ukraine invasion notes + paper

3 files changed, 21 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/hstr122/.ukranine_invasion.md.swp b/hstr122/.ukranine_invasion.md.swp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1137f09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hstr122/.ukranine_invasion.md.swp
diff --git a/hstr122/ukranine_invasion.md b/hstr122/ukraine_invasion.md
index e897d56..e897d56 100644
--- a/hstr122/ukranine_invasion.md
+++ b/hstr122/ukraine_invasion.md
diff --git a/hstr122/ukraine_invasion_paper.md b/hstr122/ukraine_invasion_paper.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2bc6e5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hstr122/ukraine_invasion_paper.md
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+Russian Invasion of Ukraine
+Dr. Yekelchyk
+November 28
+
+Kai Stevenson
+
+	In April of 2014, Russia iniated war with Ukraine; in Western media, the date was eight years later: 2022, when a full scale invasion of the country began. 
+The motivations behind what appear to be a futile war effort are the topic of a great deal of speculation. In his lecture, Serhy argues namely that Putin had poor millitary intelligence, and fell victim to an historical error--the conflation of allegience with nationality and culture.
+Furthermore, he makes and substantiates the claim that Putin employs anti-semitism towards his goal of delegitimizing Ukraine.
+	Ukraine borders Russia on the east, and multiple Eastern European countries to the west. Formerly a state of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has had a troubled history. The infamous holodomor planned famine resulted in widespread stavations across the country, and set the stage for a resentment towards Russia.
+Despite the two countries' close ties, they are culturally and linguistically distinct, and critically, Ukraine has been a sovreign state since 1991. 
+President Vladimir Putin, however, has other ideas. Publically arguing that the fall of the Soviet Union was a great error, he has pursued a certain course of action aiming to integrate Ukraine into Russia. In his rhetoric, he employs a technique perhaps used in Europe by Hitler. The term "compatriot" as used by Putin refers to a citizen of a former Soviet state who is Russian either by ethnicity or by culture.
+Putin believes that these compatiots in Ukraine make up much of the population. In a sense, he is correct--many of the major population centres of Ukraine are highly ethnically Russian. His mistake, however, is in the assumption that these citizens would have loyalty in their ethnicity rather than their nationality.
+Serhy here observes the American Revolution. Despite the shared language and culture of the United States and Great Britain, the consensus based model of political governance was clearly established here.
+	In many ways, the 2022 invasion of Ukraine was a first for the world. Though it was not the first conflict fought with drones, it was perhaps the first conflict where distributed millitary intelligence played such a major role. Russia's inability to hide its war preparations (the relocation of blood supplies and troops) meant that Ukraine and the West were far more prepared for an invasion than would have otherwise been possible. Putin's speeches made clear his intent; where he denies the specificity of the Ukranian people, he signals genocide. As a result, the invasion was hardly surprising to those who were paying close attention.
+Putin's rhetoric borders on the absurd in many cases; to Western audiences, the approach towards LGBT issues may be especially so. The line from the government is that Western democracies would force one into a gay marriage against their will. This type of reactionary argument is in clear opposition to the progressive values of the West, and yet some Western leftists take the side of Russia. Serhy argues that this is due to a faulty assumption that anything opposing the US must be good, and points to Putin's own claims that Russia is a conservative, Christian nation.
+	Russia claims that Ukraine is a neo-nazi regime. And yet despite Russia's idealization of their victory of Nazi Germany, Putin, in much the same way that Hitler criticized the USSR, appeared to believe that Ukraine would fall swiftly, seemingly operating under the assumption that the country was barely held together. This is one of the many ironies of the invasion. A paradoxical appraoch to identity that seemingly fails to make any useful predictions is the core of Putin's argument.
+Despite the proclivity of Putin to extol the virtues of the past, he fails to look to that very past, and repeats the mistakes of European leaders long since abandoned.
+The concept of blood and soil--that of traditional homelands and racial superiority--has been left behind by the rest of Europe, yet Putin seems to cling to it. In doing so, he is setting his country and the world down a dangerous path.
+
+[667 words]