- cross-posted to:
- spaceflight@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- spaceflight@sh.itjust.works
The unmanned craft was due to make a soft landing on the Moon's south pole, but failed after encountering problems as it moved into its pre-landing orbit.
It was Russia's first Moon mission in almost 50 years.
Russia has been racing to the Moon's south pole against India, whose Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is scheduled to land on there next week.
No country has ever landed on the south pole before, although both the US and China have landed softly on the Moon's surface.
No report on whether or not Russia was attempting to use repurposed anti-ship missiles like the ones they use to attack schools and hospitals here on Earth.
The point is the soldiers weren't told they were going to a different country and they were kept in a base built to look exactly like bases in Russia in the middle of the woods so that they didn't find out. That's been the Russian military doctrine for ever. The less the cannon fodder knows, the better.
Hell, when the last of the occupation forces left the country in 1991, they were very surprised there weren't throngs of people in the streets throwing flowers at them as thanks for their valuable service. Like... they didn't even realize they were reviled occupiers, they were completely clueless about what their military was doing and their role in it. It was a genuine "are we the baddies" moment.
It still doesn't sound specifically "Russian" to me that the low-level troops don't have a ton of information. I think that's just how militaries work? I do find it hard to believe that it's possible to trick soldiers into thinking they're in a different country than they actually are, at least for any amount of time. I've been googling various things for like half an hour now and I'm just literally not finding anything that suggests Soviets ever tricked their soldiers into believing they were somewhere they weren't. Can you give me something, anything to go on here?
By the way, I did find this article by googling "occupation forces 1991" and ignoring all the stuff about the us occupying Iraq. I had no idea that the USSR had so many troops all over Europe! Very interesting. For what it's worth, that article says that when the Soviets pulled out of Czechoslovakia, instead of rotten fruit and curses as they expected, they instead got flowers and warm words of farewell. There's a picture that seems to back this up, and a link to an article in Russian that I very much cannot read because I'm an idiot american.
But anyway, I have to get off the internet and actually live my life. If you give me some sources to look at about Soviets tricking their soldiers, I'll gladly take a look. Otherwise, I think I've learned about as much Soviet history as I'm going to today. Have a good day!
I'm given to understand that Western militaries actually explain to their soldiers where they're going and why. It helps things run smoothly for obvious reasons. The Russians do the opposite because to them, independent and informed thinking is a threat. As for sources, I have none. You're getting a second-hand account of the recollections of eyewitnesses. I don't even remember where I originally read them.
You do realize Russia Beyond is a propaganda mouthpiece like basically every other state-run media outlet in Russia, right? Of course they'll say we were sorry to see their soldiers go and we miss them very much to this day.
This part is definitely not true.
Damn. Ah well, nevertheless.
No, I didn't know that. I've never heard of them before today. I will point out that on their website they say "Russia Beyond falls under the umbrella of ANO TV-Novosti, an autonomous nonprofit organization." Of course, seeing how "autonomous nonprofit organizations" report on the news here in america, I know better to just blindly trust that they're autonomous. I'll put Russia Beyond into the same mental category as Radio Free Asia and the like, at least provisionally, until I learn more one way or the other.