iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Replies

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

The USSR had a love-hate relationship with the USA, and admired many things about American industry. Uncle Sam (paid with expropriated Ukrainian grain and Kazakh beef, leading to great famines) was happy to oblige in all things except naval engineering, which is why the Red Navy was so shit.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

This led to some fascinating doublethink moments starting in the mid-30s (when Stalin had many experts, trained by American specialists at significant cost to the state, shot as spies) and continuing into the Cold War era. The hamburger became "kotleta" — de-foreignized, beyond reproach.

Pavel@spavel.bsky.social

Of course, during the Cold War ketchup disappeared from store shelves for ideological reasons, replaced with euphemistic names like "krasnodar sauce" or "spicy sauce" made with tomato and apple puree. Real ketchup could only be acquired from Bulgaria until the 90s.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

If "Mikoyan" sounds familiar to Western audiences, it's probably because his brother Artem Mikoyan is the M in MiG. Despite Anastas's multiple brushes with death during the Civil War, he would outlive his brother by 17 years. Such is the power of the American hamburger.

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