Not entirely related but the bit about the Ukrainian farmer saying he's "Greek Orthodox" in response to questions of his nationality reminded me of something. I just started reading nationalism and culture by Rudolf Rocker. In the second chapter, rocker says that religion is the first form of institutionalized power that humans created and that institutional political power is not only structured similarly to religion, that it stems directly from it. Hence the proclivity of these two power structures to resemble, overlap, share ideas and compete with one another throughout human history. Not to say faith in itself is necessarily a form of power (he does say that, and I mostly agree with it) but the clergy around any given religion utilize that power to further their own ends, much like politicians.

I don't have a fully formed point or thought to any of this at the moment, and it's a very brief summary, but I figured some may find it interesting/thought provoking