When you think of Ukraine today, all you can think of is the Liaoning and the beauty, or the label of "The Poorest Country in Europe".
But you know what? The country was once the "second prince of the Soviet Union", and after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine's nuclear military capabilities ranked among the top three in the world.
At the same time, the country also has the nickname of "the granary of Europe", not only surrounded by rivers and seas, but also located in the plains.
2/3 of the country's land is fertile black soil, and even at one time some people said: whether Europeans can eat enough, Ukraine has the final say.
So how strong was a country with such a brilliant starting point at its peak? And how did it go from step to decline?
Endless Splendor: The Heir to a Fruitful Property
As the largest republic of the former Soviet Union except Russia, Ukraine's status in the former Soviet Union is already very high, and some people even call it the "second prince of the Soviet Union".
It was also a forward position in the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, and a large number of military weapons were deployed.
Because of this, when the former Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the member states began to follow the principle of "whoever belongs to him on his turf".
When it came time to divide the family property, Ukraine made a lot of money, at least 30% of the military heritage.
Some people may think that 30% is not much, here we use data to give you the answer.
That 30 percent includes 176 icing ballistic missiles, more than 300 large ships, 1,500 aircraft, more than 6,000 tanks, and nearly 800,000 troops.
In addition, Ukraine also got the Map 160 strategic bomber and the aircraft carrier that had not yet been built, which the United States was afraid of.
Such a luxurious military lineup, in the world at that time, it is no exaggeration to say that the world is third.
Do you think this is the end?
No, these are only a tiny fraction of the legacy of the former Soviet Union.
What is truly precious is the more than 3 million military personnel deployed in Ukraine by the former Soviet Union and more than 3,000 defense and military industrial units.
Among these military units, there are many "industry predators" who are well-known all over the world.
For example, the "Southern Machinery Factory", which is known as the star of spaceflight.
You may not feel it just by listening to the name, but in fact, this is the largest missile production base in the former Soviet Union.
More than half of the Soviet Union's intercontinental missiles were produced here, including even the famous Satanic series.
In addition, there is a large number of high-end rocket technologies in this southern machinery factory, with which Ukraine can stand at the forefront of the field and attract the coveted attention of other developed countries.
Next, let's take a look at the Madasic company, which is known as the "power czar".
Its main task is to provide advanced aero engines for all kinds of aircraft, such as the Su-27 fighter, most of which are produced here.
Whoever can master this company will be able to master the powerful engine technology of the former Soviet Union, and its air force strength will make a qualitative leap.
Until 2020, the mainland still did not give up the acquisition of this company.
Although it did not succeed due to the interference of the United States and Russia, it can also be seen how popular the company is in the market.
Finally, let's look at the three main enterprises that built up the Soviet Army, navy and air force: the Nikolaev Shipyard, the Kharkiv Molozov Mechanical Design Bureau, and the Antonov Design Bureau.
Nicholas Shipyard also has a name called Black Sea Shipyard.
Founded as early as 1897 in the Tsarist era, its in-house designers were as high as 25,000 people, ranking the entire European in scale.
At the same time, this is also the only place where the former Soviet Union can build aircraft carriers, such as the predecessor of the Liaoning on the mainland, the Varyag, which actually came from there.
The main task of the Kharkiv Morozov Mechanical Design Bureau is to design various types of tanks.
In the absence of tanks in the Soviet Union, the designers built the first tank here, and the T34 tank that won the Great Patriotic War was also from this.
As for the final Antonov Design Bureau, it was very accomplished in aircraft design.
In the 1980s they even built the largest aircraft to date, the An-225 transport aircraft.
Not only can it reach 250 tons per load, but it can also fly in stormy weather, breaking the shackles of traditional transport aircraft and enjoying a high reputation in the industry.
Because of this, many people say that Ukraine is truly inheriting the essence of the former Soviet Union.
If Ukraine can make good use of this rich legacy, not to say that it can replace the former Soviet Union and become an adversary of the United States, at least it will not be much inferior to Russia, and it can even rank at the forefront of the world.
Moreover, in addition to this "main dish", the former Soviet Union also left Ukraine with an "after-dinner dessert", making Ukraine more and more glorious.
And this dessert is exactly what we said earlier, "excellent location and good economic conditions".
Its land area ranks second in Europe, and its population area ranks fifth in Europe, with a lot of room for development.
Coupled with the country's well-established industrial system and abundant natural resources, after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine can be said to be the "chosen son".
What is puzzling is that in just a few decades, Ukraine, which started with a good hand, lost cleanly.
Not only have a large number of women in the country been lured into working as prostitutes in other countries, but even this country has become the "poorest country in Europe"
What's going on here?
Extreme Ruin: 5 slides sent into the abyss
As the saying goes, freezing three feet is not a cold day, and ukraine's ruin is not caused by a single reason.
If we insist on going back to the roots, we can roughly see the reasons for 5 aspects - the laying down of weapons, political turmoil, official corruption, vague positions, and fraternal walls.
First, the most incomprehensible and wrong thing Ukraine has done is to voluntarily destroy a large number of nuclear weapons.
After the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, everyone else envied Ukraine for picking up a large inheritance in vain, but Ukraine itself had words of suffering.
In that international environment, Ukraine simply did not have the opportunity to take advantage of the expansion of these weapons, that is, there were empty weapons but no place to use them.
These weapons, if not used, would place a great burden on Ukraine, the simplest of which would be the cost of maintenance and repair.
In order to reduce the burden, the Ukrainian government decided to sell these weapons.
