{"id":13361,"date":"2022-04-21T19:16:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T02:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13361"},"modified":"2022-04-28T04:13:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T11:13:41","slug":"mariupol-could-be-the-thermopylae-of-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13361","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Mariupol Could Be the Thermopylae of the 21st Century&#8221;, Bloomberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Andreus Kruth, Opinion, April 21, 2022<\/p>\n<p><em>The strategic port city in eastern Ukraine could join the list of the most tragic but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2022-04-21\/mariupol-s-agonizing-and-brutal-siege-may-be-as-historic-as-thermopylae\">courageous\u00a0last stand<\/a>s.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure-expandable\">\n<div class=\"image-wrapper__3b5022fe image figure-expandable-image__b21aa779\" tabindex=\"0\" data-expandable=\"\">\n<div id=\"lazy-img-386543629\" class=\"lazy-img\" data-testid=\"lazy-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy-image__09ca8e3c lazy-img__image loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iaDGaSGdeJ14\/v1\/800x-1.jpg\" alt=\"The destruction of Mariupol.\" data-native-src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iaDGaSGdeJ14\/v1\/-1x-1.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"fade-in__2b6f580c\">The destruction of Mariupol.Photographer: Alexander Nemenov\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<address class=\"lede-byline__a846e17f\">\n<aside class=\"left-rail__dd66ad55\">\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__9eb44789\">\n<div class=\"authors__c2ab2770\" data-type=\"article\">\n<div class=\"author-data__a75a3bb7\">\n<div class=\"summary__b5fae956\">\n<div class=\"bio__e9ea0742\"><em>Remember Azovstal. Some phrase like that could soon take the part of \u201cRemember the Alamo\u201d in Ukraine\u2019s heroic war of self-defense against\u00a0Russia.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"main-column__b9c1cc32\">\n<div class=\"body-content fence-body\">\n<p><em>Azovstal is a giant steel plant in Mariupol, the city in eastern Ukraine that Russian forces are pounding into submission and, in effect, extinction. In it, a couple of thousand Ukrainian troops, sheltering\u00a0a smaller number of civilians,\u00a0are holding out. The Russians first tried to bomb them out, and may now try <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-04-21\/putin-says-russia-took-mariupol-even-as-ukraine-troops-remain\" target=\"_blank\">to starve them out<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>This week the defenders\u00a0scorned a Russian ultimatum to capitulate or be destroyed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/2022\/04\/19\/ukraine-mariupol-serhiy-volyna-azovstal-factory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a video message<\/a>, one of their\u00a0commanders appealed to world leaders to organize an \u201cextraction procedure\u201d to bring\u00a0the remaining soldiers and civilians to a safe third country. Such an evacuation would echo that at Dunkirk in 1940, when the Allies rescued their own forces from the Germans\u00a0to fight another day. But it\u2019s unlikely.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>More probably, the defenders at Azovstal will have to decide their fate themselves. Surrender is not an option, they\u2019ve made clear.\u00a0Their chosen end, it appears, is to die for\u00a0their country in this last redoubt.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2022-03-19\/the-heroes-of-the-war-are-extraordinary-ordinary-ukrainians-and-also-russians\" target=\"_blank\">Like heroism generally<\/a>, such brave last stands appeared to belong to the past,\u00a0legend\u00a0or even myth. At their best, they are valiant\u00a0defeats that make eventual victory all the more poignant. At the Alamo in 1836, the Mexicans besieged and\u00a0killed the Texans defending the mission. But rage at their atrocities rallied other Texans to defeat the Mexicans the following month. The result was the Republic of Texas.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"postr-recirc postr-recirc--opinion paywall\">\n<div class=\"postr-recirc__index-prefix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"postr-recirc__container\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>Something even grander took place in 480 BCE, when\u00a0King Xerxes brought\u00a0his vast Persian army to the\u00a0narrow mountain pass\u00a0at Thermopylae to attack and subjugate the Greek city states to its south. A\u00a0tiny force centered around 300 Spartans held the gap for three days\u00a0until they were betrayed and outflanked. All died. But they had slowed down the Persian assault. The following year, the Greeks won the war.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>When warriors give their lives, of course, they\u00a0must always fear that their\u00a0sacrifice could be in vain. That uncertainty gives a last stand a more exalted and even poetic meaning. It becomes\u00a0defiance for its own sake.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>So it did in the year 74, when a group of Jewish zealots held out at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldhistory.org\/Masada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Masada<\/a>, a hilltop fortress by the Dead Sea, against an overwhelming Roman force. According to a Roman historian, the 960 men, women and children committed suicide rather than surrender.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>In 1877, a samurai army, in effect, did the same thing. In the Satsuma Rebellion, it rose\u00a0against\u00a0the imperial government of Japan and the westernization it represented. With their ancient skills of war confronting the mechanized weapons of\u00a0the new industrial era, the samurai stood no chance.\u00a0\u201cWhat happened to the warriors at Thermopylae?