russia only reforms after losing.

History is clear on this: the only thing that ever changes russia is losing the wars it started.

here is what's in store for you this week:

(estimated reading time: 8 min)

And in this week’s reading list:

• Aqmescit. Aquar. Learn to spell Crimean cities right — it's the cheapest way to ruin a russian's day.

• Two governments in Central Asia declared freedom from imperial russia in the same winter of 1917. Moscow buried one with guns, bought the other with the same kind of lies it peddles today in Ukraine.

• A 1918 footage from Kyiv, eerily similar to what you see in 2026 - a century-old reminder of what russian occupation does to a city.

• Every real reform imperial russia has ever made came after losing a war.

• "Novorossiya" or "New Russia" was never a place. It was a recruitment poster for settler colonialism — and the land was never empty to begin with.

• Back in 1917, the Kremlin rebranded itself as an anti-colonial champion and promised every colonised nation the right to secede. The bait was real, by law. But the pen stayed with the russian settlers, not the people leaving.

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Russian Colonialism 101 is the first newsletter to shed light on Russian colonialism and is part of the Volya Hub network. What is happening to Ukraine has happened many times before, and the rest of the world has been conditioned to overlook or misdiagnose it. This isn’t history. It’s how you stop being shocked by what was always predictable.

“I am a big fan of your work and find it accessible for seeing the larger picture that people seem to be misunderstanding—without this digestible explanation of the history—to appreciate empire strategy and mindset at play currently.”

by Jessica Bee, a paying supporter of Russian Colonialism 101.

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THIS WEEK’S READING LIST: