Retired Belarusian Colonel calls on soldiers to defy criminal orders

 

 

 

Video link

 

Translation:

Full Translation:

Best of health my dear defenders of the motherland. Making this address to you is a Lieutenant Colonel of the reserves Sahashik Valerij Stepanovich.
I’m introducing myself because I’ve quit quite a long time ago. Some of the current airborne forces may not know me, although everyone must have heard about the Black Hawk trials. All the current bravery and mastery has originated from there, and also you must have heard about how the 38th airbourne Briansk brigade used to run 10km and at the end in full personal would swim in a lake all year round, well I’m exactly the guy that for 4 years in a row would run at the front of the brigade and would be the first to jump into the lake. I am the Black Hawk number 1.
All of the most important things in life all happen impromptu and unexpectedly. It’s impossible to prepare yourself to be a hero. In the life of every person a situation may suddenly arise in which he must act here and now, and either get written into the history books, or wait for a more appropriate moment. Although usually fate gives you a chance to do a real hero deed only once.
I had served in the airbourne forces for a quite a long time. More than 10 years only in the Briansk brigade, from Kombat to the Brigade commander. Those who have met me won’t let me lie to you, I was one of the most fanatically devoted officers to the forces and a patriot of my motherland, I’ve never know anything but military service. Materialism has always been foreign to me, I’m saying this to counter any attempts at claiming that I sold out for this speech. My biography has zero cases that would allow to have any suspicion that I can sell out, and in my age people don’t change.
Airbourne force were everything in my life. All years after I quit I continued to help my brigade. In front of my house there’s always been a flag *Not sure here, maybe Belarus flag* with the flag of the VDV (airbourne forces). And the reason why I took it off is a different story related to the events of the 2020, we won’t talk about that for now.
For now I’ve decided to record the first video in my life because my comrades, guys in the blue vests, same as I wore all my life are sitting in the forest on the Ukrainian border. And its looking like shortly they can be accomplices in some very bad actions which can have catastrophic consequences for our country, and fatally burry the glory and tradition of our forces, that were built up by many generations of Airbourne troops. It’s possible that a lot of them will not get back home alive.
Russian army, which has a huge combat experience is experiencing hell for 3 days straight The number of dead is counted in thousands, hundreds have been captured, the hospitals on the borders are filled with wounded, none of the missions of this operation have been accomplished, at the moment neither Kiev nor any other of the regional centers have been captured.
Russian army is quite run down, while Ukrainians who have endured the first most difficult days have successfully mobilized, organized themselves, polished of the logistics, got support of the whole world, moral as well as technical combat equipments, and most importantly saw, that the aggressor attacking them are just ordinary people, stoped being scared, felt the taste of victory.
This army won’t retreat and won’t surrender. Russians have become victims of their own propagandists that promised them, that the people of Ukraine will meet them with bread and salt, like liberators, but by now you know everything, although you’re prohibited from having smartphones, you’re still in your motherland, in contact with friends and relatives, you’ve had time to weight and analyze everything, do any of you have any doubt that your entry into Ukraine will be any better then the New Years offensive of Grozny of 1995.
Info wars is a scary thing. Propagandists in an agile way have learned to produce a bait and switch of values, learned to replace white with black and the opposite… I don’t want to get into politics, it has always been foreign to me, but to every thinking person, 3 things should be quite obvious. 1. Ukraine has never threatened Belarus and isn’t threatening it now 2. There are not Druggies or nationals in the Ukrainian government and if they were they were fairly elected in free democratic elections. 3. Belarusian forces have absolutely no right to enter the Ukraine, furthermore it is directly prohibited in the Belarusian constitution.
It’s not our war. You will not be defending your motherland, your home, your family. You won’t gain any glory in this conflict, only shame, humiliation, blood, death and the status of a hated outcast nation for centuries to come.
Brothers find a way not to take part in this dirty business. Father commanders, will you be able to live with the fact that you put down the boys for nothing, how will you look mothers into their eyes, that gave you their sons.
Separately, I’d like to address the people who have a lot of influence, to the war chiefs with big stars. For many of you I was a commander, a mentor, a friend. In my memory you are responsible, decent war commanders, who are able to quickly navigate in a difficult surroundings, smartly analyze the situation and calculate the consequences of different decision which are in front of you.
Guys, at the end of the day, those are your direct personal responsibilities. This is what the motherland has been nurturing you for, for so many years for. However hard you are pressured, be a real man and do a real manly thing, make the right decision, fill yourself with real civil courage, don’t send the boys to slaughter, sometimes the highest hero deed, is just to say no. And enter the history as a person who saved hundreds if not thousands of lives and relations with a brotherly nation. And even if you get fired believe me you will be heroes.
I salute you.

