Vladimir Putin Sets The Stage
On a chilly afternoon in Moscow, dressed in a thick trench coat, President Vladimir Putin stood before a new bronze statue of Aleksander Solzhenitsyn and spent a few minutes speaking of the beloved Russian author. He thanked Aleksander for representing ‘the soul of Russia during its darkest moments’ and commended his works to younger Russians, ‘his work should be studied for all generations of Russians’. This was at a commencement in 2016, several years before the war in Ukraine. Three years before the election of Volodymyr Zelensky and longer before the first Russian boot ever touched Ukrainian soil. Western media didn’t even bother to cover this event, it was just a statue dedication wasn’t it? Though no one realized it at the time, what was happening that cold afternoon was a harbinger of events to come. A prelude to a conflict that would echo through the world.
We move to spring of 2021, when Russia first began its invasion of Ukraine. Many believe that this was the start of the war, a sudden fit of expansionist madness that overtook President Putin. As we are now coming to learn, there is a deep history to this war. The more that information, current and historical comes out, this war has been brewing for nearly a century. As we now come to the third year of this terrible war what is now taking place, we need some answers.
A Warning From The Past
All of which leads me back to Aleksander Solzhenitsyn. Aleksander knew something of the Ukrainian conflict. He should, given that he suffered through, and witnessed the fall of the Soviet empire. He understood Russia better than anyone. And he predicted that one day, Ukraine would become it’s own nation and then would erupt into a bloody civil war, and that Russia would eventually step in.
Solzhenitsyn is one of my favorite writers, and until a few days ago, I had no idea he had ever discussed Ukraine at all. As it turns out, Solzhenitsyn was very much concerned with the issue of Ukraine, and feared what would follow if the problem were never addressed.
“I am particularly pained by the fierce intolerance that rages around the Russian-Ukrainian question (ruinous to both nations and beneficial only to their enemies) because of my own mixed Russian-Ukrainian origin, and because I was raised under the combined influence of both these cultures, and because I have never experienced, nor do I now, any antagonism between the two. On various occasions I have written and publicly spoken of Ukraine and her people, of the tragedy of the Ukrainian famine. I have quite a few old friends in Ukraine and, to me, the sufferings of Russians and Ukrainians alike invariably occupy equal space in the rows of Communist-induced suffering. In my heart’s perception there is no room for a Russian-Ukrainian conflict and should, God forbid, the issue ever come to a head I can safely affirm: never, under any circumstances, shall I take part in a Russian-Ukrainian clash or allow my sons to do so—no matter what reckless hotheads might try to drag us there.” – Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Appeal to Conference on Russian-Ukrainian Relations in Toronto, 1981
Solzhenitsyn achieved fame for writing about the horrors and injustices in Joseph Stalin’s Russia. It is also important to remember that Solzhenitsyn could be considered a Russia patriot. He loved his country and it’s history. Which is why he was so occupied with Ukraine.
The Origins of Ukraine & Our Current Conflict
Solzhenitsyn would explain that long ago, Russia was invaded by Mongols (lasting from 1240 to 1500), then in 1832 the Emperor of Russia annexed Poland, both of these events created what Solzhenitsyn called, ‘three branches of Russians’. There was a Ukrainian language long before Ukraine ever became independent. Already, long before the fall of the Czars, before the USSR, before Vladimir Putin, there was this idea of Ukraine as being separate. Yet it was still Russia, occupied by Russian families, speaking predominantly Russian, keeping Russian customs.
When Ukraine achieved its independence in 1991, Solzhenitsyn expressed his fear for what would follow. He would often speak about the suppression that was already taking place, the corruption already in the government, and the divides already taking place between friends and family.
I am pained by what has been going on in Ukraine—ever since the 1991 referendum. The fanatical suppression and persecution of the Russian language (which, according to previous polls, was used as the main language by over 60 percent of Ukraine’s population) is simply an act of atrocity that is aimed against Ukraine’s own cultural perspective. Vast tracts of land, which have never been part of historical Ukraine, e.g., Novorossia, Crimea and the entire southeastern region, have been forcibly incorporated into the modern Ukrainian state and into its policy of acquiring NATO membership at any cost. Throughout Yeltsin’s term in office, not a single meeting that he had with any of the Ukrainian presidents had gone without capitulation and concessions to them. Pushing the Black Sea Fleet out of Sevastopol (the city was never ceded to Ukraine, not even under Khrushchev) is an outrageous humiliation of the entire 19th- and 20th-century Russian history.
Under these conditions, Russia must not cast Ukraine’s multimillion Russian population to the whims of fate, abandoning it, and cutting off all links with it.”
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Interview on Moscow News, 2006
Solzhenitsyn talked about these issues going back to the 1960’s all the way back in his masterpiece, ‘The Gulag Archipelago’;
For me this is a painful subject. Russia and the Ukraine are united in my blood, my heart, my thoughts. But from friendly contact with Ukrainians in the camps over a long period I have learned how sore they feel. Our generation cannot avoid paying for the mistakes of generations before it.”
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
He knew that eventually the atrocities committed by Joseph Stalin would cause Russians to become divided with one another. He knew that angry Ukrainians would eventually demand their own country. What worried him, was the fallout from such a decision. He often spoke of the lessons of history, at one point even warning the United States to learn from the failures of the USSR, and what would happen if they failed to heed the lesson.
“And yet, until I came to the West myself and spent two years looking around, I could never have imagined the extreme degree to which the West actually desired to blind itself to the world situation, the extreme degree to which the West had already become a world without a will, a world gradually petrifying in the face of the danger confronting it, a world oppressed above all by the need to defend its freedom.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Warning to the West
As Solzhenitsyn explained, there was too much of Russia in Ukraine for Ukraine to ever becoming its own nation. There was too much history, too much culture, and more importantly, too many Russians. He feared the steps that Ukraine might take in order to stamp out Russia from it’s consciousness. Having survived the brutality of Soviet Russia, he knew all too well where suppression would lead.
“I myself am nearly half Ukrainian. I grew up with the sounds of Ukrainian speech. I love her culture and genuinely wish all kinds of success for Ukraine—but only within her real ethnic boundaries, without grabbing Russian provinces. And not in the form of a “great power,” the concept on which Ukrainian nationalists have placed their bets. They are acting out and trumpeting a cult of force, persistently inflating Russia into the image of an “enemy.” Militant slogans are proclaimed. And the Ukrainian army is being indoctrinated with the propaganda that war with Russia is inevitable.”
– Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Interview with Forbes Magazine, 1994
I confess, as I read Solzhenitsyn talk about the issues with Russia and Ukraine, I start to realize just how little I truly understand the situation over there. As of right now this war has gone on for over two years. Hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of US taxpayer money has been sent, seemingly to no effect. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, and for what? Here in the US, I am expected to shut up and go along with the narrative. The narrative being that Russia is this evil, monstrous entity that has no other aim than to dominate the world, and somehow by inserting ourselves into Ukraine, we are somehow saving the world. None of this makes sense to me. Especially given that the Ukrainian government is so corrupt, they make the CCP look enlightened.
Which Side is Right?
Understand something. I’m not supporting Russia’s actions. I’ve never liked Vladimir Putin, and I don’t like him now. What I am saying is that there is another side to this conflict. What I am saying is that the United States is inserting itself into a conflict we don’t understand. No matter which side you want to take, nothing justifies the lives that have been killed in this bloody conflict. Nothing justifies the endless mounts of cash we have sent, and have no way of recuperating. Nothing justifies what is being done over there. The more I read and try to understand the history of what is happening, the more I realize that the standard narrative I’m being told in the US doesn’t measure up.
