One year since the liberation of #Kherson. We visited the city two weeks ago. One of the most dangerous Ukrainian cities now, Russians are on the other side of Dnipro river. Regular artillery shelling. Here is a thread of what we saw and heard 1/12 The city went through triple pain: 1) Russian occupation which lasted for 8 months 2) regular Russian shelling after liberation, artillery shelling on civilians, sniper shots on civilians 3) huge inundation after Russians blew up the Kakhovka dam in summer 2023 2/12

Ukrainians who lived through Russian occupation or escaped from Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine tell us some repetitive stories. Some clear patterns.

1. Often people are not allowed to leave their villages. Supplies (incl. food supplies) are often cut 1/6 2. Russia doesn't bring Russian law, but brings lawlessness. People lose their rights - even those who sympathize with Russia. Your house can be taken by someone else; your car can be confiscated; you can be abducted, nobody would investitage. 2/6

There is again a talk “we don’t know who did it, maybe Russians, maybe Ukrainians”, which reminds of a info fog after the downing of MH17, and whole events in 2014. Therefore, a short thread from me, about evil 1/ All what is happening today, repeats what happened before in the Russian / Soviet empire, with the same logic. It’s the logic of the scorched land. Neglect to people, nature, ecosystems. Yes, this is in the heart of Russian totalitarian legacy for centuries 2/

One year of the full-scale war, 9 years of the Russian invasion in total. Some thoughts and feelings about this. A thread 1/9 1. War is not an abstract word. It has names, bodies, memories, geographies. Read and watch human stories, don't think only of "geopolitics", maps, territories. There are always people and their lives 2/9

putin is really funny. One more quote: he said that during Cold war nobody thought of "canceling" others' culture. - i will tell you a simple thing: in Kyiv during Cold war you had no chance to get a book from a modern German, French or American philosopher. 1/4 You had to go to Moscow, to a special place in a library called "spetskhran" (special storage). And there, if you had relevant permission, you could get some Western books for a couple of hours. That's what my father did, how he started reading German philosophers of 1970s 2/4

Let's make some clarifications. A thread

1. Russians want (always wanted) to ban Ukrainians from using their language in Ukraine. Ukrainians do NOT want to ban Russians from using Russian language in Russia 2. Moreover: Ukrainians are ok with Russians speaking Russian in their daily life in Ukraine and even with Ukrainians speaking Russian in their daily life. What they want is to help Ukrainian language and culture rise from centuries of oppression

Zelenskyi's speech at @UN was a speech about morality. This is the key thing to understand. Ukraine wants to liberate its lands bcs Russian occupation brings mass killings like in Bucha, Izyum and many more. It's not about lands / resources, it's about human lives 1/4 Ukrainians want punishment for Russia not bcs we want revenge but bcs unpunished crime leads a new cycle of crimes. Today's crimes are consequences of the endless repititions of the previous Soviet/Russian crimes, never fully brought to justice. Justice is key word 2/4

War is when your friends die. When you see this breathless cruelty of death. You remember talks with this brave young man, a talented scientist, now he's gone. Or a woman who cares about her rose garden, and you thought of her as the kindest person on earth. She's gone too 1/4 When we say that this war gets the best people, it's not a metaphor. Best people, the kindest, the bravest, the most empathetic, go to the frontline as volunteers and do not come back 2/4

Some reflections on power and violence in today's world. And how we can better understand Russia's war against Ukraine and against democratic world. A thread 1/9 In modern Western world, power has been associated with wealth & production. Who owns means of production, has biggest power. This is a consensus btw liberals (from Adam Smith) and socialists (from Marx). This led to "economization of politics" 2/9

I read with much interest comments made by @Sasha_Etkind on my article "From Pushkin to Putin" published by @ForeignPolicy. I reply here on the key points, first on substance, and then of some curious details 1/ Mr Etkind writes about "some sad mistakes" in my text. Mostly what he means by "mistakes" are actually my reading of the Russian litterature that he disagrees with) i found only one factual mistake - but he has made one too. But that's in the end of this thread 2/

some thoughts on Russian culture and the debate around it. And why i think that we won't understand Russian aggressive stance towards democracy and the West without analyzing some deep topics in the Russian literature and intellectual history. A thread 1/6 I think Russian culture should be approached in the same critical manner as Western academics approach Western culture. Pushkin and Dostoyevsky should be approached in the same critical way as Flaubert or Kipling etc. 2/6

