The Russo-Ukrainian war, which has attracted the attention of all countries in the world, is in a state of stalemate. Judging from the situation of the battle on the previous 20 days, the fight can not be described as fierce, but the Russian army has not completely let go of its hands and feet, especially in the siege war, and has carried out four rounds of negotiations with Ukraine, it can be said that it wants to subdue Ukraine and leave a line, and does not want to push Ukraine completely to the opposite side, in a state of fighting and pulling.
This shows that Ukraine is extremely important to Russia. How important is it? By reading the history of Ukraine, I found that Ukraine is almost as important to Russia as Chang'an and Jiangnan to China.
Chang'an, one of the most important capitals in the ancient history of the mainland, symbolizes the peak of China's feudal era and has an irreplaceable position in people's hearts. Jiangnan is the richest place in the ancient economy of the mainland, and during the Sui and Tang dynasties, there was a saying that Jiangnan was familiar and the world was sufficient.
Therefore, Russia's attitude towards Ukraine is probably also because this historical factor plays an important role in it.
Why is it so important? Let's take a look at the history of Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia were born on the same coin
Ukrainians and Russians mainly come from the same ancestor, the East Slavs. The Slavs first settled on the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains.
Unfamiliar with the Carpathians? The Alps should know, yes, that's the first mountain range in Europe, and the Carpathians are the second largest mountain range in Europe after the Alps, and are the eastern extension of the Alps, located in central Europe. It spans what is now Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Romania and other countries.
From the 5th to 6th centuries AD, the Slavs gradually migrated outwards, mainly divided into three parts:
Some of them went west and evolved into later Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks, who were Catholic. They were collectively known as the West Slavs.
The other part went south into the Balkan Peninsula and evolved into Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Croats, Slovenes, etc., and some merged with the Turkic Bulgars to become Bulgarians. They were collectively referred to as Yugoslavs.
There was also a section to the east, which lived in the central and western parts of Ukraine and the southern region of Belarus in the early days, and then expanded northeast into what is now Russia, known as the East Slavs.
By the 8th century, the East Slavs had formed several relatively large tribal confederations. These include Kuyaba, centered on Kiev, and Novgorod, centered on Slavia. In the 9th century, the Varyag, one of the Nordic Vikings, ruled the Novgorod region south (do you know where the name "Varyag" came from?). ), established the State of Ancient Rus. It then went south, conquering Kiev and other East Slavic tribes, and establishing a unified state, Kievan Rus' with its capital at Kiev.
At that time, Kievan Rus' already included today's Ukraine, Belarus and parts of Europe in Russia, of course, the common people were mainly East Slavs, and the Varyags as rulers were actually gradually Slavized, so Ukraine and Russia were homologous peoples.
In 988, during the Northern Song Dynasty in ancient times on the mainland, Grand Duke Vladimir, the then Kievan Rus' monarch, baptized the people on the Dnieper River and established Orthodoxy as the state religion, which is the mother river of today's Ukraine, and for a long time after that, Kiev was the political center of the Rus' people.
It can be said that the Kievan Rus' country shaped the national identity of the East Slavs in terms of religion, language and culture, and is regarded as the predecessor of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
Kievan Rus' was not a centralized state, and Europe practiced a classic feudal system at that time.
Here is a little explanation of the feudal system in Europe. In feudal Europe, the king gave land to nobles and ministers, and they gave part of their land to their subordinates, and these people who occupied the land became feudal lords. The feudal lords not only occupied the farmland, but also appropriated the peasants who had cultivated the land as private property, that is, serfs.
Moreover, the feudal system in Europe was hierarchical, the social classes were solidified from generation to generation, the feudal lords were feudal lords for generations, and the descendants of serfs were always serfs. The centralized system is different from this, and social classes can be converted into each other.
The feudal lords all had great power, and their own territory could be decided by themselves. The larger feudal lords even had armies in their own territories, which could restrain the king, as if they were a "national China".
