On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order recognizing two regions in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The next day, the Russian army marched to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and the situation between Russia and Ukraine was unprecedentedly tense. There is a very long and intertwined historical plot between Russia and Ukraine, which can be divided into several periods in history, each stage with its own special contradictions and differences.
From 1648 the region of Ukraine
By the end of the Russo-Polish War in 1667, there were various contradictions within Ukraine and between Ukraine and Russia. Today we continue to sort out chronologically how the new enmity between Ukraine and Russia accumulated step by step in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. At first, the Ukrainian Cossack Emirate chose to join Russia in rebellion against Poland, but after the end of the war, Ukraine's autonomy was constantly suppressed by the Tsarist government, which was a highly autonomous politics under the original Russian jurisdiction of philately. The entity was gradually weakened into an ordinary province, causing great dissatisfaction among Ukrainians. During the next 200 years of Tsarist Russia's rule in Ukraine, Russia pursued a policy of assimilation in Ukraine, and the contradictions between the two sides continued to intensify, and relations gradually drifted apart. Ever since the signing of the Andrewsovo Armistice between Russia and Poland in 1667 and the incorporation of Eastern Ukraine into Russia, the Tsarist government has been trying to abolish the ukrainian system of self-government.
Between 1700 and 1721, Tsarist Russia and Sweden fought for control of the Baltic Sea. During the war, the 10,000-yard leader of the Cossacks rebelled against the Russian state of Sweden, fearing dissatisfaction with the Russian Emperor Peter the Great. The real reason for this is difficult to verify today, but it is generally believed that the Cossack army was inferior to the well-equipped Swedish army, Peter I decided to reform the Cossack army, touching the interests of the Cossacks, and Yi Watt was afraid that the request that Russia send troops to protect Ukraine from Swedish aggression was rejected by the Tsar, which violated the provisions of the Periaslav Agreement that Russia was responsible for protecting Ukraine, and Ukraine finally decided to ally with Sweden against Russia. In the previous Russo-Polish War, the Cossack regime repeatedly jumped between Russia and Poland, and Russia had long wanted to reduce Ukraine's autonomy. The rebellion of ten thousand Mazepas provided an opportunity for Peter to outlaw Ukrainian self-government. The Northern War ended with the Russian Sage dominating the Baltic Sea. The 10,000 Magpa who rebelled against Russia were defeated and died of illness. After winning the war, Peter the Great was even more brazen in weakening Ukraine's autonomy.
In May 1722, Peter ordered the establishment of the Little Russian Yakuza in the Ukrainian region, composed of six Russian officers and a prosecutor stationed in Ukraine, who was mainly responsible for supervising the Ukrainian shipbuilding industry and exercising tax and administrative jurisdiction. Peter also ordered that the election of the chief of the Cossack Emirate, which was in charge of Russian diplomacy, be transferred to the Senate. Skropah, who took over the position of 10,000 Mazepa, knew very well that this meant Ukraine's qualifications. Power was hollowed out and became an ordinary province, and he pleaded with Peter to change his decision, but was refused. Skroppa ended in depression, and some Cossack regimental commanders were arrested for writing to the Tsar asking for a re-election of their leaders. Since then, the fate of Ukraine has been linked to the situation at the Russian court.
In 1741, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna came to power and the system of ukrainian autonomy improved.
In 1750, Elizabeth Petrovna decided to resume the election of the head of the Ukrainian Cossack Emirate. The Russian central government of this period rarely interfered in Ukraine's internal affairs. However, this was not because the Tsarist regime realized that Ukraine's right to national autonomy should be recognized, but only because his lover was Cossack.
In 1762, Catherine II ascended the throne, and he did this for 34 years. During his reign, a series of major changes took place in Russia and Ukraine, which eventually led to the basic abolition of Ukraine's autonomy. As soon as Catherine the Great took office, she summoned Rozenovsky, the head of the Cossack Emirate, to instruct him to give up his post. In November 1764, the Empress issued an edict establishing the Little Russian Yamen headed by the Governor-General to replace the Cossack Emirate. The Little Russian Yamen consisted of four Russian officials and four reliable Ukrainians, with the governorship being a Russian nobleman. At this point, the Cossack emirate, which had lasted for more than 100 years, was abolished, and the emirate was completely annexed by the Russian Empire.
From 1768 to 1774, the Fifth Russo-Turkish War broke out in the Ottoman Empire, founded by Russia and the Turks. The war was accompanied by the Pugachev Uprising, the largest peasant uprising in Russian history. Eventually the Turkish army defeated Pugachev, who was also suppressed. Russia seized the opportunity to seize southern Ukraine and gain access to the Sea to the Black Sea. Catherine the Great was so worried by the cossacks' back-and-forth between the various camps over the past hundred years, and in June 1775 he ordered Russian troops to raid the cossacks' fortifications on the rails of their base camp in the lower Dnieper. Some Cossack leaders were banished and repatriated, Cossack lands were occupied by The Russian nobility, and ordinary Cossacks were reduced to serfs.
