Severin, down on your bended knee

Apropos of nothing, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who wrote Venus in Furs and after whom masochism is named, was born in Lviv.

Anyway, about a thousand years ago there was the Rus. The Kievan Rus to be exact. It's where both Russian and Ukrainian history sort of started, although it was originally ruled by Vikings. (Russian histories like to gloss over the Viking part.) The Rus had a complicated ineffective system of hereditary rule where all the brothers of the current prince were in line ahead of the current prince's sons for next in charge, and it made everything all fractured. By the time the Mongols showed up and took over in the 13th century, the Rus had split into three Rus-lets, each of which was its own little disaster. The part of the Rus that would become Russia, or part of the Russian empire anyway, regrouped on its own and the part that would (eventually) become western Ukraine came under control of sometimes Lithuania but mostly Poland and, when Poland ceased to exist, Austria. The western Ukrainians living under Polish rule could join the noble class, but they had to assimilate and basically 'become' Polish. Ukrainian culture belonged mostly to the peasants, until some scholars took up the subject in the 19th century; and western Ukrainians didn't live in a place called Ukraine until after World War II. That's why at Lviv's huge Lychakiv cemetery the old graves mosly have Polish names and the newer ones are mostly Ukrainian: Ukrainians have always lived here, but peasants weren't buried in mausoleums. I assume that's also why there is not a ton of Ukrainian art besides contemporary stuff and icons (unless it's all in Kiev). Some of the really old (like 15th century) Ukrainian icons are actually pretty cool. A lot of them are judgment-day-themed and have all kinds of little Bosch-like devily-y guys and monstery-y creatures and snakes simultaneously eating and impaling people.

Anyway, at the cemetery I met this adorable old man who works at the war memorial there. We could barely communicate but he was really trying and once we established that I'm here by myself he decided that I should take a Ukrainian boy home with me. I don't know how to say 'they're not exactly knocking down my door' or 'in these shoes?' in Ukrainian, Russian, or Polish, so we agreed (I think) on 'maybe.' Actually, if I met a boy here who I liked enough to take home with me, I might just not go home. I could stay in Lviv for a while. I don't know how to say that in Ukrainian, Russian, or Polish either, though.