Ukrainian Green Wedge – a disputed land on the Pacific Ocean shore
08.03.2022
Only the flag remained, similar to that of Czechoslovakia. Added to the Ukrainian yellow and blue was the green triangle at the hoist. It’s a curio nowadays, perhaps just for vexillologists, one who studies flags. Who knows what the reaction at the Kremlin would be if it were to be unfurled on the Red Square itself, for example.
Weakening your enemy country by formenting unrest on territories controlled by the enemy is an-age old practice. Facilitating a revolt has an imperial and multicultural aspect. The English monarchs didn’t shy from using this tactic during the Hundred Years War. The Hapsburg dynasty later used this effectively to dominate Europe.
The British during the ‘Great Game’ with Imperial Russia throughout the 19th century attempted to weaken the latter by stoking up disaffection in Central Asia. You could have called them ‘Promethians before the fact’ were it not for the fact that the Russians did the same of course, in Persia and the Indian Raj.
WAR IN UKRAINE
The Poles have a particular knowledge of subjugated peoples and their efforts at independence. The so-called ‘Promethean’ movement was a particular lasting achievement of the Polish Second Republic (1918-1939), despite its varied successes. The Ukrainian contribution is especially noted and remembered better than the somewhat forgotten Bashir-Tatar, Idel-Ural ephemeral state of 1918.
It’s worth remembering that what was normal among the Windsors or Hapsburgs in whatever form it took (whether diplomatic or military) now generally meets with condemnation. So the Russian activities in Ossetia, Trans-Dniester, Crimea or Donbas was and is criticised unambiguously and apart from Third World leaders are unlikely to find imitators.
This may prove to be a double-edged sword for Russia and its pursuit of ‘historical territorial demands’ and sponsorship of many independence movements, among the dozens of ethnic groups that may one day seek true independence or autonomy.