Borysfen Intel

The Fourth Russian-Ukrainian War. Part 1

June 27, 2014
<p>The Fourth Russian-Ukrainian War. Part 1</p>

The Independent Analytical Center for Geopolitical Studies “Borysfen Intel” affords ground to the analysts generation for expressing their point of view regarding the political, economic, security, information situation in Ukraine and in the world in general, according to their personal geopolitical studies and analyses.

 

Note that an authors’ point of view
can disagree with the editor’s one

Valeriy Shvets, Professor

Part 1

War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is force.

These were the basic party slogans of the invented by George Orwell Oceania with its one and only ruling force called «The Party» — one of the three world empires of the future. Sky-high future for Orwell had to finally come as early as 1984. That is why his novel written in 1948 which brought him international fame was entitled «1984». He simply interchanged the position of the last two figures of the year of writing the novel. The English nation has given the world unmatched individuals in all spheres of human intellectual activity, and one of them was George Orwell. Having a diploma of Eton — one of the most prestigious colleges of Great Britain, George Orwell, instead of a successful career in any field of activity, which is typical for Eton graduates, devoted his short life to the struggle for the idea of democratic socialism. Inherent romance and idealism of youth led him in 1930s to Spain, where he took the side of the Republicans. There, unlike most left-wing intelligentsia of the West, he saw the true Stalin's face of socialism. He never found the answer to the question: is socialism possible with some other face? But when he returned from Spain, he gave all his creative powers to the struggle against totalitarianism as a political system, which at that time was a real threat to humanity. This threat has not disappeared even today. A lone figure of George Orwell for many years towered over numerous columns of representatives of Western intellectuals who perceived the Soviet Union as an outpost of the world revolution. He believed that the Soviet Union was the evil empire. «1984» is a novel about the Soviet Union, although in it were described events in London of 1984.


Phrases in "Newspeak": "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance  is power "; "Big brother is watching you." From the book  "1984" , by George Orwell

One of the typical signs of a totalitarian community is «newspeak.» Representative examples of such language are given in the first lines of this article. This new language ruins the classical language, killing the very ability to think, as a man thinks in words, and the words do not mean anything now. White is black and black is white. Do not try to understand what is meant here. Just follow orders. Is this Russia or something else resembling the Soviet Union? Or is it just a little smaller copy of the USSR striving at least to regain its previous status? Most likely the latter. Has the modern Russia admitted atrocities of the Soviet Union and dissociated itself from them? No! Suffice it to recall the famine in Ukraine. «Nothing happened» — the words of Russia's president. Is Russia being ruled by a multiparty system, or by one force ruling exclusively, which, according to Orwell, can be called «Party»? Has Russia given up the «newspeak» of Soviet times? No! White — like it used to be is black. And black, — as it once had been, is white. We all have an opportunity to estimate the work of Russian mass media, especially in recent months, during the fourth Russian-Ukrainian war.


 L. Kuchma's book "Ukraine is not Russia"

First, during the introduction of the «newspeak», one begins to perceive reality in a contorted form, and then completely ceases to understand what is happening. As one of our presidents said and wrote, «Ukraine is not Russia». But have we learnt to think independently in accordance with the situation? The Ukrainian people genetically are not inclined to totalitarianism. It has an inherently insatiable desire for freedom — up to anarchy. But what for do we need the «newspeak» then? Why then did we call Russian special forces in the Crimea green men? Why did we explain the inability of our army to protect its territory (even of military units) from green men by an attempt not to provoke the loss of human lives? Why do we use the word «separatist» for armed people fighting for the accession of eastern Ukraine to Russia? Separatism is separation, not joining. Adequate to the situation would be the term «invader», not «separatist». But this requires a more detailed explanation. Invaders in this case are the led by Russian serving officers, military units, having in its composition many representatives of various Russian military organizations and beefed up with local lumpen. These units are equipped with advanced Russian weapons and not only are replenished, but are funded from different sources located on the territory of Russia. This is the Russian army of invasion. In favorable political conditions, it increases very rapidly to the number needed for fulfilling all tasks concerning Ukraine. Why do we all say that we are fighting bandits and terrorists? We are at war with Russia, with its army of invasion, with its citizens, even though they often have Ukrainian passports too. Even if Russia, as the state, had nothing to do with this war, this war would anyway be a Russian-Ukrainian one. I will explain it further on.

Several questions arise. Why Luhansk and Donetsk regions?

Because it is the area with the highest concentration of ethnic Russians and those who consider themselves ethnic Russians in Ukraine. Because these regions are areas with the highest criminal activity of the population. Because at the same time they are regions with the highest in Ukraine marginal stratum of the population. Because having in adjacent to the border with Russia regions a chance to choose between Ukrainian mass media and the Russian ones, ethnic Russians prefer, of course, the Russian media. And the most provocative ones at this. Because they look at the world through Moscow's eyes. Because they have never become citizens of Ukraine, although formally they have Ukrainian passports.


Percentage of the Russian among the  population  in different regions of Ukraine (according to 2001 census)
http://ru.wikipedia.org/

Why did anti-Ukrainian activities begin to unfold not just in large cities in the east of Ukraine, but in the central part of these cities?

Because it is in the big cities of Donetsk and Lugansk regions that the number of ethnic Russians reaches 50%. Averagely. But in the central part of these cities their number reaches 90%. This can be seen not only in eastern Ukraine. It is so in Kyiv and even in L'viv.

How did it happen, by the way, in L'viv? The most dangerous situation for local residents arose when their housing appealed to a high-ranking official of the newly formed Soviet administration. This housing was taken away and, depending on the capabilities of the aggressor, the owner was offered several options for his/her nearest future. The easiest and most humane option — the driven out just had to solve the problem of housing themselves. The next option was to be among those who were being evicted to Siberia. With «good luck»- to Eastern Ukraine or Poland. I hate mentioning what happened to those who were out of luck. Another method of taking away housing in the center of the city from the indigenous population to give it to members of the colonial administration was mass repressions. Of course, the first to get under their flywheel were representatives of the wealthy stratum of locals, usually living in the central part of the city. Then the released housing was on a centralized basis distributed among the colonial administration. The third option in relation to the local population was the most «humane». At some stage of the Second World War the central part of the city was just destroyed during battle actions. In Kyiv it was mined and blown up at the retreat of Soviet troops. In Ternopil and Rivne the city center was destroyed during the successful military operation, which was carried out by Soviet troops to liberate the local population from the fascist German invaders. Subsequently, the central streets of the city were built up, and the housing was granted at the whim of local representatives of the Soviet government.

Some of my childhood was spent in the town of Balta, Odesa region, and I remember the time when in the area with a fully homogeneous Ukrainian population, all leading positions, without exception, from the first secretary of the party to the postmaster, were taken by ethnic Russians. The city center was for them to live in. In Odesa, the formation of one of the largest Russian communities in southern Ukraine was due to allocation of housing to retirees of the Soviet army. It is for them that during Khrushchov's era were built «Cheryomushki» — the south-western residential district of Odesa.

To be continued...

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