Being Russian is Usually Horrendous

Being Ukrainian is Far Worse Right Now.

Being anywhere else is discomforting, at the minimum.

I love and am proud of my family’s heritage, which dates back hundreds of years and includes a Czar, Counts, Countesses, Generals, the Bolsheviks, one of the first female doctors in Saint Petersburg, prisons, torture, death, sacrifice, immense suffering BUT always consistent with the incredible strength of Eastern Europeans.

Everything I feel and know is right is in favor of the Ukrainians and against the Russian government. I struggle to imagine how painful it must be for Russians who live in Ukraine or vice versa to be torn apart inside and out.

While I am geographically removed from this War for now, as somebody who is exactly 50% Russian, I am feeling sadness for the innocents in this nightmare on both sides of the conflict.

The trauma of being Russian is indelible in the DNA and Russia reliably implodes every 20–50 years. Corruption, mafioso governments, pogroms, incompetent drunks and royals have created a messy and perpetuating cycle.

As our Orthodox tradition says, life and tradition and trauma (I added that in) carries “from generation to generation,” Russians stay deeply connected to their routes and history. It seems that the history is always difficult and results in a deeply pained culture destruction of Russia and many around them.

That’s all I have to say at the moment.