[Rndouglas]

There's also a region on the westernmost extremity of Ukraine, inhabited by a small branch of Eastern Slavs, Rusyns. They hate Ukrainians so much that they are more pro-Russian than our Serb.



they are almost extinct now... a recognized minority of them existed in former Jugoslavia and I think still exists in Srbija

for the rest of the article ... and in the past I thought about "how come Russians let Crimea go away into Ukraine" but now I got my answer it seems... USSR in the end was not totally pro-Russian...

[baskentt]

Ukraine? More like JEW-kraine! Amirite?

[kristloken]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Rusyns are Catholics, who live on the other side of the Carpathians. They are no more Ukrainian or Russian then the Hungarians.

I don't know why you are misrepresenting things Onodera.

They are most certainly *not* extinct. They should be permitted to rejoin with the rest of Hungary, which would make sense both politically and geographically. You should avoid drugs, BK. Hungarians are Finno-Ugric people, Rusyns are Slavic people. What do they have to do with each other?

[Avaindimik]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi Rusyns are Catholic and have never been a part of the Russian Empire. They have much more in common with Hungary, in terms of both language, religion, culture and geography. Where have I said they had been a part of the Russian Empire? Also, why Hungary, why not Poland or Ukraine? Rusyn is a Slavic language, they are Uniates like the Western Ukrainians, and so on...

[Pharmaciest2007]

As you can see, there's no single Ukraine that you can describe in a single sentence. It's one of the countries that had a misfortune to exist between several great powers, like Benelux or Serbia. This is why you shouldn't pull it into alliances. If you pull too hard, it will come apart at the seams. That doesn't follow, for several reasons. One is that you can write similar stuff for quite a number of countries, just that some exist as outspoken territorial or nation state a while longer than others.

Those long historic descriptions have a tendeny to be used arbitrarily anyway. Most countries were formed of different, often competing or even outright hostile smaller parts. You also can dig out some point in history where country x didn't even exist as own entity for all countries, and for many that point is not so far away. Mostly it's done to make claims what belongs to where, so with clear and partisan political interests in the background, and if these can be seen as somehow legitimate is another question. This kind of historic stuff only shows that all countries and states are a product of history in one way or the other, not some never-changing-entities that came magically into being.

The situation in the Ukraine also doesn't seem comparable to Serbia today, since Yug broke apart because of its own internal conflicts, and alliance entries of the remaining parts happened afterwards or are still to come. BeNeLux is even more different.

[hauptdaunnila]

Originally posted by BeBro
since Yug broke apart because of its own internal conflicts, and alliance entries of the remaining parts happened afterwards or are still to come. Lots of countries have those same internal stresses. The difference was in the West getting involved and immediately recognizing ans supporting the break away republics of Yugoslavia.

[xrumerang]

So what's next then? Russian passports for the Crimea?

[Savviers]

Originally posted by Saras


PLC was formed in 1569, G-V and Black Sea was owned by Grand Duchy of Lithuania alone

Another inhabitants of modern Ukraine were Cossacks: more or less Slavic people who fled feudal oppression of Polish, Tatar and Muscovite states and lived in anarcho-syndicalist communes.

like this one?

"The Lady of the Lake, clad in the purist shimmering Samite..."

I've wondered since I was young when this came out, what is Samite? Does it actually exist?

[Hankie]

Originally posted by Lancer


"The Lady of the Lake, clad in the purist shimmering Samite..."

I've wondered since I was young when this came out, what is Samite? Does it actually exist? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samite

Yes.

[yPuqQ248]

Originally posted by Lonestar



You don't have a hair on your ass if you don't take back the Crimea. We might have the assets here to determine if the Russians have hairy asses. Asher? MrFun? Comrad Snuggles? What say you?

[mazabotman]

Originally posted by Starchild


They do. So, a very real threat to the Crimea, very revealing. Thanks Starchild.

[Swidemaiskikemu]

Originally posted by onodera
So, back to the story. About ten years after the war Khrushchev made a symbolic gift from the RSFSR to the UkSSR. Crimea. This didn't mean much from the practical viewpoint: both republics were parts of the USSR. This meant a lot after the union fell apart. Just my two cents.
Khrushchev was an ethnic Ukranian. That happened in 1954. He gave Crimea to the Ukranian SSR to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the unification of Ukraine with Russia (1654, Bogdan Khmelnitsky).

[Tainlyferfara]

He spoke about himself as "a Russian of Asian origin".

[11Woxsepmoomo]

So wait. Who has pure race and who is mixed race? So who is our enemy again? I'm confused. Is Ukraine dirty or not? JUst a simple yes or no would be helpful.

[evennyNiz]

I believe they have little difficulty understanding each other, but that doesn't mean they aren't separate languages. As a Pole, I can understand 95% of Slovakian, 85% of Czech, 75% of belarusian, 66% of Ukrainian etc... Slavic languages aren't all that different.

[corsar-caribean]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
How similar are Ukrainian and Russian. Are they close enought that Russians and Ukrainians have little difficulty understanding each other or are they distinct languages like Portugese and Spanish? Like Dutch and German. The former looks funny if you know the latter. Also, it depends on where the person comes from. West Ukrainian is much harder to understand than Central Ukrainian, which is full of Russian loanwords. There's also Surzhik, which is basically Ukrainian grammar + Russian vocabulary.
I can understand most of the Surzhik, and can get the general meaning of written Ukrainian, but understanding fluent spoken Ukrainian is beyond me,

[mpegdvdclip]

Are they like, just Russians with strong feminist leanings, or are they simply illiterate?

[UltraSearchs]

I remember reading many years ago, a interview to ukranian tennis player Medvedev (he los the french open final to Agassi in 1999) and he was in favour of rejoining russia, he even didn't think ukrainians existed or where different than russians.

[Teprophopay]

Originally posted by Barnabas
I remember reading many years ago, a interview to ukranian tennis player Medvedev (he los the french open final to Agassi in 1999) and he was in favour of rejoining russia, he even didn't think ukrainians existed or where different than russians. If he was a Ukrainian, he'd be called Vedmedenko.

[Romobencience]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
How similar are Ukrainian and Russian. Very similar. Though Ukranians did their best (esp. after collapse of the USSR and after the Oranges took power there) to make Ukranian language as less similar to Russian as possible.
Are they close enought that Russians and Ukrainians have little difficulty understanding each other or are they distinct languages like Portugese and Spanish? I bet, norhtern and southern Italians or norhtern and southern Chinese have way more difficulties understanding each other than Russians and Ukraninans.