During this period, the most exciting thing in the international community was the situation in Russia and Ukraine. As we all know, during the Soviet period, Russia and Ukraine can be said to be fraternal countries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the development direction of Russia and Ukraine diverged. The West has a fear of Russia and wants to weaken it in more ways. In order to develop its own economy, Ukraine has always wanted to join NATO, which is obviously intolerable for Russia. After a long period of game, the contradictions between the two countries were still not well regulated, and eventually conflicts broke out.
The "legacy" left after the collapse of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union was once a superpower alongside the United States, but the backward economy, the rigidity of the system, and the competition with the Western countries led by the United States led to the increasingly acute contradictions within the Soviet Union, and eventually to the point of irreconcilability, this once the world's premier power, finally failed to persist. In 1991, Gorbachev announced the collapse of the Soviet Union, after which the Soviet Union split into several countries.
As the largest country in the alliance, Russia inherited almost all of the political legacy of the Soviet Union and retained its status as a world power. In addition, although most of the military legacy left by the Soviet Union was inherited by Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan also inherited a part, of which Ukraine received thousands of nuclear warheads, military equipment from the army, navy and air force, and a small part of the arsenal.
Theoretically, after inheriting so many military forces, Ukraine should have more say in the international community, but obviously this is not the case, not to mention the status in the international community, within Ukraine, there are constant disputes, divided into pro-Russian and pro-European regions, then, how can such a problem arise?
Internal strife in Ukraine
Ukraine is not particularly large, smaller than the qinghai area of the mainland, but it is such a large place that it was once called the granary of Europe. Why?
It turns out that Western Ukraine has fertile black land, which is also one of the three major regions in the world where black land is mainly distributed, and this black land is concentrated in the northern region of Ukraine, so the products here are very rich. Ukraine's western border with European countries such as Poland and Belarus to the north means that their food market is mainly the European Union. Economic relations coupled with geographical factors, the connection between the northern region of Ukraine and the European Union will naturally be closer.
Eastern Ukraine is different, which was originally a heavy industrial region, that is to say, there are many "legacies" left by the Soviet Union, which are in the same vein as Russia, and the southeast region is close to Russia and the Black Sea, so that southeast Ukraine naturally has a closer relationship with Russia.
The EU countries have different political demands and are not consistent with Russia's political demands, and the EU is afraid that Russia will become strong again and become a giant country like the Soviet Union. Therefore, with Ukraine, which is better on both sides, there will naturally be some internal disputes, on the one hand, the pro-European region, they prefer to join the EU or even NATO; on the other hand, the pro-Russian region, they will not buy the EU so much.
So, how are eastern and western Ukraine divided? In fact, this has something to do with Ukraine's mother river. We know that the Yellow River is called our mother river, and the mother river of Ukraine is the Dnieper River. The river is 2285 km long, and with this as its boundary, Ukraine is divided into two parts, namely Eastern Ukraine and Western Ukraine. Coincidentally, most of the inhabitants of Western Ukraine are ethnic Ukrainians, while the main inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine are ethnic Russians. Although it is the same country, it has different races and different political tendencies, so why is this coincidence happening? We can draw this answer from history.
Same origins, different developments
Although Russia and Ukraine have now become different countries and divided into different peoples, historically, they have also come from the Rus' civilization.
In 862 AD, the Rus' left Northern Europe and came to the territory of the Slavs, where they established a dynasty, the first dynasty in Russian history, the Rurik Dynasty, and during the long migration, the capital of the dynasty was transferred to Kiev, which also became the center of dynastic civilization, so this dynasty was also known as "Kievan Rus'"
Kievan Rus' is somewhat similar to the Zhou Dynasty on the mainland, a divided feudal state. This meant that once a certain Grand Duke of Kievan Rus was not enough to deter the forces below, the principality would split.
Sure enough, after nearly two hundred years of continuing, Kievan Rus' inevitably embarked on the path of division. By 1054, before the Mongols had invaded, Kievan Rus' had split into small principalities.
Genghis Khan established the Great Mongol State, and after his death, the heirs Wokoutai and Möngke underwent two western expeditions and occupied a wider land. After Möngke's death, the Mongol Empire split, including the Yuan Dynasty and the Four Khanates. Historically, the Mongol Empire has launched three western expeditions, the first in 1219, led by Genghis Khan. It was in this year that the Duchy of Lithuania was established, and when the Mongols came, in order to avoid becoming slaves of the Mongols, many Rus' principalities joined the Lithuanian Principality, including Ukraine.
The Second Western Expedition of the Mongol Empire was initiated by Battus, and this time the Golden Horde's Western Expedition was a complete victory, resulting in many, and most of the Rus' Principalities were forced to submit to the Golden Horde. That is, numerous Rus' principalities were in fact ruled by different civilizations, partly influenced by the Golden Horde and partly by Western European culture. Although the origins are the same, from this time on, they have been thinking of different directions of development.
The rise of Russia, the struggle of Ukraine
Over time, in the areas controlled by the Golden Horde, the Muscovite Principality grew stronger and unified the eastern Russian state, and the ruler of the Muscovite Principality, who called himself the Tsar, claimed to inherit the legacy of the Roman Empire and shifted the original center of civilization from Kiev to Moscow, which is the source of Russia.
