Am I the asshole for being insistant about “wanting to murder the entire Romanov family”?
Around 4 months ago I was invited to see the school musical “Anastasia” by some theater kids that were friends of mine. I already knew the framing and content of the play is utter reactionary nonsense, but I decided to actually go yesterday night to watch to support my buddies.
The musical itself had good production quality, and there were some great unintentionally funny moments in there, too. I was dissapointed that the one communist didn’t brutally blow Anastasia’s brains out, but I definitely think the play gave me some resolve and inspires violence in me.
Anyway here is the main part, lol. It isnt the most precise retelling of events, but generally what went down, spare the details. After the play I was chatting with a bunch of the cast, and apparently one of them heard that I would have shot the Romanov family, if I was in the position to, (which they heard from a seperate friend that is actually socialist. ) I didn’t deny it, and I actually fully leaned into it. “The Romanovs had no qualms on the treatment of their people. There would be no room for abdication, no humbleness to step down, obly death, ETC…” One giggled, another person gasped, “Do you feel no sympathy for them?” My friend (who played Tzar Nicholas) asked me something like:"Would you shoot the Romanov’s even if it was me?! " “No sympathy. And yes, I would shoot regardless of personal connections” and I quickly left into the crowd. Since then, my friend has been avoiding me? idk he seems not happy with me. Am I the asshole here?
Either way, I would rather be perceived as an asshole than be a liberal in content.
What for though? Where is political pragmatism?
The amount of memes on the subject I see from western leftists makes me question if there are very few sources available in English or it’s just juvenile cruelty. It was local initiative, strongly influenced by strategic situation during the civil war in the region. Nicolas was “citizen Romanov” by then and the party had a 1001 reason to keep him and his family alive, including plans for a public trial. Lenin was pushing for their evacuation to Moscow. Also…moral implications of killing a couple of teens that were there, anyone? Kill them, because they were born into the wrong family? How very conservative… Not to mention penty of nobles up to and including at least one Major General of the Imperial army I can remember went on to form the core of the Red Army.
Consider the implications for propaganda too. Why create a bunch of martyrs for the Whites? Using exactly this argument, later that same year Maxim Gorky convinced Lenin let Nicolas’ sick second cousin go. Lo and behold - no one remembers Gavriil Constantinovich Romanov.
Drawing on the Chinese example, PuYi abdicated in 1912, then in 1934 the Japanese put him on the throne as Emperor of Manchukuo. 20 years of being just a regular guy (in theory) did not diminish his usedulness as a figurehead.
More broadly, the focus on the Romanov children is just a vector for the spread of anti-communist propaganda. Capitalists, reactionaries, liberals, and fascists will cry crocodile tears for Princess Anastasia while voting to bomb brown children without a single second thought. They don’t care about children, they care that children are sympathetic and can be used to spread their message. It’s no coincidence that the white supremacist 14 words end with an appeal to securing an existence for their children.
The propaganda aspect is especially obvious since OP’s friend invoked the nonsense emotional appeal of “would you shoot the Tsar if he were me?”
That’s pretty much the “strategic situation” I mentioned - there was real risk of them falling into the hands of the Whites. What I meant to point out is that there was no good reason to just up and kill him at the time. Its not like he was in command of the movement or anything.
Sure, but not coming from me. Still regrettable, not something to replicate.
Yyeap. Even modern monarchist schitzos get some people into their bullshit by riling them up about it and many don’t wanna hear nothing about there having been no orders from Moscow afterwards.
There is a reason Soviet textbooks talked about the topic sparingly if at all. It wasn’t something that went as planned or desired at all.
From OP’s friend’s perspective, it’s likely a sensical appeal coming from a place of valuing life, which is an excellent opportunity to force him to confront the contradiction.