Комментарий "с востока" к статье в The Economist об украинском лингвистическом разделе. (правда, Днепр - это довольно условный восток). Статья сама по себе тоже интересная.

I would like to comment on the cultural divide as a Russian speaking Ukrainian from the East. It sounds to me that the author is stating that most of Russian speaking Ukrainians are no nationalists. I can't deny that there are indeed some people in the East who would choose to be in a Russian Custom Union which is seen as a stage of the USSR revival. Those people are usually far from any intellectual labour, they have never been to Europe and are brainwashed about evil of capitalism. Rather than explaining economic benefits of joining Russian union they would speak about importance of maintaining cultural ties with the Master Russia. Majority of people in the East, however, are those who prefer joining European Union, but who are scared and don't believe in efficiency of protesting. Over the last months government system being autocratically driven by Yanukovish constantly tried to scare people using the courts and police that are totally dependent on the presidential will. Large number of people were detained and prosecuted without any proof of guilt. My younger brother was detained in the centre of Dnipropetrovsk city and convinced guilty in wearing a scarf covering his mouth at -16C and taking part in an extremist organization which was not true and could have easily been proven.
I don't think that it is appropriate to speak about any partition of Ukraine. Though we speak Russian in the East, don't know the prayers, we, specially young people who grew up in the independent Ukraine, are now ready to fight against corrupted government that is shooting and torturing its own citizens. We see it now as possibly our own chance to make things better for Ukraine. Last couple of months showed that Ukrainian divide is very much exaggerated by politicians as young people from both west and east are standing up for their common future together in a fair democratic country living together in tents in Kiev.