Russia's Invasion of Former USSR Holding, and How Ukraine Has Become a Mensch!

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

"In the decades after it was established, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union grew into one of the world's most powerful and influential states and eventually encompassed 15 republics—Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia,  Lithuania and Estonia. The USSR was based on Marxist Socialism.  This was created in 1922 and ended in 1991;  69 years of these little states misery and disappointment. It was the largest country in the world, covering over 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi), and spanning eleven time zones.        

Jewish economy and culture suffered under Soviet rule.  About half of Soviet Russia's 3 million Jews lived there before WWII (1939).                                    

 

Ukrainians greeting arriving Germans in Western Ukraine in the summer of 1941

Under Nazi rule, the Jewish people who had not fled to Russia were wiped out by the Germans and Ukrainians in 1941-1942.  By 1970, the Jewish population in Ukraine was 777,126 and dropping to 484,129 by 1989.  Jews had lived in Ukraine ever since they had left Khazaria, the Caliphate, and Byzantium between the 9th and 12th centuries,  More came from Central Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries, and then from Poland in the 16 to 17th centuries.  That's when the Chrmielnicki and Haidamak uprisings took place, then and in the 18th century.  By the 19th century, Jews from Galicia and White Russia arrived.  Ukraine became the scene of many pogroms in 1905 and from 1918 to 1920, the end of WWI.  That's when it was so imperative that the Jewish leaders dealt with the Allies in procuring Palestine for their Jewish Homeland.  Ukraine's Jews and others needed their own space.  

In 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved following the collapse of its communist government..."

Ukraine developed a whole new attitude after severing their connections with Russia.  They even chose the 5'7" Jewish lawyer-comedian, Zelensky as their president!  The interesting fact is that Putin is also 5'7".  That was certainly a turn-around for a country who had caved into the influence of the Nazis earlier, and is much to their credit to do so.  They have had it with Russia.  To bad Russia hasn't taken the obvious hint seriously, but then Putin as high hopes of creating the USSR again, it looks like. 

Ukraine has become the scapegoat of Russia's aggression, and the former USSR countries recognize that by backing NATO's defense plans against such delusions of Putin's.  All countries now see how important their rights to live as they choose is so important.  Little Ukraine is leading the way with their bravery to stand up to the BEAR.                                            

 Today, the most popular party of Russia, “Russia United,” uses the bear on the official party emblem and quite a few of the Russian republics, okrugs, and krais use the bear in their flags. No longer is the bear a negative stereotype of Russia— Russia has now claimed this symbol as their own.

The problem is that Russia owns the skies over Ukraine and sits in the jets while the Ukrainians must fight from the ground. It is Russia who is the aggessor.

Resource:

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ussr-established

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_collaboration_with_Nazi_Germany