History of Ukraine
Strikingly different interpretations of the medieval state of Kievan Rus' appear in the four schools of historiography within Ukraine: Russophile, Sovietophile, Eastern Slavic, and Ukrainophile. The Sovietophile and Russophile schools have become marginalized in independent Ukraine, with the Ukrainophile school being dominant in the early 21st century. The Ukrainophile school promotes an identity that is mutually exclusive of Russia. It has come to dominate the nation's educational system, security forces, and national symbols and monuments, although it has been dismissed as nationalist by Western historians. The East Slavic school, an eclectic compromise between Ukrainophiles and Russophilism, has a weaker ideological and symbolic base, although it is preferred by Ukraine's centrist former elites.
Slavic Native Faith in Ukraine
Ivakhiv noted that the average age of Ukrainian Rodovers was older than the average age of Pagans in the West, and also noted that the religion's "main base" was "nationally oriented ethnic Ukrainians of higher-than-average educational levels". He observed that there was overlap between the Rodnover communities and other sectors of Ukrainian society, such as the folk and traditional music revival groups, Cossack associations, traditional martial arts groups, and nationalist and ultra-nationalist organisations. He added that Rodnovery remains "a relatively small niche in Ukrainian religious culture", and that it faces a mixed reception in the country. Established Ukrainian Orthodox and Roman Catholic groups have viewed Slavic Native Faith with alarm and hostility, while the country's educated and intellectual classes tend to view it as a fringe part of the ultra-conservative movement which was tinged with anti-Semitism and xenophobia.