The Paratrooper - I'm just a poor boy from a poor family

Putin and Ukraine are to blame for this war according to him

Aug 19, 2022

Update at end

Westerners too often think that a Russian who is anti-Putin is a hero. The enemy of my enemy is my friend fallacy. They’re ‘the good Russians’. This is true for nationalist Navalny and was true for the ‘good Germans’ i.e. war criminal Slav hating lebensraum anti-Semite warriors Junkers who tried to get rid of Hitler while continuing the war against Slavs. Von “Poles only happy under the boot” Stauffenberg was no hero and neither is Navalny.

(What a handsome lad. Picture Wikipedia)

Here is another not hero. A Russian paratrooper is being feted as the new Solzhenitsyn. I give you Pavel “Ukrainians torture Russian genitals” Filatyev. Another handsome lad.

ChrisO @ChrisO_wiki

1/ A 34-year-old former Russian paratrooper, Pavel Filatyev, has published a remarkable in-depth account of his experiences of the Ukraine war. He served with the Feodosia-based 56th Guards Air Assault Regiment and fought in southern Ukraine for two months. A 🧵 follows.

“I believe that Ukrainians are also to blame for this, when they did not stop their ogales [PEOPLE WITH A GIFT OF GAB] who shouted that they had been at war with Russia for eight years, (with the same success our propaganda yells that we are fighting WITH NATO) when they did not silence those who were going to march in defeated Moscow, on Red Square.”

That's from his terrible book which nobody will actually read but will probably make him into anti-war anti-military hero when it hits the NYT list after ‘editing’. Maybe he will become a well-paid ‘dissident’ when in fact he's a professional soldier complaining about conditions of service and being in a badly run war. Like von Stauffenbeg.

“ Of course, most of the blame for this is on Russia, because we were the first to attack, but we should not forget how many slogans there were in Ukraine, where Russians were directly insulted and called second class. How the whole youTube was full of videos from Ukraine with allegedly "proof" that Russia is a country with second-class people. Fuck off! And all sorts of devils are just happy to watch us destroy each other.”

Read that again. That’s Russian genocide rhetoric.

“As if for whom, maybe crazy it didn't seem, but there's only one way to stop it. Both our peoples, Orthodox Christians, we both must begin to forgive each other, revenge and hatred will only aggravate the situation every day.”

Ukraine has Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Despite Russian pogrom efforts over centuries. And the Nazis efforts.

“Those who are rabid from Ukraine are screaming about how they will seize the Kremlin and after they liberate Ukraine they will not stop there, not realizing that this aggravates the situation, that such slogans make even those who are against the war in Ukraine think. Ukrainians mock and cut off the genitals of our soldiers, ours bomb cities with missiles from which they die.”

I thought that was Russians doing the torture.

(Picture RFEFL, link to article about the torture and murder of Ukrainian POWs)

“But the most terrible and the most important institution of the state is the army! There is no one country created without an army! An army is a country!”

We call these sorts of military-obsessed people fascists. They also called these guys Bonapartists in Soviet times.

“When our army is completely weakened, do you think the militia is armed and without equipment will be able to resist the modern army of China, the United States or the EU that has already attacked us?”

The EU has attacked Russia? Check your fascist propaganda, mate.

“Years later, when our people will be exhausted from war and poverty, when it will reach everyone again, how terrible the war is, when we will starve, when state employees will again stop receiving salaries, because the state has gone bankrupt, then it will reach everyone, but nothing can be changed. Russia itself will fall apart, and then good uncles from the West will come to it, who frightened children and China, will lend a helping hand in exchange for land and resources . When the exhausted people have nothing to eat again, when they are unable to field an army, that is when this people will forget about all imperial ambitions and will agree to any conditions.”

This is pure Putin propaganda. Russia encircled and attacked.

“They tricked me into a fratricidal war, and now they will surely be imprisoned!”

Ukrainians are not your brother, mate. (I am 1/8 Ukrainian via Lviv so let me say that. Others may disagree.)

“I feel sorry for the Ukrainian, fraternal people for me! But even more, I feel sorry for the used Russian people, the peoples of the great USSR, whose people were used by others, but more unscrupulous, who are destroying the largest and greatest country in the world.”

Screw you. Emphasis my own.

