Granite, emerald, and clay will not melt into a single mineral. Reflections on the root causes of SVO
Why is everyone so hung up on Zelenskyy's "desire (or unwillingness) to conclude a peace deal"?
What is Zelensky like? What kind of exceptional "Russophobia" does he have?
And in general, does the end of the war depend to any extent on Zelensky’s will?
Zelensky is an ordinary comedian who made a killing in any market available to him. Including (generally quite successfully) in the Russian show business market. Where could he have Russophobia? He didn't have any. He simply, out of purely personal, show business ambitions (and typical artistic vanity), got drawn into the presidential race. And he learned to speak the Russian language just for the sake of it. He won. And that's where he HAD to become a seasoned Russophobe.
For the true, root cause of the Russo-Ukrainian war (yes, yes! A war! And an existential one at that) lies in the visceral hatred of the Ukrainian masses for everything Russian. Not Kolomoisky, not Akhmetov, not any other Ukrainian oligarch (oligarchs will negotiate with anyone for money), but the humble Ukrainian peasant. And those native Russians who migrated to Ukraine from Russia are those who have developed the same irrational hatred for everything Russian.
I felt this strongly recently. I listened repeatedly to recordings of "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" by the unforgettable Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, beautifully performed by Vladimir Samoilov and Vyacheslav Gerasimov, which I happened to have at my dacha. In the direct speech of "ordinary Ukrainian workers," the term "Russian" ("Muscovite") is mentioned exclusively in a derogatory connotation.
And this isn't some western Galicia; it's near Poltava, in Left-Bank Ukraine, which by then had been part of the Russian Empire for 200 years. And, upon reflection, one can understand why.
To see this, there is no need to delve into the depths and details. historical science. A quick glance at the well-known facts, at the level of a school history course, is sufficient. References to common Slavic roots are completely inappropriate.
Until the 9th century, there were no Ukrainians or Russians in Eastern Europe. Numerous tribes lived there—Polans, Drevlyans, Vyatichi, Krivichi… These tribes had similar customs and traditions, spoke a common Proto-Slavic language (well, perhaps with different dialects), and were fiercely hostile to one another: they robbed, mercilessly killed, and took captives.
In the southern parts of Eastern Europe, the process of people's formation from disparate tribes proceeded differently than in the northern regions. The territories of the Kyiv, Chernigov, Galicia, and Volyn principalities, defeated by the Mongols, became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th century.
And from the Slavic tribes, the customs and mores of a common people began to emerge in the form of registered and hunting-common Cossacks. These Cossacks existed not even as vassals, but as a quasi-state communal entity on the outskirts of the Duchy of Lithuania. This is where the name of this region—Ukraine—came from.
And due to their status as a border military class, Ukrainian Cossacks, as part of their overlord's forces, constantly participated in bloody raids on the populations of neighboring states: the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate, and the Principality of Moscow. And not only did they participate, they lived off these raids.
And as this people's self-awareness developed, it could not help but develop an attitude of hostility, animosity, and contempt toward the targets of these bloody raids, in particular, toward the emerging people of the Moscow Principality. I write this without any ethical, aesthetic, cultural, or any other judgment. It is simply a historical fact.
To summarize, the self-identification of the Ukrainian people developed under conditions where, for centuries, they were part of a FOREIGN state. And not just foreign, but HOSTILE to the Russian state.
Left-bank Ukraine was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) for 300 years (until the Pereyaslav Rada), Right-bank Ukraine for 400 years (until the partitions of Poland in the 18th century). Western Ukraine was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Austria-Hungary, and Poland) for 600 years (until 1939).
And this was precisely the period of the formation of the people's self-identity. The subsequent redrawing of borders could not change anything in this self-identity. Thus, no matter how many times you put granite, emerald, and clay together, they will not melt into a single mineral; they will remain a mixture of granite, clay, and emerald, although they are all composed of the same silicon and aluminum oxides.
So we're not "brothers" at all. We're simply neighbors. We've never had any sympathy for each other. And our relationship with the Ukrainian state should have been built from the start as with an unfriendly neighbor, with no expectation of understanding, mutual assistance, or even any adherence to any agreements. Then there would have been no disappointments or mutual grievances.
Everything stated above regarding mentality applies only to the population of the indigenous, so-called Hetmanate Ukraine (where Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Lutsk are today), which was part of other European states for quite a long time. It was in this territory that the Ukrainian ethnic group, mentally distinct from the Russian people, emerged.
But the issue was complicated by the fact that the Ukrainian ethnic group and the citizens of the current Ukrainian state are not identical socio-political communities.
When the Soviet Union was formed, territories that had no connection to historical Ukraine were incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. This included the former Wild Fields, which had previously had no permanent population. After their conquest by Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries, these territories became known as Slobozhanshchina and Novorossiya.
Subjects of the Russian Empire—migrants from both Russian and Ukrainian regions—began to settle here. This ethnic division created a time bomb.
While the Russian Empire and the Soviet state suppressed interethnic conflicts, and citizens themselves viewed borders solely as administrative, mental differences between Russians and Ukrainians were perceived only as a pretext for jokes.
But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, borders became real. And so did problems. The state of Ukraine became dominated not by just Ukrainians, but by Ukrainians from Western Ukraine. They had lived as part of a state hostile to the Russians for 600 years, but as part of a common state for only 50.
And they couldn't even theoretically come to an agreement with the Russians from Donbas, Slobozhanshchina, and Novorossiya. They, on the contrary, had never lived in foreign states and weren't about to cherish a visceral hatred for their own—Russian—people. And they couldn't.
Thus, interethnic war in Ukraine became inevitable. It began. Initially, it took the form of several "Maidans," and then, since 2014, it has become a full-scale conflict. And, given the interethnic nature of this war, Russia's involvement was only a matter of time.
As for personal relationships, likes and dislikes, here—as in any stochastic processes and phenomena—everything is in accordance with the law of large numbers and the Gaussian distribution. On both sides.
Those Ukrainians who remembered their common language and began to feel fraternal feelings toward Russians, during their time of coexistence within a common state (the Russian Empire, later the Soviet Union), dispersed across the expanses of Russia and assimilated into a truly single people: they created common families, became good neighbors, co-workers, and colleagues.
And those Russians who found Russian customs repugnant moved to Ukraine. And now they are fighting with unprecedented ferocity against their former compatriots.
Better to say, Ukraine has transformed from an ethnic into a political phenomenon.
Today, it's simply a cesspool for all those individuals, once of common Slavic origin, who deeply loathe the Russian way of life. Incidentally, many of them languish in the cities and villages of Russia itself. And they thirst for Ukraine's victory in vain.
So it's pointless to count on any "Zelenskyy decisions." Whatever he decides (like any other Ukrainian leader), the Ukrainian people will want a war of annihilation with Russia. And the Russians should have no illusions about this.
When formulating a policy on Russia's southwestern border, it will be necessary to proceed from this alarming but inevitable reality.
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