KHARKIV, Ukraine — The funeral procession for Artyom Zhudov, 19, was led by a Zhiguli subcompact car bearing the orange-and-black standard of St. George, the distinctive and now ubiquitous symbol of support for Russia here in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine.

A hearse, a refitted taxi van, bore the body of Mr. Zhudov, a pro-Russian activist who was shot in the neck in a clash with nationalist Ukrainians. The fighting left a downtown building scarred from rifle fire and gasoline bombs.

While the bloody events and clashes that left more than a hundred dead in Kiev a month ago have not been repeated in eastern cities like Kharkiv and Donetsk, occasional violence and a powerful propaganda war have created entrenched pro-Russian and pro-Western camps that scarcely existed before.

For the fledgling pro-Western central government in Kiev, which is warily keeping one eye toward a possible invasion from Russia, the growing rift among ordinary Ukrainians and among political elites has laid bare the difficulties of establishing political order even if the unsteady peace lasts.