tracted crowds of approximately 3,000 people. A crowd of this size is not a threat to the government politically or militarily. The citizens did not demonstrate or leave their homes during the height of the hyper-inflation following independence.
The passivity of the inhabitants of Ukraine also lower the potential for violent activity between the east and west areas of the country. The west is more unified and has a stronger national identity. This national identity developed while this part of Ukraine was under the more open political climate of Austria-Hungary and Poland. The national identity centered around the West Ukrainian Catholic Uniate church. The church was banned as the USSR gained control over Ukraine. Stalin systematically purged the eastern Ukraine of successful farmers and peasants from the eastern portion of the Ukraine. Russians were imported to work the land in cooperative farms and exploit the area's rich mineral deposits. This eradication of an entire stratum of Ukrainian society left its mark on the population. The population in Eastern Ukraine embraced the Communist Party and identified more easily with Russia than with Central and Western Ukraine. An indifference, over whether Eastern Ukr
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