History - Blog Posts

English essay: Sweet talks you into believing whatever point it’s discussing and leaves you pondering why you thought about it believed anything else.

History essay: SLAPS you in the face with The who, what, where and why of what ever question was posed with no care of if you believe them or not and basically double dog dares you to argue with them.

Pro tip:

Never confuse the Fifth International with the Third Lateran.

Vintage postcard from the US commemorating transcontinental flight between Moscow and New York performed by a team of Soviet flyers in 1929. They covered 21,242 km (13,194 mi) in 137 flying hours.

edwardian & victorian era women

The way Lucrezia and Cesare relationship is represented in media is so disgusting and disrespectful. Born from pure xenophobia and misogyny

In fantasy, medieval life is depicted as all sexual violence and squalor. It's not that simple

Whenever a fantasy series such as "House of the Dragon" treads deeply into gruesome violence or plain old human exploitation, storytellers like to say it's historically accurate. But while sexual and reproductive violence is somewhat accurate for the medieval age, so are myriad other things that seem to fall off the storyboard when it's time to add authenticity.

“The desire to be ‘accurate’ suddenly disappears when sex isn’t involved and it is actual interesting day to day minutiae,” says Eleanor Janega, a medieval historian who teaches at the London School of Economics. “If the ('Game of Thrones’) world was historically accurate, why isn’t every single noble house or castle absolutely covered by huge gaudy, colourful murals? Why is it that this form of historical accuracy isn’t important, but showing rape as endemic is?”

Other historians point out that, as prurient and gasp-worthy as something like a crude C-section death is, such butchery wasn’t as prevalent as storytellers would have you believe.

“They were very keen on protecting mothers from harm,” medieval history scholar Sara McDougall told Slate.

Texts from the time indicate that such extreme measures would usually be performed on women who had already died – not, as in “House of the Dragon,” a fully awake and alert woman with no clue what was about to happen to her.

[…]

Janega points out that, while medieval times were certainly not overkind to women or anyone else who wasn’t rich, powerful and male, they weren’t the burlesque of suffering we’re so used to seeing on screen.

“'Accuracy’ is always focusing on the distasteful aspects of a society, but never the pleasurable ones,” she says. “(It) somehow always encompasses sexual violence and never things like, for example, the three field system, or fishing weirs. They don’t really show how women other than the nobility are a dynamic part of the medieval workforce. Women are found in pretty much every facet of medieval work: as blacksmiths, running shops, brewing beer, in cloth production, running bath houses or in trading delegations addressing the court.”

This has been living in my head for a while now, and I’m finally ready to announce it:

«Ukraine.1917»

– a historical Hetalia brainrot project that focuses on events around Ukraine in 1917-1921, aka the war of independance, or the ukrainian revolution – or that one time when she almost got away with it.

(Here are a few English-speaking vids that can explain what’s going on: https://youtu.be/9Gwuu7TXPwI?si=fmAfCIj-VSbxeoiQ and https://youtu.be/YVuuwQSjzvs?si=SY4JukRo9OW1uoBq )

basically – I am planning a series of mini-comics, drawings, etc. about the events of this period through Hetalia characters – bc hey, why not. We see so little of Ukraine in manga and reinventing her brings me genuine joy. 😔✋🏼.

It might turn out into a chronologically consistent comics, in which case it will be published here and in my tg channel. Or ot may not, lol idk I‘m just having fun

These are just some initial concept-sketches of mainly Ukraine 1917 to 1919, but also Poland and Germany as u can see

Please feel free to ask me anything on this!

Hello

my name is Aya, I am 26 years old, currently living in the northern part of Gaza City, and I am a mother of two children. My oldest is my daughter, Sana'a, who is 5 years old, and my youngest is my son, Wasfi, who is 3.

Since the morning of October 7th, 2023, our lives have been turned upside down. We have lived through the hardest days of our lives, facing displacement and homelessness. We have been forced to leave our home more than ten times since the war began. We would leave without knowing where to go.

We sought refuge in schools and relatives' homes, hoping we could return home and that this nightmare would end. But our house was bombed, and our dreams were destroyed. We became homeless and displaced.

