XPost: alt.politics, talk.politics.misc   
   From: os333@netc.eu   
      
   Dhu on Gate,    
      
   > It doesn't get mentioned because everyone wants to blame Gengis   
   > and the Mongols, but the MAIN difference between Russian and   
   > Ukrainian was an affliction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire:   
   > Ukraine was controlled by Vienna, Russia by Moscow.   
   >   
   > And it seems to me that the guys who settled WW2 understood the   
   > importance of making (a shrunken) Austria a Neutral and Independant   
   > buffer zone.   
   >   
   > Making Peace in Ukraine, and turning it into a decent place to live,   
   > should be as easy as Austro-sizing Ukraine, not ostracizing Russia.   
      
   The post-Soviet Ukraine is culturally, regionally diverse. Few   
   times before I already posted this    
   map, - it's pretty accurate. Every area has its specificity. A   
   complete description of the history of all the areas would take   
   many thick books. In the Atlanticist popular discourse today, the   
   history of the Ukraine is nearly totally misinterpreted and / or   
   falsified in order to serve the current political agenda.   
      
   In fact, only a small, the most western part of the present day   
   Ukraine was controlled by Vienna. It was appended to the Soviet   
   Ukraine as a result of the WW2, and today many see that decision   
   as a big Stalin's mistake. The region is culturally pretty alien   
   to the rest. In the post-Soviet time, namely this area gave rise   
   to the cult of nostalgic imitation of the German-Austrian Nazis,   
   which later also infected far-right factions in other regions.   
   Psychologically, the west-Ukrainian mania to mimic the Germanic   
   Nazis means the desire of a former slave to mimic their former   
   master, since within the Austro-Hungarian state the status of the   
   ethnic Ukrainians were sort of lowest caste.   
      
   Central Ukraine had no relation to Austria. But there was Polish   
   colonization for 3 centuries, including within the Russian Empire.   
   After the partition of Poland, imperial policies didn't somehow   
   change the situation when the class of landlords (serf owners) in   
   a large part of this territory was ethnically-culturally Polish.   
      
   What is south / east of the present day Ukraine never was really   
   Ukrainian but it was 'gifted' to the Soviet Ukrainian Republic by   
   the early-Soviet government in the 1920s. Before the 18th century,   
   the steppes (wild fields) were rarely populated and controlled by   
   Turkic nomads under Crimean/Ottoman rule. That's another story.   
      
   Besides these specifying remarks, the idea for - the remnants of -   
   the Ukraine to be 'neutral / independant buffer zone' makes sense,   
   of course.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)