In the West, they say that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” In Russia, they say that “Москва не сразу строилась” (Moscow was not built right away).
It took about six years for the Allies to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II. What does 1,000 days actually represent when compared to other wars or other grands projets, as the French would have it? In what time frame might one expect Ukraine to defeat an invasion from the world’s fourth-largest army by personnel?
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For some perspective, or even just to relive some national aspirations, let’s look at a few similar scenarios by comparison.
World War II
Most historians would peg the beginning of World War II at Sept. 1, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland and, shortly thereafter, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.
In all, the Second World War lasted 2,194 days, ending when Japan surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945 – about 125 days after Hitler’s suicide in his bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin on April 30 of that same year. Yet in the summer of 1942, about 1,000 days into Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the Third Reich had conquered virtually all of Europe and much of North Africa.
Fascist flags flew as far north as northern Norway, as far west as the Atlantic coast of France, as far south (in Europe) as Greece’s Aegean islands, and by the summer of 1942, as far east as Mozdok, in the Caucasus Mountains. And slightly before that 1,000-day mark, invading Nazi forces were within about 12 miles (19 kilometers) of Moscow.
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We know the rest.
The American Revolutionary War
The first battles of the American Revolution took place on April 19, 1775, in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, when revolutionary legend Paul Revere left Boston on his horse to warn the colonists there that “The British are coming!”
After eight years of war, King George III formally recognized the sovereignty of the American colonies on Sept. 3, 1783, by signing the Treaty of Paris.
But about 1,000 days into the war, in the early winter months of 1778, American general George Washington and his frostbitten, demoralized troops had just hunkered down in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, as the well-stocked British, months earlier, had taken control of the colonists’ largest city, nearby Philadelphia.
They had also just taken the strategic stronghold of Ticonderoga, New York, and controlled the then-American-capital of New York City throughout most of the conflict. In 1778, the British had sacked the American South as well, holding the major ports of Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina.
It wasn’t until an alliance with the French was formed in February of that year, at almost exactly the 1,000-day mark, that the tide started to turn in favor of the Continental Army.
Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan started in the spring of 1979, when Kabul’s communist government of Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin called on Premier Leonid Brezhnev to send troops to quell the uprising of the mujahideen rebels.
In 1982, as the 1,000-odd-day conflict was settling into a stalemate, the Kremlin started to take an upper hand. Soviet forces took the war to the civilians by massive air strikes in rural areas, forcing inhabitants to flee from the countryside. By 1982, about 3 million Afghans had sought asylum in Pakistan and another 1.5 million had fled to the country’s other historical ally, Iran.
But after seven more years of very few battlefield victories, increased American aid, the growing realization that the Afghan people could not be conquered, and some 25,000 Soviet troops killed, Moscow bowed out in defeat.
So how long did it actually take to build Rome? Or Moscow?
Q: How long did it take to build the Colosseum in Rome?
A: About 2,500 days. Emperor Vespasian had the work started around 73 A.D. but died before he saw it completed. His son, Emperor Titus, dedicated the gladiators’ arena in 80 A.D.
Q: How long did it take to build St Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square?
A: About 2,200 days, from 1555 to 1561, at which point Tsar Ivan the Terrible, as myth would have it, had the architect blinded so he could not build another.
Q: How long did the Crimean War last?
A: About 1,000 days. The coalition of the mighty Ottoman, French and British empires were able to band together to defeat the Russian tsars in a span of two years, five months and two weeks in order to gain control of the Danube principalities.
“We choose to go to the moon”
Moving up to the modern era, when someone refers to the “thousand days” in the context of American political history, it is usually in reference to the abbreviated term of President John F. Kennedy, who served from his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1961, until his assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, just more than 1,000 days.
In his inaugural address, Kennedy famously said, “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”
He never saw a human being land on the moon, but the country did achieve that goal before the decade was out, on July 20, 1969. About 3,100 days after his speech.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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