The Basics of Ukrainian Geophilosophy.

Abstract

To understand the true causes of the events that occurred and are occurring in Ukraine, throughout its history, it is necessary to understand the peculiarities of geophilosophy in the region. The author offered, the main feature of geophilosophy in this region, which forms the Ukrainian mentality for centuries, is that modern Ukraine is geographically located at the crossroads of two powerful cultures of Eurasian continent: Asian and European. The author has used the dialectical, system-structural, structural-functional research methods as well as methods of comparison, analysis and synthesis. The main contribution of the author in the study of this actual and complex topic is another attempt to of objective research of historical and cultural connections between Moscow and Kiev, Russians and Ukrainians. The novelty of the study - to show Ukraine and Ukrainians from the inside, with all their contradictions and trying to establish their own cultural markers of identity. According to the author, western researchers do not understand the important difference between Kyiv and Moscow, the Ukrainians and the Russians, which were always different, are different, and will be different, despite being at first sight a single nation and culture. It does not matter what we call the culture of The Grand Principality of Moscow, the legal successor of which is the Russian Federation: or “Russian Siberian” world culture, or “Orthodox civilisation”, or otherwise. It is important that Ukrainians do not see their place in this culture. Kyiv, as the ancient and richest cultural centre with a certain territory of influence, and the Ukrainians, as a guardian of their culture, claim (and not without reason) is not an appendage to the role of someone else’s culture, especially the culture of the earlier vassal of the Principality of Moscow, and the revival of an independent locus. Since the 13th century, the Ukrainians have been trying to reunite the old boundaries and achieve independence. For eight centuries, the attempts to revive the Russian state (in the understanding of Kyiv) arose repeatedly. For Ukrainians, the history of Kyivan Rus is an unquestionable shrine for them, and an inexhaustible source of the struggle for independence.