Among all the 18 chapters and 60-odd subchapters of this formidable volume, there’s one section conspicuous by its absence – the Soviet Union’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
Before you rush in to correct me that it was not the Soviet Union but Russia that brutally invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, let me assure you that this isn’t a Freudian (or any other) slip on my part. My ‘mistake’ is deliberate - having spent 35 years of my life in that very ‘USSR’ I have good reason to assert that modern Russia is a logical successor and a legitimate heir of the Soviet Union, differing only in its somewhat diminished territory as well as its official name.
The country that so treacherously and so unnecessarily attacked its ‘brotherly’ fellow-Slavic neighbour, remains in essence the same totalitarian state it has been for the all the years that have passed since October 1917, when power was usurped by a group of corrupt, belligerent and murderous gangsters...