More views from Russian academia

I’ve been reaching out to a large number of Russian academics asking them who they think is responsible for the war on Ukraine and how they think it should end. Yes, I know it’s dangerous for someone in Russia to openly blame Russia for the war, and I didn’t expect such people to write back. The real question was, what kind of pro-war views would I hear from arguably the most intellectual people of Russia? Having done an email campaign to Russian academics in 2022, shortly after the war began, I was prepared for some ugly responses.

Here are some translated quotes from five of the replies. I’m omitting the by-now-standard “this is all the US’s fault,” which quite a few of the respondents mentioned. An attitude of “ownership” over the Ukrainians and their land was also evident in the replies. To top it off, some academics also see Russia as the victim and deserving of reparations.

Academic 1: “My ancestors swore an oath to Catherine at the Zaporozhian Sich over 250 years ago. They took Crimea, pacified the Caucasus. And now I hope everything will come to peace as well. As I see from the Ukrainian public, many people's heads are beginning to clear.”

Academic 2: “As for ‘how it can be ideally resolved’, I think people will hang Zelensky on some pole. And he will hang for a long time.”

Academic 3: “You know very well that the eastern part of Ukraine is an ancestral Russian land. The fact that the communists assigned them to Ukraine is irrelevant. They should be in Russia together with the Russians living there. This should have been done in 1991, but you know the kind of people that were in charge then. This war must end with our victory, and it will be if we're not betrayed again.”

Academic 4: “I believe that the conflict in Ukraine should end on Russia's terms, and that a state such as Ukraine should no longer exist, and that America and all the backstabbers should be held accountable for all the evil they have caused and as a result of which Russian people have died.”

Academic 5: “A just end to the war should mean not only the conclusion of a compromise peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine, but also compensation for the damage caused to Russian citizens by indiscriminate unjust sanctions by Western countries, an official apology and the development of legislative measures to prevent and avoid such sanctions in the future (a good analogy are laws against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in European countries).”

Stayed tuned for more…I don’t mean to claim that these quotes are representative of Russian academics’ attitudes, but even having a small share of academics take the time to express these sentiments should make us question what kind of “peace” there can be with Russia in its current incarnation.