Ratibor Slav Epic Tale -- Why Slaves Were Called Slavs

[drgs]

Part 1
YouTube - Ratibor Slav Epic Tale (Why slaves were called like Slavs) 1

Part 2
YouTube - Ratibor Slav Epic Tale 2 | Ð*атибор

[Gottslav]

I don't remember exactly when did I last saw this movie. Thanks for bringing this up

[Menydh]

Interesting, but it doesn't really explain why slaves were called slavs..

I noticed that they called "nomads" to the enemies. I agree in that nomads have always been a pest.

[svin]

That's interesting how it was possible in rather multicultural USSR for such cartoons to emerge. I have Soviet book "Tale of Igor's campaign" and nomads/mongols are depicted as evil (sub)humans there too.

[Gottslav]

Originally Posted by svin

That's interesting how it was possible in rather multicultural USSR for such cartoons to emerge. I have Soviet book "Tale of Igor's campaign" and nomads/mongols are depicted as evil (sub)humans there too.

They were no times of political correctness.

[Errigal]

I quite liked that animation and I'm surprised too at the non-Communist story. It seemed clearly nationalistic and respectful to the religious beliefs of pre-Christian Russia. Interesting.

[Carnyx]

The naivety of this cartoon is quite communist. BTW, funny that the characters are redheads rather than blondes.

[svin]

The naivety of this cartoon is quite communist.

I think the target audience was very young. Probably less than 10 years.

[Gottslav]

Sometimes I get impression that many Westerners (and nationalists at that) tend to have a very one-sided view of the Soviet period. In the late Soviet period, at least, there was a lot of very often intuitive nationalism going on on differrent levels, which wasn't official line, of course. It's hard to explain, really, other than with examples such as this. I remember in my school some Jewish students received massive ill-treatment from the rest of the class simply based on their nationality, something I can't imagine happening today.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Gottslav

Sometimes I get impression that many Westerners (and nationalists at that) tend to have a very one-sided view of the Soviet period. In the late Soviet period, at least, there was a lot of very often intuitive nationalism going on on different levels, which wasn't official line, of course. It's hard to explain, really, other than with examples such as this. I remember in my school some Jewish students received massive ill-treatment from the rest of the class simply based on their nationality, something I can't imagine happening today.

Well it is not surprising that we may have a simplistic or one-sided view of the Soviet period; the USSR and the Warsaw Pact were faraway places for ourselves and our parents. As well, people on this side of the Iron Curtain had very mixed motives when they described society in the East Bloc. Some wanted to paint a picture of a model state which the rest of us should copy while others wanted to show the Soviets as a threat to everything we hold dear and as a place populated by near-automatons.

I remember seeing a documentary on Tchaikovsky a few years ago and being pleasantly surprised that they were able to interview people at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory who had direct family links to Tchaikovsky and that era. I had assumed that almost all Russians of that background had been exiled, killed or purged from holding academic positions and so such direct links with past had been broken. Similarly, it is only recently that I've read about the anti-Zionist purges in the Polish Communist Party in 1968 and similar internal struggles in the East Bloc leadership.

[Gottslav]

True, of course.

And in the light of said above, I'm not in the least surprised that Nationalism or its regional version is a power to be reckoned with exactly in eastern Germany, former DDR that is, and not the West, where NDP originated. And, frankly, I only partially agree with its prime reason being high unemployment rates in the eastern lands. I attribute it to different mentality, too.

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Gottslav

True, of course.

And in the light of said above, I'm not in the least surprised that Nationalism or its regional version is a power to be reckoned with exactly in eastern Germany, former DDR that is, and not the West, where NDP originated. And, frankly, I only partially agree with its prime reason being high unemployment rates in the eastern lands. I attribute it to different mentality, too.

I do admire the clarity of thought I've seen in quite a few people I've met from the former East Bloc. Perhaps because the Soviet system was brutally simple it was easier for people to free their minds from the official version of reality. People from the West were entangled in the EU/Atlanticist/Multiculturalist trap only gradually, like a swimmer who finds himself caught in seaweed and so, I think, it is very hard for us to mentally disentangle ourselves.

[Gottslav]

Originally Posted by Errigal

I do admire the clarity of thought I've seen in quite a few people I've met from the former East Bloc. Perhaps because the Soviet system was brutally simple it was easier for people to free their minds from the official version of reality. People from the West were entangled in the EU/Atlanticist/Multiculturalist trap only gradually, like a swimmer who finds himself caught in seaweed and so, I think, it is very hard for us to mentally disentangle ourselves.

I think you're on the right track here.