We are not accustomed to taking something ready-made and using it; we definitely need to optimize it and then use it! if something is missing, we never lose heart. No? So it will be! Let's do it! We will find a way out of any situation without bothering too much. Ingenuity is our everything, every home has its own Kulibin! This is where the Russian land stood and will stand!
We easily resolve issues because we don’t even see any problems:
The hot water was turned off, but you still want to wash yourself? No problem!
Did your wife ask you to peel the onions? Easy, and even without tears!
You need to make minced meat, but your meat grinder is broken? Eh, how can we live without dumplings? Nope, you're lying! You can't take us with your bare hands!
Dry your laundry, but don’t want to go down to the yard? Right now, let's arrange it!
The dog, you say, is freezing? Yes, we have what we need in winter!
And it rains often, look, the surveillance camera is all wet...
The chair is broken, and the drawing is due tomorrow? Why are you silent, come on, I’ll fix it! You can hold out until the morning!
How to fix the roof if there is no money yet? We must do everything so that it does not collapse yet! It will wait until profit!
If you need the trunk to close...
Transfer the cargo to the neighboring village by rail? It’s a piece of cake, now I’ll fix the bike... and with the breeze!
They were in every yard! Why do we need some kind of centrifuge? Ugh! Don't care and smear!
We can walk over any stones and not sneeze!
And if we want, we’ll make it more beautiful! The main thing for us is to want to do it! We are free birds, we don’t sing under duress!
We even have children - well, they’re all growing up Kulibins!
At the end of the 17th century there lived a hereditary military man, General of the Infantry, Count Vasily Ivanovich Levashov, who during the Russian-Swedish War was the commandant of the city of Friedrichsham. In 1788 the city was besieged by the Swedish fleet. Gustav III invited the commandant to surrender, and Count Levashov responded with the famous “Russians do not surrender!” Soon the siege was lifted.
If we turn to more ancient literary sources, we will find that in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Prince Igor before the battle addresses the soldiers with the words: “Brothers and squad! It’s better to be cut down than to be overrun” (Brothers and squad! It would be better to be than to be overrun). It takes place in May 1185. That is, even then these words were in use.
“The Tale of Bygone Years,” written by the monk Nestor, introduces the reader to the events of the 10th century. The son of Grand Duchess Olga, Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich (945–972), spent his entire life on campaigns. His mother was a Christian, and the prince remained a pagan.
He refused to accept the new faith, fearing ridicule. In his youth, Svyatoslav had to avenge his father, and this was reflected in the prince’s character. The chronicle describes him as an unpretentious, strong and resilient warrior. He conquered the Bulgarians, defeated the Khazars, and fought with the Byzantines. The historian Karamzin called him “Russian Macedonian”. During the years of the prince's reign, the state grew and spread from the Volga to the Balkans, from the Black Sea region to the Caucasus. It was he who honestly warned his enemies, “I’m coming to you,” and since then this phrase has remained forever in the Russian language. It was he who first said the phrase “Russians don’t give up!”, although it sounded somewhat different.
Greek and ancient Russian sources write differently about the event, but the general picture can be put together. By agreement with the Byzantine Emperor John Tzimiskes, Prince Svyatoslav and the Greeks fought against the Bulgarians. Having defeated the enemy, taking possession of cities and wealth, he became inspired and, standing near the city of Arcadiopolis, demanded a double bribe from the Greeks. The Greeks did not like this, and they fielded 100,000 soldiers against the prince.
Realizing that he could not survive, the prince, turning to his squad, uttered the very words that have passed through the centuries, inspiring his descendants to fight: “So we will not disgrace the Russian land, but we will lie here as bones, for the dead have no shame. If we run, it will be a shame for us.” After which he defeated the Greeks and went to Constantinople, which was 120 kilometers away. The “Romei” chose not to get involved with the barbarian and paid off. The prince decided to return to Kyiv and gather more soldiers. On the way home, he died in a Pecheneg ambush.
What made the Russian princes say and act like this? Some believe it is paganism. Allegedly, like the Varangians, they believed that death on the battlefield meant an afterlife in Valhalla.
