>It could easily have been a ‘velvet divorce’ such as Czech and Slovak.
Not really.
Ukraine can only exist as an anti-Russia, while Slovakia has never really defined itself as an anti-Czechia.
There are superficial similarities here, but with a very important difference.
Ukraine is a separate thing from Russia because of the collapse of Rus and the Mongol invasions, and then the land ended up under Polish rule for several centuries.
Slovakia is a separate thing from Czechia because when the Hungarians conquered the Pannonian plain and destroyed the old Great Moravia, what is now Slovakia remained under direct Hungarian rule. Meanwhile what is now Czechia, which if you look on the map, is neatly surrounded by mountain ranges from all sides, developed separately on its own, and later on came under direct Habsburg rule, and was more Germanized.
But overall it's a very different situation because nobody really cares about Slovakia and Czechia -- those are small places of no strategic importance. Meanwhile Russia is the richest land on the planet, and Ukraine is the richest part of Russia. Which guarantees plenty of outside meddling, dating back to the Polish trying to make the modern Ukraine and Belarus territories Catholic, then continuing with the Austrians stoking Ukrainian nationalism in its infancy in the 19th century, the Germans continuing it in WWI and WWII, and then CIA taking over in the 1940s.
And it is precisely because Czechoslovakia was small and insignificant and the Bohemian/Moravian Czech core also didn't exist as an independent country until a century ago, while Russia is, well, Russia, that relationships are good between Czechs and Slovaks while Ukrainian nationalists have this vicious genocidal hatred towards Russia.
Since there is no substance to Ukrainian nationalism, if you do not stoke it actively, it will fade on its own and the gravitational pull of the Russian cultural influence, Russia being a great power and an independent civilization center, will quickly reabsorb Ukraine. Which is what was happening in the 18th-19th century and then in the second half of the 20th century, and had it not been for the wars and the internal Ukrainization campaigns in between, we would likely not be here.
Not all of Ukraine ended up under Polish rule. Only West and Central parts did for any sognificant time and despite that they managed to retain their Russian identity.
There are three different parts. The East of Ukraine (and Odessa) where most people talk, feel and behave as Russians. The Middle of Ukraine, where there is an independent dialect, but there is no seperate culture, religion or history, which is the Russian one (and the birthplace of Russia). And then the West, which is with different dialect, different religion, different history, different traditions and they hate the Poles and Russians (due to the things in the 20th century).
>It could easily have been a ‘velvet divorce’ such as Czech and Slovak.
Not really.
Ukraine can only exist as an anti-Russia, while Slovakia has never really defined itself as an anti-Czechia.
There are superficial similarities here, but with a very important difference.
Ukraine is a separate thing from Russia because of the collapse of Rus and the Mongol invasions, and then the land ended up under Polish rule for several centuries.
Slovakia is a separate thing from Czechia because when the Hungarians conquered the Pannonian plain and destroyed the old Great Moravia, what is now Slovakia remained under direct Hungarian rule. Meanwhile what is now Czechia, which if you look on the map, is neatly surrounded by mountain ranges from all sides, developed separately on its own, and later on came under direct Habsburg rule, and was more Germanized.
But overall it's a very different situation because nobody really cares about Slovakia and Czechia -- those are small places of no strategic importance. Meanwhile Russia is the richest land on the planet, and Ukraine is the richest part of Russia. Which guarantees plenty of outside meddling, dating back to the Polish trying to make the modern Ukraine and Belarus territories Catholic, then continuing with the Austrians stoking Ukrainian nationalism in its infancy in the 19th century, the Germans continuing it in WWI and WWII, and then CIA taking over in the 1940s.
And it is precisely because Czechoslovakia was small and insignificant and the Bohemian/Moravian Czech core also didn't exist as an independent country until a century ago, while Russia is, well, Russia, that relationships are good between Czechs and Slovaks while Ukrainian nationalists have this vicious genocidal hatred towards Russia.
Since there is no substance to Ukrainian nationalism, if you do not stoke it actively, it will fade on its own and the gravitational pull of the Russian cultural influence, Russia being a great power and an independent civilization center, will quickly reabsorb Ukraine. Which is what was happening in the 18th-19th century and then in the second half of the 20th century, and had it not been for the wars and the internal Ukrainization campaigns in between, we would likely not be here.
In this you are right.
Not all of Ukraine ended up under Polish rule. Only West and Central parts did for any sognificant time and despite that they managed to retain their Russian identity.
There are three different parts. The East of Ukraine (and Odessa) where most people talk, feel and behave as Russians. The Middle of Ukraine, where there is an independent dialect, but there is no seperate culture, religion or history, which is the Russian one (and the birthplace of Russia). And then the West, which is with different dialect, different religion, different history, different traditions and they hate the Poles and Russians (due to the things in the 20th century).