OPINION: The war in Ukraine will 'divide history for generations into 'before' and 'after'… and mark the end not only of the post-Soviet period of history, but of the 'post-Soviet region' itself,' writes guest columnist Ivan Preobrazhensky:
However Russian President Vladimir Putin's war of aggression ends — if it doesn't end in an nuclear strike — Ukrainians, as well as Russians who oppose the invasion, now have a war of their own: the"Great Ukrainian Patriotic War," as it is already being called. This war will now divide history for generations into"before" and"after."
It, and not some other conflict, such as the war against Georgia in 2008, or the 2014 annexation of Crimea, will mark the end not only of the post-Soviet period of history, but of the"post-Soviet region" itself. Now, there is"Imperial Russia" and the countries that succeeded at breaking free of it.
The changes will not immediately be felt by all. A new era began in Ukraine in February, but many Russians are still, like ostriches, sticking their heads in the sand.
Now, the majority find themselves in a country that bears no resemblance to the one they knew: with military censorship and cut off from the rest of the world. The bedrock of Russian national identity, the victory over fascism, has been shot to pieces by the rocket launchers shelling Kharkiv. Russia is heading for societal conflict, and Putin has broken the final dam.
Either there will now be mass purges of dissidents, or the societal conflict will descend into civil war — if, that is, pacifists and opponents of war are able to resist at all. The situation is in Ukraine is very different. It has never been as united as since the start of the Great Ukrainian Patriotic War, no matter how the war eventually ends.
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