What Was Woodrow Wilson Thinking Of ...

...when he tried to reorganize the world on the basis of nation states? Certainly not central/eastern Europe which was and remains an intractable jungle of loyalties and betrayals.

The latest to step his foot into this beehive is Edward Lucas, the estimable Russia expert at The Economist. In the second of his recent columns on the subject, Lucas reports on some distillations from his mailbag:

Anyone who spells the capital of Galicia as Lwów is a Polish nationalist who bayonets Ukranian babies for fun. Anyone who says it is spelled Lviv is a Ukrainian fascist who bayonets Polish babies for fun. Anyone who spells it Lvov is a Soviet mass murderer. And anyone who calls it Lemberg is a Nazi. See you in Leopolis for further discussion.

Prompts me to remember I.J. Singer's marvellous Brothers Ashkenazi which I read with great interest and profit last year, not realizing that Lvov/Lwów/Lviv/Lemberg is not even in Poland. For the moment at least.