An acceptable future for Ukraine will never be found in the annals of history. Varying interpretations of history can lead to a thousand distractions from the present, eg; Lithuania, in particular, will never regain its past hegemonic glory. Reality is the present, the past is the past.
On the topic of Lithuania, a lot of people outside the region aren't aware of this, but it's arguably the case that modern-day Lithuania appropriated the legacy of multicultural and majority-Slavic historic Lithuania per the Litvinist school of thought:
This Wikipedia article obviously presents that perspective in a negative light but it's a good entry point for those who'd like to learn more about Litvinism and conduct their own research into the subject. I'm personally very inclined towards this historical interpretation.
When you look into it, while the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's rapid expansion was likely indeed driven by Balts, they still assimilated and integrated into the culture of the remnants of Kievan Rus (mostly modern-day Belarus and Ukraine) that they came to control.
They intermarried, came to speak the local language, and everything was written in the aforesaid too, not in what's now known as the Lithuanian language. Modern-day Lithuania is more Samogitian, an historic region of that country, than "Lithuanian" in the historic sense.
I'm aware of the contemporary Lithuanian historical interpretation, I even went as far as to read "The History of Lithuania" by Eidintas and company that was published by their MFA (a quick Google search pulls up the free PDF), but don't agree with it at all.
For anyone who's interested, and I've recommended this before, I suggest checking out Adam Zamoyski's "Poland: A History", the free PDF of which can also be found via a quick Google search.
A more casual read would be Patrice Dabrowski's "Poland: The First Thousand Years". I have some quibbles with that one, but more when it comes to WWII-era history than anything else. It was still an overall decent read though and that's why I recommend it.
Anyhow, only history buffs or someone with personal connections to the region will actually go out of their way to read at least one Polish history book in their life, but those who do will definitely learn a lot. It's absolutely fascinating.
What's most interesting of all to me though is how much of it is suppressed in terms of popular historical narratives, which are overwhelming influenced by German and Russian historians. Folks will see what I'm talking about once they read at least one Polish history book.
Sure, some authors editorialize a bit by criticizing the Tsardom of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the USSR, as expected, but that's not what I'm referring to. What I mean are entire periods of history or interpretations thereof that most have never heard of before.
It's a topic for another day, I'm very passionate about it as everyone can probably tell, and I highly encourage people to learn more about it if they have even a passing interest in the subject and only just skim through a Polish history book once in their lives.
For those with only the most casual interest in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's Slavic history, I'd recommend doing a keyword search (CTRL+F) for "Lithuania" in Putin's 2021 magnum opus "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" and last year's "Interview to Tucker Carlson":
So what's now known as "Litvinism" actually had its roots in the Russian Imperial period and even further back in history during the Tsardom of Moscow.
I think that Zamoyski's book is the most solid one that I've ever read on the subject in English. Norman Davies, who's much more well known abroad, editorializes a bit too often for my taste.
That's not to say that his work is bad, it's just that there are times where I had to skim through large parts of the text, especially his older work back when Poland was still communist and even to this day when he touches on those times.
Zamoyski predictably portrays Polish history in a positive light, but with the right degree of media literacy, readers can pick up on that and interpret it as they will instead of taking it at face value.
Surprisingly, I really appreciated Timothy Snyder's "The Reconstruction of Nations", especially regarding the artificiality of contemporary Lithuanian identity. I know he's a Russophobe but that book is pretty good.
Having said that, I don't like his "both sides" approach to Polish-Ukrainian historical problems, particularly during and right after World War II (ex: Operation Vistula), but some people might be receptive to it.
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.”
Trying to repaint a modern world map based on anybody's old history map will likely invite war. If one is confident that he will win, he is more likely to launch a war or a fist-fight, just the same. There is an ancient saying: those who forget wars are likely to be in danger, but those who love wars will be destroyed. Guess which nation in the world has the highest tendency to launch war now.
Sure, France and UK created again Poland in 1918 like a Frankenstein country in stealing german and russian lands. 21 years later, they went out history because of that in declaring war to Germany which just invaded Poland.
Humans are very good at emphasizing historical narratives when convenient and forgetting them when not.
Poland and the Baltics are encouraged to keep alive centuries old beefs with Russia, and those grievances are lovingly nurtured, but the people of Iraq or Vietnam are told to just walk it off.
There are huge differences in 5 centuries. Untill the middle of 17th century:
Poland had the best cavalry of the world and really good and modern infantry and artillery
Lithuania was huge
Russia , Prussia and Sweden weren't yet great powers.
Cossaks still beared polish arrogance, contempt and injustice.
Today Lithuania is ridiculously tiny, Poland is a miserable land that live only with european subsidies and the billions euros send by its millions workers who come for robbing west european jobs by dumping. Without that, Poland would fall into misery and nothingless
You can't make new with old.
It's unbearable to see this Potemkine beggar country speak so loud and aggressively to the hands which feed it.
Allowing those ungrateful beggars( idem for Balts) in UE was not a fault, it was a crime.
Once again in France history, Poland will cost our destruction.
An acceptable future for Ukraine will never be found in the annals of history. Varying interpretations of history can lead to a thousand distractions from the present, eg; Lithuania, in particular, will never regain its past hegemonic glory. Reality is the present, the past is the past.
On the topic of Lithuania, a lot of people outside the region aren't aware of this, but it's arguably the case that modern-day Lithuania appropriated the legacy of multicultural and majority-Slavic historic Lithuania per the Litvinist school of thought:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litvinism
This Wikipedia article obviously presents that perspective in a negative light but it's a good entry point for those who'd like to learn more about Litvinism and conduct their own research into the subject. I'm personally very inclined towards this historical interpretation.
