Ukraine Unraveled
Many Moving Parts
There is something totally ignored in the latest hysteria about Russia. It is the history of the people who inhabit the "Great Grass Sea" which is the poetic name for the geographic feature in Eurasia more commonly known as The Steppe. Ruled only by Mother Earth and the eternal Sky this is the boundless property of no one.
This vast area of grassland, black dirt, and semi-arid plains stretching from Mongolia to Hungary is the home of unique historical nomadic civilizations which hosted many great cultures including the Northern Slavs of today. The Sarmatians, Scythian, Mongols, Tartars, and Russians have been nourish by the seemingly boundless fecund grazing land represented by this ancient domain.
Not too concerned with the concept of borders livestock was herded across this region following the spirits of the seasons and the pasture grass in constant harmony with the rhythms of nature. Imprinted on the cultural DNA of this area the various ethnic groups honor the deeply spiritual worldview of their agrarian ancestors. One only needs to look at the vanishing and reappearing lines on the map that represent countries which came and went with the tides of commerce and politics. In the last few centuries Eastern Europe and central Asia look nothing like it does today. (Click here to see an earlier Map of Europe) *
Ukraine has been subject to changing borders due to the hostilities of their neighbors and they have in turn also taken land from these same neighbors. Ask any Hungarian about the Ukraine territory known as Trans-Carpathia home to a very restive ethnic Hungarian population now chaffing under the restrictions of the century old Treaty of Trianon which gave Hungarian land to Ukraine.
The current conflict in eastern Ukraine (Donbass) is not unique. These are mostly ethnic Russians who were stuck in a country not of their choosing in large part due to the decades long bungling of the old Soviet Union bureaucrats who ruled this area for decades.
Due to weak political and ethnic ties within Ukraine the European powers have found a good playground to exercise their skills at profiting from other people’s misery. These days even though NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has no legal obligation in Ukraine they believe they have a self-appointed mission to mediate the shifting borders between Russia, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Ukraine. Their efforts are akin to drawing a line on a sand dune and expecting it to be there a year later.
The attachment of the Slavic people to the lore of the Steppe is a spiritual mission. Caught in the winds of history, geography, and mythology the situation in Ukraine is an affair of the heart and the soul. Meddling by the Great Powers might make the weapons dealers a lot of money but it will not alter the vast arc of grass and plains that is the legend of the Steppe.
*Note that Kiev is in Russia
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