However, Svyatoslav’s son, Prince Vladimir, became Orthodox and baptized Rus', and was not a coward either. Two hundred years after Svyatoslav’s words, in “The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu,” Prince Yuri Ingvarevich also tells the squad: “It is better for us to gain eternal glory by death than to be in the power of the filthy.” And the Mongols remember the soldiers of Evpatiy Kolovrat with the words: “Not one of them will escape alive from the battle.”
Apparently, the point here is not in paganism, but in that amazing core that is present in the Russian people. For Russians, losing honor or becoming a traitor is worse than the most brutal death. Therefore, such phrases are born and accompany the Russian people throughout history.
You ask, what is so special about a Russian person? I answer: everything! Starting from education. We are not accustomed to taking something ready-made and using it; we definitely need to optimize it and then use it! if something is missing, we never lose heart. No? So it will be! Let's do it! We will find a way out of any situation without bothering too much. Ingenuity is our everything, every home has its own Kulibin! This is where the Russian land stood and will stand!
We easily resolve issues because we don’t even see any problems:
The hot water was turned off, but you still want to wash yourself? No problem!
Did your wife ask you to peel the onions? Easy, and even without tears!
You need to make minced meat, but your meat grinder is broken? Eh, how can we live without dumplings? Nope, you're lying! You can't take us with your bare hands!
Dry your laundry, but don’t want to go down to the yard? Right now, let's arrange it!
The dog, you say, is freezing? Yes, we have what we need in winter!
And it rains often, look, the surveillance camera is all wet...
The chair is broken, and the drawing is due tomorrow? Why are you silent, come on, I’ll fix it! You can hold out until the morning!
How to fix the roof if there is no money yet? We must do everything so that it does not collapse yet! It will wait until profit!
If you need the trunk to close...
Transfer the cargo to the neighboring village by rail? It’s a piece of cake, now I’ll fix the bike... and with the breeze!
Did you bring a big Christmas tree for the New Year? So, I cut down the one I liked. It doesn’t matter, we’ll bend it down a little! It will dry out before the old New Year anyway, it will be just right!
Do you want to live like a queen? In the castle! So what if our neighbors will live like royalty! After all, then we must have an appropriate environment!
We easily resolve issues with providing minimal convenience in places where there is none! Extension cord? Yes, three seconds! An electrician in the West would immediately fall into a coma if he saw it! He can’t even imagine that the system can work like that!
And we also easily do grounding!
We sell different sockets. And all sorts of gadgets do not fit them. Well, don’t be discouraged over such a trifle!
And we have our own nanotechnologies!)) Forgive us, Lord, sinful souls))
And we love to relax! Rest - don't work! We just need to inflate the boat and go fishing.
Relaxation, but with extreme sports - that’s our way!
And we love to eat! We are without food at all - neither here nor there! Moreover, we came up with the proverb - war is war, but lunch is on schedule! We are hospitable and hospitable, and on a holiday we try to set the table in such a way that we ourselves are scared! Here it is, our simple Russian table when guests are on the doorstep:
And the winters are not terrible, we will easily survive, even if the whole of Europe bursts from sanctions! With the USA to boot! We have dachas!
And even if not, the habit of making preparations was absorbed into us with mother’s milk! And habit is second nature! Well, how can you while away the winter without such yummy food?!
We learned how to make beauty here too! Beauty is our everything, our women cannot live without it!
In general, we don’t bother, we can eat in any conditions, even if there is nothing at hand except food! No spoon? no problem!
Shashlik has long been a Russian national dish! And we can cook it in any conditions! We can cook both meat and sausages!
We will turn any thing into a frying pan if necessary, but we won’t go hungry!
And if there’s no baking sheet in the oven, that’s nonsense to us; we’ll bake whatever we need!
And if someone starts to drop the supports again and set up a blockade - here they go, let them peel off!
No containers? Why does she need it? The main thing is that there is company!
AND IN GENERAL - REMEMBER:
And in our free time we play sports! Trained this way because! If you want to be healthy, toughen up!