Therefore, due to the feudal division of Kievan Rus', it slowly split into large and small Slavic states, such as Moscow, Novgorod, and Suzdal in the northeast, Minsk in the north, the Principality of Kiev and Chernihiv around Kiev, Warren, Galic, and so on in the west. However, he was nominally a vassal of Kievan Rus' and was therefore known as the Principality of Kievan Rus' and thus. From the 12th to the 14th century AD, they gradually formed three branches: Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.
During this period, the Eastern Mongols conquered the west, established the Golden Horde, and conquered the Kievan Rus' principalities. The difference is that it exercised direct rule over developed cities such as Kiev, while the cold, backward Principalities such as Moscow retained the state form, using them as spokesmen for them, adopting a relatively loose and gentle indirect management method to manage the people instead of themselves.
The Rus' people, led by the Muscovite Principality, gradually developed and grew stronger after more than 200 years of hard work, and finally took advantage of the division of the Mongolian Golden Horde to overthrow the Mongol rule in one fell swoop, occupying a vast area in the east and north of the former Kievan Rus' and becoming a unified Rus' state. In 1547, Ivan IV proclaimed himself "Tsar" and gave his country the name "Russia", so there was the state of Russia, also known as Tsarist Russia.
The western part of Kievan Rus' was occupied by the rising Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the West as early as the 13th and 14th centuries. By the 16th century, most of Ukraine had broken away from Lithuania and incorporated into Poland. For the next century, Ukraine was effectively under the political and cultural influence of Catholic Poland.
That is, from the occupation of Lithuania and Poland, the Ukrainians gradually broke away from the Ancient Rus and formed a single people with a unique language, culture and living customs. But at this time, Ukraine was still only a geographical and national term, and it had not yet formed a Ukraine in the national sense. It and Russia still have centuries of historical entanglement: divided and merged, or half divided and half combined.
How Ukraine and Russia are on the same page
Under the serfdom of Poland, the Eastern European Slavs saw the emergence of many fugitive slaves, fugitives, displaced people, and runaway nobles, who fled into the remote areas of eastern and southern Ukraine, forming a militarized group, the Cossacks.
The word Cossack, derived from the Turkic word for "free man," means to seek freedom in dissatisfaction with serf rule. With the influx of quibbons and other strata, the Cossacks grew and by the middle of the 16th century had become a distinctly democratic organization.
Its democratic character is reflected in its supreme organ of power, rada, which is a conference organization. The parliament of modern Ukraine is called "Rada", and the name is inherited from the Cossack period of this organization. Officers of all ranks of Cossack were elected, and the highest officer was called "Getman", which means commander-in-chief.
In their rebellion against Polish rule, the Cossacks increasingly realized that their own strength was not enough. So he turned to Russia, who was also an East Slavic brother, and promised to accept the rule of the Russian Tsar, but the Ukrainian Cossacks retained political, military, and diplomatic autonomy.
Russia, together with the Cossacks, defeated Poland through two wars. In 1667, Russia and Poland reached an agreement, and Ukraine was divided into two, with the central and eastern parts, including the Kiev region, going to Russia and the western part to Poland.
After Catherine II became Empress of Russia, she accelerated her expansion, united Prussia and Austria to divide Poland, and included western Ukraine, and finally returned the east and west of Ukraine. Catherine is worthy of being one of the greatest monarchs in Russian history, and while taking Siu, she also packed up the unruly Cossacks.
In 1917, at the end of World War I, the February Revolution broke out in Russia, the Tsarist government was overthrown, and Ukraine was immediately in chaos. Later, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Russian Provisional Government, the Soviet Russian army, and Denikin's White Russian army appeared in Ukraine.
After the October Revolution, the German army sent heavy troops into Ukraine to intimidate Soviet Russia, which was then underpowered. Russia was forced to sign the Treaty of Brest with Germany, recognizing Ukraine's independence. Of course, the so-called independence is actually nothing more than a vassal of Germany.
With the end of World War I and the defeat of Germany, the Russian army quickly marched into Ukraine and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, but lost the battle against Poland. Ukraine was once again divided in two, and Western Ukraine came under Polish rule.
Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, together with Soviet Russia, Belarus and other countries, established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Soviet Union, in 1922.
By the time of World War II, the Soviet Union had taken back western Ukraine in the initial stages, but it was soon taken away by the Germans, and in the late part of World War II, the Red Army counterattacked Germany and recaptured western Ukraine from it. At this point, Ukraine has once again achieved territorial unification.
However, this is only a geographical unification, because Ukraine has been divided between east and west for a long time in history, the west is more influenced by Poland and other countries, and the language and culture are close to Europe; the east has long been under the control of Russia, and has been more influenced by Russia in terms of religion, ethnicity, language, etc., and is closer to Russia.
By the early 1990s, with the publication of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, Ukraine began to formally become independent from the Soviet Union. Since then, Ukraine, as a sovereign and independent country, has appeared in front of the world with a new attitude.
However, Ukraine and Russia, due to historical reasons, coupled with religious, linguistic, geographical and other factors, have always had a close relationship. The western Ukrainian region is an agricultural area with a high degree of westernization, tending to move closer to the West and "far away from Russia", advocating Ukrainian as the only official language; while the eastern part is an industrial area, with a higher degree of Russification, it is more inclined to maintain close relations with Russia, advocating Russian as the second official language.
As a result, Ukraine's national political leanings swayed from side to side by this factor, and in the 2010 presidential election, Tymoshenko, who was born in the west, won the votes of the central and western states, while the Regional Party from the east won the votes in the east and south.
How important Ukraine is to Russia
On this subject, let's first look at this diagram.
As can be seen in the figure, Ukraine is located in the western part of Russia, bordering Poland, Slovakia, Romania, hungary, and its eastern part is embedded in the hinterland of Russia, to the Russian capital Moscow, but hundreds of kilometers. The Warren Oblast in western Ukraine is less than 1,000 kilometers from Berlin, Prague and Vienna. Therefore, Ukraine is a strategic point for Russia to the West, while its southern part is bordered by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, it can enter the Mediterranean Sea, which is an important outlet to the southwest of Russia.
Russia is located in the plains of Eastern Europe, facing Central and Western Europe, but there are no high mountains and rivers, xiongguan passes can be used as barriers, mainly relying on the establishment of a "buffer zone" to safeguard national security. Ukraine, russia's neighbor and former comrade-in-arms, undoubtedly the best "strategic buffer zone", has now become a pawn for the United States and NATO to contain Russia, which Russia cannot accept. If Ukraine joins NATO, NATO's various weapons will be deployed directly on Russia's doorstep, like a dagger directly against Russia's throat, which is "like a fish in the throat" for Russia.
However, Ukraine's significance to Russia is not as simple as a strategic buffer zone.
As can be seen from the history of Ukraine described above, for Russia, Ukraine is the birthplace of its national culture, a fraternal people of the same ancestry and blood as Russia; Kiev is the capital of the first feudal state established by the Ancient Rus, and many Ukrainian cities were founded by the Russians.
Moreover, too many Russian writers, artists, scientists and even national leaders have incomparably deep ties to Ukraine. The great poet Pushkin was exiled to Crimea for a long time, the satirical master Gogol was born in Poltava, Ukraine, Tchaikovsky left his youth in Ukraine, Lev Tolstoy served in the military for many years in Sevastopol, Ukraine, the master painter Repin was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the playwright Bulgakov was born in Kiev, the director of the epic film "War and Peace" Bondalchuk has both Russian and Ukrainian ancestry, and an aviation legend - One of the founders of the Mikoyan-Glevich Design Bureau, Glevich, grew up in Ukraine, where human astronaut Korolyov was a Ukrainian, and both soviet leaders, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, grew up in Ukraine.
Therefore, Ukraine is a country with a deep Russian brand. For Russia, which inherited the mantle of Kievan Rus' mantle, Ukraine is pinning its glory and dreams for hundreds of years, and is the birthplace of its civilization, if ukraine's status in Russia is equivalent to Chang'an to ancient China, I am afraid it is not an exaggeration.
