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Dionicio A. Jimenez

Dr. Sharity Nelson

ENGL1301

Wednesday, November 9,2022

Rhetorical Analysis Final Draft

In early 2022, one of the most controversial and disasters event took place. That is the

war of Russia against Ukraine. The war caught everyone by surprise and since then, there have

been multiple opinions on which country is in the right and which one is in the wrong. However,

most of the opinions have been from people who are not well informed and lack the support of

their statements. Volodymyr Kravchenko from the University of Alberta and author of “The

Russian War Against Ukraine: Cyclic History vs Fatal Geography.” published on January 1,2022

Expresses well his opinion on the war throughout his essay. He does a great job informing the

reader that he is against Russia in the war by using the country's past events as the supports of his

statement, and the strong use of ethos, logos, and a little bit of pathos throughout his essay.

To begin this, Volodymyr has a good way of expressing why his essay is different from

others out there. Right off the bat, he says “Historians are usually more comfortable when they

keep a distance from the object of their studies. I have no such distance; I am a deeply involved

observer.” (201) Implying that he is more involved in this topic than others, and his essay will be

much more informative about the war. Throughout the essay, he is strongly against Russia for

what they are currently doing, and for what they did in the past. Volodymyr uses Russia’s past to

his advantage and creates great proof of his claims and statements. For example, he believes

Russia’s past is “cyclical” because Volodymyr believes that Russia has never learn from their

mistakes, and they eventually repeat history. To back up this statement, he uses the similarities of
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The Soviet Union and Russia as an example. “Russia reproduces similar patterns of political,

social, and cultural life that grew from the old Byzantine matrix. The persistence of geopolitical

and imperial-religious foundations in Russian identity is truly impressive.”(201) This helps the

reader to better understand why he considers Russia to be “cyclical”. Volodymyr believes

Russia's past is heavy, and he backs up his claim by using a quote from a famous politician.

Tibor Szamuely a Hungarian politician that once said, “Of all the burdens Russia has had to bear,

heaviest and most relentless of all has been the weight of her past” (qtd. in Hedlund 267).

(Volodymyr 201). This helps Volodymyr claim of Russia having a heavy past. Volodymyr also

uses Russia’s past to his advantage by comparing and stating similarities between Russia’s

present president, and the Soviet Union dictator. He states “it is not difficult to find similar anti-

Western paroxysms of hatred in each epoch of Russian history. The structure of Russian history

has not changed since the Middle Ages.” (Volodymyr 201) This gives the reader a thought of

how the past Russia and the present Russia have multiple similarities.

Volodymyr also effectively uses ethos and logos throughout his essay. He uses ethos very

commonly and most of the time throughout his essay. For example, Volodymyr uses ethos to

persuade the reader that Russia has always been evil. He backs up this claim by reminding the

reader of how Russia’s method of warfare has always been “distinguished by utter brutality,

cynicism, and lack of humanity.” (202). Volodymyr follows this claim by informing the reader

that 60 years ago, the question of Russia wanting war was a subject of talk. He explains this by

reminding the reader that Russia wanting war was a rhetorical question. ““Do the Russians want

war?” was a rhetorical question posed in the title of a popular song written by the Soviet poet

Ievgenii Ievtushenko” (202). In today’s time, Volodymyr believes that Russia wanted this war.

He backs up this claim using logos. Volodymyr uses statistics by providing the number of people
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who supported Putin and approved the war. “more than seventy percent of citizens approve of

the war started by their possessed dictator and feel proud of him (“Nezavisimye sotsiologi”).”

(202) Volodymyr also states that among the people who voted in favor of the war, there was

more than “260 rectors of Russian universities” (202) which are supposedly western-oriented. He

follows the statement by telling the reader how he thinks of the Universities who voted in favor

of the war. Volodymyr uses logos, by using logical connections of the Universities in Russia

who voted in favor of the war but supposedly are western-oriented. He believes Universite's who

are western-oriented are now becoming “bastions of imperial chauvinism” (202). This is a

logical connection that Volodymyr makes, because if the Universities were western-oriented,

they should not have voted in favor of the war, since the war affects the west. Volodymyr also

uses a little bit of pathos in his essay. “Russians are not allowed to call a war a war. For this, a

Russian citizen can be put in jail for fifteen years (“Russia Criminalizes”). Instead, the invasion

is simply denied at the highest official level. Russian aggression and war crimes are presented as

pacification. Official propaganda is saturated with the rhetoric of peace. The forced displacement

of civilians along the Eurasian steppe corridor is explained by the need to protect them.”(202)

This makes the reader feel empathy towards the Russian citizens.

In conclusion, Volodymyr does a great job in delivering his message throughout his essay

and backing up his statements and claims. Using ethos, logos, and a little bit of pathos,

Volodymyr delivers a great deal of back up information, and makes his message go through the

reader. He does a great job in expressing how he is against Russia in the war, by using

everything he has available to his advantage. That means Russia’s past tragedies/events, the use

of statistics, and famous people’s quotes, comparing, and his opinion. By using all of this and
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mixing it with pathos, egos, and logos, Volodymyr successfully delivers the message to the

reader and helps the reader see his point of view of the war.
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Work Cited

Volodymyr Kravchenko. “The Russian War Against Ukraine: Cyclic History vs Fatal

Geography.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 9, No.1, pp. 201-208.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21226/ewjus711