Applebaum: Historically, Ukrainianness has been opposed to the post-Soviet kleptocracy, and it is

ready to resist.

An American journalist and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian Anne Applebaum has analyzed
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in terms of the history and the length of Ukraine's desire for
democracy. She wrote about this in her article “Calamity Again” for The Atlantic magazine.

Applebaum briefly analyzed the history of Ukraine, referring to Taras Shevchenko's poem "Calamity
Again":

Dear God, calamity again!...

It was so peaceful, so serene;
We but began to break the chains
That bind our folk in slavery...
When halt!... Again the people's blood
Is streaming! Like rapacious dogs
About a bone, the royal thugs
Are at each other's throat again.

The journalist recalled Kyivan Rus, the Soviet Union, the formation of civil society in the XIX century,
Ukraine's independence, the Orange Revolution and Revolution of Dignity and other periods of Ukrainian
history. She stressed that the self-determination of Ukrainians was a political statement from the XVI-
XVII centuries and during the USSR: “The Ukrainian identity was anti-elitist before anyone used the
expression anti-elitist, often angry and anarchic, occasionally violent.”

“There are no simple lines to be drawn between the past and the present. There are no direct analogies;
no nation is forced to repeat its past,” noted Applebaum.

She suggested that since Ukraine was forced to fight for its independence for centuries (power
accordingly did not belong to the people or Ukrainians), this could have caused certain problems already
in the period of independence, in particular, corruption. “But, in the long tradition of their parents and
grandparents, millions of Ukrainians did continue to resist both corruption and autocracy. And precisely
because it was opposed to the post-Soviet kleptocracy, Ukrainianness in the 21st century became
intertwined with aspirations for democracy, for freedom, for rule of law, for integration in Europe,”
Applebaum wrote.

In her opinion, Ukraine's determination to become a democracy is a real challenge to Putin's nostalgic,
imperial political project: the creation of an autocratic kleptocracy like something close to the old Soviet
empire, an autocracy where Putin is all-powerful. This could be the reason for Russia's war against
Ukraine. “Ukraine undermines this project just by existing as an independent state. By striving for
something better, for freedom and prosperity, Ukraine becomes a dangerous rival. For if Ukraine were to
succeed in its decades-long push for democracy, the rule of law, and European integration, then Russians
might ask: Why not us?” noted the journalist.

At this point in history, something extraordinary is happening in Ukraine, according to Applebaum: a

significant number of people — at every level of society, throughout the country, in every field of activity
— are striving to create a fairer, freer, and more successful country than any version of the one they have
inhabited in the past. “Among them are people willing to dedicate their lives to fighting corruption, to
deepening democracy, to remain sovereign and free. Some of those people are willing to die for these
ideas,” the journalist concluded.
In addition, Ms. Applebaum actively expresses her position on Russia's policy and war in Ukraine on her
Twitter account. In particular, she wrote that Russia could really want a third world war and noted that it
was Russia, not Putin, as he could not have done anything without "millions of collaborators."

She also distributed a list of charitable organizations that help Ukraine.

Anne Applebaum is an American journalist for The Atlantic, a fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns
Hopkins University, and the author of many books, including “Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive
Lure of Authoritarianism “, “Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine”, “Gulag: A History”, “Iron Curtain:
The Crushing of Eastern Europe” and others, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Britain's Duff Cooper
Prize for the book “Gulag: A History”.

Recall that before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Applebaum criticized the West for its intentions to
pacify Putin diplomatically.