The borders of today’s Ukraine owe much to the redrawing of eastern Europe’s maps in the immediate aftermath of WWII, when parts of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary were added to the existing lands of Soviet Ukraine to create Europe’s largest country. This unification of many different lands has led to the creation of a varied and diverse population that adheres to markedly divergent interpretations of their status as Ukrainians. During the past three years of political convulsions, much has been made of these divisions, with the general idea being that they are threatening to tear Ukraine apart. These differences of opinion have been characterised as pitting the pro-Europe, Catholic west of the country against the pro-Russian, Orthodox east. A quick glance at voter patterns in recent elections will confirm that there is some truth in this east vs. west hypothesis, but it remains a highly simplified version of a far more complex truth that involves generational divides and is also subject to the overweening influence of continued anti-western state propaganda and decades of Soviet censorship and subterfuge. In truth today’s Ukraine is no more divided than most European societies, where voter patterns also often follow distinctive geographical variations and adhere rigidly to class barriers. While dwelling on the country’s well-publicised divisions the international press has overlooked Ukraine’s significant achievement of avoiding any civil conflict or threats to the country’s territorial integrity amid the  political turmoil the region has witnessed since 1991. Few countries could have gone through these upheavals without bloodshed. This restraint and sense of social responsibility has been crucial in helping to lay the foundations of a functioning democracy in the barren lands of Soviet totalitarianism.