Happy May 9th: (Soviet) Russian Victory Day!
Welcome back [Soviet] Russia! We missed you…
May 9th, 1945 (Victory Day) – the day that Nazi Germany capitulated to the USSR. It became an official Soviet holiday in 1965 and continues to be celebrated even after the fall of the USSR. Traditionally, ceremonial military parades are held on the day, such as the one in Moscow on the Red Square. However, on May 9th, 2008, the Russian Federation returned to the Soviet Union tradition of showing off its mobile nuclear weapons during the Victory Day parade, declaring its return to super-power status (Также неизбежное поражение тех американских капиталистических свиней). This is the RT-2UTTKh Topol-M Mobile ICBM, NATO Designation SS-27 Stalin.
This is a brand new “modernized” version of the weapon system, with a whole new kind of ICBM. Want to know why you should be concerned?
The missile is designed to be immune to any current or planned U.S. missile defense system [note the special emphasis on the U.S.]. It is capable of making evasive maneuvers to avoid a kill by terminal phase interceptors and carries targeting countermeasures and decoys. It is shielded against radiation, EMP, nuclear explosions at distances over 500 meters [that’s very close], and is designed to survive a hit from any laser technology. One of Topol-M’s most notable features is its short engine burn time following take-off, intended to minimize satellite detection of launches and thereby complicate both early warning and interception by missile defense systems during the boost phase. The missile also has a relatively flat ballistic trajectory, complicating defense acquisition and interception.
Watch the Russian Victory Day parade, you’ll see the mobile launcher roll in at about 5:40 along with a bunch of other hardware.
This is the Borei-class ballistic missile submarine Yuri Dolgorukiy of the Russian Navy. Launched 13 February 2008, its reactor went online 21 November 2008. It carries 16 Bulava SLBM’s (based on the SS-27), each with six MIRV nuclear warheads. Ok, this is a brand new Russian “Boomer”. It was somewhat rushed into service, and I wonder if it will become another K-19 Widowmaker.
It will soon be followed by two identical Borei-class / Project 955 submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh.
Note how I keep going on about new stuff. A short history lesson is needed:
The USSR kicked Nazi Germany’s ass, and it wasn’t the famous “Russian Winter” either, it was a lot of Russian blood. We fought with the Russians, British, and French, all of whom suffered direct attacks (unlike the Americans) by the Nazis. Russia had it harder because Germany really needed Russia’s oil. After World War II, Joseph Stalin installs the Iron Curtain and effectively launches the Cold War. Time passes, and America lives under the constant threat of nuclear war. The Reagan Administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit from selling their oil so that the USSR’s hard currency reserves became depleted. Mikhail Gorbachev becomes a wimp (see Perestroika, Glasnost), and was thought by many idiot-Christians to be the Antichrist because of the mark on his forehead. Around 1991, he tries to loosen up the Soviet Union into some kind of easy-going Federation triggering a coup d’état by hardline Communist Party members of the government and the KGB. Boris Yeltsin, taking advice from the Americans, steps in and proceeds to run Russia into the ground, increasing the poverty rate from 1.5% to 49%. Russia becomes a joke. Yeltsin resigns at the exact moment of Y2K when everyone is holding their breath waiting for the world to end. [asshole…] Vladimir Putin steps in and does everything right. Putin, watching the demise of the American economy, positions Russia to sell its oil again. Since then, the Russian Federation has been modernizing its economy, production, and military. It’s projected that Russia’s military will be 45% modernized by 2015 (which is really good).
Vladimir Putin (Time magazine’s Person of the Year 2007) was quoted as saying “anyone who does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart, anyone who wants to see it come back has no brains…” The man has put Russia back together. He’s made them a superpower again. He’s got his own youth movement (Nashi) which kind of reminds me of the Hitler Youth, but claims to be “anti-fascist”.
Putin, the new Russian president Dmitry Medvedev (merely Putin’s puppet), and apparently everyone around him, now have a Soviet-style attitude. Yeltsin tried it our way and it sucked; Putin is trying it their way, and it rocks. The old Russians miss the Soviet Union, the good old days, kind of in the same way we Americans glorify the 50’s. It was a pure Russia that took care of its people, was deeply rooted in tradition with a rich history, and had values. The younger Russians are taken with the romanticism of the Soviet Union, and also wish for a return to communism. Both realize that the American’s have brought them nothing but McDonald’s, rap music, and skin-heads.
If you would like to meet the real Russians, I encourage you to look here. You will find their history, customs, way of life, attitudes, religion, and even what they look like; because it seems that most of us don’t know, and a lot of us have forgotten.
[…] was right! As warned in my previous post, the Russian’s are proudly gearing up their Soviet attitudes, as evidenced in this […]
Very nice articuls I sometimes check some English websites from Russia
keep going you are not alone!