After the “ethnological and geopolitical studies”, the master of the Kremlin begins to discuss toponymy, declaring that Ukraine is “Little Russia” (Malorossia): “Since 1686, the city of Kyiv and the lands on the left bank of the Dnieper, including the regions of Poltava, Chernihiv, and Zaporizhia, became part of Russia. Their inhabitants united with a large part of the Russian Orthodox. Thus arose the region called ‘Little Russia’ (Malorosia).”
In fact, “Little Russia” as a concept will be introduced by the Patriarchate of Constantinople two centuries earlier: in 1458, the highest Greek church authorities, at the request of the Lithuanian princes, will create an independent church province for their subordinate Orthodoxy as a counterweight to the united church around the Moscow principality. This independent ecclesiastical province is called by the Byzantines “Mikra Russia” (Little Russia) as distinct from “Megale Russia” (Great Russia).
Finally, Putin concludes that “modern Ukraine is entirely a creation of the Soviet era.” In this way, he repeats almost verbatim the words from Vyacheslav Molotov’s October 31, 1939 speech, in which Stalin’s right-hand man refers to Poland as “a monstrous creature of the Treaty of Versailles, which existed at the expense of the oppression of national minorities” … just like today, according to Putin, “Nazi” Ukraine Lives at the expense of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Putin’s logic is simple: if Ukraine (like Poland 80 years ago) is an artificial entity, then its destruction is justified…
Putin’s “history” contradicts all historical facts, and to destroy these facts, it is necessary to uproot the Ukrainian nation, which is a product of history. This is how Putin sees the way to the “lost paradise”, which has all the hallmarks of hell…