• FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Russia is. (ukraine may not be. Usually the distinction is a bit further east of Ukraine- around the ural mountains.)

      but.

      Russia definitely are asian. So. given that they picked a fight on their border… I’m gonna go ahead and say “close enough” to make fun of them.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        4 months ago

        I think it’s probably more correct to say Russia straddles the border between Europe and Asia. The people in charge are European, and Asian Russians are treated more like serfs and cannon fodder. Disclaimer: I am not a social scientist.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          well, “usually” the geographic divide is placed either at the Ural mountains, and southward through the caspian sea. (which cuts off the western third of russian, more or less.)

          That said, if you go with geological distinctions, there’s only one tectonic plate covering eurasia. So it’s important to note that what it really comes down to is an arbitrary cultural distinction; basically a “are they more east or more west”. and that’s above my paygrade.

          I’m just here to mock them any way I can.

          It should also be noted, that part of the reason for the line in Princess Bride is what happened to the germans picking fights with the soviets- which was definitely a military blunder of epic proportions.

          The ostensible reason for the German invasion in ww2 was because they needed a source of oil to continue the war effort. which, the military staff wanted to invade the middle east, Iran, Iraq. Palestine, etc. I forget what they were called at the time. the middle east was largely equipped and armed with cast offs from ww1; that were obsolete before that war had even ended.

          But Hitler insisted, instead, of going into Siberia mostly because he absolutely loathed and despised Stalin. Which, there’s no reason to believe that the Germans couldn’t have steam rolled the middle eastern states. the question I have is how the occupation would have gone over. history says that holding Arab states is not an easy proposition. Suffice it to say that ww2 was likely to have been far more protracted than it was.

    • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Most of productive thoughts throughout the pre-soviet russian history was wasted on that exact question. No joke. That long-going identity crisis even caused a divide within the elites about the choice of following either the european footsteps (westerners) or going on their own (slavic-philes).

        • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          The correct russian names for these two groups are западники and славянофилы. I feel like googling them like this you’d encounter better results. But they are limited to one period of history while the question itself was before and after them.