Preview

Ukraine as a ‘Bridge’ Between Russia and European Union

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2585 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ukraine as a ‘Bridge’ Between Russia and European Union
For my essay I’ve chosen the topic: ‘Ukraine as a ‘bridge’ between Russia and EU’. I found it really interesting, especially in current situation, after the Presidential elections. And, of course, the topic is very important to me, as I’m Ukrainian and studying in the country, which belongs to EU. In this paper it would be considered: reasons of forming of current situation in Ukraine; relationships and perspective of development of them with Russia; relationships and perspective of development of them with EU; current situation after Presidential elections and outcomes of influences it could have on further position of Ukraine on the international arena.
From times of Kyiv Russ Ukrainian land was separated on two parts: eastern and western. Of course, boarders were changing all the time, because of wars that were forming nowadays political map. Eastern part belonged to Moscow State (Russia) and Western to Rzeczpospolita (Poland). Therefore, traditions of Ukrainians were forming under different conditions. We can say that this is a base for nowadays situation and will have a great impact on further development of the country.
Consequently, one of the most important features of Ukraine, that became a fundamental is heterogeneity of each region, which appeared in cultural entity, its traditions and has a high influence on relationships between those regions, so main division in country could be highlighted for ‘East’ and ‘West’. Those two parts are almost equal in their sizes and power. Main distinction consists in different degrees of Russification and dissimilar points of view on future of Ukraine in economical, political and religious directions. When Ukraine was a part of Soviet Union, there was a totalitarian control, which didn’t allow those differences to appear, but the formation of an independent Ukraine in 1991 made it possible.
Conclusion of these points could be seen: Western part is for national development and moving in direction to EU (in other words



References: 9. ‘Ukraine wants to join EU without joining NATO’ 14:37 21/05/2010 http://www.rian.ru/world/20100521/236916670.html 10. ‘Ukraine-EU’, visited on 23 May, 2010 http://www.day.kiev.ua/289255 11. ‘Catherine Ashton: Ukraine Association Agreement with the EU could be signed this year’, Korrespondent on-line magazine, 15 May, 2010 http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/1076438

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    It is always on January 6th after the New Year celebrating. For the average Ukrainian, I believe, this day has unique features, such as special songs and visits friends and relatives in the morning time. Usually children are more excited and involved in these actions because of the rewards they got after singing and saying ritual sentences. Similarly, all the members of the family are gathering together and some food the same; however, you will not find the turkey on the table and chiefly all the others dishes are related to traditional food which is different in Ukraine compare to Canadian food. After praying we are enjoying food and time together.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    specific areas, leading to a decline of the Kiev once Moscow started to rise.10 The Russian…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Auty, Robert, and Dimitri Obolensky. 1976. "An Introduction to Russian History (Companion to Russian Studies;1)." Brisol, Great Britain : Cambridge University Press Ltd.…

    • 1742 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kievan Russia Case Study

    • 3158 Words
    • 13 Pages

    The Kievan state of Russia dates back to first settlement in 800 AD and continues on to about 1200 AD when the internal discord weakened the state paired along side the Mongol conquest of the thirteenth century. During this time, the Kievan state was diversified yet the manner in which this first state of Russia was established is unclear. This however is “where the fundamental characteristics of Russian culture and religion took root…[introducing] basic and lasting political ideas and social institutions” [Thompson 13].…

    • 3158 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It stretched from Europe to the Pacific Ocean and included people with diverse cultures and traditions.2 Russia was a land of disparity and contradiction by the turn of the 20th century. It was caught in between two worlds: the traditional world of the peasantry and the modern world of the westernized elite.3 As these two world coexisted, their values, culture, and way of life extremely differed. Regardless of the persistence of a rural society and economy, Russia became exposed to profound urban and industrial growth during the second half of the 19th century. 4Many peasants surfed…

    • 2030 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the closing years of the Second World War, most of the remaining population was deported to Soviet Central Asia (those that survived the journey), accused of collaboration with the Nazis. In reality, other populations had been removed from Crimea too, including Greeks and Bulgarians, and many Russians had moved in during the Russian Empire. The deportation, along with such policies as imposing the Cyrillic alphabet, had the effect of ‘Russification’ of the peninsula…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Russia and Ukraine have had several conflicts throughout the years. In their latest conflict, and worst East-West crisis since the Cold war, Vladimir Putin gave a speech arguing Crimea should be a Russian territory. The Russian Empire seized Crimea in 1783, during the reign of Catherine the Great. Crimea was established as an, it returned to being part of Russia in 1945. In 1921, Crimea was established as an autonomous republic until 1945 when it lost its status as an autonomous republic because of the collaboration of a significant number of Crimeans with the German forces. Crimea went back to being a part of Russia up to 1954, when then soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev returned Crimea to the Ukranian SSR . In 1991 when Ukraine became independent,…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Soviet Union Weaknesses

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This essay will first introduce the background of the Soviet Union and its empire before 1985; it will then investigate its weaknesses, which will be divided into economic, military, political and social aspects, and finally concluding with how these weaknesses contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union before its collapse had faced various issues both internal and external. Internally it faces political issues that deteriorated the development of the economy; externally it faces foreign military challenges, especially from the US, how these problems together contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union will be explained in this essay.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Is Putin a Great Leader?

