A priori, no matter how much abstraction someone may make about the invasion of Ukraine, it is difficult to imagine that there is something shared by two territories as disparate, as far apart, as alien to each other as Kiev and Asturias.
And yet there is.
Something at times mythical, at times historical that always gives rise to all the nations in the world and that leads to Personalities such as the former Foreign Minister and Spanish MEP José Manuel García-Margallo speak of Ukraine as “the Asturias of Russia”. But the what?
The Rus of Kiev and Covadonga
Kievan Rus is that nexus. It is the first Orthodox Slavic state in Eastern Europe in history. It was founded in the year 882 and is national origin claimed by both Ukraine and Russia.
Kievan Rus is to both countries what Covadonga, the Constitution of 1812 -La Pepa- or the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in Spain. Or what the French Revolution to France, unification to Italy, the Carnation Revolution to Portugal.
What justifies this simile is what experts in international information such as Fernando Arancón, director of The World Orderqualify and frame more as “the mythical origin, or the history or legend that gives meaning to the existence of that country today. It is an issue that is changing countries, that defends their identities and also their interests”, he explains in a chat with laSexta.com.
The value of language and identity
“Kievan Rus is a medieval state, but you have to imagine a different Middle Ages than the one we have in mind from Spain”, draws Arancón. It was founded by a Viking, Oleg of Novgorod, and it occupied land that encompasses what is now Belarus, the Ukraine, and western Russia.
The capital was Kiev and the Rus was a strong and, above all, independent state. It was related to the Byzantine Empire, freed the Slavs from one of the Turkic peoples, although its greatest historical feat was that it declared itself as an Orthodox Christian state in the 10th century.
It was the first Slavic country to take the step. He did it in the year 987 after agreeing on a military alliance with the Byzantine emperor of the time, and the reigning prince of Rus, Vladimir I -the equivalent of Don Pelayo and who has two monuments both in Kiev and in Moscow- he opted for the Slavic language as the official language of the nation’s Orthodox Church. Thus, he left behind the Norse spoken by the Vikings.
The origins of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
“That Kievan Rus is supposed to it is what would later give meaning to the medieval kingdom that is the predecessor of the principality of Moscow that would give rise to Russia”, summarizes Arancón. Rus’ finally was invaded by the Mongols in 1240 and broke up into three principalities.
These three principalities were the ones that, in turn, became the current Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.to. The only one that survived the attack of the Mongol Empire was the principality of Moscow, the one that gave rise to Russia.
Precisely that It has been one of the pretexts used by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to maintain that Russia and Ukraine are only one nationand to be able to legitimize both the annexation of Crimea and the current invasion and war.
But it is also what cements the Ukrainian identity. For Ukraine, Rus was a Ukrainian state and Russia is later. It is the reason they used when they became independent from Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union. It is what sustains their independence.
And Asturias, what?
What does this have to do with Asturias? Well, a lot… and a little, at the same time. The debate, on another scale, in other circumstances and with a very different context, can be extrapolated to our country. “There are those who defend that, at a legal political level, Spain was formed with the New Plant Decrees of Felipe V, in 1707. Was it Spain before? Well, it depends on who you ask. Because there were the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and if you go back you come to Covadonga and the kingdom of Asturias, but you can go back as far as you want. Visigoths? Hispania?” Fernando Arancón deepens.
“It does not follow a historical rigor, follow the mythical story and the legend that you want to tell the world”, insists the international information expert and laSexta analyst. Although this does not imply that it is negative or irrelevant. “It is important that there are legends or myths that give meaning to the existence of a community, but it should not be taken as if they were the Tables of the Law”, he claims.
The truth is that today there are ties beyond this equality established by Margallo – who has declined to make any further comments on the matter to laSexta – that unite Asturias and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian community in Asturias: they are one in a hundred
The Ukrainian community in the Principality of Asturias is one of the largest in our country. Specifically, in Spain, according to the INE, more than 112,000 Ukrainians reside, with the data updated as of January 1, 2021.
Although it is true that where the most Ukrainian citizens live in our country is in Catalonia, Madrid, the Valencian Community and Andalusia -in absolute numbers-the 859 Ukrainians who live in Asturias represent almost 1% of the entire population of the Principality.
That is to say: one in every hundred residents in Asturias is of Ukrainian origin.
Olena Kosenko is one of them. He was born in Pervomaisk, in the Luhansk Oblast, 60 years ago. He grew up in Storozhynets and moved to Bukovyna. In 2002, he packed his bags and settled in Asturias. She left behind a divorce and a teaching job that, although qualified, was precarious, it did not allow her to survive on her own or support her two children, twins of just 3 years of hers.
Olena chats with laSexta.com in a clear and determined voice, in almost crystal-clear Spanish. She is a Russian philologist and psychologist, and is also the president of the Association of Ukrainians in Asturias.
Now, with the war that no one expected would come, this organization has recovered the activity lost in recent years. It was conceived in 2013, with the Euromaidan conflict and the overthrow of the Ukrainian president at the time, the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych.
“When it started we sent the money for the survival of our families and later we continued with the funds to support our military forces. Our boys went to the front in flip flops, t-shirts… because they had nothing. Our military forces were very poor. Our military forces were not prepared and we sent clothes to the orphans. Because war brings orphans”, he comments.
Olena insists that it is difficult to draw comparisons between Ukraine and Asturias, because her country “is quite large”. In fact, it is the second largest country in Europebehind France and ahead of Spain.
Same map, new eyes
But something that unites the Asturian Ukrainians is that “Most” arrive with the idea of staying two, three years and leaving. However, this is not the case, says Olena. Her case is like any other: “Life dictated other things. I liked the people, the softness, the culture, the good treatment, the good people”.
“At first I didn’t like the nature of Asturias, because it hurts so much to break with your country, you don’t see anything, the mountains are beautiful, the rivers transparent and the sea blue. But over the years you return to Ukraine on a trip and you realize that you want to return home, and you realize that your home is Spain. And that also hurts, because now you have another country. Although it is also pretty, ”she recalls.
Nowadays, Olena works in the cleaning service of the Central University Hospital of Asturias, with a fixed position. His life is not what he imagined – “I don’t mind sacrificing my life and my vocation for my children; I preferred a job with a stable contract than teaching and I don’t regret it ”-and she looks at the maps with different eyes than when she looked at them as a child.
“I don’t know if Asturias and Ukraine can look alike,” he reflects. Of course she knew the history of Kievan Rus, but not the story about the origin of Spain. “But this life, of having two homes, is the destiny of many immigrants. Here we are not a very large community, but it is growing little by little. We are Asturian Ukrainians, or Ukrainian Asturians. Both”.
Source: Lasexta
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
