more Ukraine research and thoughts.

[Martin Dietze]

One quick addition regarding Latvia: Latvia is not comparable to Ukraine at
all. In Latvia you had Russian immigration into a country with totally
different culture and language leading to enclaves. Enclaves were what
Moscow has been systematically using as reasons for military intervention,
like in Moldova and Georgia. The Baltic countries were safe from this
through their Nato membership.

In Ukraine there was modest immigration from Russia at the times of the
tsarist empire (almost exclusively in urban environment), usually working
for the military or public service.
They mixed with the locals over the centuries, however contributed to
Russification of Central, South and East Ukraine.
There was another phase of Russian immigration to the expanding industrial
cities in the 1930s, usually workers or technical staff leading to a more
intensive Russification in the larger Eastern Ukrainian cities.
However there never were Russian enclaves like in the Baltic countries.
Russian immigrants usually got absorbed by the local population to some
degree, in particular, because there was practically no language barrier.
There are some regional specifics. The industrialised Donbas had an
extremely high status in the Soviet union leading to a very specific breed
of local patriotism in that area. This was however not a “Russian”
patriotism, but based on being part of the country’s elite.
This again is why now differences are larger between the generations: those
who have lived in the Soviet Union as adults have a stronger connection to
these things than the younger generation.

Cheers,

m.