Intrusion detected
NKVD
In March 1940, in the middle of the night, NKVD guards banged on my grandmother’s door. Maria was to be deported by the Soviets from Poland to Siberia. Her crime? She was a teacher.
The guards gave her 20 minutes to pack up, take her children, and leave the house. She had three kids: a 10-year-old son (my uncle), a 4-year-old daughter (my aunt) and another son, a 1.5-year-old (my dad). My dad was sick, and Maria worried he wouldn’t survive what was coming. She managed to quietly pass my dad to her neighbour—Balbina, a Russian lady who helped her around the house. With two children beside her, my grandmother would spend several weeks on a cattle train in inhumane conditions, going east, like so many others.
Finally, they arrived in a far north region of Russia, a labour camp in the middle of the forest in Babushkinsky District in Vologda Oblast, where the prisoners were forced to cut timber. My grandmother was allocated to taking care of children while their parents worked. Despite the horrible conditions, she managed to set up a small school and, in defiance of the captors, she taught the kids to read and write Polish.
My uncle, two years into imprisonment, managed to escape the camp. With help from locals, he returned to his grandparents in Poland, about 1500 km away. Unfortunately, NKVD caught and sent him back to the labour camp only a few days later. Remember, he was a 12-year-old boy then.
My aunt never returned from Siberia. She got very sick and died there, as did many other children. Maria could never come to terms with losing her child. She kept a strand of her daughter’s hair for the rest of her life. Her daughter, my aunt, didn’t even have a proper grave.
My grandmother and my uncle came back to Poland only in 1946 when, after the war had ended, the Soviets started releasing Polish prisoners. Balbina, the Russian lady who took care of my father in 1940, hid him from NKVD and contacted his aunt, who came for him a few days later. He was reunited with my grandmother in 1946. Without a doubt, Balbina saved my father’s life.
Putin
The pain of being forced out of your home, having your family torn apart, and seeing your life change forever, just because a madman decides this is the right thing to do, is way too close to my heart to observe the suffering of Ukrainians right now calmly.
Ukraine is the second-largest European country. But it doesn't matter right now.
On the digital economy front WhatsApp, Paypal, People.ai, Grammarly, Revolut, Gitlab, and many others origin from Ukraine or were founded by Ukrainian expatriates. But it doesn't matter right now.
Right now, Dignity and Freedom matters. Sovereignty matters. The ability to live your life without fear of being killed matters. I fear for my Ukrainian friends.
I have Russian friends too. And I know that they deeply disagree with the direction taken by their president. Over five thousand Russians were arrested for protesting the war in the last few days alone.
This is a war against free thought, democratic values, and truth. If we let oppression, despotism and lies win, all of us, not just Ukraine, lose.
This war must stop.
How can you help? First, stay informed. Putin is waging a war of misinformation and lies. The least you can do is stay informed and seek the truth. Then, consider supporting organisations that are on the ground, helping share information (The Kyiv Independent, link in the upper right), working with children affected by the war (Voices of Children), delivering fully-equipped backpacks for doctors and paramedics on the front lines (Sunflower of Peace) and helping civilians survive the humanitarian crisis (Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal). If you have a platform, speak up—it does help.
Crowdsourced War
The war that plays out right now is a surreal mix of last century's "land grab" and a modern "digital warfare and misinformation" approach. It also shows the intended and unintended impact of digital platforms.
The initial movements of Russian troops entering Ukraine showed as... traffic jams in Google Maps. Did Russian soldiers forget to turn off their phones when rolling tanks? Quite unlikely—their phones were confiscated before they entered Ukraine. More likely: the movements slowed down civilian traffic, and this showed up in the maps.
The Ukrainian telecom companies are keeping the networks up and, at the same time, preventing “visitors” entering from Ukraine and Russia to access their infrastructure. They understand the importance of this piece of infrastructure in the XXI century.
Ukraine is now launching an “IT army”. While it doesn’t look very professional yet (there are serious concerns about their use of Telegram as the messaging platform) it shows yet another way digital technologies are enabling anyone, anywhere, to help.
Anonymous have already launched their attacks, hacking media, intercepting communications, and taking Internet services down.
NATO might be hesitant to send troops to Ukraine. But, on the digital front, Russian banks are being removed from the SWIFT network. Stay tuned—China is likely already offering e-CNY as a solution. I wrote about it a few months ago, and I am expecting this to become a global concern soon.
The Ukrainians understand the importance of the tools of the digital age in fighting for freedom. Bits can be as powerful as bullets. And help can come from unexpected directions. Just ask my father about Balbina.
Слава Україні! Героям слава! 🇺🇦
Stay curious,
Marek
Prof. Marek Kowalkiewicz
Chair in Digital Economy, QUT
P.S.: You might have heard about Brisbane, where I am, being flooded right now. This is a major tragedy. Like many others, I am currently cut off, with surrounding areas flooded. We cannot access stores or schools. We are helping each other in this crisis, and I am grateful for my local community. I am also grateful to State Emergency Services—we needed their help a few days ago. But: we will be fine. Ukraine is where my mind is right now.