Opinions of Hrushevsky

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Opinions of Hrushevsky

The purpose of this paper is to explain my opinion about Hrushevsky's argument that Kievan history belongs to Ukraine but not to Russia. To put it plainly, I would have to disagree with Hrushevsky in his contention that Kievan history belongs exclusively to Ukraine. On the other hand, neither can I fully support the assertion that Russia is the only true inheritor of Kievan Rus' culture. From the evidence that has been provided for both cases, I believe that it is reasonable to assume that both Ukraine and Russia could have their roots in Kievan Rus'.

Both arguments have their strong points. Most of these are confident claims about why their respective countries came from Kievan Rus'. For example, Ukraine is roughly the same territory as Kievan Rus' so one argument is that the indigenous Ukrainian people of the region are descended from the original Rus'. Ukraine also has similar cultural elements to those of Kievan Rus'.

A Russian argument would be that Muscovy had the same political system as Kievan Rus'. Both had a grand prince (or later tsar) with a group of boyars under them. They were also both the center of the Orthodox religion in the state, after the head of the church moved from Kiev to Moscow. Moscow was later the center of the entire Orthodox brand of Christianity, and after Byzantium fell to the Muslims the center of "true" Christianity. One could also argue that there was a common ruling family and a continuation from Kiev to Moscow in that regard.

However, both arguments have significant holes in them. Some of Hrushevsky's arguments make sense here. The traditional Russian history shows no separation from Kiev to Moscow, while in fact there was a considerable period of time ...

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While Ukraine and Russia could have both been offshoots from the original Rus' culture, it is not logical that they developed totally independent of each other. It is not reasonable to insist that Ukraine maintained a sense of nationality without some influence from Russia, and it is equally illogical that Russia did not benefit from some influence from Ukraine.

Therefore, in conclusion, my opinion about Hrushevsky's argument that Kievan history belongs to Ukraine but not to Russia would have to be one of disagreement. Exclusivity just does not make sense to me in this case. There are too many good arguments on both sides for me to be able to come to any conclusion other than that both came from Kievan Rus'. To what extent each inherited its culture has really been mussed up by all the myths flying around, so we may never know with any certainty who is right.

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