Well, except for the fact that the Russians were continually oppressing the Ukraine for over 300 years. That suggests it wasn't just the Communist ideology at work.
hell the Russians called us " malo- rus", "little Russians". Pretty much denied us our individual national identity.
Can you give the SPECIFIC examples of this Russian opression against the Ukrainians? Exploatation of serfs by the nobility does not count as it took place all over the Russia and was not based on Ukrainian/Russian origin.
hell the Russians called us " malo- rus", "little Russians". Pretty much denied us our individual national identity.
I come from Malo-Polska (Little Poland) and I see nothing offensive about. BTW, one can see the terms like Greater Boston or Greater Greece (colonies) as less prestigious than Boston proper or Little Greece.
Present Great Russia derives her origins from Kievan Rus (as well as from Novgorod at the Baltic Sea). Do you think that Ukraine does not share in the Rus heritage?
How were they oppressing them? By making the leaders of the Cossaks into aristocrats? By building Kharkov and Lugansk? Or rebuilding Kiev? By driving out the Turks for Ukrainian settlement? Except for Cossaks revolts, which occured on and off in all cossak lands, where was this great revolution to be oppressed?
It's funny that for such an oppressed people, the vast majority want back into unification with Russia and only the ones that live in the West (Ukraine and US) are the ultra nationalists. Hmmm.