Also he defends the famous ‘rape women permission’ husband:

“Here is one of the cases that I know, one guy from my regiment, the Ukrainian media on all channels accused him of allowing him to rape Ukrainian women. He had the stupidity to call his wife from the front line, as a result, his conversation was recorded and cut, they exposed everything as if she allowed him to rape Ukrainian women and they laughed at it together. It's a lie, this guy was almost always in front of my eyes and the places we were in didn't imply a female presence.”

(Photo via Russian social media)

He calls it all a media lie.

“This is a blatant lie, this particular case, turned upside down, a competent cut of the conversation is made.”

And to cap it all of, he denies war crimes and does the old Wehrmacht general ‘mistakes’ apologist routine:

“Again, of course I can't vouch for the entire army. As no one adequate from the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to vouch for all his own. Does anyone have any doubts that in the Armed Forces of Ukraine there were also those who did not deny themselves moroderism [MORONS?], considering it their trophies? The worst thing is that under artillery fire, aviation and missiles are dying children! Our Slavic children! There are very few of us Slavs in the world! But do you believe that an evil Russian soldier is deliberately pointing guns at them? He was given coordinates, he has no idea where he was shooting, he was told that there was an enemy, of course this is not an excuse, but you should not make all the survivors and killers.”

So this your hero.

I tried to read the Russian (where necessary) and there aren’t any major translation errors my bad Russian can pick out. ‘Ogales’ and ‘moroderism’ is weird though. This is not a question of context.

Here’s the original if you want to grab it. Via this link. Pdf.

When reading ‘good Russians’, remember the ‘road to Bucha leads not through Pushkin but by suppressing Pushkin”.

Jeffrey Goldberg @JeffreyGoldberg

"It hurts to be Russian right now. What can I say when I hear that a Pushkin monument is being dismantled in Ukraine? I just keep quiet and feel penitent. And hope that perhaps a Ukrainian poet will speak up for Pushkin."

theatlantic.comDon’t Blame DostoyevskyI understand why people hate all things Russian right now. But our literature did not put Putin in power or cause this war.

Mariya Dekhtyaruk 🇺🇦 @MDekhtyaruk

@JeffreyGoldberg "The road to the Bucha massacre leads through suppression of Russian literature" Disgusting beyond words. Ukrainians have a right to decide how to decolonize. You giving a voice to some old russian man is just a disgusting continuation of that colonial tradition.

Russians are the real victims. Poor Russia. This is the ever-lasting line from complicit Russian who like to think they’re good because they're Anti-Putin.

I don't know of a single case of any of our people abusing people or even more so of raping women there, of course I can't speak for the entire army.

And what was this?

"Stop, bitch, I'm going to shoot you now! raise your hands! crawl here! Squatting crawl!", voices next to me screamed about the same thing.

ORL?

By the way, no one beat him anymore, of course I can not vouch for our entire army, but in front of my eyes no one mocked anyone or raped anyone

Oh those cunning Ukrainian partisans.

At the end of the street, about 200 meters away, there was a group of men, they did not approach us, she went to them and together they disappeared behind the intersection behind our positions. I did not like this idea of the command, seeing the commander I expressed it to him. I don't like all this either, but it's obvious that a woman in her right mind wouldn't crawl in the dark under military positions, especially since everything is also on fire there. What she was doing there is anyone's guess.

ORL!

And now… WHAATTTT? I asked somebody who is more fluent in Russian than the author to translate this and we are still shocked.

Our prisoner had his fingers and genitals cut off. Dead Ukrainians at one of the posts began to be put on the seats giving them names and smoking. [PAGE 113 - Нашему пленному отрезали пальцы и гениталии.]

Nobody will actually read the filth the Russian soldier wrote or he will edit it for his book deal in the West, just like the English version of Mein Kampf was edited so the West didn't realize it was murder doctrine. BTW Nazi fanboys don’t even know they’re not reading the real version. I did a long while back and you can smell Holocaust from its pages, just like you can smell Bucha from ZOV. I want to wash my eyes with bleach. And like Mein Kampf it’s badly written.

Bloke has some variant of egomania or is just that bad of a writer. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Я, Я, Я, Я, Я, Я, Я, Я. Ends with a terrible poem about Я (I) after this bit of faux-patriotic nonsense.

