Shortly before invading Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin of Russia claimed that Russia and Ukraine were one nation artificially divided. In the previous year, he wrote an essay entitled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, in which he claims that modern Ukraine is an “anti-Russian project,” a monstrosity turning its back on its heritage and borrowing culture for the corrupt West. This assessment may ring true to many Westerners, many of whom are unaware of the aspirations to Ukrainian nationhood until it declared its independence from the dying Soviet Union on August 24, 1991.

The Russian Federation and Ukraine do indeed share a common heritage, but their history and culture led them along divergent paths. Many listeners might be surprised to learn that the historical center of Russia was not Moscow, but Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine. In the 9th century, Norse traders and warriors, known as Varangians, settled along the Dnieper, Volga and other rivers between the Baltic and Black Seas. They imposed themselves–or, according to Russian folklore – were invited–upon the Slav inhabitants.

According to The Primary Chronicle, a history written by the Varangians themselves, they brought order to a troubled land: “They said to themselves, ‘Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us according to the Law.” They accordingly went overseas to the Varangian Rus'.… The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichs and the Ves then said to the Rus', “Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and reign over us.’ They thus selected three brothers with their kinfolk, who took with them all the Rus' and migrated.”