Comments on: Engaging, Not Confronting, Russia

By: Colonel Robert E Bartos

Colonel Robert E Bartos — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:26:31 +0000

Peter, pls contact me at http://www.alcazar@attglobal.net-use subject GRUZIYA-regards Bartos

By: pwolkonsky

pwolkonsky — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:33:48 +0000

Bilyk’s words are typical of the extreme Ukrainian nationalists, and kudos to Bridges for refuting them while allowing, appropriately, that both the tsarist and Soviet repressions were wrong. I have said for 17 years that there’s nothing wrong with Ukr. independence but it should be smaller; Soviets, to lure Ukr into SU, gave them Russian lands; same with Kazakhstan. Time to return them, including Crimea. Do it by elections (monitored by OSCE) and treaties, NOT war! One should read Solzhenitsyn’s wonderful “Kak Nam Obustroit’ Rossiju” (”How Should We Rebuild Russia?”) for a superb commentary on the subject. (Putin’s party, United Russia, recently adopted Solzh. as an ideological “founding father,” a fact unreported in the West.) Most educated Russians these days agree these anti-Ukr. policies were wrong, but that does not mean the West should listen to what S. called “bursts of farcical ignorance” shown by Bilyk and those of his ilk about historical reality. I am living proof; my name is recognized and respected both by Russians and Ukrainians. In those ancient days of Kievskaja Rus, when Ukr, Russ. and Byelo. were truly one nation, any Russian, or Rusian if you prefer, would have considered Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal as much a part of his country as Kiev and my ancestral hometown, Chernigov. In fact, it was a respected Ukrainian scholar who taught me the original pronunciation was indeed “Chernihov” and not “Chernihiv” and that, before Peter the Great, names of the months were exactly the same in Ukr. and Russ. Ukr. could do a lot to help Russia on the road to democracy by keeping its democratic path but staying out of NATO. Like Finland, all of these bordering states should pursue democratic course but stay out of NATO. Threatening Russia only harms those trying to pursue democratic reform. People like Bilyk would like a war and the West must not play into their hands not just for Russia’s sake but for their own. Encircling Russia is NOT smart if you want democracy and peace!

By: F. W. Nietzsche

F. W. Nietzsche — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:08:51 +0000

Mr. Bilyk’s got inferiority complex.

By: Brutus Centinel

Brutus Centinel — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:53:31 +0000

This is indeed a dangerous time for America. We are engaged in a two front war, led by a lame duck President, in the middle of a dividing political campaign and suffering a significant economic setback. It’s a perfect time for the Russians to come growling.

The question is how long we will ignore their provocations before responding. Much rides on the coming election

By: Peter Bridges

Peter Bridges — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:17:34 +0000

Despite what Andy Bilyk writes, I know my history well, and I know in particular what outrages were committed over the centuries in Ukraine. I was the reporting officer 45 years ago in our Moscow embassy on what was happening in Ukraine, where I traveled a number of times. Most of what I reported to Washington is, to my knowledge, not yet in the public domain. One thing that is now public, and in which I take some satisfaction, is how I brought John Steinbeck together in 1963 with a group of younger, independent-minded Ukrainian writers, including Mykola Vingranovsky whose name perhaps Mr. Bilyk knows.

That said, I should perhaps have used the term Kievan Rus, and I regret that I did not do so. But if Andy Bilyk is implying that there was a separate Ukrainian linguistic entity at the time of Kievan Rus, he is going beyond historical evidence. As to the nature of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine, in saying it was once close I did not mean it was amicable. A bear’s hug is seldom a loving one; to the contrary.

Bilyk suggests that I swallow “propoganda.” I do not, and I hope he does not.

By: Andy Bilyk

Andy Bilyk — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:57:28 +0000

BIG Mistake:

Shame on you. You do Not know your history. Kiev was Never the capital of the first Russian state.

It’s true, Kiev (now Kyiy) was the capital of what then was called Kievan-Rus. Kyiv is more than half a century older than Moscow. Muscovy was an insignificant town until Ghengis Khan sacked Kyiv in 1240 — only then did Muscovy start to grow,

If you want to get technical, you can refer to the people of Kyiv as Rusynu … but never Russians. If you want to refer to the people of Muscovy as Russians, you can call them Rossianu. The difference is centuries of separate development and the creation of separate languages, cultures and histories. Unfortunately, the history of Moscow is one of conquest, to include Ukraine, Georgia, the Baltic States, etc. Any “close” relationship between Kiev-Rus-Ukraine and Muscovy-Moscow-Russia is based on Moscow’s continuous attempts for 300 years under the Tsars since 1709 and under the USSR after 1922, is based on cultural genocide by Russification and actual genocide through the forced starvation of free Ukrainian farmers in Holodomor of 1932-33 when 7 million Ukrainians were murdered by starvation. The Tsars attemped to eradicate Ukrainian history and culture thought the Valuyev Circular of 1863 and the EMS Ukaze of 1876; Stalin tried to do it through his man-made famine of 1932-33. Close relationship? You’ve got to be kidding.

Andy Bilyk
703-963-6828

PS I’ve noticed that folk that write like you have a tendancy to also swallow thye Russian propoganda that they are “great” and that people of Ukraine are “little.” as in Russians. For your information, that’s an insult equal to the “N” word… so if you are in that category, I hope you change your ways…