I'm not disagreeing, just saying that the ideology fueling it, is not the same.
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The nomenclature might change, but the methodology remains more or less the same. That the Soviets thought themselves classless Communists is given the lie by the lives lived by the proletariat compared to the lives lived by the nomenklatura.
And the lives lived by modern Russians is very different from the lives lived by modern Russian oligarchs. In other words, this is analogy and metaphor ... but the powers-that-be are still exercising the same levers of power.
Putin is an autocrat who will use any power, including defenestration, exile, prison camps, ratting by one's social peers, conscription to deadly fighting, steering state money from social needs to support of the security state, repression of the press, disappearing, and so on -- exactly as practiced by the tsars, exactly as practiced by the general secretaries of the USSR.
That they've changed the label is at this point irrelevant. Starkist or Chicken of the Sea, it's still a can of tuna.
To note that there were no prison camps in the Russian Empire, and disappearing and defenestration were not practised (probably) since the assassination of Paul I in 1801.Putin is an autocrat who will use any power, including defenestration, exile, prison camps, ratting by one's social peers, conscription to deadly fighting, steering state money from social needs to support of the security state, repression of the press, disappearing, and so on -- exactly as practiced by the tsars, exactly as practiced by the general secretaries of the USSR.
To note that there were no prison camps in the Russian Empire, and disappearing and defenestration were not practised (probably) since the assassination of Paul I in 1801.
The Empire looked barbaric compared to other, more advanced states of the XVIII-XX centuries. But the USSR was at a completely another level of evil that threatened the whole world and not only killed millions of its people but also changed the mentality of survivors.
Someone has already tried, not very successfully by the wayAbout 20 years back someone was marketing guns that fired nets to police for dealing with people armed with knives and bats* so the basic tech exists. Drones would need a smaller net propelled a lot further though and that may be an issue. Who knows until someone tries.
Naturally police would rather shoot them dead from well out of throwing range so as far as I know no police bought any..
The Russian Empire also had periodic pogroms, Siberian exile, unregulated secret police, and serfs with virtually no rites. Of course, the czardom didn't end just because of that, but because Czar Nicholas II was an incompetentTo note that there were no prison camps in the Russian Empire, and disappearing and defenestration were not practised (probably) since the assassination of Paul I in 1801.
The Empire looked barbaric compared to other, more advanced states of the XVIII-XX centuries. But the USSR was at a completely another level of evil that threatened the whole world and not only killed millions of its people but also changed the mentality of survivors.
Where have i heard that before...Someone has already tried, not very successfully by the way.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_PPS_Q-G4
Ukrainians, however, seem to be more successful, at least when launching the net from another drone.
Webslingers: How Net-Launching Drones Are Downing Russian Quadcopters
In WW1, the machinegun quickly emerged as the weapon of choice for biplanes. Now net launchers are emerging as the dominant air-to-air weapon in the current drone war.www.forbes.com
Probably, we need to define the term "prison camp". Is it a synonym of the "labour camp" in English?According to Solzhenitsyn, there were indeed camps in Tsarist Russia. They weren't extermination camps, but rather labor camps.
I apologise for my nitpicking... Just for clarity.The Russian Empire also had periodic pogroms, Siberian exile, unregulated secret police, and serfs with virtually no rites. Of course, the czardom didn't end just because of that, but because Czar Nicholas II was an incompetent
Probably, we need to define the term "prison camp". Is it a synonym of the "labour camp" in English?
If so, then I agree, there were prison camps before 1917.
There was a so-called katorga (hard labour, penal labour) system where inmates were forced to work in mines, the timber industry, railway construction, etc.
The total population of the katorga was (according to Russian language sources) around 36,000 in the last month of the Empire.
There were over 70,000 inmates in just one Norilsklag camp of the GULAG in the early 1950s. It was them who laid the foundation for Nornikel.