What Paul said. I learned some good stuff there, Dan. I'll have to ask my Ukrainian dancing model and neighbor Iryna what she thinks about it all.
On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 5:09 PM, Paul Stenquist <[email protected]> wrote: > 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. -- -bmw -- 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.
