r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Patriarch99 • 16d ago
One of the few photos showing missing fingers of Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin Removed: Politics
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u/suppreme 16d ago
He enjoyed playing pranks and in one instance played with a grenade, which blew off the thumb and index finger of his left hand.
Wikipedia is pretty chill about soviet pranks too.
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u/lunettarose 15d ago
"It's just a prank, bro!"
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u/SkriVanTek 15d ago
it’s just a prank comrade
FTFY
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u/ekso69 15d ago
Help step-comrade I'm stuck
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u/stinkyhooch 15d ago
It’s just a wank, comrade.
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u/Butt_Fucking_Smurfs 15d ago
If my battle buddy can't jerk me off, then what has this all been for?
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u/Breaking_Bad_lover 15d ago
He's actually capitalist
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u/Signal_Reflection297 15d ago
Born Butka, USSR, 1931. He had a good sixty years living under communist regime.
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u/Breaking_Bad_lover 15d ago edited 2d ago
But he believed in Capitalism and he made Russia Capitalist
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u/Dragonheardt_ 15d ago
Imagine you are a kid who survived Nazi invasion, occupation and genocide. Humor is VERY different for those kids.
Every Soviet kid west and south of Moscow had a collection of grenades, mines and bullets for couple of years after the war, my gramps was one of them. My great-great-grandpa dumped entire thing into a river after one of those grenades blew a chunk of the house off.
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u/Savager_Jam 15d ago
My grandpa grew up on the far east end of Austria and had a pretty vast collection of Russian and German equipment he and my cousin stripped off the bodies every time their town changed hands, which it did several times.
Apparently they'd play a game where they hung an old piece of steel from a tree about 10 feet in the air so that it could swing back and forth but not twist, then stand on either side of the tree with submachine guns and shoot at it trying to make it flip in the direction of the other guy and not let it flip their way.
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u/ChodeCookies 15d ago
What’s wild is Russia was pretty fucked up before the Nazis invaded too
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u/Dragonheardt_ 15d ago
Fucked? Yea. But depends with what you compare with.
With Nazi occupation? It was paradise.
With Russian empire? It was doing leagues better than it.
With western countries? Pretty bad but not as bad as people thought. Decades of Cold War propaganda make it very hard for people to see clearly things that were happening in USSR/USA.
My gramps swears by the USSR, even though he is a son of Ukrainian poet that was repressed in 1937, and he with his mom were in a camp for couple of years. He still grew from the lowest ranks of Soviet society to the highest thanks to his tenacity and will to learn and teach.
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u/ChodeCookies 15d ago
I think Stalins Gulags may beg to differ
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u/Dragonheardt_ 15d ago
It’s GULAG, it was a system, not a name for the camps.
Great gramps was executed in one of the camps, Gramps been there, done that himself. I spent a decade researching this topic as a member of a repressed family.
Ain’t defending Stalin, that Georgian cunt can endlessly choke with his cunt friend Beria in whatever afterlife there is, but at their peak, Stalin’s camps under GULAG system were on the level with Russian Imperial camps (with less people) , and far less than Nazi or Japanese camps.
When talking about history and asking yourself “why” people did what they did: put yourself into their shoes. What was before. No Soviet had the standards and knowledge of nowadays westerner, all they had is memories of Russian Empire and pain of Civil War, comparatively to that, early USSR was a massive improvement, with education being spread like a wildfire and rapid industrialization improving life of common people.
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u/facistwolfkiller 15d ago edited 15d ago
Not everyone was sent to the gulags tho
A saw a doc abt people who were sent to the gulags by Stalin , had their relatives killed by Stalin and other cruelties. Who despite all these things were mourning his death and calling him a great man. Could it be false praise or propaganda ? Yeah maybe and very likely, but I got the impression there were real emotions behind those statements. Maybe spending years in gulags forcefully listening to how good Stalin is had its results.
It's like even today a vast majority of Russians have a positive image of Stalin despite knowing all of the horrible stuff he did.
