Russia and Ukraine are both Brothers of Rus' and why they have been entangled for more than a thousand years and have been in constant strife

Russia and Ukraine were originally one 800 years ago, when the Mongol army roared in, Rus' split, some like China's northerners and southerners, but China fortunately had the Ming Dynasty, the Son of Heaven guarded the country's gate, and finally saved the hearts of the people. Because of the more complex external environment, the north and south of Rus' are divided and entangled.

Let's first turn our attention to the East Slavic tribes --- The Ancestors of Rus.

Ross ancestors

Migrating East Slavs

One day in the early 6th century AD, a tribe marched through the Dnieper River Valley, most of the team was elderly women and children, and happened to see a young adult, also scarred and blind.

This tribe had recently rushed into Byzantium and seized the world of flowers and flowers there, but was scattered by the defenders, defeated and only a few people escaped.

The original living area could not go back, but could only go east, far away from civilized society, and this tribe became a lone brigade of exile, displaced, and helplessly moving forward in the desert.

This tribe originally lived in the Danube River valley on the plains of Eastern Europe, is the East Slavic tribe, because the Roman Empire is divided into two empires, east and west, declining, the East Slavs originally belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire, seeing that the empire could not be maintained, began a great migration, wanted to go to Byzantium to get some benefits, but instead provoked a fishy body, was beaten to the ground, and fled in a hurry. The remnants of the people were brought together into small tribes and began to migrate again, this time in the direction of the wilderness.

It is said that the tribe marched to the upper reaches of the Dnieper River, found that the water resources were abundant, the land was fertile, and the transportation was convenient, so they began to thrive in this area. After more than two hundred years of slash-and-burn cultivation, by the eighth century AD, the East Slavs slowly recovered, many small tribes appeared, and the time was ripe for tribal alliances.

Kievan Rus'

The East Slavic tribes gradually increased, the population became denser, the materials were also enriched, the interests were more, and the disputes increased. To this extent, there is an urgent need for a strong ruling core to integrate the tribe.

Rurik

In inter-tribal battles, some tribes employ foreign armies in order to gain greater benefits in the fighting. These foreigners were the Varyags of Northern Europe, who, in harsh environments and long wanderings, sometimes as pirates and sometimes as merchants, had developed a fierce body and a shrewd mind. The simple East Slavs were compared to the mercenaries, and they were simply the lambs that lured the wolves into the house. The mercenary leader Rurik took advantage of the tribal conflicts of the East Slavs, anti-guest-oriented, established the Rurik dynasty in Novgorod, unified the East Slavic tribes, and the first East Slavic state began to appear, because there was a Rus River nearby, known as the Rus.

By 862 AD, China in the Far East had entered the last years of the Tang Dynasty, while Europe was in the middle of the Middle Ages. The East Slavs had just entered the country from primitive tribes.

Rurik was too busy consolidating his rule to die before he could expand, and before his death his son had grown up, he had to give power to his relative Oleg.

Oleg

Oleg is a fierce character, but he is not fierce enough, his fierceness is external conquest, but not fierce enough for Rurik's son.

Oleg's gaze was not confined to the upper Dnieper region, he looked to the city of Kiev in the middle reaches. At this time, Kiev was still a small city, built by the three Brothers of Kiy, and the administrators were Ascord and Dill. It is conveniently located as the confluence of several rivers, with contact with the birthplace of Rus' to the north and commerce with Byzantium to the south. According to historical records, Oleg led his soldiers south by boat, placing Rurik's young son Igor in the boat. Arriving at the Kiev docks, Oleg sent a message to the two Grand Dukes of Kiev, saying that they were going to the south to do business, passing through Kiev, wanting to visit their fellow countrymen, the time was tight, hoping that they would meet on the boat. Ascord and Dill, unmistakably deceived, came to the ship to offer their condolences. Oleg took Igor and said that the Orthodox Grand Duke of Rus is here, you are not qualified to run Kiev, here we accept. After saying that, with a wave of his hand, the relatives on both sides poured out and slashed Ascord and Dill to death with knives, and the bodies fell into the water. Oleg thus took up kiev, established the capital of Kievan Rus' and then marched around.

