Day of Ukrainian Statehood, 15 July 2023

A good Day of Ukrainian Statehood to everyone marking it.

The holiday itself is recent, though what it points to is not. It sits on the date associated with the baptism of Kyivan rus, and its subject is continuity: the argument that statehood here has a long and interrupted history rather than a short one.

How that history should be read is a matter for historians and for Ukrainians, and I am neither. So I will say only what is uncontroversial.

A state is not only an institution; it is an idea that enough people carry at once. Ideas of that kind survive periods when there is no institution to attach them to, and they can be reassembled later by people who never stopped holding them. That happens rarely and it is worth noticing when it does.

A good day to you.