In this CNN article, a pro-Russian militant is quoted as saying:
[T]here's no such nationality as Ukrainian. That's an Austria-Hungarian deception. We're Russian. We're all Russian. And this land isn't Ukraine: it's Novorossiya - and we will defend it.
What exactly is he referring to? Or, to be more precise, what did the Austro-Hungarian Empire have to do with the formation of Ukraine or the Ukrainian identity?
If this has been covered already, I apologize and will delete it. I thought it was a novel and interesting enough question to deserve its own thread.
This is not my area so hopefully someone can come in and fill in the blanks, but I do know a little bit about this so I'll take a stab at it.
This idea stems from the role the Austrian empire played in the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Essentially, starting in 1772 the PLC was invaded and divided among three separate states, the Russian empire, the Prussian empire, and the Austrian Empire (later to be called the Austro-Hungarian empire). At the time the PLC encompassed what we would consider today to be Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and parts of Western Ukraine. I believe there were other areas that they controlled but I'm not positive (other Baltic areas? maybe?). Austria ended up with large portion of what we would now consider to be Ukraine. For lack of a better map here is a relatively accurate map of who got what areas of the PLC.
Like any conquering/occupying nation, Austria had to contend with a population who were not entirely thrilled that their country had just been invaded and broken apart. In an effort to eliminate solidarity between various ethnic populations, Austria attempted to foster a sense of national identity among the Ukrainian population. See this book for details on how the Austrians did that. Needless to say the Polish population was not pleased and accused the Austrians of creating a Ukrainian identity. It was pretty great move by the Austrians because it succeeded in dividing the population, so the Ukrainian population was far more accepting of Austrian rule.
This pro-Russian militant seems to know his history well enough to be able to make this claim. I'm sure historians that are better versed in the regions history could provide more insight into whether being Ukrainian is a thing or not. As far as I'm concerned they are related to the Grand Duchy of Kiev, but I could be wrong about that. Therefore, in my opinion this guy seems to be spouting a line that was made up by the Poles.
sources: A short history of Austria-Hungary and Poland
This book is probably the best book that I know of about the history of Poland God's Playground: A history of Poland
Edit: grammar and spelling
