Page:Zakhar Berkut(1944).djvu/231

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was based upon claims previous to the War, Poland had no right to demand any part of Ruthenia, since she had never occupied that section. But she firmly backed Hungary in this so that now one-third of Carpathian Ukraine comprising the most important cities and the most fertile land has been given to Hungary. Poland has been anxious that no part of Carpathian Ukraine be free as that might give the Ukrainian people a chance for a centralization of their forces to plot a successful revolution to gain back the other sections that once belonged to them and in which Ukrainian people have lived for centuries, such sections as Galicia, under Poland, the southern part of Russia, and Bukovina and Bessarabia in Rumania.

Thus from foreign domination of the Ukrainian people and the occupation of Ukrainian lands has arisen the Ukrainian problem and the Ukrainian Cause. To understand this problem and this cause completely one must become familiar with at least a brief sketch of Ukrainian history and the evolution of the Ukrainian problem.


The history of Ukraine like that of other nations begins with a semi-legendary or, as the Ukrainian historians call it, the “Scytho-Sarmatian” period, between 500 B.C. and 900 A.D. when the country was in a constant state of invasion, emigration, war and ceaseless turmoil until there evolved a blending of the different races of invaders with the original inhabitants into one people, called “Rhos” by the Greek writers and later “Rutheni” by the Latin writers.

The most romantic and prosperous period in Ukrainian history, between the 9th and the 14th century, was called the Golden Age. There existed a proud and independent kingdom, the largest, most highly civilized, richest and strongest of all its contemporaries in Europe. Whoever was responsible for laying the foundation of this great historic structure, whether it was founded by the Goths or developed gradually from the

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