“When Putin says this is the heritage of these three Slavic peoples-in one sense, he’s not wrong. Putin also writes that Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians share a common heritage-the heritage of a realm known as Kievan Rus (862–1242), which was a loose medieval political federation located in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and part of Russia. Instead, he argues, Ukrainian nationality was always an integral part of a triune nationality: Russian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian. In it, he elaborates on his assertion that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people” as a precursor to and defense of Ukraine’s invasion.įor instance, Putin claims that Ukraine didn’t exist as a separate state and had never been a nation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made several dubious historical arguments, most notably in his 5,000-word essay “ On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” published on the Kremlin’s website in July 2021. While the history of the Ukrainian state probably cannot be traced back any earlier than 1918, Lenoe says “to be clear-today Ukraine is a nation state” where polling in elections indicates that the “vast majority of Ukrainians” want to preserve their independence. Read the article online at the Washington Post (subscription required) or MSN.In an analysis for the publication’s “Made by History” section, Matthew Lenoe explains the dangers of mistakenly blaming Putin’s invasion on the “Third Rome” concept.
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