Background Article Ruthenia quasi est alter orbis "Rus' is almost another world" wrote the Krakow bishop Maciej around 1150. What was the basis of this differentiation? How powerful was it and how did it play out in reality? In search of answers, this article also discusses the dimensions and ambivalences of border demarcations.
“Boys, boys, as you came, so you will leave here” During the Second World War, Ukraine was the largest Soviet republic, with Kharkiv as the second big Ukrainian city to be fully occupied by the Germans. Kharkiv belonged to the so-called military occupation zone under the Wehrmacht’s control. Those who survived this occupation (still not well...