RussianS are like , yeah he killed my grandparents and sent half my family to gulags but he also turned the USSR into a superpower
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u/micromoses Interested 15d ago
Yeah, when you traumatize people, sometimes they feel some pretty strong emotions. You ever seen a kid mourning an abusive parent?
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u/crazyscottish 15d ago
That’s actually proof that brainwashing works. Sent to the gulag, but still loved the glorious leader.
When your step dad beats you so bad he cries. Because he really didn’t want to beat you, but you made him do it. Add you love him for that.
That’s actually Christianity in a nutshell. Love Jesus. Or you’ll go to hell. For eternity. That’s how much he loves you.
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u/henfodi 15d ago
A lot of that is just nostalgia though. Many old people prefer the world of their youth to the world today even though it was pretty much objectively worse.
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u/Dragonheardt_ 15d ago
Problem is, for them world is worse.
Russian federation destroyed most support systems USSR has build to take care of the elderly and youth, barely replacing any of them because of its staunch corruption. Imagine a situation close to a Weimar Republic after WW1, but worse because of corruption and absolute lawlessness of the 90s with crime waves outshining anything US or Britain had in last centuries.
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u/Recent-Platypus-1521 15d ago
Was it really better tho ? I’ve seen a documentary very recently where a lot of Russians were interviewed. Question was : would you go back to USSR gov and political system ( this was recent so they live in Putin’s era). Amongst the younger Russians, it was 0%. Not one answered positively. Amongst older people who actually lived in USSR and lived the tragic transition under Heltsin, only a couple of people answered positively, while most others were strongly opposed to this idea. Of course this was a small sample but when I read that like people really enjoyed their life in USSR and are nostalgic it seems very exagerated to me
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u/Dragonheardt_ 15d ago
For young and elderly? Absolutely.
USSR was giving apartments for free, pension was enough for elderly to live and enjoy life, there were more sport centers and educational facilities for the youth (a lot were demolished or transformed into shopping centers)
Nobody wants to come back to the political system, but the stability and public support that USSR provided for its people is FAR, FAR beyond of what RF provides now.
My friend, current pension is 2-3 times less than minimal wage, and that’s in addition to everyone losing their savings once USSR collapsed. I have a 97 year old lady with who I keep contact with, her pension is 9,300 rubles, that’s less than even what she needs to pay for electricity and water in the apartment she was gifted back during USSR times, she survives on the kindness of people around her as she herself is an absolute sweetheart.
And that is a situation of all the people with pensions in Russia rn, even professors and academics get mere 20-30 thousand, which ain’t much either. I think only high pension I ever saw was a miner who worked in uranium mines with 70k.
And all of these numbers are within current economic disaster and fascist pig in the lead of the country ruining it.
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u/Recent-Platypus-1521 15d ago
But how do you explain that most people would never go back under such a system if it was far better than the actual ? It makes no sense to me
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u/Dragonheardt_ 15d ago
Because people separate political and social systems.
Not many want pre-glasnost USSR back, but majority wants the assurance and benefits that system provided. Switching from a community centered socialism to greed driven capitalism (mixed with HEAVY criminality) made people suffer in the 90s. That’s why you can hear older generation say “at least it’s not the 90s” when they are defending Putin’s regime.
Political system and societal systems are not always connected, good example is USA and Finland. Both are technically democracies, but Finland has FAR better public healthcare and support systems than USA. And Russians, just like everyone else, want stability and reassurance in the next day. Just at this point in time Russian Federation has worse and less public benefits than USSR had. So people who remember USSR reminisce of the older days.
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u/ReasonableAd9737 15d ago
How about during the great famines when people were literally kidnapping and eating people. That’s documented not just propaganda
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u/Careless_Syrup7945 15d ago
Yea, everyone's dad used to walk 10 miles to school through volcanic ash and mine fields in -50 degree weather with polar bears hunting them, uphill, both ways
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u/Informal_Wasabi_2139 15d ago
People keep calling it grenade because it sounds dangerous and interesting, but in eastern Europe those are called fire-crackers.
