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Former USSR

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patentlymn:
I am watching more of Bald and Bankrupt videos.
I do not pretend to understand the ethnic history of everywhere on earth but know it is complex.
I wanted to create an intro before I write about Georgia and a heart breaking video.

In the USSR, from what I know:
1.  There were lots of Russians in the Russian Empire. No surprise. There were lots of other ethnic groups in the Russian empire as well. It varied by region.
2. Lenin drew oblast/vassal country borders to include various ethnic groups to prevent any ethnostates from forming that could challenge commie rule.
3. Stalin transported some ethnic groups to other regions to reduce rebellious minorities. E.g. Tartars from Crimea to Siberia. YT person Eli from Russia is Tartar, from Perm Siberia. Dunno her family history.
4. Stalin shipped Russians into some areas.
5. When USSR fell apart Russians left some regions and their economy fell apart. Maybe like when the Romans left Britain?

There were Poles centered around Lvov, Ukrainians around Kiev, Russians around Kharkov, and Russians and Tartars in Crimea.
When the tzar fell each of the 4 regions declared themselves independent countries but the commies ended that. Stalin later deported lots of Tartars.

Lenin drew borders to include Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians and called it Ukraine. Russians in eastern Ukraine declined some as percentage since 1900 as Ukrainians moved in for economic advantage. This was from census data I found a while back.
Ukraine western border changed with WWII.

patentlymn:
This is sad. Scott Ritter is married to a Georgian woman as I recall. He told this story of the civil war. He said that the Georgians kicked off the war by attacking the Abkhaz people living in the Abkhazia region. From memory, some Georgian politician wanted to score points. Then the Abkhaz counter attacked and drove out the Georgians living there. A woman describes what Ritter said. Fleeing over the mountains in the cold for days.

I believe the Abkhaz are Turkic, not Russian or Slavs.

Later the US Marines trained the Georgian troops who attacked people living in South Ossetia, along the northern Georgia border with Russia. Russia counter attacked. Russia may have peace keeping troops there still. Dunno.The Georgian president who did this was forced out of office as I recall. Works in DC. The US likes to cause trouble on Russia's border.

I learn some history from Bald. The USSR both oppressed and protected people. Here they live in an abandoned sanitarium in Georgia.

https://youtu.be/yjF4jiOOdPY
She Has Lived In This Hotel For 25 Years!

bald and bankrupt
3.85M subscribers

1,939,712 views  Jul 7, 2019
🇬🇪 After the fall of the USSR ancient resentments and rivalries that had been kept in check for 70 years suddenly rose up leading to outbreaks of civil wars in various former Soviet Republics. Once such war broke out in the small sub-tropical region of Abkhazia on Georgia's north west coast. The Georgian people were forced to flee over the mountains leaving everything behind. I found some of those refugees still living in the empty shells of Soviet hotels some 25 years on and went to ask them about their story.

@user-kq2he4fd2q
1 year ago
Thanks to the authors, u ' re very friendly. I was 12 and my sister 8 during the war.it was September, so we wore shorts and t-shirts when we left Sokhumi, and whatever we had, worse years were awaited us. Now i 'm 41, we have not got our home for so many years. The war left a psychological mark. It's sad that war destroys the lives of innocent people. ?

patentlymn:

As I recall, the US recently pumped money into Georgia, to pay for protests against a proposed law that would expose the foreign sources of NGOs inside Georgia. US senators  and EU officials complained about the law. Even though both have such laws themselves.

patentlymn:
Here is the original Ritter post I made.

Ritter mentions demonstrators in Rustaveli Plaza in Tbilisi Georgia shouting "Sokhumi" that is in an apparently autonomous region that used to be part of Georgia?, meaning they want to take it back? At first Ritter tells the story of his Georgian father in law who fought against the Abkhazians apparently. Ritter rants and tells a story about his father in law who held a bridge at Sohkumi so  civilians could flee then over the mountains E through the Kodori Gorge where they were robbed and shot at by Abkha snipers. He could not carry all the still live babies in the snow. Left some.

18 min https://youtu.be/rJdDyp0RAEc?t=1087
39 min Then Ritter goes into how and why the US is trying to destabilize Georgia like they did in Ukraine. That is the good part. The US is trying to start a civil war? Another coup?  Ritter gets real upset at what the US is trying to do.
https://youtu.be/rJdDyp0RAEc?t=2316

Georgian Civil War 1992 involving the Abkhazians.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Abkhazia_(1992%E2%80%931993)

The War in Abkhazia was fought between Georgian government forces for the most part and Abkhaz separatist forces, Russian government armed forces and North Caucasian militants between 1992 and 1993. Ethnic Georgians who lived in Abkhazia fought largely on the side of Georgian government forces. Ethnic Armenians and Russians[9] within Abkhazia's population largely supported the Abkhazians[10][11][12] and many fought on their side. The separatists received support from thousands of North Caucasus and Cossack militants and from the Russian Federation forces stationed in and near Abkhazia.[13][14]

The handling of this conflict was aggravated by the civil strife in Georgia proper (between the supporters of the ousted Georgian president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia – in office 1991–1992 – and the post-coup government headed by Eduard Shevardnadze) as well as by the Georgian–Ossetian conflict of 1989 onwards.

Significant human rights violations and atrocities were reported on all sides, peaking in the aftermath of the Abkhaz capture of Sukhumi on 27 September 1993, which (according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) was followed by a large-scale campaign of ethnic cleansing against the ethnic Georgian population.[15] A fact-finding mission dispatched by the UN Secretary General in October 1993 reported numerous and serious human rights violations committed both by Abkhazians and by Georgians.[16] Approximately 5,000 ethnic Georgians and 4,000 Abkhaz were reported killed or missing, and 250,000 Georgians became internally displaced or refugees.[3][4]

The war heavily affected post-Soviet Georgia, which suffered considerable financial, human and psychological damage. The fighting and subsequent continued sporadic conflict have devastated Abkhazia. In Abkhazia the conflict is officially named Patriotic War of the People of Abkhazia.[17
...
After taking Sukhumi, Georgian forces (including Mkhedrioni paramilitaries) engaged in "vicious, ethnically based pillage, looting, assault and murder."[20]

Map of Abkhazi.

At 40 min Ritter goes into what the US is trying to do in Georgia $40 min from USAID alone to Georgia.

patentlymn:

I had watched some docs on the USSR.
I found them interesting.
I trust videos like those from Bald and Bankrupt and similar people the most.
I have noticed that sometimes people say they miss the USSR. I was shocked.  I thought their memories were faulty but then again what do I know? I have heard some modern young people in former USSR ask how their parents were able to afford to raise them.

I am well aware of the death toll from communism in USSR and even worse in China.
I was surprised to believe that not everything was bad.

I think sometimes the fall of the USSR meant an opportunity for people to loot the countries. Some guy in Moldova ranted to Bald about how much worse things were now than under USSR. Life got much worse under Yeltsin as those inside and  outside of USSR looted the place.

Here are some docs i watched.
https://youtu.be/Hlb-HwxUxSU
The Human Face of Russia (1984) - society and everyday life in 1980s USSR

https://youtu.be/GAVqM4geAAk
USSR Memories - Daily life of a Russian family in the Soviet Union | Part 1

https://youtu.be/YkWEDJXtsA0
Memories of USSR - Daily life of Russians in the Soviet Union | Part 2

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