History News & Analysis
From Orwell in Spain to Trump and Putin: Orwell as Antidote to Stalinism and Fascism, Then and Now
From Stalinist show-trials in Spain to Jim Jordan’s Judiciary Committee, history is repeating itself and it is terrifying as Trump, Putin, and their allies channel the gaslighting spirit of Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union (Russian/Русский перевод; Если вы состоите ...
Russia’s Pyrrhic Advances at Soledar Near Bakhmut Setting Up Ukrainian Counteroffensive, Not Russian Victory
Many analysts seem focused on whether proclamations by Russia that it has “won” the battle for Soledar are accurate or how accurate. The bigger picture here shows that regardless, Russia is setting itself up for a titanic defeat because of ...
Biden’s and Democrats’ Historic Awesomeness Cannot Be Denied: Midterms Edition
As we watch the escapades of the incoming Republican House majority of the 118th Congress broadcast to the world the most dysfunction for an incoming House majority or plurality since the 1850s, it is worth contrasting that with the historic ...
An Urgently Needed Definition of “Fascism” as the West Fights It Anew at Home and Abroad
Happy New Year! Sadly, in 2023 and beyond, we will and must confront a dreadful specter of the past not only abroad but also at home: fascism. In our current era it is on the rise, but one of the ...
Thoughts on the Passing of Queen Elizabeth II
An anti-monarchist reflects on what we have lost in our modern era: “an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world.” By Brian E. Frydenborg (Twitter @bfry1981, LinkedIn, Facebook), September ...
Ukrainian Prudence Meets Russian Limitations: Explaining the Current Pace and Nature of Russia’s War on Ukraine
The factors explaining why things are now happening the way they are happening (Russian/Русский перевод) By Brian E. Frydenborg (Twitter @bfry1981, LinkedIn, Facebook), August 23, 2022; adapted for and published by Small Wars Journal as Russia’s Limits Meet Ukraine’s Discretion ...
Media Keeps Portraying Democrats and Biden as a Mess, Ignoring Data Proving that Could Not Be Further from Truth
As usual, the media falls into facile forced narratives founded upon anecdotes, personal impressions, and its members own views and agendas without even attempting to include relevant data By Brian E. Frydenborg (Twitter @bfry1981; LinkedIn, Facebook), July 11, 2022 (**updated ...
A Flurry of Telling Parallels Between the 1939-1940 Soviet-Finnish Winter War and Russia’s 2022 Ukraine War
Apart from other thematic ways I already discussed that Putin today is repeating Stalin's mistakes from the disastrous launching of the 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland, here are a number of other illuminating similarities between the two debacles (Russian/Русский перевод) By ...
Moscow’s 1939 Finland Hubris Repeats Itself in Ukraine in 2022
Stalin and his Kremlin inner circle were egregiously overconfident in their planning for the Soviet Union’s invasion of Finland in 1939. Disaster would follow. That Soviet-Finnish Winter War today is a gift of lessons for Putin and his Kremlin inner ...
How Delusions of Phantom Fascists Duped Stalin in 1939 and Putin in 2022
Before Stalin launched his war against Finland in 1939, Soviet war planners based their planning on the self-serving, inaccurate fiction that Finland was rife with fascists. This delusion would cost them dearly in the war, and in 2022 Putin and ...
“Banderites”: What Russia Really Means When It Calls Ukraine Nazi and Fascist
Putin thought he could use Ukraine’s complicated history that even divides Ukraine to his significant advantage in his massive military escalation there. He was wrong. (Russian/Русский перевод) By Brian E. Frydenborg, May 31, 2022 (Twitter @bfry1981; LinkedIn, Facebook); this is ...
A Brief History of Russian and Soviet Genocides, Mass Deportations, and Other Atrocities in Ukraine
War crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and mass killings carried out by their eastern neighbor are nothing new for Ukrainians; while not comprehensive, this brief outline focuses on what is most currently relevant from a series of horrors visited ...
