For more than 300 years the Moscow elite presumed that Ukrainians like the whole of the West swallowed the fiction of Russian benevolence and shared prosperity – now they know they didn’t.
Irene Jarosewich
Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin, lover of Tsarina Catherine II, decorated villages along the Dnipro River that gave the illusion of prosperity and happiness to divert the tsarina’s attention from the true misery and abject poverty of her subjects. The goal was to project success (a lie), not failure (the truth), as his beloved traveled through her lands.
In these decoratively and temporarily prosperous villages lived real Ukrainians in lands occupied by Russia. They understood that the quickly freshened houses and groomed horses and baskets filled with flowers and fruit were only for display, to make the tsarina’s trip pleasant, to disguise the true levels of poverty.
It has been that way for centuries. The Russian elite fools itself, to fool the West. They used baubles – operas, ballets, painters and plays, poets and composers, languid intellectuals, enchanting, enticing decorations to create an illusion of deep wisdom and wealth and by extension and presumption, Moscow’s superiority and strength.
In 1991, the Russians were stunned to learn that Ukrainians had been faking it for 300 years – that inside that cheerful, supposedly stupid khohol was a race of shrewd and canny survivors who did not see themselves as a Little Russian, and given the option, actually preferred independence. The Ukrainians pulled a Potemkin on the Russians, using their own tricks against them.
Yet, here we are, in 2024, same old, same old.
Russia wants the West to believe, as they themselves still believe, a modern version of the original Potemkin story – that Russia is a big, bad bear that will rip you to bloody shreds if you stand in its way, will lob nuclear missiles in your direction with its paws. While the numbers, indeed, are in Russia’s favor, enough to give one pause, once again Ukrainian shrewdness, born from the will to survive, is underestimated, even ignored.
While caution is often a prudent strategy, the need for caution comes only when there is a genuine threat. Is the big, bad bear really a threat or only a façade, like Potemkin’s supposedly prosperous village? The Ukrainians, ignoring the West’s overabundant sense of caution, that almost borders on cowardice, have decided to poke the bear to see if he really will roar.
Of course, the tactic is risky, but the lives of Ukrainians and the future of Ukraine is even more at risk unless the truth is revealed. Either Ukraine pokes the bear, and the bear bleats a confused whimper and lumbers away as Ukraine (and the West – you’re welcome) wins; or, Ukraine pokes the bear, the bear roars back, and strikes and Ukraine loses quickly, a fate far more preferable than the painful slow death that Ukraine currently faces.
For those who support the slow path to death, Ukraine is being reckless. For those who understand, as the Ukrainian proverb goes, “The strong get to choose what to do, while the weak do as they must,” Ukraine is courageous.
Time for the US to cast aside that so-called strategy of caution and help Ukraine really poke the bear – perhaps better late than never.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
Ms. Jarosewich, a retired editor and journalist, during her career focused on matters related to Ukraine.
https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/37848
“The Ukrainians, ignoring the West’s overabundant sense of caution, that almost borders on cowardice, have decided to poke the bear to see if he really will roar.”
There is no bordering on cowardice, it is full blown cowardice and appeasement by spineless politicians hoping to get their grubby hands on russian rubles once this war is over.
Peter Hitchens in his MOS column today:
“Come on, Al ‘Boris’ Johnson, agree to debate against me on the Ukraine War. The country needs to hear both sides, articulately put, before it all gets even worse.”
Hitchens has been requesting a debate with Boris for some time. He always calls him “Al” (Alexander) because he believes that Boris is a joke name.
But he has inadvertently IMO admitted that he is a fucking putler shill.
I put in a comment. Within minutes the mods had zapped it :
“Honesty at last from Hitchens. After more than a decade of putting out pro-russia drivel but claiming impartiality, he wants to take the russia side in a debate with pro-Ukraine Boris.
If Boris defeats you Peter; as Edward Lucas and Svitlana Moronets already have, will you finally go and live in ruZZia?”
“The practical effects of a continuation of the Biden strategy by Kamala Harris or somebody else, in the next presidential term, will simply doom Ukraine to losing slowly.
There is no way Ukraine can win with such a strategy, which defies all military logic.”
James Sher OBE, speaking with Brian Whitmore recently.
“from your lips to God’s ears” Whitmore would say and I agree.
^berd
There is also another problem that I think is related to this. Many Americans, myself included (at least before the war), have long thought of Ukraine as just another regional part of russia, and that Ukrainian resistance was more of a rebellion against Moscow. Perhaps many others in the West thought this too. Until the war, I had no idea that Ukrainian had been developing a distinctly different culture of their own for many hundreds of years, which although having some russian connection in the distant past, was now standing on its own.
Even the legacy of russian as language in Ukraine, is a tenuous point, because many Ukrainians who speak it are also eagerly attacking russian forces. Though a person may have an ancestral origin, or even have been born in another country, it does not mean their loyalty is always for that other country. Some do admittedly find a loyalty for another, and this is often a target for recruiting spies or creating “separatist” movements. These should be exposed, but without hurting the larger population in a paranoid crackdown. Moscow has tried MANY a paranoid crackdown.
But I think because Ukraine is a regional neighbor, an independent country deserving of her own freedom, that Ukraine is defending her land against invasion. Rebellion, though it can have a noble cause as with the American Revolution, implies that just prior to the fighting, the fighters used to feel a loyalty to the mother country they are fighting. I firmly believe that educating the West on the uniquely Ukrainian growth and independence of your people will strengthen the public reception of the war for Ukraine’s favor.
You are obviously a fiercely proud and strong people. Use this to your advantage to show how Ukrainians have evolved in your history, that you have truly reclaimed your country with the fall of the USSR, and vow never to trust russian imperialism again. You may speak both Ukrainian and Russian, but you are ALL Ukrainians.
Also, by the way, I remember there was a youtube video I saw a while ago, before the current Ukrainian/russian war. The video creator was speculating about countries that probably will NEVER be invaded. Russia was among that list, despite that time the german nazis almost captured moscow. Now, it seems Ukraine has helped dispel that too with an invasion into russia’s Kursk, AND while fending off russia’s invading forces!