Plus, as I mentioned earlier, the term "Ukraine" means "on the border", "on the edge", which explains that map pretty well - the territories on the Southern borders/edge of what was Keiv Rus, and became Russia, with time stated to be referred to as Укpaинa ("Ukraina"). Not to put down Ukrainians, in Russian there is an everyday derived word, oкpaинa ("okraina"), which means "outskirts", "suburbs".
It didn't become Russia. Russia and Ukraine have been separate countries for a very long time. Yes, in Russian there is a work "okraina" whic means "outskirts," but in Ukrainian there is a word "kraina," which means "country." I suspect Russians have been trying to turn "Ukraina" into something similar to "okraina" for quite some time, but that's not the meaning. Also, when Kievan Rus broke apart in 12th century, Russia was still fairly far away, as a separate country. Only time Kiev or it's borders were considered part of Russia or Poland was when Ukraine was temporarily conquered by them. Otherwise it was still a separate country, before and after (and now). I'm sure Russia would love to clam that Ukraine is just a borderland of their own territory, and take it "back" as it had it under USSR, but, no thanks :/
No one is planning on taking Ukraina anywhere and turning it into "okraina" (sorry, forgot about the US/EU plans there for a second).
As for the word games (word history), true, interpretations can vary to suite the needs of the moment. By the way, Russian has a word "kraj", which has two meanings: both "edge" and "place" (as in "rodnoj kraj" - "home place").
You are also right in that Ukraina didn't become Russia, it never seized being it, though the political "elite" tugged and drew people populating these lands in different directions. Still, when people speak of "the mother of all Russian towns", they don't mean Moskva, then mean Kiev.
Soviet Union fell apart because of an oversized war machine, where most of country's production went towards feeding that beast
Soviet Union collapsed after the crude oil prices nosedived. Don't invent any new theories.
I am not inventing a new theory, I am stating the obvious. The oil prices were the death knell, yet over-the-top spendings in the military sector, coupled with total neglect for people's needs (deficit
) over a prolonged period of time created a tension that was waiting for a trigger factor.
You should stop trying to teach real history to those whose minds have been infected with rivionist history.
Who give you the monopoly for
real history?
I don't want any brainwashed Americans to teach me history.
Well, non-native Americans seem to think that they have an exclusive right to the history of the land they are living on. They also seem to think that they have an exclusive right to the history of native Slavic people of Eastern and Central Europe. Oh, the irony.
In minor news:
- VISA and MasterCard stopped without any explanations payment processing for people who use two banks whose owners ended up on the sanctions list. (Now we know that VISA and MasterCasrd are owned by the same people who in tern are owned by the Western governments)
-
http://rt.com/news/eu-sanctions-russia-ukraine-197/ (Merkel starts sounding desperate)