If you were asked to think about a weapon, what would you think of? Guns, knives, nuclear bombs? Today, I will be introducing you to an eye opening insight and new perspective; the most dangerous weapon of all, history. 

Now first before I talk about why it is a weapon, what exactly is history? By simple definition, history is what has happened in the past, obviously. But this past is ever growing as the future shrinks on an infinite scale. Defining history perfectly is impossible, like trying to count to infinity. A famous man once said, “History is written by the victors.” I agree with Winston Churchill, as history is unknown besides the writings, artifacts, and other things that we have; and most of these are written by the “winners.” For example, a writing about a war or a raid would most likely be written by the winners talking about their triumph. There is only a small chance that they can be written by the escaped survivors. We do not know if someone has lied and fooled us all into believing something has happened in the past. Maybe dinosaurs never existed and they were just made up for Hollywood. There is no 100% guaranteed way to know what exactly happened at a certain time if you were not there to see it; and even then you may still miss something. History is always. For example, if you think of what you’re doing right now, it is now history. This is because it has happened in the past, even if that was only seconds ago.

At the moment, one man in particular is using history as his greatest weapon. His name is Vladimir Putin. Even with his infinite collection of nuclear bombs, tanks, guns, etc, he is using history as his main weapon of choice. One way he is using history as a weapon is by undermining Ukrainian national identity. Putin is trying to legitimize his plans of taking over Ukraine through this. He thinks that Ukraine has always been a part of Russia and that taking it over is only right. Furthermore, he is also using the past history of nuclear bombs and similar weapons of that destructive power to threaten countries. A weapon can not be deemed a threat unless history has proved so. The main way he is doing that is by saying if anyone tries to help Ukraine, he will attack them with powerful weapons. Putin is scaring the people of Ukraine by reminding them of their history with Russia. In the past Russia had a lot of control over Ukraine. Reports state russian troops slaughtering cities, banning the use of the Ukrainian language, and preventing in any way of Ukraine attempting to create a national identity and win independence. This is only one example of many displaying how strong of a weapon history really is.