As if this were not enough, Ukraine possesses an almost inexhaustible supply of mineral resources. The coal and iron mines which have been exploited during the last century have been among the most important in the Russian Empire. The industries of the Russian Empire and then of the Soviet Union were long dependent upon the raw materials which came from this section of the continent. There is oil in the west. This mineral and that are found in commercial deposits and it is now realized that the mineral resources of the country are fully equal to the wealth that lies buried in the fields. The land with such natural gifts is inhabited by a thrifty, industrious population who have shown in peace and in war their love of liberty and a proud, stubborn independence which has all too often degenerated into a factionalism that has broken the hearts of many of the wiser leaders. It is one of the paradoxes of human nature that the people of the plains have often found it more difficult to unite for a common cause than have the people of the mountains, who are more or less isolated in their narrow valleys. It has been easier to separate them and to divide their interests; once damage has been done to their organization it has been harder to repair. That is now and has been in the past the great weakness of the population. Once the fabric of the state was shattered in the early days, Ukraine, always aspiring to recover her lost unity, found it very difficult to achieve. The cities were unable to dominate the country. The peasants were interested in their several local problems and the foreign invaders far too often were able to manoeuvre them at will and to block those measures which alone could unify the land and enable the population of the villages to meet them on an equal level. All this has made Ukraine throughout the ages a land of wealth and of sadness, a land thirsting for liberty but again and again debarred from obtaining it. Here are all the resources, human and physical, that are needed to produce a great state, while untoward factors have worked against it and kept the land in turmoil. CHAPTER TWO _RUS’ AND UKRAINE_ Perhaps no single circumstance has done more to confuse the opinions of the world about Ukraine than the strange confusion that has taken place over the name of the country. The old name definitely and clearly was Rus’ but that name has been preempted by the northern offshoot of Rus’, Russia, and the people have been compelled for the sake of clarity to adopt another local title, Ukraine, which was early applied to a part of the country.