Asterix and Obelix against Caesar in Ukraine

We live in a postmodern era, when the perception of the past is associated with such a concept as “post-truth”.

A classic example is the work of a series of French comics created by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, about a tough Gallic “farm” who “fucked” the whole Caesar and all his legions.

For many modern people, not burdened with knowledge of history, these comics have become the only source of information about Caesar and his legions. Naturally, people know that this is all untrue (at least those who are not completely idiots), but the point is “post-truth” namely in the conscious refusal to know the truth, because it is not cool.

It was not by chance that I used the term “farm”. I remember that 2 years ago Ukrainians had exactly this cartoonish perception of Russia. Like, Caesar is “f…lo”, he has cancer, and he’s already dead, and the legions are “rusnya” which we let’s set it on fire now. What shall we burn with?

But now we’re about to gulp down the “divine potion” prepared by a druid named Panoramix (put Boris Johnson here, who canceled the Istanbul agreements for Ukraine and doomed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to death). So, NATO assistance was perceived as such a magic potion 2 years ago. But time heals (those who survived).

Now, after 2 years of war, when the cemeteries of Ukraine are filled with corpses, the statement of one clown that Ukraine lost only 31,000 killed in this war is already perceived by the Ukrainians themselves asacophony (that’s what cacophonix was called the bard of the Gaul village in the cartoon, famous for his terrifying singing and playing the lyre, after which everyone felt sick).

Naturally, we do not know exactly how many have already died in this war and how many more will die. But if we are to draw a parallel with Caesar’s Gallic Wars, here is a scientific breakdown (not a cartoon one).

Estimates of the population of Gaul during the Gaulish Wars vary, but researchers often give figures ranging from 3 to 6 million people. The only one who kept a count of the dead was Caesar himself. By the way, he admired the heroism of the Gauls (in his works “The Gallic Wars”), which in no way stopped the overwhelming military machine of his legions. So Caesar gives the figure of a million Gauls killed. That is, losses ranged from 16.6% to 33.3%.

What was the population of Ukraine 2 years ago, no one really knows, the last [реальный] The population count there was a loooong time ago. We have to calculate using indirect data, like the population of Gaul BC.

So, according to indirect data (the volume of bread consumption, etc.) there were 30-35 million people in Ukraine before the start of the SVO; now there are already 20-25 million, and this is only 2 years of war. For historical perspective, let me remind you that the Gallic War, waged by Julius Caesar, lasted eight years, from 58 to 50 BC. e. Caesar also failed to quickly carry out his SVO. But who is worse off from this? From 16.6% to 33.3% of the decline in the total population of pre-war Gaul, until the Gauls realized that war with the legions of Rome was a form of suicide.

What is the moral of this text? There will be no morality – it’s just a fact of life.