May 31, 2022
This article is dedicated to my grandmother and all my family in Ukraine, and a special thank you to my mother for contributing her experiences and knowledge to this article. слава україні, Glory to Ukraine
Image Credits: (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) AP
Gas prices are up, tensions are high, and World War 3 memes swirl through the internet; these are the effects of the war between Ukraine and Russia felt by most Americans. Even for those who care and feel the pain of Ukrainian citizens, there seems to be a lack of fundamental understanding of the history of this conflict; this is not an aggressive phenomenon that has only now showed its ugly face. Rather, Russia has been an oppressive power over all Eastern Europe for many years. As a first generation Ukrainian-American, I hope to provide some better understanding about this long-standing conflict and offer some insight to the pain Russia has caused.
The Soviet Union was a highly centralized communist state that spanned Eurasia from 1922 to 1991, beginning after Bolsheviks overthrew the centuries-old Romanov monarchy. It occupied 15 republics, many of whom enjoy being mostly free democracies to this day. After the death of Vladimir Lenin, the leader of Russia and progenitor of the Marxist revolution, Georgian-born revolutionary Joseph Stalin assumed dictatorial power and enacted a series of brutal policies that left millions dead. His reign caused immense terror and suffering, but additionally transformed the Soviet Union from an agrarian society to an industrial military superpower [1]. After the industrial boom of the early to mid-20th century, the Soviet Union entered an “Era of Stagnation”, spanning from 1964 to 1982, characterized by economic difficulties that led to a steady decline in power that would continue until its collapse in 1991.
My mother left Ukraine to move to the United States in 1998 when she turned 20, meaning her formative years and educational experiences were all spent in Ukraine. There are plenty of articles and research available about the Soviet Union and the conflict, but I decided to utilize a first-person source, someone who lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union and in a post-Soviet, free Ukraine: my mother, Tatyana Kebuladze. She was born in 1977 in Kiev, Soviet Ukraine, a place which now only exists in history.
“I was taught both Ukrainian and Soviet history, but it was a totally made-up history of Ukraine. I didn’t know that Ukraine wanted to be independent after Czar’s Russia fell after the Soviet Revolution, and that it actually was free for a few years. To ensure we didn’t leave the Soviet Union, Stalin took all the crops from Ukraine and starved tens of millions of people, just let them die, and that’s exactly what they’re doing right now, they’re just besieging cities to punish people, innocent civilians.”
This was called the Holodomor, or Great Famine, and was one of many crimes against humanity the Soviets in power committed against the people of Ukraine. Still, even after the collapse of the USSR, Russian antagonism of Ukraine persists. In the classroom, Russia has instructed its teachers to spread disinformation about Ukraine – right now, teachers are told to read aloud the following state propaganda justifying the invasion of Ukraine to their students before screening a video of Vladimir Putin: “our policy is freedom, freedom of choice for everyone to independently determine their own future and the future of their children”. If asked if Russia is at war, the answer is no; students are simply told that Russia is conducting a peace-keeping operation to stop a nightmare of genocide against ‘millions’ of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers [2]. They feed their citizens lies, shut down independent media that reports on the invasion, and have arrested over 6,000 anti-war protestors. Unfortunately, misinformation is not a uniquely Russian phenomenon, with social media assuming an influential role in modern information warfare. BBC recently released an article entitled “How to Spot False News from Ukraine”, as more and more old footage and inaccurate information spreads to fan the flames of the conflict [3]. For example, videos of deadly blasts in Tianjin and Beirut have been regularly shared as misinformation during other explosions, but neither are related in any way to the Russian invasion, rather an attempt to mislead audience members to see the war as either a hoax or at the fault of Ukrainian military.
Many ask what can be done other than imposing sanctions and aiding Ukrainian citizens and military. It is complicated, as mass intervention may lead to an all-out war stands that stands as a threat to the entire world, but giving Ukraine up for slaughter in the name of democracy leaves thousands of innocent civilians dead. The bravery of the Ukrainian citizens and President Zelensky will not outlast the Russian armies, so it seems to be only a matter of time before NATO must take more drastic action. Currently, NATO is helping coordinate Ukraine’s requests for assistance and is supporting Ukrainian allies in the delivery of humanitarian and non-lethal aid. Some member countries are sending weapons, medical supplies, and other military equipment, as well as financial assistance and hosting refugees [4]. Ukraine, however, is not officially a member of NATO, so other than condemning Russia’s invasion, NATO states are under no obligation to provide substantive support for the nation.
Though this war is indeed the fault of Russian oligarchs in power, Russian citizens are certainly complicit in this power. Attitudes between Russians and Ukrainians were always somewhat shaky, but they were not always this amplified.
“I grew up speaking both Russian and Ukrainian, and it wasn’t such a big deal. However, I did always feel when I was traveling especially to Moscow, that I was kind of a secondary citizen, that we were just peasants with weird accents.”
There are protestors, but in the grand scheme of things, the streets are mostly empty. Close to 12 million people live in Moscow alone, so 15,000 arrests throughout the entire nation is insignificant in comparison. It is a difficult situation when the risk stands to be jailed, but it is more complicated than just protestors, as Tatyana says.
“This didn’t just happen yesterday; they’ve had Putin for 22 years, and I haven’t seen millions of people protesting his rule. This power solidified not yesterday, it took a long time, and I do feel that the people are complicit in this.”
Putin was appointed one of three first deputy prime ministers in 1999 after spending 17 years a mid-level agent working in foreign intelligence [5]. With the help of rigged elections, he has remained in power for 22 years, and now has started his campaign to justify the invasion of Ukraine using popular Russian sentiments. One such justification relies on the premise that, “Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia.” [6]. This myth that Ukraine has no culture, no history, no life without the Soviet Union, is false at its core. It has its own unique culture, history, cities, architecture, language. It was never a colonizer, never an empire, and its entire existence has been an attempt of freedom and peace. This war is breaking the hearts of families here in the United States, destroying the lives of the people who live in Ukraine, and attempts to erase an entire culture from the face of the Earth. Nations around the world have a moral obligation to stand up against this power and save the people of Ukraine, a country rich in spirit and perseverance. Russia is an occupier, and if successful, it will not stop at Ukraine to reclaim its territorial power. In the words of Winston Churchill, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else”. My hope for my family and the families of all those suffering in Ukraine is that the right thing will be done.
[1] History.com Editors. “History of the Soviet Union”. History. September 1, 2017
[2] Bill Van Esveld. “Russia Instructs Teachers to Spread Disinformation About Ukraine”. Human Rights Watch. March 4, 2022.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/04/russia-instructs-teachers-spread-disinformation-about-ukraine#
[3] Marianna Spring. “How to spot false posts from Ukraine”. BBC News. March 14, 2022 https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-60654288
[4] “NATO’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. March 28, 2022.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_192648.htm
[5] Pamela Engel. “How Vladimir Putin became one of the most feared leaders in the world”. Business Insider. February 14, 2017.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-vladimir-putin-rose-to-power-2017-2
[6] Tomasz Janowski, Jon Boyle, Grant McCool. “Extracts from Putin’s speech on Ukraine”. Reuters news. February 21, 2022.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/extracts-putins-speech-ukraine-2022-02-21/
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