Philip Ruff

Philip Ruff

@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Anarchist historian with a weakness for Latvia, good music and things that go bump in the night. Anarhistu vēsturnieks.

786 followers150 following634 posts

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

The Conviction of Estonia’s ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ Links Russian Intelligence to Moscow’s Interference on Brexit – Byline Times bylinetimes.com/2026/10/26/t...

bylinetimes.comThe Conviction of Estonia’s ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ Links Russian Intelligence to Moscow’s Interference on BrexitA 'diplomat' who launched the 'Conservative Friends of Russia' group has now been identified as a Russian intelligence officer involved in an attempted European disinformation campaign
Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

“‘Can you explain what exactly Situationism is all about?’ Wyckaert gave the questioner a severe look. Guy Debord stood up and said in French ‘We’re not here to answer cuntish questions’. At this he and the other Situationists walked out.” 🧐 pasttense.co.uk/2016/09/25/t...

pasttense.co.ukToday in London’s psychogeographical history: Situationist International‘s fourth conference opens, Limehouse, 1960.Upon their arrival in the English capital, delegates were set the ‘psychogeographical’ task of locating the British Sailors Society, where the conference was to be held. The following r…
Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

The fabulous film "A Fistful of Dynamite" (1972) features James Coburn as a wanted Irish Republican explosives expert caught up in the Mexican revolution. One scene sees him reading a book by anarchist theoretician Michael Bakunin. 💣

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

🐰

hammancheez but spooky@hammancheez.bsky.social

"Rush allegedly made several requests to the government for large amounts of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses, which he received." 'which he received' how the fuck do you just get given gold bars as a govt employee with no oversight

cbsnews.comFormer CIA official found with $40 million in gold bars in plea deal talksThe court filing did not indicate what charges David Rush could plead to.
Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Anarchist artist Gerhard Seyfried (born in Munich, 1948). He became a prominent figure in the 1970s among the alternative and underground comic scenes of Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

I hate to kick a 97-year-man when he's down and in poor health, but sometimes truth must out...

Marijam Didžgalvytė@marijamdid.com

Really glad Chomsky is getting a reckoning. It's one of the greatest tragedies that as anarchists we lost the great David Graeber and were left with this dude who hasn't contributed with an original idea for 30 years and did a lot of bad deeds in the meantime.

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

You didn't want to be a Russian cop if these guys walked into your office. By the end of January, 1906, the Riga municipal police lost 110 officers to urban guerrilla attacks, more than a quarter of the entire police force. Jēkabs Dubelšteins, Ģederts Eliass, Jānis Žākle, Jānis Čoke.

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

30 August, 1918: Socialist Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan shot and seriously injured Lenin in Moscow. Kaplan considered Lenin a traitor to the revolution for disbanding the Constituent Assembly. She was shot by Kremlin Commandant Pavel Malkov on 3 September.

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Sad news. RIP, Ron.

Freedom Press@freedompress.org.uk

Just saw from @liverpoolsolfed.bsky.social that Ron Marsden has passed away aged 79. There can be few people who were so resolutely committed to promoting anarcho-syndicalist ideas in Britain in recent decades, in many ways he was The memory of that wing of the movement. >

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Anarchist air force? Nestor Makhno’s Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (1918-1920) captured and flew around 20 Nieuport and Sopwith aircraft on reconnaissance operations against the Bolsheviks and White Russian armies.

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

THE "NARVA IS NEXT" NARRATIVE - Why Foreign Media Keep Recycling the Unfounded Story That Russia Is Preparing to Attack Estonia #Baltics balticsentinel.eu/8527882/the-...

balticsentinel.euTHE "NARVA IS NEXT" NARRATIVE ⟩ Why Foreign Media Keep Recycling the Unfounded Story That Russia Is Preparing to Attack EstoniaEver since the occupation of Crimea, speculation has periodically resurfaced that Narva is likely to be Russia’s next target. Yet the roots of this narrative lie not in Russia, but in a threat scenari...
Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Who was the strangler?

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com

#OtD 13 Aug 1917 Eugene Bonaventure de Vigo, anarchist, anti-militarist writer, editor and father of filmmaker Jean Vigo was murdered in his prison cell, strangled by a shoelace stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8452...

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Me, Mum and Dad, Big Brother and Sister - and the prefab we lived in until I was five-years-old. The prefabs, on the Bells Farm Estate, Druids Heath, Birmingham, were built by German POWs in 1945, assembled from sheets of asbestos. No "Health & Safety" in the 1950s!

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Today in 1789, the French Revolution began - 900 revolutionaries and a regiment of French Guards stormed the Bastille in Paris, the symbol of Royal oppression. Poster: a celebration of Bastille Day organised by French anarchist exiles in London, Friday 14 July, 1893.

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

#OTD 1 July 1876, Michael Bakunin died in Bern, Switzerland, aged only 62. It was Bakunin, in his arguments with Marx, who first defined anarchism as a separate political movement, and not just part of the package-deal-left. I wish more "anarchists" would bother to read him. 🏴

Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

"Peter the Painter, the legendary Latvian anarchist terrorist who defied Winston Churchill and to whom Filips Rufs dedicated a formidable book (available in English and Latvian) is being honoured on France Culture (Radio France)" - Nicolas Auzanneau www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

radiofrance.frPeter the Painter : qui es-tu ?Voici un homme célèbre pour : son absence ! Et dont on n'est pas même pas sûr qu’il ait vraiment existé ! Il était letton, anarchiste et voulait tout faire péter. Il s’appelait Peter, Peter the Painte...
Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

Russia preparing possible ‘provocation’ in Baltic states or Poland, sources say Kremlin may attempt to test Nato cohesion as Russia comes under growing pressure from Ukraine, according to sources from two countries www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j... #Latvia #Baltics #Poland

theguardian.comRussia preparing possible ‘provocation’ in Baltic states or Poland, sources sayKremlin may attempt to test Nato cohesion as Russia comes under growing pressure from Ukraine, according to sources from two countries
Philip Ruff
@ruffphilip.bsky.social

"Līgo" / "Jāņi" is the Midsummer festival, celebrated in Latvia on 23-24 June. In pagan times, Jānis was the God of Summer, fertility, and the Summer Solstice. Christianity demoted him to "Saint John". But the ancient pagan rituals remain in the modern celebrations. Priecīgus Līgo svētkus!