What Putin kept quiet about. A brief description of the history of Ukraine as it actually took place – Denník N

Ukraine’s history does not in the slightest justify Russian aggression. However, they help to understand what is happening there and why it is happening, what forces are acting against each other and what stories the parties to the conflict are explaining their world and themselves to. The presence grows from the past and the latter from the previous past. Today’s Ukraine cannot be understood if we do not know what happened there during the Soviet era, especially during a key event in its history, the Second World War. Its course in the east arose from the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which, like the very existence of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR, was the result of a previous war. However, even this did not arise in a geopolitical vacuum. On the way back in time, we cannot miss the Ems decree, the triple division of Poland, Zaporozhye Sich, the heroic and shameful deeds of the Cossacks or the tension between Western and Eastern Christianity. We will remember Khrushchev, Bandera, Trotsky, Taras Shevchenko and Bohdan Khmelnytsky – and many others. It will be a long, messy and ambiguous story, because that is also the history of Ukraine. Coin and banknote For two hryvnia you buy little, it’s barely six cents. Nevertheless, this tiny Ukrainian coin is worth thinking about. When you turn it in the palm of your hand, you will see a thoughtful lord with a royal crown. He is Prince Jaroslav I. the Wise, ruler of Kyjiva in the years 1016 – 1054. So far you have bought quite a bit for a thousand-dollar bill (it is almost 31 euros), although I would not build the two hryvnia for the development of the ruble exchange rate. On the obverse you will find a gentleman who is quite similar to the one from the two-hryvnia coin. I wouldn’t say, because it’s him again, Prince Yaroslav, but this time he is depicted as the founder of the Russian city of Yaroslavl. It is in itself unusual for two states to put the same historical personality on their money. In addition, when you realize that those states have been in a hostile relationship for a long time, that one of them denies the other the right to exist, it starts to look quite sinister. Who was it, this Jaroslav the Wise? And to whom do they have more rights – Russia or Ukraine? He himself called the country he ruled, simply Russian, but more often he certainly talked about This article is the exclusive content for subscribers of the Diary N. Are you a subscriber?