Dearest friends,
It struck me while reading our latest online musings that it might behoove me to rectify and clarify, as has become my habit, some issues of English grammar. The matter at hand is one rather dear to my heart, it involves the improper usage of "the" in front of "Ukraine." As you all may or may not know, Ukraine is an independent country to the South-West of Russia. Thus, it is inappropriate to mention the Ukraine. You would not, for instance, say the Brazil, or the China. I confess, however, that this error is a folly committed by many, for Ukraine was for many years the Ukraine because it was considered a region of Russia or the Russian Empire. Much like we mention the South or the Mid-West, we have, for many years said the Ukraine. In the post-Soviet context, however, it is incorrect and politically insensitive to speak this way.
In Russian the matter is complicated further by grammatical issues that have persisted until now. For instance, in Russian you are grammatically obliged to say na Ukraine (in Ukraine) much like you would say na Iuge (in the South) using the preposition na which would indicate that you are in a region, instead of v, which would indicate that you are in a different country. Also you are supposed to use c instead of iz when saying that you are from a place. Once more the idea is the same. Most Ukrainians flout this rule and choose to speak using the v and the iz. It is my sincere belief that we should do the same.
