To the editors of The AGE and Melbourne University,

The Russian-speaking community in Australia is outraged by the article published in your newspaper on 4th March 2014 by Timothy Lynch, director of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Melbourne University. http://www.theage.com.au/comment/russia-reveals-both-its-strength-and-weakness-in-the-invasion-of-ukraine-20140303-3409n.html

In his article, Mr Lynch seems to suggest the people of the Soviet Union are Russian barbarians in his reference to "the barbarity of the Russian invasion of Germany in 1944-45".

His statements are false, discriminatory and inflammatory to a great many members of the Russian-speaking population in Australia and around the world and potentially psychologically traumatic to some. The Soviet Union's Red Army, which involved people from former Soviet republics, was fighting against Nazis and freeing the territories of the Hitler's army.

We will not tolerate highly offensive, bullying and degrading statements by Mr Lynch and your newspaper. Millions of people from the USSR gave their lives for the world we live in.

You might not be aware that our country (the Soviet Union at the time) lost some 28, 000 000 lives in fighting the war against fascism. You also might be unaware that Ukrainians fought alongside Russians and represented a quarter of the 28 million casualties.

Almost every one of us has a grandparent or a family member who died at war, in concentration camps, gas chambers or from famine and disease in the Nazi occupied regions.

Our heritage of peoples from former republics of the USSR was thrown in the dirt by Tim Lynch.