Ukraine is the largest nation from the former Soviet satellite states and, like the rest of the former communist nations, has a large ethnic divide among its citizens. To understand why Ukraine is so divided and so passionate when it comes to its political views, we need to look back at the foundations of ethnic diversity throughout Ukraine's history. We begin our look at Ukrainian history with a look at the dominant pre-Russian era in the 1600s. Ukraine was at the time under the control of the Polish Empire; that was until Bohdan Khmelnysky led a revolution in 1648 for Polish independence. After three years of military control over most of western and central Ukraine, Khmelnysky's forces suffered a devastating loss to Poland at Berestechko. With few options remaining and most of its allies abandoning it, Ukraine turned to the Russian Tsar for protection from Poland. After Ukraine signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, which recognized its political and military loyalty to the Russian Tsar, the "Eternal Peace" was signed between Russia and Poland, which divided Ukraine. kyiv and the Cossack lands east of the Dnieper were under Russian rule, while the lands west of the Dnieper were under Polish rule. The result of this war, small in the grand theme of Ukraine's current situation, shows the nation's first divisions between the west and the Russian-dominated east. At the end of World War I, centuries of empires died with it, among those empires that collapsed was that of Russia. With the collapse of the Russian Empire, Ukrainian nationalism flourished and a plethora of political parties emerged in Ukraine, some in favor of the new Bolshevik regime in Russia, others feeling more connected to the Austro-Hungarian government. of paper......international issue involving Russia, the United States and the European Union. Russia gained permission from its parliament to send troops to Ukraine to "keep the peace" and even recognized Crimea as a member of the Russian Federation after highly fraudulent and disputed elections that voted for Crimea to separates from Ukraine and joins Russia. The United Nations did not recognize this act of annexation and threatened economic sanctions as well as reluctant threats of possible military involvement if Russia did not back down and let Ukraine sort itself out. even its political problems. Thus, the question of whether Ukraine will descend into another devastating civil war and possibly lead to bigger and more serious global problems remains to be determined. However, there is no doubt that the root of all Ukraine's problems has been its ethnic division and Russian influence..