X-Boundaries: Understanding Ukraine
Mathew Lin is a guest writer. He is a senior history major and public history minor, and is interested in the history of revolution in politics 19th century Europe.
On March 22nd, the University of the Pacific held an “X-Boundaries: Understanding Ukraine” event to discuss the global impact of the Ukraine conflict. The event was an interdisciplinary talk featuring:
Margarita Kuranova, MediaX ‘23, a student from Ukraine who shared the story of her family who still resides within the country.
Dr. Sharmila King and Dr. Manizha Sharifova (both from the Department of Economics) who analyzed the economic backlash of the war.
Dr. Dan O’Neil (Political Science, School of International Studies), who focused on China’s position in the conflict and how they have benefited from Russia’s engagement.
Dr. Susan Sample (Political Science) who focused on how the international conflict changed the nature of Russia’s position as a world power.
Dr. Andreas Agocs (History), who discussed historical grievances aired by the involved countries and the historical parallels that they played in the culmination of the Russian invasion.
A fervent dialog broke out in the second half of the talk, as many Pacific students hailing from Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe shared their thoughts on the situation. One of those students, Gleb Vashkevich, MediaX ‘24, voiced ardent opinions on the first hand accounts of events in Ukraine, as well as the validity of the sanctions imposed by U.S President Joe Biden. Dr. Arturo Giraldez, who is a professor of Spanish and an economic historian, also described the crisis happening in New York, where the backlash of the war is creating dire social straits on basic necessities.
Dr. Andreas Agocs, Professor of History
During an interview with panelist Dr. Andreas Agocs, he discusses the concept of Russia’s historical grievances and the role it played in previous European conflicts as well as today's current conflict. He notes that the 1919 Treaty of Paris was to create a new world order, but did not resolve the turmoil in the wake of WWI. Later in the year 1933, the rise of Adolf Hitler was not met with direct intervention, as is similarly happening with Putin currently. In the 1938 Munich Agreement, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, Prime Ministers of England and France respectively, allowed Hitler to annex parts of Czechoslovakia in an attempt to maintain global peace. They believed this would appease him and prevent him from attempting to take over Europe. Yet, like Hitler did in WWII when he destroyed the post 1919 world order, Putin has also destroyed the post Cold War order.
On the issue of Biden’s actions in Ukraine, Dr. Agocs believes the President is taking the Cold War approach of containment as opposed to Chamberlain’s strategy of appeasement. Biden’s actions have taken a stance leaning toward preventing Soviet expansion. The USSR never stepped beyond their sphere of influence in their holdings of Europe between 1944-1949, when Russia preferred to stay behind their Iron Curtain. Now Putin is overstepping traditional geographic borders in invading the fully-sovereign country of Ukraine.
According to Dr. Agocs, the international order has significantly shifted. The confrontation now will bring about a rethinking of the world order and redefine the role of international bodies such as NATO and the European Union.
Current world circumstances show us the importance of European history. We have seen from the multiple examples above the relevance of these events to the current Ukrainian crisis. Dr. Agocs mentions that he will be teaching “History 113: Europe Since 1945” in the Fall 2022 semester, which covers important background to the Ukraine conflict including: the end of the Cold War, the role of Russia and the European Union, migration, 9/11 and terrorism, and enviornmental issues such as Chernobyl.
Gleb Vashkevich 24’ at the Understanding Ukraine: X-boundaries event
I also interviewed panel attendee Gleb Vashkevich, who is Belarusian and Ukrainian. The war started in the evening while he was still able to call his family. On the second day of the outbreak of the war, Vashkevich’s neighborhood in downtown Kyiv was bombed. His family managed to flee the country to Italy after a fourteen hour bus ride into Lithuania. Currently, many Ukrainian airports have been bombed by Russian troops. There are no other air travel options currently available for Ukrainian civilians. The only ways for travel in and out of Ukraine are long distance bus rides to Lithuania and Poland, or use of personal cars.
Vashkevich believes that the humanitarian angle was not explored very well at the X-Boundaries event. While he agreed that the expertise of the professors was helpful in understanding Ukraine, he and others felt that there should have been more student representation on the panel. Vashkevich stated that “it is very important that they allow Ukrainian students to share their stories.” Gleb elaborated that there should have been more emphasis on how people's lives have been affected by the events. The turnout of Ukrainian and Eastern European students was large, but the time constraints unfortunately did not allow the students to share their perspectives.
Vashkevich also mentions that to understand the conflict in Ukraine one must go back to 2014 during the initial Russo-Ukrainian war. Russia’s initial success in annexing Crimea encouraged further aggression against Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. There was a lack of response from the U.S. According to Vashkevich, Biden and the Pentagon had announced the invasion to the public. American intelligence had knowledge of the imminent attack and chose the safer side of instilling sanctions and sending relief aid. Vashkevich criticizes Biden for not leading sanctions upon hearing of the impending invasion. Many of Gleb’s family members expected that Ukraine would be able to join NATO and be protected by possible Russian invasion.
Italian kindergarteners welcome Vashkevich’s cousin as he comes to school, demonstrating their support for Ukraine.
Vashkevich noted that in terms of refugee aid, America is being outcompeted by Poland and Lithuania. The statistics indicated that most Eastern European countries have sheltered more refugees than the States. He adds that Biden ought to accept more refugees, considering how prominent of a world power America is. Similarly, President Zelensky, in addition, has requested for Biden to “close the sky over Ukraine,” yet this has not resulted in consequential results.
Gleb is very grateful to Lithuania and Poland for all the relief efforts that they have contributed. Lithuania is a small country; They have accepted 1 million refugees into their borders, while the country itself is only populated at 2 million. Many arms and volunteers have traveled to Ukraine to support the war effort.
“Ukraine is not just fighting for themselves, but for the entirety of democracy. Should they [Ukraine] fall, the entire democratic world will fall.” - Gleb Vashkevich