

Rare Photos of the Soviet Bomb Project - gmac
http://nuclearsecrecy.com/blog/2012/07/27/rare-photos-of-the-soviet-bomb-project/

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pavel_lishin
> Much of the text is a rote repetition of what has been known for years —
> with some historical weirdness, like repeat using of “we” to mean the USSR,
> which is not the most encouraging thing for Russians to do

I can sort of see why that's not encouraging, but what other pronoun would
fit?

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lusr
Why use a pronoun at all? Why not use the noun "USSR"? It always freaks me out
a bit when people use "we" to describe e.g. a team they supported in a sports
game. Feels a bit strange to give up one's identity like that.

~~~
pavel_lishin
There's a bit of a difference between saying "we scored a goal" when talking
about a soccer team, and "we put the first man into space" when talking about
the nation you were born in.

(Full disclosure, I'm a Russian living in America, lived here for 18 years now
and I still sometimes say "we" when speaking about things the USSR has done.)

Although, I suppose for a work of historical reference, they should be taking
a more neutral tone, but we're a pretty proud people :)

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lusr
It just feels odd - to me - to use the word "we". And psychologically, I'm
sure it has an impact. I've noticed people will say "we won!" (when they mean
the team they supported won), yet it is "they lost!" (when they mean the team
they supported lost). Such psychological trickery with identity can't be
healthy.

Even the whole supporting a team thing seems strange to me. When watching a
sporting even I applaud individual players regardless of the team, and make
comments about the team strategy and overall game, but it's not that important
to me who won other than how it will affect the interestingness of future
games. Supporting countries is even stranger because it just all feels so
tribalistic.

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untog
_I've noticed people will say "we won!" (when they mean the team they
supported won), yet it is "they lost!" (when they mean the team they supported
lost)._

I've noticed no such thing- people seem to say "we" in both cases in the
majority of times, in my experience. They often take losses to heart very
strongly.

 _Even the whole supporting a team thing seems strange to me._

There's nothing wrong with that, but honestly, if you're starting from such a
point of being unable to relate, it isn't worth examining in much deeper
detail.

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mprovost
> Sarov has been the site of a big Russian Orthodox monastery for centuries.

Sounds like Anathem.

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restricteddata
A Bazian math with nuclear praxis? Dangerous!

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zokier
While the book seems interesting enough, the blog post feels bit overly
opinionated. Or maybe the book itself is like that?

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restricteddata
The book is certainly opinionated — it's state-produced propaganda.

As for the blog post — it's a blog post. It's opinionated in the sense that
making fun of Stalin's tetchiness carries an implicit opinion, but other than
that, there are few opinions expressed.

