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A Recipe for War, Analysis of History, Current Events, Military History, Disinformation, Military History, Russo-Ukrainian War, Historical Education, Other Types of Education
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Connections to the Past, Understanding the Past, Repercussions of Events, Current Views, Motives Behind Conflict, Weaponizing History, Propaganda, Historians in History, #A Recipe for War, #Ukraine, #War
July 7, 2022
“Ukraine’s part of Russia, right?”
After telling people about my family’s origins, they would often ask me this very question. The last time this happened was in late January of 2022. The person who asked me the question at that time was stunned to learn that, in fact, Ukraine and Russia are two different countries. It saddens me to say that he was not an exception. Right up to the period right before the beginning of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine was considered by many to really be nothing more than an offshoot of Russia’s history and culture. This was especially true of people who lived further away from Eastern Europe and was a widespread belief among Americans, at least among people I have known. For them, Ukraine and Russia were almost the same. That’s if they knew that Ukraine even existed in the first place. A 2014 study by political scientists affiliated with the Washington Post found that only about 1/6 of Americans could find Ukraine on a map. Disturbingly, almost as many thought that the second-largest country in Europe (behind Russia) was located somewhere in Central Asia. A recent poll showed that many more Americans know where Ukraine is located, amounting to some 30% of respondents. As sad as that is, it may actually signify increased geographic and cultural knowledge among Americans. When my mother’s family immigrated to the United States in 1989, they were told by friends that they should tell people that they were from Ukraine and not the Soviet Union or Russia because people would be hostile after hearing the latter due to Cold War anxiety that hadn’t quite ended, and because nobody even knew where Ukraine was. This was true for most people she met, and the first person she met who knew that Ukraine was a country said it was just a second Russia. From firsthand experience, I can say that most Americans I’ve talked to since the invasion started don’t believe this anymore, though they find it hard to understand what makes the Russian and Ukrainian people different. Similarly, most Russians don’t believe that there’s any difference between them and Ukrainians, believing that Ukrainian is little more than a dialect of the Russian language and that the creation of Ukraine is a “historical mistake.” However, this phenomenon has different causes than the one in the United States. It’s due not only to a lack of cultural understanding, but also years of misinformation and propaganda by the Imperial Russian, Soviet, and then Putin’s propaganda machine, and the association of Ukraine with fascism and genocide that became common in Russia. Before discussing this some more, we need to look back and dive into the history of both Russia and Ukraine, beyond the lies and propaganda of Russia’s propaganda machine.
One reason for the mistaken belief in the lack of difference between the Russian and Ukrainian people is that their histories are undeniably intertwined. Ukraine and Russia claim descent from the old Kievan Rus, a powerful Slavic kingdom that, at its height one thousand years ago, governed much of the territory of today’s Ukraine and the European part of Russia. The Kievan Rus split up into numerous different principalities, almost all of which were conquered by the Mongols in the 1200s AD. Linguistic differences began to emerge among the people living in the steppe north of the Black Sea and those who lived in the northern Rus principalities even before this period. They only accelerated from this point on. Much of what is now Ukraine became a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1400s and remained so for centuries, while modern Russia ultimately emerged after the conquests of the Duchy of Muscovy in the 1400s and 1500s. The Ukrainian people began speaking the Ukrainian language, which was very different from that spoken by people in Russia. Ukrainian-speaking Cossacks created their own de facto state in the 1500s and 1600s, which had its own government, institutions, and even an independent Orthodox Church. This state was gradually subsumed into Russia, which worked to integrate Ukraine and its people with its own. However, the Ukrainian language and culture remained alive and well, and even Russian-language speakers and writers in Ukraine remained proud of their “Little Russian” (an old name for much of Ukraine) origins.
An example of this was famous writer Nikolay Gogol, who wrote in and probably primarily spoke Russian, and often discussed the “Great Russian land” in his works. However, he was very proud of the land he was from, and motifs and themes from Ukrainian folklore, history, and culture were common in his works, including Taras Bulba, a novel about Ukrainian Cossacks, and Viy, a horror story set in the land around Kyiv with some Ukrainian folkloric themes. Gogol’s personal story reveals that he was neither entirely Russian nor Ukrainian. In fact, it’s hard to separate the Ukrainian and Russian histories of this period, and much of Ukrainian history in general, because they are so intertwined. This is why many Russians believe that Ukraine simply doesn’t have a history. However, this isn’t entirely true either. Despite years of suppression by Russian authorities, Ukrainian historians have managed to piece together a clear history of their nation and people. In his magnum opus, famed Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky wrote a massive work chronicling the history of his people dating as far back as the 1000s AD and even further into Pre-History. It stands even today as one of the most respected works of Ukrainian history. Russian leaders prefer to conveniently ignore it rather than make false claims about its inaccuracy, as it has created a compelling and truthful narrative that they have been unable to dispute. It proves that, despite the significant intertwining of the Ukrainian and Russian histories over the years, and the efforts of Russia’s propaganda machine, Ukraine has a history, culture, and independent destiny of its own. The failure to understand this is one reason why so many in Russia are opposed to the idea of a Ukrainian state.