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Concerning the international scene, Russia is back to be part of the Great nations (Russia is now the eight member of the G8) but in 2000, its situation was not that prestigious considering that after the Cold war, USSR lost 1/5th of its territory, its army was not able to repress the rebellion in Chechnya, its old satellites (Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland) joined the OTAN… Moreover, after supporting the US and its war against terrorism, Russia felt betrayed when the same US financially backed up the “colored revolutions” in Ukraine and Georgia. But it was the last humiliation, the last diktat imposed by the West. Through its economy and especially through its energy resources Russia managed to be considered again as a major actor on the international issues. For instance, Putin used his energy advantage to put Ukraine and Georgia under control. Putin also declared that he and his country will not abandoned Serbia on the Kosovo issue which independence is supported by Americans and the European Union.…

    • 1454 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Because most of the lands of Soviet Union like Ukraine and white Russia are token by force and the natives are not Slav people (major race in Russia), so the problem of internal contradictions comes since the founding of soviet union. After the death of Lenin, the soviet union is at the edge of collapsing, Stalin had tried great purge to clear out all the heresy, but that didn’t work a lot, luckily the invasion of the German had actually saved the government of soviet union by unifying all the race and thoughts to fight the invaders and Stalin gained the power of soviet union by the great parotic war which makes the communist government could rule soviet union for longer time, but after the death of Stalin, the great power he left led a big fight in the Russian communist party and the problem came again. At the age of Gorbachev, soviet unions situation become even more worse. The conflict that got press down by the strong power of government had been totally released by the power of government getting weaker. Gorbachev only can give up his power in this kind of dangerous situation to let the situation not getting worse. Yelstin toke over the power and disintegrated soviet union. And the internal contradiction had finally destroyed soviet…

    • 893 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Due to this factor, many groups of people felt a nationalistic calling towards their own types of people and separated from the USSR to form their own country. In the USSR, many different groups of people, Georgians, Ukrainians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Moldavians, were forced to follow the Russian culture as well as speaking the Russian language. From their misidentify with Russian culture, the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians, had nationalistic feelings toward their own people. Due to their nationalistic feelings, it unified them more fervently to separate and have their own country. Considering the fact that citizens in the USSR, felt a patriotic approach towards their own culture compared to Russian culture, they wanted to unify themselves and practice their morals and beliefs. From having patriotism and nationalism from their own cultures, it unified everyone who believed in their culture to form their own nation.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kiev’s Independence Square became the epicenter, where people came from different parts of Ukraine to struggle for their rights and a new future. People in Ukraine were tired of hearing lies and empty words from the presidents and the government. A lot of Ukrainians didn’t believe in a person who could change the Ukrainian economy. But for some reason people believed that Victor Yushchenko was the one person who could change the Ukrainian history. From November 22, when Ukrainians found out the results of the reelection, they didn’t want to be silent anymore and didn’t want to live another four years without any changes, instead they went on to the streets with these words: “Together we are many! We cannot be defeated!” Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators came out in the cold streets to show their support for the opposition, and to achieve another round of voting. According to an article “History in the Making” which is…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The Fall of Tsarist Russia

    • 2278 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Prizel, Ilya. "Russian Identity and the Soviet Period." National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.…

    • 2278 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    Russia is a vey interesting nation consisting of a variety of ethnicities, when it was formerly known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922-1991, Russia took over other countries from eastern Europe expanding it’s political grasp. In effect The Soviet Union became a very ethnically diverse country, with more than one hundred various ethnic groups.(Culture, p.338) According to a 1990 estimate, the majority…

    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author doesn’t use the same approach to showing the history and it takes the author only a bit more than 20 pages to go throw the period from tribes to Cossacks (and Yekelchyk is a bit skeptical about this period as an initiation of the Ukrainian nation). Having Ukrainian history as a subject in a secondary and high school I’ve got used to think that the history of Ukraine begins with tribes and the Kievan Rus', but Yekelchyk’s point of view is that modern Ukrainian national identity was formed by public institutions and political processes that occurred in Eastern Europe during the past 200-300 years. Also the author mentions the difference between Ukrainian understanding of the word “nation” as an ethnic community of people united by origin, language and culture, which does not necessarily have their own state and English notion which implies having a state, government. So he says that only during the last 200-300 years the modern Ukrainian nation was formed. Speaking about Ukrainian national revival, S. Yekelchyk analyses its three main stages - the scientific, cultural and political, saying that the first stage was at the end of the XVIII century. With regard to national revival in eastern lands, which were in the Russian Empire, the author calls this…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays