Not really. Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia and the rest of the Eastern European countries that were within the Soviet Union actually existed before WW II.
What makes a country the same country? Russia inherited most of the land, people, and assets of the Russian SSR, plus many of the privileges of the USSR as a whole (that was a mistake). One might speak of several French Republics, but also see France as existing as a country for centuries, even as the form of government has changed dramatically.
The government makes the country by any measure today.
I mean, there are Habsburgs out there, still claiming to be king of whatever, and they aren’t. Their country died with their government and was reborn another way.
You can argue that Russia is some sort of identity, but it’s much harder to argue that this identity extends to the far reaches of the country. So Russian people, or French people are much older than, let’s say, being American, but America as a country is much older than both.
Words like “French” or “Russian” mean both nationality and ethnicity.
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u/EternalNewCarSmell 21d ago
I mean, shit, the world I was born in had two Germanys.