In 1941, a million German troops invaded the east, and their goal was only one, to conquer the Soviet Union in the shortest possible time, but when they advanced to Moscow, Joseph stood in the Kremlin and said this domineering sentence: "Although Russia is big, we have no way to retreat!" Because we are behind Moscow! ”
In the face of Germany's most elite steel beast, Joseph chose to stand in the Kremlin to fight a patriotic war, and four years before this battle, the Japanese army also besieged Nanjing, Chang Kaishen looked at the plane tree for an afternoon, and then patted Tang Shengzhi's shoulder and said: The responsibility for the defense of the national capital will be entrusted to you!
The defense of Moscow lasted for three months, and finally broke the myth of the invincibility of german blitzkrieg with the heroic sacrifices of countless Soviet sons and daughters, and three years later the Soviet army ascended the Reichstag building, and a Soviet soldier planted the Soviet flag on a circular dome.
12 days after the start of the Defense of Nanjing, the capital of the country, Nanjing, was breached by the Japanese army, and a terrible massacre was staged.
The fighting nation has become a joke about Russia on the Internet today, but you have to admit that whether it is the Great Patriotic War or the expansion of the outside world, a Ula can pull the blood full, do not destroy foreign enemies and do not die, do not reach the sea mouth and eventually do not return, this is integrated into the blood of Russians.
So what kind of country is Russia?
How did it go from a small agricultural country of just 430,000 square kilometers in the mid-15th century to a superpower spanning Eurasia with a territory of more than 22 million square kilometers?
Russia, a country with a seemingly good geographical location, but in fact it is very poor, from the perspective of the world's geographical location, Russia spans Europe and Asia, at the center of the two continents, but whether from the perspective of The geographical position of Europe or from the geographical position of Asia, Russia is a completely marginal country.
To sort out the history of Russia's development, it is only necessary to know three stages.
The first stage was the Kievan Rus' period.
During the Kievan Rus' period, Russia was a steppe country cloaked in Orthodoxy, its central point was in Kiev, during which Russia was like a small town, small in territory, small in population, without tossing and turning, and then encountered the Mongol army, which ended completely in the 13th century.
Then entered the period of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and in the last two centuries, the hegemon of the Russian region was the Golden Horde, while the Grand Duchy of Moscow was originally a small town on the banks of the Oka River, and later became an agent of the Slavic region by attaching itself to the Golden Horde, inheriting the history of Kievan Rus'.
The Grand Duchy of Moscow was able to grow mainly by three routines: indecent development, bribery of the golden hordes, and theft of power and frenzied enrichment.
With this combination of punches, the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew, eventually waiting for Dmitry to defeat the Mongol army, which set off the Russian War of Independence, and later defeated the big brother Golden Horde and gained autonomy.
But the independence of the state itself and the independence of the institutional soul are two different things, and during the reign of the Golden Horde, Russia inherited the culture and ideas of the Mongolian steppe peoples, which is what we said earlier, Russia is a steppe country cloaked in Orthodox clothing.
Such an impact also directly sowed the seeds for russia's second-stage development.
The second phase of the Tsarist Empire.
In 1547, Ivan IV was officially crowned Tsar by the coronation of the Byzantine Dynasty, "Tsar" means in Slavic: heir to Caesar, dictator of the Roman Empire, and monarch sent by God to earth.
From this, it can be seen that the national goal of Tsarist Russia was to become the Third Roman Empire, and the monarch Tsar wanted to become a heroic dictatorship like the Emperor of the Mongol Empire.
The state and monarchy of Tsarist Russia distinguished both Western monarchies and Eastern monarchies.
The rights of western monarchs were subject to religious abstinence, while the rights of Eastern monarchs were subject to aristocrats and bureaucrats, while the monarchy of Tsarist Russia had extremely high authoritarian powers, repressive rule, and heroic worship.
To this day, russians still retain a tsarist complex in their bones, and their rights are still Genghis Khan's style.
It is precisely because of this steppe-style conquest-advocating, heroic monarchical plot that since the establishment of the Russian Empire, its core goal has been expansion.
Marx once said that Tsarist Russia was a product of a combination of Mongol slavery and Genghis Khan's arrogant ambitions to conquer the world.
All the institutions it has established are preparations for external expansion.
During the Romanov period, Tsarist Russia successively conquered the Kazan Khanate and the Astrakhan Khanate by force, and then controlled the gateway to the Caspian Sea, opened the passage to the Caucasus, and through regional encroachment, turned over the Ural Mountains, and incorporated West Siberia, East Siberia, and Central Siberia into the territory of Tsarist Russia.
And Tsarist Russia did not want to stop the journey of expansion, and among its goals was the whole of Europe, the whole of Asia.
Of course, this plan was too grand and did not fully realize, and in the First World War, Tsarist Russia fell because of the heavy blow, but by this time it had established a super empire across Eurasia, occupying 45% of Eurasia.
The role of Russia at this stage was that of an expander, and although the overt imperial system collapsed completely and the heroic monarchy ceased to exist, this stage was more important to the entire history of Russia than any other stage in history.
If we distinguish between building an empire, fighting the world, and defending the world, the degree of difficulty in fighting the world naturally exceeds that of any moment.
The third stage was the Soviet period.
The Soviet period completely inherited everything from the Tsarist Period, including the territory, including national culture, and industrial system.
Aside from the fact that the implicit system of rule is difficult to talk about, can you say that the laws of operation of the Soviet Union are very different from those of Tsarist Russia?
During the Soviet era, the Russians built an industrial system that amazed the world, but such a system still served foreign expansion.
The partition of Eastern Europe was not a helpless choice, but an inevitable consequence of initiative, and a passion for the land was engraved in the bones of the Slavs.
