I have a crusty old colleague in his 80s who believes everything he's been told in the NYT about Ukraine. (He's been a subscriber for years.) I've tried in vain to get him to read Scott Horton or Glenn Diesen. I'm going to send him this.
This was such a good article! I understand and concur with every word, too, and I’m Ukrainian. Well, to be clear, my grandparents on my my mother’s side came from a part of the world that is now called “Ukraine” (they were from Galicia province which was in a place that was not Poland for over 100 yrs). It’s all very lolsy. I am almost ashamed of that heritage and prefer to identify more with Russian ancestry or, if not, at least as a “slav”. I don’t know, however, to what extent my DNA might actually be Germanic on that “ukrainian” side. My father, who was from Spain, was definitely of visigothic and/or celt-iberian extraction. But, either way, it’s disheartening how so many people, many claiming to be “Ukrainians” or, similarly, Polish, really have no idea of the history of their ancestral part of the world.
As a slight side-note, even though your essay was spot-on insofar as what I think I know (plus what I learned from you) I feel that the map showing the language break down in Ukraine is probably a biased and overstated case for the Ukrainian language. The large red area gives the impression that a vast swath of the country, including Kiev, speaks Ukrainian — they use the term “predominantly”. However, that can be taken a number of ways and I don’t know which is more correct. Nearly all of the Ukrainians I know (in Canada) who are more recently arrived — from mostly Kiev or its vicinity — speak Russian and many, but not all, speak Ukrainian. My guess is that the predominant majority do indeed speak Ukrainian but are bilingual and use Russian most of the time, as is the day-to-day habit in most of the country except perhaps the far western province of Galicia.
Anyway, please forgive the overlong commentary — once again, thanks for a clear and well formed essay with a (most-likely) accurate summation of what the future will look like. I will go back and read more of your offerings! Cheers.
Thank you for this very clear and concise summary of Ukraine and its conflicts with Russia. There's so much propaganda circulating about what's really happening there that this piece is a breath of fresh air.
I read several, you gained a follower. Have to say again, the "Once Upon A Time" format is absolutely brilliant, I say you could do an entire series with this method, Once Upon a Time .. Palestine, The American Dream, The European Dream. How about a Once Upon A Time there Was Rome? I did some searching, find several of your other articles online , your writing indicate a prospective on Geo-polotics very broad for one born and raised in the belly of the empire, perhaps you too were a young immigrant to the new world ?
Nope. Born and raised in an Italian-American family in New England. I suppose my eclectic views can only be ascribed to my having been lucky enough to get a Humanities degree from Harvard back in the 1970's - before wokism set in, and we were taught to think independently and counter-culturally.
Also, I would argue that my points of view are merely the only logical, humanist takes possible under the circumstances.
My views have also been seasoned by my 3 decades of life abroad, away from the clutches of Empire ... :-)
Thank-you for sharing, but are you saying that Europe is not within the clutches of the Empire? Why even here in the land of the rising sun, its blindfold is now more opaque and its grip ever more suffocating.
You mean in 1991? Yes of course. Where did I say anything different? My grandparents ate polenta, went to the Catholic Church and spoke Italian at home their whole lives. They were patriotic Americans with a portrait of JFK in the living room.
I have no doubt that the millions of Soviet citizens who spoke Russian voted to change the Ukrainian Socialist Republic where they were born into an independent and NEUTRAL Ukraine.
Well done! But run a spellcheck so we can share.
Done!
I have a crusty old colleague in his 80s who believes everything he's been told in the NYT about Ukraine. (He's been a subscriber for years.) I've tried in vain to get him to read Scott Horton or Glenn Diesen. I'm going to send him this.
I have a whole Bushel of cousins and friends in the Bay Area who are the same way. They think cousin Joey's off his rocker.
This was such a good article! I understand and concur with every word, too, and I’m Ukrainian. Well, to be clear, my grandparents on my my mother’s side came from a part of the world that is now called “Ukraine” (they were from Galicia province which was in a place that was not Poland for over 100 yrs). It’s all very lolsy. I am almost ashamed of that heritage and prefer to identify more with Russian ancestry or, if not, at least as a “slav”. I don’t know, however, to what extent my DNA might actually be Germanic on that “ukrainian” side. My father, who was from Spain, was definitely of visigothic and/or celt-iberian extraction. But, either way, it’s disheartening how so many people, many claiming to be “Ukrainians” or, similarly, Polish, really have no idea of the history of their ancestral part of the world.
As a slight side-note, even though your essay was spot-on insofar as what I think I know (plus what I learned from you) I feel that the map showing the language break down in Ukraine is probably a biased and overstated case for the Ukrainian language. The large red area gives the impression that a vast swath of the country, including Kiev, speaks Ukrainian — they use the term “predominantly”. However, that can be taken a number of ways and I don’t know which is more correct. Nearly all of the Ukrainians I know (in Canada) who are more recently arrived — from mostly Kiev or its vicinity — speak Russian and many, but not all, speak Ukrainian. My guess is that the predominant majority do indeed speak Ukrainian but are bilingual and use Russian most of the time, as is the day-to-day habit in most of the country except perhaps the far western province of Galicia.
Anyway, please forgive the overlong commentary — once again, thanks for a clear and well formed essay with a (most-likely) accurate summation of what the future will look like. I will go back and read more of your offerings! Cheers.
I changed the map :-)
Thank you for this very clear and concise summary of Ukraine and its conflicts with Russia. There's so much propaganda circulating about what's really happening there that this piece is a breath of fresh air.
This was simply brilliant, we need things explained to us in this manner, because we are in essence naive children. Thank-you
My pleasure! Please read some of my other articles if you please :-)
I read several, you gained a follower. Have to say again, the "Once Upon A Time" format is absolutely brilliant, I say you could do an entire series with this method, Once Upon a Time .. Palestine, The American Dream, The European Dream. How about a Once Upon A Time there Was Rome? I did some searching, find several of your other articles online , your writing indicate a prospective on Geo-polotics very broad for one born and raised in the belly of the empire, perhaps you too were a young immigrant to the new world ?
Nope. Born and raised in an Italian-American family in New England. I suppose my eclectic views can only be ascribed to my having been lucky enough to get a Humanities degree from Harvard back in the 1970's - before wokism set in, and we were taught to think independently and counter-culturally.
Also, I would argue that my points of view are merely the only logical, humanist takes possible under the circumstances.
My views have also been seasoned by my 3 decades of life abroad, away from the clutches of Empire ... :-)
Thank-you for sharing, but are you saying that Europe is not within the clutches of the Empire? Why even here in the land of the rising sun, its blindfold is now more opaque and its grip ever more suffocating.
the mearsheimer prediction
Nice fiction, every part of Ukraine in the independence referendum voted to leave Russia, the invading russian army wasn't welcomed anywhere.
You mean in 1991? Yes of course. Where did I say anything different? My grandparents ate polenta, went to the Catholic Church and spoke Italian at home their whole lives. They were patriotic Americans with a portrait of JFK in the living room.
I have no doubt that the millions of Soviet citizens who spoke Russian voted to change the Ukrainian Socialist Republic where they were born into an independent and NEUTRAL Ukraine.