After Oleg's death, power returned to Igor, the son of Rurik, who continued to fight, and his successors were brave and good at war, and by the time of Igor's grandson, Grand Duke Vladimir, kievan Rus' territory was greatly expanded, and even the Byzantine emperor demanded tribute.

Mongolia was divided and ruled, and Rus' was divided

More than 300 years after the establishment of Kievan Rus' establishment, the control of the Kiev Grand Dukes over the territory gradually weakened, the feudal lords began to fight for power and profit, and the previously conquered local princes also sought independence.

At this time a behemoth appeared in the Far East, the Mongol Empire. Initially, the Mongols dealt with the Rus' because they were hunting down and killing the Chincha, but the arrogant Rus' nobles did not know whether they had taken the wrong medicine, or received gifts from the Chincha, and rushed to attack the Mongols, by which time Kievan Rus had died in name only, the glory was gone, and all that was left was a mess of scattered, fragmented Rus' grand dukes. The Mongols saw the unreality of Rosserine and retreated temporarily.

In 1236, the Mongol army made a comeback, occupying Kiev and enslaving the four sides.

Rus' was read as Russia among the Mongolian population, and Russia has since replaced rus' titles.

The Mongols established the Golden Horde and began more than 200 years of rule over Russia.

The Region of Ukraine south of Kiev and the Black Sea coast, located in the core of the Golden Horde, were directly ruled by the Mongols, and the Rus' in these places were subjected to severe oppression and extreme enslavement, while the Northern Rus' region, the Novgorod region, the birthplace of the former Rus' region, was reluctant to spend a lot of effort to conquer because of the cold weather and non-plain areas, because there was still a European flower world waiting for them, and the geographical environment there was much better than the Northern Rus' region. As a result, the Mongols appointed local grand dukes to rule in northern Rus' place, so that northern Rus' situation was much better than that of southern Rus'.

The Mongols used different methods of rule over the North and South Rus' and directly caused a split between the Rus' and the Rus'. On the one hand, northern Rus' ruled by powerful grand dukes, so they were integrated into one, more and more united, recuperating in the forests of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and two hundred years later, taking advantage of the weakness of Mongol rule, they drove out the Mongols with a single blow. Southern Rus', on the other hand, was directly enslaved and resentful, no longer in the same heart as Northern Rus' was growing.

After more than a hundred years of Mongol rule in Russia, the situation changed. The Mongols were no longer as brave and warlike as their ancestors, and were caught off guard by the miraculous rise of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In 1362, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Mongol army at the Bluewater River, captured Kiev, and incorporated the southern Rus' region into Lithuanian territory. From then on, the Southern Rus began to abandon the Orthodox Church and convert to Catholicism. The Northern Rus' Orthodox Church was furious, calling catholic Rus' traitors and condemning them. The conflict between Northern Rus and Southern Rus' is becoming increasingly intense.

Russian nation and Ukrainian nation

Alexander Nevsky

In 1240, the Mongols captured Kiev and divided the north and south of Rus' rule. At this time the Rurik dynasty reached Alexander Nevsky, a great leader who led the Northern Rus to repel the attacks of the swedish and Germanic enemies. However, the Mongolian iron hooves are unstoppable, and Nevsky judges the situation and knows that he is invincible, and can only be virtual and snake to preserve his strength. The Mongols were satisfied with Nevsky's attitude, and they could not take care of the bitter cold land on the northern Rus' side, and were happy to have an obedient agent to collect taxes and pay tribute. In 1252, Nevsky was made Grand Duke of Vladimir by the Golden Horde, and as prince of Kiev, Vladimir, and Novgorod, Nevsky worked to unify the principalities of northern Rus'. Later, the Russian Orthodox Church made Alexander Nevsky a saint, Stalin declared Alexander Nevsky a national hero, and the Soviet army established the Order of Alexander Nevsky.

