(Part 2) Top products from r/ukraine

Rusyns, who are not Ukrainians or Russians, and not Ukrainophiles or Russophiles, have a long history spanning hundreds of years of historic, cultural, and linguistic development. No one disputes that Rusyn is an older term for Ukrainians, but the mid-19th century is when things especially really started to develop and organize into the nationalism and ethnic identities we see now. Remember there are only about 200 countries in the world, but thousands of languages and cultural groups, so it's far more normal to be a minority, clumsily squeezed into the borders of some other nationality's country, than it is to be an easily defined nationality like English, Italian, Spanish, etc (and in most cases, a regional identity is stronger even than the national one).

If you want a pretty good background of why Rusyns and Ukrainians don't get along, even in North America, 100 years after the major immigrations, here's a book about it. TL;DR: getting told your people and culture don't exist except maybe as a Ukrainian subgroup gets really old really fast.

Here are some resources for further reading that will provide the point of view of those Rusyns who do not consider themselves Ukrainian:

• Encyclopedia articles on various Carpatho-Rusyn topics
  
  Rusyns are identified in every country where they live as a separate nationality (Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Czech Republic) except Ukraine. That's a fact.

I was in Lviv recently and the city made an impression on me. I've been trying to learn the language since. here are some of the resources that have been helping me.

I used this site to learn the alphabet while in Lviv: http://ielanguages.com/ukrainian.html

When I was asking about pronunciation, a Ukrainian friend sent me This youtube channel and it has been helpful: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2JHi2oHJrVNkhJlVRyK9vg

This site has been helpful: http://www.ukma.edu.ua/eng/ufl/

I recently bought the Pimsleur course and have been listening to it while driving: http://www.pimsleur.com/learn-ukrainian/ukrainian-phase-1-units-1-30/9781442324558


I also bought an english/ukrainian dictionary from amazon, it stays by my couch: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0781803063?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

Try https://www.amazon.com/Secondhand-Time-Soviets-Svetlana-Alexievich/dp/0399588809 also. Author is from Belarus. But it is about our common culture and history. She is the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

this book is quite informative: http://www.amazon.com/Borderland-Journey-through-History-Ukraine/dp/0813337925

Plus, of course, you should watch these three movies, which are archetypical for Ukrainian culture:

• "The Lost Charter", the mystic comedy about the heroic period of Ukrainian history; you can see there the image of Cossak's culture of Naddniprianschina (Dnieper area);
  https://youtu.be/rAuHb2LA17U
  
• "The Shadows of the Forgotten Ancestors", lyric love tragedy in the Hutsul village, western Carpathian Ukraine;
  https://youtu.be/cREQ9j6fEXI;
  
• "For Two Hares", comedy about the old urban life in Kyiv:
  https://youtu.be/R2gKcPiEYyQ
  
  These three movies are necessary part of the "cultural code" of modern Ukrainians. And you don't really need to understand the language - that's rather for seeing the lifestyle and listening the songs.

Rozmovliaimo is the best textbook. There is also the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute.
http://www.amazon.com/Rozmovliaimo-Lets-Talk-Ukrainian-Conversation/dp/0893573191
http://www.huri.harvard.edu/husi.html

I hear good things about this. http://www.amazon.com/Gates-Europe-History-Ukraine/dp/0465050913

I've heard also many good references about https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Ukrainian-Interactive-Online-Workbook/dp/0781813247 book. You may also contact the author https://www.facebook.com/yuri.shevchuk.3

It seems you are looking for rather serious discussion. This is crucial for understanding contemporary RF (and Ukraine - with caveits) social machinery. Guess this is same for cultural machinery (bumped into in 2013 but never read). There are a few brilliant texts and interviews on subject which are Ukrainian only. Even books by former presidents Kuchma and Yushchenko (boring but useful, one need to know reading rules for these kind of texts). Shame on us.

Lviv was part of Poland for 20 years until 1939.

WW2 happened

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-13/world-war-ii-isn-t-quite-over-for-poland-and-ukraine

Read about the history of Stepan Bandera and the UPA

You should visit Lviv!

https://lifeinua.info/love-lviv/

http://www.lvivtoday.com.ua/exploring-lviv/1512

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/travel/lvivs-and-a-familys-stories-in-architecture.html

https://fredandreaseasterneurope2013.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/lviv-the-ancient-polish-city-in-the-ukraine/comment-page-1/

read Bloodlands

"Revolution on the granite"
Some links:
http://www.unn.com.ua/en/news/1256360-o-doniy-revolyutsiya-na-graniti-tse-vtracheniy-shans-stati-povnopravnoyu-krayinoyu-u-yevropeyskomu-spivtovaristvi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oDNuDSBaGo (with English subtitles)

http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=JRLdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA148&dq=%22Revolution+on+the+granite%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ralmUvrlIsaY4gSyqIDQCQ&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Revolution%20on%20the%20granite%22&f=false
Sorry for such a long link. If somebody knows how to do it right, I will be glad to hear.

Also, you can read something about another event, Orange revolution: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4024253

http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Orange-Ukraines-Democratic-Breakthrough/dp/0870032216

Also, you can explore topic of raider attacks in Ukraine, many of which happen to be in Kiev. http://ti-ukraine.org/en/system/files/research/raider_attacks_-_ti_ukraine_eng.pdf

There is also constant fight between "real estate developers" (I am not sure if it is a right term. It is "застройщики" in Russian.)
There are links in Ukrainian - http://nbnews.com.ua/ru/news/88797/ , http://ru.tsn.ua/kyiv/zhiteli-bereznyakov-snesli-ograzhdenie-zastroyschika-i-nachali-protest-protiv-vyrubki-parka-314169.html , http://gazeta.ua/ru/articles/business/_v-kieve-razgoraetsya-esche-odno-mesto-protivostoyaniya-zastrojschikov-i-kievlyan/504427

Corrupted politicians selling land in the capital, and people, who bought this land, are trying to build there something. People, who live there, are strongly against it, and they're trying to fight it. Mostly, they lose. Especially, after businessmen pay criminals to kick ordinary people's asses.

You can explore topic of paid political activists. Old and young women and men work as activists in political tents (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmz8TpYADXY, it's not Kiev though, just as an example), on demonstrations. There is unemployed sportsmen working as a bullies, I guess. The most famous one is "Vadik the Romanian Titushko" http://www.bbc.co.uk/ukrainian/news/2013/08/130830_titushko_peace_sx.shtml

Anyway, you can write a lot about politics. The capital lives in constant state of political war.
You can write about this guy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Chernovetskyi
Or about today's situation with mayor elections: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/02/us-ukraine-protests-idUSBRE9310EL20130402

Sorry for my broken English!