Break Ukraine in Two

Ukraine’s current borders are ill-conceived. They were established by Bolsheviks set on eliminating regional, ethnic, and religious affiliations, in favor of a totalitarian USSR. Modern Ukraine includes two western regions that were originally part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and were annexed during and after World War II: Galicia, which also spent several decades within Poland, as well as Ruthenia, transferred via Czechoslovakia. These ethnic Ukrainian lands identify with Central Europe, and reacted with a nationalist insurgency against Soviet rule through the 1950s. Meanwhile, East Ukraine has Russian origins, as does the current flashpoint of Crimea, which was gifted from Russia by Khruschev as a token of the 300th anniversary of Ukraine’s association with the Russian Empire.