Running Away from Russia and Russification: An Unintended Consequence of Putin's Vicious Revanchist War in Ukraine

A protest outside of parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Symbol of a new world order, with the flags of the country of Georgia, Ukraine, and NATO united?

"Ukraine Can Win," The Atlantic Monthly, July 2022,
by Richard D. Hooker, Jr. Ukraine can win - Atlantic Council
 "It is far better to confront the threat now while Russia is reeling from high casualties, depleted stocks of high-tech munitions, low morale, severe losses among senior commanders, and inferior generalship."

Putin's war in Ukraine is having a ripple effect on all the former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and countries in Eastern and Central Europe that were once in Russia's orbit. It's a fascinating development, an unintended consequence of the war Putin started to exterminate Ukraine. Russian aggression is exposing its revanchism and weaknesses and, in the process, creating an evolving new world order that is shrinking Russian influence forever. 

The bottom line: Former SSRs (shown and listed on the above Wikipedia map), as well as countries once in Russia's orbit, do not want anything to do with Russia. Putin's war has assured that. 

 What country can look at what Putin is doing in Ukraine and not   think the same thing could happen to them? 

They know what it's like. They know from experience the criminal excesses, the violence, the relentless Russification designed to propagandize their citizens and liquidate their histories and culture.

And today, right now, look at the places Russia is occupying in the Donbas, in Bakhmut, Mariupol, the village I served with the Peace Corps. Look at the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, where workers describe beatings, torture and looting. Look at Crimea, once-beautiful, diverse, peaceful, now Stalinized, militarized and terrorized.

Everything Russia touches turns into Soviet-style gulags and reigns of terror. Wastelands. Everything. Putin's unjust, vindictive, vicious war proves it. The world is seeing it.

This is why more former SSRs and Eastern and Central European countries are lining up to join NATO. 

Why, for example, did Finland join NATO? 

"We reacted to Russia, actually," Kai Sauer, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, told CBS News. "It was a reaction to an action by Russia, and the action was Russia's aggression on Ukraine."  

Same reason the three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are members of NATO. They fear Russia will attack them next. They see what's happening in Moldova and Georgia, where Russia is working to destabilize those countries like it did in Crimea. Same playbook. It's why they are sending arms, too. Latvia is sending all of its Patriot air defense  systems. In fact, Poland, Slovakia and Romania, most all the neighboring states of Ukraine, are sending all the help they can. 

These fiercely independent nations understand all too well the risk a Russian victory poses, and they fear the consequences that the loss of Ukraine would have on their security, in their own countries and across the world. 

Protest against Lukashenko in Belarus

So Putin's war is having the direct opposite results he intended, exposing how backward his thinking, how old and worn his perspective, how out of touch he is with ever-changing modern international relations. 

Russia is now a pariah state. Who wants to join Putin's revanchist bandwagon? They want to look ahead. The Belarus government is an exception, but its people are soundly against the war. Does Belarus really want to be a vassal state of Russia? 

Same with countries once fully aligned with the Soviet Union. Bulgaria is an example. Bulgaria’s foreign minister Nikolay Milkov, echoing Finland's Kia Sauer, told the Kyiv Independent that the Russian invasion of Ukraine "has accelerated his country’s efforts to eliminate Russia’s influence." Bulgaria is struggling to find its footing in the post-Soviet world. It's not easy. So are countries like Georgia, still fighting Russia's hybrid war, still fighting to rid itself of Russian influence. Even the Central Asian states are starting to pull away, especially among the younger generations. 

Protestors wave the Ukrainian, Georgian, and European Union flags outside Georgia's parliament in Tbilisi on March 8, 2023, amid a demonstration against the Georgian government's plan to introduce a "foreign agent" law reminiscent of Russian legislation used to silence critics. (Photo by VANO SHLAMOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Putin's war is birthing a whole new order. It will be his downfall. It will be Russia's loss. Zelenskyy has warned him: Get out now or be destroyed. He means it. Putin's deliberately destroyed Ukraine village by village, city by city. Reduced them to ashes. Annihilated them. War crimes upon war crimes against the people, infrastructure and landscape of Ukraine. It's given Ukraine a whole new goal, a new mission: To take back its territory in the East, in the South, and in Crimea. To get Russia out. Putin's loss will be his humiliation and his end. Ukraine can win.

Sources/Notes: 

1. How Putin’s War in Ukraine Has Ruined Russia | Journal of Democracy. by Kathryn Stoner, July 2022. Excellent article.

2. ‘I Cry Quietly’: A Soldier Describes the Toll of Russia’s War - The New York Times (nytimes.com). The saddest video, the saddest war, the death and dying.

