Ukraine P.S.

Responding to criticism from Alexei @ The Russian Dilettante, and incorporating stuff I read up on, I updated my post on the historical background of divisions in Ukraine.

UPDATE: This is also the right ocassion to link to this article of Alexei's, which among other issues points out sources of democratic and authoritarian traditions in Russia and (Northern-Central) Ukraine that most people more to the West have no clue about (including me).