As a result of World War I, the revolutions of 1917, the German military occupation and the efforts of Ukrainian nationalists, Ukraine emerged out of Czarist Russia as a separate country. Obviously, this was achieved against the wishes of hard-headed Soviet officials who wanted to suppress nationalism. 

But during the 10th Communist Party Congress held in March 1921, Stalin strongly advocated recognising Ukraine as a separate country.  He was reported as saying: "The nation of Ukraine should continue to exist and the development of its culture is a duty of our Communist Party. We cannot go against history..."

Stalin knew from his Georgian homeland that national sentiment in Ukraine was too strong to suppress. He also knew that he could use Ukraine to win loyalty and achieve economic modernization. 

However, Stalin's rule is rightly associated with two of the most horrific episodes in Ukraine's history: the famine and the 1937-1938 mass executions of Ukrainian intellectuals and political figures, both of which took place across the Soviet Union. Both tragedies have been invoked regularly in the months since Russian President Vladimir V. Putin seized Crimea and sent forces into eastern Ukraine.

There is an underappreciated aspect to this history: Stalin's rule saw the formation of a land with strong Ukrainian national consciousness. Of course, he was a murderous tyrant, but he was also the father of today's Ukraine.

In the Russian Civil War of 1918-1921, Ukraine was reconquered by the Bolsheviks led by Lenin, but remained effectively independent and rechristened the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine.

One does not have to take sides on the human tragedy unfolding in eastern Ukraine to grasp that, whether Mr Putin does or does not have clear strategic goals, he cannot wipe out the fruits of the Soviet period. Yes, of course, Putin wants to swallow Ukraine but his hands are tied and he cannot do so because he cannot entice Ukraine into a new "Eurasian" union with Russia either.

Ukrainians have little affection for Stalin's dictatorship, but their struggle for statehood owes much to his legacy - a legacy that, for different reasons, neither they nor Mr Putin like to think about!

Jos Edmond Zarb

Birkirkara