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Is Ukraine multicultural or just Ukrainian with influences from other cultures?

The ability of Ukrainians to embrace their country’s diversity not only enriches their own understanding of the country but also allows them to showcase this richness to future visitors. As a nation that was itself historically subordinated to others, Ukrainians tend to be more empathetic and do not treat their own minorities with an imperialistic mindset.

Ukraine, as one of the republics of the former Soviet Union, inherited from it many stereotypical ideas that it has struggled with for decades. These include the idea that “more than 100 nationalities live on our territory,” therefore meaning that the population is inherently tolerant of others and otherness. In the Soviet times, nations and ethnic groups were mixed. Initially this was done by harsh methods of deportations of entire nations, such as Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars, Germans of the Northern Black Sea coast and Volga region, or Poles from the former Polish national region, etc. 

February 28, 2025 - Roman Kabachiy - Issue 1-2 2025Magazine

The Swedish Lutheran Church in Zmiivka, a historical Swedish colony in southern Ukraine, located near the Kakhovka reservoir. Photo: Volodymyr Dziubak (CC) commons.wikimedia.org

After Stalin’s death in 1953, such methods were eliminated but the mixing continued – in a more “humane” way – such as sending people to work in other republics after graduation on the false grounds that “there are no jobs here.” Indeed, Ukrainians and Belarusians thus turned into instruments of Russification in the Asian, Baltic and Caucasus republics, while the Russified peoples of the Russian Federation were sent to Ukraine and Belarus, creating the myth of the mentioned “100 nations”. Why was it a myth? According to the 1989 census, after the Romanians, who made up 1.3 per cent of the population of the Ukrainian SSR, “all other minorities” had a smaller presence in the country. Representatives of nine nations (if you combine Romanians and Moldovans into one whole, then eight) subsequently made up a rather small amount of the population of Ukraine. 

Erasing roots 

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