At the beginning of the new year of 2022, the Russo-Ukrainian war has become the focus of the world's attention. While people hate war and yearn for peace, they are also very interested in the historical origins of Russia and Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin once said: There has never been Ukraine in history. This sentence is not a joke of the enemy, but has a certain historical basis.
Today's Poland, Ukraine, and Russia are all former Slavs, and in the 12th century, Battu Khan led the Mongol Iron Horse Crusade to establish the Golden Horde, and the lands of the Slavs were unified for the first time. Since then, Ukraine has been present on the Eastern European continent as a battleground for poles and Russians.
01 Origins of ukrainians: Belonging to the same Ancient Rus ethnic group as Russia, part of Kievan Rus'
In ancient Eastern Europe, there was a very ancient people, that is, the Ancient Rus, who were also the ancestors of the later Slavs. In the middle of the 8th century, Rurik, a Viking born in northern Europe, went on a crusade and occupied the regions including eastern Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, and incorporated them into a unified territory, so Rurik also became the common ancestor of the Slavs, similar to our Chinese Yandi and Yellow Emperors.
After this, Rurik's descendants chose the more geographically advantageous Kiev as the capital (present-day the capital of Ukraine) and established the powerful Principality of Kievan Rus' and occupied most of the Slavs' lives. But because the Principality of Kievan Rus' still had many small Slavic tribes, Kievan Rus' did not unify Eastern Europe.
02 The Mongols established the Golden Horde and were the first to unify Eastern Europe
In the 11th century, the Mongols of East Asia rose rapidly under the rule of Genghis Khan and swept across Eurasia. They first unified all of Mongolia, and then they conquered the Jin Dynasty in the south, greatly increasing their strength. After the increase in strength, the ambitions of the Mongols also increased.
Genghis Khan's grandson Batu Khan led an army to the west, destroyed Kievan Rus', and then unified all of Eastern Europe, established the famous Golden Horde in history, and became the first country to unify Eastern Europe. The first to unify the Slavs were the Mongols! It's really dramatic.
03 Ukrainians have different beliefs and are controlled by Poland and Russia in turn
After the decline of the Golden Horde, Kiev was in the land of four wars, and the political and military situation was more complicated, so some people chose to go north and came to Moscow, developing into the Muscovite Principality, which was later the Russian Empire. The territory of the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe at that time also established the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Poles are Catholic and promote Catholicism in the regions of present-day Ukraine. But most people in Ukraine believe in the same Orthodox Religion as the Russians, so the Ukrainian region has always been a struggle. In the 16th century, Ukraine achieved its first independence with the help of the Russian Empire, which was also the first time that Ukraine appeared in world history.
In the subsequent history, the Ukrainian region has been the focus of the war in Eastern Europe, controlled by Poland and Russia in turn, until the outbreak of World War I and World War II, so that Eastern Europe as a whole was annexed by Nazi Germany, and the infighting among the Slavs was stopped. After World War II, Ukraine was incorporated into the Soviet Union, and with the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine achieved true independence in modern times.
In summary, Eastern Europe was united by the Golden Horde established by the Mongols, and then split into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire, with no Ukrainian presence at all. It is precisely because of the fierce struggle between the two forces that a country like Ukraine has emerged.
In modern times, although Ukraine has achieved national independence, the contradictions caused by religious differences within the country still exist. So the Ukrainian region has been constantly fighting and crisis- Perhaps only when the Ukrainian region achieves true religious unity will the fighting truly stop!