On February 22, 2022, Putin made a major statement on Ukraine, stating that he would support the independence of the two eastern Ukrainian republics and sign a treaty of friendship and mutual assistance with them.
This news was like a bombshell that instantly detonated the world.
Many countries are speculating that Putin will not hesitate to split Ukraine into three countries, is it not decided to start a war?
In the face of doubts, he forcefully declared: "Ukraine is not only a neighbor, but also an inherent part of Russia's history, culture and spirit, and they are Relatives of Russia..."
Putin
Sure enough, Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border and, as of February 25, had destroyed more than 74 military targets, targeting Kiev.
Many people think that if the two countries are in such a situation, is there a deep feud?
Not really.
Looking at history, it can be found that although there are many problems left over from history in Russia and Ukraine, the two are of the same origin and can be said to be a child conceived by a mother.
Especially during the time of Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, they belonged to the same country.
So why do "brothers" turn against each other? What in history has brought them to where they are today?
Russia and Ukraine have the same roots
Russia and Ukraine have a common ancestor, and that is the Ancient Rus' people.
They were once widespread in Eastern Europe, and due to the backwardness of the system, groups existed in the form of tribes.
A hundred years later, when ancient Europe had established a unified kingdom, they did not even have a decent social order, which is why the ancient Rus was called "the most backward people".
Later, the Ancient Rus split into two parts.
Some of them, led by tribal chiefs, established the Kingdom of Rurik in Novgorod in 862 AD, and after expanding their power, they occupied Kiev and founded Kievan Rus' .
The other part chose to move westward and established the Principality of Moscow in the 10th century.
Kievan Rus' was the predecessor of Ukraine, and the Muscovite Principality developed into Russia.
Kievan Rus' location
Although the family has been "separated", there is no doubt that Russia and Ukraine are bred by a common ancestor, and they are "brothers" whose blood is thicker than water.
Kievan Rus' and Muscovite principalities flourished on their respective territories, and in the tenth century AD the former produced a great monarch named Vladimir I.
Under his leadership, Kievan Rus' national power reached its peak, becoming a large empire with a population of 5 million and the largest territory in Europe, and the Orthodox Church became the state religion during this period.
At that time, Kievan Rus' practiced a "principality system", a bit like the "sub-feudal system" of the mainland during the Shang Zhou Dynasty, that is, the king selected some people with merit and prestige to be crowned, and then gave territory to them to establish small states.
This system allowed Kievan Rus' to flourish for a while, but it eventually led it to a split.
In the 12th century, kievan rus's civil unrest broke out and was later divided into 18 small states.
As the most powerful principality, the Principality of Vladimir became the titular boss, and it did not learn the lessons of Kievan Rus', and still divided the Russian predecessor, the Principality of Moscow, which also laid the groundwork for the future discord between Russia and Ukraine.
Vladimir I
If the dispute had ended here, then there would not have been such a big conflict between the two countries today, at most it would have been a brotherly civil war, but unfortunately at this time the foreign enemy intervened.
In the 13th century, the brave and warlike Mongols led a westward expedition into the territory of the principalities, and in 1220 defeated the Muscovite principality and took them into captivity.
Kievan Rus' was, of course, not alone, and in 1240, because of the failure of the resistance, they were conquered by the Mongols and perished, and the remaining people surrendered to the Mongol army, which saved their lives.
The two countries were defeated, but the two countries have since embarked on very different paths.
Unwilling to be humiliated after accepting the Mongol canonization, the Muscovite Principality waited for an opportunity to annex the smaller states around it, waiting for the day when it could regain its sovereignty.
The ancestors of the Ukrainians, for various reasons, could only submit to the rule of the Mongols, and gradually accepted the Mongols under the influence of day by day.
By the mid-14th century, the Muscovite Principality had become the most powerful state in all of Russia, and by this time it was almost qualified to compete with the Mongols.
In 1462, Ivan III became Grand Duke of Moscow and from then on began a struggle against foreign enemies.
Principality of Moscow
This Ivan III was no small feat, leading his troops to end 240 years of Russian slavery and even the Mongol Golden Horde in 1502.
At this point, Moscow broke free from its shackles and became independent and prosperous.
Ukraine, on the other hand, was not so lucky, having just broken away from Mongol rule and was immediately being targeted by Lithuania.
Ukraine was reluctant to submit, but fell under the combined lithuanian attack with Poland.
But the invaders occupied only western Ukraine, and the eastern region remained autonomous.
