“Aren’t you overreacting? It’s not that serious. You’re being too harsh!”
… Sound familiar? We’ve all heard those words (usually about relationships) when somehow, perfectly reasonable standards are treated as a Herculean achievement, and you should be grateful to receive even half a sliver of human decency. Well, Ukrainians get to hear that about their relationship to ruZZians. The thing is, many of the examples of “good Russians” that are brought up uphold the same imperialistic view of Ukraine as the current dictatorship (*cough* Navalny *cough*).
Is there anyone that can be considered a good Russian then? Sure, if they fulfill some criteria.
№1: They are against the genocidal war.
And yes, they need to use exactly these words. Not “conflict,” not “special military operation,” they specifically recognize that ruZZia is waging a genocidal war on Ukraine with the express intent of destroying Ukrainian identity, culture, history, and people.
It’s not enough for them to just say they’re anti-war either, especially since “anti-war” could just mean anti-consequences, a convenient label to try and avoid social exclusion, not have to answer “awkward” questions, not lose followers, etc. We’ve also seen an example of this during ruZZian mobilization — suddenly, 7 months in, so many ruZZian men realized they were “anti-war” and fled across the borders. At the end of the day, those ruZZians may be perfectly fine with the mass murder of Ukrainians and even cheer it on, just as long as it doesn’t affect them personally.
So yes — anti-war because they are against killing Ukrainians.
№2: Acknowledge the collective responsibility of all ruZZians for the war.
The fact of the matter is that Putin is the product of ruZZian society. After the fall of the Soviet Union, ruZZia had a chance of establishing a democracy. Yes, the road wouldn’t have been without difficulties, but still — they had the same exact chance as the rest of the Soviet republics. After Putin served two terms as President, did him getting selected as Prime Minister afterwards not raise any red flags? Especially given that he was PM right before he was President as well. What about when he got “elected” for a third presidential term? A fourth?!
Is this not a reason to be outraged? To go protest, and if that fails, to get even more outraged, gather more people, and go protest again? You cannot possibly delude yourself into thinking that that is a democracy, even when inundated in ruZZian propaganda. But Putin was (and still is) largely accepted by the ruZZian public, and so they watched as he consolidated more and more power. They watched as ruZZia’s imperial ambitions grew and grew. Georgia, Moldova, Ossetia, Chechnya, Libya, Syria, and many others were massacred in the ruZZian quest to regain the glory of it’s former empire. And as long as Putin kept bringing home military victories, proof of the “might of their great country,” they supported him.
At any point in time since the fall of the Soviet Union, there could have been protests. Before it became a dictatorship, there could have been protests. With every new war, there could have been protests. After the dictatorship, there could have been protests. The size of the protests that they did have is simply laughable compared to their population of 144 million people, which is further evidence that the ruZZian public largely didn’t protest because they supported their governments’ actions.
This apathy, this acceptance of the idea “well, it is what it is, and what can we do about it anyways” is what led to today’s war.
№3: Learn the real history of ruZZia and the Soviet Union.
ruZZia has spent centuries rewriting history. This is not an exaggeration — it goes all the way back to when ruZZian tsars decided to claim that the Kyivan Rus wasn’t Ukrainian but the predecessor of the ruZZian empire. In the centuries since, ruZZia has systematically engaged in the destruction of culture, language, and history all across Eastern Europe, Central and Northern Asia, and the Caucuses. To this day, ruZZian schools teach that WWII started in 1941, not in 1939. You know, so that they never learn that ruZZia actually collaborated with the Nazis.
Recently, Darya Zorka made a thread on Twitter talking about ruZZian crimes during WWII. The thread was seen by almost 1 million, and hundreds of people from all across the world shared their families’ stories and experiences with ruZZian soldiers and then more broadly, with living under Soviet occupation. Tales of mass rape, looting, repressions, generational trauma — the wound inflicted by ruZZia spread far and wide. It was shocking how similar all these stories were.
And then a couple of days later, ruZZians found the thread. Do you think a single one apologized? Did they stop to reflect on why people from all over the world have the same stories? Of course not. Instead, they denied these experiences ever happened, tried to push blame on other countries, harassed people in the comments… well, you can look for yourselves. They continued trying to gaslight people and rewrite history, even those with the “ruZZian liberal” flag in their bio.
So until ruZZians pick up some history books from the countries they colonized, until they make the conscious effort to learn of the atrocities their country committed, how can they be considered “good”? If you don’t learn history, you are bound to repeat it, and since ruZZia never faced any consequences, that’s exactly what it continues to do.
On a larger scale, Ukrainians (and any victims of Soviet occupation and ruZZian aggression) would like to see formal apologies made and ideally, reparations, which brings me to my next point.
№4: They must support sanctions and reparations.
I mean, this one goes hand in hand with the two previous points. If all ruZZians carry collective responsibility, then sanctions must be applied to the whole country. If ruZZians refuse to learn history and listen to their neighbors and instead choose to revel in a glorified, imperialist version of it, maybe sanctions will help them be a bit more open-minded.
