The 24th of August is Ukrainian Independence (such as it is now) Day.
Here is the tryzub – the trident of Ukraine – printed over a Russian stamp during Ukraine’s struggle for independence during the fall of the Russian Empire and the formation of the Soviet Union. Circa 1918.
In a centuries’ overdue move, and one that is going to lead to more Russian aggression in Ukraine, the Constantinople Patriarchate approved Ukraine’s split from the Russian Orthodox Church overnight. It is being called the biggest split in all of Christianity in a thousand years.
Russian Orthodoxy was forced on Ukrainians over several centuries, finishing with the forced conversion of my family’s Ukrainian Catholic villages in the west of the country when Churchill gifted the country to Stalin after the Second World War (thanks for that, Winston!).
What will happen now? Well, in anticipation of this move, the Russian military has already stepped up attacks in Ukraine’s east, with people being killed in record numbers again. It has to be understood that Russia’s Church – in the past decade or so – has become a weaponised political party that effectively runs the country, behind only Vladimir Putin.
Additionally, experts are predicting staged attacks on Russian churches, so that Putin can blame them on “fascist Ukrainians”, and attack and invade even more.
What I’m worried about is attacks on the thousand-year-old Orthodox monasteries and cathedrals in Ukraine, such as the Lavra complex in Kyiv. I sure hope they’ve stepped up security at those locations.
This move removes a major aspect of Russian colonialism from Ukraine.
I’m not sure why Russia never comes up alongside the likes of France and Britain and Spain in discussions about colonialism and cultural appropriation (because people think Russia is romantic?). The Russians were just as brutal as anybody else (see the Holodomor). And – unlike other nations – their behaviour is ongoing (see the annexation of Crimea, the invasion and occupation of eastern Ukraine, the ongoing invasion and occupation of one-fifth of Georgia, and the illegal occupation of Moldova).
The next few weeks are going to be chaotic for Eastern Europe.
In 1865
Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, a Russian imperial statesman infamous for his policies of forced Russification across the empire, died on the 12h of September, 1866.
Born in Moscow in 1796, Muravyov worked hard in what is now Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus to suppress nationalism by targeting religion and language. Catholic churches were torn down, and schools teaching in Polish and Lithuanian languages were closed. Russian teachers were brought in from elsewhere to take over the education system.
A Catholic church in Vilnius being torn down in 1877.
Additionally, the Roman alphabet was banned, and replaced with Cyrillic.
Similar policies were put in place by Russian officials in other regions – particularly Ukraine – and continued to be used by the Soviets.
Muravyov was recorded as saying: ‘What the Russian rifle did not succeed in doing, will be finished off by Russian schools.’
This painting depicts Napoleon making his way through the Russian Empire. He is seen here in the town of Beshankovichy, in modern-day Belarus, on the 24th of July, 1812.
This 1837 painting by Mikhail Lermontov depicts Russian Guard Hussars attacking Warsaw, Poland on the 7th of September, 1831. The original date given was the 26th of August, as the Russian Empire followed the old calendar.
The Battle of Warsaw was part of the Polish–Russian War of 1830–31 (otherwise known as the November Uprising). Tens of thousands were killed in the battle that resulted in the defeat of Polish uprising and victory for the Russians.
![Chodynka The Khodynka Tragedy (Russian Ходынская трагедия) was a human stampede that occurred on 30 May [O.S. 18 May] 1896, in Moscow Russia during festivities after the](https://intimesgoneby.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/chodynka-the-khodynka-tragedy-russian-d185d0bed0b4d18bd0bdd181d0bad0b0d18f-d182d180d0b0d0b3d0b5d0b4d0b8d18f-was-a-human-stampede-that-occurred-on-30-may-o-s-18-ma.jpg?w=474)
The Khodynka Tragedy was a deadly stampede that happened during coronation celebrations for Russia’s last emperor, Nicholas II, in 1896.
Falling on the 18th of May on the old calendar (which equates to the 30th of May on the new calendar), 1389 people were trampled or suffocated to death when panic broke out in a crowd of many thousands.
People crowd around one of the victims.
Evidence of the tragedy was cleared away before many at the event in Moscow became aware of it, and Nicholas and his wife Alexandra continued with their schedule, including attending a ball with French diplomats that evening. It was decided it was more important to have good relations with the French than to appease the people of the Russian Empire.
The minor imperial response to the disaster did no favours for the family’s public image.
Russian police file on Joseph Stalin
On the 26th of June, 1907, armed Bolsheviks stole a bank cash shipment in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia). Using bombs and guns, the attackers surrounded military and police in Yerevan (now Freedom) Square.
Amongst those involved in organising the robbery were future Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin.
Forty people were killed and fifty others were injured in the attack.
Yerevan Square in the 19th century. X
The equivalent of millions of dollars were stolen, but in the end much of the money could not be used to fund Bolshevik activities, as the banknotes’ serial numbers were known to authorities.
A symbolic painting of the aftermath of the uprising.
On the 22nd of January, 1863, people of present-day Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus and Latvia rose up against rule by the Russian Empire.
The uprising would last into the following year, and would result in Russia harshly punishing those captured.
The Battle of Tsushima was a major sea battle in the Russo-Japanese War, fought from the 27th to the 28th of May, 1905. This was the first naval battle in which radio played an important part.
It was won by Japan.
The Russo-Japanese War was a struggle between Russia and Japan for land and power in the East, begun in February 1904 and won by Japan in September of 1905.
Illegal and legal versions of the same prayer book.
Imposed by the Russian Empire, Lithuanian language publication in Lithuania was banned for some forty years, and finally lifted on the 24th of April, 1904.
This was one of many attempts to stop the rise of nationalism throughout the non-Russian regions of the Russian Empire.
The ban made it illegal to print, import, distribute or possess any publications in the Latin alphabet.
In Times Gone By... 
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