Reexamining Region, Ethnicity, and Language in Ukraine

The extent to which Ukraine should "look" east or west has been a major question in studies of post-Soviet Ukraine. This article asks what explains variation in attachment to Russia among the Ukrainian public. Using survey data collected in July 2005 by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, the principal questions of what regional effects in the country represent, whether language is as weak as some studies have indicated, and whether region, language, and nationality interact to affect political attitudes beyond the sum of their individual, independent effects are considered. More broadly, the article seeks to develop a more complete understanding of political attitudes in Ukraine.