The historical parallels between today's events in the Donbass and the pages of its past of hundred years ago, when this region was in the center of a fierce struggle between different political forces, social strata, and hostile groups are analyzed in this article. The main attention is focused on the investigation of attempts to create an anti-Ukrainian identity in the Donbass based on the use of prepared facts of events related to the history of the creation and short-term existence of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic. It was determined that during almost the entire period of Ukraine’s independence in the Donbas, with the active participation of the Kremlin, Soviet and imperial interpretations of history were spread, ideas of a special regional identity were formed, and the ideological basis of anti-Ukrainian insinuations was created. At the same time, history was used as a kind of propaganda, and manipulation of the past. It was one of the main strategies of anti-Ukrainian forces in the Donbass. Stereotypes were instilled that this region is the territory of the formation of "novoros", "the people of Donbass", who have their own mentality and even traditions of statehood, unrelated to the history of Ukraine. All this became the ideological basis of the bloody events associated with the attempt to create in 2014 the so-called "people’s republics" in the territory of Donbass. Pseudo-referendums were held in this region, pseudo-independent republics headed by puppet governments, fully controlled by the Kremlin, were proclaimed like a hundred years ago, in order to restore imperial domination in Ukraine, according to the experience of the Bolsheviks. On the example of historical parallels of personal destinies of people who are forced one way or another to lead regional separatist movements or become puppets in the hands of external puppeteers by the revolutionary events of both a hundred years ago and today. It is reminded of the inadmissibility of ignoring the laws of historical development.
Authors: Levin Oleh , Poplavskiy Oleh 
Published: July 2021

The historical parallels between today's events in the Donbass and the pages of its past of hundred years ago, when this region was in the center of a fierce struggle between different political forces, social strata, and hostile groups are analyzed in this article. The main attention is focused on the investigation of attempts to create an anti-Ukrainian identity in the Donbass based on the use of prepared facts of events related to the history of the creation and short-term existence of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic. It was determined that during almost the entire period of Ukraine’s independence in the Donbas, with the active participation of the Kremlin, Soviet and imperial interpretations of history were spread, ideas of a special regional identity were formed, and the ideological basis of anti-Ukrainian insinuations was created. At the same time, history was used as a kind of propaganda, and manipulation of the past. It was one of the main strategies of anti-Ukrainian forces in the Donbass. Stereotypes were instilled that this region is the territory of the formation of "novoros", "the people of Donbass", who have their own mentality and even traditions of statehood, unrelated to the history of Ukraine. All this became the ideological basis of the bloody events associated with the attempt to create in 2014 the so-called "people’s republics" in the territory of Donbass. Pseudo-referendums were held in this region, pseudo-independent republics headed by puppet governments, fully controlled by the Kremlin, were proclaimed like a hundred years ago, in order to restore imperial domination in Ukraine, according to the experience of the Bolsheviks. On the example of historical parallels of personal destinies of people who are forced one way or another to lead regional separatist movements or become puppets in the hands of external puppeteers by the revolutionary events of both a hundred years ago and today. It is reminded of the inadmissibility of ignoring the laws of historical development.