the western blind spot for russian colonialism, explained.

When some of you hear 'colonialism' lots of things like 'complicated', 'academic research', 'history' come to mind. Right? In my case, it has never been about those. I ain't a scholar, researcher, or historian. I don't have a PhD or even a master’s degree.

My obsession with this topic comes from a very personal place: growing up in eastern Ukraine, there were more questions about my identity than answers. Why am I conditioned to hate and hide my Ukrainian roots? Why am I discouraged from speaking Ukrainian? Why is discussing our family history a taboo? Why are there so many gaps in our family tree? How come the homophobia I am facing always seems to be connected with anything russia? Why are poverty and corruption always connected to it, too?

It took me years to connect the dots and find one thing that ties everything together with simple logic — colonialism.

To this day, my decolonial awakening is still a learning journey. Partially because I'm a self-taught rookie. Partially because russia has erased so much evidence. Or, at least in part, because research is almost non-existent. Nevertheless, my personal 'aha!' discovery made me believe that powerful storytelling, with laser focus on human experience, is the best bridge to regular folks, helping them relate, care, and understand what russian colonialism is and why it has to be stopped. Seeing the awareness expanding at light speed these days, I am glad I made the right call.

Thanks for being part of this. And remember: you support not just a journalist. You support the movement that is exposing a genocidal colonial empire that has been hiding in plain sight for far too long.

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

• Quotes from me explaining russian colonialism to MSNBC. Also, why does the West keep failing to acknowledge its existence?

• russian colonialism vs Ukrainian queerness and feminism.

• One family story illustrating how russian colonialism robs us of the tools to document the history of colonial oppression.

• Long history of anti-Ukrainian racism that drives russian colonial conquest and other awesome stuff about russian colonialism I've found online.

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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