If you need a reminder (or know someone who does) of why #Russia invaded #Ukraine in the first place, my friend @tjmac87 is live-streaming #Putin's Speech from Feb 21 2022 right now, with an accurate English translation!
Tune in here 👇🏽
youtube.com/live/yoHVVF2kV…
Here #Putin is tracing the roots of the current war, back to what he considers #Lenin’s fateful error:
Making concessions to the Ukrainian nationalists (who fought for an independent #Ukraine during the Civil War) when #Ukraine joined the #USSR in 1922.
From my own research into this period of history, Putin is absolutely correct.
Lenin should have known the types he was dealing with — evil monsters, out to destroy #Russia — after all he’d seen from them between 1917-21.
They’d be back 20 years later, w/ Germany’s backing!
Even after the Nazis were defeated by Russia, this Soviet artwork from 1945 warned that the #NazisInUkraine would return again to cause more trouble if not dealt with swiftly and severely!
#Stalin captured, imprisoned, and executed many after the war, but many more escaped…
Future leaders of the Soviet Union and Russian Federation (including #Putin himself) failed to deal with the growing threat of the #Nazis next door.
All the while, the West armed and funded Ukraine, preparing to start #WWIII with #Russia.
Now Putin HAS to deal with it.
Putin is dealing with it now — albeit with great reluctance.
In this speech he called the Ukranian people “comrades” and addressed them as family. But much has changed over the past year when he spoke those words.
He never wanted a second Civil War, or #WWIII; but here we are
In fairness to #Lenin, he did what seemed like the right thing at the time.
He didn’t have a crystal ball 🔮— certainly couldn’t have predicted the future.
This was his reasoning on “self-determination” for #Ukraine when she joined the #USSR 100 years ago:
#Trotsky’s published warnings about “the Ukranian question” are instructive in hindsight.
Unfortunately, by the time he wrote this article in May of 1939, it was too late — the Ukrainian nationalists were already marching in lockstep w/ #Nazi Germany:
marxists.org/archive/trotsk…
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