The tense relations between Russia and Ukraine have developed so far, and economic, political, military and international relations can all be the causes. But there is also the definition of Ukraine by the leaders of the two countries.
On the evening of February 21, Putin signed an order recognizing two regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states.
Source: China International Television "Global Finance"
Dark clouds overwhelmed the city, and war was about to break out. Western countries are ready to sanction Russia. The Ukrainian president said: "We are on our own land, not afraid of anything. "It is reported that 96 of Ukraine's top 100 rich men ran, leaving only 4 suspected of corruption and unable to leave the country.
Today, The Minibus writes a short essay about Ukraine's feud with Russia.
Historically, Ukraine and Russia are of the same origin, and both countries belong to the East Slavic people.
In the 9th century AD, the East Slavs created a state on the plains of Eastern Europe: Kievan Rus' . Its core area includes Kiev, the capital of present-day Ukraine. The rulers made the Orthodox Church the state religion. By the 11th century, Kievan Rus' had entered its heyday and maintained close trade with Western Europe and the Arab states.
Independence Monument in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine
This glorious history became the memory of Russia and Ukraine, both of which claimed to be the historical successors of Kievan Rus'. The histories of the two countries had the same starting point, but over the next thousand years, each drew different curves, sometimes entangled, sometimes separated.
In the 13th century, Kievan Rus began to decline due to infighting. The western expedition of the Mongol army hastened the demise of Kievan Rus' . A country is cut in half to meet different destinies.
The northeast became a vassal state of the Mongol Empire, with the princes divided and the Grand Duchy of Moscow rising. It conquered for many years, defeated the Mongol army, gradually became stronger, and later formed Tsarist Russia and expanded its territory.
The southwest region was remote and beyond the reach of the Mongol army. Neighboring countries are expanding outwards by force. The Lithuanian army came, the Polish army came, and they all thought about the land. Lithuania and Poland formed the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, an allied state whose territory was almost equivalent to that of present-day Ukraine.
Map of the Polish-Lithuanian heyday
The conquerors of the southwest were initially enlightened, but later adopted a policy of repression.
Ukraine's fertile black land was occupied by the Poles, who could only be serfs. Ukrainians cannot speak Ukrainian, nor can they believe in Orthodox Christianity, they can only believe in Catholicism.
In Ukraine, armed groups seeking independence, cossacks, emerged. The word Cossack comes from the Turkic language and meant freedmen who broke away from their own people, and some serfs who escaped oppression also joined the Cossacks. In 1648, the Cossacks began their struggle.
In order to seek help, the Cossack leaders signed an agreement with Tsarist Russia to accept Tsarist rule and protection. The two sides signed an important document to clarify the historical relations between Russia and Ukraine, the Pereya Slavic Agreement.
In 1654 the Cossacks and Tsarist Russia reached the Pereyaslav Agreement
Source: Guangming Daily
The overall meaning of the agreement was that Ukraine recognized the supreme power of the Tsar, but enjoyed almost all the powers of an independent state (the right to self-government). But in the hereafter, it is one event, two understandings. Since then, major historical events in Russian-Ukrainian relations have also occurred in a similar situation.
Some Ukrainians understand that this agreement is an agreement between two equal partners, only to be undermined by the Russians later, and the agreement is a strategic mistake of Ukraine, which led to the loss of Ukraine's state. Russian scholars believe that the agreement was not proposed by Tsarist Russia on its own initiative, and after the signing of the agreement, Tsarist Russia had to be in a state of war. By implication, Ukraine should thank Tsarist Russia, not complain.
After the Russian-Ukrainian alliance, Tsarist Russia, through wars with the Poles and other means, by the 18th century, the whole of Ukraine was incorporated into Tsarist Russia.
In 1700, Tsarist Russia fought with Sweden, and the Ukrainians sacrificed a lot. However, the Tsar wanted to reorganize the Ukrainian army and reduce the autonomy of Ukraine on the grounds of war, which caused dissatisfaction among ukrainians. A leader of Ukraine allied himself with Sweden against Tsarist Russia.
Tsarist Russia eventually defeated Sweden, and the Ukrainian rebellion gave Tsar russia the opportunity to "liquidate". Through the arrangement of the power system, Tsarist Russia has a great tendency to turn Ukraine into an ordinary province. By the time of Tsarist Empress Catherine II, Ukrainian autonomy was in vain.
Portrait of Catherine II
Antropov，Alexei Petrovich绘
The tsarist terrier introduced serfdom, locking in the flow of lower Ukrainian peasants, and she co-opted the Ukrainian nobility and gave them the same privileges as the Tsarist nobility.
During this period, Tsarist Russia also formulated strict policies in ideology and culture. The Ermes Decree was introduced, which prohibited the publication of books in the country in Ukrainian, the singing of Ukrainian songs, the prohibition of Ukrainian poetry readings...
In July 2021, the Russian Embassy in Beijing published a signed article by Russian President Vladimir Putin entitled "On the Historical Unification of Russians and Ukrainians" on its official title, in which Putin said that Russians belong to the same ethnic group as Ukrainians, and he talked about the practices of the Tsarist Russia period:
I am not going to idealize anything ... The Ermes Decree does restrict the publication and import of religious and socio-political literature in Ukrainian.
