Weekend Economists Commemorate the Dark Knight July 25-27, 2014

[MattSh]

44. Instead of trying to explain the whole thing...

Which I'm not capable of doing, let me just post a couple of things from other sources...

#1 - Metaphysical Doubts Concerning the Existence of Modern Ukraine, a 1918 Creation of the German General Staff « TARPLEY.net

News reports on the reaction in Kiev to the reunification of the Crimean peninsula with Russia have included the idea that some Ukrainians resent the failure of the United States or the western European powers to intervene militarily against Russia in favor of the new Kiev fascist government. At the same time, it appears that Ukrainian military units have uniformly refused to fight for their borders, their bases, their headquarters, or other strategic assets under their control. Much of the Ukrainian army and navy located in the Crimea has chosen rather to become part of the Russian forces. Repeated attempts by the Yatsenyuk government in Kiev to call up reservists or otherwise to mobilize manpower for military purposes have met with a very meager response.

What can we make of a country which refuses to fight for itself, and at the same time, expects foreign countries to pull its chestnuts out of the fire? The reasons may lie in the historical genesis of modern Ukraine, which is a nation called into being during World War I, not by a popular movement of its own people, but rather by the German military leadership, and then propped up in recent years by the United States and the European Union.

International attention has lately been much focused on Ukraine, but world publics know very little of the history involved. The country located on the Pontic step (the flatlands north of the Black Sea) currently calling itself Ukraine has only existed for 23 years, since the failure of the August 1991 KGB-inspired coup in Moscow. Before that, to find something that corresponds to modern Ukraine, we must go back to the Kievan Rus late in the first millennium of the Common Era. This was a state set up by Vikings (called Varangians) along the Dnieper River, which was the main inland waterway between Scandinavia in the north and the Byzantine Empire in the South. It was here that grand Duke Vladimir converted to Orthodox Christianity in the year 988, thus establishing a religious tradition which continues to be decisive in Russian history down to the present day. But Vladimir’s state did not call itself Ukraine, considering itself rather the leading state of Russia, which the Latin West sometimes called Ruthenia.

Complete story at - http://tarpley.net/metaphysical-doubts-concerning-the-existence-of-modern-ukraine-a-1918-creation-of-the-german-general-staff

#2 - Historic map of Ukraine

Note the 1654 boundaries of Ukraine. Before this it did not exist as Ukraine though, it was part of the Polish empire.

The added 1654 - 1917 portion was added by Russian Czars while a part of the Russian empire. It was a part of an administrative area (I think) known as Ukraine, but certainly not independent in any way.

The portion added in 1922? That was added by the hated Vladimir Lenin. Should any parts leave Ukraine in the near future, it would be all or part of this area.

The portion added 1939 - 1945 was part of the pre-war, post-war maneuvering before, during, and after WW2. This part was added by Joseph Stalin.

The portion added in 1954 and already gone was added by Nikita Khrushchev, himself of Ukrainian origin.




#3 - Lies, Damned Lies, and (Ukrainian Language) Statistics

Language analysis of today's Ukraine. Something I wrote in fact...

Anybody who has been following the Ukrainian situation over the last few months knows that there is a great divide between the Russian speakers, mostly concentrated in the east and south of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian speakers, which dominate the rest of the country. Journalists, pundits, and other professionals have bought out the maps and charts numerous times, so if there's one thing that's true, it must be this. Everybody agrees on this, correct?

Let's look at some of the maps that are representative of numerous maps found online these days. Though not all agreed on where the exact boundaries are located, many look similar to this map.



So, overall, the country in general is one big happy Ukrainian family, with a small minority of malcontents concentrated in the east and the south. The areas on the map that these malcontents occupy is quite small; but since they occupy some of the most productive land in the country, they've just got to man up, swallow their pride, and get along with everybody else. That's not asking much, is it?

Continued at... http://bread-circuses-today.blogspot.com/2014/06/lies-damned-lies-and-ukrainian-language.html