Russia stages first Red Square May Day parade since Soviet days

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(Reuters) - Russia staged a huge May Day parade on Moscow's Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era on Thursday, with workers holding banners proclaiming support for President Vladimir Putin after the seizure of territory from neighboring Ukraine.

Thousands of trade unionists marched with Russian flags and flags of Putin's ruling United Russia party onto the giant square beneath the Kremlin walls, past the red granite mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin.

Many banners displayed traditional slogans for the annual workers' holiday, like: "Peace, Labour, May". But others were more directly political, alluding to the crisis in neighboring former Soviet republic Ukraine, where Russian troops seized and annexed the Crimea peninsula in March, precipitating the biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.

"I am proud of my country," read one. "Putin is right," said another.

Unlike Kremlin leaders in Soviet times, Putin did not personally preside at the parade from atop the mausoleum. But he carried out another Soviet-era tradition by awarding "Hero of Labour" medals to five workers at a ceremony in the Kremlin. He revived the Stalin-era award a year ago.

Putin has described the breakup of the Soviet Union as a tragedy and overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy in March by declaring Russia's right to intervene in former Soviet countries to protect Russian speakers.

Laws have been changed to make it easier for Russia to annex territory from other former Soviet states and for inhabitants of other parts of the old Soviet Union to get Russian citizenship.

Since the annexation of Crimea, pro-Moscow gunmen have seized territory in eastern Ukraine and Putin has massed tens of thousands of troops on the frontier. He denies he is planning an invasion but proclaims the right to launch one if necessary to defend Russian speakers.

May Day, always an important date in the Soviet calendar and still a major holiday for Russians, has been marked by rallies in other parts of Moscow since the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991, but until now parades were kept off Red Square.

Oh god, Lenin and Stalin again.

Putin should do himself a big favor and ban all that shit from public as soon as Ukraine situation is over.

7.5/10 Would invade yellow top girl

Quote: (05-01-2014 11:32 AM)Orion Wrote:  

Oh god, Lenin and Stalin again.

Putin should do himself a big favor and ban all that shit from public as soon as Ukraine situation is over.

Why? He is riding their legacy, especially with the Babushkas.

Quote: (05-01-2014 11:27 AM)RexImperator Wrote:  

Russia stages first Red Square May Day parade since Soviet days

I never realized KFC's Colonel Sanders was so popular with the Soviet crowd.

Quote: (05-05-2014 02:34 PM)rastignac Wrote:  

Quote: (05-01-2014 11:27 AM)RexImperator Wrote:  

Russia stages first Red Square May Day parade since Soviet days

I never realized KFC's Colonel Sanders was so popular with the Soviet crowd.

Curious why they stopped doing them.

Quote: (05-01-2014 11:32 AM)Orion Wrote:  

Oh god, Lenin and Stalin again.

Putin should do himself a big favor and ban all that shit from public as soon as Ukraine situation is over.

Then what will he use instead to unite the people? Tsars?

Putin is not actually a communist, but there's been a growing sense of nostalgia for the USSR and he's using it / taking advantage of it / encouraging it as a way of building national pride:

FT.com: Putin: Russia’s great propagandist

The part guys here will tend to sympathize with:

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The government is also working on a set of cultural policy guidelines, a project that has already sent shudders through Russia’s liberal intelligentsia.

The paper stresses the “rejection of the principles of multiculturalism and tolerance. The preservation of a unified cultural code calls for the rejection of state support for cultural projects that impose value norms alien to [our] society”.

It also postulates that “liberal western” concepts that suggest a universal path of development must be rejected and that, in extreme cases, government must protect Russian society from the negative impact of inappropriate cultural products.

Quote: (05-06-2014 11:11 AM)RexImperator Wrote:  

Putin is not actually a communist, but there's been a growing sense of nostalgia for the USSR and he's using it / taking advantage of it / encouraging it as a way of building national pride:

FT.com: Putin: Russia’s great propagandist

The part guys here will tend to sympathize with:

Quote:Quote:

The government is also working on a set of cultural policy guidelines, a project that has already sent shudders through Russia’s liberal intelligentsia.

The paper stresses the “rejection of the principles of multiculturalism and tolerance. The preservation of a unified cultural code calls for the rejection of state support for cultural projects that impose value norms alien to [our] society”.

It also postulates that “liberal western” concepts that suggest a universal path of development must be rejected and that, in extreme cases, government must protect Russian society from the negative impact of inappropriate cultural products.

Whats interesting about Putin is that he is the real "we are ALL Russians". He is not excluding other cultures. What he is saying is that it is fine to immigrate and become Russian no matter where from but you should assimilate into the Russian culture/identity.
Basically its like Andrew Dice Clay saying "you don't fucking talk English..get the fuck out".

Quote: (05-05-2014 11:22 PM)Roosh Wrote:  

Quote: (05-01-2014 11:32 AM)Orion Wrote:  

Oh god, Lenin and Stalin again.

Putin should do himself a big favor and ban all that shit from public as soon as Ukraine situation is over.

Then what will he use instead to unite the people? Tsars?

Russian language. Communism is best thing to divide Russia about, since half people think it sucks, and other half thinks it was cool (and trust me, second half isn't really brain trust of the country, mostly completely depressed lower classes who expect state to do shit for them, and those romantic and nostalgic about era of Soviet expansion and might)