Lev Gumilev (1912–1992), a Soviet-era historian and philosopher, is rarely mentioned as an influence on modern Russian ideology, if only because he wasn’t much of a political thinker. However, as a self-styled “last Eurasianist”, he constitutes a not-to-be-overlooked link between the original movement from the early 20th century that advocated…

To maximize the efficiency of its global brainwashing campaigns, the Kremlin resorts to diversification, targeting virtually every country in the world and all demographic groups, as well as instrumentalizing various factors that help malicious propaganda broaden its outreach. For clarity, since the term “propaganda” may encompass all kinds of campaigns…

There has been a lot of clamor this last week around the announcement of a show of Laibach, a veteran industrial band from Slovenia, in the Ukrainian capital. The concert with the attention-grabbing title “Eurovision” — alluding to the annual song contest that will take place in May in London…

Individuals and collectives act on the basis of certain deep-rooted beliefs that define their ethics, morals and attitudes and shape their behavior. This can be viewed as their fundamental philosophy, or their metaphysical foundation. Thus, in the case of modern Russia, “NATO expansion” and “Neo-Nazis in Ukraine” can hardly be…

It is not always obvious to casual observers why many Ukrainians don’t want to talk with the Russians who are in opposition to Putin and claim to support Ukraine or see them receiving publicity in the Western media and appearing at cultural events alongside Ukrainians. There are two root causes…

A novel by the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko (1856–1916) offers instructive parallels to modern events, presented from the point of view of the author’s left-wing views. — A barbaric horde of murderers, robbers and rapists advances from the east, like a swarm of locusts, razing to the ground everything on its way, craving to conquer Europe and turn the Westerners into its slaves and vassals. But a small community, with the support of its neighbors, is able…

A while ago, Ukrainian social media were rocked by a controversy after the Ukrainian writer Yurii Andrukhovych had held a public discussion with the Russian writer Mikhail Shishkin during the Bjørnson Festival, an annual literary event in Norway. Although Shishkin has been living in Switzerland for more than 25 years…

An introduction to Ahatanhel Krymskyi, an inspiring Ukrainian author and scholar who deserves more attention and translations — As the world follows the developments around the war in Ukraine, many became interested in Ukrainian history and culture. Therefore it is not surprising that the number of translations of Ukrainian books has spiked in 2022. Few, however, expected that Ukrainian literature would be translated into Belarusian this year. Yet…

On October 10, 2022, Putin waited when people in Ukraine — and Russia — would wake up after the weekend and start leaving for work, and then launched his missile terror show. Yes, that was nothing but a terror show: he wanted everyone to watch it online instead of learning…