However, because most of the Soviet-style weapons inherited by Ukraine are incompatible with American weapons, most Western countries led by the United States do not buy them.
At that time, the mainland had a strong desire to buy, but due to the obstruction of the United States, the order between the mainland and Ukraine could not be achieved in the end.
Seeing that Ukraine was in trouble, the United States took the initiative to come up with an idea, that is, to destroy the weapons.
In order to move Ukraine, the United States said that it was willing to provide ukraine with certain military assistance, and even gave Ukraine an additional sum of money to develop the economy.
This practice of the United States is obviously to remove the wings of Ukraine, but Ukraine was eventually moved by the United States.
Not only did it dismantle aircraft carriers, nuclear warheads, missile silos, and strategic bombers, but it became a non-nuclear country.
It also slashed the number of troops, which fell from 800,000 to 100,000.
As a result, military spending is less, but Ukraine also has no ability to protect itself.
The United States, on the other hand, is also ruthless and does not take the original promise to heart at all.
Even Russia's fight against Ukraine is no taboo, as evidenced by Russia's initial invasion of Crimea.
Secondly, the situation in Ukraine is very turbulent.
In a small land, there are 198 political parties, and they are roughly divided into two factions, pro-Russian and pro-American.
This directly led to the Loss of Control of the Ukrainian Government at home, the rise and fall of the leaders is commonplace, and the United States and Russia intervened without any problems, and Ukraine can be said to be crying without tears.
Official corruption is also an important reason for Ukraine's decline.
Most of the presidents elected by this country have "people behind their backs", and after taking office, instead of trying to deal with corrupt officials, they want to seek their own interests.
Officials at the bottom followed the above, and the overall political environment naturally became worse and worse.
Moreover, Ukraine's position is extremely vague, which is very fatal for a country that is not strong enough.
Sandwiched between Russia and the United States, Ukrainian government officials are always on the left and right, and their attitude towards both sides is ambiguous.
But in the end, instead of getting enough benefits, it also offended both ends.
Because of geopolitics, Ukraine cannot fully move closer to the United States, which will always be wary of the country.
In addition, due to special relations, Russia also has no good feelings for Ukraine, and it will fight Ukraine at every opportunity.
As for the last point, the "brotherly wall" involves the strong historical ties of the former Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine.
Complex roots: a journey of development in Ukraine
It is true to say that Russia and Ukraine are brothers, except that both were once part of the former Soviet Union, and that the two had forged a relationship as early as the 9th century AD.
However, this origin did not make the two love each other, and eventually the two countries embarked on the road of confrontation.
In the ninth century, Kievan Rus rose rapidly, but unfortunately the country was later divided into 12 small states.
One of the small states went through all the twists and turns and eventually became Tsarist Russia, and the Ukrainian people were not so lucky.
They were unfortunately placed on the map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Duchy of Poland, which would not exist today if it had not been for the uprising of the Ukrainian people in 1648.
During its confrontation with Poland, Ukraine appealed to Russia several times for help, and eventually merged into Tsarist Russia in the 18th century.
The Ukrainian people thought they had ushered in the spring, but Peter the Great abolished the right of local autonomy in Ukraine and deeply exploited them.
So much so that Ukraine privately pinned the Swedish alliance to obtain democratic freedoms, but the news was eventually leaked, not only did the plan fail, but the Tsar also directly bloodied the Cossack camps in Ukraine.
This is the first blood account between Russia and Ukraine.
After the February Revolution, Tsarist Russia collapsed, and Ukraine boarded German thieves' ships, at the cost of large quantities of grain and agricultural and sideline products, in exchange for 450,000 German troops to help it resist the Soviet armed regime.
As a result, although the German army arrived as scheduled, it turned its face and did not recognize anyone, and directly overthrew the ukrainian central government and established a puppet regime.
Poland and the Soviet Union later stepped in, and Ukraine went through several twists and turns, eventually western Ukraine was annexed by Germany and Poland.
Finally, in 1922 Ukraine returned to the Soviet family, and with the help of the Soviet Union, it recaptured the western Ukraine region in 1939.
I thought that a happy life had begun, but I did not expect that Stalin, in order to promote the country's heavy industry, directly turned the European granary into his own granary.
Leaving only a few meager rations for the Ukrainian peasants, and the rest demanding that they all be suppressed, the Ukrainian people rose up in resistance, preferring to burn the grain rather than hand it over to Stalin.
The end result was that Stalin directly blockaded the periphery of Ukraine, and did not collect a large number of production materials and all the grain.
It didn't take long for Ukraine to start a massive famine with numerous deaths and injuries, the second bloody account between Russia and Ukraine.
It is precisely for this reason that after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine fell into the arms of the Western camp led by the United States without any nostalgia.
Russia is naturally also angry about this "traitor", but what makes Russia even more angry is that Ukraine only wants to inherit property and does not want to bear debts.
In the end, Russia and Ukraine signed a zero-point plan, in which Ukraine would neither inherit the property of the former Soviet Union nor bear debts.
Of course, the armaments that fall on Ukraine's borders can only be left to Ukraine.
Perhaps from this time on, the decline of Ukraine has been decided, because Ukraine at that time had a large number of military forces, but failed to inherit the economic property that matched it.
This directly led Ukraine to fall into the situation of "no money with weapons", and with the several important reasons we mentioned above, the glorious Ukraine eventually fell step by step, and the "second prince of the Soviet Union" was also reduced to "the poorest country in Europe", which is really sad and regrettable.