Every day, we wake up to the sound of bombs and rockets. I lived in constant fear and terror with my children, especially when my family's house was bombed while we were taking shelter there.

We are experiencing a real famine in Gaza. I’ve gone to bed with my children many nights without dinner because there is no food available. We have had to eat animal and bird feed due to the high cost of flour just to fill the hunger of my young children. Even after eating it, we all suffered from diarrhea and severe stomach pain. My children developed rashes on their bodies due to the spread of viruses and the accumulation of garbage. There is also a severe shortage of water, and even when we find it, it's not safe to drink.

My children cry, asking for vegetables, fruits, and eggs, but we can’t afford them because we have no income. The gas shortage has forced us to use fire for everything—cooking and baking—using plastic and pipes because firewood is so hard to find.

My children also developed jaundice, and I struggled a lot to get them better because there was no access to vegetables, fruits, or medicine. I even feared that my son might have developed polio because he already had leg problems before the war, and they worsened due to malnutrition.

Winter is coming, and we have nothing for it. I need clothes and shoes for my children to keep them warm, but I can’t buy them because they are so expensive.

For this reason, I beg of you and hope that you can support me, even with the smallest contribution, so I can provide my children with the most basic necessities of life.

I was displaced with my children to my family's house, tears in my eyes. On the way, Salah Al-Din Street was bombed, and the Israeli occupation committed horrific massacres. By the grace of God, we survived for the first time. We lived in terror and fear. A few days later, my family's house was bombed, and we were pulled out from under the rubble, miraculously surviving for the second time.

When my husband heard the news that we had died, he came to bid us farewell, only to find us alive by God's grace. We returned with him, but as the situation worsened and the fire belts in our area increased, we started to flee again and again, not knowing where to go next.

I beg of you to share my story and help me continue to live.

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #230 )✅️

Vetted by butterfly nu #1133

Hello lm hamdi ayyad ,I humbly ask for your support by reblogging this post on your account to help save my family. As newcomers to Tumblr and GoFundMe, we are in desperate need of your kindness and support. 🙏🇵🇸🍉😔Please donate 🙏🏼Let's reach the goal as soon as possible

Hello! I can't donate unfortunately so I'll share instead! I hope you reach your goal, may Allah protect you and your family! ❤

I hope you, your family and your loved ones are well

We are not well. We are now homeless and in a very dangerous area. Tanks are now approaching us and missiles are above us Can you donate to me today so we can escape from this area to a safer area

The cost of the transportation vehicle is $100. I hope you can afford half. We are now in the street

and it is late at night

I hope you can help me, my dear

https://gofund.me/57ddaa99

https://www.paypal.me/IbrahimHussein771

Hi!! I can't donate unfortunately so I'll share instead so your campaign reaches those who can! I hope you reach your goal, may Allah protect you and your family! ❤❤

Dear,

I am Hatem from Gaza 🍉🍉🍉

I hope you are doing well

I am writing to you with a heart full of hope and gratitude.

My small family (my old mom, my wife and my little daughter) is in great danger due to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Unfortunately the war on Gaza continues and the suffering is increasing. We left our home in Gaza since 13/10/2023 as it was bombed and partially destroyed.

The situation getting worse and we are in urgent need of help to continue to survive.

Please, any donation makes a difference in our lives, and every reblog helps reach as many people as possible.

This donation campaign has been vetted by: @90-ghost and @el-shab-hussein

Thanks again

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-hatem-during-the-cold-days

Hi! I can't donate unfortunately so I'll share instead! I hope you reach your goal, may Allah protect you and your family! 💚

I am Moamen Almisshal from Gaza, married and father of three children Ayman, waseem and Elias.

I was living in an apartment in Al-Nasr neighbourhood, but now I'm in a tent on the street because of the war and I lost my house. I have been displaced to Deir al-Balah since the beginning of the war and suffering from its ravages, Extremely heat in the day and very cold at night, drowning when the rain falls, I have no income because I was working as Taxi-driver and there is no car anymore, my children suffer from skin diseases, malnutrition and lack of hygiene.

