Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, I worked extensively in both Russia and Ukraine. I managed offices and staffs in both countries and interacted closely with everyone from the most common laborers to top government officials.
Not only that, my duties required me to travel widely in Russia and from corner to corner of Ukraine. I became intimately acquainted with how Ukrainians feel about Russia and how Russians feel about Ukraine.
In spite of their cultural, historical, and linguistic commonalities, I soon learned that Russians tended to view Ukrainians with disdain, and Ukrainians tended to view Russians with resentment.
Those deep-seated, historic feelings aggravate the challenge of finding a solution to the war now raging in Ukraine. Yet, most Americans -- even otherwise well-informed political commentators -- are either unaware of this attitudinal divide or disregard it in analyzing the conflict as it has unfolded.
With this episode, I undertake a series of podcast programs dealing with this attitudinal divide and other critical backstories which make resolution of this conflict highly complex and perhaps impossible. Even if one side triumphs militarily over the other, the tension -- and now, outright animosity -- will live on.
I give this first episode to the roots of Ukrainian resentment of Russian rule. I zero in on two events in the 20th century that permanently poisoned Ukrainian outlooks toward their huge neighbor to the north.
A PDF transcript of this episode is available at https://www.upsizeyourleadership.com/episodes/.
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