Comments by "Aristocles Athenaioi" (@aristoclesathenaioi4939) on "A Great Conversation with Georgie from Ukraine Matters. @UkraineMatters" video.

  1. You asked the question why Russia has remained autocratic while Ukraine has moved towards the West like "Poland and Lithuania" you got your answer. Western Ukraine was part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth that existed from 1563 to 1795, and was a remarkable political entity composed of two countries with very different languages. The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth had power distributed across the levels of the society in ways that Western Europe lacked over the same period of history. By contrast, Russia never had a landed gentry. The Tsar owned all property and even the aristocrats were vassals. The Tsar owned everything and the aristocrats had property only because the Tsar allowed it. When the Tsar punished aristocrats he stripped the aristocrat of property and sent them to the least hospitable parts of Russia, and even made sure to have someone visit to make sure that the aristocrat really was living in misery. Russia remains in a monarchical political structure that is genuinely medieval. Whereas Ukraine has an historical experience of a political state that has authority distributed across the levels of society rather centralized as Russia has always had.
    2