Historical feud between Russia and Ukraine

Historical feud between Russia and Ukraine

Broad and far

On February 24, 2022, under the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian troops crossed the border from three directions and launched an offensive against Ukraine using the means of modern warfare. In just a few days, a large number of military installations in Ukraine were destroyed, and the vanguard forces were already close to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. For a time, the international community set off a monstrous wave, protesting, sanctioning, opposing, supporting, and all kinds of voices were heard endlessly. In our country, there have also been two groups with diametrically opposed attitudes, some singing praises and some cursing women, quarreling on the Internet. When I was drinking at noon, a friend forced me to make my point of view clear, so I read them a poem: Boiled beans burn beans, beans cry in the kettle. Ben is born from the same root, and he is too anxious to fry.

As soon as you read this poem, you should understand that Russia and Ukraine were originally one family in history.

Indeed it is. Historically, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians had a common ancestor, that is, the East Slavs, it should be said that they were of the same origin and blood.

East Slavs were born on both sides of the Dnieper River in present-day Ukraine, and in the ninth century AD, East Slavs founded a state on the plains of Eastern Europe called Kievan Rus' . Its core area is large, including Kiev, the capital of present-day Ukraine.

From the ninth century to the thirteenth century, for more than four hundred years, Kievan Rus' was the hegemon of this land, and they not only established political power, but also created a splendid culture, and through continuous conquest, they established great feats. After that, they continued to expand to the east and north, and gradually came to Russia and Belarus. So, putin said that Russians and Ukrainians were one and the same, and there is really no problem in history. This glorious history has also become a good memory of Russia and Ukraine, both of which claim to be the historical successors of Kievan Rus' and Rus'.

In 988 AD, the ruler of Kievan Rus' and Archduke Vladimir officially established Orthodoxy as the state religion, and since then the East Slavs have regarded Orthodoxy as an orthodox belief, and to this day in Russia, it is still Orthodox.

By the 13th century, Kievan Rus' power began to decline due to struggles within the ruling class. At this time in the east, Genghis Khan, a generation of proud Genghis Khan, was leading the Mongol army to the west, the warhorses roared, across Europe and Asia, and soon occupied Kievan Rus'.

But the Mongol Empire was a people on horseback, accustomed to nomadic life, so it was not able to rule effectively over Kievan Rus', but only occupied the eastern region closer to them as its vassal state, while the southwestern region farther away from them was left alone. This provided an opportunity for the two kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania, which were in close proximity, and the two countries took the opportunity to send troops to occupy these places and jointly establish the Polish-Lithuanian Republic. At this point, the historically unified Kievan Rus' was divided into two precincts, which included later Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Although the eastern region became a vassal state of the Mongol Empire, due to the empire's ability to manage it, it was too difficult to compliment, and soon the region fell into an era of feudal division. Among these princes, from the 14th century onwards, the Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually rose, and by the end of Mongol rule, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, with its fierce fighting power, finally defeated the Mongol Iron Horse and established an independent state. This is the prototype of Today's Russia.

By 1547, ivan IV, the ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, crowned himself tsar, and thus the Russian Empire was officially born, and in the following centuries, began an active territorial expansion. The fierce fighting nation continued to conquer, and its territory continued to expand, eventually becoming a veritable Tsarist Empire.

Meanwhile, the southwestern region of Kievan Rus' is a different fate. The allied kingdoms of Poland and Lithuania firmly controlled the fate of the peoples of the region, and the southwestern region occupied by this allied kingdom was almost all of what would later be Ukraine.

The occupied Ukrainians, of course, were not convinced, and seeing that their former brother Russia had become an empire, could they not be envious, and they also resolutely launched a rebellion for this reason.

However, due to the weakness of the situation and the brutal suppression of the Polish and Lithuanian kingdoms, the resistance was ineffective and was completely blocked. At this time, the Ukrainians thought of their brother Russia, who is now a big brother country, and ask them to help, they will certainly be able to gain independence.

So in 1654, the Ukrainians signed an agreement with Tsarist Russia, the core of which was that Ukraine would accept the protection of Tsarist Russia and the two countries would form an alliance.

After the agreement was signed, Tsarist Russia launched a war with the Poles. By the 18th century, Tsarist Russia had finally driven the Poland and Lithuanians out of Ukraine, but Ukraine did not gain independence, but was incorporated into its own territory by Tsarist Russia.