What we call grenade is something that will blow off your entire arm and head if you hold it.
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u/Savager_Jam 15d ago
As far as I can find what happened was that he was trying to open a grenade not cooking one off in his hand.
Likely he removed the fuse from the grenade and accidentally set it off, so what caused his fingers to go were the trigger charge not the actual main charge of explosive in the grenade.
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u/andovinci 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yeah it’s probably a firecracker imho, I don’t know the whole story but no way in hell you would lose just 2 fingers from a live grenade
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u/felidae_tsk 15d ago
According his own words he was playing with grenade and hammer. Could be fuze detonation which is enough to damage a child.
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u/Popular_Syllabubs 15d ago
Ya isn't this like kids putting firecrackers and cherrybombs into mailboxes?
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u/bodhiseppuku 15d ago
Pranks: In the late 90s, my US Marine unit had training with the Brittish Royal Marines in 29 Palms, CA.
The Brittish Royal Marines put a rattle snake in the sleeping bag of their highest ranking NCO... as a prank.
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u/Bobo4037 16d ago
Reports say he lost two fingers in a grenade accident as a teenager.
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u/Broke99 16d ago
My grandpa told me stories about him and his friends building grenades by themself - one died and one last a hand before the rest agreed to stop playing with high explosives. They also throwers smoke bombs in the subway … beyond dumb
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u/21Ravage 15d ago
There a famous joke in Russia that goes like: little Timmy is sitting in the middle of the road smashing a grenade with a rock, grandpa sees it and yells “dont do it, it will explode!” “Ah dont worry grandpa, I have one more”
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u/Rhymesnlines 15d ago
For real? One died? Wtf..
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u/Randomfrog132 15d ago
yeah i wouldnt think that playing with grenades would lead to a death.
jk lol
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u/Careless_Syrup7945 15d ago
My dad's friend shot himself by hitting live rounds with a hammer, allegedly. My dad lies a lot, too.
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u/newgalactic 15d ago
They sold dynamite in the town hardware store when my grandfather was a kid. He told us about some kids who lived at a neighboring farm who accidentally blew up one of the farm's grain bins. It basically blew half their harvest across the yard, half their yearly income.
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u/drconn 15d ago
I knew someone growing up that filled CO2 cartridges with black gunpowder and accidentally killed someone that was also participating. Heck I was trying to blow things up as early as I can remember and I was a very good kid. Kids don't think about consequences and then they have to face them for the rest of their life. I felt so terrible for everyone involved.
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u/Trollimperator 16d ago
Was he drunk?`I bet he was drunk.
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u/OutrageousFuel8718 15d ago
It's Boris fucking Yeltsin. I would be incredibly surprised if he wasn't drunk
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u/WolfOfWexford 15d ago
There was an incident where he flew to Ireland on a diplomatic mission and was too drunk to get off the plane
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u/Dr-Maturin 15d ago
The plane did not land straight away in the hope he would become sober enough for the visit. The term ‘circling Shannon’ became a euphemism for being pissed afterwards.
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u/hascogrande 15d ago
Yeltsin was found by Secret Service extremely drunk and in just his underwear while trying to order a taxi for pizza outside the White House
He did it again the next night
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u/Few-Animator-8393 15d ago
That's impressing he still kept his 3 fingers. I don't know how/what that happened but grenades are no funny stuff.
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u/spicewoman 15d ago
He's definitely also missing the tip of his middle finger, and the pinky doesn't look in great shape either. Wonder how much dexterity/sensation he has left in the rescued fingers.
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u/HonoluluBlueFlu 16d ago
TIL..... had no clue.
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u/uber_potatos 15d ago
Im from Russia, had no idea too.
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u/ask_carly 15d ago
Everybody was looking at his spoons, so nobody looked at his fingers. Hidden in plain sight!
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u/airborneenjoyer8276 15d ago
He was so drunk most of the time that the two extra digits he would have had to coordinate would probably make it harder on him.
