‘Russia Uses Everything as a Weapon’ — A Series with Ukrainian Historian Tetiana Boriak

Part One in a series of interviews with Ukrainian historian, Tetiana Boriak — a war refugee now living in Lithuania — on Russia’s war on the world — as Holodomor Remembrance Day approaches on Nov 2

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Author’s note: I am writing this series of interviews with Ukrainian historian Tetiana Boriak with the assumption you have already read her 22-page report in InformNapalm on “How Russia Shapes Identity and Conquers the World Through Words with the Help of Cognitive Warfare” (October 16, 2025). This series is based on two interviews conducted November 16 with Bette Dangerous and November 17 with RADICALIZED Truth Survives podcast and is lightly edited for clarity and brevity. Please join me in finding a Holodomor Remembrance Day event near you on Saturday, November 22, as the global Ukrainian community commemorates Stalin’s massive man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that starved and killed millions of Ukrainians.—hsc

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“Ukrainians woke up and accidentally discovered themselves on the battlefield, and this is exactly what is taking place right now with the US, with the collective West, as we call it, is the democracies and the world in general, we are already at war.”—Tetiana Boriak

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Part One: ‘Russia Uses Everything as a Weapon’ — A Series with Ukrainian Historian Tetiana Boriak

By Heidi Siegmund Cuda for Bette Dangerous

‘History is a Very Ironic Lady’

Heidi: I have learned a great deal from historians Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore. Snyder always says if you want to understand what is happening in this moment, ask a Ukrainian, and I am so grateful that you are here with us today. This community treasures our historians. Can you please take a moment to introduce yourself to the Bette Dangerous community?

Tetiana: I’m a Ukrainian historian, and I had no intentions to be a refugee. I was doing my post-doc — working on my second dissertation that was about the Holodomor, the manmade famine of 1932, ‘33 that is considered to be a genocide committed by Stalin, by Kremlin.

And right before the war, I completed a sub-chapter on the Ukrainian refugees in post-war Europe. So history is a very ironic lady, you know.

Yes, the Russians Are Killing Us Again

And on the fifth day of the war, my historical background had finally reached my brains, and I realized that, “yes, the Russians are killing us again.”

And at the time, my kids were three and five, and I think what happened to me — like what happened to millions of Ukrainian mothers — is what is called the mother’s instinct, when everything else disappears in your life, and the only thing you have are your kids that you have to save and like in the song, nothing else matters. So I grabbed my kids. I talked to my husband that I’m saving my kids. I’m going God knows where — but I have to save my kids.

So all my family, my parents, my husband, they supported me. And I ended up in Lithuania. I just went accidentally here, and then Ukrainian volunteers helped me. I contacted Vilnius University, I brought my documents, and so that’s how I’m now part of the History Department of one of the oldest Central and Northern European universities, Vilnius University.

Heidi: It’s an incredible story. When the election happened in 2024 in America, I remember having conversations with Marci Shore, and she said, “You know, migration is going to be part of this, the people that we meet along the way, the places that we live, the new experiences that people have, the collaborations that occur…” I’m in Europe at this point, and it’s so true, the way things change unexpectedly and how incredible things can come of it — obviously, different from your point of view, because your country is under siege. But many of us are looking at our countries and seeing the siege in various ways. And of course, that is why week after week, we support Ukraine here, and we bring in people to speak on behalf of Ukraine. So Ukraine is always close to our hearts.

So that said, you have written brilliantly on the mental war, and one of the first lines that I grabbed out of your report was how mental wars are fought without declaring. Can we please start there? Because those of us here see it. We’re trying to get people used to this kind of invisible war, because so many people still don’t see the mental war.

We Are Already In the War

Tetiana: When I ended up in Lithuania, I’m a historian by professional training, and I was trying to understand why things are going on, the way they are going on, why the Russians think this way. Because, like many Ukrainians, I have relatives in Russia, and that’s a separate story of how the families are broken on both sides of the border. But as a historian, I have a pretty deep insight, and I think this helped me to understand and to articulate some important things.

So returning to your question — the mental war, or cognitive warfare, as it’s called in literature, it’s not a new term. If you look at history of human civilization, this is about influences, right? But what we observe now in the 21st Century, this is obviously something that the human civilization have not witnessed. And for Ukraine, the war began already in 2014 — it basically was the result of information warfare.

