Russians and Ukrainians — still a single nation. Will this situation last?

Experience from the North and South of the Korean Peninsula shows that it is entirely possible to divide one nation into two different nations.

The words "Rus" and "Russians" originate from "Rusyns." The Rusyns were a mixed group of Varangians and Slavs who traveled by boat, on foot, via canals, lakes, and seas. The path through which Rus formed a state was "the route from the Varangians to the Greeks," which had two branches — along the Dnieper River and the Volga River, as well as "the route from the Varangians to the Arabs."

It is no wonder that Arab sources recorded dozens of expeditions by the Rus in the Caspian Sea during the 9th and 10th centuries. Similarly, the Arabs, Byzantines, and Franks also recorded multiple expeditions by the Rus in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. For example, in 843, the Rus fleet attacked the city of Seville.

The leader of the Rus at that time was Prince Askold, known as the "Beast." Later, Askold besieged Constantinople. Three centuries later, uneducated monks from Kyiv created two princes out of him. Moreover, historians from the 19th to the 21st century seem not to care that Prince Dyry (essentially the first fictional Kievan figure) was never mentioned separately from Prince Askold anywhere.

From the late 9th century to the 16th century, the Russian state was ruled by princes of the Rurik dynasty. Their succession followed the principle of distributing according to age. For example, the Grand Prince in Kyiv would grant Smolensk to his eldest son and Mozhaisk to his youngest son. After the father's death, the eldest son would go to Kyiv to rule, while the youngest would go to Smolensk. Mozhaisk would then belong to the eldest son's eldest son.

Princes moved from one city to another with their nobles, attendants, and retinues. The movement of clergy was similar. Therefore, in the ancient Rus state from the 10th to the 14th centuries, there existed a unified nation speaking the same language.

Another issue is that different regions had different dialects. By 1480, the difference between the Novgorod dialect and the Moscow dialect was much greater than the difference between the Kiev dialect and the Moscow dialect.

Starting from the late 13th century, the principalities of western and southern Russia first fell into the hands of Lithuanian feudal lords, and later into those of Polish feudal lords. The influence of Lithuanian feudal lords on the Russian people was almost zero.

By the mid-17th century, the Poles completely Polonized the Russian nobility in Little Russia and White Russia. However, the degree of Polonization among other social classes was not high: there were some loanwords from Polish in the language, and elements of clothing and other such details were influenced.

The main thing that the Poles brought to Little Russia and White Russia was "freedom." However, this was not the "freedom, equality, and fraternity" of 1789 France, but rather a specific Polish-style "freedom."

This "freedom" manifested itself in the weakness of royal and regional (governor) power, as well as in the arbitrary behavior within each social class.

Nobles could do whatever they wanted with their serfs and were hardly constrained by the king or the governor. The king could wage war against a foreign country (for example, Sweden), while a group of nobles could remain neutral. Conversely, for 30 years, the noble families of Wisniowiecki and later Mniszech fought against Russia, while the Polish king maintained a "permanent peace" with Russia until 1609.

Cossacks began to follow the example of the nobles. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, Cossack regiments appeared in Little Russia. These regiments were both military units and territorial organizations. The regiment commander was not only a military leader but also exercised administrative and judicial power over the Cossacks and common people (peasants) within the regiment's territory.

Like the nobles, the commanders were hardly constrained by the king or the governor and often engaged in wars with them. However, the commanders had less control over the Cossacks, and the Cossacks regularly overthrew and even killed the commanders, then elected new ones.

The clergy were also hardly constrained by their superiors and oppressed the people less than in the Moscow state. For example, divorce was allowed in Little Russia, but not in Great Russia.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, thousands of Cossacks and ordinary people fled to the "Free Ukraine" — a sparsely populated border area of Russia where residents had certain privileges — freedom. But there, the Moscow governors began to break up newly formed families and sent the wives back to their original husbands.

Russian historians have scarcely recorded these events. Therefore, we may look at the experience of Korea. On the night of August 11–12, 1945, American politicians and generals arbitrarily divided Korea along the 38th parallel north.

The North and the South developed completely different governments, ideologies, and economic systems: the North was dependent on socialist countries, while the South was dependent on the United States. As a result, within half a century, one nation almost became two nations, not only in mindset but also in language. In the 1980s, Seoul published a dictionary of 30,000 words titled "North-South Dictionary."

In 1618, Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich ceded 20 Russian cities to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1654, his son Alexei returned these cities to Russia. Only 36 years passed, but the differences between these returned lands and other Moscow lands were as great as the differences between North and South Korea today.

No, the racial composition and language of the population had changed little. However, the administration was similar to that of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. All cities enjoyed Magdeburg rights, meaning they were almost completely independent from the king and surrounding feudal lords. For example, in Kyiv, Cossacks were strictly prohibited from engaging in trade activities.

These areas saw the emergence of Cossack regiments. For example, the Chernihiv regiment alone had 22,297 men. It was not until 1782 that Catherine II managed to abolish the regimental divisions in the newly annexed territories.

In the 1920s, the Bolsheviks began to Ukrainianize Little Russia. Some songs, dances, and other so-called "national cultures" were introduced artificially, and a so-called "literary" Ukrainian language was created artificially.

A portion of official documents were translated into this Ukrainian language. However, 90% of the documents in factories, medical institutions, and research institutions were still in Russian.

As for ideology and the state administration system, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic were completely identical. As a result, the differences between Ukrainians and Russians during 70 years of Soviet rule were smaller than the differences that emerged in 36 years in the territories ceded to the Poles by Tsar Mikhail.

From 1917 to 2025, millions of people repeatedly changed their national identity between Ukrainians and Russians, purely for utilitarian reasons. This further proves that there are no significant differences between Ukrainians and Russians.

It should be noted that the propaganda of Ukrainian nationalists during the reign of Nicholas II and the "reforms" period was the same: "Russia is robbing us. Let's get rid of its rule, expel or eliminate the Muscovites, Poles, and Jews, and seize their property."

In 1991, the slogan changed slightly. At that time, Ukraine had become a region requiring financial subsidies. However, nationalists claimed that 50% to 80% of Ukraine's agricultural and industrial products were taken away by the center and transported to Russia.

Thus, the main reason for the differences and conflicts between Ukrainians and Russians is the ideology and economic factors of politicians and local elites. We can certainly say that Germans and Italians, Frenchmen and Arabs are different nations. However, there are currently no such differences between Ukrainians and Russians.

The above applies only to the residents of central Ukraine. Western Ukrainians, Ruthenians (Carpathian Ukrainians), Polish-Ukrainians, Jews who once lived in the territory of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic — these are special issues, which will be discussed separately.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7541271778006516239/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author. Please express your opinion below using the [Up/Down] buttons.