Yet, it matters not. The current Russia land mass is still too large for what is less. Those that live now can barely muster the will to procreate and men die at an age that matches sub-saharan Africa. The women, some of the most beautiful in the world are so desperate to leave that they chase dubious offers of work overseas only to find themselves sold into sexual slavery. Russian culture is a broken nihilistic mess. This is not to denigrate individual Russians (many are my friends and relatives), but it is a culture and group in decline, at least within its homeland.

Perhaps it’s not a surprise, in the last century there was no worse place to be on earth than east of the Danube and West of the Urals. Mao’s China came close in scale, but no place on earth matched the scale and brutality of what man could achieve against man in that sad patch of the world in an almost relentless war that lasted decades. Every war has atrocities, but that area, particularly in the stretch between the Baltic and Black Sea saw villages razed, women raped, ethnic groups murdered (guns, gas and starvation), ethnic cleansing, multiple wars, continuing economic degradation. I don’t know why anyone would stay, that black fertile earth is cursed.