Ukrainians?

[El Supremo]

Pretty much.

Ukraine is connected at the hip to Russia.

[steve2470]

1. Brezhnev was definitely from Ukraine

At the risk of being pedantic, Khrushchev's birthplace is listed as "the Russian village of Kalinovka in 1894, close to the present-day border between Russia and Ukraine". I have no idea if in 1894, it was in Ukraine. Close enough.

[El Supremo]

2. Khrushchev lived in Ukraine for many years.

He was their Politburo leader.

[steve2470]

4. ah ok I did not read far enough nt

[FarCenter]

3. Ethnic identity depends on parents, not borders

His parents, Sergei Khrushchev and Ksenia Khrushcheva, were poor peasants of Russian[3] and Ukrainian origin,[4] and had a daughter two years Nikita's junior, Irina.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev

Particularly in an area where one village is Russian, another is Ukrainian, another is Polish, another is Jewish ...

[MADem]

5. There are six Ukrainian 'enclaves' entirely within the borders of Mutha Russia.

Slightly less than two percent of the Russian population is Ukrainian.

That said, the Ukraine is a sovereign nation, and no one should be "invading" it with troops or anything else.

[laundry_queen]

11. I agree.

My great-grandparents from my dad's side all came from 'Austria' according to their immigration papers but they were definitely Ukrainian and the town they came from is in present-day Ukrainian borders. My grandmother came from Hungary, but was an ethnic German. Lots of overlap in Europe at that time.

[JVS]

6. Brezhnev was born in an industrial city with a multi-ethnic population.

One day when there was a series of storm that were threatening to turn into tornadoes, I decided to spend the day in the basement of the library browsing through literary journals. I spotted an article by Brezhnev and decided to read it. He discussed his youth in a steel working town (shacks adjacent and sometimes even within the mill's grounds). I vaguely remember him mentioning Belorussian grandparents. Anyway, it's very likely that his family would be considered "immigrants" in Ukrainian nationalist circles. Kind of how the descendants of immigrants in Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, or Pittsburgh wouldn't quite be considered real Americans not all that long ago by residents of the rural areas within the states surrounding them.

[reformist2]

7. It was Kruschchev who fatefully handed the Crimea to the Ukraine 60 years ago.

In the old USSR, it hardly mattered which republic "owned" it, seeing as they were all under the thumb of the Kremlin. The fact that the Crimea is part of the Ukraine today is simply an accident of history.

[rdharma]

8. Bingo! nt

But it wasn't an "accident".

[Chathamization]

9. I'm somewhat surprised that there are still people who still support irredentism

Especially since it's an ideology that's left us with a sea of corpses and little else.

[FarCenter]

10. What? You don't support Israel? That's un-American.

[stevenleser]

12. Doesn't work. Ukraine and Russia were part of the same federation at the time.

The USSR.

We were part of England once and many Americans are of Anglo descent. That doesnt mean we have the right to invade the UK or the UK has the right to invade us.

[malaise]

15. Using your own foreign policy approach

Do you share a border with the UK? Oh wait - neither did Iraq or Afghanistan.

[stevenleser]

17. And I opposed the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan was OK per international law.

Next?

[Igel]

13. Look at their names.

It's rather like saying that somebody named "Muhammed abdul Rahim" must be Jewish because he was born in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. "Close enough."

Neither "Brezhnev" nor "Khrushchev" are possible Ukrainian surnames.

Moreover, Khrushchev wasn't just in "Ukraine." He was specifically in the Donbas. Even now he and Stalin, who did so much for the Donbas, are respected there. The Russians are pissed at having the vestiges of Russian imperialism torn down. They resented it when the Czechs did it and when the Poles did it. Imperialists consider themselves to be typically selfless, tirelessly working for the benefit of lesser peoples. Russians liked priding themselves on being the older brothers to the lesser Slavs. Even the "little Russians", as the Ukrainians used to be called.

[Daemonaquila]

14. You have no idea how insulting that is to a Ukrainian.

Ever heard of a sellout? Before you start making such disgusting statements, please educate yourself on the long history of Ukraine fighting to keep its independence, and the atrocities committed by Russia in the Ukraine. It's as ignorant as summing up the UK struggles as "English, Scots, Irish - who cares, they're all the same."

[bemildred]

16. Stalin was from Georgia? nt