supersquirrel'Ukrainians made it through,' Zelensky says on toughest winter of Russia's invasion
For so many years, russians have been portrayed as tough in Hollywood films and video games, but it should have been Ukrainians all along. In the USSR, all but the people at the top were oppressed or restricted in some way, but at least russians were not viewed as second-class (unless they were Jewish, among other things). Meanwhile the people of Ukraine (and those of other Soviet republics) had to deal not only with the Nazis but also with the Soviets, both of whom viewed them as inherently inferior.
From what I have understood, Russia has generally stolen a lot of Ukraine’s history and culture and passed it off as theirs. The word Rus refers to the vikings who actually founded Kyiv and whom many Ukrainians descend from. Even their names are Slavic versions of Norse names, which I didn’t know until relatively recently.
rockerface🇺🇦Yeah, a lot of Slavic names are borrowings or literal translations of Norse and Greek names (depending on the region and time period)
I think it is really cool, honestly. It does make sense, in the same way that our ancient religions and folktales are all echoes of one another. I know that our most famous poet, Hans Christian Andersen borrowed from a couple of Slavic folktales to create some of his biggest fairytales. The Wild Swans were, as far as I remember, based on a Slavic fairytale where the princes turn into ravens instead of swans, but it’s been a minute and a half since I read about it, so Im super fuzzy on the details. I just remember finding so cool that he actually borrowed from other cultures in that way to tell these stories to a - then - new audience.