Certainly, the diversity of forms of governance used over the centuries by Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Austria-Hungary when they ruled what is now Ukraine make creating a classic "nation state," with one dominant culture, difficult to imagine. Consider, for example, the robustness of the Russian language and the strength of the Orthodox Church- Moscow Patriarchate - in Donetsk that is in eastern Ukraine and the robustness of the Ukrainian language and the influence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv in the west.
当然，几个世纪来俄国、波兰、立陶宛和奥匈帝国的统治方法多种多样，使得创造只有一种主流文化的典型"民族国家"变得难以想象。举例来讲，俄语和东正教堂¾莫斯科大主教¾在乌克兰东部的顿涅茨克占据了统治地位，而与此同时，希腊天主教在乌克兰西部的利沃夫最为盛行，而乌克兰语也成了那里的主要语言。