Grand Duchy of Moscow

At the end of the 13th century, the Grand Duke of Vladimir was enfeoffed as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, after which the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew stronger, and ivan III united the major principalities, at this time the Golden Horde was already very weak, Ivan III took advantage of the situation, fought repeatedly with the Mongols, and finally uprooted the Golden Horde, expelled the Mongols, and ended the Mongol rule over Rus' for more than two hundred years. In the course of the long struggle against the Golden Horde, the leaders of the Grand Duchy of Moscow learned a lot of oriental wisdom, the most typical of which was household registration management and post transportation. The Orthodox Church, as the only sect, provided spiritual strength, effective centralized military and economic power, provided the material basis for rebellion against the Golden Horde, and further strengthened the centralization of power by the political system and royal ideas learned from the Mongols. At this point, Russia began to take shape as a unified country. The Russian nation with strong cohesion and centripetal force gradually formed.

The Russians defeated the Mongols

During this period, southern Rus was crushed by the Mongols, then incorporated into Lithuanian rule, and later annexed by Poland, and this land was fought back and forth by major powers, and there was no peace. All kinds of people, Rus', Lithuanians, Poles, Tatars, countless tramps, adventurers fought here, slowly formed a fierce Cossack, to fight for the sake of martial arts, so that the Polish nobility in order to win over these Cossack forces, issued a "registered Cossack" decree, Cossacks also became mercenaries, killing all sides, fighting Byzantium, fighting Sweden, and even their brother Russia. Later, when Poland declined and could not afford to pay the Cossack salaries, the Cossacks rebelled and established the Cossack Kingdom. When the Polish army suppressed, the Cossack leader Khmelnytsky appealed to the Tsar for help. From then on, the Cossacks became the vanguard of the Tsar's territorial expansion.

Cossack

In this way, from the sixteenth century onwards, the territory of Ukraine was mixed with Catholics, Cossacks, and wandering peoples, and in the gap between Poland and Russia, they slowly formed their own language and culture, and the Ukrainian nation was formed in the storm.

Great Russianism

Since the centripetal force and cohesion of the Russian nation were superior, in order to expand abroad, the Tsarist government preached that the Russian nation was the best nation and that other nations should be subordinate to the Russian nation. The Great Russians can only recognize one regime, the tsarist autocracy; one religion, the Orthodox Church; one nation, the Russian nation.

The Great Russians resented and suppressed The Catholic Church in Ukraine, which also strengthened the contradiction between the Russian nation and the Ukrainian nation.

Great power chessboard

Ukraine, the land of right and wrong

Russia, a trans-Eurasian power, has always been a mountain on the heads of European countries, and Ukraine, the land of right and wrong, is the only handle that European countries can shake Russia.

From Napoleon to Hitler, there is no way to dominate Europe without taking Russia.

But both Napoleon and Hitler directly invaded Russia and were defeated by Russia's icy terrain, strong walls and determination.

The only one that succeeded was the United States, where the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 turned the behemoth into a hunky Russia.

So the United States tasted the sweetness and was keen on peaceful evolution and color revolution. But after all, Russia still has a heritage, and Putin the Great turned out to be a man who cast Russia into an iron plate, and the water cannot be splashed and the needle cannot be pierced.

The United States had to detour back to Ukraine, taking advantage of Ukraine's entanglement with Russia, letting the two of them fight first, hiding from each other, and observing Russia's reality.

The United States is like this, and the European brothers are more like a fish in the throat of Russia, and do not want to see a unified and powerful neighbor sleeping on the side of the bed.

However, Ukraine is concerned with Russia's core interests, and for the United States, it is only a step of idleness. So Putin dared to break his wrist, and Biden could not bet for a long time. And European countries are powerless, can only wave the flag behind their backs, fox fake tiger might. But Ukraine is after all the birthplace of his own family, not the graveyard of the empire, Putin lifted a light weight, launched quickly and could not cover his ears, but at this time it was as heavy as a weight, careful to maintain the balance of the great powers, Ukraine, the palms of the hands and the backs of the hands are meat, can not let others pick up the cheap.