But it is important to note the historical context at the time. These decisions were made in the context of the desire of the leaders of the Polish national movement to use the 'Ukrainian question' to serve themselves. I should add that during this period novels, Books on Ukrainian poetry and folk songs continued to be published.
Putin means that there are sworn enemies Polish people who obstruct from it and fish in muddy waters.
During this period, the national consciousness of Ukraine began to sprout. According to the thesis "Research on Relations between Russia and Ukraine", the first political underground organization in the history of the Ukrainian national movement, founded in 1846, demanded the overthrow of the Tsar and the realization of independence, but it was banned 14 months after its establishment, and the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko was one of the main leaders of the organization.
Portrait of Taras Shevchenko
Painted by Ivan Kramskoy
Putin's article wrote that the poet was "our common literary and cultural heritage":
Taras Shevchenko wrote poetry in Ukrainian, while prose was mainly in Russian... How will this spiritual heritage be divided between Russia and Ukraine? And why?
Regarding the national movements of the time, Putin wrote:
At the same time, the idea of Ukrainians as a nation independent of the Russians began to take shape and gained the Polish elite ... support. Since there is no historical basis, this conclusion is supported by various lies, and some even claim that Ukrainians are real Slavs, while Russians and Muscovites are not. This 'hypothesis' is increasingly being used for political purposes as a tool for competition between European countries.
In the history of Russian-Ukrainian relations during the Tsarist period, the views of the two countries were also different.
Some Ukrainians, as well as Ukrainian historians, argue that the abolition of Ukrainian autonomy proves that Russia violated the relevant provisions of the Pereyaslav Agreement signed in the 17th century. Ukrainians believe that the economy of Ukraine during the Tsarist period was in retrogression, but some Russian scholars have questioned it.
After the October Revolution of 1917, Tsarist Russia fell apart. Because of its geographical advantage, Ukraine has become a competition ground for several political forces. A Ukrainian force wanted to achieve independence with the help of external forces, but its goal was frustrated.
By the time of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had become part of the Alliance.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent state. This is the first time that Ukraine has truly achieved statehood.
After the signing of the Belovezh Agreement in 1991
Ukraine became an independent state
In order to promote national identity, some historians in Ukraine, as well as textbooks, interpret ukraine's history as a history of Russian oppression. Ukraine's quest for independence is heavily documented.
Just a few examples.
During the Stalin period in the Soviet Union, heavy industry was developed by sacrificing agriculture and developing collective farms, which killed 3 million people in Ukraine. The Ukrainians believed that this was a deliberate targeting and murder by the Soviet authorities.
Some World War II figures were considered terrorists by Russians, and in Ukraine they were regarded as national heroes.
In 1922 and 1954, the Soviet government divided Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea in the Donbas Basin to Ukraine on two separate occasions.
But Ukraine did not "buy" the Soviet Union's "generous" approach.
In the paper "Interpretation of the Historical Grievances between Russia and Ukraine", Ukrainian high school history textbooks are quoted:
The incorporation of the Crimean Peninsula into Ukraine is an attempt to bring ... Part of the moral responsibility was shifted to Ukraine, forcing it to take responsibility for restoring economic and cultural life on the peninsula. The Moscow Center is unscathed, because Ukraine can also be monitored.
These "gifted" lands are located in eastern Ukraine, where the natives speak Russian, trade closely with Russia, and are pro-Russian. This lays the groundwork for the territorial problems in the eastern part of Ukraine.
Ukraine is again culturally divided, with Russia in the east, pro-Russian, and west near the West, pro-West. This contradiction is also reflected in diplomacy. In the three decades since its founding, Ukraine's foreign policy has switched between "one-sided pro-Western diplomacy" and "pragmatism that balances the relationship between the West and Russia."
In 2014, pro-Western Ukrainian political forces came to power, and the situation suddenly changed. Crimea was incorporated into Russia, and the crisis in eastern Ukraine has been going on for 8 years, with pro-Russian forces and Ukrainian government forces continuing to fight, causing a large number of civilian casualties. Russia has come under a round of harsh western sanctions.
By February 21 of this year, Putin had signed an order recognizing the "Donetsk People's Republic" and the "Luhansk People's Republic" in eastern Ukraine. Putin has called Ukraine "an integral part of Russia's historical, cultural and spiritual space."
The Ukrainian government reacted violently, and Western countries were ready to sanction Russia.
In the past eight years, in order to resolve the crisis in Eastern Ukraine, Western countries, Russia and Ukraine have also formed the Minsk Agreement and the New Minsk Agreement after many mediation and consultations, but the content of the agreement has not been implemented.
In the eyes of the outside world, the root cause of the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is that Ukraine wants to join NATO and obtain assistance from the West. Putin believes that NATO, dominated by the United States and Western Europe, is expanding eastward, threatening Russia's interests.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy
Putin once said to Bush: "George, you don't understand, Ukraine is not even a country." What is Ukraine? Part of its territory belongs to Eastern Europe, and a considerable part of its territory was given to us. ”
Ukraine's second president, Kuchma, also wrote: "Ukraine is not a continuation of Russia, not a branch of Russia, Ukraine is completely different from Russia." ”
Source: Wu Xiaobo Channel
Author: Ba Jiu Ling
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