The Ukrainian people welcomed the Germans into the city
On June 22, 1941, 5.5 million German troops, with three army groups, launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union from the north, center, and south. In just 18 days of the war, the Soviet Union lost more than 3,000 artillery pieces, more than 2,000 warplanes, and 300,000 captured soldiers. In less than a year, a quarter of the country's territory was lost, the army was reduced by up to 5 million, and the situation was extremely dangerous.
What is less well known is that since the beginning of the war, the people of the Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have not only not resisted German military action, but are full of gratitude and regard it as a savior for helping the nation to become independent. When things go wrong, there must be demons.
If the three Baltic states were forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union by force, they lacked a sense of identity and belonging to the country. It seems unreasonable for the Ukrainian people, who were also East Slavs, to support the Germans.
First, a thousand years of love and hatred
Russia and Ukraine are actually in the same vein, both originating from the Ancient Rus' people. In the 9th and 10th centuries they established the Kievan Rus' and Moscow principalities, which became the prototype of the modern Ukrainian and Russian states.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Muscovite Principality and Kievan Rus were hit hard by the Mongols and forced to become vassals of the Golden Horde. The historical situation led to the gradual separation of the two fraternal countries, and Xiao Lang was a passerby from then on.
The Muscovite Principality understood the "mastery of the art to control the Yi", absorbed the essence of Mongolian culture and became increasingly powerful, and successfully defeated the Mongols to achieve independence. Kievan Rus' was tragically divided. The western part was occupied by the Poles, while the eastern part was long Occupied by the Mongols.
In 1654, Ukrainian Cossack leaders allied with Russia and eastern Ukraine was incorporated into the Russian Empire, leading to strong resentment from Poland, which occupied the west. So Russia sent troops to beat up Poland and included western Ukraine.
Second, the old hates the new hate
The October Revolution of 1917 sounded the death knell of Tsarist Russia, and Ukrainians took the opportunity to establish an independent People's Republic. Soon, however, there was a scuffle between the Red Army, the White Army, and the Polish Intervention Army in the Soviet Union, which lasted until the end of the Soviet-Polish War in 1921.
After the war, eastern Ukraine was incorporated into the Soviet Union, while the western part again fell into Polish hands. In the 1920s and 1930s, stalin, in order to complete the industrialization of the Soviet Union, imposed a collective farm system in Ukraine and expropriated a large amount of grain. At that time, the Ukrainians could only leave rations and a little seed.
Stalin
In 1932, a nationwide famine broke out in the Soviet Union, and Stalin's policy of prioritizing the supply of grain to Russia chilled the Ukrainians. In September 1939, the Germans blitzed Poland and the Soviet Union invaded western Ukraine. However, the western region was not liberated independently, but became part of the Soviet Union completely. Ethnic contradictions have intensified again.
Iii. German invasion
In July 1941, the Germans invaded Ukraine. Out of resentment toward the Russians, the Ukrainians became the Leading Party. The German army quickly established a puppet regime, and took advantage of the local people's desire for independence, co-opting the people to collect military supplies and grass for the German army, passing on military intelligence, etc., resulting in a long-term low tide in the anti-fascist struggle in Ukraine.
The brutality and complexity of war is beyond people's understanding. Under the false propaganda and deception of the German army, some Ukrainians even counterattacked and joined the SS Ukrainian unit, the "Galician" division, turning the muzzle of the gun on their own people. Do what the relatives hate the enemy quickly.
After World War II, the Soviet Union adopted a soft policy toward Ukraine. Khrushchev sent Crimea to Ukraine and allocated a large amount of money to support the development of local industry and agriculture, which once eased the contradictions. But the enmity and hatred in history has always been an insurmountable knot, and the seeds of division have long been sown.