why Ukrainians are the best at explaining russia.

This week is all about Ukrainians exposing russian colonialism. In particular, southern and eastern Ukrainians, like myself. We emerge as leading voices in this conversation for a simple reason: no other part of Ukraine suffered from colonisation so badly.

Our language, family history, and identity were almost wiped out during centuries of russian colonial rule. Many elsewhere are born into their national identities and take them for granted. Growing up, they hear proud recollections of their family tales or the history of their people. But thanks to colonial erasure, this is not the case in Ukraine. Despite our history dating back millennia, reconnecting with your roots always takes extra labour and effort. Growing up in Ukraine as a kid, you have more questions than answers about where you come from, the history of your country, or even your own family.

For example, I grew up in a Ukrainian-speaking family where speaking Ukrainian in public wasn’t encouraged. Because of repressions and genocide targeting multiple generations of my family, we were discouraged from asking our grandparents about our family history. Reconnecting with my roots was an actual act of investigative journalism. Coming from a Ukrainian-speaking village was something my parents rarely disclosed. And I still remember how I was ridiculed by other kids or even teachers for my heavy Ukrainian accent after I would get back to the city following months spent with my grandparents.

It was literally easier for me to come out as queer than as Ukrainian. I did the former when I was 16. I did the latter in my very late twenties. Because so many of our ancestors were wiped out, punished, repressed for exhibiting any signs of Ukrainianness, I grew up in a culture heavily conditioned by russian colonialism — even years after formal russian rule was over. In southern and eastern Ukraine, speaking Ukrainian or identifying as Ukrainian would be associated with pain, shame, and confusion. But similarly with my queerness, once I reconnected with my roots and went through a decolonising cleanse, now I can’t imagine myself being anything else than unapologetically Georgian, Roma, Asian, but — above all — Ukrainian.

Like other Ukrainians, I’d rather die than give up this liberty. And so many Ukrainians have been going through the same identity awakening in recent years — developing a louder global voice that exposes russian colonialism in the process. That's why russia is so keen on wiping us out completely rather than allowing this anti-colonial pushback to spill over to other former colonies.

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

• The biggest hole in the russian colonialism mythology.

• How russian colonialism manifests in the everyday lives of Ukrainians.

• How russian colonialism is inherently fascist.

• How russian colonialism uses the same copy-paste job in Ukraine for centuries.

• Why russian colonialism won't end with Putin;

• The to-follow list of Ukrainians exposing russian colonialism.

Slava Ukraïni.

Let's go.

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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.

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