BY
On Tuesday evening, two Republican presidential
candidate hopefuls accidentally enraged Ukrainian Americans with a single word:
"the." John Kasich and Donald Trump referred to Ukraine as "the
Ukraine," a common but unfortunate mistake. Lindsey Graham made the same
blunder at the third GOP debate.
Adding "the" before Ukraine is
actually a throwback to Communism. Prior to the fall of the USSR, Ukraine
was known as "The
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic." In 1991, the USSR fell, splitting
Ukraine from Russia and permanently cutting off that pesky
"the."
Because of the article's association with the
Soviet Union, Ukrainians are particularly sensitive about
it. "After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukrainians probably
decided that the article denigrated their country [by identifying it as a part
of Russia] and abolished 'the' while speaking English, so now it is simply
Ukraine," explained Oksana Kyzyma, press secretary for the
Ukrainian Embassy in the United Kingdom. "That's why 'the' Ukraine
suddenly lost its article in the last 20 years, it's a sort of linguistic
independence in Europe, it's hugely symbolic."
If the emotional history of
"the" Ukraine is not enough, take it from the CIA World
Factbook, which identifies Ukraine as such, article-free.
Had the Republican candidates realized their
accidental association with Communism, they likely would have corrected
themselves to say "Ukraine."
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