The Immigrants

Over the centuries, nobody much wanted to immigrate into Ukraine. Only the Ukrainians loved Ukraine, but they were not allowed its free use. This trend continued until the 1950s, when a new stream of Russian workers flooded the industrial regions of Eastern Ukraine.

This was not a spontaneous migration. Ukranians were deported en masse (but in small parcels) to various northern Soviets. Deprived of their language, religion, and education in these new destinations, their relatively small numbers were quickly assimilated into their new host cultures. At the same time, the monolithically Russian body of settlers and laborers was channeled into Ukraine. Russian language, education, and religion were all fostered by the Russian-controlled Ukrainian administration. The stated objective, once again, was to Russify Ukraine. The Donets Basin region (the so-called Donbas) became overwhelmingly Russian.

By the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine’s Russian population had reached about 22%. Russia had succeeded in loading Ukraine with a Russian power-bloc. These deliberate modifications of demographics opened up options for manipulation and control of the political processes of neighboring states that have subsequently proved very useful to Vladimir Putin’s expansionist ambitions.