Do you know how it is in Siberia? It's frosty, in the morning there is an announcement on the radio - school classes are cancelled, the air temperature is minus 40. All the children shout in unison "Ur-r-ra-a-a-!!!" and rush outside for the whole day, play hockey, ride down the hill!
And in general -
We are strong, strong! We won't show any weakness! No track? Let's build it!
Let's make a rocking chair for ourselves anywhere! Stretch your muscles! At least at home
Even in the forest, it doesn’t matter to us!
We teach children to ski while they still can’t walk.
And if the old skis are written off, they will definitely come in handy at the dacha!
We are a nation of dreamers! We are the first in space! Do you know why? Because they have been trained since childhood! Our trainers were tough!
They were in every yard! Why do we need some kind of centrifuge? Ugh! Don't care and smear!
We can walk over any stones and not sneeze!
And if we want, we’ll make it more beautiful! The main thing for us is to want to do it! We are free birds, we don’t sing under duress!
We even have children - well, they’re all growing up Kulibins!
The idea of invincibility is part of the palette of Russian exceptionalism.
Indeed, it is enough to look at the dynamics of the growth of the Moscow principality, which in 600 years has transformed from a de facto Horde ulus into an empire spread out on the shores of three oceans, to understand: Russia has achieved many military successes. At the same time, it was far from the only country that was so rapidly expanding its borders. Let us recall in this regard at least the USA, China and the UK. I am not inclined to downplay the victories of the Russian army and militia, but to sacralize these victories and bring them to the absolute is a completely unworthy and absurd activity, especially since it does not at all stand up to historical criticism.
Let’s not go back into the depths of centuries and remember the Battle of Kalka, the destruction of Russian cities by Batu, and the fact that for hundreds of years Russian princes were tributaries or tribute collectors for the Golden Horde. Let’s not talk about the Deulin truce of 1618, according to which the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took away from Russia half of its western territories, including Smolensk (in his patriotic novel “The Wall,” Vladimir Medinsky presents the defense of Smolensk as a triumph of Russian weapons and will, but that the city in the end he was occupied by the Poles, he is embarrassed to mention). Let’s not even drive patriots into a corner with a reminder of Russia’s complete defeat in the Crimean War (1853-1856) - let’s focus exclusively on the 20th century, in which, by the way, all the current supporters of the concept of invincibility were born.
1904-1905, Russo-Japanese War: destruction of the Russian fleet at Tsushima, the fall of Port Arthur, the humiliating Treaty of Portsmouth, according to which Russia gave up southern Sakhalin and all its positions in Manchuria.
1914-1918, World War I: a catastrophic series of defeats for the Russian army. About 3 million Russian soldiers died, 2.5 million were captured. Russia, represented by the Council of People's Commissars, signs the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, losing Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine (i.e., the lion's share of its most economically developed territories) and the South Caucasus.
1919-1920, Soviet-Polish War: the total losses of the Soviet side are not known, but as a result of the defeat near Warsaw (August 1920) 25,000 Red Army soldiers died, 60,000 were captured by the Polish, 45,000 were interned by the Germans. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Riga, according to which the Soviet (read: Russian) government lost all of Western Belarus and renounced claims to Western Ukraine.
1979-1989, Afghan War: 15,000 (according to some estimates, 26,000) Soviet soldiers died, the Soviet Union was unable to achieve any of the goals set in the war, during the most successful period, Soviet troops controlled only about 15% of the territory of Afghanistan.
And this is just a list of wars in which the “invincible” Russian troops and, if you like, the Russian people were defeated unconditionally.
Here we can add the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, which the USSR actually lost because it did not fulfill its main task (annexation of Finland) and suffered colossal human losses (about 170,000 dead and missing; more than 300,000 wounded and frostbitten), almost 8 times more than the Finnish side.
The list can be supplemented by the First Chechen War (1994-1996), also, in fact, lost by Russia. And the outcome of the Second Chechen War (1999-2000) is difficult to consider unambiguously victorious: on the one hand, the armed resistance of the militants was put to an end, but, on the other, now every year the Russian government pays a hefty indemnity to Chechnya under the guise of federal subsidies.