And if you truly want to make amends for ruZZia’s past, then reparations are a must. Over centuries, ruZZia exploited its surrounding lands, hoarding the resources, using the people for cheap labor. Nothing will ever come close to repairing the over-exploitation of the former Soviet countries, but that’s not an excuse to do nothing.
№5: Help return our cultural heritage.
You know what’s dangerous to dictatorships? Anything that goes against its carefully crafted propaganda, its “constructed history” so to speak. It’s no coincidence then that ruZZia did everything in its power to either appropriate or eliminate Ukrainian intellectuals and their work. The same thing happened in other countries, of course. To this day, artists, scientists and writers who were Ukrainian are still being appropriated as ruZZian — Kazimir Malevich, a famous painter who was born in Kyiv, Mykola Hohol, the famous writer, also Ukrainian, Igor Sikorsky, the father of helicopters and also born in Kyiv, and so many more are appropriated as “ruZZian.”
Why? Simple. Because if you wanted any chance at a normal life during the Soviet Union, you had to know ruZZian. If you achieved anything great, in the sciences, in art, in literature, you had limited choices: move to ruZZia or identify as ruZZian… or lose everything and even maybe even get sent to the gulags. And if your work in any way promoted the culture of your country instead of the “glory of the Soviet Empire,” again, Siberia awaits.
ruZZia has done nothing to rectify these misconceptions. It is perfectly happy to pretend that all culture, all knowledge, in short — all intelligence came from ruZZia while all of its neighboring countries were always more stupid, less developed, in need of guidance. We see it playing out now as well — there’s a reason they are targeting museums and cultural sites. There is a reason they are looting ancient artefacts in occupied territories and literally taking our history to ruZZia. It’s because they want to make it seem like we had no history at all.
And thus, here comes another tool in ruZZia’s arsenal of genocide: “Other people don’t know what’s good for them because we are more cultured and much smarter. By ruling over them, we are actually helping them, and they’re just too dumb to understand how blessed they are that we even bother.” In short, they belittle Ukrainians and deny that we have agency and can make choices for ourselves. Dismantling this notion begins with the return of our cultural heritage.
№6: Commit to anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism.
This one is layered. There’s a lot that goes into this one and activists working in this space have described it much better than I can, but in the context of ruZZia’s relationship to the people it colonized, a few things stand out to me.
The first concerns literature. From Lermontov to Pushkin, ruZZian literature is full of imperialism, anti-Ukrainian sentiment, racist tropes, especially towards Asian people, and in general just painting ruZZians as more civilized than everyone else. However, when you try to point this out, you’re often accused of “Russophobia” and told that “culture exists outside of politics.” Culture absolutely does not exist outside of politics, as political ideas influence literary ideas and literature influences society which in turn influences politics… you see the feedback loop? Until ruZZians begin to critically analyze the literature and art they are inundated with, they cannot hope to become anti-imperialist.
The second concerns the treatment of the indigenous peoples of ruZZia. ruZZia didn’t just colonize its neighbors — the reason ruZZia is so big is because they colonized everyone that lived there. And “theoretically” they support indigenous rights, but in reality the non-white parts of ruZZia are purposefully kept underdeveloped. Why? Because they need a soldier reserve. If the only options are to stay in poverty or gain some money by joining the military, many choose to the latter, and that’s why most of the casualties in the war were from the Eastern regions of ruZZia. ruZZia doesn’t just treat their lives as disposable, but their cultures too, which is why we see languages such as Buryat, Erzya, Yakut, and many more dying out.
If ruZZians truly stand against colonialism, then they must try to right the wrongs of both internal and external colonialism, through reparations to its neighbors, and through protecting indigenous rights, representation, and culture.
№7: Support the rights of marginalized groups.
Let’s run down the list, shall we? Apart from the abysmal treatment of ruZZian indigenous peoples and purposeful extinguishing of their cultures, the LGBTQ+ community is criminalized in ruZZia. Homophobia and transphobia is at an all-time high and is seen as the “influence of the immoral West.” Religious freedom? Yep, their messaging throughout the war definitely hasn’t been antisemitic at all. I also wonder what the Muslim ruZZian soldier who was beaten up by his “brothers in arms” for praying has to say about it. And what about women’s rights? Well, what can really be said about a country where at the start of 2017, lawmakers voted 380–3 to decriminalize certain forms of domestic violence. 380–3!!! I could go on, but I think this paints the picture.
To be honest, if you don’t support the rights of indigenous peoples, the LGBTQ+ community, and women, you’re not a good “anything” in my book, ruZZian or not.
№8: Stop expecting ruZZian to be spoken everywhere.
Ah yes, one of the many remnants of Russification. Let me tell you a personal story here. I went to college in the US so obviously, it’s an English-speaking institution. In one of my classes, there was a TA that was ruZZian. Ok, no big deal. Until one day, I get one of my assignments back… and it was graded in ruZZian. There are several things to note here: before this incident, I had never interacted with this TA face to face. To be honest, I didn’t even know what they looked like since I never made it to their office hours, all I knew was their name on the syllabus. This also meant that all they knew of me was my name, and from my name alone they assumed several things:
First, that I knew how to speak ruZZian. Now my last name has a distinctly Ukrainian ending, -enko, an ending that isn’t found in ruZZian last names, so to any ruZZian, it was obvious that I wasn’t ruZZian. But they assumed that I knew the language anyways (thanks, colonization).