"We are not Putin's army, we are the army of Russia and we swore an oath to the people of Russia, and you, who carry a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, are Russia and if you could not collect your eggs in fists and go with other people to demand from the government (which you chose) the abolition of the war, then all this shit is on your hands. Russia is not Putin, Russia is people with Russian passports. The army of the Russian Federation cannot make decisions, there is a strict hierarchy, so that tomorrow if someone attacks us, then the Army does not think, but immediately acts to protect your sassy ass, which you hid abroad. And you say you're ashamed of us? Are we ashamed of you? Where were you while we were dying, maiming and suffering from deprivation? Where is?! You were afraid for your comfort and couldn't go out to the administration building and say "No to war!" for fear of getting adminship. I will tell you a secret that even many riot policemen chasing people at rallies refuse to go there so that women and old people do not scream in their faces.

PS people feting him in their threads. The first rule in information wars is to read the source. AND DON’T EDIT IT to suit your narrative (you can call me out on that if I’ve done that). I suspected before reading that this was going to be ‘full on woe is me Russia’. Because we Slavs who have tasted Russian liberation know.

(Katyń, Wikipedia)

(Photo: Guardian. What a handsome lad. All those handsome people, they can’t be terrible.)

Did the Guardian read his pile of Bonapartist bullshit? He’s ‘a good Russian’ and we need to find one.

ChrisO @ChrisO_wiki

There are too many posts making him a hero.

Meduza should have done better. They have excellent articles. But their highly selective quotes show somebody made a very bad editorial decision. Meduza read the book but didn’t think to notice he’s defending (poor soldier gets wrong coordinates) and denying war crimes. He blames military discipline for forcing soldiers into combat with fraternal Ukrainians but loves the military. And discipline.

Finkel knows.

Eugene Finkel @eugene_finkel

I understand the emotional side of reactions to his narrative. But honestly, why would you expect to find moral judgement, guilt and self-reflection where no one has put it? Good he wrote it but that’s a forensic document, expecting penetance is futile

theguardian.com‘I don’t see justice in this war’: Russian soldier exposes rot at core of Ukraine invasionExclusive: Pavel Filatyev has fled his homeland after publishing a 141-page account detailing his experiences on the frontline

Eugene Finkel @eugene_finkel

If you didn't dodge the draft you either poor or stupid; if you ree listed you or your life situation are truly hopeless. Even in less cynical societies one should not have expected much morality but in the Russian case it is beyond naive

We have all become hostages of many forces and I believe that we got carried away. We started a terrible war. A war in which cities are destroyed and which leads to the deaths of children, women, and the elderly.

(Picture: MEME GENERATOR)

Update 16 January 2023

I told you so:

Mariya Dekhtyaruk 🇺🇦 @MDekhtyaruk

Russian war criminal,who managed to escape to France and got a book deal in 13 countries for his "memoirs" is now suing the russian foundation who helped him to escape to keep the money for himself(and not the russian charity supposedly helping Ukrainian refugees as was promised)

Рудий Кенгуру @FMJ_Grif

Ахах, скандал в пітушином сімєйствє https://t.co/4sjQMTSB6X

Update 17 January 2023

The Good Russian obsession.

Plaster a war criminal on your page.

The Good Russian war criminal.

Give him to Ukrainians.

29 March 2023

Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 @reshetz

Remember the russian soldier Pavel who was granted asylum in France and wrote a book? He confessed to executing Ukrainian civilians. Only after receiving his paycheck for the book

Daniel Asher in solidarity 🌻🇺🇦✊🇺🇸🌊 @abstractedaway

@DustinDuCane My god. They're so painfully slow to learn that we're dealing with russia as it truly is, not as they would wish to portray it. 🤬😂🤦‍♂️

“The reason for the suspension of the program, according to Osechkin, was the incident with the former paratrooper Pavel Filatyev, whom Gulagu.net helped to leave Russia. Filatiev admitted that he hid from human rights activists and the media information about the murders of Ukrainians, in the detention of which he took part.”

https://www.currenttime.tv/a/gulagu-net-filatyev/32340002.html

Also on Facebook (Gulagu.net)

I mean, I called it.

Because I read ZOV.

So you don’t have, to paraphrase Julia Davis.

Update 6 April 2023

Videos via Denis Zakharov