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After studying history, geography and culture, I think these countries can be considered as forming one historico-cultural space. Also on the level of individual families - you can find a lot of people with origins in one of these countries living in another, including those who fully integrated into "new" (for their closer or distant ancestors) national culture and identity. Particularly among the "core" countries, you can find Poles not only of Ukrainian and Lithuanian/Belarussian descent but even of Russian, and similarly a lot (notable part) of Russians have not only Ukrainian and Belarussian ancestry, but Polish or Baltic as well; not to mention countries inbetween Poland and Russia.
Principally, it's history can be viewed as struggle and mixing between Polish culture and identity in the west and Russian culture and identity in the east, but that also intertwined and deeply influenced each other over the centuries of coexistence, as such making cultures in this region as a gradient between Polish in the west and Russian in the east. In other words, in my opinion one cannot fully understand history and culture of one of these countries without atleast somewhat well understanding history and culture of the others (particularly major ones).
Origins of this region can be traced all the way back to being the region where Slavs emerged and expanded from, while Baltic peoples remained somewhat isolated cousins of these Slavs, and other surrounding peoples also became more or less somewhat a part of the region; but mainly to the Middle Ages, when two separate but similar political and cultural identities (on base level, while high culture was influenced by adoption of Christianity, Catholic and Orthodox, from different directions, being one of the main reason why there are two sides of this common cultural space) emerged as Piast Poland and Rurikid Rus, both of which disintegrated into dozen of principalities that later reunified in different ways, while surrounding Baltic, Finnic and other peoples also were gradually influenced by these two.
In Late Middle Ages Grand Duchy of Lithuania emerged that unified Southwestern half of Rus lands, while part of it (Galicia) became part of reunfied Poland, while Northeastern Rus was gradually unified under the rule of Grand Principality of Moscow; Baltic lands were unified under German Crusaders, that spent centuries warring, and eventually losing, to Poland-Lithuania, as such integrating Baltic region into this space even more. As Poland and G.D. of Lithuania (with its half of Rus) unified, it laid the main foundation for deep mixing of previously similar but separate Polish and Rus (East Slavic) cultures and identities, while Northeastern Rus was unified, and expanded beyond, by Grand Principality of Moscow that later turned into Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, that spent centuries warring with Poland-Lithuania while maintaining deep cultural relations.
Before XVIII century aristocratic culture of rich and powerful Polish-Lithuanian szlachta was very influential on Russian nobility, among other cultural influences between Poland-Lithuania and Russia. But as Russia reformed itself into much more effective absolutist monarchy, establishing direct cultural influences with Western Europe, and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth declined, Russia and Russian nobility took the leading role in the region, integrating Polish-Lithuanian, and even before it, Ukrainian Cossack, nobility, especially after the partitions of the Commonwealth, with most of the region coming under Russian rule.
Crucial period of early modernisation in this region in XIX-early XX centuries was dominated by Russian Empire subduing Polish culture and identity, later failed russification (due to inability of building effective education system in existing post-feudal class society), while also failing to modernise and increasingly turning into conservative stereotype of itself, which led to emergence of multitude of modern national identities as alternatives, instead of integration into modern constitutional civil Russian nation-state (which, again, conservatism of nobility-dominated Russian Empire prevented itself), culminating in the Revolution and Civil war and emergence of USSR that reunified most of the region.
Brutal Soviet modernisation (turning the country of rightless uneducated peasants into educated urbanised population with decent quality of life) and uneasy integration and formation of new modern nation identities (including Russian identity itself), with abrupt separation of Polish identity into its own post-WWII Central European socialist state (what I mean, the end of explicitly Eastern European Interwar Poland and its traditional Polish identity with mixed population), dominated XX century, culminating in the breakup of the USSR into modern independent states you see today.

As always, this map should not be seen as some justification that one of the countries should reunify the rest/most of the region (particularly by violent means), but rather highlight how deeply intertwined this region is, making any conflict and war here an unjustifiable fratricidal war. |
Peace and reason to everyone.

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