i remember reading somewhere that russia is conservative because it lacks access to the sea. it’s the sea access that made england the birth land of liberalism because the sea connects more than it divides. so you get in contact with lots of other cultures. and that breeds liberalism.
It is way less dumb than you think it is. As long as climate change is not doing something about it, Russia’s access to international waters is a lot more compromised than many think. Russia’s main ports have access to the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. In both cases other countries can block access of Russian ships to the Atlantic. Other than that, the only ports with all year round usable access to international waters is in Russia’s far east (Vladivostok primarily), which can compensate a bit but not nearly replace the ports in the European parts of Russia.
But in relation to this statement, it is not wrong. The large coastline in the north does not really provide contacts except for polar bears, the east is a completely different society, which leaves only the Baltic coast and a few, summer-only harbors in the north and the black sea.
The arctic does not free Russia from being a continental, rather than maritime, power. Their geopolitics and imperial identity is dominated by mountain and river and plains borders, and destabilizing or annexing the powers at their borders. The arctic is inaccessible except for some baltic access dominated by maritime nations.
My man Russia has had access to plenty of sea. Sankt Petersburg is on the Baltic Sea and has been there for like 300 years. The Russian Empire had access to the Black Sea and the Pacific and so did the Soviet Union. It’s not the access to the sea that’s making them conservative, it’s the Russian Orthodox Church and their governments keeping them uneducated so they can control them easily. The Russian Orthodox Church is so conservative they refuse to change to the Gregorian calendar, they still use the Julian Calendar which is innacurate and keeps drifting so that they celebrate most Christian Holidays like 2 weeks later than everyone else.
And access to the Baltic Sea and to the Black Sea is worth, jack sht, if access to the Atlantic from there can be blocked by multiple countries. It is actually worse than access of Austria to the Seas. In the case of Austria goods can be delivered within the Single Market to an Atlantic port. The only access to the Oceans is at the Pacific but the Transsiberian Railway doesn’t have nearly the capacity to make that Russia’s main port and there is not that much of anything in the far east to need a huge port. It is good as a military harbour but terrible for projecting maritime power to Europe where Russia is engaged in imperialist wars of conquest.
I don’t think there’s a very strong relationship there. While inland areas do tend to be more conversative, I think that’s just generally due to the rural/urban divide. Cities historically have been located on the coasts for shipping purposes. And that also divides by education level, which is also related to political tendencies. And cities have historically been located on the coasts for convenience of shipping. Even inland cities are usually on major rivers.
But there are plenty of racists there too. London has been a huge melting pot of different races for a long time, but there are still plenty of racists in England.
In England, as in the US, the level of racism in an area inversely correlates with the percentage of the population who are immigrants. The white riots that recently happened in lily-white Northern Ireland are a recent illustrative example.
In London, there are a lot of racists, but not proportionally so. There also happen to be a lot of all kinds of people there. It’s a big city.
i remember reading somewhere that russia is conservative because it lacks access to the sea. it’s the sea access that made england the birth land of liberalism because the sea connects more than it divides. so you get in contact with lots of other cultures. and that breeds liberalism.
Wow, that’s a bold statement.
I think dumb is a better word. Russia has a crazy amount of coastlines.
Frozen, tundra coastlines. It lacks warm water ports, which is why it invaded Ukraine for Crimea in 2014.
The UK on the other hand is nothing but warm water ports. I think their point stands for at least modern Russia.
Right up until the AMOC collapses
It is way less dumb than you think it is. As long as climate change is not doing something about it, Russia’s access to international waters is a lot more compromised than many think. Russia’s main ports have access to the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. In both cases other countries can block access of Russian ships to the Atlantic. Other than that, the only ports with all year round usable access to international waters is in Russia’s far east (Vladivostok primarily), which can compensate a bit but not nearly replace the ports in the European parts of Russia.
But in relation to this statement, it is not wrong. The large coastline in the north does not really provide contacts except for polar bears, the east is a completely different society, which leaves only the Baltic coast and a few, summer-only harbors in the north and the black sea.
The arctic does not free Russia from being a continental, rather than maritime, power. Their geopolitics and imperial identity is dominated by mountain and river and plains borders, and destabilizing or annexing the powers at their borders. The arctic is inaccessible except for some baltic access dominated by maritime nations.
I think what they’re really trying to talk about are port cities. That’s where mingling and cultural exchange happen. Also lively bar scenes.
Looks dubiously at Indonesia.
My man Russia has had access to plenty of sea. Sankt Petersburg is on the Baltic Sea and has been there for like 300 years. The Russian Empire had access to the Black Sea and the Pacific and so did the Soviet Union. It’s not the access to the sea that’s making them conservative, it’s the Russian Orthodox Church and their governments keeping them uneducated so they can control them easily. The Russian Orthodox Church is so conservative they refuse to change to the Gregorian calendar, they still use the Julian Calendar which is innacurate and keeps drifting so that they celebrate most Christian Holidays like 2 weeks later than everyone else.
And access to the Baltic Sea and to the Black Sea is worth, jack sht, if access to the Atlantic from there can be blocked by multiple countries. It is actually worse than access of Austria to the Seas. In the case of Austria goods can be delivered within the Single Market to an Atlantic port. The only access to the Oceans is at the Pacific but the Transsiberian Railway doesn’t have nearly the capacity to make that Russia’s main port and there is not that much of anything in the far east to need a huge port. It is good as a military harbour but terrible for projecting maritime power to Europe where Russia is engaged in imperialist wars of conquest.
I don’t think there’s a very strong relationship there. While inland areas do tend to be more conversative, I think that’s just generally due to the rural/urban divide. Cities historically have been located on the coasts for shipping purposes. And that also divides by education level, which is also related to political tendencies. And cities have historically been located on the coasts for convenience of shipping. Even inland cities are usually on major rivers.
But there are plenty of racists there too. London has been a huge melting pot of different races for a long time, but there are still plenty of racists in England.
In England, as in the US, the level of racism in an area inversely correlates with the percentage of the population who are immigrants. The white riots that recently happened in lily-white Northern Ireland are a recent illustrative example.
In London, there are a lot of racists, but not proportionally so. There also happen to be a lot of all kinds of people there. It’s a big city.
It’s well known that cultures that are more urban, closer to the sea and thus meet more diverse people, are more open.
Also, note that Saint Petersburg is the most liberal city of Russia.
This makes that argument too: https://youtu.be/OS1NZLgKM2c
Wait until you find out what the liberals did to all of those other cultures