Rose Mason
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rosemmason.bsky.social
Rose Mason
@rosemmason.bsky.social
Autodidact historian, mostly central and eastern Europe.
historical musicology
Слава Україні! 🇺🇦
Слава фламінго!🦩
"Why, said Montag slowly, 'we've stopped in front of my house.'"
Pinned
"The Russians' bungling incompetence really comes down to the fact that they didn't even bother to learn anything about us."

—Сергі́й Жада́н / Serhiy Zhadan
"Sky Above Kharkiv," p.42-43
March 21, 2022, 12:51pm
This is fantastic news! Throughout history, in all parts of the world, rural populations have tended to be conservative.

Hang in there, Hungarians. April 2026 is coming.
November 19, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Oh beautiful, beautiful Харків! A city I know only through its writers, its artists, and reading its history! A city I dream of visiting one day so I can wander its streets: The lights, including the umbrellas hanging from the trees; and the gold statues of musicians with lampshades on their heads!
Kharkiv right now‼️
November 18, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
My brother put on his Appalachian Business Shirt (a flannel) and now he’s strutting around like a full-time lumberjack. Sir, you can’t even find your own tail. Please stop trying to unionize the squirrels. #TuesdayMotivation #dogsofbsky #dogsofbluesky #dogs
November 18, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Вічна пам’ять, Oleksandr Savov!🕯️

“'Captivity keeps killing even after release,' Oleksandr Savov’s daughter said.”
Defender of Azovstal dies 8 months after returning from Russian captivity
November 18, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Ukraine matters to the security of the free world.
Biking across the U.S. was always a dream for George Kent, but he turned it into a mission to support Ukraine. Strangers approached him, asked about the war, and contributed to his fundraiser, helping him collect over $100,000 for vehicles for frontline units.

🎥: @corrie-ua.bsky.social
November 18, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Whenever we've thought that the Russians had hit rock bottom — that surely there must be a limit to their depravity — again and again, we hear knocking from below.
November 18, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Reposted by Rose Mason
World War II–era shells were discovered in the Kharkiv region. The dangerous find was made in a field during routine agricultural work.

This is not an isolated incident, but a common occurrence in Ukraine. We are still demining decades later.
November 17, 2025 at 2:39 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
This video is almost exactly the same as the moment I was wounded: a mortar attack, guided by a drone, contusion and another 20 minutes underground (under a train car in the video) with shrapnel in my neck before the drone flew away.

Turn on the sound to hear what modern war sounds like.
November 16, 2025 at 10:23 PM
The best thing for a child—other than a lot of love—is a pet, which is really part of the love. Dogs love their people unconditionally, and this unconditional love is the best teacher for children. Children who are loved by dogs will carry that experience into adulthood; they'll never forget it.
November 16, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
Ukrainian forces blew up the road from Selydove to Pokrovsk, a key route for Russian assaults in Donetsk Oblast

Located northwest of Pokrovsk, the road had been used by Russian troops to move light vehicles and conduct attacks euromaidanpress.com/2025/11/15/u...
Ukraine blows road to stop Russian infiltrations in Pokrovsk from northwest (VIDEO)
Meanwhile, Russia sends suicide squads to clear barriers.
euromaidanpress.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
When I visited PEN Ukraine in Kyiv in September 2023, I was photographed by Kostiatyn Huzenko, who documented the war. He enlisted in the Ukrainian armed forces this April and was killed on November 1 by a Russian missile. Courage, truth, memory
united24media.com/war-in-ukrai...
“If Caught in the Rain, He’d Smile”: In Memory of Kostiantyn Huzenko, Soldier, Artist, Friend
A marine, photographer, and friend, Kostiantyn Huzenko was killed by Russia in 2025. His spirit lives on in memories, photos, and the people he touched.
united24media.com
November 15, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
✈️🇺🇦 Video about Ukrainian F-16 ground technicians who work nonstop—without pause, even under enemy fire and strikes.

They prepare fighter jets for missions: they prepare the aircraft several times a day, supporting dozens of sorties from a single airfield.
November 14, 2025 at 6:52 PM
I'd completely forgotten about this. As I recall, Russian officials started giving meat grinders to the families of fallen soldiers back in 2022.

One would expect to find a story like this in a satirical newspaper like The Onion @theonion.com.
November 14, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Reposted by Rose Mason
The Georgian version of "The Torture Camp on Paradise Street":
www.artanuji.ge/book_ge.php?...
November 13, 2025 at 10:30 AM
"certain measures"!
2/2
Meanwhile Volodymyr Zelenskyy also met his military intelligence chief.

The President says he gave Kyrylo Budanov instructions to carry out certain measures in Ukraine’s interests.
November 12, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
Putin had clones of his offices built&is hiding in the Valdai forests, surrounded by 14 air defense systems,according to journalists from the investigative project Systema,RFE/RL's Russian investigative unit, who analyzed thousands of official video recordings from recent years.⤵️
November 12, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
Happy Berlin Wall fall day! Good riddance to the Wall and the regimes that had built it. Celebrate the freedom that followed and don't fall for revisionism. The hard next decade was the pain of extrication from a failed political and economic project. This is my high school class on that day.
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Reposted by Rose Mason
Zelenskyy: "Europe fears the word ‘escalation.’ They believe any response is escalation - but Russia sees non-forceful, intellectual responses as weakness."

This is exactly right. We are at war a thug, or a school bully. Give them something and they will demand more!
November 9, 2025 at 9:20 PM
I'm just a self-taught historian of eastern Europe & it's infuriating that I have a better understanding of ru & its history than Western policy makers. No one will listen to me but there are plenty of people with PhDs who've tried to warn these policy makers, and they won't listen to them, either.
On the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, President Zelensky called NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg from a bunker in Kyiv, pleading for a no-fly zone to stop Russian airstrikes.

He cited NATO’s past interventions in Bosnia and Iraq, but
November 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
A horse is a horse, of course, of course!
Interesting if true!
Russia’s FM Lavrov appears to have fallen out of favor with Putin after a disastrous call with Rubio, which led to the cancellation of the Putin-Trump summit
Well at least he hasn’t fallen out of a window… yet
Путин отправил Лаврова в опалу после срыва саммита с Трампом - Русская служба The Moscow Times
www.moscowtimes.ru
November 9, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Look at these darling Ukrainian children!
A heartwarming trend is spreading across Ukraine: cafés let kids “buy” drinks with autumn leaves, bringing a bit of joy and wonder amid Russia's brutal war.

🧵 1/4
November 9, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
Friends,

In the comments to my post about a Russian ballerina Maria Khoreva performing in Barcelona there are a lot of statements that the ballerina cannot do anything on her own, that her job is art, not fighting against the Kremlin's regime.
November 9, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
Data on fallen volunteer soldiers from different countries who gave their lives for Ukraine as of October 27, 2025.

Here are the 21 countries whose soldiers have made the greatest sacrifice.

In total, volunteer soldiers from 65 countries around the world have died defending Ukraine.
November 2, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Rose Mason
A beautiful film about a small group of artists living in Kharkiv and their experiences during full-scale war.
#Ukraine

youtu.be/1tMHu8WxoUs?...
Art as Resistance in the War on Ukraine | Full Documentary | POV | PBS
YouTube video by PBS
youtu.be
October 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
A happy ending in Ukraine.
November 6, 2025 at 8:52 PM