English Chess Forum

This has been on the rumour mill, but Stefan Loffler found something to publish.

https://www.chesstech.org/2022/russia-v ... ian-chess/

I haven't tracked this all the way back to the source, but it looks correct.

My feeling is that if Israel can be in Europe because Asia doesn't like them, then why shouldn't Russia be in Asia because Europe doesn't like them.

Where does this leave Belarus?

The thing is, most Russian territory *is* in Asia (a minority of its people granted, but still a significant one)

Kazakhstan has a small part geographically in Europe, and that has been enough to get it admitted to UEFA and other bodies.

Belarus is 100% in Europe and comfortably so, they might find pulling such a trick harder.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:07 pm

I haven't tracked this all the way back to the source, but it looks correct.

Here are two tweets from the Russian Chess Federation account which look perfectly genuine.

https://twitter.com/ruchess_ru/status/1 ... 9958767620

https://twitter.com/ruchess_ru/status/1 ... 1059320835

Use the Google Translate option given in the tweets.

Well both Peter and Catherine the great are noted for their westernization of Russia, away it's Asiatic roots. It's as much to do with the movement Russia underwent through a sustained period of time more than anything else, which in effect meant the country began identifying itself as western (and not necessarily European). Most of it is, however, in what is commonly conceived of as central Asia, so if geographic location of land mass is the criterion, then there is an argument that it could/should be shifted continent. I think we could agree that Vladivostok is rather far from London?

It is notable how Duginists are very fond of the term "Eurasian".

The less said about him the better.

Well, they are going to have to catch up with the news on TV Rossiya 1.

Mariupol

They raised the Red Flag of the Soviet Union, Hammer and Sickle, rather than the Russian tricolour, after cutting down the Ukrainian flag in Mariupol, and the journalists gave a murderer's welcome to their "brothers" in Moldova and the Baltic States.

The Russian chess federation will have to check what their country is called first.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 17, 2022 9:24 am

Well both Peter and Catherine the great are noted for their westernization of Russia, away it's Asiatic roots.

Well, there is some utter crap. Russia's origins are European, it grew large by imperial conquest. Russia, if it is "Eurasian" is Eurasian in the sense of a European state that colonised the greater part of Northern AsIa. Russia is no more Asian due to its colonisation of the Asian landmass and its displacement of Finnic, Ugric, Turkic and Mongolic peoples and its planting of Russian speakers and culture than the United Kingdom ever was Asian due to its colonisation of India, Ceylon, Burma and Malaya.

Anyone with the faintest wit and knowledge would know that early in its mediaeval history, Russia was long held in submission as a khanate, and to this day Russians resent the Golden Horde and celebrate the removal of its yoke. Russian culture often displays a strong reaction against such externally imposed Asian connections and there exists a strong cultural preference against Asians and Asiatic culture within Russian society, often expressed in rather racist tones.

Indeed, the Asian nature of many of the conquered territories in the RF present a difficult challenge to the territorial integrity of the Russian state. Chechnya fought two wars from the 1990s until fairly recently for its independence. The Chechnyian demand for independence was eventually crushed by reducing the republic to rubble, raping and murdering anything with two, possibly four, legs, and eventually paying some local thugs to do the rape and murder by proxy. If Chechnya had won independence, there would have been at least half a dozen other Caucasian republics which would have followed suit. And, largely forgotten, is Kazan/Tatarstan's bid for independence in the early 1990s. Asian national sentiments and resentment of the imposed Russian/European culture are currently suppressed, but the moment that the Russian state weakens, they will return to public view.

Knowledge of these centrifugal sentiments promotes a paranoia in some Russian state thinking, that "The West" is working towards the fragmentation of the Russian state (this is certainly a sentiment that "Vovchik" has often propounded). This is rather ironic, as muhc of Western diplomacy in the 1990s was aimed to discourage Russian fragmentation due to fear of nuclear proliferation amongst a number of warring states scattered from the Caucasus all the way to the frontiers of the USA, China, North Korea and Japan.

Yes I've noticed but you do need to brush up on Peter and Catherine the great. The impact of adopting Eastern Orthodoxy, which had huge implications, one of which being that major movements in the west, such as the enlightenment, passed the Russian Empire by. Generally speaking Peter the Great moved towards Europe because he didnt think Russia was part of it. This has been well documented.

Peter the Great spent lots of time in London and Amsterdam learning about how western European states and their navies functioned, and built a capital city on the Baltic. The idea, however, that Russia is Asian is simply ridiculous nonsense. It is European, Eastern Orthodox. None of Russia's capital cities - Novgorod, Vladimir, Moscow, St. Petersburg - have been anything but European. The language, Russian, evolved in Europe. The Royal families of Russia have all been European and spent a lot of time importing other European royal blood (e.g. Catherine). Apart from Stalin, who might be thought of as Asian if that is one's classification of Georgia, I cannot think of a Russian leader of Asian origin since the Golden Horde. The very name for the Russian monarch, "Tsar," is a Russification of "Caesar"; the very model of Russian autocracy was Caesar. I understand that Caesar was European, not Asian.

Paul McKeown wrote: ↑

Wed May 04, 2022 10:44 pm

I cannot think of a Russian leader of Asian origin since the Golden Horde.

Chernenko