I’m Ukrainian and live in Ukraine all my life. I grew up in a russian-speaking family, both my parents and grandparents I grew up with were russian-speaking. My first language in school was russian, Ukrainian was added later as a ‘secondary’ language (it was already in mid 90s, after Ukraine gained independence). All of that was a result of decades-long policy of Soviet Union of depriving Ukrainians (and all other national respublics) of their native language, history and identity. They were pretty successful with it — most of Ukraine’s East and South are still mostly russian-speaking and many people have pretty loose connections to Ukraine’s history unbiased of Soviet/Russian propaganda of ‘happy common past’ and still operate in myths created around this common past. The primary myth was the victory over Nazi Germany: as long as I remember we never commemorated victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, instead we celebrated the ‘Soviet victory’. There was little known about allies role in this victory, this information was censored and oppressed, and so there was an impression that it was one and only The Great and Grand Victory of Soviet Union, which is not true. The more Ukraine re-established its national identity, the more it gradually moved away from these myths. Which was a real problem and a threat for imperialistic ambitions of Russia (supported by vast majority of Russia’s population). Few people in the West realize that modern Russia operates relying on this primary myth — most of the population believes in it, they believe that the West is degrading, and trying to oppress Russia and eventually take over their resources. On May 9 (that ‘Great Victory Celebration’ — yes, it’s not May 8 like for the rest of the world) they say ‘we can repeat’ and write on their cars ‘towards Berlin’ (reference to such signs being made on Soviet tanks). How it relates to the ongoing war in Ukraine? First, they believe that we, Ukrainians, betrayed them (by moving away from the ephemeral past and willing to become a modern democratic national state), second they realize that without Ukraine they cannot ’repeat’ — Ukraine is big country, rich in educated population, natural resources and industry, sharing same language and partially culture. So it was the first big decisive step in re-establishing Russian empire. … Russia is really fighting against the west. If Ukraine would fall — more threats would follow to the neighboring countries. Eventually they would really want to move ‘towards Berlin’. However crazy and dystopian it may sound that an unfortunate reality we found ourselves early in the 21st century, who could have thought? #HistoryForUkraine #history #UkrainianWarOfIndependence #soviethisory #RussianAttack #Ukraine #soviethistory