Did your neighbour not just get invaded by Russia? Did you not get invaded by Soviet 55 years ago yourself?

Do Slovakian people really prefer to be a Russian satellite state again rather than an EU member?

Help me understand because I don’t get it. I’m from Sweden and know very little about Slovakia so sorry about my ignorance.

*Edit: People asked for a source so did some more digging. Apparently the survey that showed the Russian support was from one year ago and somewhat controversial: more about that here:* https://balkaninsight.com/2022/10/04/poll-mired-in-controversy-reveals-many-slovaks-wish-for-russian-victory/

by Dunderman35

49 comments

  1. More older people than young.. Propaganda by few populistic political parties with huge voter basis. Its really putting shame on our country, todays election will decide the faith of our small country and how we’re perceived by the rest of Europe

  2. https://youtu.be/6NTkXIidCU0?t=26

    On a serious note: 1. We are a small nation with lackluster education and not enough resources which predetermined us to be EU’s soft belly. An easy target for Russian intelligence operations and propaganda dissemination. 2. There’s also a historical connection to pan-slavism which rose during the second half of the 19th century when the then Slovak intelligentsia was fighting against the Austrian-Hungarian empire. 3. Corrupt and/or incompetent populists in charge of the country for 15+ year, most are leaning into this BS for easy political points. 4. Nostalgia for communism within the elderly population – they are remembering only the good times when they were young, full of energy, had good health and had their whole lives in front of them.

  3. From experience, I would say it mostly comes down to “why should I care” mentality or communist brainwashing. People will either say “Why should I care about them, it isn’t happening here” and then call Chamberlain a coward for not helping Czechoslovakia defend itself from Hitler’s demands. Either that, or they will just say that “America bad, Russia good” and that is the end of the debate. Most of the younger generation is not like this, but the overwhelming majority of old people and adults think this way.

  4. I really don’t think it’s majority. Far from it. I think that many people just don’t care and mind their own, as many are not in very good social situation to care about ruzzia or Ukraine.

  5. It’s a combination of history, education and disinformation.

    Our second wave of national rejuvenation was panslavic, it’s taught extensively in history and literature classes.

    WW2 is also taught extensively where the Soviets “freed” us.

    The 1968 invasion is taught, but relatively glossed over compared to things happening prior.

    Pro-russian disinfo capmpaigns are ridiculously widespread here.

  7. because these “mostly” old people who vote for pro-Russian parties are stupid and uneducated for the most part.

    most of them have finished primary school or vocational school.

  8. People are retarded and thus easily influenced by Russian disinformation.

    Also politicians never tried to curb it since the fall of communism, because there was always some parties that used that sentiment.

  9. Because majority of our nation is stupid it is how it is. Its sad , i feel ashamed that our people praise Pootin , the war that Russia has started and blame Ukraine for it. I wish that these people that are pro-russian just would leave Slovakia and go live to Russia.

  11. It’s easy – during communism nobody had to do anything. Stuff was provided, everyone was equal (lol), they had to do jack shit, everybody was stealing at work (under the motto “if you’re not stealing from the state, you are stealing from your family”)…

    Suddenly there came freedom – and with it came responsibility.

    People had to actually *do* stuff, they had to *decide* on policies, they were able to chose between various options… And that was (obviously still is) a problem for them. The communist/socialist illusion of safety and lined out future was comforting. Sure, people had shit, but everything was the same shit everywhere you looked around (that’s why most of the people weren’t allowed to go visit and see the west), nobody was better (lol, not true, politicians and such were always better…), but there wasn’t that much envy.

    So those, mainly less educated people from rural areas miss those days.

    Count into it the russian hybrid warfare and you get to the current state we’re in. They were very effective and managed to convince those types of people that for their current shitty situation you have to blame homosexuals, Americans, Jews, George Soros, liberals and whatnot, again under the russian motto “if the perpetrator is unknown, we have to chose one”.

    It worked that well also because Robert Fico, SMER party, was the leader of the country for ~15 years (correct me if I’m wrong) and has managed to destroy (not only) the whole education system; he is corrupt af, works with Italian mafia (Ndrangheta), has only populistic policies that do not work long term and it was in his favor to have stupid voters. His party members studied at MIGMO (former KGB school in moscow), they also travel to russia to get notes on what to say and what policies to enact and so on.