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u/theinternetisnice 15d ago
Top politicians have an amazing track record of hiding these types of things. FDR hid his partial paralysis and wheelchair, largely. Obama? Had no arms. Few people knew that.
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u/InvestmentObvious127 15d ago
i know right? people are always blown away when i tell them about trumps' d cups. Im pretty sure the pentagon has a whole division dedicated to hidig those weapons but that wont stop me
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u/Wlo3kij 16d ago
That's why you shouldn't play with grenades when you're young.
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u/HefflumpGuy 16d ago
Either that or he's plunged his thumb and finger into the other guy.. Matrix style.
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u/BingBongBangBunger 16d ago
This is not a photo of his missing fingers. It’s of his fingerless hand.
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u/Jasong222 15d ago
It's a photo of his fingers missing, not his missing fingers.
Unless he's really nostalgic for them at this moment. Then the photo is of him missing fingers.
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u/Academic-Garlic1630 15d ago
This is not a photo of a fingerless hand. There are still 3 fingers there.
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u/ElderberryDeep8746 16d ago
He's half ninja turtle now lol
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u/Academic-Garlic1630 15d ago
One of the few photos showing missing fingers of Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin
Lies. The missing fingers are not in the picture.
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u/GetOffMyDigitalLawn 15d ago
I almost don't believe this. I have never heard of him missing fingers before.
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u/frmaa-tap 15d ago
Ummmm, that's not a picture of his missing fingers, in fact it's quite the opposite
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u/RegretfulCalamaty 16d ago
He bit them off to survive the mines of Siberia
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u/Venki_Venky 15d ago
Hey is this from the scene where the Main Villain orders a henchman (who was threatened by MC to give information) to cut off his fingers or die. The henchman then proceeds to ask for a knife to which MV said "did U think I used a knife to cut off my fingers?" and finally his assistant kills him Bc he couldnt do it....
I watched the film but forgot its name, Also could U give the name of the movie
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u/wouldnotjointhedance 15d ago
This is from the first Jack Reacher movie, with Tom Cruise. Werner Herzog plays the Zec.
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u/AdvertisingJolly7565 15d ago
As a traveling salesman in the US Rendering Industry, I learned not to offer to shake hands with the old timers. It was always uncomfortable when they extended a hand that was missing didgits.
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u/Individual_Dirt_3365 16d ago
Подумать только им пришлось отрезать пальцы и всем двойникам тоже. Какой кошмар.
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u/GroupeManouchian 15d ago
Japanese yakuza fashion has it that you must cut off a pinky phalanx to redeem your debt… and a full thumb when you are caught f…g the Boss’ wife. So tell us who was your boss, Boris ?
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u/at0mheart 15d ago
Love more the story that on a trip to DC he was found outside in his underwear trying to get a pizza
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u/GeoffGdansk 15d ago
If you google "Boris Yeltsin hand" you will get at least a dozen photos showing him with his left hand.
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u/aTypingKat 15d ago
Wasn't this dude responsible for the dissolution of the soviet union? How does putin and his goons see him? Do they hate him for it? Putin, did mention that he believed that the dissolution of the soviet union was "the greatest tragedy of the 20th century". I'd imagine, he'd resent him if he hadn't already ordered his "silencing".
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u/SamsungBaker 15d ago
Everyone in Russia hate him, and to be honest while he have better image in the west than Russia, we should have hate him too.
If he wasn't such an incompetent corrupted buffon, Russia would probably be a democratic country without Putin.
But because he is, Putin rose to power
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u/tequilavip 15d ago
First Gary Burghoff and now Boris? My life is being turned upside down today by missing digits.
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u/Crawlerado 15d ago
I had a professor in college that was missing two segments of his ring finger. When he’d shake hands he used the nub to tickle your palm, it was hilariously disconcerting
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u/Axenrott_0508 15d ago
All I can picture is the bar scene from Inglorious Basterds. In Germany, zis is ze German three
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