In 1781, Emperor Catherine abolished the Little Russian Yamen and established three viceroyaltys in Ukraine, Kiev Chernihiv and Novgorod Sheversk, which were set up in exact accordance with the Russian provinces, and the Ukrainian system of autonomy completely disappeared. In 1783, Germany annexed Crimea. In the same year, the Cossack Legion of the Ukrainian Autonomous Unit was abolished, the Cossack Legion was transformed into a gendarmerie as part of the former Russian army, and the Cossacks who failed to enter the Legion became Russian state peasants. During the reign of Catherine II, in order to strengthen his control over Ukraine, he adopted a two-pronged strategy, on the one hand, the implementation of serfdom in Ukraine, the abolition of the right of Ukrainian peasants to expel from the landlords' lands, on the other hand, to win over the Ukrainian nobility, through the promulgation of the edict of aristocratic privileges, so that the Ukrainian nobility enjoyed the same status and power as the Russian nobility, to prevent their dissatisfaction and rebellion against the empress, the policy was very effective, and few Ukrainian nobles rose up against Russian rule. They gradually accept a fact. Ukraine is not an independent state power, but part of the Russian Empire. In order to protect themselves and Ukrainian interests, they should strive to play their part in the Russian Empire.
Eventually, after dividing Poland twice in 1793 and 1795, Russia occupied almost all of Ukraine. After 1795, Russia began to carry out a policy of blackmail throughout Ukraine, using various means to eliminate the possibility of future division of Ukraine. The first is language and thought. For example, in May 1876, Tsar Alexander II signed the Uhms Decree prohibiting the publication of Ukrainian books in the country, prohibiting the flow of Ukrainian books published abroad into the country, prohibiting the theater from performing Ukrainian plays, prohibiting the singing of Ukrainian songs, prohibiting Ukrainian poetry recitals, etc., prohibiting the teaching of Ukraine, strictly selecting teaching staff of various schools, not using Ukraine in Russian residences, and replacing it with Little Russia. The Act was not repealed until 1905. Then there was the educational system, Kharkiv University, ukraine's first institution of higher learning under Russian rule founded in 805 in eastern Ukraine, and St. Vladimir University in Kiev in 1834, both of which were taught in Russian. In Western Ukraine, from the 19th century onwards, in order to reduce the influence of poles on Ukraine, Russian schools in Western Ukraine gradually replaced Polish teaching with Russian. In particular, after the Polish National Uprising of 1830 and 1831, all Polish language schools in new Ukraine were closed. Finally, in the area of religion, Western Ukraine has long been under Polish rule, and many Ukrainians are Catholic. At first, Germany was tolerant of the Greek Catholic Church, but after the Catholic elite supported the Polish national uprising, the Tsarist government shut down the Greek Catholic Church in the territory, transferred the diocese to the Russian Orthodox Church, and banned religious schools in Western Ukraine. However, this had little essential impact on eastern Ukraine, where most people retained the Orthodox tradition. In this way, Ukraine was oppressed and ruled by Russia for 200 years.
The Russian Revolution of 1917, the February Revolution of 1917 and the October Revolution of 1917 overthrew the tsarist government, and Ukraine fell into four years of chaos. During this period, German, Austro-Hungarian Provisional Government forces, the Russian Red Army and the Denikin White Army allied and Polish armies took turns in Appearing in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people have also tried to achieve national independence with the help of external forces, but all external forces only want to control the Ukrainian land and cannot support Ukraine to become an independent sovereign state. The Ukrainians' good aspirations for national independence were thus dashed in the smoke of war. The knowledge and understanding of this part of the historical period of Ukraine under the rule of Tsarist Russia is very different between Ukraine and Russia today. Many Ukrainians believe that Russia first violated the relevant provisions of the 1654 Periaslav suspicion and gradually transformed Ukraine into an ordinary province with a high degree of autonomy under Russian jurisdiction, and even colonized Ukraine. Some Ukrainian history textbooks, although they do not directly use the term colonial comrade, also believe that there is national exploitation and oppression in Russian rule over Ukraine. The Russians disagreed, believing that Ukraine was part of Russia and that there was no such thing as colonial rule. Territorially, the places where Ukrainian ancestors lived were, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, either Russian land, some voluntarily incorporated into Russian territory, such as the eastern part of Ukraine, and some were developed after being annexed by Russia because of the war, such as the present-day Donesk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. The Russians believe that it is precisely because of the fate of historical Russia that Ukraine was saved from being enslaved by the Polish rulers, maintaining the stability of Ukrainian society, and even without Russian intervention, Danping, Ukraine's own power is difficult to establish an independent sovereign state in the cracks between the great powers, let alone expand its territory to the surrounding areas. It is precisely because of the continuous expansion of Russia in history that today's Ukraine has a vast territory, and its economy and culture have also developed. The 200 years that Tsarist Russia ruled Ukraine. A series of contradictions and differences arising from the issue of Ukraine's autonomy and sovereignty have deeply affected the relations between Russia and Ukraine in the future. Since the February Revolution and the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, when the Tsarist rule was overthrown, Ukraine experienced a series of changes, from chaos to independent statehood, and was once again divided into half of the land due to the Russian Civil War, until it joined the Soviet Union as a member of Ukraine in 1921, and was temporarily stabilized. But soon new events took place, adding to the already discordant Relations between Russia and Ukraine. Do you know in what year Ukraine last became independent? Please let us know in the message area. Please don't forget to like the subscription, support it!