    And our previous PM, Igor Matovic, is mental patient (that’s not meant as a derogatory term but a fact) with bipolar schizophrenic disease, who acts as a clown. He and his party may have won the previous election, but they’ve made such a mess during their rule (they are called OLaNO, basically translated to “regular people and independent persons”, which they really are, there are no experts of professionals in any field of politics or ruling) that it couldn’t have been a better campaing for Fico and his SMER.

  13. No it‘s not. It‘s just pro russian trolls very active because today we have votes. There is no need to post on FB „prodly against russia“ but every dickhead needs to post „with russia 4ever“ or other bullshit. Don‘t believe it. There are quite normal people in Slovakia. We just need one last generation, ex-communists, to die. After that we need to fight only neonazis…

  14. Strong and long lasting russian propaganda. If you are a person not interested in politics, most of informations that will get to you is through social medias.

    If everything related to global politics you see is America bad, NATO bad, Russia good, it will slowly get you and change the way you think about things.

    If you convince enough of people that Russia is good they will start to influence their colleagues and family and so on, maybe they don’t change their believes at once but over 2-3 years some will. And this is what is happening.

    The problem is that there’s been quite lot of multinational scoped problems that happened in very short time (Covid, banks problems in US, Ukraine conflict, immigration, inflation) where you can just say it happened because of EU / NATO and more simple minds will take it as truth as its way much easier to blame someone than to find solutions. First you make people to fear about their future and make them believe that institutions that should protect them failed and then you tell them about alternative and they just accept it.

  15. It is mostly divided by the age and also geography, plus by an access to social mobility. The poorer part of the country you find yourself, more people who believe in pro-russian narrative you will find. There is also to account for a poor state of our schooling system, due to fact that it was for a long time underfunded and was led mostly by nationalists and populists who held the power ever since the fall of curtain.

  16. not majority but a sizeable rural minority, circa 1/3

    for some people communism is looked upon as the time where slovakia industrialized even in remote location, people were forced to have a job so u didnt see the homeless or roma ppl living like they live now

    czechia was more developed so communism was in a lot of ways a step back yet u still have pro russians over there, just not as vocal

    many slovaks view 68 as an invasion tho but u gotta remember that 42% of the population live in villages

    also there is historical precedense with us not having autonomy and being magyarized and looking to russia as a strong, sovereign slavic state… a lot of historical figures looked to russia… some even compared russia to the trunk and every slavic nation as branches of said tree (forgot who it was)

  17. In mind of “that” people we did not get invaded, we got help from them 🙂 another argument is “they were not just Russians” but also Ukrainians, Belarussians, etc… They’re just switching this on and off as they like it, one time “soviets = russians” e.g. Russians were first in space (not soviets) other time, “soviets != russians” e.g. as mentioned Prague Spring was not suppressed just by russians, but other states too.

  18. Buddy, you have to remember – there are very few real pro-russian people.

    There are, however, a lot of angry people – and I mean A LOT. They are poor and getting poorer, feel their future fade away… and these people will always be voting anti-establishment. And right now, establishment is pro-west, so anti-establishment goes pro-russia.

  19. More like people 60+ yrs old who were affected by the Russian propaganda the most during the years before ’89, few communists in heart, nazis/far-right (see the irony?) and life-long losers. The fact that there’s the highest number of retired seniors in history gives the proRussian sentiment the edge. It takes few more years but it will change eventually. Ps: remember, peoples memory is very short, old people hardly remember what they had for lunch yesterday. And after that many years it’s more like selective memory – only recall the nicest things in life, like cheap milk or beer.

  20. What do you mean how is that possible? The majority of Slovakia is stupid. That’s how.

  21. Dumbest people always scream the most.. You probably won’t find many intelligent people bitching about everything in facebook comments as they have better things to do.
    And since those who scream are the loudest, it’s understandable, that you will hear them most, even tho they are minority. 🙂

  22. Majority? Nah, just loud minority, like always. 10% strongly pro-russia, 20% just sick and tired watching ukraine related news, 30% pro-west, 40% really doesn’t give a shit about anything happening more than 100km away.

  23. Russian hybrid campaign was completely ignored by our then ruling party.

  24. you have your history wrong, I’m sorry for your Swedish education system, but as long as I know, my history not Russia but the Warsaw pack armies invadet us 1968 and that included the Soviet union (not Russia), actualy the majority of them were actualy Ukranians.

