<i>Ukraine and On Ukraine</i>: the opinion of a cultural geographer
Russia’s near abroad is a dynamic phenomenon, the formation of which is connected with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Young post-Soviet country are searching for their own identity, attempting to reorganizing their cultural space and building their own picture of the world. The Russian near abroad is represented in the Russian language picture of the world, as a rule, stable formulas that are often in conflict with the emerging views of the world of our neighbors. The geoconceptual approach is the theoretical basis of the research. At the same time, a geoconcept is understood as any place that is significant for a certain community and has a stable image. The problem is seen on the material now widely used expression in the Ukraine and in Ukraine. The article shows that a stable in the Russian language geoconceptual expression in Ukraine has not only linguistic, but also deep historical and cultural-geographical roots, reflecting the frontier essence of Ukrainian culture. At the same time, the expression in Ukraine, which should be regarded as an element of the Ukrainian dialect of the Russian language, is important for contemporary Ukrainians in the context of the formation of a new identity.