Second, they assumed that I wanted communicate in ruZZian. They just blatantly assumed that, even though we were both in the US, in an English-speaking institution, the assignment was in English, we had never interacted before so they never asked if I wanted to talk in ruZZian, and there was no reason to literally grade my homework in a language different than the one used in class.
At the time, this incident bothered me but I didn’t know exactly why. Now I do though. It demonstrates the ingrained superiority ruZZians carry around with them as they automatically assume that everyone prefers to communicate in ruZZian, no matter where you’re from or where you are. And if you don’t switch to ruZZian with them, especially when you “should” know it if you’re from a former Soviet country? Well then you’re automatically considered stupid. But careful! If you mess up your ruZZian or you have an accent, you’ll be considered stupid all the same.
It happened to me, it happened to my family, it has happened to Ukrainians all around the world and even in Ukraine. And as with everything, it’s not limited to Ukraine! When ruZZians began fleeing mobilization, I saw countless posts on Telegram of ruZZians complaining that signage was in the native language of the country they were in and why couldn’t they be in ruZZian, whining about how people don’t speak “normally” aka in ruZZian, saying that the other languages were ugly and why should they learn it when those people should just learn ruZZian instead… It was unbelievable.
Expecting everyone neighboring ruZZia or everyone from a former Soviet country to know ruZZian is an extension of imperialism and colonialism, and plays into the propaganda that “all Eastern European languages are basically ruZZian.” This expectation must be relinquished.
№9: Stop coopting our movements.
Have you seen the new “liberal Russia” flag? You know, the one that replaced the red stripe on the ruZZian flag with a white one, to symbolize “wiping away the blood” of the country in favor of peace (as if a simple flag change could do that but I digress). Since the start of the full-scale invasion, that flag has cropped up on social media and in in-person protests and demonstrations in support of Ukraine.
So what’s the issue? The issue is that we’ve seen time and time again that these “liberal ruZZians” show up to Ukrainian demonstrations… to push for leniency for ruZZian citizens, to collect money for visas to get ruZZians out of their country, or to fundraise for their societies. Instead of fundraising for the actual victims of the war (Ukrainians), they divert focus to their self-victimization and then have the audacity to say that this “helps Ukraine.”
If they actually wanted to help Ukraine, they would show up with Ukrainian flags and fundraise for Ukrainians. They wouldn’t be so focused on loudly shouting about their “allyship” and instead focus on actually being allies and supporting Ukrainians. By showing up with their flags, they make it about themselves: “Look! We’re good ruZZians, we are against the war, applaud us for showing human decency!” Most of the time, they don’t organize these demonstrations themselves, either. They don’t go and seek permission from local authorities to take part in parades or protest, they don’t do the heavy lifting of spreading the word about these events, they leave all the work to Ukrainians… and then show up and take advantage of all of that labor to advocate for their cause. This entitlement to other people’s labor is just an extension of ruZZian imperialism.
№10: Listen to Ukrainians.
Decolonization is a long process. As more and more people connect to their roots, as more and more history gets uncovered, as people all over the world begin to look more critically at ruZZian culture, there will be more demands for change. More wrongs to rectify and more discussions to be had. It’s not a “one and done” process, not just for Ukrainians but for ruZZians. And that means that ruZZians have to be open to the revolving door of feedback, even when it is unpleasant. They must decenter themselves. (It would be a bonus if they uplifted/promoted Ukrainian voices themselves, but many don’t even listen to us, so… one step at a time.)
“When will it be enough?”
It will be enough when Ukrainians say it’s enough. When Kazakhs say it’s enough. When Armenians, Chechens, Crimean Tatars, etc. say it’s enough. Simple as that.
“Wow, what moralistic preaching, you must think you’re so perfect, as if Ukraine has it all figured out.”
No, I don’t think I’m perfect. There’s a lot I’m learning myself about things such as anti-racism, decolonization, LGBTQ+ movements and history. And although Ukraine has made a lot of social progress, especially since 2014, there is also still a lot of work to be done.
What it really boils down to is sharing a set of values, perhaps more accurately described as actively working against all forms of oppression and colonization. I repeat, ACTIVELY WORKING AGAINST, not just theoretically opposing oppression. And as citizens of a colonizing nation, one that is continuing on its imperialist rampage, ruZZians have significantly more legwork to do here.
If I see a ruZZian person sharing these same values, advocating for these same causes, examining their internalized imperialism, denouncing the actions of their state, both past and present — in short, making an effort — then I would consider them a “good” Russian. But in the past 8 months, on the internet and off of it… I haven’t found them. Most can’t even fulfill one criteria, much less all of them. So you tell me — how many “good Russians” have you met?
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