Please help me rebuild my home and restore my source of income.🙏🏼🍉

https://gofund.me/b43a4cda

Hello! I unfortunately can't donate to you. So I will share instead. I hope you reach your goal, may Allah protect you and your family!! ❤❤

🙏😞Please help me I want to provide for my

family's needs in Gaza🇵🇸🍉

Maybe 10€ makes a difference to us.🙏

⭕️Donation link:

https://gofund.me/e8bde1ea

‏EXTREMELY LOW FUNDS! Only 215€ raised of €25,000 goal!!😞

⭕️Pinned post:

https://www.tumblr.com/aboodalqedra/760369398918840320/please-dont-skip

‏I hope they see this so they can see and learn about my campaign. 🙏💔

‏@el-shab-hussein @appsa @nabulsi @irhabiya @90-ghost @sar-soor @mohameddd

Hello!! I can't donate to you unfortunately, so I will share instead! I hope you reach your goal, may Allah protect you and your family!! 💞💞💞

Hello my friends. I am from Gaza and I want to help my family. We are living in difficult times. We have no shelter and we live in a tent on one of the streets. 😪💔 In Deir al-Balah, we do not have food or basic daily needs. 😪 My sister has a head injury and needs treatment. Please donate. Out of your generosity and kindness, a small donation makes a big difference in our lives. Thank you very much for your prayers and supplications for us. 🇵🇸🇵🇸

Hello! I can't donate to you unfortunately, so I will share instead. I hope you reach your goal! May Allah protect you and your family! ❤

Hello, my friend. 

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to you with a heavy heart and an urgent request for your help. My family is in a perilous situation due to the ongoing war and the famine we have endured for more than 10 months. We are facing immense challenges, so please read my story as if I were a member of your family, if my family is your family. 

I'm a father of 3 children striving with my wife to secure a decent life for our children. After October 7th, our life took a drastic turn with the commencement of the cruel war on Gaza. Unfortunately everything I owned is completely lost after my house and business got bombed and destroyed. We are currently suffering slow death and living a devastating life in Gaza. 

Therefore, I have created a campaign to help my family rebuild their lives and meet our basic needs for food, drink, and other essentials in these harsh conditions. I’ve had a previous campaign titled “tahseengaza” but this one has been terminated. My new campaign is vetted by @olagaza, @90-ghost, & @northgazaupdates.  

All of what I am asking of you is to reblog the pinned post on my page and to donate if you can. It would mean so much if you could take a look at my GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/tahseen-family-from-gaza-not-to-feel-hungry. Please donate and share with others. 

By sharing/reblogging and donating, you are helping me, my wife, and 3 children survive the ravages of famine and genocide. You will give us hope to rebuild our home, and reclaim some of the life which was stolen from us. 

I would also be very grateful if you could follow me to stay updated. I am waiting for your response. Thanks in advance for your kindness and support. 

Sincerely, Tahseen 

Hello!! I sadly can't donate to you, so I will share instead. I hope you reach your goal! May Allah protect you and your family!! 💕💕

One year ago russia blew up the Nova Kakhovka Dam.

1994: Crimean Tatars mark the 50th anniversary of russia deporting their entire population from their homeland. From the 18th-20th of May 1944 the Tatars were loaded onto cattle trains and removed from their native land.

2024 is the 80th anniversary of Stalin's Crimean genocide.

Since 2014 Crimea has again been occupied by russia.

To all those who died alone in the Russian occupation

🕯 "To all those who died alone in the Russian occupation". Muzychi village, Kyiv region

These are the words on the tombstone that stands on the grave of the mother of Ukrainian artist Alevtina Kakhidze. The artist installed it in 2021. This memorial project consists of six marble doors that replicate the location of the doors in the house of Alevtina's mother, known as Klyubnyka Andriivna, in the village of Zhdanivka, Donetsk region, as well as concrete porch steps recreated in real life. When the war in eastern Ukraine broke out, the artist's mother was unable to leave her home despite her daughter's persuasion. Alevtina dedicated a series of works to her mother, which were shown at exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad. Kakhidze's mother died in 2019 - her heart stopped while crossing one of the checkpoints controlled by the militants of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic". She was buried in the Kyiv region.

This is not the kind of message that children should receive from their parents "If we are killed, all the documents are in the basement."