\u201d\u00a0the rebel commander asks his American friend on the battlefield in the movie version. \u201cDead to the last man,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zU1o7V0PJN4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">replies the American<\/a>, before\u00a0they throw themselves exultantly at the enemy, and into death.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>Sometimes\u00a0the only motivation for a last stand is loyalty to one\u2019s brothers-in-arms. The Nibelung Song, a\u00a0Germanic epic, culminates in a slaughter of the Burgundian knights by the Huns who are their hosts. Not self-defense but\u00a0murder, revenge and betrayal had led them to this point. But together they fought, and died.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>When the Germans in World War II needed a narrative for their defeat in Stalingrad, they reached for that story. Hermann Goering, one of Hitler\u2019s top Nazis, likened the demise of the Wehrmacht\u2019s 6th army to the death throes of the Nibelungs. Propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels tried\u00a0to turn Stalingrad into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deutschlandfunk.de\/geschichte-aktuell-118.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a new legend<\/a>, where Germans fought \u201cto the last bullet\u201d and \u201cdied so that Germany may live.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>All of this was lies. The Third Reich did not live, and the Germans did not fight to the last bullet. And unlike the ancient Spartans, they didn\u2019t perish because they voluntarily took a last stand in self-defense of their country, but because their evil regime sacrificed them in a war of extermination and enslavement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>If Putin\u2019s propagandists had their choice, they\u2019d paint the Ukrainian defenders at Azovstal with the same brush. The Kremlin peddles\u00a0the fiction that it must\u00a0attack Ukraine to \u201cdenazify\u201d it. This claim is absurd \u2014\u00a0Ukraine is a pro-Western democracy with a president of Jewish descent. But to Russian ears,\u00a0the narrative might superficially match some of the Ukrainian defenders in\u00a0the steel factory, who include the\u00a0Azov Battalion, a nationalist\u00a0regiment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/sep\/10\/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">with alleged neo-Nazi ties<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>So the nobility of a last stand is inevitably at least in part in the eye of the beholder. And yet, Azovstal does resemble Thermopylae. Each was, or\u00a0is, strategic \u2014\u00a0Thermopylae was the gate to invade Greece; Mariupol is a land bridge that could connect\u00a0Russian-held Crimea with the Donbas region the Russians are now trying to swallow.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-newsletter-middle paywall\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>No matter the particular circumstances,\u00a0for those of us in more humdrum life situations, last stands remain mysterious. What motivates men and women to face such overwhelming force, and near-certain\u00a0death? \u00a0It may be that they\u2019re heeding a\u00a0primal instinct to fight injustice \u2014\u00a0even if it only means making the enemy pay the highest possible price. If we sell our lives dearly now, the instinct may whisper, future attackers will think twice about coming after our kin.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><em>The Ukrainians at Azovstal are fighting for one another, for their country, and for history. Maybe, like the rebel samurai and so many others before, they\u2019re also fighting just because the whims of fate placed them in a particular place at a particular time, and they heard the call to take their\u00a0last stand. If they perish, it will be on their own terms, and with honor.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\"><strong>More From This Writer and Others at Bloomberg Opinion:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"paywall\">\n<li>How Is Russia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2022-04-18\/russia-weathers-sanctions-now-but-the-economy-faces-dire-long-term-woes?sref=tPIXOZT5\" target=\"_blank\">Fortress Economy<\/a> Really Faring?: Clara Ferreira Marques and Scott Johnson<\/li>\n<li>Putin, His Rat and Six Ways <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2022-03-04\/six-scenarios-for-how-putin-s-war-in-ukraine-could-end?sref=tPIXOZT5\" target=\"_blank\">the War in Ukraine<\/a> Could End: Andreas Kluth<\/li>\n<li>Yes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2022-04-13\/yes-russians-know-what-their-military-is-doing-in-ukraine?sref=tPIXOZT5\" target=\"_blank\">Russians Know<\/a> What Their Military Is Doing in Ukraine:\u00a0Leonid Bershidsky<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"disclaimer paywall\">\n<div class=\"news-rsf-informative-disclaimer\">\n<p><span class=\"name__3bebf3de\" data-testid=\"display-name\">Andreas Kluth<\/span> is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. He&#8217;s the author of &#8220;Hannibal and Me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"news-rsf-contact-author paywall\">To contact the author of this story:<br \/>\nAndreas Kluth at <a href=\"mailto:akluth1@bloomberg.net\">akluth1@bloomberg.net<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"news-rsf-contact-editor paywall\">To contact the editor responsible for this story:<br \/>\nHoward Chua-Eoan at <a href=\"mailto:hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net\">hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Andreus Kruth, Opinion, April 21, 2022 The strategic port city in eastern Ukraine could join the list of the most tragic but courageous\u00a0last stands. The destruction of Mariupol.Photographer: Alexander Nemenov\/AFP via Getty Images. Remember Azovstal. Some phrase like that could soon take the part of \u201cRemember the Alamo\u201d in Ukraine\u2019s heroic war of self-defense [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13361"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13366,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13361\/revisions\/13366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}