3.  Russia’s Assault on Daily Life in Ukraine - bellingcat. See Bellingcat's TimeMap of harm done to civilians at bustops, train stations, schools, hospitals, and places that Ukrainians use as part of daily life. The map documents verified war crimes upon war crimes. 

4.  Batu Kutelia: Lessons from Georgia of geopolitical procrastination (kyivindependent.com)

5.  Finland doubling NATO's border with Russia in blow to Putin (yahoo.com)

6.  goog_779994558Why you should care about Belarus (yahoo.com)

Protest in Minsk against 2020 election results.
Lukashenko despised. He's reduced his country into a RU minion 
rather than build the modern state ordinary Belarusans desire.

7. ‘They’ll kill me if I come back’: Abduction, torture become routine in Russian-occupied Melitopol (yahoo.com).  This experience is true everywhere Russia occupies.  

8.  Nuclear workers describe beatings, detention, and looting by Russian soldiers to force them to keep a Ukrainian power plant running (yahoo.com).  

9.  Ukraine war latest: Defense Ministry says 'complex measures’ of counteroffensive ‘underway’ in the east (kyivindependent.com).  

10. What does membership mean for NATO newcomer Finland? (yahoo.com)

11. ‘I was naive about Russia’: Central Asians on the Ukraine war | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera. Article by Mansur Mirovalev, 17 February 2023.  Views are changing. Younger people no longer support Russia. China is supporting these nations to reduce Russian influence, another developing story. “The younger those polled are, the worse is their attitude towards Russia” because they have access to independent and diverse online media, he told Al Jazeera./ Another sobering factor is regular threats from Russian political figures to annex northern Kazakh regions that have a sizeable ethnic Russian minority./And that is where Beijing, whose economic clout in Kazakhstan has already surpassed that of Moscow, stepped in./In September, during a visit to Astana, the Kazakh capital, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to protect Kazakhstan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty."

12.  Wikipedia. 

According to the United Nations definition, countries within Eastern Europe are Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine and the western part of the Russian Federation (see: European Russia map).

In most definitions, the countries of Central Europe are Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary.In some definitions, Switzerland and Croatia would also belong to Central Europe, as well as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania. All these countries are in the Central European Time zone (CET = UTC + 1 hour).

The Central Asia region (CA) comprises the countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It is a diverse region with a mix of upper middle and low income countries with major strategic importance due to their geographic location and natural resource endowments. They are all former Soviet Socialist Republics, still pro-RU but all in the process of change.  

Woke and Kicking up a Storm: The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) 2021 Medals Just Awarded

  Henrietta Mann, 2021 NEH Humanities Award recipient.
A Cheyenne, she taught Native American Studies at the University of Montana,and gives voice to the stories
of Indigenous Americans. Photo she provided NEH. 

Underneath all the bad news, life goes on. Some positive things are happening, and they are making a difference.  That's why I was glad to read news that the public humanities are alive and well. 

Just a few days ago, President Biden presented the 2021 National Humanities Medals, delayed by the COVID pandemic, in conjunction with the Medals of Arts, at the White House. The 12 Humanities medal recipients include writers, historians, educators, journalists and activists. Jill Biden attended, as I remember Hillary Clinton doing when Bill Clinton presided and I worked with the DC humanities council.  The cherry blossoms were usually in bloom and it was a gala event. Rebirth was in the air.

Although NEH wouldn't put it this way, I am happy to note that the public humanities are "woke" and kicking up a storm. They may be somewhat hidden under the political noise, so full of drama, rage and thunder, but they are doing great work in every state across the country. Google the state humanities councils to see how their ongoing programs and grants are strengthening our democracy while extremists tear it apart, fraying our social fabric. There's hope.

Shelly Lowe, NEH 

Shelly Lowe, a Navajo and the first Native American to head NEH, praised the recipients. "They have enriched our world through writing that moves and inspires us; scholarship that enlarges our understanding of the past; and through their dedication to educating, informing, and giving voice to communities and histories often overlooked."   

In short, these talented, gifted and dedicated Americans are "woke" and working to enrich our intellectual and cultural lives. They are aware. They know what's going on around them, sensitive to issues of racism, the authentic history of our country,
who's been left out, who's worked for change to realize the promise of America. They are fearless in the realm of thought. They question and they are engaged in civil life. They welcome discussion and civic discourse.

So who are these "woke" individuals who are asking questions about the kind of world we live in and the kind of world we hope to leave to our children? 

.

