Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The People
From the Tatars of Crimea to the miners of the Donbas and the hipsters of
Lviv, Ukraine is arguably Eastern Europe's most diverse country. Poverty,
heartfelt hospitality and a love of nature are the few things they share but
little really unites this country's 45 million people. Only sport sees the na-
tion genuinely come together as it does whenever the Klytschko brothers
pull on their gloves or the national football team takes to the pitch.
The National Psyche
Having endured centuries of many different foreign rulers, Ukrainians are a long-suffering
people. They're nothing if not survivors; historically they've had to be, but after suffering
a kind of identity theft during centuries of Russian rule in particular, this ancient nation
that 'suddenly' emerged some 20 years ago is well on the road to forging a new personal-
ity.
Traditionally, many patriots would unite behind a vague sense of free-spirited Cossack
culture and the national poet Taras Shevchenko. This is a religious society, a superstitious
society, and one in which traditional gender roles, strong family and community ties still
bind. It's a culture where people are friendly and sometimes more generous than they can
really afford to be. Paradoxically, it's also one in which remnants of the Soviet mentality -
of unofficial unhelpfulness and suspicion of saying too much - remain. As in Russia,
many people lead a kind of double life - snarling, elbowing
homo sovieticus
outside the
house, but generous, kind and hospitable Europeans around their kitchen tables.
However, Ukraine is also a patchwork nation - city dwellers and peasants, east and
west, young and old, Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking, Hutsul and Tatar have
very different attitudes. Broadly speaking, Russian-speaking easterners look towards the
former Soviet Union, while Ukrainian-speaking westerners gaze hopefully towards a fu-
ture in Europe. But for every rule, there's an exception too.
In
The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation
academic Andrew Wilson examines Ukraine's
founding myths, how its history and culture have shaped its national identity and what it
all means for this ancient but young nation.