    87% of Slovaks don’t want to leave the EU the problem is that if people here say we need diplomacy … you are immediately pro-russian.

  26. Imagine having hardcore propaganda from soviets between 1968-1989

  27. We will see after elections. Older people from rural areas are suspectible to propaganda and they spread it further in their circles. The things is most of the population is simply stupid, brainwashed or suffers from Stockholm syndrome. But would say it’s 50-50.

  28. Critical thinking is weak point in our culture and mentality which I believe is one of many consequences of 30 years communism period.As a result we are prone to believe in hoaxes and anti-West propaganda. Then we divided in 1993 and internal politcs been horrible since then. Unstable cabinets and coalitions, corruption on highest levels, wannabe mafia gangs in every town or city. Its still surprise to me we made it to EU and NATO. Populisists anti-system narrative and empty promises are what majority of older and low income class people like to hear and then leaning to a pro russian rethoric when they drink during family gathering or have beer with friends in local village tavern.

  29. There is one thing people often forget to mention and that is : no one gave a fuck about Ukraine before war. Only thing I remember from like 10+ years ago is when Ukraine stopped Russian gas and media/people were saying we are gonna freeze next winter, so everybody bitched about Ukrainian woman(probably prime minister). So to this day many people don’t give a fuck about Ukraine and this opinion is very common even in Western Slovakia(outside of Bratislava ofc).

    Rest you already got in the comments.

  31. It depends what do u mean by this term. U can appreciate russian art, music, architecture etc. and being critical about Putin in same time. U can be fan of Putin but dont know some aspects of Russia in same time. Or some people are not pro russian as they seems to be but they are fans of former Soviet union and see Russia as his continuation, even its not totally the same. Even Putin is not a far leftist but slovak communists celebrate him.

  32. You should really define what “pro russian” means because it currently considered very term.

    Slovaks in general are not supportive of war in Ukraine, are against sending weapons and support diplomatic solution to the conflict. That makes them “pro russian”.

    But at least you gave local mostly ultra liberal, often hawkish early 20’s guys a platform to speak out their mind about stuff they visibly don’t understand.

    ![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|facepalm)

  33. The question is who makes pro-Russian propaganda in Slovakia and who listens to it. Czecho-Slovakia was occupied by Soviet soldiers for 23 years. The Soviets left 32 years ago. Who knows how many children raised by single mothers were left here. And of course the crazy communists have children and grandchildren too.

  37. Brainwashing.

    Older generations brainwashed by Russia + remembering only good old days (their younger days).

    Older generation brainwashing younger generations.

  39. This is not my opinion. This is an opinion of my parents is: I’d rather be a poor Slovak than rich American. We must protect our national identity. I’m not against the West but they’re just the same villains as the eastern aggressor but with more money. If we refused their money, we’d be invaded just the same just to not be invaded by Russia. That’s why we’re never by our own opinion and we must decide between two who don’t care about us as nation. They only care about us to build more military camps on our soil. We were allowed our own country when we were out of gold that Austrians and Hungarians couldn’t dig out anymore and the creation of ČSR in 1918 and it’s support by the US could wear the liberation and anti-imperialist stamp. But only when it was not in collision with any diplomatic interests of the US anymore. NATO is an Empire and if we wanted to be independent it would be sorted the same as the yanks sorted it in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea and so on. Why was not Saudi Arabia invaded after 9/11? Most of the terrorists were Saudi Arabian. Bc it’d be in the US’s diplomatic interests collision. US are villains and I’m never going to support them. The Russians are doing the same but less effectively BC they’re poor and they cannot afford to do it so diplomatically. That’s why they do this war that the US provoced by their effective policy. The US policy is the same as Russian aggression. 🤷
    End of.
    I personally agree at that point of not invading the Saudis and why was it necessary to invade Afghanistan? But other than that I think it’s totally off point. To me Putin just wants his power and his illusion of Russia as the world power to last in his head as long as possible.

  40. I sincerely doubt the majority of Slovaks are pro-russian, that sounds like a gross exaggeration, perhaps even propaganda.

    That being said many, mainly Christians around the age of 55+ (those who do not remember the invasion) and older people who were doing well under the Soviets are pro-russian not for their loyalty to Russia, but because they genuinely believe that we are being invaded by “American values” and beliefs, which are anathema to their Christian worldview.

