This column is designed to relate various political activities to our local sphere. My radar is signaling to me that what is happening in Ukraine right now may very well be a game-changer in the world that will definitely impact our lives here in Lycoming County.
I have a unique perspective, having lived in that part of the world. As I have noted in the past, my wife Debbie and our three children stepped off a plane in Riga, Latvia, on January 20, 1991, to begin a pioneer missionary effort in the Soviet Union. At almost exactly that same moment, the special USSR militia known as the Black Berets conducted a military operation in downtown Riga that resulted in the death of five innocent civilians. (When this news came over CNN in the US, we had family members who thought the Stout family were the five victims!) We knew we were taking a risk, but we also knew from previous visits how much it would mean to provide assistance for the needs of orphans and disabled children in this part of the USSR.
Latvia is quite unique in the number of Russians living in the country. When the USSR took over Latvia in 1941, the government emigrated a vast number of Russians into the country. Russian became the national language, and five of the largest cities in Latvia had Russian majorities, with the Latvians settling in the rural communities. Today, it is one of three independent nations on the Baltic Sea, unfortunately still identified as ‘Baltic States,’ which is a holdover from the USSR days.
As we lived there for sixteen years, there was always a tangible tension with the former USSR, now Russian Republic, in the years following their independence. As I had the opportunity to teach throughout Eastern Europe and Russia during that time and years later after returning to the States, I discovered that this was the norm elsewhere. When in Russia, educators and businessmen that I worked with would be extremely reluctant to ever discuss politics. However, leaders in adjoining countries on the Baltic Sea, the Islamic belt of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the border countries of Belarus and Ukraine always included in their strategic planning some consideration of possible Russian interference.
The reason I note this is to help understand the response that the Ukrainian people have taken to the Russian incursion. They had arms ready. They knew that their independence was an affront to the old guard of the Russian oligarchy. This is what separates those countries that sit on Russia’s doorstep and the rest of the world.
Ukraine has continually been a thorn for Russia for centuries. Because Ukraine was not properly ‘partnering,’ Stalin sealed off the country in 1932-33 and created a famine that killed nearly four million Ukrainians. The “Holodomor” or the Terror Famine as it has been written about in the West is the Ukrainian Holocaust, and like the Jews, they never will forget it.
Throughout Russian history, and we are talking over a millennium now, these people preferred a strong leader. Yes, like all people, they want freedom to live their lives, but the incredible harshness of the land and the diversity of people stretching over fifteen time zones also draws them toward security which they find in a strongman type head of government. An example of this is that the first Tsar (a term taken from Latin, short for Caesar) was the Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan, who became known as Ivan the Terrible.
In the past three decades, the USA has had five changes in president and that many legislative shifts, yet in that same time, Russia has had Boris Yeltsin, noteworthy for being the first elected government leader in one thousand years of Russian history, yet after eight years was succeeded by a former KGB head, Vladimir Putin. I love the way one old Russian man described Russian elections — it is like taking a metal bucket full of rocks and pouring them into another metal bucket. It makes a lot of noise, but nothing changes.
The excuse for Russia’s current military action stemmed from two small regions along the Ukrainian-Russian border that were heavily populated by more Russians than Ukrainians. There had been rumblings for years about these regions receiving some level of autonomy from Kyiv. From a Russian perspective, they were not as much ‘invading’ Ukraine as helping their fellow Russians. But, when major resistance arose, the Bear began to roar. What has shocked them is that Ukraine stood up to the Bear.
Because the world has flattened, this conflict impacts us here at home. I have heard of military folks from our area suddenly being deployed to ‘Europe.’ Since the beginning of 2020, I strongly believe we are living in historic times. If that were true, many years from now, people will be reading about the turmoil of this decade, just as we remember the Great Depression of the 1930s that preceded World War II — and the Ukrainians remember their Holodomor.
Never in my life have I ever wished so much to be wrong.
