Key Takeaways
| ● | Austria granted limited cultural and religious freedoms to Ukrainians under their rule, but forced Ukrainians to labor as serfs. |
| ● | In areas of Ukraine ruled by Russia, Russia suppressed uniquely Ukrainian expression of culture, and attempted to make Ukrainians Russian. |
| ● | Ukraine continued to provide minerals and food to Austria and Russia. |
| ● | Ukrainian nationalism flourished underground, under the leadership of a growing core of Ukrainian intellectuals. |
| ● | By the 1850s, Ukrainians began to organize themselves politically through secret societies. |
In political situations like Ukraine, one party considers the other to be dissidents unjustifiably fostering division.
Meanwhile, the other party considers the first lot to be oppressors brutally thwarting the legitimate aspirations of a captive nation. Point of view is key, therefore, in evaluating claims and counter-claims with regard to Ukraine. Mother-tongue education always becomes a rallying point for controlled nations’ aspirations against controlling nations.Tertiary education gives revolutionaries skills in research, communication, and leadership that facilitates seperatist movements, and young students are more inclined to spearhead political revolt because of their youthful recklessness and idealism. Russia and Ukraine have each had their own interpretation of history for a very long time, and this contestation for “true” history is the ideological motor for governance.
As we next look into the two revolutions—the great Russian revolt and the simultaneous little Ukrainian revolt—we will observe how the sociology of revolution does not differ much from the sociology of conservative rulers. Power belongs to those who can wield it the most efficiently.