When you look into it, while the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's rapid expansion was likely indeed driven by Balts, they still assimilated and integrated into the culture of the remnants of Kievan Rus (mostly modern-day Belarus and Ukraine) that they came to control.
They intermarried, came to speak the local language, and everything was written in the aforesaid too, not in what's now known as the Lithuanian language. Modern-day Lithuania is more Samogitian, an historic region of that country, than "Lithuanian" in the historic sense.
I'm aware of the contemporary Lithuanian historical interpretation, I even went as far as to read "The History of Lithuania" by Eidintas and company that was published by their MFA (a quick Google search pulls up the free PDF), but don't agree with it at all.
For anyone who's interested, and I've recommended this before, I suggest checking out Adam Zamoyski's "Poland: A History", the free PDF of which can also be found via a quick Google search.
A more casual read would be Patrice Dabrowski's "Poland: The First Thousand Years". I have some quibbles with that one, but more when it comes to WWII-era history than anything else. It was still an overall decent read though and that's why I recommend it.
Anyhow, only history buffs or someone with personal connections to the region will actually go out of their way to read at least one Polish history book in their life, but those who do will definitely learn a lot. It's absolutely fascinating.
What's most interesting of all to me though is how much of it is suppressed in terms of popular historical narratives, which are overwhelming influenced by German and Russian historians. Folks will see what I'm talking about once they read at least one Polish history book.
Sure, some authors editorialize a bit by criticizing the Tsardom of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the USSR, as expected, but that's not what I'm referring to. What I mean are entire periods of history or interpretations thereof that most have never heard of before.
It's a topic for another day, I'm very passionate about it as everyone can probably tell, and I highly encourage people to learn more about it if they have even a passing interest in the subject and only just skim through a Polish history book once in their lives.
For those with only the most casual interest in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's Slavic history, I'd recommend doing a keyword search (CTRL+F) for "Lithuania" in Putin's 2021 magnum opus "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" and last year's "Interview to Tucker Carlson":
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/73411
Also of interest, the 1862 "Millennium of Russia" monument in Novgorod includes several historically significant Lithuanian figures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_of_Russia
So what's now known as "Litvinism" actually had its roots in the Russian Imperial period and even further back in history during the Tsardom of Moscow.
Thank you for these suggestions, which reinforce my belief that the present situation can ONLY be understood in the context of history.
I think that Zamoyski's book is the most solid one that I've ever read on the subject in English. Norman Davies, who's much more well known abroad, editorializes a bit too often for my taste.
That's not to say that his work is bad, it's just that there are times where I had to skim through large parts of the text, especially his older work back when Poland was still communist and even to this day when he touches on those times.
Zamoyski predictably portrays Polish history in a positive light, but with the right degree of media literacy, readers can pick up on that and interpret it as they will instead of taking it at face value.
Surprisingly, I really appreciated Timothy Snyder's "The Reconstruction of Nations", especially regarding the artificiality of contemporary Lithuanian identity. I know he's a Russophobe but that book is pretty good.
Having said that, I don't like his "both sides" approach to Polish-Ukrainian historical problems, particularly during and right after World War II (ex: Operation Vistula), but some people might be receptive to it.
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs of heredity and environment, of desire and consequence, of history and eternity.”
- William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun
Excellent quote!
Past never die but like a man can't be a child again or an old man can't be again ayoung strong handsome man.
There are darwinian reasons why nations, countries, civilisations grow and disappear .
Poland died and disappeared in 1795. There are a lot of good reasons for that. Except Lithuania other Balts never exist.
They were totally artificially created in 1918 by hateful west nations to poison Russia( USSR).
With what result: a war against Germany with the final downgrading of UK and France to middle power.
In wishing play major country, Poland will be destroyed(again) and will bring Europe in his destruction(again).
Expensive dream.
Past never die. But it's past.
It's time that polish chimera stop destroying Europe.
Trying to repaint a modern world map based on anybody's old history map will likely invite war. If one is confident that he will win, he is more likely to launch a war or a fist-fight, just the same. There is an ancient saying: those who forget wars are likely to be in danger, but those who love wars will be destroyed. Guess which nation in the world has the highest tendency to launch war now.
Sure, France and UK created again Poland in 1918 like a Frankenstein country in stealing german and russian lands. 21 years later, they went out history because of that in declaring war to Germany which just invaded Poland.
The next exemple will be Israël. Soon or late.
Modern Poland's borders are pretty much its original borders from long ago. Not much of it consists of "stolen" lands.
Humans are very good at emphasizing historical narratives when convenient and forgetting them when not.
Poland and the Baltics are encouraged to keep alive centuries old beefs with Russia, and those grievances are lovingly nurtured, but the people of Iraq or Vietnam are told to just walk it off.
And one says to Palestinians they can die
There are huge differences in 5 centuries. Untill the middle of 17th century:
Poland had the best cavalry of the world and really good and modern infantry and artillery
Lithuania was huge
Russia , Prussia and Sweden weren't yet great powers.
Cossaks still beared polish arrogance, contempt and injustice.
Today Lithuania is ridiculously tiny, Poland is a miserable land that live only with european subsidies and the billions euros send by its millions workers who come for robbing west european jobs by dumping. Without that, Poland would fall into misery and nothingless
You can't make new with old.
It's unbearable to see this Potemkine beggar country speak so loud and aggressively to the hands which feed it.
Allowing those ungrateful beggars( idem for Balts) in UE was not a fault, it was a crime.
Once again in France history, Poland will cost our destruction.
" Once again in France history, Poland will cost our destruction. "
The Africans and Muslims will be your destruction , not Poland.
Ho noooo, Poland is our destruction , those you name will be our disappearance.