There's Richard Blanco, born in 1968, son of Cuban immigrants, an award-winning poet, author and professor whose "storytelling challenges the boundaries of culture, gender, and class."  He was the first immigrant, the first Latino, and the first openly gay person to be an Inaugural poet, reading his poem "One Today" at Barack Obama's second inauguration. Some of us remember it with nostalgia for the e pluribus unum, "Out of many, one," that it evoked. 

There's the amazing Johnnetta Betsch Cole, born in 1936, anthropologist, humanities leader, former Spellman College president, then Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art from 2009-2017. Her life work about the contributions of Afro-Latin, Caribbean, and African communities have advanced American understanding of Black culture. I had the good fortune to meet Johnnetta Cole at various NEH and Smithsonian Institution functions, and I learned something new every time. 

As you can see, woke.  

I was especially glad to learn about the contributions of Henrietta Ho’oesto’oona'e, Mann, a Cheyenne, an elder of her people, and a citizen of Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. She is a pioneer professor of Native American studies, "honoring ancestors that came before and benefiting generations that follow." Her story is moving. Another recipient, Native America Calling, is an interactive show on public radio and online that educates us about Indigenous issues, amplifies native voices, introduces us to Indigenous artists, poets, writers, and activists. This program complements Mann's work and the research and teaching of other scholars in Native American Studies. 

There's also Walter Isaacson, journalist and author, past president of the Aspen Institute and a former head of CNN. According to NEH, his work "bridges divides between science and the humanities, and between opposing philosophies... elevating discourse and our understanding of who we are as a Nation."  Born in New Orleans in 1952, he has an incredible record of accomplishments in public and private affairs, truly a Renaissance man.  

Rounding out the awardees are Ann Patchett, award-winning novelist and owner of Parnassas Books, and Amy Tan, daughter of Chinese immigrants, author of The Joy Luck Club and many others;  Bryan Stevenson, advocate for the poor, incarcerated, and condemned, who also chronicles the legacy of lynching and racism in America; Tara Westover, for her memoirs of family, religion, and the transformative power of education; Colson Whitehead, novelist, "who makes real the African American journey through our Nation’s continued reckoning with the original sin of slavery and our ongoing march toward a more perfect Union." And Earl Lewis, a social historian, Black history scholar, and academic leader who's a leading voice for greater diversity in academia and our Nation. 

Woke. All these fabulous recipients of the Humanities Medal. Anecdotes to the toxicity of the latest anti-intellectual furor over the progress made toward realizing the American ideals of equality and justice under the law. 

Woke and kicking. To be aware and engaged. To be open to education, books, learning and growing in knowledge and understanding. To be informed. To care, to care deeply about American ideals, values, traditions, and promise.

These are, indeed, the hallmarks of an informed citizen in a democracy.  Supporting and honoring the humanities in education and in our public life, amplifying the voices of these Humanities Medal recipients, will ensure we have what it takes to keep it. 

Sources:

1. Henrietta Mann | The National Endowment for the Humanities (neh.gov) one of 12 recipients of the 2021 National Humanities Medal bestowed by Biden on March 21, 2023.

2. 2021 National Humanities Medals | The National Endowment for the Humanities (neh.gov), Washington, DC (March 20, 2023). As noted above, the 2021 medals were delayed due to the COVID pandemic. NEH like the rest of the nation is catching up.

3. Google Wikipedia and press coverage of the award ceremony at the White House to learn more about each Humanities Medal recipient. They are amazing.

4. Native America Calling | The National Endowment for the Humanities (neh.gov)

About NEH: Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation that support research in the humanities, nurture humanities infrastructure, and expand the reach of the humanities. Since 1965, NEH has awarded nearly $6 billion to cultural institutions, individual scholars, and communities. The Endowment serves and strengthens the country by bringing high-quality historical and cultural experiences to large and diverse audiences in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five jurisdictions; providing opportunities for lifelong learning, access to cultural and educational resources, and strengthening the base of the human stories that connect all Americans.

Kay Smith at 100: Artist Laureate of Illinois, Painter Laureate of America

 

Kay Smith, Artist Laureate of Illinois, Fire Works behind the Statue of Liberty,
from The American Legacy Collection.

 

"Watercolors have brought Kay Smith from the hills of Mount Rushmore to the stall of the esteemed racehorse Secretariat, as she’s spent her life depicting U.S. history with her paintings."    Vanessa Lopez, Chicago Sun Times, February 2023. 

The White House in Winter

Valley Forge

What a fascinating American artist. The mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, has declared today Kay Smith Day in honor of her 100th birthday. The Mayor's proclamation recognizes Smith's Illinois roots, her teaching and community contributions, and the various thematic collections that make her art meaningful and popular: The American Legacy Collection, which includes 250 beautiful watercolor renditions of our monuments, battlefields, historic homes, and special places; and the America Horseracing Collection that includes an award-winning portrait of Secretariat. 

