One article to get it done – a brief history of Ukraine
In 862 AD, the East Slavs established a kingdom, the Rurik Dynasty, note: the founder of the Rurik was an N-lineage haplogroup. The dynasty later occupied Kiev (now the capital of Ukraine) and established Kievan Rus' .
Around the 10th century AD, The East Slavic tribes combined to form the Ancient Rus tribe. In the 12th-14th centuries, the Ancient Rus tribe gradually split into three branches: Russians, Ukrainians and White Rus'. Therefore, today's Russia, Belarus, ukraine, all regard Kievan Rus' as the beginning of their own national history.
In 1240, the Mongol Expedition to the West captured Kiev, and Kievan Rus' collapsed. In the centuries that followed, Ukrainian lands were invaded by Germans, Turks, and ruled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland.
In 1480, the Russians succeeded in unifying the northeastern part of Kievan Rus' and establishing the Principality of Moscow. In 1547, Ivan IV, Grand Duke of Moscow, was crowned Tsar, and the empire he established was Tsarist Russia, or Tsarist Russia for short.
In 1648, an uprising broke out among Ukrainians who were under Polish rule. They asked for help from Tsarist Russia and expressed their willingness to obey the leadership of Tsarist Russia. In 1654, the Ukrainians signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav with the Russian Tsar, inviting Tsarist Russia to rule Ukraine, and also began the history of alliance between Ukraine and Russia.
Russia fought a bloody 13-year war with Poland, and finally won, signing the Treaty of Andrewsovo. Ukraine was divided in two, with Russia acquiring eastern Ukraine and Poland continuing to occupy western Ukraine.
For more than three hundred years after ruling Eastern Ukraine, Russia vigorously promoted Russian culture and exported religion and values in Eastern Ukraine, and Eastern Ukraine gradually integrated with the Russian Empire, and the differences with Western Ukraine became more and more different.
In the 18th century, the Russian Empire continued to expand. By 1795, the rest of Ukraine was under the Russian Empire.
After the October Revolution of 1917, Soviet power of a socialist nature was established in eastern Ukraine and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was established. During the period of foreign armed intervention from 1918 to 1920, Western Ukraine was once again divided and reoccupied by Poland.
In 1922, the Soviet Union was formed, and Eastern Ukraine joined the Union, becoming one of the founding members of the Soviet Union. Under the Treaty of Riga signed between Poland and the Soviet Union, Western Ukraine became Polish territory.
In August 1939, When World War II broke out, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, and the two countries divided and occupied Poland. Western Ukraine, which belonged to Poland, was again united with the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Eastern Ukraine).
On June 22, 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out and Germany occupied all of Ukraine. In November 1944, the Soviets returned to Ukraine in a strategic counteroffensive. Throughout World War II, the Ukrainian region became the hardest hit area of the war, with heavy casualties among soldiers and civilians.
In 1954, in order to celebrate the three hundred years of Russia's alliance with Ukraine, Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine, and Crimea became a ukrainian territory.
In 1985, when Gorbachev came to power, the contradictions accumulated in the history and reality of the Soviet Union began to surface, nationalist and separatist tendencies rose rapidly, and Ukraine began its steps of independence.
On August 24, 1991, the Ukrainian government issued a declaration of national independence, officially declaring independence from the Soviet Union. On December 8, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus signed the Belovezh Agreement in Minsk, declaring the collapse of the Soviet Union. At this point, Ukraine ended its 337-year history of alliance with Russia and became an independent country.
Because Western Ukraine has not been ruled by Russia for a long time, it has become the birthplace of Ukrainian nationalism. Eastern Ukraine, on the other hand, is heavily Russified and has very close relations with Russia. Politically, the forces of the East and the West have repeatedly competed for power, accelerating the country's division. (Mr. Xia's study)
