Russian Aggression in Ukraine: An Intimate Perspective
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
2022 WEBINAR SERIES
Russian Aggression in Ukraine: An Intimate Perspective
Iana Petrus
Human Rights Officer, Alberta Human Rights Commission
MA in Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Manitoba
Iana Petrus is from Novomykolaivka, Ukraine. In the past she coordinated student mobility programs and facilitated an intergroup dialogue to promote understanding among Indigenous and International students in Canada. Currently, Iana offers mediation services in her role of a Human Rights Officer with the Government of Alberta. She enjoys learning Spanish and French languages as well as reading postcolonial novels to understand how societies in Africa, South America and Eastern Europe can learn from each other as they develop creative ways of dealing with postcolonial realities.
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
2:30 pm
https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/j/94002098080
The Russian military aggression currently at play at the Ukrainian border may come as a surprise to the international community, but not to Ukrainians who intimately know the bitter taste of Russian imperialism. Throughout the Soviet Union, the Russian leadership made all possible efforts to suppress the national identities of the countries that were forced into the union. In the context of Ukraine, Stalin’s orchestrated famine Holodomor, inhuman Industrialisation and forced Russification were used to impose Russian language on millions of Ukrainians whose sovereignty was subordinated. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, its official successor, was adamant to recognize the colonial nature of the Soviet Regime and has continued to use its military, economic and cultural strengths to establish control in now independent countries. The presenter will use post-colonial theory to analyze Russia’s military invasions in Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine in the post-cold war era and will share how thousands of Ukrainians, including herself, are adopting decolonization and decommunization as powerful tools to unite against the aggressor and defend their country.
Everyone Welcome
Special thanks to the Sociology Department for their support.