Ukraine

Today, Russians invaded Ukraine (again) and are poised to subjugate her people (again). This has happened before.

Invading and oppressing their neighbors is an integral part of Russian history and culture and has been so for centuries. Many parts of Russia were first invaded, then annexed and then ethnically cleansed (by murder or resettlement) while large numbers of ethnic Russians were brought in.

Stalin, himself a Russified Georgian, deported from their native land and russified (or killed) scores of peoples: Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Kamyks, (some) Ukrainians, Balts and Estonians. But that pattern of behaviour and Russification has been the modus operandi of the Russian state for centuries, not just in the 20th. For example, the Circassian genocide in the 19th century killed over a million people in the area of the Black Sea, not far from the where today's invasion is taking place.

My own birth country, Czechoslovakia, was first sliced and partially annexed in 1945 (its eastern part became Soviet Union and is now Ukraine) and then invaded in 1968, just when people started feeling a bit of hope for democracy. To this day I vividly remember watching the invasion as a child on our TV and my father saying in disbelief: "I can't believe they are still broadcasting", admiring the valor of the journalists literally putting their lives at risk and working till the last minute until they'd be forced out at gunpoint.

Today, many Ukrainians live in the Czech republic and they are generally known to be decent, hard-working people. My heart goes out to people in Ukraine. I do know how they feel right now.

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