Yet another reason why so many Russians are averse to a Ukrainian state is the association of such a concept with fascism and genocide. Indeed, the first attempts to create an independent Ukrainian state turned into some of the bloodiest conflicts in modern European history, and many of the Ukrainian nationalist groups that fought in these conflicts were party to genocide. The first such attempt came after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, in the aftermath of which a Ukrainian Central Rada (parliament) was founded in Kyiv, and a new Ukrainian state was declared. The parliament was overthrown by Cossacks who took over and declared a second Hetmanate. This was abolished by the end of 1918, after which chaos erupted. More warlords joined in, siding with whoever offered them the most in return, and an anarchist commune emerged in Southeastern Ukraine. Then, Western Ukraine declared its own government all of a sudden, after which the Soviets invaded. Poland also joined the conflict, hoping to take some Ukrainian territory for itself. The Poles and Soviets ultimately divided Ukraine among themselves, and the hodgepodge of rebel groups there was finally defeated by the end of 1921. Millions of people died in the conflict, including the untold numbers of civilians killed in massacres instigated by all sides. Ukrainian forces in this conflict were no exception, being behind numerous pogroms of Jews, Poles, and other non-ethnic-Ukrainians. The Ukrainian national movement was shattered, but it re-emerged in the late 1930s after the Holodomor famine. Ukrainians had much of their food confiscated by Soviet authorities in what many consider a genocidal act, leading to the death of millions. A new insurgency by the Ukrainian People’s Army, or UPA, began after the Holodomor. Its leader, Stepan Bandera, sought to turn Ukraine into a state governed similarly to the fascist governments popping up all over Europe around this time. He sought and received support from the Nazis, who invaded the land in 1941. A massive campaign of ethnic cleansing ensued, as UPA insurgents killed or deported or helped the Nazis in doing so to hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews and Poles, and other non-Ukrainians. Their goal was to make Ukraine for Ukrainians only, and while experts still debate the extent of it, it’s likely that Bandera at least was aware of all this and did nothing about it. The UPA switched its attention to fighting the Nazis in 1942, but only because it had largely succeeded in its goal of ethnically cleansing Ukraine, especially in its Western part, of “undesirables.” It’s no wonder that the flag of the UPA, now adopted by many Ukrainian nationalists, consists of one red stripe on top of one black line, symbolizing all the blood that has flowed over Ukraine’s black earth. After World War II ended and the UPA insurgency was crushed, the Soviet authorities worked hard to associate Ukrainian nationalism with the UPA and the other groups that engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Ukraine years prior. The Russian government appears to be doing the same thing today, claiming that a “Banderovite junta controls Ukraine” and pointing to the seemingly still-widespread support for Bandera and the UPA (monuments and other tributes to whom still exist all over Ukraine) and the Ukrainian nationalist movements of the early 20th century as proof of the extent of the “nationalist brainwashing” of Ukrainian citizens. Moreover, Putin’s government has worked to make its own people and others around the world believe that Ukrainians and Russians are, in fact, the same. They have been very successful in Russia, and even outside Russia, many people still don’t understand how the two nations and their people and cultures are different. This is why Russian opposition to the Ukrainian state’s existence has been so powerful and why many people in Russia support its destruction.
However, in their quest to vilify the Ukrainian nation, Russian leaders have instead created many heroes among its ranks. Every day, reports emerge of brave Ukrainian soldiers fighting not for dictatorships or to kill others but to protect their countrymen. Heroes have emerged in Ukraine’s hospitals, care centers, orphanages, and other locations. Ukraine may have a bloody history with many villains, but even Russia’s propaganda machine can’t suppress the fact that it’s also full of real, fully-Ukrainian heroes. And every day, these heroes continue to fight to save their nation. This war will drag on for months, if not years, after this post is published, but one thing is clear: for all of that time, new Ukrainian heroes will improve the image of Ukraine that has been tarnished by genocide and fascism. And Russians will eventually learn they were wrong to oppose the Ukrainian state’s existence. That’s because Ukraine isn’t some “historical mistake” and “Nazi junta regime,” as Russia’s propaganda machine may call it. Instead, it is a land with a complicated but real history and with its own villains, leaders, and heroes.
References:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikolay-Gogol
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Bulgakov
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Central-Rada
https://www.dw.com/en/how-much-do-americans-care-about-russias-war-on-ukraine/a-60923770
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CB%5CO%5CBortnianskyDmytro.htm
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CH%5CR%5CHrushevskyMykhailo.htm
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/largest-countries-in-europe
Image Sources:
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-march-stepan-bandera/31635671.html
https://www.thousandwonders.net/St.+Michael%27s+Golden-Domed+Monastery
One response to “Misunderstanding Ukrainian History”
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