by Robert M. Traxler

The Russian people are overwhelmingly in support of President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who has approval ratings in the 70 percent range.

The average Boris and Natasha feel that invading Ukraine was forced upon them by the Ukrainians themselves, who were planning on invading Mother Russia using nuclear weapons, launched by the Fascist Nazis who have taken over a belligerent nation on their common border.

The history of the Russians and Ukrainians is one replete with hate, slaughter, and distrust on both sides going back to Ivan Vasilyevich, first Tsar of Russia, AKA Ivan the Terrible, 1530 to 1584. Millions of Ukrainians died at the hands of the Russians decades after the Peoples Revolution in 1917, starving the very people who produced the food needed for Russian survival.  

The Holodomors or “starvation and inflicted death” went on until 1929 with 3.9 million people dying, with 13% of all Ukrainians dying predominantly from disease related to starvation. The Russian dictator Joseph Stalin decided that collectivizing the family farms in Europe’s breadbasket was a good idea, though even Karl Marx, the economic expert of the team Marx, Lenin, the architects of the communist revolution, warned that collectivizing family farms was a disaster in the making.

As we all know, the government can run things better than the dreaded capitalist or free market system.  The small farmers, especially “Kulaks,” peasants who owned their farms, were “enemies of the state” and needed to be repressed or eliminated; 50,000 were exiled to Siberia.  

We have great friends who are fourth generation dairy farmers. They grow their own corn for sale and to feed the cows. During planting season and harvest season 18-hour days are common, and the rest of the time 12-hour days are the norm; their name is on the farm, so they make it work. The same was true for the Ukrainian farmers. The Russian government conquered Ukraine and sent commissars from the cities to run the collectivized farms, as you probably guessed, with disastrous results. 

The disdain for the Russians was still fresh in the minds of the people of Ukraine. When the Germans invaded on June 22, 1941, tens of thousands of Ukrainians fought the Russians as allies of the Germans. History fails to teach us that Ukrainians, Finns, French and hundreds of thousands of soldiers from over a dozen nations fought with the Germans against the communists because of ethnic hatred and in support of freedom of religion (the communists banned all religion).

Many Russians still harbor a deep hatred for all Ukrainian people. War being waged against the people of Ukraine is not a major problem for the Russian people, and the vast majority of the people cheer President Putin’s actions.

Our media tell us that the Russians will rise up and kick out President Putin. Not a chance in hell. The media in Russia are firmly in support of the war and will accept the losses, as will the average “Ivan” Russian citizen. Imbedded Russian journalists are reporting on glorious Russian victories, and that the average people of Ukraine welcoming them with open arms. This is indeed true in the Russian speaking portions of Ukraine, in the eastern parts of Ukraine east of the Dnipro River. Most of the world are not condemning the Russian invasion, contrary to what we are told by our media. In western Europe absolutely, but not the majority of the world, not even close.

The people of Finland, a non-NATO nation, need to be prepared. Their support for the Germans in WWII, a history of conflict with Russia (four wars in the last century), a long border with Russia and vast natural resources make them an appealing target for Russian expansion.  

We may see a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, but probably not. The machismo of the Russian military and civilian leadership are on the line; they have told the Russian people that the nation of Ukraine is a direct threat to the security, even existence of Mother Russia, and Ukraine is a nation lead by Nazi Fascists, whose people need to be liberated and the Nazis “cleansed” from Ukraine. Interestingly enough, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish; the shortest list in the world is a list of Jewish Nazis. 

President Biden has recently talked of a “New World Order;” it would be nice if he shared his plans with us. My opinion.