 

Update:

 *Spoken to some Belarusians, he is who he says he is and is a retired/reserve colonel, and was involved in the protests in 2020 in Brest. However, his role was to negotiate between the authorities and the protesters, and most of them accuse him of stalling and being an obstacle. He had close connections to Viktor Sheimin a powerful and ruthless key Lukashenko ally. Curiously, he fled the country soon after and hasn't been back since. So this video could be one of three things, he's had a genuine change of heart, he's convinced his old bosses are doomed and is trying to appeal to the opposition, or he still has contacts with some key Belarus officials and is using his platform to reflect opposition within it to being sucked into a bloody conflict.

Second Update:

Rainbow Revolutions - Review

 

Its Pride Month in my local Library, so out of curiosity I picked this off the stand and decided to see what material was being made for younger generations. I'm sure this book was published to target school libraries and young readers. The book is stuffed with beautiful and highly colourful two page pictures that introduce every section, and each section is itself set out in a two page summary of the key facts about the topic. And the section dedicated to discussing the impact of Section 28 mentions that had it still been in force that it would've been impossible for this book to have been published.

I'm not in the target audience for the book, and while some of the more well known sections left me feeling like some important bits were cut out I did still learn some things from it, and I found it to be an easy read, I started and finished it in one sitting.

I can say with confidence that this book is miles better than anything that was available to me on Queer history and identity when I was still a pupil. But then, that's not surprising, there was nothing like this in my school library because most of my early schooling was in the last years of Section 28. A fact that this book reminded me. Looking back this explains why we went from no talk or discussion about Queer issues until 2004-5 when we suddenly had special and clearly very rushed lessons in biology and sexual education about how some people are Gay, Intersex or Transsexual (the term used at the time) and that this was natural and wasn't something to be vilified.

I really like this book, Its making a strong attempt to be as inclusive as possible and acknowledges some of the failings of the older Queer rights and liberation movements, there are sections on issues affecting Trans people, Women, Ethnic minorities, bisexuals and so on. I was also pleased that while it was congratulatory over the recent legislative reforms won in some nations like same-sex marriage and discrimination protections, it always qualified them with reminders that phobia, discrimination violence and other challenges didn't disappear with them.

The Funeral of Peter Kropotkin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video link 

 

 Pyotr Kropotkin's funeral took place from 10th to 13th of February 1921, and it was documented by "Section of social chronicles of all-Russian cinema and photo publishing". English translation: ABC-Belarus

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpGu...

 

 

Work Pensions

 

This year, I've become a freelancer again, which means I get to go over my own finances. While looking through my financials, I decided to take a look at my work pension from my old job. This snippet jumped out to me. 

This policy was started in 2017, so it's about five years worth, but this figure is calculated on the assumption I'd stay on the plan until retirement age. This plan was set at the legal minimum requirement, so yes I could've paid more into it, but even the next level of contributions would've severely limited my take home pay that at that level was just covering my living costs, rent, bills, food etc. So it wasn't really a viable option, even a reduction of £20-30 every week would put me on shaky ground budgeting wise, and all for the promise of a minor increase in the year 2058. I was working for the national minimum wage an average of 42 hours per week, though it was not unusual for me to work more than that, and when I started at this job my hours were 60 per week with sometimes even more. The reason we were set to 42 was because me and another employee gave formal notice that we weren't prepared to do any more, and the company backed down. 

Work pensions were a controversial thing in 2017-18, but have largely fallen into the background since they were introduced. Personally, I think they're a terrible reform that should be scrapped. For workers on the lower salary ranges, they add another burden on take home pay, all for frankly nothing decades later, what will inflation look like in 2058? Will there even be a Pound currency or nation? I'd much rather have that £42 in my account now, so I can use it or actively save it, it wouldn't be remotely life changing, but it would be of use to me. Meanwhile, for higher incomes, they act as an extra incentive for loyalty to the company. I've seen several job listings that have a special workplace pension scheme that pays more than the government mandated system, and when I shared this information elsewhere, several labour aristocrat types showed up to condescend about how great their 401ks are and that I should pay more into my fund. So, it's worked on some people. 

Hell, I had one person give me details on how much their pension plan works, and he didn't seem to bat an eye that the employee pays more in percentage than the employer does, so even the matching part of the system has already been abandoned. Sadly, there are people out there who are so easily blinded by the promise of future money, they don't even care that the employers pay less than they do in a fund that was pushed on the message of "we're all in". If you pay 5% and your company only pays 4% (as in his example) they're ripping him off for an 1% and if he's already surrendered that 1% with good grace than he's already signalled that he can be ripped off provided it's handled appropriately.