Inventing a Nation

Nation-building always rests on a very bizarre set of activities. This year, for instance, Russians are spending an insane amount of money to celebrate the birthday (or is it the death?) of a medieval prince of Kiev who lived 1,000 (one thousand) years ago.

The fellow’s big achievement seems to be that he forced his subjects to adopt Christianity. He almost went with Islam because the idea of having many wives was attractive but the prohibition of alcohol made him choose Christianity instead. There was also a reason why he didn’t choose Judaism but I forget what it was. A shame, too, because a Jewish Ukraine would have solved the problem of Middle Eastern tensions easily.

Why the Russians, only 2% of whom even practice Christianity, would go so nuts over some fellow from Kiev who lived 1,000 years ago cannot be explained in terms of logic.

Unfortunately, some facile Ukrainians have joined the madness and are engaging in the competition of “No, the medieval prince is really ours.” It makes me curl my toes in shame when I hear a fellow Ukrainian begin to debate who’s more entitled to the medieval fellow.

As Ernest Renan pointed out, nationalism requires too much belief in what is patently untrue. Ascribing a nationality to some poor fellow from a millennium ago who would have been completely baffled by the idea of a passport is one example.