History can help us see through the fog of war

Ukraine the latest neighbour to fall in Russia’s sights

STEVE DYLAG

I’m thinking a lot about my paternal grandfather these days.

He was a Polish war refugee who brought his family to Canada in 1946. He opened up a shop in Port Colborne and sold the best kielbasa in town. He loved his new homeland, but remained a Polish patriot all his life. This included a virulent anti-Communism, which I never appreciated until I learned of a little place called Katyn.

Katyn is a forested region near Smolensk, Russia. In 1939, the

Soviet Union made an alliance with Hitler, invaded Poland, took 22,000 Poles to Katyn and had them all shot. (That’s about 4,000 more people than the current population of Port Colborne, for what it’s worth). These were not just army officers, but intelligentsia as well. Civil servants, teachers, lawyers. Professionals. It was an attempt to lobotomize a country and erase a culture (unsuccessful, but not for lack of trying). It was a fate my grandfather narrowly avoided.

I think of Katyn when I hear of new massacres in Bucha and Mariupol, and all the other awful stories coming out Ukraine, including kidnappings, deportations and grain requisitions. Propaganda? Fog of war? Truth is indeed the first casualty of war, so who knows what’s actually happens “over there.” But before I even consider confirmations by Amnesty International and the New York Times among others, I consider what legal folks call the “balance of probabilities.” In this case: “Who started the war?” and “Who’s done this sort of thing before?”

We can start with Katyn. But let’s not stop at Katyn.

In 1939, Russia invaded Finland, kicked 450,000 Finns out of their homes and bombed Helsinki.

In 1940, Russia annexed Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and deported some 95,000 of their citizens to Siberia.

In 1956, Russia invaded Hungary and killed 2,500 people.

In 1968, Russia invaded what was then Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” reform movement. Seventy-two people were killed.

In 1979, Russia invaded Afghanistan and occupied the country for a decade.

From 1994 to 1995, Russia flattened Chechnya, killing some 100,000 people.

In 2015, Russia intervened in Syria, bombing Aleppo to rubble.

Russia seems addicted to invading its neighbours. In Czarist times, it was referred to as “the prison-house of nations” for its tendency to forcibly annex smaller states. Putin is nostalgic for this period: he is a follower of the contemporary Russian philosopher Alexandre Dugin (Google him), who calls for restoring this empire in modern times. Dugin envisions it as a strict Orthodox theocracy, unburdened by democracy, women’s rights or LGBTQ people. It would of course include sizable chunks of other people’s countries.

The pattern of invasion, deportation and forced assimilation appears to continue. Recently, the Kremlin has produced a paper entitled “What Russia Should Do with Ukraine,” which calls for the elimination of the Ukrainian state, the erasure of Ukrainian culture and the collective punishment of the Ukrainian people for daring to defy Russia. It’s available online in English translation — Google it.

It may be generations before we know the whole truth of this war. But given the precedents, you’ll forgive me if I believe Ukraine.