive policy of oppressing Russian-speaking citizens.

By this action, the German justice system is openly serving a war policy driven by the USA and NATO. The criminalisation of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Donbass, a region that has suffered from a blockade and shelling by the Ukrainian army for years, is not only immoral but also a serious violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions.

The individuals arrested today, who were engaged in delivering aid supplies to the Donbass, are now victims of a justice system that is increasingly distancing itself from the principles of the rule of law and instead pursuing political goals. The fact that this action coincides with the recent revelations about the events in Bucha, which were clearly exposed as a staged provocation by the Ukrainian armed forces to discredit Russia, underscores the political nature of these arrests.

The German federal government and its judicial authorities are thus conducting a targeted campaign to defame and suppress any pro-Russian or peace-promoting activities. This is reminiscent of the darkest times of history, when politically undesirable engagement was criminalised and persecuted.

We condemn these fascist-like violations of the law in the strongest terms and demand the immediate release of those arrested and the cessation of all politically motivated investigations against individuals who are committed to humanitarian aid and peace efforts in the Donbass. Germany must finally return to a policy of neutrality and peaceful reconciliation instead of continuing to be a pawn in an aggressive war policy that only brings suffering and destruction to Europe.

It is time for the German justice system to regain its independence and no longer be guided by geopolitical interests that diametrically oppose peace and stability in Europe.

Further information (in German) here

*Peace-Bridge War Victims Aid Association www.fbko.org

Translated by @BeornAndTheShieldmaiden