The Secret of Ukrainian Resilience and Russian Madness !

The Secret of Ukrainian Resilience and Russian Madness: Rooted in a Tough Post-Soviet Childhood? 

OLENA (Helena) KOZII

 I’ve been reflecting on what drives modern Ukrainian resilience. Growing up in Kyiv in the 1990s, even in a “normal” family in a good neighborhood, childhood was tough. Yet, it felt ordinary at the time.

 Parents often let kids roam unsupervised, even though the streets weren’t safe: stories of kidnappings, glue-sniffing kids, violent crimes, gangs and predators were everywhere. Poverty, hunger, domestic violence, divorces, alcohol and drug addiction, and street fights were daily realities. 

 Meat on the table was a rare treat for many families. Mostly, we ate vegetables: potatoes with sunflower oil, cabbage, onions, and carrots. Our dessert? A piece of bread soaked in water with sugar. The legendary ‘Yupi drink,’ made from powder concentrate, came out on holidays and was shared by the whole neighborhood group. 

 As kids, we explored construction sites, abandoned buildings, rooftops, parks that resemble forests more than parks, and poorly frozen lakes. Packs of stray dogs roamed the streets. Somehow, we survived.

“In a nutshell: Russians fell into nostalgia, Ukrainians focused on the future. For us, virtues meant living normally and protecting what’s ours. For Russians, a tough childhood normalized ruthlessness, and psychopathy—like killing Santa Claus in a propagandistic Christmas video, making threats, romanticizing prison culture, annexing territories…”

 Homeless gangs of glue-sniffing kids living in basements near bus and train stations were common. They often tried to steal from us, leading to fights. Many of us grew up fighting for our territory—sometimes even against these drug-addicted kids. Looking back, it’s horrifying… 

 Perhaps that’s the root of Ukrainian resilience today. Growing up guarding what’s ours and fighting for survival prepared us for anything. So, when the Russians invaded to kill us, standing up and fighting back wasn’t new—it was just another fight, on a larger scale. 

 In Ukraine, the 1990s were about independence and building a new identity—a chance to feel freedom after Soviet rule. In Russia, those were times tied to the “loss of an empire” and the fall of a “great power.” This contrast in handling post-Soviet chaos shaped two distinct national ideologies.

 In a nutshell: Russians fell into nostalgia, Ukrainians focused on the future. For us, virtues meant living normally and protecting what’s ours. For Russians, a tough childhood normalized ruthlessness, and psychopathy—like killing Santa Claus in a propagandistic Christmas video, making threats, romanticizing prison culture, annexing territories… 

 We consciously moved past ‘street culture’; modern Russians embraced a mafia mindset as their identity. Ukrainians chose democracy. Russians shaped the ‘Russkiy Mir’ ideology, centered on expansion. 

 This is just my new crazy theory for the explanation, and I’m even afraid to imagine what street culture in the 90s-00s might have been like in areas less ‘normal’ than mine, which was designed for the intelligentsia. 

 We still talk about our childhood and youth with sarcasm: ‘The wild 90s—we survived as best we could.’ 

 Maybe that’s why Ukraine produces such powerful boxers—but not dictators?

OLENA KOZII, Forbes Journalist, Lecturer, Rising Leaders Fellow Aspen Institute UK, TEDx Alumni, from London, UK

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