So like, Ukrainians woke up and accidentally discovered themselves on the battlefield, and this is exactly what is taking place right now with the US, with the collective West, as we call it, is the democracies and the world in general, we are already at war.

We might not know this, we might not wish this. We might not have heard anything about the term cognitive warfare, but we are already in the war.

So it started with the Russian state. It started with General Gerasimov — he wrote an article prior to the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine in 2014 about information warfare that basically the wars, as he stated, are now led, not only by weaponry as we know it. The war uses political, economic, information, and humanitarian measures, etc. And he even rated that the relation between the weaponry and all the other instruments is one to four, so military plays now much less a role than the other means he mentioned.

Then there was an article from 2021 one year prior to open-scale invasion, by A. Ilnitsky, who was advisor to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, and he elaborated on these ideas, and wrote really, really horrifying things. And if you don’t mind, I would like to quote him directly so you audience does not blame me that I’m biased or not objective. These are his words:

Ilnitsky said that “now it is cognitive or mental warfare. So its goal is elimination of self consciousness, change of mental civilizational foundation of the enemy’s society. The task of the cognitive warfare is to deprive the object of influence of sovereignty and to put it under the outside ruling.” And he stressed this in the text, it’s bold in the text, “one can destroy the state and liquidate the country by having changed self consciousness, outlook, values and priorities of the society. Cognitive warfare is aimed on change of outlook,” by the way, he added, “armed forces and infrastructure can be restored, but evolution of outlook is not possible to return back. Total war bears total character. Its fronts: the great battles are of various scales, but synchronized and systematic.” And finally, “the strategic goals: restart of historical consciousness, of the system of education and bringing up that is of the basic senses and goals of the society that is ideology, including writing, zeroing history, liquidation of traditions, lifestyles, faith and basic values” and final quotation, “the objects of cognitive warfare, everything from the news to analytical and sociological data, from the programs of study in the higher educational institutions and schools to TV programs and accessible archival data.”

It’s really difficult, you know, to add more about what is now being used against democratic societies. And as we see with with Ukraine, that when you combine this cognitive warfare with a military one, it helps you to win the war.

Heidi: Chilling stuff. I have a quote from your report I’d like to read — “Russian occupied territories have become the object of an unprecedented experiment to change their own identity and plant someone else’s identity” — you just explained how that is absolutely what they do — “and the unoccupied ones experience constant, aggressive, informational pressure and influence.” That is exactly what we are seeing. And I want you to explain to our friends here how they do it, what are the techniques that they use, or what are some of the things that you’re finding?

Ruski Mir As Cover for Russian Imperialism

Tetiana: Historians usually deal with the past, and I now have to deal with the present, but I’m doing research on the 1920s 1930s of Ukrainian history. And as you know, Ukraine was occupied. The Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 - ‘21 was suppressed, and then the Soviet Union was created, which basically meant complete occupation of Ukraine.

So I would like to remind you that what the Russian state is doing, right now, is nothing new. We have seen this already in history. Let me remind you of that obsession of the Soviet leaders with the ideas of the world revolution. And now we have the concept of ‘Ruski mir’ that was elaborated by Vladislav Surkov and other (political technologists), but Surkov was the main one. And if you think about history and how the Soviet Union was trying to reach this goal, that the whole world must be a communist one. Then you suddenly — and accidentally — realize the steps that the Russian state is now taking. And it’s elaboration of theory. It is deeply rooted in the Soviet past, and I see it as amazing how ongoing politics relates with the Soviet past.

And this also explains the outlook of the Russian society. It helps to understand their way of thinking. How do they comprehend the world? So I mentioned Ruski mir, and it is used as a cover for Russian imperialism.

And unfortunately, I insist on this term because some say that it might be Russian neo-imperialism. But I do not see any long periods of the Russian democratic states, like, several years of the 1990s before they started the Chechen war. I think it’s too little. So Surkov invented the concept of Ruski mir. And what amazed me is that once, accidentally, in one interview, he mentioned that he was looking for some cover for Russian imperialism, but couldn’t find it. And then Ruski Mir! Here it is.

