Why Ukrainians Are More Patriotic than Americans

This may rub a few of my fellow Americans the wrong way, especially right before the election, but after living in Ukraine for two months I have concluded that Ukrainians are more patriotic than Americans. That includes me. Never have I appreciated the USA more than now when I am living abroad, but I am ever more impressed by Ukrainian pride and their knowledge of their history and their country.

The dark figure singing in the video above sews his own clothes, in an ethnic Ukrainian style, sings Ukrainian folk songs he knows by heart, cooks Ukrainian dishes, has his hair cut in a style similar to the mountain peoples of this region, and plays in a band that sings, you guessed it, all Ukrainian songs. He's 19. How many teenage Americans do I know that can recite the Pledge of Allegiance or the Star-Spangled Banner by heart? How many of them know their country's history back and forth like Ukrainians do? 

I innocently made the egregious error of asking what the 'Holodymyr'('Ho-low-dim-mir') was to a ukrainian friend. I was lectured for 20 minutes on the history of the Holodymyr Famine mandated by Stalin in 1929. Ukraine, the 'breadbasket of Europe,' was underneath soviet control and despite a dire drought throughout the west of Ukraine, Stalin still demanded his yearly grain quota demanded of outlying soviet territories. Thousands perished because of Stalin's artificially created famine which lasted for three years. Ukrainians haven't forgotten it, and if you make the mistake of bringing it up, they'll make sure you never forget it either. 

Ukrainian historical memory reaches back as far 988 when the Kyivian Rus(the people of Kyiv) were baptized and Christianity was brought to the country. This event is so central to Ukrainian history that it is still celebrated every year on the same day. Ukrainians go so far to dissociate themselves with their pagan past before 988 as to use the word for pagan, "pohany," for the word for 'bad'("Pohano"). 

But what shocks is the number of Ukrainians familiar with this history and the number who identify with it. Everyone knows what you are talking about if you bring up "Kyivian Rus" or "Holodymyr." How come? How come they feel so strongly about their own history and many Americans can't tell you which century WWII was in?

Things are very different in Eastern Ukraine, which doesn't identify at all with this history and is far more Russian than Ukrainian. Still, the very idea of these people remembering their history as a means of self-preservation is astounding. I am impressed.