[TexAgg_IE]

I just returned from the Ukraine, and I know what you mean about the feeling towards the Russians. By the way, the "3" ( I know that's just a three, but am not sure how to do Cyrillic in html) is a Russian letter right? If I learned one thing it's not to use Russian letters in the Ukraine. Let me know if I'm totally wrong here though...

[struwwelpeter]

The '3' is actually a Ukrainian 'z', the same as the 'z' in Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Serbian. Most of the Ukrainian alphabet is the same as the Russian, except for two versions of the 'i' and 'e'.

So that word would be 'Pizdets' (nasty nasty), pretty much the same word in Russian.

The language is very similar, too, but don't tell tell the Ukrainians that ;-).



I think the language historians have decided that Russian is derived from Ukrainian, and not vice versa.

Out in East Ukraine, the 'Donbas', the population almost exclusively speaks Russian and has little inclination to learn Ukrainian. Some people told me that that area was historically Russian, and that Khrushchev got drunk and re-drew the maps. Ukrainians, on the other hand, say that Stalin did his work well, so that the nation is pretty much split down the middle at the Dnepr, 50:50 Ukrainian/5th column.

Where were you at?