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Russia’s Post-Soviet Militarism is Unfolding Before Our Eyes
After years of posturing starting with the 2014 invasion of Crimea, and constant escalations over the past few weeks, Eastern Europe is seeing the worst violence since WWII and the Yugoslav Wars.
By William Bishop, Tyler Williams, and Nicholas Just, 16 March 2022
Image Credit: The Independent
The end of the Cold War in the 90’s, allowed the many peoples of Eastern Europe to finally become masters of their own destiny. Nations like Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, and many others finally had their own independent states for the first time in history.
Ukraine, for almost a millennium, has been ruled by foreign powers. From the Tatars of the Mongolian steppe, to the Russians of the White Sea, many foreign rulers and kingdoms have lorded over the people of Ukraine, harvesting the land for their benefit.
One of the worst examples of foreign exploitation of Ukraine, was in the Holodomor of 1932-33, when the Soviet government confiscated much of the grain Ukraine depended on through quotas and caused the deaths of 3.9 million Ukrainians.
Despite this history of oppression, for the first time in modern history,Ukraine has been given the chance to govern itself. But since its independence from Soviet oppression in the 90’s, Russia has always had a vested interest in the territory, and has been harassing Ukrainian authorities in the hopes of redrawing the borders of Eastern Europe to include more land for them at the expense of the newly independent people.
This article is to address what Russia has done in the last 20 years to try and upset the status quo brought by the collapse of the Union and the effects this attempted redrawing could have on the future of Europe.
At the time of writing, the invasion of Ukraine has already been upon us for 48 hours. Putin originally ordered troops to “separatist regions” of Ukraine which he recognizes as separate countries from Ukraine. For justification, Putin claims that his purpose in invading is to "de-nazify" the region, stop a supposed “genocide” of Russians and minorities, and to liberate the Russians who live there.
Despite the Russian Armed Forces outnumbering and stretching the Ukrainian forces, they have failed to take nearly every key objective and city. BBC.
While these areas, in particular Donetsk and Luhansk, hold significant populations of Russians, they are by no means the majority of the population. This Russian Sudetenland of Ukraine seems not only to be the main area of contention, but it is also part of the very industrial Donbas region.
As of Tuesday, February 24th, however, it seems that the contested area is not the only place that Russia is laying siege, to as a land invasion of Russia's entire Ukrainian border has commenced and cities across the country are being bombarded by missiles.
From this conflict, fears and hysteria of a Third World War have risen among people across the globe, as western leaders warn Putin not to invade lest they become involved with their own militaries. Thus far the only way NATO has been involved is through the supplying of the Ukrainian military with large numbers of Anti-Tank Stinger missiles, other equipment, and economic sanctions.
In the beginning of the conflict it seemed unlikely that the war to end all wars was to come of this. This type of large scale invasion was unprecedented, after all, but Russia has been taking countries bit by bit for a long time and to little to no contest from the western world.
Russia, also has been engaged in conflict over the independence of Caucasian minority’s for many decades as well, after the Russian empire collapsed in 1917, the Caucasian ethnicities created their own nation states for the first time in centuries, but almost instantly, the Soviet Union would invade and annex all of Caucasia and forcefully integrate them into their government.
After 70 years of Soviet control, the Soviet Union collapsed, but Russia was able to retain control of Caucasia north of the Caucasus mountains. This would leave Circassia and Chechnya in Russian hands.
In 1996, Chechnya, upset with the oppression of their people, fought and won a war of independence against the Russians to establish Chechnya as a de facto independent nation. Sadly, in 1999, Russia would rein in Chechnya, and establish a collaboration government that would reintegrate into Russia.
This, wanton aggression and imperialism by Russia shows that they really don’t care about Russian `minorities' and instead only care about the resources and power that come from conquest and oppression. We should use the Chechen Wars, as an example to judge Russian policy by, and to help see their true colors.
The Russian government’s actions have officially started the first European war between established countries in 80 years; this unprecedented shattering of sustained regional peace shows to detail the lengths the Russian state would go to ensure its hegemony over Eastern Europe.
It is without doubt that this invasion is one of substantial terror. This outcome seemed unlikely to many, and plainly obvious to others. The Russian strategy for justification of downplaying what is obviously a war is one that has been tried at a smaller scale before by Russia, but if you were to take one thing from this conflict, it's that Putin and his forces lay for the long term.
In the short amount of time since the beginning of the invasion, Ukraine has received all manner of supplies, from drones to riifles to Javelin missles, from NATO countries. Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images.
Over the next month, many people will lose their families, homes, and lives. Many Ukrainians will flee their homeland, and many will stay and fight for it. What is about to come is a humanitarian tragedy on an unprecedented scale, and the people of Ukraine will suffer for it.
Overall, Russia has been very aggressive ever since the Soviet collapse, and has pushed the boundaries of its state and its abilities to take back the land of the sovereign people of Eastern Europe The west should look at them for what they really are, a revanchist dictatorship willing to step on the independence of others for their own self benefit. We need to watch and observe, lest conflict envelop the globe again, and history repeat itself.
We are above all deeply saddened by the threat that this conflict is imposing on Ukrainian people’s lives. Estimates are in the ten thousands for civilian casualties and displacements are in the millions, which is absolutely terrifying. Russian oligarchs will profit immensely from the war and will probably want to drag it on for as long as possible.
Ultimately, this war benefits no one but Putin and his capitalist allies, and we stand in solidarity with all those who will bear the brunt of the invasion’s consequences.
As of March 16, the United Nations has reported at least 227 civilian deaths and 1 million civilians displaced.