The perception of the contemporary Russian state begins with the fundamental misconception that the Russian Empire has ceased to exist. In fact, it is fully thriving today, simply under a new name - the Russian Federation. The Soviet Union was considered a state of equality and fraternity. The Russian Federation is a democratic country. But it has always been an empire that steals the history and culture of its colonies. 

Why don't people in the West still identify this large, powerful country as a so-called superior nation that conquered and committed genocide on thousands of people, as other empires in Europe did? Moreover, the Russian Federation/Empire is still doing this today against Ukrainians. How and who created this myth of a great empire, and was Ukraine ever a colony? 

The guest of today's episode is Mykola Riabchuk, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He will tell us how Russia has become the state it is today.

Further Reading

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https://www.cidob.org/en/publications/publication_series/notes_internacionals/288/war_in_ukraine_peace_talking_versus_peace_making

https://lisd.princeton.edu/publications/rallying-around-flag-war-challenges-and-civic-mobilization-ukraine

https://en.desk-russie.eu/2023/05/27/the-toxic-spell-of-imperial-knowledge.html

https://www.raamoprusland.nl/auteurs/20-mykola-riabchuk

Ewa Thоmpsоn: https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Knowledge-Literature-Colonialism-Contributions/dp/0313313113

Serhii Phohii: https://www.amazon.com.be/-/en/Serhii-Plokhy/dp/0241633524 https://www.amazon.com.be/-/en/Plokhy-Serhii/dp/0141980613

Timothy Snyder: https://snyder.substack.com/

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Today, Yulia addresses some of the most popular misinformation circulating on the world wide web in the form of a true FAQ, with bite-sized rebuttals to some of the most ill-informed Ukraine-related tweets the Internet has to offer. 

Read more about Russia's War Crimes at Svidomi Media's Website:

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You've probably heard of the one of the most elite brigades of the National Guard of Ukraine. Maybe you've heard of their bravery, or maybe you've seen the fear they inspire in the russian armed forces. Maybe you've heard the russian propaganda about them.

The guest of today's episode, Vladyslav Zhaivoronok, callsign Wikipedia, of the former Azov Regiment (now Azov Assault Brigade), is a serviceman of the National Guard of Ukraine, a Mariupol defender, an Azovstal defender, and formerly a Russian POW. 

We're going to do our episode a little bit differently. Instead of debunking fakes, we are going to introduce you to an average guy who decided to quit his job and join Azov. And hopefully, you can make your own conclusions from there.

Read more about Azov at Svidomi Media's Website:

Further Reading

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Special thanks to Matt Christensen for providing the English voiceover! Follow him on social media at @mattchristensonvo.

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You've already heard of the events of February 20, 2014: a large group of unmarked soldiers known as “little green men” entered Crimea and occupied it by force. Although they presented themselves as a neutral militia, they were, in fact, russian armed forces, there to annex the peninsula to the “fatherland." They then oversaw an illegal and unconstitutional referendum with the intent to falsify proof that Crimea was eager to join russia.

But russian forces didn’t just show up in Crimea in 2014. The first “separatist” movement under russian direction occurred as early as 1994, three years after Ukraine proclaimed independence. The groundwork to russify the population started then and there. 2014 wasn’t the first attempt at annexation either. In 2003, russia tested the waters with the conflict at Tuzla Island, largely believed to be the beginning of the end of “peaceful” attempts to leave Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty intact.

Today, Yulia speaks with Pavlo Artemyshyn, Ph.D., lecturer of Ukrainian History at the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. They walk us through russia's centuries-long history of occupation on the Crimean Peninsula. 

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russian propaganda spreads the false narrative that Crimea has belonged to russia for most of its existence. Their propaganda asserts its indigenous people, the Qırımtatarlar — more commonly known as the Qirimli — have always been a small part of the Crimean population and have lived with ethnic russians.

The truth is much more grim: russia's attempted to wipe them off the map over the past three centuries. Due to their resilience, the Qırımtatarlar are not only alive, but are fighting for their homeland both on the peninsula and along the larger front as part of the Ukrainian Army.

Yulia and Alim Aliev, Deputy Director General of the Institute of Ukraine, member of PEN Ukraine and founder of the Crimean Fig literary project, discuss one of the most disputed peninsulas in the world — Qirim (or Krym in Ukrainian). Whom does it really belong to? Was it really originally russian land? What happened there between 1918 and 2014, when it became known worldwide (again) after the russian occupation?

Learn more about the Qırımtatarlar and Crimean Tartars.

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In 2014, Western media took a liking to frequent reporting on what they have deemed to be the "Ukrainian conflict," labeling the paid-by-russia militia and their russian troops as "separatists." russia created the perception in the West that Ukraine was persecuting the culture and identity of an independent group of people in the Donbas. Perception in hand, russia spun the narrative that this group of people wanted to cease being Ukrainian and form their own sub-republics adjacent to Mother russia.

Yulia and Olya discuss what really happened in Donetsk in 2014. Olya, a 16-year-old in 2014, was born and raised in the city of Donetsk, capital of Donetsk Oblast. Were there really pro-Russian crowds yearning to separate from Ukraine, so much so that they decided to create their own independent republics?

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Yulia and Professor Kateryna Zarembo discuss the real history of Donbas region, how the russian language became prevalent in the area, and why the West takes as fact that the Donbas has "always been russian."

Professor Kateryna Zarembo researches and lectures at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and is an author of the award-winning book, Ukrainian Sunrise. She specializes in the ethnocultural composure of Eastern Ukraine and helps us dissect why the persistent myths about the Donbas are simply products of a limited understanding of the region's history.

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Yulia and Professor Maria Shuvalova break down what the war in Ukraine has to do with Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling novel, why the world is outraged, and where russian propaganda fits into all of this. They explore how russia creates propaganda through literature, with narratives about "great russian authors for centuries."

Guest Professor Maria Shuvalova is a literary scholar from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and specializes in the global influence of propaganda in literature. She provides us with critical insights into how russia spreads its propaganda in modern and classical literature. Fakes about the Russian-Ukrainian war had appeared long before the invasion in books by Russian writers. This important discussion shows that first come novels, then come tanks.

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On June 6th, 2023, the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River experienced a critical failure and collapsed, rapidly draining the Kakhovka reservoir and flooding much of southeastern Ukraine. 48 settlements were flooded — 34 of them in Ukraine controlled territory — impacting hundreds of thousands of people. Thousands of species of animals and plants in parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions were also lost. Meanwhile, dozens of conspiracy theories about Ukraine blowing up the dam itself began to appear on the Internet and in the media.

Yulia speaks with Adam Ratliff, an engineering educator on social media, and talk about what actually happened to the Kakhovka Dam. Did Ukraine intentionally blow it up?

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