This is what I mean when I say that we cannot negotiate and freeze the conflict. Because children from the occupied territories, who are now 14-17 years old, will be fighting against us in five years.

Don't be indifferent. Make Russia pay. Please hear our cry out to the world, keep spreading our voices, and donate to our army and combat medics (savelife.in.ua, prytulafoundation.org, Serhii Sternenko, hospitallers.life, ptahy.vidchui.org, and u24.gov.ua).

Russian culture is bloody terror

This morning, 53-year-old Oleksandr Potikun from Vovchansk took three dogs, documents, canned food, and photo albums and left the city to evacuate.

The man walked for 15 kilometers until he was picked up by the police. Oleksandr says that he decided to leave the city when a Russian tank damaged his house and a neighboring one. Before, he didn't want to leave because of Toshka, Jozyk, and Archie - he was afraid that the dogs would disappear if he left them behind. He also evacuated family photos: "Our houses are burning very badly, at least we will have something to remember."

Potikun says that Vovchansk is broken, Russians are bombarding the city with air and artillery around the clock.

Defense forces have stopped the enemy's attempts to break through the defense in the east, while fighting continues in Lukianets and Vovchansk

"The situation on the eastern front remains tense in the Khortytsia Joint Forces Operation Center in our area of responsibility, but the defense units are actively engaged in defensive battles. Attempts by Russian invaders to break through our defense have been stopped. The situation has been stabilized, in particular in the Kharkiv sector," said Nazar Voloshyn, spokesman for the Khortytsia group.

According to Voloshyn, the operational situation remains difficult, but it is changing dynamically. Fierce defensive battles continue: "There are settlements in a large part of our border area where the enemy is trying to gain a foothold and use them for further advancement." In the video, Oleksiy Kharkovsky, head of the Vovchansk patrol police, said that the situation in Vovchansk is extremely difficult, the enemy is taking positions on the streets of the city, where the evacuation of the population is also underway.

2 years since Mariupol defenders started to leave Azovstal in Mariupol and were captured by russians. Around 2000 Mariupol defenders are still in russian captivity.

Photo from Azovstal by Dmytro "Orest" Kozatskyi

May 18 is the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars from the territory of Crimea in 1944 by the Soviet authorities. It is also a remembrance day for the victims of this genocide.

Thread on deportation of Crimean Tatars

Crimean Tatars in Crimea before being deported by soviet authorities

Your support of us is admiring

All Ukrainians appreciate your support, I'm sure about it. The Georgian Legion is the first foreign military that help Ukraine since 2014. I as a person from Donetsk never forget the immense support from Georgians. I wish you only a bright future without Russophiles in the government. Georgia is Europe like Ukraine.

🫂❤️‍🩹

Fabulous Frank was in Ukraine. Once again. And even in my Lviv.

Today russians also said hello to us with an air raid alarm. This is old news for Ukrainians.

That represents how Ukraine must deal with non-humans... Who call themselves "messiahs".

It always warms fibres of my soul when people in the darkest times and places never forget about caring for the small one❤️‍🩹 What a loss…

And about the Kharkiv region, by the way.

In two areas in the north of the Kharkiv region, the russians occupied villages in the "gray zone".

They did not reach the main defense line.

As of now, the intensity of the fighting has decreased, due to losses in the assault units of the russians.

The russians are regrouping, and we are preparing, and there will be more attempts to break through the main defense line.

Russian reserves are being pulled up, and we are also taking symmetrical actions. The fighting continues.

It makes me sick to my stomach to think about what these people who have already been under occupation are going through again.

Don't be indifferent. Please hear our cry out to the world, keep spreading our voices, and donate to our army and combat medics (savelife.in.ua, prytulafoundation.org, Serhii Sternenko, hospitallers.life, ptahy.vidchui.org, and u24.gov.ua).

Some hauntingly beautiful sceneries.

Alexandre Serebriakoff, watercolours of Château de Groussay (France). Serebriakoff (1907-1995) was a Ukrainian-born watercolour artist who lived and worked most of his life in France. He developed contacts with French and English high society, and made watercolour albums depicting the richly furnished interiors of French chateaux and London flats, so-called Zimmerbilden or portraits d'intérieur. It was once a popular and charming genre of art, of which older examples are often of interest for the cultural historian, but has faded from the mainstream. Serebriakoff was one of the last masters of the genre.