The Lithuanian-Polish rulers believed that in order to corrupt the morale of ukrainians, they must be stripped of their faith.
Given that Ukraine was Orthodox, Poland forced them to convert to Catholicism after gaining control.
As a result, the faith gap between the eastern and western parts of Ukraine began to appear, which also caused Western Ukraine to be more pro-European, while Eastern Ukraine was naturally more pro-Russian.
Poland wants to boil frogs in warm water in this way, and call Ukraine to surrender.
Mongol army
But Ukrainians are not vegetarians either, and since there is oppression, there is bound to be resistance.
In 1648, a man named Bogdan raised the anti-flag and decided to drive out Poland and establish his own state.
He did have two brushes, and the following year alone he conquered Kiev and established the Cossack Principality.
But the good times did not last long, and two years later, Poland led the army to fight back, and the rebel army was invincible and could only retreat all the way.
At the end of the road, Bogdan thought of the Russians who were close to his bloodline, hoping that they would help.
Russia was initially reluctant to intervene, but later said it could provide troops on the premise of accepting allegiance, and Ukraine was very happy and busy swearing allegiance.
Russia did send troops to fight Poland, a battle that lasted for 13 years, and finally the Poles felt that the Russians were too tough to gain anything for a long time, so they asked for negotiations.
Eventually, Russia and Poland signed two agreements deciding to divide Ukraine into two parts, with eastern Ukraine under Russian rule and western Ukraine continuing to be ruled by Poland.
Cossack
The spectre of Separatist Ukraine lingers
After that, life in Ukraine did not fare well.
Although Eastern And Western Uzbekistan are governed by different countries, they were once a country, and although the two sides have contradictions from time to time, they are more eager for reunification.
When Russia learned that Eastern Ukraine wanted to merge, it was very annoyed and immediately sent troops to suppress it.
Later, because of his uneasiness, he also reclaimed the autonomy of Eastern Ukraine, and even abolished the Ukrainian language.
The Ukrainian nobility was very dissatisfied and began to rebel against Russia.
In 1708, taking advantage of the war between Russia and Sweden, Ukraine took the opportunity to declare independence and help Sweden fight.
This act was retaliated by Peter the Great, who, upon learning of the Ukrainian defection to the enemy, sent troops to wash the Cossack camp in blood as a warning.
Russia
A year later, the war ended in Russia's victory, and the Ukrainian bamboo basket was empty, not only did it not succeed in independence, but also became the focus of Russia's "care".
Peter the Great carried out a comprehensive colonization strategy in Ukraine, forcing them to accept Russian social models and values.
On the one hand, it assimilated the Ukrainian upper class, and on the other hand, it established the official status of the Russian language and called Ukrainian speakers "hillbills".
At the same time, Peter the Great banned Ukrainians from publishing textbooks, forcing them to change their cultural traditions.
By the end of the 18th century, Tsar Catherine had divided Poland three times and completely annexed all of Ukraine, and for more than a hundred years, Ukraine remained in the palm of Tsarist Russia.
After the dissolution of Tsarist Russia in 1917, the October Revolution broke out shortly after, and the Bolshevik Party came to power.
Peter the Great
Ukraine took advantage of the chaos to form a bourgeois regime called "Rada", which was bent on anti-Russians and wanted to rely on Europeans to win independence because they feared being liquidated.
They took a fancy to germany, which was strong and strong, and expressed their willingness to return grain and agricultural and sideline products in exchange for 450,000 German troops stationed in Ukraine to resist the Soviet Red Army.
Germany pretended to agree, but "Lada" did not know that they had long become the bread in the eyes of European countries, and Germany had another plan to send troops this time.
Sure enough, as soon as Germany entered Ukraine, it overthrew the local government and put pro-German political parties in power, and Ukraine was once again in dire straits.
When the Soviet Red Army heard about it, it sent troops to attack, but because it was unable to resist the invading army, it had to hand over the western Ukraine region to the European countries.
In 1922, Eastern Ukraine entered the Soviet Union as a member state and became a socialist member like Russia.
Soviet Army
Stalin's move was hated by Ukraine
I thought there was hope for life, but during the Soviet era, Ukraine was not happy.
Stalin took an almost brutal approach to transforming the Soviet Union from a poor and weak agrarian country into a modern industrial country, the most famous of which was the sacrifice of agricultural subsidies for industry.
He encouraged the peasants to produce grain, and then told them to hand over all the surplus grain, leaving only the family's rations.