Morning Bliss

It made me think how fun it would be to teach American History using her collections.  I also love her flowers and gardens, all so pretty, positive and bright.

Smith's studio is in her home.

Kay Smith says that her passion for painting  is what keeps her going. It certainly has. She is still painting at her home in Lincoln Park, surrounded by the art she's created over the years. There are also paintings in process, just waiting for her to take her brush and do what she loves, what she has always loved. 

She started when she was six years old. She startled her mother then by saying, "I'm going to be an artist." And that's what she became.  Chicago, America, the world are fortunate she did. 

Monticello

Sources:

1.  Renowned Artist Kay Smith Turns 100 Monday. She's Spent The Past Century Depicting US History In Watercolors (blockclubchicago.org)

2.  Artist Laureate of Illinois Kay Smith says her passion for painting keeps her going - Chicago Sun-Times (suntimes.com), by Vanessa Lopez. Pat Nabong photographer

3. Artist Kay Smith Still Lifes, Gardens and Landscapes (kaysmithartist.com) Kay's blog, Kay's story

Preserving Eatonville, Florida, Zora Neale Hurston's Beloved Town

 

PreserveEatonville.org

Eatonville, Florida, just north of Orlando, is one of the oldest incorporated Black communities in the U.S., founded by newly freed slaves. 

Now the town is in danger of drastic change that will pave over its history. Commercial development threatens the Hungerford property, a 100-acre Eatonville parcel that was the site of the school founded in 1887 with the help of Booker T. Washington. If it stays on the Eatonville landscape, if it's not destroyed, what stories it can tell.

That's why residents are fighting to save their town. The know its history, its culture and traditions. 

The old Eatonville School, which educated generations of
. children, Zora among them.  Developers are set to buy it and the property and develop it.. 

As the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) notes, 'They object to the land being used to gentrify and change the balance of power in their community by pricing out community members from several hundred new housing units. Residents want to keep the land and use it in a way that preserves its history and provides a community benefit." 

It can do both, say its residents.

The SPLC, which is on board to preserve Black history and monuments across the South, and which is one reason I support it, is aiding in the effort. As it poignantly reminds us, "If only they could gaze into Hungerford's past. . ."  

"If only they could gaze into Hungerford’s past, they would see the young Zora Neale Hurston, the queen of the Harlem Renaissance, skipping joyfully through the beloved Black town she grew up in and immortalized in her literary masterpieces. They would see a school founded with the help of Booker T. Washington filled with Black students thriving even as they were denied opportunities in the white-run world around them. They would see the mothers and fathers, the grandmothers and grandfathers of Eatonville come to life from old photographs still cherished by their descendants – dancing around a maypole, striding with confidence to and from a Black-owned sawmill and a brickworks, harvesting sugarcane and oranges on their own farms – and teaching their children the pride of a place of their own." (Note 3) 

I first learned about Eatonville when I directed the Florida Humanities Council. It pioneered in supporting the creation of the Zora Neale Hurston Arts and Humanities Festival, awarding its first grant in 1990. It's been going every year since then. Florida Humanities (as it's called now) also supported a "Chautauqua" Zora character, which became one of the most popular programs at the time. Phyllis McEwen, Zora scholar and impersonator, channeled Zora, became Zora. She travelled around the state telling her story, a hit wherever she went.  

Zora grew up in Eatonville, went to school there, spent lots of time in the library, and always called it her home. Eatonville nurtured her curiosity and creativity. It nourished that "sense of place" that filled so many of her stories, including Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as her work as an anthropologist and folklorist. 

Zora's Eatonville sense of place and her folklorist training and curiosity, led her to another Black town founded by and for former slaves: Africatown in Mobile, Alabama. The founders came over in 1860 on the now-famous Clotilda, 'the last slave ship. Zora discovered the leader of this group of Africans in 1925, his African name Cudjo, and she interviewed him. What a discovery!  The interviews became the basis for her book Barracoon: The Story of the last "Slave Cargo."  The title refers to the packed holding pens in which slaves were held until their forced passage across the Atlantic. 

Zora pioneered in telling this story, but it lay buried for decades because she had trouble finding a publisher for it. It was finally published in 2018, as the Clotilda was being recovered off of Mobile.  

Africatown is still there, barely, needing the same preservation efforts as Eatonville. The descendants of Cudjo are leading the efforts. 