After signing the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact with Germany, the Soviet Union quickly annexed the three Baltic states with full motor, and then directly divided Poland with Germany, eating 200,000 square kilometers of land in one go.
In the same year of the third fall of Poland, Finland resisted a million Soviet troops, and although it won a small victory in the early stages, it was ultimately unable to resist this huge super empire and eventually had to spit out the Karelia region.
But the Soviet Union's expansion plan was interrupted by a Soviet-German war, no matter how the European countries now view Russia, but they have to admit that if the Soviet Union had not paid the price of tens of millions of lives, the whole of Europe or would have experienced an era of "swastika flag" flying, from Moscow to Berlin, is the bones of the Slavs all the way, the Russians continue to expand in history, but also constantly encountered invasions, Napoleon's French First Army once entered Moscow, A raging fire did not burn out the Vengeance of the Slavs, and the armored behemoths of Nazi Germany approached Moscow, but a million Soviet sons and daughters were not afraid, and went forward to defend their homeland with flesh and blood.
The name of the Slavs as a fighting nation is not a joke, but a mark of constant conquest and counter-conquest in a long history, and there is no problem in saying that they are the most conquest-oriented and war-loving countries.
After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union established the only two powers in the world, when the German nation was divided into two, the empire lost its glory and became a vassal of the former little brother, France, although ranked among the five permanents, had long been a foreign power, and the ancient country of the East was in ruins after a hundred years of humiliation.
The Soviet Union saw Eurasia as a piece of meat on a chopping board, and before it could devour it, it needed to deal with the emerging powers on the other side of the ocean.
The Soviet Union and the United States ushered in a head-on confrontation after the end of World War II, and the allies in World War II were transformed into enemies because they lost their enemies, and the great power game was to compete for national resilience, and under this competition, the potential for human development was stimulated, from the Cold War situation to the arms race, from the arms race to the space race, and finally from the space race to the total blockade of economy, resources, and ideology, until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Was the collapse of the Soviet Union important to the United States? It's not that important, because for the United States, the absence of the Soviet Union is the most important thing.
For the United States, the so-called ideological confrontation is an excuse on the surface, what the United States has to do is to completely control the European continent, and if it wants to completely control the European continent, then the european continent has no power is the most important.
Like the continental equilibrium policy of the Empire of the Rising Sun centuries ago, I will help whoever is weak, and I will fight whoever is strong, and if there is no power, then I am a strong power.
For many countries in Western Europe, the strength of the United States exists only on the other side of the ocean, even if it is attached to it, it is only diplomatic politics that is interfered with, while the Soviet Union on the edge of the European continent is different, if the Soviet Union pounces, then it is not diplomatic politics.
So in Europe, the suppression of the Slavic regions is a kind of political correctness, which is a latent consciousness that has been formed for thousands of years under the multi-ethnic system of Europe.
This also contributes to why the European continent can only become the center of the world for a short time, because shrinking Europe is actually an Afghanistan, and like Afghanistan, when the power of the tribes is balanced, the power it erupts is enormous.
The most splendid era in Europe was the era of many great powers, that era included the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Dafa, Britain, Tsarist Russia, Dabobo, and the Nordic Viking Powers... And so on, when these luxurious lineups twisted together, an era of a central world with European powers was formed.
And now, you see who in Europe dares to be king?
So after the Soviet era, why did the Western world still refuse to let Russia go?
Again, the reason mentioned earlier is that only if Europe has a common enemy can the United States better control Europe.
Looking around Europe now, for historical reasons, only Russia is enough to play the role of European public enemy, unless one day, a new power appears in Europe, then the United States and Russia will become close allies like in World War II.
So is there any possibility of Russia's rise in the current world pattern?
In fact, we look at Russia's struggles in the past two or three decades, a country that only needs to have a GDP of about the same province as Guangdong Province, and has single-handedly resisted the aggressive and continuous blows of the entire West.
Compared with the small steel cannons in the Middle East that claim to be worldly invincible, Russia is already very cowhide plus.
However, if a country wants to rise, one is to look at the hard power of the country, and the other is to look at the external environment.
Russia now does not have much hard power to take, in addition to undertaking the military industry left by the Soviet Union, only educational resources can be a little shining, coupled with the demographic dilemma is an insoluble situation, the former strong Ula lineup has long ceased to exist, and the basic conditions for the rise can be completely absent.
The external environment is even worse than the internal strength, Russia's westward expansion is facing NATO's eastward expansion, the two sides are extremely serious attrition, even if all armed actions except nuclear weapons are put into practice, the situation will only be endless.
And the direction of the Middle East is also a mess, even if you have personally entered Syria to fight bayonets, but after killing the red eye, the situation is still a mess, this place, the world powers are staring, Russia wants to seek vitality here, it is simply more difficult than ascending to the sky, the most fatal thing is that because the United States wants to maintain the global hegemonic system, it must control the Middle East, which means that Russia's energy heart Caucasus will inevitably be contested by the United States, and it just so happens that the people in this place are clamoring for independence every day, which makes Russia pessimistic and desperate.
And the eastward expansion is needless to say, the Soviet era can still think about it, but now Russia does not have to think about it anymore, there has been a period of barter before, and now as an energy base, it is also a good reincarnation.
The last point is the will of the state, russia in this world pattern, the chance of rising is very small, but it is still a country that cannot be ignored.
An empire that was once mighty, even if it is so weak now, but as long as it maintains its will, then it cannot be underestimated, Russia is indeed not as strong as it was then, but its heart is still a superpower, no matter how much its strength has declined, but remember, it has its bottom line.
The West can draw a cage to trap the polar bear, but you can't pretend to melt away its last iceberg, because you don't know how high it can pay for the only remaining iceberg, and if it really pushes it, when it opens its blood basin and strikes back, then you will have to lose a piece of flesh if you don't die.