So he accidentally said that basically, Russian Imperialism is here, it’s not gone.

The Russian Tanks Enter After Pushkin

And when you think in these theoretical frames, you will much better understand what is going on and how they are transforming the instruments that they have been using for 70 years since the Soviet state, that is just another cover for Russian imperialism… the complete picture is really horrifying because we have this nice cover of Ruski mir with Pushkin Dostoyevsky, like, ‘How you don’t like Pushkin, you are Russophobe. You are a bad person because you are uncultural.’ All these narratives are part of this Ruski mir. ‘Why you don’t want to see Russian ballet? It’s just ballet.’

The Russian state openly declares in several of its doctrines that were adopted and now is part of the Russian legislation, that after 2022, ‘we will spread our influence to the world through Russian culture, through Russian literature, through our compatriots,’ as they call the Russians, who live outside Russia. And they make it look beautiful — exhibitions, books, ballet…

The most horrifying thing that behind this culture are, as Ukrainians say: “The Russian tanks enter after Pushkin.”

Pushkin is the first step, and then you have either missiles or you have Russian tanks.

And from my analysis, that also horrified me. I saw an intention to change the international legislation. So they are trying to push this term Russophobia. They have already discussion among the Russian deputies, terms that historians never use, ‘historical truth, historical consciousness.’

Heidi: As I’m listening to you speak, I’m thinking about Marci once telling me that the Soviet Union was the greatest social engineering project in history.

Mental Matrix

Tetiana: Yes, and if I may add, I would like also to explain a little bit of this mental matrix. I would like you to to understand how a Russian is looking at the world. So for more than 20 years, a Russian — and I observe this from my relatives in Russia — for 20 years, they live in a society where they have films about the ‘greatness of the great Russian victory’ and I use this word greatness intentionally because it is all about ‘the greatness of the Russians.’

For 20 years, they listen to music that also promotes the idea that they are such a great nation, they dominate other nations, that other nations are subjugated to them. They read books where they glorify the Chekists, the Soviet security service officials, intelligence officials, who participated in mass murder and deportation of millions of Soviet citizens, including Russians, Ukrainians, etc… instead of condemning these crimes, they glorify them.

They close their archives so that historians cannot access them.

They give access only to useful historians or to Russian historians, and you will not see any dangerous things published recently in Russia.

So history has been turned into a religion — it’s not a science anymore. Unfortunately, it’s a religion that cannot be questioned.

‘The greatness of the Russian state is a cult that should be worshiped, that people must worship,’ is the mandate, and they have. The orthodox church is also saying that they must obey the state, that they are such an amazing nation, that nothing else matters, and these other nations, they are enemies.

So this idea of the fortress under siege, it goes back again to the Soviet times, that ‘all nations, NATO, are the main enemies that want to occupy us, to combat us. We are at war with the whole west that want to occupy us, and we are so great.’

So I’m simplifying, but I’m trying to show that this is why the majority of Russians, according to theological surveys, support the war, and in their heads, they have Lenin, ‘great Lenin.’ They have the Russian emperors, the last emperor who was murdered with his family by Lenin, but they have ‘emperor’ in their head. They have Stalin in their head. They have Peter the Great, Catherine the Great. Now they have Putin the Great…

They glorify military campaigns, their national calendar consists, like every day is some kind of commemoration of this or that battle.

The Russians Glorify the Perpetrators

They are already in a state of militarization, not only of education and history but they have a militarized outlook, because when for more than 20 years, you are in this kind of information space that always resonates with inner, feelings of so many Russians, unfortunately.

If you look at Ukrainians, despite all our problems, including problems with identity building, Ukrainians said pretty clearly that ‘Stalin’s crimes were crimes. We are very sorry that we as Ukrainians participated in the Afghan War, because it was an occupational war for Afghanistan, and we Ukrainians, unfortunately, as part of the Soviet Army, were occupants.’

We now erect monuments to the victims of Stalin’s crimes of the Holodomor — we erect monuments to the people who resisted the Soviet system. But what the Russians do? They glorify the perpetrators.

