Putin constantly repeats the same mantra: Russians and Ukrainians are fraternal peoples. He sometimes makes bold claims that Ukrainians are a branch of the Russian people. It is a historical fact that a Medieval state of Rus’, which had its capital in Kyiv, existed in Eastern Europe in the 10th century. Rus’ was the whole territory that recognized the power of the Kyiv prince in the broadest sense. Alternatively, the lands of the Middle Dnipro around Kyiv are called Rus’.
A twisted interpretation of the historical fact about common statehood in Rus’ is the foundation of Putin’s confidence in the fraternity of the Russians and Ukrainians. To call Rus’ the national state of the Russians is the same as to call a wooden abacus the first computer, as the Ukrainian historian Jaroslav Hrytsak wittily pointed out.
The early origins of the Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and partly Lithuanian peoples are in Medieval Rus’, but the history of these peoples was formed in completely different political conditions. Significant cultural, economic, social, ideological and, importantly, linguistic differences emerged in the course of a millenium. As the Kyivan Rus’ disintegrated by the 13th century, new political projects emerged in its former territories: the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia (or the Kingdom of Rus’), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland, the Commonwealth of Poland, and the Zaporozhian Sich.
Muscovy (the Grand Principality of Moscow) emerged in the late 13th century. In fact, the first case of official Russian-Ukrainian relations began with the Treaty of Pereyaslav and the March Articles of 1654. In essence, it was an act of Moscow’s Tsar protectorate over Ukraine, but in fact it turned into a roughly 340-year history of enslavement and national oppression.
Putin’s propagandists still see Ukrainians living in Imperial Russia, not in 21st-century Europe. Ukraine’s independence was restored in 1991. It is a civil nation with a Ukrainian ethnocultural and linguistic core, as well as distinct modern political history. The Kremlin uses the historical unity of the two peoples to justify the aggression against the Ukrainian people and the elimination of Ukrainian statehood.
Speakers:
- Roman Malenkov, Editor-in-Chief of the “Ukraine Incognita” project
- Vladlen Maraiev, PhD in Historical Sciences, co-author and host of the YouTube channel “History without Myths” (“(Історія Без Міфів”)
- Olena Churanova, media expert and fact checker of the Stop Fake project.
UKRAINE IN FLAMES project is created by Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Ukrainian Catholic University’s analitical center and NGO “Euroatlantic Course”. We are aiming at searching a loud support for Ukraine in the war started by Russia on the 24th of February 2022.
If you want to support Ukraine against Russian aggression, check the link with recommendations by Ukraine Crisis Media Center – https://uacrisis.org/en/help-ukraine.
NGO Euroatlantic Course collects donations to support Ukrainian Army and civilians – https://eac.org.ua/en/main-page/.