After the rise of the Muscovite Principality, it soon defeated the Golden Horde and became the real master of the land, and the Rus' who lived in the land gradually became ethnic Russians. But ukraine suffered the opposite, they did not have the strength to defeat the Lithuanian principality that "sheltered" themselves, they never really had a country of their own, and the Rus' people living in the Ukrainian region gradually divided into Ukrainians.
Everyone likes to call Russia a "fighting nation", which is mainly due to the long-term foreign conquest and expansion of the Russian ethnic group in history, whether it is the Principality of Moscow or Tsarist Russia, although the area is not small, but most of the land in the country is really a little barren, and Lithuania and Poland, which are rich in land resources, have become Russia's targets.
The two countries, forced by Russia, chose to form the "Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth", perhaps as a sign of good faith, and Lithuania divided the Ukrainian region under its jurisdiction to Poland. This division led to problems within the Federation.
Originally, although Russia's strength was not bad, it should be known that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth once became the hegemon of Europe, and its strength was naturally not weak, so Russia has not been able to achieve its goals.
But as Ukraine was divided into Poland, due to cultural conflicts and different beliefs, the Ukrainian region was more severely oppressed and exploited, and the so-called "not to erupt in silence, but to perish in silence". Finally, Ukraine broke out, and the national independence movement continued to unfold.
The differentiation of Ukraine
Although Ukraine has always insisted on struggle, after all, its own strength is weak, and it can only fight again and again, and be suppressed again and again. In desperation, they chose to ask Russia for help. Ukraine is taking the right step, but it is also wrong.
Russia can indeed support Ukraine, but they also want to take the Ukrainian region for themselves, and even want more land, so with Ukraine as a springboard, the situation in Europe has been stirred up, the Lithuanian capital has been burned to rubble, and Ukraine and Belarus have become Russia's palms. Just as Russia was victorious, Sweden jumped out and wanted to annex Poland. Naturally, Russia did not want Europe to rise as another power, so it chose to cease war with Poland and attack Sweden.
The emergence of Sweden also gave Poland a breathing space, and although it was temporarily allied with Russia, there was no threat of national subjugation. The situation changed again after the death of Ukraine's then-chief, who identified more with Western European culture and therefore embraced Ukraine. The "Principality of Rus'" he established chose to conclude a peace pact with Poland, which provoked opposition from pro-Russian factions within Ukraine.
Subsequently, the Turkish Empire and the Crimean Empire joined the battlefield. In just two years, the situation changed several times, and finally Russia's dream of annexing Ukraine was shattered, so it could only retreat to the second place, sign a contract with Poland, bound by the Dnieper River, and east and west Ukraine were allocated to Russia and Poland respectively.
After Catherine II ascended the throne, the autonomy of eastern Ukraine that had maintained a hundred years of autonomy was broken, and people here needed to learn the Russian language, which also laid the groundwork for ukraine's internal disputes. During the reign of Catherine II, Poland fell and Ukraine was completely part of Russia. As the only female Tsar known as the Emperor, Catherine the Great, Tsarist Russia was in power in Europe. It is also in history that Russia has left too many shadows on Europe, so western Europe today is very jealous of russia's rise.
Break free from the whirlpool
After World War I, in order to limit Germany's development, Poland, which had once been destroyed, was restored again, and then Poland was dissatisfied with the existing territory and wanted to take back the Western Ukraine that had once belonged to it.
At this time, the October Revolution in Russia had passed, and it was Soviet power that was in power, and although Russia had become a socialist state by this time, its militant nature had not changed. However, this war still did not escape the defeat, and finally had to seek peace and divide Ukraine again with Poland.
By 1939, the Soviet Union was already very powerful, and it had agreed with Germany to send troops to divide Poland, and by this time, Western Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine had merged, and Belarus had also been incorporated into the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union was indeed the world's premier power, but for the Ukrainians, they did not make their lives better by becoming part of the great power, especially because of the mistakes of the Soviet government's decision-making, and Ukraine directly suffered the consequences, the Great Famine. In addition, whether it was during the Stalin period or later Gorbachev, Ukraine has experienced great turmoil, which has also made Ukrainians have a strong dissatisfaction with the Soviet Union.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Ukraine also became independent, dividing up a lot of the Soviet Union's legacy, but because of the pressure from Both Russia and the United States, coupled with the poor domestic financial situation, Ukraine could only choose to destroy nuclear weapons, resulting in a significant reduction in its military strength and temporarily losing the possibility of becoming a great power.
Eastern and western Ukraine, on the other hand, have long been influenced by different cultures, with different beliefs and different political tendencies, and although they have not split into two countries, they have internal differences between pro-Russian and pro-European factions.
For the people of Eastern Ukraine, they think that when they were Russians, they always want to return to the arms of Russia; while the Western Ukrainians think that they are Western Europeans, they also want to join the European Union and even NATO, and better develop themselves economically and militarily.
Conclusion
Russia and Ukraine originally had the same fate, but Russia seized the opportunity to rise up and resist. After the rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Russia has changed from a pawn to a chess player, and its identity has undergone a huge transformation. Ukraine, on the other hand, has not been able to do so, and has always been ruled, and even if it resists, it needs to rely on the power of a third party. Coupled with the long separation of Eastern and Western Ukraine, although it eventually merged into a country, there were still great differences in thinking, and perhaps it was precisely because of this that the complex situation within Ukraine was created.
Today's Ukraine, although it is already an independent country, the reason for its independence is more the result of the game between Western countries and Russia. This difference will be caused, and perhaps at the time of the initial differentiation, the influence they received was very different.