And this is very fundamental difference. And I think you don’t have to be a historian to see that if you glorify the perpetrators, you would basically build your politics as a perpetrator, and you do not have any compassion to the victims, because that artificial compassion that is tied to the Second World War, the religious cult now in Russia of the Second World War, it is also an artificial cult, because they do not look at the War as a tragedy that involved so many actors.

They simply say that ‘we, the Russians, won the war. We saved Europe.’

And by the way, they use it as an excuse for any other disruptions, potential further disruptions in Europe, besides Ukraine — ‘we now must be grateful to them, because they saved Europe from Nazism.’

They don’t want to get into the discussions on how many 100s of 1000s of Russians served in the Nazi military regiments, like all other nations of occupied Europe. Yes, Ukrainians served, Russians served, Croatians served, Slovaks served. There were collaborators everywhere. They do not discuss it. They do not discuss the other collaboration of Stalin with Hitler — if you now mention the secret protocols that were signed by Molotov-Ribbentrop, you might be imprisoned. They will say ‘you distort historical truth, you disrespect historical truth, you falsify history.’

So for them, the Second World War began on June 22, 1941. What happened starting from August 1939 did not exist, and this explains their logic. You know, they commit a crime, they do not get any punishment.

And one of the greatest tragedies that happened was that during the Second World War, the Soviet Union ended up in the Democratic camp. And when the war ended, it was like, ‘well, the Soviet Union lost so many millions, they now will build socialism with human face,’ like the Czechs hoped. And their hopes were crushed in 1968, as you know.

All those crimes that were committed in the 1930s and later, crimes that were committed by the Soviet regime, these crimes were forgiven because the Soviet Union ended up as one of the winners in the War…

So unfortunately, now we see a new circle of Russian crimes, in the frames of Russian imperialism. And how to stop this? They must do something with recognition of their past crimes, because I don’t see any other ways to break this damned circle.

Russia Uses Everything as a Weapon

Heidi: For the world to become whole, these crimes have to be acknowledged. Tetiana, can you please offer something we can each take back to our networks that will be helpful in understanding that Russia is at war with the world…

Tetiana: I think it would be pretty useful if we constantly keep in mind that the Russian mentality is oriented toward the weaponizing of everything that could be used as a weapon: food. Food was used as a weapon three times in Soviet Ukrainian history, including the man-made famine of 1932-‘33. They will use as a weapon: words. They would use religion. They would turn religion into a weapon. They will use a history textbook — they will put narratives in movies that glorify the perpetrators. The will use the Russian army, the Soviet Army. Music will be used as a weapon. A song will be used as a weapon — an international song contest will be used as a weapon…

So this is how they treat the world, how they see themselves in this world, and how they are dealing with us. Everything is used as a weapon to reach their goals, to increase the territory of the state — all a fig leaf for Russian imperialism.

Heidi: Thank you very much for that, for all of this. Thank you, Tetiana, and thank you Ukraine. Our victory depends on your victory.

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Tetiana Boriak – refugee from the Russian war, Ukrainian historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences (Dr. habil.) (2024), PhD in History (2008), Associate Professor, Researcher at History Faculty, Vilnius University (Lithuania). Received her MA in History from Kansas University (Lawrence, KS, 2004–2006). She specializes in Holodomor, Soviet totalitarianism, memory studies and social history. Author of three books, two awards: “Oral History as a Source for Holodomor Studies: Formation of Eyewitness Testimony Collections and their Informative Value” (2024; Research Prize of the Rector of Vilnius University 2024 for “significant research work”); “1933: “Why Are You Still Alive?” (2016; the all-Ukrainian award “the Book of the Year” (2016, nomination “History”, category “Research/Documents”). MSCA4Ukraine (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for Ukraine) Fellow (2025–2027). In 2013–2014 Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University (Ukrainian Research Institute, Boston, MA). Author of 90 articles of them about 40 articles on Holodomor. In 2010–2017 was an assistant of the journalist, researcher, columnist of the Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum in the project of preparation of an English-language book about the Holodomor in Ukraine for a Western audience: “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine” (2017; two awards). Host of the historical educational program “History with meat” (2017– February 2022) – about 70 episodes, available on YouTube. Editorial board member of several journals and a member of several historical professional associations. Participated in more than 70 conferences.

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