Question by G: What does Wiemar on the Volga mean?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Spellbound
Weimar on the Volga could refer to two things:
1) The German ASSR (Automomous Socialist Soviet Republic) – an automonmous region of the USSR that existed from 1922 until 1941. The area had a majority German population that came to Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great.
2) It coulod also refer to an article written by Niall Ferguson and Granville Brigitte. This article makes (rather poor and ill thought out in my opinion) comparisons between Weimar Germany and post-Communist Russia. It claims that common features such as: hyper-inflation, a reliance on raw materials exports, a weak parliament and a strong presidency point towards an extremist future for Russia – just as it did for Germany between the wars.
Like much of Niall Ferguson’s works it is very anti-Euoprean Union, anti Russia, too ideological – he is a neo-conservative and his research is often poorly conducted and rather shallow.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_German_Autonomous_Soviet_Socialist_Republic
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=351642
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