By Y. Kochubei, President of the Association of the Foreign Policy of Ukraine, Ambassador Extra-ordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine * * * In 1918, when Ukraine got its chance to become an independent and sovereign state following revolutions in Russia which had ruined the tsarist empire Mykhailo Hrushevsky (1866-1934) wrote his treatise On the Threshold of the New Ukraine. It consisted of several essays; among them there were The Black-Sea Orientation and its alleged continuation The New Prospects. Essentially this is a geopolitical doctrine indicating directions of the future foreign policy of Ukraine. Obviously, they develop such doctrines if there is a sovereign state, or its vision. Therefore such doctrine could not appear neither in the 18 century after the defeat of Charles XII and Hetman I. Mazepa, nor in the 19 century. Only after almost simultaneous publication of Ukraina irredenta by Yulian Bachynsky (1895) in the Western Ukraine and Independent Ukraine (1900), a pamphlet by Mykola Mikhnovsky, in the Eastern Ukraine there could appear the foreign-policy doctrine of Ukraine built on geopolitical principles as a next step asserting the idea of the independence of Ukrainian nation, its right to have its own state. No imperial province could have a foreign-policy doctrine, while it was a must for an independent country, if it wanted to ensure its sovereign existence. M. Hrushevsky's Doctrine was not an artifact or abstract speculation; it was based on the objective laws of geopolitics and deep knowledge of Ukrainian past. He had been one of the most prominent Slavic historians at the time. Our history showed that the North/South axis was the determinant of politics defined by political and economic interests of Kyiv State from its earliest days. стр. 55 The fighting of Kyiv dukes against Khazars, their efforts to control the faraway Novgorod and the realm of Black Sea and Danube were not in vain. The activities of Grand Duke Sviatoslav, and, after ... Читать далее