Mariam Naiem recording her podcast in Kyiv last month. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Seeing Russia’s invasion through a colonization lens

Young Ukrainians are trying to rebuild their identity free of Russian influence. Often, that means re-examining Russia’s history in Ukraine and highlighting its colonial imprint.

Mariam Naiem, a researcher and podcaster, has emerged as a leading voice in those efforts. Calling Russia a colonial empire challenges decades of scholarship, but Naiem and others point to Russia’s long efforts to impose its language on Ukraine, occupy its territory and rewrite its history.

She said it took the war for Ukrainians to begin to “decolonize” themselves, pointing to those who switched from speaking Russian to Ukrainian. “This is exactly a decolonial act,” she said.