Evidently Vladimir Putin wants history to recognize him as the one who “Made Russia Great Again.” He was born in 1952, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was beginning to challenge the United States for world leadership. With the destruction of the Berlin Wall, in December 1989, and the collapse of the USSR, two years later, into more than a dozen separate republics, Putin’s world changed dramatically.
Putin, a former officer in the KGB, recalled the time, more than a thousand years ago, when the Rus, a Nordic tribe, had settled around Kyiv (or in Russian, Kiev), and had begun the cultural history of Russia. In late February of 2014, as President of Russia, he decided to retake that ancient land. He sent troops into Crimea, the southern peninsula of Ukraine. At first, these invaders bore no markings indicating that they were Russian troops; they were known merely as the “little green men.” Within a month, soldiers, now marked as Russian troops, had gained control of the area, allowing Putin direct access to the Black Sea, a long desired Soviet goal. The Ukranian military left the Crimean Peninsula by the end of March 2014, but sporadic fighting continued in the eastern, Russian-speaking, areas of Ukraine into the current year, 2022.
During the winter of 2021-2022, Putin moved more than 150,000 Russian troops to the northern, eastern and southern borders of Ukraine. Then on February 24, 2022, proclaiming the eastern Ukranian areas of Donetsk and Luhansk to be independent nations requiring Russian military assistance, he dispatched his troops across those borders. He had informed his invaders that they would be warmly received by the Ukrainians, who desired help in overthrowing the neo-Nazi government controlling them from Kiev. However, a former comedian of Jewish origin, Volodymyr Zelensky, who was now the President of Ukraine, had a different view. He has encouraged, with unflinching resolve, to lead his countrymen in a defense of their freedom. When asked how a government-in-exile might be made possible for him and his colleagues, he responded with a unique punchline: “I need ammunition, not a ride!”
In the last fortnight, the world has changed, once more. Every western nation, except North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, has come out against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. China has attempted to remain neutral, while the Scandinavian nations and Switzerland, having been historically neutral in European affairs, are now joining the West with uniform economic sanctions against Russia. Because of these financial actions, the economy of Russia, itself, has collapsed dramatically.
Before the invasion, the Russian and American exchange rates were somewhat equivalent. Two weeks into the war, one ruble is worth less than one US cent! Western banking systems have discontinued their interactions with Russia. Within the last few days, the United States has banned the import of Russian oil, although recognizing that the cost of gasoline, rapidly approaching $5.00 per gallon, will have an economic impact on both ground and air transportation.
Of course, the main cost of the war has been the loss of life to Ukranian citizens as well as the hardships accompanying the massive exodus of women and children from their country. Ukranian males of military age are not allowed to leave, being essential to the nation’s military survival.
The movement of two million people has brought grief that has not been seen in Europe for the last five decades. On the one hand, Poland, a significant destination for escaping refugees, is rightfully being praised for allowing them access and promising that they can remain for three years, if they are able to cross the border on foot or to wedge themselves onto the half dozen trains arriving each day from the East. On the other hand, there are those who have been critical of these efforts, since, in the immediately prior years, refugees fleeing from countries of the Middle East have been met with huge resistance. However, this openness of the Poles to their fellow Slavs should not be surprising, given the interlaced histories and cultures of the Polish and Ukranian peoples. This mingling has been part of my own personal history.
My Polish mother maintained there are familial branches which are of Ukranian origin. Her sister Violet, my godmother and favorite aunt, married Charles Weida, whose father was born in the village of Terka, only a few miles from the Ukranian border, and was, probably, of Ukranian origin. Their eldest daughter, Rosemary, who was my most beloved cousin, married George Karnofel, who was of Ukranian stock. They were married in the Ukranian Catholic Church, rather than in the Roman Catholic rite, since it was required that in such a “mixed marriage,” the wedding ritual of the husband must be followed. Although Rosemary continued to be a practicing Roman Catholic and raised all of their children as Roman Catholics, she had to be buried in the Ukranian Catholic Church, which follows the Byzantine rite. However, unlike the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox Churches with similar Byzantine rites, the Ukranian Catholic Church does recognize the primary position of the Roman Catholic pope as well as the role of its own Ukranian patriarch.
These religious overlaps were brought home to me when Rosemary died in April 1986, shortly after I had been ordained as a Permanent Deacon. The pastor of St Peter and Paul Byzantine Rite Church invited me to serve as a deacon at her funeral. Fortunately, there was a Byzantine Rite deacon whom I could mimic during the celebration of their elaborate liturgy. One of the events I vividly recall is the distribution of communion. Ukranian Catholics receive the consecrated bread and wine simultaneously. The deacon, using a small-bowled, long-handled spoon, picks up the consecrated host, in the form of a crouton; dips it into the cup of consecrated wine; and inserts the spoon into the open mouth of the recipient, while inverting it so the wine-soaked host is deposited onto the person’s tongue. As the Byzantine priest informed the visiting Roman congregation, just open your mouth and the clergy will do all of the work!
My mother, who did not learn English before entering the first grade, told me she could understand both the Ukranian and Russian spoken by relatives and neighbors, but could respond only in Polish. She also commented, once, that Nikita Khrushchev spoke Russian like a peasant! When I was older, I wished I had paid more attention to her linguistic abilities and had learned to speak Polish when my tongue was nimbler.
Although all of the neighbors who lived near my grandmother’s farm were natives of Poland or Ukraine, the majority of the Slavic residents in my hometown lived in an area called “Roosha Field,” even if they were not really of Russian origin. Although there was teasing among the various Slavic speaking friends and relatives, not unlike that between Aggies and Tea-Sippers, there continued to be a united culture among them. This cultural unity continues even today, although Mr. Putin may have misjudged the political reality of those who wish to live independently under a blue and yellow flag rather than one with three stripes of white, blue and red.
When Putin thought that the invasion of “The Ukraine,” a former region of Russia, would reunite his country, because of their common ancestry originating in Kyiv/Kiev, he did not fully appreciate that cultural identity is not equivalent to political identity. A language you can understand is not the same as a language you speak daily. Alumni from the universities located in College Station and in Austin may acknowledge that they are all “Texan” in their culture and heritage, but their loyalties to their schools remain distinct. Nordic mother “Rus” gave birth to separate nations; but once twins, conjoined at birth, have been separated, they can never be rejoined, no matter who attempts the union.
Postscript: It is now a month after the invasion began. Kyiv has not been taken; other cities have been destroyed. Ukraine forces are attempting to recapture Russian controlled cities. Over three-million Ukrainians have left the country. Moscow’s stock market remains closed. The price of gasoline in the U.S. approaches $7.00 in California. Mr. Putin, no doubt fuming at the failure of his “special military operation,” which was to have lasted less than a few weeks, has modified his stated goals. He apparently is not as interested in eliminating the “neo-Nazis” as he had originally planned to do; his new goal is to incorporate the eastern areas of Russian-speaking Ukrainians into Russia.