Of the 15 republics of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine had the highest economic value. Ukraine's territorial area ranks second in the whole of Europe, that is to say, in addition to Russia, which is the largest in Ukraine. Ukraine belongs to the black earth belt, one of the three largest black land distribution areas in the world, the other two are northeast China and the Mississippi River Basin in the United States. Black soil is the most fertile land in the world and is very suitable for plant growth, of which Ukraine accounts for 40%.
It is with such fertile land that Ukraine accounts for a significant share of the total agricultural products of the former Soviet Union: flour accounts for 20%, macaroni for 86%, vegetable oil for 55%, sugar for 83%, confectionery for 52%, meat and related products for 25%, milk and related products for 21%.
So, although Ukraine accounted for only 3 percent of the Soviet Union, grain production accounted for more than a third of the former Soviet Union, sometimes reaching 40 percent.
Ukraine's corn, wheat and sunflower seeds have always been among the top of the world's agricultural exports. In 2021, the total global corn export volume is 200 million tons, and Ukraine alone exports 33.5 million tons, accounting for 16.4%. In the same year, the mainland imported 1.7 million tons of sunflower oil, of which 64% came from Ukraine; 28% of the mainland's barley imports also came from Ukraine.
At the same time, Ukraine also has rich mineral resources, with more than 70 kinds of mineral deposits. Its territory, the eastern Donbass region, home to the fourth largest coal mine in Europe, is known as the "heart of Ukraine" and can mine more than 10 billion tons. Ukraine's total coal reserves rank seventh in the world, iron ore reserves second in the world, manganese ore proven reserves second in the world, and uranium proven recoverable reserves rank first in Europe.
Ukraine's industry is also very developed, with a large-scale and complete industrial system, accounting for about 17% of the output value of the former Soviet Union, and is the center of the metallurgical, mechanical and chemical industries of the former Soviet Union. Among them, steel and steel production accounted for 33% of the former Soviet Union, chemical machinery and equipment accounted for 30%, agricultural machinery accounted for 25%, construction equipment accounted for 20%-25%. Taken together, Ukraine's gross national product accounts for about 25% of the former Soviet Union.
Ukraine also has the best coastline and sea access in the former Soviet Union. The coastline of the former Soviet Union is very long, but most of the sea is high latitude, frozen all year round, and belongs to the bitter cold area. Only the Black Sea has a truly freeze-free port. The coastline of the former Soviet Union in the Black Sea region, although Russia also has a part, is mostly in Ukraine.
Among the four major seas of the former Soviet Union, the Arctic Ocean is located in the Arctic, far from the developed areas of the world economy; although the North Pacific Ocean is closer to the Asia-Pacific economic development zone, it is too far from the Economic Center, political center, and cultural center of Russia, separated by the vast Siberia; although the Baltic Sea can be used as a maritime interactive channel for commodity trade and commodity exchange with Germany, Poland, Denmark and other countries, the northwestern part of Russia near the Baltic Sea is too cold and is not suitable as a core economic development location. Only the Black Sea, the outlet to the Mediterranean Sea, is the most convenient strategic channel to integrate into the global industrial chain.
Although Ukraine is now an independent country, Russia can establish good relations with it, which is of great significance for economic mutual benefit, mutual complementarity and foreign exchanges. Therefore, if ukraine's status in Russia is equivalent to Jiangnan's position in China, I am afraid it is not impossible.
Of course, to say that Ukraine is equivalent to Chang'an and Jiangnan for Russia or the former Soviet Union, after all, is only from the perspective of its importance. Russia, even in a war, cannot allow Ukraine to completely turn to the West, also from the perspective of its importance. As for the future relations between Ukraine and Russia, this is a very complex international issue, involving military, economic, diplomatic, ethnic, religious and other aspects, which can no longer be judged through the analysis of the historical field, and the subsequent development still needs us to wait and see.