On War
A set of texts—mostly long Twitter threads put together and edited for ease of reading—that I am writing during the Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022. Mourning friends, personal stories, and some political/sociological analysis on Russian and Western ways of about the genocidal invasion.
I have had this uncanny feeling that modern culture has tricked itself into over-sophistication, especially after WWII. It is built on top of thousands of years of history and on top of implicit understanding of the basic morals: that invading other countries, concentration camps, burning books, and stealing children is actually, you know, bad! Nobody repeated the basics for a long time, and now it is as if everything has become grayscale.
A year ago, another of my brothers-in-arms from the officer courses group was killed on the battlefield.
A year ago, on this day, Lt. Jr. Andriy Taran was killed by russians near Robotine. He was my brother-in-arms from the officer courses group.
I have had this uncanny feeling that modern culture has tricked itself into over-sophistication, especially after WWII. It is built on top of thousands of years of history and on top of implicit understanding of the basic morals: that invading other countries, concentration camps, burning books, and stealing children is actually, you know, bad! Nobody repeated the basics for a long time, and now it is as if everything has become grayscale.
I helped to evacuate people from dangerous territories before joining the army. People tell stories. Even their documents tell stories. Many of their stories are similar to this one.
A text about Western hypocrisy, engineering hubris, and simple technical solutions for political and societal problems.
At this point in time, I believe that the West preaches Russia religion, and its relationship with Russia is close to that of ancient people's attitude towards wrathful gods.
What seriously bothers me sometimes—though it is the least of our current problems—is that any of the current US politicians and the likes of them would never be properly judged—not by the court, not by colleagues and compatriots, not by international peers, not by historians/publicists.
Kharkiv is a city comparable in size and population to Hamburg or Barcelona. One Friday, Russia targeted absolutely all of its electrical grid nodes. This alone should be a huge story, yet it barely made a news feed. Why?
That’s how I found my family in Kharkiv, in our cellar, on the morning of Feb 26, 2022, after ~50hrs on the road (I was abroad on Feb 24).
This is a thought that bothers me for a long time. And the main support the world provides them is helping them to keep being indifferent to everything.
Those days, I was working with Kharkiv volunteering organization that helps to evacuate people/deliver humanitarian help throughout the region. We were in Izyum.
A meditation on the places of the fond childhood memories and their destiny during the invasion.
A thought that 🇷🇺 invasion of 🇺🇦 poses an elementary school-level moral arithmetic task for the civilization.
I was a very "text-oriented" person as far as I remember myself. I read everything that I could find since ~5, always had book(s) with me in school, in public transport, in any situation. I also tried to write myself since ~6. What languages I've been reading and writing in? That's complicated!
I lived here for a large part of my life. The house behind the trees on the right is the house of my parents. This asphalt path leads to the yard where I spent most of my childhood with my best and only friend.