Sweden gifts Ukraine historical letter related to Cossacks' independence

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She also visited Bucha and Borodianka.

 

[Magui 2,654]

Interesting... I know very little of the history from north and  eastern Europe countries.  

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15 hours ago, Magui said:

Interesting... I know very little of the history from north and  eastern Europe countries.  

Ukraine was never independent before 1991, however the state of Cossaks could be seen as an early attempt to statehood of the people in central and eastern Ukraine (the letter is valuble in the sense that relates to what many consider to be the first Ukrainian state). The Cossacks and Sweden at that point were bordering Peter the Great's expansionist Russia, so naturally they aligned themselved against it.

Interestingly, altough Northern and Eastern Ukraine are very culturally different, there were cultural exchanges between them. The Kievan Rus, was at first ruled, for instance, by Germanic elites that overtime became Slavicized. The Vikings also used to raid the Dnieper and even establish settlements here. In reverse, there used to be Eastern Christian churches in parts of Scandinavia (in communion not with the Church of Rome but with the Church of Byzantium - over time, Eastern Christianity in Scandinavia completely faded away to Catholicism and then Protestantism).