Among historians and anthropogeographers it is a much used commonplace that the northern peoples always appear as conquerors who subjugate the southern peoples, and that they are always the founders of states in their particular climatic zones. The Germans overthrew the Roman Empire, the Northern Frenchmen founded the French state, the Northern Spaniards the Spanish, the Northern Italians, the Italian state, and the North Germans united Germany. It is natural, therefore, that this commonplace should be applied also in Eastern Europe. The "Northern" Russians have, by the natural necessity of history, "united" the "southern" Russians. The, same explanation should be accepted as a necessity by the Ukrainians, and nothing should be done to resist this condition!
In reality this commonplace, like so many others, is false. The Ukrainians, as we have already observed, possess no such characteristics, as opposed to the Russians, as a southern race possesses with regard to a northern neighbor. To be sure, the Russian state now dominates the Ukraine. But the present Russian state is, after all, only a branch of the ancient Ukrainian Kingdom of Kiev. The ancient Ukrainian Kingdom subjugated the present Russian territory, organized it as a state, even partly colonized it, and gave it a ruling dynasty. The ancient Ukrainian state tradition was usurped. by the Muscovite states, and gave them all the prestige which the Muscovite possesses. It was only the Tatar invasion that entirely held up the political development of the Ukraine, and, at the same time, favored the development of trie Muscovite Empire. Only the Tatar invasion brought Moscow the supremacy over the Ukraine which Russia still enjoys. It was a foreign conquest, which has nothing to do with climatic influences. The very name of Russia only came into use in the time of Peter the Great!
From this survey of climatic influences, it appears, unequivocally, that the Ukrainians cannot be classed with the so-called southern peoples. The Ukrainians have all the characteristics of the races of the North Temperate Zone, who are the representatives of the European culture of today. The growth of national consciousness and of culture will, without a doubt, raise the Ukrainians to the standard of the European family of cultured nations. The nature of the country has, by means of its influences, given them all the necessary prerequisites.
The significance of the flora and fauna, for a lowland people like the Ukrainians, should be considered very great. From the physico-geographical description of the Ukraine, everyone will observe that the Ukraine may be naturally divided into two main parts, the forest country and the steppe country. The mountain formations take up only a comparatively small part of our territory.
Even among the Ukrainians themselves, the opinion is very widespread that they are a steppe-people. The enemies of the Ukraine have largely represented them in the eyes of Europe as a semi-nomadic steppe-people, devoid of all culture, which thru their growth and development might threaten the' cultural treasures of Europe. These views, tho based partly upon the great part the steppe has played in the history of the Ukraine, and partly upon the unquestionable fact that three-fourths of the present Ukrainian territory lies within the steppe region of Eastern Europe, are, nevertheless, incorrect. For, a glance at the floral map of Europe is enough to show that the so-called old Ukraine, that is, the original Ukrainian territory, lies almost completely within the forest region. That means Galicia, Kholm, Western Podolia, Western Volhynia, Kiev, Chernihiv, etc. From here the most ancient Ukrainian colonization advanced to the Black Sea, only to lose all the steppe districts again upon the sudden nomad attack. For centuries the steppes of the present Ukraine were the stamping-ground of Mongolian-Turkish nomad tribes. The Cossack organization at last wrested great areas from them, and made these accessible to Ukrainian colonization. And only the last colonial expansion of the Ukrainians has been able to reach the Pontian shore again. The Ukrainians, then,, were originally a forest and wood-meadow people. They have become in part a steppe people, but only thru their latest colonial expansion. And, just as today we would not call the English or the North Americans steppe peoples, merely because they colonized the American prairies and now inhabit them, so we can no more call the Ukrainians a steppe people, merely because they have colonized the Southern European steppes.