The current tensions between Russia and Ukraine have their roots deep in history. Although on the face of it, it is a very modern crisis, its origins lie in the centuries-old nature of Russian imperialism, the remarkable legacy of the Mongol and Byzantine empires and the scourge of slavery and genocide.
Russian national and territorial identity – partly originating in the ethos of the Czarist imperial system – has always reflected the old ideology that, at its core, the Russian Empire consisted of not one, but three Russias: Little Russia (Ukraine), White Russia (Belarus) and Great Russia (Russia itself).
