THE BIG ISSUE: You compare the conflict to a game of chess. Is this a game that’s been going on for long? ANDREY KURKOV: Three hundred years at least. The first decree against Ukrainian identity was signed by Peter the Great. The Ukrainian language was considered a peasant’s language. When I was growing up in Kyiv in the 1970s, if somebody spoke Ukrainian he would be considered either an educated person from the village or a nationalist.
Did we overlook the importance Ukraine
