Ten Questions from the Blogger Black Vata (10.05.2025)
An hour-long structured dialogue: Vitaliy Dribnytsya answers ten questions from the pro-Russian blogger Black Vata, compiled from Putin’s articles and real petitions. The densest blocks concern the origin of the name “Ukraine” (first mention in 1187, refuting the “borderland” reading) and the myth of “cities founded by empresses”.
Key moments
- 00:16 First mention of the name "Ukraine": the Hypatian Chronicle, 1187
- 01:05 "Borderland"? The digraph "оу", the late Russian "okraina", the root krai
- 01:59 The "ukraina of Jerusalem" in a 16th-century Gospel translation
- 03:16 The name "Ukraine" on early 17th-century maps and in Beauplan
- 05:15 Addressing the counter-argument about the "Zalissia, Riazan, Pskov ukrainas"
- 06:50 "Which cities did Ukrainians found?" — dissecting the petition on cities
- 10:13 The "Eternal Peace" of 1686 and the compensation for Kyiv
- 11:21 Catherine II's edict on the port at Khadzhibei has no word "Odesa"
- 11:41 Donetsk is Yuzivka, founded by John Hughes
- 12:14 Crimean cities had existed for centuries; Catherine II's "Greek Project"
- 13:13 The 1897 census and the theory of the "triune Russian nation"
- 18:04 Coat of arms, flag, anthem: the trident, 1410, the Spring of Nations of 1848, Chubynsky
- 23:17 "Ukrainian is an artificial language": the St Sophia graffiti, the academicians' memorandum
- 28:01 Historical figures: Shevchenko, Khmelnytsky, Sikorsky
- 38:45 Bandera and Shukhevych: the Act of 30 June 1941, Sachsenhausen, the Abwehr
- 43:46 Crimea 1954: signatures, budget logic, Sevastopol
- 51:48 "Lenin created Ukraine": the UNR was larger than the Ukrainian SSR
- 58:01 "The 1991 independence is unlawful": the chain of 1991 documents
Topics from this source
- Why "Ukraine" Does Not Mean "Borderland"
- Who "Founded" Ukrainian Cities: A Myth Debunked
- Ukrainian Is Not a Dialect: Hrinchenko's Dictionary
- Did the Bolsheviks "Invent" Ukraine?
- Ukrainophobia and the War over Symbols
- Was the OUN a Fascist Movement? A Historian's Honest Answer
- The 1954 Transfer of Crimea: Was It Illegal?
- Is the Ukrainian nation "artificial"?
- How "Rus'" Became "Russia"
- The Ukrainian Revolution, 1917–1921: a state before the USSR