However, in this way, farmers have not only become the most bitter and tired group, but also do not get benefits, and many people are affected by their enthusiasm and unwilling to produce grain.
In this environment, grain production in the Soviet Union fell year by year, domestic contradictions intensified, and the people complained.
Because of Stalin's iron fist, most people dared to be angry, and the Ukrainians resisted particularly fiercely.
Because it sits on one of the world's three largest black land plains, Ukraine has been a major grain producer since ancient times, known as the "granary of Europe".
Stalin
In the face of forced grain expropriation, the enthusiasm of Ukrainians was frustrated, and food production fell sharply, from 1760 tons in 1931 to 1280 tons in 1932.
Although the output declined, the grain that needed to be handed in did not decrease, and some people were hungry and very angry, and even openly called out to Stalin: "I would rather burn the grain than turn it in." ”
The powerful Stalin, of course, could not tolerate this, and in 1932 he exiled a large number of Ukrainian peasants, imprisoned many literati with opinions, and sent 7 million tons of rations from them at low prices.
After the "looting", the per capita grain of Ukrainians is only 1.7 kilograms per month, which is not enough to plug the gaps.
Stalin did not give up, and in order to punish Ukraine, he confiscated the peasants' means of production, including agricultural tools, seeds, etc.
Ukrainians have a good land but cannot cultivate it.
With no food to eat and no way to farm, the Ukrainians had no choice but to flee, but Stalin had already thought of such a scene and sent people to block the way out.
According to statistics, a total of 230,000 peasants fled at that time, but 80% of them were caught and repatriated.
Famine in Ukraine
In order to survive, they had to slaughter livestock to eat meat, and after the livestock were eaten, they began to dig up wild vegetables, and finally even the wild vegetables were eaten, so they had to peel the bark and eat the leaves.
It was in this context that a 22-month famine broke out in Ukraine, in which more than 3 million people died.
This has also become an important reason why Ukrainians hate Russians.
After the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Red Army captured Poland and recaptured Western Ukraine, thus ushering in the unification of Ukraine.
This should have been a good thing, but many nationalists within Ukraine saw the Soviet Union as an enemy and Germany as a friend to help them achieve their freedom.
As a result, there was such a strange scene on the battlefield: many Siwu people became traitors and helped the Germans to sell their lives; the Dongwu people were very pro-Soviet and denounced the Siu people for betraying the country.
There were also those who supported neither the Soviet Union nor Germany, and became the wall-bearers.
After World War II, the Soviet Union stepped up ukraine's industrial build-up, which was originally a remedy to ease ukraine's national sentiment, but because of the influx of Russians, it only intensified the contradictions between the two regions.
Germany during World War II
After independence, relations with Russia became increasingly tense
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukrainians cheered and held a referendum on "deciding whether to implement full autonomy," with 92.3 percent opting for support.
Since then, Ukraine has ended its 337-year history of surviving under the Russian flag, successfully breaking away from Russia and becoming an independent country.
At this time, Ukraine's agriculture was developed, its industrial heritage was also very strong, and it occupied the main transportation routes of Europe and Russia, which could have taken advantage of its advantages to establish an independent and self-reliant country, but the Ukrainian government did not seize the opportunity.
The financial oligarchs adopted a policy of deindustrialization, squeezing the pro-Russian East Ukrainians on the one hand, and desperately trying to overture European countries on the other hand, trying to enter the EU system, but this policy soon plunged Ukraine into internal and external troubles.
East Ukrainians see the suppression of their compatriots as inhumane; European countries cannot accept a powerful Ukraine as a pawn in their own right to clamp down on Russia.
In this way, Ukraine fell into a state of uncertainty, and gradually its originally strong industrial base was depleted, the people's hearts and minds within the country were torn apart, and the entire region became a powder keg that could explode at any time.
Ukrainian people
After Ukraine's independence, pro-Russian and pro-Soviet parties took turns in power, and the contradictions were not so obvious, but since 2014, the pro-Russian president stepped down and the new president leaned closer to Europe, and Russia naturally could not agree with this situation, and the situation between the two countries was once tense.
In 2018, Ukraine directly severed its friendly relations with Russia, and given Ukraine's special geographical location, once it "surrenders" to the enemy, Russia will inevitably suffer losses, which is also the reason why Putin has a tough attitude towards Ukraine recently.
Generally speaking, the struggle between Russia and Ukraine is the accumulation of historical contradictions, and only by first resolving the national contradictions can the relations between the two countries develop by leaps and bounds.