So statements about the unique invincibility of the Russian people are a myth, and myths are like psilocybin mushrooms or fly agaric mushrooms: they exacerbate psychopathic character traits, distort perception, develop addiction and have a hallucinogenic effect. In fact, myths are even more dangerous than hallucinogenic mushrooms, because, unlike the latter, they can affect the psyche of tens of millions of people at the same time, and this is an order of magnitude more than the number of victims of the HIV epidemic in Russia. Schoolchildren and students are a special risk group here. Mushrooms can bring their fragile consciousness into a state of “patriotic” excitement, provoking irreversible actions: violence, psychosis, pogroms, wars. It is possible that it is the hallucinogenic properties of the myth of invincibility that contribute to the widespread popularity of the genre of political fiction in the Russian best-selling industry. The heroes of these bestsellers, intended mainly for a youth audience, go back in time and there help eminent ancestors - Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Nicholas II, Stalin - to win all wars and conquer new spaces. The reasoning of the aforementioned Tsarev, and the speeches of Streltsov, and the speeches of Boroday, and the hysterics of Kurginyan, and numerous reports of Channel One are based on these same properties.
The cult of invincibility does not lead to anything good. Drug addict ranting about exclusivity, trips into uniqueness turn into mania. We saw this in the Third Reich, Italy under Mussolini, Japan under Hideki Tojo, Serbia under Milosevic, and Georgia in the early 1990s. (as you know, Gamsakhurdia also liked to talk about the world mission and “moral destiny”, but not of the Russian, but of the Georgian nation).
Russia has not demonstrated anything unusual in terms of invincibility - and this is not necessary in order to win the respect of the world community. Rather, the same Afghans could boast of this (they defeated both the British and the Russians, and under the Americans they partially retain their positions in the country), the Vietnamese (over the past 60 years they defeated the French, Americans, Cambodians and successfully resisted the Chinese) or even Mongols (in those days they conquered most of civilized Eurasia).
Real winners don't make a cult out of their victories. Let's take the USA for example. In less than 250 years, this state, to which Russophiles are increasingly turning their “righteous anger,” emerged victorious from all major wars (with the exception of the Vietnam War) in which they participated: the Revolutionary War against Great Britain (1775-1883), numerous Indian Wars, Mexican War (1846-1848), Spanish War (1898), World War I, World War II, South Korean War (1950-1953), Gulf War (1990) -1991) and the war in Iraq (2003-2011). But even with this impressive record, the American media and public are not obsessed with the invincibility of the American people. Neither in schools, nor on television, nor on the streets, nor even in the company of drug addicts will you hear the slogan “Americans do not give up.”
The invincibility of the Russian people is just one of the types of hallucinogenic mushrooms growing in the field of public consciousness. Others include all other manifestations of mass drug addiction and mass narcissism, namely the idea of the Russian people being chosen by God; theses about the amazing hospitality, sincerity and self-sacrifice of the Russian people; the confidence that the Russian people are the most talented and that is why everyone abroad hates them so ardently; the conviction that Russian nature is the most beautiful, the Russian language is the greatest, most powerful and most complex, etc.
Of course, inflating your uniqueness or hallucinating on the basis of your own superiority is an infectious hobby, but it is fraught with serious danger. After all, so much time, energy and health are spent on it that the country no longer has the strength to achieve real achievements. As a result, the development of a positive, productive principle in the national culture is sharply inhibited, and then ordinary exceptionalism threatens to turn into hopeless, exceptional mediocrity. Here's what hallucinogen lovers should keep in mind.
The history of the famous phrase said by actor Viktor Sukhorukov in one of the scenes of the film “Brother 2” has deep roots. For the first time, the catchphrase “Russians don’t give up!” flew around the world during the First World War. During the defense of the small Osowiec fortress, located in what is now Poland. The small Russian garrison needed to hold out for only 48 hours. He defended himself for more than six months - 190 days!
The Germans used all the latest weapons technology, including aviation, against the defenders of the fortress. For each defender there were several thousand bombs and shells. Dropped from airplanes and fired from dozens of guns, including two famous Big Berthas (which the Russians managed to knock out in the process).
