Over the past month, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dominated news cycles throughout the world, giving way to portrayals of immense human suffering and depictions of the true horrors of modern war. In an effort to educate the school community on the dire situation in Ukraine, St. Louis U. High’s One World Club hosted a roundtable discussion on Thursday, March 10, exposing students to just a few of the many diverse viewpoints and perspectives surrounding the complex geopolitical circumstances of the invasion.

The initiative to hold a discussion on the topic began in late February, just days after Russia’s initial invasion, when junior Freddy Laux—a member of One World’s group of student leaders—began communicating with other club members about acknowledging the situation in Ukraine. 

“Our club leaders have been very motivated and responsible for taking on (their role as leaders) in a really good way,” said One World co-moderator Maria-Paz Campos. “These are all ideas that came from them. They reached out to us and said we should do something about this, that we should educate our school community about this. It’s super easy to default to being angry with the Russian people when not all of them really know what’s going on, and a lot of them are misinformed, which you could see in the experiences shared.”

Early on in the process, One World joined forces with Director of Global Education Rob Chura, who helped with finding guest speakers for the discussion. Chura utilized his connections in the Russian community in St. Louis and amongst SLUH alumni—as well as with friends from Russia—to assemble an expert group of panelists, who each focused on a particular way of viewing the conflict.

The roundtable was held in the Si Commons at 3:30, just after school, and was open to all members of the SLUH community. In addition, the meeting was broadcast via Zoom, allowing students from other Jesuit schools to attend virtually. Despite taking place right at the beginning of Spring Break, student turnout was relatively high for the event, and is believed to be the best-attended One World event in recent years.

Proceedings opened with a prayer from Fr. Robert Reiser, SJ, the Executive Director of the Jesuit Schools Network, which stressed the need for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The spotlight then shifted to Dr. Daniel Schlafly ’57, who serves as a Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at Saint Louis University. Schlafly’s presentation centered on presenting an overview of the long, intertwined histories of Russia and Ukraine, ranging from the Middle Ages up to the post-Cold War era. 

The presentation began with Schlafly noting the similarities of the first names of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, both of which honor a saint who Christianized the oldest ancestor nation to modern Russia. After presenting the history of relations between Russia and Ukraine, which were oftentimes part of one singular entity, Schlafly then attributed the nations’ shared history as a primary motivation for Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

After Schlafly’s crash course in Russo-Ukrainian history, Chris Brennan '09 presented the conflict through the lens of a journalist working in Russia under the regime of Vladimir Putin. As an international journalist, Brennan was based out of Moscow from 2012 to 2014, where he covered events such as Putin’s return to power in 2012 and Russia’s invasion and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Brennan’s presentation largely focused on the effect of state-controlled media on the Russian populace, which has become increasingly pro-government throughout Putin’s decades-long reign. Brennan then described the agenda which the government is attempting to push in spinning the conflict to citizens. 

Once Brennan had finished with his contribution, James Hitch ’67 gave his perspective on the conflict based on his experiences living and working in Kyiv as an attorney.

Next on the list of speakers was Irina Limanskaya, a Russian citizen who is involved with the opposition movement in St. Petersburg. In an at-times emotional speech, Limanskaya outlined the realities of being a Russian citizen in opposition to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Limanskaya’s segment of the discussion left a particularly strong impact on Laux, who was struck by the danger which Limanskaya faced solely for expressing anti-Putin views.

“At one point in her speech, she was almost in tears because she talked about how much she was at risk to express her views and how much that risk has been forced upon her family and the people around her, and I thought that was really powerful.” said Laux.

The panel’s fifth speaker was Tom Monastyrski, a Ukrainian-Canadian, who focused his segment on the current reality of life in Ukraine.

After Monastyrksi spoke, the panel finished with Fr. Damian Czerniak, SJ, who is coordinating the Jesuit relief efforts in aiding with the refugee crisis in Poland. In his segment, Czerniak talked about the difficulties faced in dealing with the influx of refugees, and spoke about ways in which students can help support Jesuits on the ground in Eastern Europe.

Following a 30-minute long segment dedicated to questions, the discussion was concluded. For anyone who was not in attendance but still wishes to watch the discussion, there is a video recording available on SLUH’s YouTube channel.