Editor's Note: The following Geopolitical Weekly originally ran in November 2010 as part of our Geopolitical Journey series . We repost it as Ukraine's position between Europe and Russia puts it in the spotlight. By George Friedman The name "Ukraine" literally translates as "on the edge." It is a country on the edge of other countries, sometimes part of one, sometimes part of another and more frequently divided. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was divided between Russia, Poland and the Ottoman Empire. In the 19th century, it was divided between Russia and Austria-Hungary. And in the 20th century, save for a short period of independence after World War I, it became part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine has been on the edge of empires for centuries. My father was born in Ukraine in 1912, in a town in the Carpathians now called Uzhgorod.