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I've got a question--someone on another forum told me that Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalism only became widely accepted by the populations of Ukraine and Belarus after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and that before this revolution, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians and Belarusians identified themselves as a part of the Russian nation/ethnic group. Is this true?
Well, the Rada at Kiev was certainly demanding more autonomy even under Kerensky. Before that I'm hazy but the Uniate Church in particular had a hard time under the Tsar.
There is not more differences between ukrainians, russians and belarusians than differences between scotsmen and englishmen or germans and austrians. They are one nation.
Well, the Rada at Kiev was certainly demanding more autonomy even under Kerensky. Before that I'm hazy but the Uniate Church in particular had a hard time under the Tsar.
There is not more differences between ukrainians, russians and belarusians than differences between scotsmen and englishmen or germans and austrians. They are one nation.
I've got a question--someone on another forum told me that Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalism only became widely accepted by the populations of Ukraine and Belarus after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and that before this revolution, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians and Belarusians identified themselves as a part of the Russian nation/ethnic group. Is this true?
Hopefully my question here is sufficiently clear.
My understanding is that Belarus and Ukraine were not part of Russia but instead were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for hundreds of years. This probably accounts for the feeling of cultural difference between the three nations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish...n_Commonwealth For example, if you scroll down to the middle you will see a map which shows Poland in the early 1600s. All of Belarus and most of Ukraine was part of Poland at that time, including the capital cities of Minsk and Kiev.
Something similar can be seen in cultural differences between Serbia and Croatia, who basically speak the same language (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbo-Croatian ). But Croatia became part of the Austrian Empire in Central Europe, while in contrast Serbia remained trapped in the backward Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me speak.
Thing is, part of the problem is English language. It is very easy to confuse a Rus and Russia. Rus, or Rus' (R-oo-s with soft S) is what the ancient peoples of that region were called. Some say because of the light hair (rusyi means light colored hair. Not blond though). Some say because bulk of them lived around river Ros'. Doesn't really matter. As the result, the first known - officially - state was called Kievan Rus', or Kievskaya Rus' in Russian spelling. You see how easy it is to flip from Rus to Rus-sia?
All of those peoples, multitude of tribes, were the vast family of Slavs, or Slavinians. They spread from Siberia all the way into Europe, into what was Yugoslavia. They all share common origin and common language, or Slavic group of languages, officially belonging to Ugro-Finn languages allegedly stemming from HindoEuropean languages.
Originally, all of those peoples were "pagans". But as they slowly became united under the hand of Kievan Kniaz, or Duke, after Rus' was baptized in 880 byu Volodymyr The Great, Christianity of the Byzantine, or Eastern, or Eastern Orthodox rite prevailed.
At some point in time the Galych-Volyn' Dukeship became the largest country in Europe. It was so powerfual and vast (entire Ukraine, Poland, what now is Pre Baltic republics, Bulgaria, Moldova, large part of modern European Russia) that kings of Europe thought marriages with Duke's children.
Then it all went into shambles, mostly - officially, as the entire story is being revised - due to the Mongol invasion in 12th century.
As the result, Moskovia and Poland rose to power. Though both Christian countries, one was of the Eastern rite and one was of the Western, or Roman, or Catholic rite. Sort of ironic, as both words mean practically same - proper, correct.
But anyhow. Poland, neighboring Western territories of what was left of old Rus', encroached onto what is now the Western Ukraine and all the way down to the river Dniper, practically cutting Ukraine into two even halves. Logically, Poland was attempting to enforce Catholicism in occupied territories but very unsuccessfully. Orthodox Christianity became ideology of multiple rebellions against Poland to the point, that Catholic church created a hybrid religion, rite, called Uniat Christianity. Somewhere around 16th century I believe, in the city of Brest Litovsk. Brest Litovska Unia, or union, was aimed to quench the uprisings by mooting the religious differences between Orthodox Christians and Catholics.
Unia became popular only in the western regions of the modern Ukraine. After uprising, led by Getman (Chieftain) Bogdan Khmelnytskiy, Poland and Russia came to a treaty that split Ukraine into two roughly equal halves - Western and Eastern Ukraine, along Dniper river.
Unia backlashed into its creators. Accepted by Western Ukrainians, it then became spiritual bastion of further struggle against occupant., Poland. Eastern Ukraine then became more russified, while western Ukraine claimed to be "the real Ukraine", though language did acquire quite a bit of Polish words, or polonisms.
Slowly but steadily western Ukrainians - at least, those who willed to chose so - fell into belief that they are the only ones to preserve the real Ukrainian nation and became nationalists, in the meaning of - fighting for the independent Ukraine. Voice of independence and liberation was much louder and persistant, than it was in the eastern Ukraine, which mostly assimilated with Russian empire.
When Russian empire acquired Poland and western Ukraine, there was not much action from nationalists, mostly editorials and writings of all kinds. Likely because Russian Empire was quite tolerant - yes, it was - to nationalities and there was not much of "goneniy" or persecutions based on one's blood.
As far as I know, real splash of nationalism was during WW2, when Western Ukrainian nationalists fell under belief that the 3rd Reich will finally create "The Independent" what in reality was never promised and handful of troops was played for political and military reasons. So it went.
Now all this was undusted by The Elite and brought back to life to de-stabilize the country, create another colored revolution, and get "peace forces" - read - you know who troops - as close to Russian borders as possible.
Btw, for what it is, I have never ever heard of Bilorussian nationalists. No disrespect, and this is coming from a person born in exile from Western Ukraine - I have never even heard of them having any meaningful national spirit to start with.
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