In order to achieve the goal of long-term occupation of Ukraine, the Russian Empire strictly restricted the language and culture of Ukraine during his reign, and even banned the publication of books in Ukrainian and the singing of Ukrainian songs. In particular, the privileges of the nobility were restricted, and the autonomy of Ukraine was abolished. In addition, the Russian nobility took away the land of Ukrainian self-employed peasants and forced them to become serfs. Peter the Great also arranged for troops to be stationed in Ukraine to extinguish the rebellion at any time, which sowed the seeds of national hatred.

For the Ukrainians, the annexation of Tsarist Russia not only did not have a good life, but also suffered repression and restrictions everywhere, so the Ukrainians were very dissatisfied and soon regretted it, so they took the initiative to find their former suzerainty, Poland, signed an agreement, and returned to the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom. Note that this is the first time in history that two countries, Russia and Ukraine, have a huge contradiction.

Although Ukraine has returned to the past, after this toss, its internal contradictions have become more and more obvious. The inhabitants of eastern Ukraine, because of their proximity to Russia, are the same in language and habits, and even religious beliefs, so they are reluctant to leave Russia, and this situation continues to this day, so it should not be surprised at all when the eastern regions of Ukraine declared independence and fell to Russia.

The western part of Ukraine, not only different from the eastern language, the western part is dominated by Ukrainian, and because of the long-term rule of Poland, a large part of the people have different beliefs, they do not believe in Orthodoxy, and they believe in Catholicism, and the culture and customs are more inclined to Europe. This is why Ukraine is now bent on joining the European Union and NATO.

It is precisely because of the differences in the language, beliefs and living habits of the people in the east and the west, as well as some grievances in history, that the contradictions between the east and the west in Ukraine have continued to this day, sowing the seeds for the division of the country.

Later, Ukraine was divided many times by Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary, and Germany, and never really became independent.

By the time of the Soviet Union, the rest of Ukraine, with the exception of Western Ukraine, as a whole, had joined the Soviet Union and became a union republic. It was not until 1939, when World War II broke out, that the Soviet Union invaded Poland and soon occupied what is now Belarus and Western Ukraine, and ukraine was reunited, but it was clear that it was under Soviet control.

If during the period of Tsarist Rule, there was a great contradiction between the Ukrainian people and the Russian Empire, then during the period of Soviet rule, due to the many policy mistakes made by the Soviet decision-making level on the Ukrainian issue, this contradiction was not only not digested, but more prominent, and the Ukrainians were extremely dissatisfied with the Soviet Union for a long time.

In the early 1930s, in order to quickly complete the industrialization of the Soviet Union, Stalin formulated a general policy for the country to exchange grain for machinery, and Ukraine was historically a big grain producing country, so this grain was mainly exported from Ukraine. To this end, the Soviet government disregarded the lives of the people and frantically requisitioned and even snatched grain from Ukraine. Between 1932 and 1933, coinciding with natural disasters, there was a great famine in all 44 districts of Ukraine. According to Western scholars, during the Great Famine in Ukraine, about 5 million to 7 million people starved to death. Former Ukrainian President Yushchenko has publicly stated that Ukraine during the Great Famine "starved at least a quarter of its population, a planned genocide in the former Soviet Union."

Moreover, the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 made the Ukrainian people extremely disgusted with the Soviet government. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located in Ukraine, just 130 km from Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. After the worst nuclear accident in history, the Soviet government was slow to respond and deliberately withheld information, resulting in a serious and artificial expansion of the destructive power of the nuclear accident. According to statistics, 7,000 clean-up workers died in the 7 years after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. More than 300,000 of the workers involved in the rescue have died of radiation injuries. Nuclear radiation that year caused at least 1 million deaths worldwide.

All these manifestations have caused ukrainians' dissatisfaction with the Soviet Union to rise to hatred. In 1991, with the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ukrainians finally had the opportunity to break away from the Soviet Union and become an independent country. Strictly speaking, this is the first time that Ukraine has truly achieved statehood.

After Ukraine's independence, for a long time, Ukraine did not take the anti-Russian line. Although the two countries have been conflicted over the ownership of the Crimean Peninsula, the use of the Black Sea Fleet base, and the energy transportation channel, the relationship has not yet broken down.

However, 2014 was a sudden change. The pro-Russian Ukrainian president was deposed by the parliament, pro-European forces took to the stage, and the contradictions between Russia and Ukraine quickly intensified. But in a strict sense, this is not a contradiction between Russia and Ukraine, but a contradiction between Russia and the entire Western hostile forces led by the United States, and Ukraine is only one of the pawns. It is just that this chess piece is too ostentatious, and it is impossible not to annoy Russia by inviting russia's enemies to the door and putting it on the doorstep of Russia. Like the Cuban Missile Crisis of that year, didn't the Americans react as strongly as they did?

This is why Russia and Ukraine are moving towards each other today in history and reality.