“Nowhere else did repressions, purges, suppressions, and all other kinds of bureaucratic hooliganism in general acquire such horrifying scope as in Ukraine, in the struggle against powerful forces concealed in the Ukrainian masses that desired more freedom and independence.” —Leon Trotsky (Trotsky, 2021)

It had been 800 years since Ukraine had last conducted its own affairs. In this chapter, we will look into the remarkable “freedom by default” that Ukraine was gifted with at the end of the Soviet era.

More on the topic “Nowhere else did repressions, purges, suppressions, and all other kinds of bureaucratic hooliganism in general acquire such horrifying scope as in Ukraine, in the struggle against powerful forces concealed in the Ukrainian masses that desired more freedom and independence.” —Leon Trotsky (Trotsky, 2021):

1. Vaughn Marc M.. The History of Ukraine and Russia: The Tangled History That Led to Crisis. History Demystified,2022. — 164 p., 2022