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PTSD of History: Reflections on War in Ukraine

                                 Yelena Zalkina, MD



                             “The war has ruined us for everything”
                     Erich Maria Remarque “All quiet on the Western Front”

       “No to war” is now a phrase that can send you to jail for 15 years in Russia. The
       word war must be erased from people’s discourse since what is happening in
       Ukraine  is  nothing  more  than  a  “special  operation”.  An  alternative  reality  has
       been created along with Orwellian newspeak to describe it.
       History  seems  to  repeat  itself.  I  came  to  US  from  a  former  Soviet  Union  as  an  adult,  escaping
       totalitarianism, repressive power and rampant anti Semitism. There was no future for me there. Yet,
       growing up in Moscow, I had been nurtured by rich Russian culture, literature and art which I have
       always valued. When I arrived to US I grew proud of my bilingual and bicultural identity American and
       Russian Jew - “a citizen of the world”.

       This has changed in March 2022 when Russia started a war against Ukraine. The war against humanity
       and possibly a whole world. Russia is bombing Ukrainian cities, killing innocent people and forcing
       millions to run for their lives, creating an unthinkable humanitarian crisis. The picture of destroyed
       Mariupol and bombed Kharkov will stay in people’s memory for generations and will be recorded in
       history books -that is if humanity still has a future and a history to wright…

       Ukrainians  have  made  it  clear  that  they  will  not  give  up  their  land  or  their  freedom.  Hundreds  of
       thousands have joined armed forces to defend themselves. President Zelensky has refused offers of
       evacuation  and  surrender  for  himself  and  for  his  people.  The  mayor  of  Kiev  Vitali  Klitschko,  a
       millionaire  and  a  boxing  champion,  has  also  chosen  to  stay  in  Ukraine  and  join  armed  forces
       alongside  with  other  Kyivlans,  grandmothers,  teenagers,  ballet  dancers,  and  musicians.  Husbands
       accompany  their  wives  and  children  in  evacuation  to  safety  and  return  to  take  place  among  the
       defenders  of  the  bombed  and  shelled  cities.  Looks  like  the  whole  population  is  determined  to  die
       rather than be subjected to Russian occupation.

       As Ukraine is fighting for its freedom, I catch myself thinking more about Russia then Ukraine. Russia,
       I feel is losing its soul or what’s left of it. “Soul” is one of those Russian constructs, not necessarily
       carrying  any  religious  connotations, that  I  have  inherited  from  its  culture  and  literature,  signifying
       some moral core and high spirit. Despite the loss of life, Ukrainian sole will survive, but it is not at all
       clear what will happen with Russian sole.

       Perhaps this is a pattern in Russian history, from Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Tzar Nicholas II, to
       Stalin and now Putin (and many in between), of generations of suffering internal trauma, bloodshed,
       servitude, terror, exile, imprisonment, and subjugation, resisting autocrats by coups, massacres, and
       revolutions, resulting in an unfathomable collective exhaustion, the “PTSD of History”.



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         NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PSYCHIATRIC SOCIETY                                   Page 18           MARCH/APRIL 2022
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