The Germans bombed the fortress day and night. Month after month. The Russians defended themselves amid a hurricane of fire and iron until the last. There were very few of them, but offers of surrender always received the same answer.
German gas battery
Seeing that the artillery was not coping with its tasks, the Germans began to prepare a gas attack. Let us note that toxic substances were prohibited at one time by the Hague Convention, which the Germans, however, cynically disdained, like many other things, based on the slogan: “Germany above all.”
The Germans prepared their gas attack carefully, patiently waiting for the right wind. We deployed 30 gas batteries and several thousand cylinders. And on August 6, at 4 a.m., a dark green fog of a mixture of chlorine and bromine flowed into Russian positions, reaching them in 5–10 minutes. A gas wave 12–15 meters high and 8 km wide penetrated to a depth of 20 km. The defenders of the fortress did not have gas masks.
“Every living thing in the open air on the bridgehead of the fortress was poisoned to death,” recalled a participant in the defense. “All the greenery in the fortress and in the immediate area along the path of the gases was destroyed, the leaves on the trees turned yellow, curled up and fell off, the grass turned black and lay on the ground, the flower petals flew off. All copper objects on the fortress bridgehead - parts of guns and shells, washbasins, tanks, etc. - were covered with a thick green layer of chlorine oxide; food items stored without hermetically sealed meat, butter, lard, vegetables turned out to be poisoned and unsuitable for consumption.”
At the same time, the Germans began a massive shelling. Following him, over 7,000 infantrymen moved to storm Russian positions. Their goal was to capture the strategically important Sosnenskaya position. They were promised that they would not meet anyone except the dead.
Alexey Lepeshkin, a participant in the defense of Osovets, recalls: “We did not have gas masks, so the gases caused terrible injuries and chemical burns. When breathing, wheezing and bloody foam escaped from the lungs. The skin on our hands and faces was blistering. The rags we wrapped around our faces did not help. However, the Russian artillery began to act, sending shell after shell towards the Prussians from the green chlorine cloud. Here the head of the 2nd defense department of Osovets Svechnikov, shaking from a terrible cough, croaked: “My friends, we must not die, like the cockroaches of the Prussians, from poisoning. Let’s show them so that they remember forever!”
It seemed that the fortress was doomed and had already been taken. Thick, numerous German chains came closer and closer... And at that moment, from a poisonous green chlorine fog, a counterattack fell on them!
The “living dead” were walking towards the Germans, with their faces wrapped in rags. Shout “Hurray!” I had no strength. The soldiers were shaking with coughing, many were coughing up blood and pieces of lungs. But they walked.
Attack of the Dead. Artist: Evgeny Ponomarev There were a little more than sixty Russians. Remains of the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky regiment. For every counterattacker there were more than a hundred enemies!
The Russians walked at full speed. At bayonet point. Shaking from coughing, spitting out pieces of lungs through rags wrapped around their faces onto bloody tunics... Exhausted, poisoned, they fled with the sole purpose of crushing the Germans. There were no lagging behind, there was no need to rush anyone. There were no individual heroes here, the companies marched as one person, animated by only one goal, one thought: to die, but to take revenge on the vile poisoners.”
These warriors plunged the enemy into such horror that the Germans, not accepting the battle, rushed back. In a panic, trampling each other, getting tangled and hanging on their own barbed wire fences. And then, from the clouds of poisoned fog, seemingly dead Russian artillery struck them.
This battle will go down in history as the “attack of the dead.” During it, several dozen half-dead Russian soldiers put 14 enemy battalions to flight!
The Russian defenders of Osovets never surrendered the fortress. She was left later. And by order of the command. When defense has lost its meaning. They left neither a cartridge nor a nail for the enemy. Everything that survived in the fortress from German fire and bombing was blown up by Russian sappers. The Germans decided to occupy the ruins only a few days later...
The Russians did not give up during the Great Patriotic War. Brest Fortress, Adzhimushkaya dungeons, Kiev football match with death, the Resistance movement in Western Europe, Pavlov's Stalingrad house, fascist dungeons...