Thanks for the illuminating history lesson, Dan. An excellent synopsis. I hope it ends well, but it’s hard to see that happening. On Feb 20, 2014, at 3:05 PM, Daniel J. Matyola <[email protected]> wrote:
> For Frank and any others interested in events in the Ukraine, this is > my personal and biased perspective. > > Ukraine is the land of my father's ancestors, although the area from > which they came was in Hungary, rather than Ukraine, when they lived > there and when they emigrated. The did not consider themselves > Ukrainians, by Rusyns, or Carpatho-Ruthenians. The seized by the > Soviet Union during WW II, and later incorporated into the Ukrainian > SSR. > > There are large cultural, language, religious and ethnic differences > between the Western and Eastern parts of Ukraine. Zakarpattia, Lviv > and most of the West had long been part of Europe, and now sees its > future in the European community. The eastern and southern parts of > Ukraine have large Russian minorities, and historically and culturally > have always been linked with Russia. The split goes back several > centuries, and will not be easily resolved. There are also religious > differences, with the Rusyns being Byzantine Rite Catholics, the > Western Ukrainians Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, and the Eastern > Ukrainians and Russians live in Ukraine Russian Orthodox. The > services of all three churches look and sound very similar, but there > are cultural and theological differences. > > The current situation has deep historical roots. When the Swedish > Viking Rurik founded Rus, or Russia, in 864, he ruled from Novgorod, > which then and now was the most European part of Russia. His > successor, Oleg, moved his capital to Kiev in 882, better to control > the trade route to Constantinople. Kiev became one of the largest and > most beautiful cities in Europe, and the grand prince ruled most of > Russia directly or indirectly from Kiev for four centuries. It was > the religious, cultural, artistic and political heart of Russia. > > In 1223, the Mongols invaded Kievan Rus. Resistance proved futile, > but Novgorod and Kiev struggled more than the other cities to keep the > Mongols and their Tatar allies at bay. For 250 years, Russia was > dominated by the Mongols, and no one could rule as "Grand Prince of > all the Rus" without permission from the Golden Horde. The princes of > Moscow proved most adept at placating the Mongols and acting as their > tax collectors, resulting in a shift of power away from Kiev and to > Yaroslav, and then Moscow. Kiev was attacked and sacked in 1240, > first by the Muscovite armies and then by the main Mongol army. The > city was burned, and only 2,000 of its 40,000 residents survived. > Most of the buildings were leveled, and visitors described what was > left as a field of bones. The remnants of the people of Kievan Rus > mostly fled west and north to the Carpathian foothills. Their > civilization disappeared, replaced by a more autocratic, militaristic > and hedonistic Muscovy. > > The territory around Kiev was mostly empty. The Muscovites, to erase > the memory of old Kievan Rus, named it the Ukraine, meaning the > frontier or borderland. The area around Kiev was repopulated by > Muscovites, Tatars, and free peasants and runaway serfs, later known > as Cossacks. The western part of the Kievan territory was too far > from Moscow to control, and soon fell under the control of Hungary and > Austria. The people there remained Orthodox, although isolated and > abandoned by the fall of Constantinople and the move of the Russian > patriarch to Moscow. After the 30 Years' War, their Orthodox religion > became illegal, but their church was allowed to continue their former > liturgy and practices by becoming the Uniate Church directly under > Rome (now the Byzantine Rite or Greek Catholic Church). > > As a result, the people living in what is now the Western part of > Ukraine have long been ethnically, religiously and culturally quite > different from those in the Eastern and Southern parts, which have > always been dominated by Moscow. The Soviet Union restructured the > map of Eastern Europe after WW II, creating the present boundaries of > Ukraine. As long as the Ukrainian SSR was part of the Soviet Union, > all "Ukrainians" were oppressed and tightly controlled by the > government and the Communist Party. Millions of them died of > starvation and other causes, and they had a common enemy and therefore > common interests. With the fall of Communism, Ukrainian nationalism > demanded and received independence for the country. Democracy seemed > to flourish for a while, but the economic transition was difficult, > and the Russian minority and some Eastern Ukrainians began to long for > the good old days of the USSR. > > Straddling the fence between East and West has always been difficult, > and often impossible. That has proven to be the case again. Russia > became alarmed at the way Ukraine has been moving closer and closer to > the EU, and has long agitated for a "reunion" of Great Russia and > Little Russia. It is difficult to see any middle course. Either > Ukraine will be incorporated into the new Europe, or it will again > become a client of Mother Russia. If you understand what has happened > to Belarus, you can see where this could go. The stakes are very high > for the people of Ukraine, and the result will have a huge impact on > what happens in the rest of Eastern Europe and the European Community > as a whole. > > The Economist has a cover story about Ukraine in the current issue: > http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21596941-west-must-take-tough-stand-government-ukraineand-russias-leader-putins?fsrc=nlw|hig|2-20-2014|7852306|36077652| > > I agree whole-heatedly with the Economist's assessment of where the > fault lies here. > > > Dan Matyola > http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
