History News
The UMD History Program, in partnership with many local heritage organization, organizes the Twin Ports Festival of History.
Assistant Professor Natalie Belskey published (2022) a blog post drawing from her personal and professional experience on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Society Pages of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The first paragraph is quoted here, but click the link in the title to read the whole thing:
A World Disappearing Before our Eyes
Like many of us, I have been heartbroken to see the news, images and footage coming out of Ukraine over the past week. Despite the foreboding news over the past weeks, I didn’t believe it would come to this; now that it has, it’s hard to imagine how we (Ukraine, Russia, the world) move forward from this. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine and to the people of Russia, millions of whom are now stuck in the midst of a conflict that they did not want and certainly did not vote for. Families on both sides of the border will lose loved ones because of a conflict that no one, save for a very small group of people surrounding Putin, wanted. While I am very cognizant of my privilege of being able to write this from the comfort of my safe home in Duluth, Minnesota, the violence in Ukraine is particularly painful for me because of my personal connections to this country.