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February 21, 2022
Texas History Minute As of this writing, Ukraine and Russia appear on the brink of war. The deployment of thousands of Russian troops along Ken Bridges the border of Ukraine has become the most serious crisis facing Europe since the end of the Cold War. If a war were to occur, it could have consequences that affect the United States. This is not the first potential clash in the region. Russia and Ukraine have a joint history dating back centuries. Ukraine began as a small nation centered around its capital at Kiev (or Kyiv), founded around 482. It expanded toward the Black Sea, which brought it into contact with the Byzantine Empire, a remnant of the Roman Empire centered in Greece, which allowed Christianity to spread to Ukraine. What became known as the Kievan Rus by the Middle Ages spread northward to what is now Belarus, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. This new, expanded country came to be called Ruthenia, but it withered away over the centuries. The dukes and warlords who seized control of Moscow in the 1300s formed the core of what became Russia and began expanding southward, claiming they were the rightful rulers of Ukraine. Continuing invasions by the Mongols from the East disrupted both Russia and Ukraine; and Kiev even fell under Mongol control for a brief time. By the 1400s, western Ukraine fell under control of Poland, then the most powerful country in East Europe. By 1569, Poland had completed its conquest of Ukraine. Russia, however, was growing in strength and set its sights again on Ukraine. After years of warfare, by 1654, Russia had established a protectorate over Ukraine and began directly annexing eastern Ukraine by 1689. Under Russia’s Catherine the Great, she took control of western Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula in the late 1700s, giving a small portion of western Ukraine to the Austrian Empire as a goodwill gesture. Ukraine would remain under Russian control until World War I though the two by now had separate languages and cultures. World War I shattered Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine itself was deeply divided, with Ukrainians fighting in both the Russian army and the Austro-Hungarian army. Thousands of people died, and innumerable villages were destroyed. Eventually, Germany invaded, taking large parts of Ukrainian territory. In the chaos, Ukrainians began scrambling for their independence from Russia, Germany, and Austria. With these larger empires disintegrating under the pressures of the war, Ukraine saw its chance and began its war of independence in 1917. Its independence was recognized by Germany in 1918 and the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919. But the rise of the communists in neighboring Russia put Ukraine in new peril. In 1919, Ukraine suddenly found itself overwhelmed. Competing factions fought for control of Ukraine, leading to the collapse of the government. The Russian communists pushed deep into Ukraine, and Kiev itself changed hands five times in the span of a year. The Russians installed Ukrainian communist insurgents as a new competing government in Ukraine, draining the new country’s strength even further. In 1920, Ukraine allied with Poland, itself newly freed from Russian control, and the two struck back against the communists. The effort soon faltered into a stalemate, leaving Ukraine in a state of near-anarchy. By 1921, the fighting was over, and the Russian communists swept in, took control, and annexed Ukraine into the new Soviet Union. But Russia wasn’t finished with Ukraine. When Joseph Stalin took control of the Soviet Union in 1924, he was determined to dismantle the free farms in Ukraine and Russia and turn them all into communistcontrolled collectives. The farmers were forcibly moved and production plummeted. In 1932 and 1933 as a result of this agricultural disaster, a massive famine hit Ukraine; and Russia moved to make it even worse. Communist authorities forced Ukraine to continue to export its grains in spite of massive food shortages, effectively stealing what little food Ukrainians had. The amount of grains exported in 1932 would have fed 5 million people by one estimate. Food rations were cut. Any resistance by farmers was met by immediate execution. Reports of cannibalism emerged. Ukraine has since accused Russia of committing genocide. This man-made famine resulted in 5-7 million dead and is remembered as the Holodomor in Ukraine today. The memories of the famine were still fresh when Nazi Germany attacked in 1941. Ukraine was caught between the brutality of Stalin and the brutality of the Nazis. Hating Stalin more, many Ukrainians fought on the German side in World War II. Ukraine was reabsorbed into the Soviet Union as Russian forces overran the Germans. Ukraine most recently gained its independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, it has been an uneasy independence, with Russia attempting to subvert Ukrainian independence and stability, taking control of Crimea in 2014, and inciting civil war in the Russiandominated east. For Ukraine, it is part of an old playbook. But even in the most desperate of times, peace is always an alternative.
© 2022 The Howe Enterprise
Living with children Q: Our 11month-old son has started crying at just about anything he doesn’t understand. In our playgroup, if another John Rosemond child or an adult so much as looks at him the “wrong” way, he melts down. Otherwise, he’s content and keeps himself occupied for fairly long periods of time. I worry that he’s becoming overly dependent on me. My husband is afraid he’s going to be a “crybaby” when he goes to school. I know we’re projecting ahead a few years, but we’re new at this. Is this normal? How should I/we react? A: Yes, this is perfectly “normal” in the sense that whereas not all children this age are sensitive to unexpected sounds, looks from other people, and so on, some are and—I want you to pay close attention to the next six words: IT IS OF NO PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE! Your son’s crying is probably a form of the “startle reflex,” which is stronger in some children than others. Several generations ago, before moms began attributing apocalyptic psychological meaning to anything unusual about their kids, the pre-modern parent would have described such a child as “touchy.” Right now, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that you can’t explain to your little neurotic (that was a joke) the “why?” of these events. When something startles the little crybaby (another joke), all you can do is what you are undoubtedly doing: pick him up and talk gently to him, telling him that everything is all right. All kidding aside, you’re doing nothing wrong, believe me, but like many a modern mom, you have fallen victim to the notion that any out-of-theordinary behavior on the part of a child
is the result of some psychological warpage brought on by YOU. Today’s mom seem preternaturally adept at conjuring up guilt. Are you over-protecting by being at home with him? No. The proof? He plays independently for significant lengths of time, which is one reason he doesn’t need to be in a playgroup. He just needs to be at home with you, playing imaginatively on his own. That was, after all, the normal state of affairs for children up until recently. I’m just sayin’. It may be that he’s a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff his mom feels she has to do to grow him into an adult who has no faults. That was not a joke. The notion that a child needs a playgroup at 11 months is a symptom of what I term “mother correctness.” You see other mothers doing it en masse; therefore, you think it must be the right thing to do. Furthermore, you think if you don’t do it, the other moms will think something is wrong with you (which, unfortunately, may well be true). You’re falling into a pattern that’s easier to break now than it will be even one year from now. If you’re going to be a truly liberated mommy who can think outside the box, you need to stop letting pseudo-psychological demons crawl around in your skull. By the way, tell your husband paranormal geneticists recently determined that the “crybaby gene” is always inherited from the father. Family psychologist John Rosemond: johnrosemond.com, parentguru. com. John Rosemond has worked with families, children, and parents since 1971 in the field of family psychology. In 1971, John earned his masters in psychology from Western Illinois University and was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society.
