I saw this image being reposted across social media. It captures a yellow and blue bouquet nestled inside the hands of the steel silhouette of the injured soldier returning home to his sweetheart, one of several thought-provoking sculptures installed across the city of Ripon, in North Yorkshire, as part of a project in commemoration of the servicemen and women who died in the Great War. And now, it has been modified, in support of the people of Ukraine.
The sculptures were installed back in 2020 to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day. This is a poignant image given the ongoing brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it also made me think about the historical concept of sanctuary, which Ripon actually has a very poignant and extensive history with. More to come on this later this weekβ¦
On that note, if youβre not already aware, on 26-27th March, a stellar line-up of the wordβs leading historians and genealogists are doing a 24-hour free livestream to raise aid for Ukraine. Thereβs no charge to watch, and throughout, you can donate to the JustGiving page, with all funds being passed to the British Red Cross Societyβs DEC Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal.
History For Ukraine will be live streamed through YouTube. See the link for how to access.
Wow, this should be very interesting! I'm definitely IN! Thank you so much, Emma, for reminding me of this event! Will definitely be online YouTubing hard on the 26-27th! :)
I hope the event does deal with history of all kinds and historians from all over the globe, including Russian ones. It's only a very recent and military specific history, but I read this extremely interesting twitter thread on Russian ethnic minorities and the rough deal they've gotten (apart from (most) Chechens...) recruited into the main Russian army. What's interesting to me is not that the thread deals with the issue of ethnic minorities per se but the role that they are playing in Russian Army in Ukraine (read, cannon fodder). Put differently, ethnic minorities apparently account for the majority of the Russian casualty in Ukraine today, and specifically those Kazakhs from Astrakhan region comprise almost all Russian military causalities (!!). What's Putin, again? (ethnic Russian)
In a sense, it's also very interesting for quite another reason. The above case with ethnic minorities appears to contrast markedly with the case of the British Army where it's been well known for some time that there are only 650 British Muslims in the British Army but there'd been 800-1500 British Muslims who went and fought for ISIS already by 2014 well before ISIS' global influence had waned (see link below).
Strangely, perhaps, what is really interesting to me is how, from both Russian and British cases, there seem to be some pretty important lessons we can learn about how to deal with ethnic minorities for the mainstream societies.
Wow, this should be very interesting! I'm definitely IN! Thank you so much, Emma, for reminding me of this event! Will definitely be online YouTubing hard on the 26-27th! :)
I hope the event does deal with history of all kinds and historians from all over the globe, including Russian ones. It's only a very recent and military specific history, but I read this extremely interesting twitter thread on Russian ethnic minorities and the rough deal they've gotten (apart from (most) Chechens...) recruited into the main Russian army. What's interesting to me is not that the thread deals with the issue of ethnic minorities per se but the role that they are playing in Russian Army in Ukraine (read, cannon fodder). Put differently, ethnic minorities apparently account for the majority of the Russian casualty in Ukraine today, and specifically those Kazakhs from Astrakhan region comprise almost all Russian military causalities (!!). What's Putin, again? (ethnic Russian)
See - https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1506479259866394625
In a sense, it's also very interesting for quite another reason. The above case with ethnic minorities appears to contrast markedly with the case of the British Army where it's been well known for some time that there are only 650 British Muslims in the British Army but there'd been 800-1500 British Muslims who went and fought for ISIS already by 2014 well before ISIS' global influence had waned (see link below).
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/21/islamic-state-americans-british/14384045/
Strangely, perhaps, what is really interesting to me is how, from both Russian and British cases, there seem to be some pretty important lessons we can learn about how to deal with ethnic minorities for the mainstream societies.
Thanks again for the update, Emma! ;-)