Russia has sent three pieces of land, two of which have been recouped and the other has not been recovered
As we all know, the historical Tsarist Russia was an expansionist, expanding from a small Muscovite principality to a Eurasian power, with an unknown number of times more territory.
But Russia is not all drawn inwards, and sometimes he sends them out and spits them out. However, sooner or later, the spit out will have to be eaten back.
For example, the following three plots.
1. Crimea
Crimea is a peninsula in southwestern Russia. In 2014, Crimea held a referendum, and Crimea announced its separation from Ukraine and joining the Russian Federation.
So, who does this place belong to? Why join Russia from Ukraine? Is the international community acknowledging this wave of operations?
Let's take a look at the history of this piece, the earliest of which dates back to the Greeks, which once belonged to the territory of the Roman Empire at the time of the rise of the Empire.
By the time of the rise of the nomads, Crimea was on the brink of the steppes and had become the forefront of the nomads. As a result, it became the territory of the Golden Horde. At the same time, Russia was also a Muscovite Principality and a vassal of the Golden Horde.
Later, the great khanates became weak, and the small principalities below began to fight back. Crimea was taken by the then mighty Ottoman Turks.
After Russia became powerful by defeating the Golden Horde, it began to confront the Ottoman Empire head-on, snatching Crimea from it.
In this way, this is the territory of Tsarist Russia. So why did it become Ukrainian?
This goes to 1954, when the Soviet Union gave it to Ukraine to commemorate the three-hundredth anniversary of Ukraine's union with Russia.
Why was it allocated to Ukraine? One is that this land is indeed close to Ukraine. Second, the relationship between the two is really good.
Russians and Ukrainians belong to the East Slavs and once had a common home country called Kievan Rus' .
When the latter two were separated, they were conquered by different bulls, and the Ukrainians submitted to Polish rule, so the Ukrainians were actually a combination of East Slavs and Poles. And Russia submitted to the Golden Horde, and now it is said that by cutting open a Russian, one can find a Tatar in it.
In 1648, Ukraine launched an uprising against its lord Poland. Under Polish rule, Ukrainians were still miserable, basically at the bottom of society. In order to rebel against Poland, the Ukrainians found their cousin Russians. In the end, the Tsar intervened, helped the Ukrainians defeat Poland, and divided Poland, and now a lot of Ukrainian territory is actually russia from Poland.
From then on, Ukraine became Russia's younger brother, and the Cossack cavalry fought for Russia in the East. Ukraine also became russia's big granary, and in order to send food to Big Brother, it also created the Great Ukrainian Famine.
So, in order to thank Ukraine for its three hundred years of friendship, Crimea was sent out.
Of course, there are also very complicated reasons for this, such as co-opting Ukraine, such as changing the ethnic proportion of Ukraine. The Soviet Union did a lot of these things at that time, and many of the territories were drawn like this.
Unexpectedly, the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine became independent. Independence is over, and if you follow Russia closely, like Belarus, it will be fine, and you will be more and more inclined to the West.
After all, Crimea is a strategic place, without which Russia would not be able to gain a foothold in the Black Sea, and its Volga granaries and the safety of the Caucasus oil fields would not be guaranteed.
So Crimea began a referendum, the russian majority on this peninsula, and as soon as they voted, everyone expressed their willingness to join Russia.
2. Karelia
In Russia there is a Republic of Karelia, which is equivalent to an administratively autonomous province. This place was also originally sent out and then taken back.
It originally belonged to the Swedish Empire. Like Vyborg here, it is the castle built by the Swedes. But most of the people who live here are Finns.
As we said, the Finns were cousins of Chinese, and they broke up in the Iranian plateau, one to the Yellow River valley and the other to the Karelia region.
Chinese established a thousand-year-old empire in the Yellow River Valley, and the Finnishs have never developed, and have long been tribes, controlled by Sweden. Now the rich in Finland speak Swedish. The Finns have also never had a country of their own.
By the time russia and the Swedish Empire fought for the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Empire was defeated and the whole territory of Finland was taken by Russia. Russia established an autonomous Grand Duchy here, with the Tsar concurrently serving as Grand Duke.
At this time, the Finns began to have a sense of the state, they had always thought they were Swedish, and as a result, Sweden regarded it as a peripheral, saying that it was not wanted, and now it belongs to Russia, but it is obvious that it is not Russian, what is it?
That's the Finns!
By the October Revolution in Russia, Finland declared its independence.
From the Finnish point of view, this land was where they had always lived, but from the Soviet Union, these places were taken from Sweden by themselves and are now finland, which is a bit strange, and Finland is too close to the Soviet Union's St. Petersburg, which was the capital of Russia under Peter the Great, plus Finland was pro-German at that time.
Therefore, the Soviet Union felt that at least the area close to St. Petersburg, that is, Karelia, should belong to itself. In the beginning, the Soviet Union exchanged land with Finland, and Finland did not change it, because this land was their birthplace and close to their core area.
Therefore, the Soviet Union launched the Soviet-Finnish War and paid a heavy price to get the land. Finland later regained it with german help, but after World War II, the Soviets took Karelia again after victory and created a Karelian Republic here. Now there are more and more Russians here, and there are fewer finns.
3. Lake Balkhash
This lake is a magical lake, half light and half salty, which was a boundary lake in China a long time ago, and the eastern part of the lake was under Chinese jurisdiction. During the Qing Dynasty, it was also under the jurisdiction of general Ili. But in a series of treaties signed during the Xianfeng years, it became Russian territory.
But now the lake is not Russian, but Kazakh. After the Russian occupation, it was designated as the Governor-General of the Steppe. When the Soviet Union was founded, it was incorporated into the Kazakh Soviet Republic and joined the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed, it became Kazakh territory.
So will Russia suddenly want to come back one day?
This is not very likely at the moment, after all, this is not the core area of Russia. Nor does Central Asia feel like it is falling out with Russia.