I hear many comparisons of this war with the World War I. The key point: "Russia should not be humiliated as Germany was after the WWI. Otherwise there will be arise of extremism in Russia like Nazism after WWI". -- This analogy is wrong. In this thead i argue why 1/8 What WWI was for Germany, Cold war was for Russia. What Weimarer Republik was for Germany, Yeltsin's 1990s were for RU. Same attempt to build democracy, same economic disapointment. Difference: Russia was not "humiliated" as Germany, and kept control of the post-Soviet empire 2/8

a brief explainer about the Ukrainian national movement through centuries. And why it is wrong to identify it with cliches like "far-right", "nationalism" etc. A thread, 10 tweets Ukrainian national movement since the 19th century was ideologically diverse, as many others. Sometimes left-wing, sometimes right-wing, sometimes liberal, sometimes more democratic, sometimes less democratic. 1/10

sometimes I hear an argument that "it's the West's fault" because NATO has enlarged despite Russia's objections. This is a remarkable Russia's hypocricy. NATO enlarged in 1990s and 2000s, but ALL "post-Soviet" space (except for Baltics) was LEFT for Russia's influence. 1/5 Soviet Union hasn't collapsed in 1991, it continued to exist in a different form. Economy, politics, information space, cultural space, security: everything in the "post-Soviet" countries was controlled by Russia. 2/5

a short thread on how Russian imperialism is overlooked by the global anti-imperialist scholarship. And why it is bad and dishonest. 1/6 20th century anti-imperialist thinkers like Edward Said and others did a good job in introducing critical approach to the Western colonialism. Its problem, however, is that by denouncing "West-centered" approach, it introduced another "West-centered" approach 2/6

this is not a simple genocide. This is REPEATED genocide. Two, three, dozen times in history. Here, on Ukrainian lands. Why? Because it was never properly condemned. Not punished. "Never again" was not applied to THIS evil. Its roots are in Stalin, Lenin, Russian empire 1/5 Not punished, not condemned, not repented, it is saying "we can repeat" instead of "never again". And they can. Look at language they use. "Expropriation of surplus of harvest" from Kherson farmers. This is similar to Stalin's "requisitions" of food that caused Holodomor 2/5

some thoughts about Russian imperialism and how naively it is sometimes perceived in the world. A short thread. 1/6 i've read recently one famous French philosopher, whom I respect, but who said the following: 1) let's support brave Ukrainian people, but 2) let's not turn away from the great Russian culture: Dostoievsky, Tolstoy, Peter I, Catherine II. 2/6

How can we describe putinism as an ideology? - a mad destructive hybrid. Elements: Stalinism, Fascism, Nazism, Orthodox fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalism. Will explain here 1/6👇 Stalinism: new cult of Stalin, vision of "best" Russia in Russia of 1945, little value for any human life, obsession with fight against "Nazism", total repressive machine 2/6

Let's try to follow the "logic" of the Russian thinking. This can help us understand what's going on. The Russian "worldview". A thread. 1/7 Russians saying: Ukrainians and Russians are the same people. And then they bomb residential houses and hospitals, killing civilians. They are saying: we want to protect Russian speakers. And then they erase and destroy Russian-speaking cities like Mariupol or Kharkiv 2/7

I will describe here who Ukrainians are and why they are resisting. This resistance has very deep historical roots, and are based upon a specific Ukrainian political culture. A thread 0/8 Ukrainian political culture is bottom-up and very decentralized. It starts from a community, which Ukrainians call “hromada”. Hromada – a key word for Ukrainian political philosophy since at least 19th century, f.e. philosophy of Mykhaylo Drahomanov 1/8

My attempt to understand why Russians hate / dehumanize Ukrainians so much, -- which is a way to understand one of the major causes of this war. Thread 1/10 Ukrainian testimonies of meeting with "Russian soldiers" during the occupation are often pointing at Buryats, Bashkirs, Chechens, etc. This is a practical example to understand: Russians is not a nation, but an empire, which collected various ethnicities inside its body 2/10