I won’t analyze it (I have my quibbles), but—what a vid!

Map of Europe: 1000 AD to the present day

Visu gaišu,
/P

The temptation to fuss over the details is great, but it does give a great feeling of how fluid the boundaries have always been.

Think of the lives that were lost. If one were to add these up - the number would be shocking!

(Now we count each soldier one by one.)

Vilis

“What a vid!” indeed!

Gotta give it those Poles/Lithuanians!  Second only to the Mongol Golden Horde in extra-territorial aggressiveness.  Occupied Moscow, installed their own government; amazing.  Even Nazi Germany failed to accomplish that.  No wonder Russia has always been on the defensive.

ak

I’ve seen the same or similar a few years ago. Pity it doesn’t have a timetable / timeline attached.
I’ve read that Poland / Lithuania grew very big ... but that big? Phew!
What was surprising though in that clip, was that Latvia and Estonia were untouched for most of that time.
Too small / unimportant to record the changes (if any)?

ak,
I guess you forgot the tongue-in-cheek, but whatever.  The struggle for “your people” in a world full of awful aggressors is obviously constantly on your mind and reflected in your comments on their behalf.  I know you know how to google and don’t think of yourself as history-challenged so ignore this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire
Your protective instincts always appropriately rising to the fore for your victimized and aggressed-against people (the ruuuuskies or rooooskies) is truly noteworthy and admirable.  Nothing like standing up for your people at every opportunity, big or small, like here. 

You and Aleksejs may want to take a look at Norman Davies VANISHING KINGDOMS, The History of Half-Forgotten Europe (since you must by now have finished studying Kantore). 
http://www.15min.lt/en/article/culture-society/norman-davies-lithuanians-must-realize-they-are-not-the-only-heirs-to-historic-lithuania-528-205256

More recommendations of books you haven’t read, ambi? Nice one. Here’s the question: have you read Kantor?

PS It’s refreshing to know that you learned a lot from the Latvia’s best legal minds, who often quote Wikipedia, as the most authoritative source while our legal environment is behind such bastions of freedom as Tajikistan. I’m sure you can look up Tajikistan on the wikipedia, can you not?

Thank you, o anonymous troll(ette) for acknowledging my admirable protective instincts.

I can only wish you would do the same for “your [soviet-deformed] people.”  I mean the ones in realLatvia, of course.

ak

ak,
You truly are continuing in the proud tradition of the people of your concern where every Latvian with half a backbone is called a fascist or something (“trollete” here).  Why deal with real history (like the Russian/German Pact of Aggression) that could bring a semblance of reality to May 9 in Latvia and where certain lips would have to contort to use Latvian and say “okupacija.”

Aleksejs,
When you finally finish Kantor(e) and get a handle on understanding the stunningly brilliant and clever re-interpretation of original Soviet fiction sources, save this magnificent history read for me.  Knowing this awaits me will make me rush to Latvia.  Maybe you’re coming to the US for the “Latvian” Song Festival in Milwaukee?  You could leave it with the other “nationalist”  trimda Latvians (Anita, Ilze, Olga, Ludmilla) who flock to such “they came, they sang” events.  I wonder if Chas or Vesti will cover this like they did the 2008 Latvia “they came, they sang” event.  I have to confess, Aleks, I don’t think even Kantore can help me twist my mind around how the word “occupation” does not need to be used for the event and reality of “occupation.”  Meanwhile, I’m stuck with saying, along with likes of Norman Davies and Timothy Snyder, that Latvia was “occupied.”

a.t.,

So, your take on the graphic video depicting 1,000 years of European history is: May 9 and the Milwaukee “Latvian” Song Festival.  Interesting.  At least your responses here are presented in manageable, if not entirely coherent, chunks (unlike your usual gigabytes of run-on gibberish and bibliographies).

Perhaps we can get you down to 140 characters.  That would help us understand your world view much better, I’m sure.

ak

Hey, ak, don’t get off balance with this typical LoL unfunny humor.  I realize playing “joshing-at-you” with the boys is more fun than encountering the rare and unexpected not-obsequious LoL gal (“trollete,” chick, etc), but just go with the flow as though you were a Latvian in Latvia watching May 9.  I was only commenting on “your take on the graphic video depicting 1,000 years of European history” which was: “Gotta give it those Poles/Lithuanians!  Second only to the Mongol Golden Horde in extra-territorial aggressiveness.  Occupied Moscow, installed their own government; amazing.  Even Nazi Germany failed to accomplish that.  No wonder Russia has always been on the defensive.”  Seems you’ve got a problem with my answering “your take.”

“rare and unexpected not-obsequious LoL gal….” Now that’s LOL, ROFL and a host of other acronyms!

But back to the main point.  You still haven’t commented on the video itself—you know—the subject of this thread.  Can you do that?  Do you have an opinion on it?  Can you tell us what it is, without mentioning May 9, Milwaukee, or other LOLers by name?

Now that would truly be rare and unexpected.

ak

Shucks, ak,
Gentlemens first. Maybe we can start with where all this funning began with your reaction to “A Map of Europe” and you can first explain your brill’ summation: “No wonder Russia has always been on the defensive.”

Carrying on your tradition, as usual.  Never answering questions posed to you, just rebutting with more of your own.  Not playing your psycho game, madam.

ak

ambi, look up (Wikipedia, was it?) what Russia celebrates on November 4 for its “unity day.” It’ll help you along to decipher the summation.

I reserve my judgment on Kantor’s book until I read it. I’ve read Snyder. Not that impressed. And you avoided a direct question. Why do you juxtapose the two? Do you think Kantor is a Kremlin agent? If so, why if you haven’t read her book? And why the occupation worse/better than the annexation, which is how Kantor describes the events of the summer of 1940?

PS I am sure Vesti Segodnya will gladly cover the Song Festival in Milwaukee as soon as Laiks begins writing about the Russian Culture days in Latvia. The link has a lot of misinformation, but you get the picture. The Culture days first started in 1925, not 1935. Or perhaps, Laiks will begin writing about the 4th of July, for, to quote Elerte, reading Laiks, one gets an impression that only Latvians live in America.