Pics from here, which also provides an interesting read.

What Ukrainians ate to survive Holodomor

(translated excerpts from an Історична Правда article): + images source

The villagers would dig up the holes of the polecats to find at least a handful of grain hidden by these animals. They pounded it in a mortar, added a handful of oilcake (from hemp seed), beetroot, potato peelings, and baked something from this mixture.

Those who managed to hide at least a little grain would grind it in iron mills made from wheel axles and cook "zatyrukha" (a concoction made from a small amount of flour ground from ears of grain).

Acacia flowers were boiled and eaten raw, and green quinoa was mixed with crushed corn cobs. Those who could - and this was considered lucky - added a handful of bran. This food made their feet swell and their skin crack.

The peasants dried the husked ears of corn and millet husks, pounded them, ground them with weeds, and cooked soups and baked pancakes. Such dishes were impossible to chew, the body could not digest them, so people had stomach aches. Pancakes, the so-called "matorzhenyky", were made from oilcake and nettle or plantain.

It went so far that peasants would crumble straw into small chips and pound it in a mortar together with millet and buckwheat chaff, and tree bark. All this was mixed with potato peelings, which were very poisonous, and this mixture was used to bake "bread", the consumption of which caused severe stomach diseases.

There were cases when village activists took away and broke millstones, mortars, poured water on the heat in their ovens. After all, anything found or saved from the food had to be cooked on fire, and matches could only be purchased by bartering for their own belongings or by buying them in the city, which was impossible from villagers that were on "black lists".

Chestnuts, aspen and birch bark, buds, reed roots, hawthorn and rose hips, which were the most delicious, were used as food substitutes; various berries, even poisonous ones, were picked; grass seeds were ground into flour; "honey" from sugar beets was cooked, and water brewed with cherry branches was drunk. They also ate the kernels of sunflower seeds.

Newborns had the worst of it, because their mothers had no breast milk. According to testimonies, a mother would let her child suck the drink from the top of the poppy head, and the child would fall asleep for three days.

In early spring, the villagers began to dig up old potato fields. They would bake dumplings from frozen potatoes, grind rotten potatoes in a mash and make pancakes, greasing the frying pan with wheel grease. They also baked "blyuvaly" (transl. "vomities") from such potatoes and oatmeal mixed with water, which was so called because they were very smelly.

They ate mice, rats, frogs, hedgehogs, snakes, beetles, ants, worms, i.e. things that weren't a part of food bans and had never been eaten by people before. The horror of the famine is also evidenced by the consumption of spiders, which are forbidden to kill in Ukrainian society for ritual reasons.

In some areas, slugs were boiled into a soup, and the cartilaginous meat was chopped and mixed with leaves. This prevented swelling of the body and contributed to survival. People caught tadpoles, frogs, lizards, turtles, and mollusks. They boiled them, adding a little salt if there was salt. The starving people caught cranes, storks, and herons, which have been protected in Ukraine for centuries, and their nests were never destroyed. According to folk beliefs, eating stork meat was equated with cannibalism.

The consumption of horse meat began in 1931, before the mass famine. People used to take dead horsemeat from the cemeteries at night, make jelly out of it and salt it for future use.

Dead horses were poured with carbolic acid to prevent people from taking their meat, but it hardly stopped anybody. Dead collective farm pigs were also doused with kerosene to prevent people from dismantling them for food, but this did not help either.

After long periods of starvatiom, the process of digestion is very costing for the human body, and many people who would eat anything would drop dead immediately out of exhaustion.

If a family had a cow hidden somewhere in the forest, they had a chance to survive. People living near forests could hunt/seek out berries and mushrooms, but during winter this wouldn't save them. People living near rivers could fish in secret, but it was banned and punishable by imprisonment/death.

What probably happened one time in history

George: Goddammit guys

I recently colorized this c. 1910 photo of Magnus Hirschfeld's 4th, 6th, and 7th patients. They were three of the first trans men to receive medical care/legal support in Germany. I can't help but appreciate their dapper sense of fashion.