An Eatonville sense of place. That's what Zora embodied so profoundly. That's what many other Black towns exhibited too, rising like Phoenixes on the American landscape after the Civil War. Life wasn't easy but these African-American towns and communities promised opportunity and freedom, and eventually fueled the fight for Civil Rights. 

It's why preserving Eatonville is so important, not only to its descendants but to the larger story of the United States. African-American history is American history, The story of black towns, from Oklahoma and Kansas to Washington DC to Africatown and Eatonville, are part of this history.

The Yard and Garden Club of Historic Eatonville grows and provides locally grown organic fruits and veggies for their wider community. Their goal is to help end food health disparity and provide Eatonville residents with good food that they can get "just down the street" from where they live.

BREAKING NEWS! Just returned from a St.Pete Florida, vacation and read this great news from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC): The School and its parcel saved! "The Eatonville, Florida, community has won a major victory! The Eatonville Town Council voted against rezoning the site of the historic Hungerford School, a school founded in 1897 to educate Black children, effectively blocking a developer's plans. The massive redevelopment could have erased the town's Black heritage and priced residents out of the community. Community members fought back against developers for their land and to preserve the history of their community. "This decision by the town council is an important first step in a process for the community to plan for good development of the historic Robert Hungerford Preparatory High School property that will ensure economic prosperity for the Eatonville of today and for Eatonville's posterity," N.Y. Nathiri, Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community executive director, said. Learn more: https://www.splcenter.org/.../eatonville-council-votes...

 

Sources/Notes

1. https://preserveeatonville.org/4-reasons-why-you-should-help-preserve-eatonville-florida/

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eatonville,_Florida

3.  https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/11/18/historically-black-community-eatonville-florida

4.  https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history

5.  https://www.splcenter.org/news/2022/11/18/timeline-events-eatonville-florida

6.  https://francurrocaryblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-last-slave-ship-clotilda and https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/slave-wrecks-project/africatown-alabama-usa 

7.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-list-of-well-known-black-towns/2015/03/27/9f21ca42-cdc4-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html About African-American towns in the USA.

In Honor of Black History Month, which should be honored, taught, remembered, throughout the year. Black history is American history..

Some of these links can't be accessed for some reason, but I include them for the sources of information for further research.  

Loren's 75th Birthday Rolls Around and He's Still Hiking

I'm sure that's Loren on this lovely path.
Photo from Harmony in Life, Sylvania's Main Street haven.

Cardinal, Andrea Patton,
Watercolorist

My brother Loren would have been 75 years old today, November 12, but age doesn't matter a whit where he is now, on some path or another beyond the horizon. 

This is what's interesting about him being where he is. At seventy-five he still has the energy of his 63 years when he died suddenly while hiking along the Aucilla River in northern Florida. His heart gave out, but not his spirit. 

I used to call it his last hike, but now I'm not so sure. 

I think he's still hiking, traveling the world, free as a bird. Elissa was sure Loren was with us when this cardinal followed us on a path we were walking at Wildwood Metropark. That bird stopped when we stopped, followed us when we moved. "Yep, Mom, Loren's listening in." 

He's also telegraphing ideas to me. I get a compulsion to look something up, like a nagging thought. That's how I discovered the artist Andrea Patton. As it turns out, most of these nagging curiosities have to do with issues and subjects Loren himself embraced. It's kind of how telepathy works I guess.   

Andrea Patton is a wonderful artist. She's from Houston, lives in Alaska, likes to travel, to Italy, all over Europe, to Colorado and around the wonders of America the beautiful.    

When I saw Patton's vibrant painting of a Rainbow Warrior, a colorful watercolor of a Native American warrior, I knew then and there it was Loren channeling the artist, nudging me to discover her. 

Loren knew more about Native American history and culture than anyone I know. It was his life-long passion, along with his environmental activism. He did his Master's thesis at Goddard exploring social ecology and Native beliefs and culture. 

Andrea Patton, Colorado

It's Fall now, Loren's favorite season. Great time to hike. I think Loren was on this path in Colorado, painted by Patton, when our minds connected.  

It's a time when Nature takes a hike, too, leaving a bright path across America, across the world. A Ukraine fall looks like autumn in Ohio or in New England. Loren knew how much I cared about Ukraine and its people. He tells me they will triumph. I believe him.

Nature brightens before the dying of the light, Loren mused, as we were hiking at St. Marks National Wildlife Preserve near Tallahassee. "It's the way of Mother Earth."  She promises to return after her winter rest into her rebirth in Spring.  For Loren, there was no better guide to the cycles of life and death. 

He may be 75 years old, but he remains young in spirit. He is one with Mother Earth. It's where he always wanted to be. That's why I think he's still hiking.