    It is a very conflicting perspective, considering that most of these people are deeply nationalistic as well. Most of them believe that Russia is not interested in invading us, their justification being that either the people from the invaded areas want to be under Russia, or that Russia has a historical claim over Ukraine.

    Plus the propaganda is strong, they see Russia as a traditional country valuing and reinforcing the family unit, traditional gender roles, religion and what not, while the reality is fairly different (high divorce rates, high suicide rates, drug issues, criminality etc.)

    In short, it is more a question or Christian values versus western values, which are in their minds inherently anti-christian.

  41. Slovakia is a playground for Russian desinformation campaigns. They are testing and tweaking their strategies and it seems to be working. It was going on for last 15 years.

    Also, the main opposition parties are playing anti-USA and pro-Russia cards which is unheard of in EU.

    Social networks are responsible for this mess. Whilst they may have some people fighting hoaxes in US they completely neglected small countries. There is one person in Facebook for moderation in 4 countries in Central Europe.

  42. majority of Slovakia is not pro russian. you are a victim of Russian informational warfare.

  43. The reason why a lot of Slovak people (not fucking Slovakian) are pro-Russian, it’s because the Kremlin propaganda has been very active, there’s a lot of nonsense circulating on Facebook and the government does almost nothing to stop it.

    They believe Russia has right to dictate geopolitical orientation of vassal states like Ukraine, and when Ukraine rebelled and overthrew the pro-Rus president in 2014, it’s USA’s fault and thus the whole war is the fault of “the meddling USA in foreign affairs”.

    A lot of Slovak people are also idiots, so…

  44. If your life sucks you want to blame someone. Right now we’re in the EU and NATO and we’re not doing well (and neither is anyone else in the world but we don’t see that). The old people remember socialism with nostalgia and how everything was good, they don’t remember the bad parts somehow.

    Imagine what happend with Brexit happening to us. A politician tells you he has all the answers, he says he will fix everything and save the country. This along with the conservative majority of Slovakia uniting under a common enemy, the progressives, and you have your answer. People don’t want their lives to suck and someone is telling them exactly what they want to hear. 🙃

  45. Please bear in mind that main culprit here – ex prime minister Robert Fico – was a pro-EU and pro-NATO politician just 5 years ago. He was talking about being in the EU-core and sending soldiers to Afganistan.

    Everything changed after murder of the journalist and his girlfriend in 2018. He had to step down and there is a real possibility that he may end up in prision. Over 40 of his close political allies were already sentenced for corruption. So he is saving his arse with whatever means available. He is blowing air into that hoax fire hoping to get into government so he can get rid of police president and judges. Mostly anti-immigration flames that may actually work well for him. Slovakia is at the crossroads of Ukraine-West and MiddleEast-West immigration paths with many people crossing. Oddly enough Sweden is often used as an example of bad immigration policies.

    The pro-russia scene is relatively big and it is really odd mix of anti-vax, anti-5G, flat-Earth and Soros conspirators. But they are loud and organised. They are not bigger than pro-EU and pro-West part of the population. The fact that pro-democratic parties are divided and there will be many votes falling thru the 5% treshold for political parties is not helping.

  46. Stupid people plus propaganda equal communism in Slovakia by 2025

  47. I think it’s a bit more complicated than saying we are pro Russian. Since the invasion of Ukraine prices of everything have almost doubled. Now that situation is even more complicated and not the fault of Ukraine, but rather big companies that could be selling their products for much cheaper but since people are willing to pay than why should they lower the price. Also the refugees coming here and “taking our jobs”. Not to mention the whole debacle of our kindergardens prioritising taking in Ukrainian children at the start of the invasion as a show of good faith really pissed off parents young and old. Our government giving away lots of stuff to them in terms of military hardware. Completely ignoring the fact (most likely cuz it isn’t as televised or written about) that we are getting much more modern and better equipment from NATO. I could go on and on. It’s a very complicated matter, and people don’t like complicated. They want to be able to point their finger at something and say “that’s at fault”. Which is why they start to say that we were better off under Russia. Even though they know very well that that would be an even bigger shit show.

  48. Well, lack of education in most cases, as the majority of those pro russians are people who didn’t even go to secondary school and then “close-mindedness.” I’d sum it up like this in general but of course the problem is much deeper.

  49. Slovaks are very pro-Russian but most of us are primarily anti-American

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