For the Ukraine lies at the southeastern edge of Europe, on the threshold of Asia, at the point where the easiest overland route connects the two continents. For an entire period of a thousand years, this border position was most disadvantageous and dangerous for the Ukraine; for Nature and History did not bring the Ukraine, placed as it is, into the proximity of that part of Asia which for thousands of years past had been inhabited by the rich civilizations of that continent. The Ukraine has always been the nearest European neighbor of the steppe-country of Central Asia. There, from the earliest beginnings of history, dwelt pillaging hordes of Nomads, who would flood Europe from this point. The Pontian steppes of the Southern Ukraine were, for these steppe-people, the natural military road to the West and Southwest, where the rich, civilized lands of the Mediterranean region lay invitingly open. For more than a thousand years, from the beginnings of the history of the Ukraine, these nomadic Asiatic tribes traversed the South Ukrainian steppes, covering the entire Ukraine with war and unspeakable misery. Huns, Avars, Khazars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Torks, Berendians, Polovs, Tatars, Kalmucks, infested the Ukraine in succession. Of all the European peoples, the Ukrainians always had to be the first to oppose these steppe-plunderers. The nomads always had first to force their way thru the Ukraine. Many of them were annihilated by the ancient Ukrainians; thus, the Khazars, Pechenegs, Torks and Berendians; others were held off, as the Polovs or the Kalmucks. But the Ukraine exhausted its strength in this eternal warfare, and, in the terrible stress occasioned by the Tatars, lost their ancient culture and their mighty state. If, therefore, any one of the European nations may [14]claim the credit of having been Europe’s shield against Asiatic barbarism, it is the half-forgotten Ukrainian nation. The border position of the Ukraine was fatal also, for the reason that the country lay, and lies, so far distant from the cultural centers of Europe. As long as the Byzantine Empire, with its cultural wealth, remained firm, a strong stream of culture flowed from the Pontus into the Ukraine. The decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire suddenly transferred the Ukraine to the furthest (in respect to culture) corner of Europe, close to the Ottoman Empire, which was at that time hostile to culture. The western neighbors of the Ukraine, the Magyars and Poles, acquired little of the culture of Western Europe in the time of their independence, and allowed still less to slip thru into the Ukraine. The Russians entered the circle of European culture only two centuries ago, and have made only superficial cultural progress since.