Why I'm Posting about Ukraine

Let me say that I became interested in Ukraine because two of my grandparents were born there (my grandfather was born in Odessa which was then Russian) and because I have a number of internet friends there and had been aware of the corruption and poverty most people face. I went there in 2010 to visit some friends (as I mentioned elsewhere, I visited a friend in Poland on the same trip). I spent a week on vacation in a Crimean beach resort (Alushta), a few days in Dnepropetrovsk, and one day in Kiev. I took the train to and from Crimea and met Ukrainians on the return trip. I don't pretend that that makes me an expert on Ukraine, though I bought two large histories of Ukraine and read one during my trip. I've read other books on Ukraine as well, both historical and literary. I'm currently reading a novel by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, who was born in Kiev but moved to Moscow, which is very similar to the story of Mikhail Bulgakov, who is probably the most popular 20th century novelist in the Russian language. Bulgakov's best known work is "The Master and Margarita" but I've read many of his books in translaton, including his biography of Moliere. I've read three contemporary Ukrainian novels by Andrey Kurkov, which portray the situation in Ukraine through satire. By chance when I looked him up to get the names of his novels right, I found that he had written an article for The Telegraph today. The three books of his that I've read will give you a feel for the Ukraine which motivated these protests, especially Death of a Penguin. There was a sequel entitled Penguin Lost. The third book I read, The President's Last Love, is about a fictional Ukrainian president.

I've also been studying Polish history and literature for several years (one of my grandfathers came from there) and also Slovakian history (my other grandmother was born there). When the protests began in Kiev, one of my friends there joined them and we started discussing what was going on. We have continued to do so. She and my friend in Poland have sent me many links commenting on the protests. One of the most interesting was from a Russian journalist and photographer who flew to Kiev to see for himself what was going on. His site has both English and Russian with wonderful photos. I have corroborating information from other sources, too. I don't think anyone has really questioned that this has been a popular uprising with participation from people of many political positions, both languages, and all ages and walks of life. That's why I insist on that as a starting point of analysis. Though I'm not an expert as I said above, I probably know more than most Americans do about Ukraine.