Russia: the Last European Colonial Empire (the One that Just Won't Stay Dead)

By Robert Harris

Saturday 4 July 2026

Today is July 4th. For US citizens, it's a beer-and-fireworks-fueled celebration of independence, an idea that takes on a far less abstract meaning for an American living in Ukraine during the present war. For EU citizens, it's a chance to indulge in jokes mostly centered around their favorite stereotypes about the American fondness for alcohol, calories and explosives, stereotypes which Americans do nothing to dissuade on this particular day of the year and which are, essentially, the only thing the States of the EU have ever unanimously agreed upon for any length of time. And of course this year, the date takes on greater than usual significance, being the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

This declaration, signed by a group of men whose only desire was "we want to have a country of our own," was signed amid a lengthy war against a European colonial power who insisted the American colonies had no statehood, were merely "less educated Englishmen," as evidenced by the fact that they spoke the same language as England, and who believed that they could militarily bring the colonies back under heel in a matter of days. Sound familiar? And while the similarities between the rhetoric used by the British Empire then and the Russian Federation now did not, in most cases extend to the same ruthless and criminal targeting of civilians for which the Russian Federation has become known in the present war (Royal Dragoon Colonel Banister Tarleton notwithstanding), it is difficult not to look upon the story of the July 4th Declaration with a certain sense of Deja Vu when one sits in Ukraine, a country currently fighting against the last European colonial empire, for its own right to exist.

And just as Ukraine's fight to continue its existence has rippled across the globe, so too did the July 4th declaration 250 years ago. It sparked what has been dubbed the "Age of Revolutions," a two-century period of colonized states in South America, East Asia, and finally (during the World Wars) Africa, fought against their colonial hegemons to attain independence. The mostly Spanish-ruled nations of South and Central America were the first to rise. One by one, Europe's colonial empires began to topple, and every time a European colonial empire fell, "those cheeky colonists" seemed to be involved. The Spanish Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austro-German Reich (which was an Austrian's ill-fated attempt to resurrect the former) all breathed their last in wars where their opponents included the Americans. The British Empire was, according to most historians, the last to go, maintaining some of its dignity by handing over its last colony, Hong Kong, in 1997 in a peaceful, organized handover.

And of course, there was the Russian Empire, which fell in World War I ...

... Except it didn't.

Because the empire was quick to remake itself in a new form called the "Soviet Union," which was essentially "everything the empire was, but with a Party for an emperor." And because the imperial collapse occurred right in the middle of a war, Western powers, who were afraid the Austrians and Germans would gain too much advantage from the power vacuum created by the collapse of the tsar's empire, looked the other way (and in many cases actively aided the Soviets) while the empire that no longer called itself an empire grabbed the lands colonially held by its former incarnation, including Ukraine. This led, of course, to the national tragedies the country knew from 1918 onward, including the famine of the '20's and the far more devastating manmade famine of 1933 (the Holodomor). Thus did the Russian Empire manage to strangely resurrect itself, albeit in a zombified state, after its own collapse.

This historical anomaly nearly corrected itself in World War II, whose European theater was essentially a clash between hastily resurrected, Frankenstein-like forms of the Russian empire (the Soviets) and the Austro-Hungarian empire (Hitler's Austro-German Reich). However, once again fear of the latter led Western powers to aid the former, and while aiding the Soviets to fight the Nazis was not a bad idea, the Western powers FAR overcompensated, funnelling arms and materiel into the Soviet Union on a scale that turned the dying (again) empire into a military superpower that came close to dominating Eurasia. Once again, the re-incarnated Russian-empire-in-all-but-name escaped death thanks to Western aid.

The Soviet Union finally fell at the end of the twentieth century, and was forced to formally acknowledge the independence of its former colonies, including Ukraine. And as the Russian Federation (which was all that was left of the empire-turned-union) struggled to even feed or house its own population, especially including the mass exodus of Russians returning (sometimes at gunpoint) from their former colonies, it seemed that the empire was finally going to its long-overdue grave. However, Western powers feared what would happen if a nuclear arsenal the size of the USSR's was allowed to split up, turning one dangerous and hostile nuclear power into perhaps as many as ten or twenty. Thus, to prevent the fragmentation of the USSR's nuclear arsenal, Western powers stepped in with aid in the 1990's to prevent the fragmentation of the state itself.

This made the 1990's the third time, in a single century, that the Russian Empire died on the operating table only to be resuscitated by Western assistance.

Well, I needn't bother reminding my readers of the result. Russia's current war against Ukraine is essentially the last gasp of a thrice-saved-at-death's-door European colonial empire, desperate to grasp onto the jewel of its colonial crown. And as that former colony, Ukraine, fights valiantly to retain its cherished independence, money from the European Union (whose roster is essentially a who's-who of the other former colonial empires) continues to flow into Moscow's coffers in the form of energy purchases while Europe's leaders try to be polite about asking Ukrainians not to do quite so much damage to Russia's oil infrastructure. "We know you have to fight back, but, um... can you do it in a way that the people who are killing your civilians can still sell us the cheap gas we love? Thanks!" And as a result, once again, the present iteration of the Russian empire is once again kept alive only by life support from the West.

As an American, it troubles this writer (and "troubles" is too polite of a word but it's the only one fit to print) that more of my countrymen do not see this war for what it is: the death throes (again) of the last European colonial empire. Ukrainians, fighting to affirm their continued independence, are fighting the same war that men like Patrick Henry, Joseph Plumb Martin and George Washington fought; to throw out an old-world imperialist power and live on their own terms, under their own laws, without fear. And one would think that Americans, whose nation essentially came into existence for the express purpose of toppling European colonial empires (a pastime we have been at for a quarter of a millennium now) would see that the Ukrainians are fighting to finish what began in a courthouse in Philadelphia 250 years ago today. The last of the old empires of Europe (Russia) is fighting to hold onto its last breath through one last 19th-century-style war for colonial conquest.

And if America will step in and tip the scales, even slightly (it won't take much; a few patriot missiles; investment in one or two more factories producing flamingos; a day or two's taxes worth of drone production funding), then the Ukrainians can make sure that empire stays dead this time.

... Even with the other old empires of Europe struggling desperately to keep it alive by buying its oil and gas.

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Robert Harris is a teacher in Lviv and the author of Smells like BULL-Shevik to ME! - A Conservative Talks to Conservatives About Russian Lies.