After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States did not give up its suppression of Russia.
At present, under its political and economic offensive, the former Eastern European countries and even the former Soviet republics have thrown themselves into the arms of the West in large numbers.
If it is understandable that the three Baltic states have always had contradictions with Russia's history, then it is really a little confusing that Ukraine, as one of the three Slavic countries, has chosen a pro-American and anti-Russian line.
Ukraine
If throwing itself into the arms of the United States has made Ukraine a truly developed country like South Korea, the Ukrainian leadership can be called a national hero.
But the opposite is true, and under the joint abuse of the leaders of the United States and Ukraine, Ukraine is now almost the poorest country in Europe, and Ukrainian women were once scornfully called the "European womb".
So why did Ukraine develop to this point, and is there any hope for a future Ukraine?
Ukrainian beauty
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > heavy historical baggage, and the Slavic brothers went completely against the grain</h1>
To understand why Ukrainians today are so anti-Russian, we must start with the division and integration of the two peoples hundreds of years ago.
From the ancient Roman era to the establishment of feudalism in Western Europe, the ancestors of modern Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians, Slavs, lived in the eastern European plains as tribal alliances.
In 882 AD, Viking conquerors from the north established the Principality of Kievan Rus' and became the first regime in eastern European history.
In 1240 AD,[1] the Mongol armies destroyed Kievan Rus' and the surviving Ukrainians allied themselves with Poland, while Belarus became the territory of the Kingdom of Lithuania. The Russians, on the other hand, were completely conquered by the Mongols and to some extent accepted the centralized system from the East.
Rough map of the State of Kievan Rus'
As the saying goes, thirty years of Hedong, thirty years of Hexi. After the 14th century, the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols was overthrown by the Ming Dynasty, and the Chincha Khanate established by the Mongols in Europe also declined.
After 1480, the Russians finally achieved a counterattack after fully absorbing the system brought by the Mongols, defeating the Chincha Khanate as the founding of the Muscovite Principality.
At the beginning of the formation of the Russian Empire, with the Principality of Moscow at its core, Ukraine was still in a so-called primitive democratic state of tribal confederation; Lithuania and Poland had merged into a powerful feudal state. As a result, the coexistence of three social systems emerged in Eastern Europe.
Because the Ukrainians were always in a state of disarray, they were brutally exploited by polish landlords. Ukrainians, who also believe in Orthodox Christianity, are also brutally oppressed by the spiritual level of Catholic Poles.
In fact, the Ukrainians were able to accept the rule of the Poles only to jointly oppose the Mongol army; the contradictions between the Mongols and the two sides began to intensify rapidly, and the separation of the family was inevitable. In order to achieve national independence and freedom, the Ukrainian aristocratic elite decided to turn to the Russian Empire to the east.
In 1654, after fierce negotiations between the leader of the Eastern Ukrainians and the representatives sent by the Tsar, the Pereyaslav Treaty was finally signed to achieve the merger of Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian nobility honored the Tsar as the common leader, while at the same time demanding that the Tsar retain the autonomy of his people.
In 1654, Ukraine merged with Russia through the Pereyaslav Agreement
According to modern Ukrainians, this is out of the tiger's den and into the wolf's den. But at the time, there was no better way to do it than to hold Russian thighs.
The subsequent intensification of the contradictions between the two sides was largely due to the emergence of irreparable conflicts at the level of the social system. After all, after integrating into Russia, Ukraine did not have a leader recognized by the various nobles.
Ukrainians have always maintained a contradiction between the so-called aristocratic democracy and the tsarist centralization; very similar to the dilemma of several princely states within the same dynasty in Chinese history. Over time, the Ukrainian nobility saw that the Tsarist government had become as bad as the Polish landlords, and the centrifugal force had become more and more powerful.
Tsarist centralization
In particular, Ukraine is located between Western Europe and Russia, and Europe is characterized by the more developed it is. The more educated Western Ukrainians had originally joined the Tsarist Empire passively and had always looked down on Russians and Eastern Ukrainians.
After the bourgeois revolution in Britain, modern democratic ideas began to spread in Europe, and naturally coincided with the Ukrainians who insisted on aristocratic democracy.
In contrast, the tsar's centralized system became more and more backward, almost becoming a shackle restricting Ukraine's development. It was also from that era that the ideology between Ukraine and Russia became more and more serious; today, anti-Russianism has become politically correct.
Cromwell was pushed to the guillotine
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > the glorious military industry of the Soviet era, completely destroyed by American sweet words</h1>
Although the idea of independence of Ukrainians had begun to germinate during the Tsarist Period, there were no such incidents as the Great Ukrainian National Uprising.
When Tsarist Russia collapsed in late 1917 and Lenin's Bolshevik Party re-established a centralized state, Ukraine was once again incorporated into the state system.
To the detriment of the post-unification Soviet Union, the Soviet-Polish army was unexpectedly defeated in the 1920 Soviet-Polish War, which was forced to sign the Riga Treaty with Poland, ceding western Ukraine to Poland. Lviv, western Ukraine, has long been considered the spiritual home of Ukrainians.
Such the act of splitting the head and torso in two is bound to cause great confusion in the thinking of the Ukrainians. This is the second merger of Russia and Ukraine, and it has been a hidden danger from the beginning.
Soviet-Polish war
In the 1930s, while the Soviet Union was building a thousand miles of industrialization, there was a great famine in Ukraine due to natural disasters and man-made policy mistakes.
The indifference of the Soviet government to the suffering of Ukrainians inspired the desire of a group of Ukrainian elites represented by Bantula to seek complete national independence. Although Bantula was killed in exile after World War II, his thoughts remained.
One of the three Slavic states, the Soviet government took great care of Ukraine. Except during the Great Famine, Ukraine's agricultural production still ranks second in the book, after the Russian Union, which was broader than him.
Famine in Ukraine in the last century
At the same time, according to the idea of both cooperation and focus in the industrialization layout of the Central Government of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became the second largest industrial area in the Soviet Union. Simply put, if there is a factory in Russia dedicated to the production of screws, then a factory for nuts will be built in Ukraine.
In this way, although the advantages of both sides complement each other, it also means that once the industrial chain is artificially cut off, both sides will encounter a huge economic crisis.
However, on the whole, in the 40 years after World War II and before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine maintained stable development, and its comprehensive strength in the Soviet Union was second only to that of russia' republics; the overall living standards of the people were still ranked high in the Soviet Union.
Ukrainian factory in the last century
At that time, Ukraine's military industrial potential accounted for one-third of the Soviet Union, with developed machine manufacturing, fuel and power industry, metallurgy and other high-tech industries; rockets, warships, missiles and other military products are very advanced.
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the "Pavlograd Machinery Factory" and the "Southern Machinery Factory" in Ukraine produced multi-type intercontinental missiles; the Antonov Design Bureau developed the largest military aircraft of mankind, taking off the An-225 transport aircraft with a take-off weight of 600 tons; and the products of Madasic Company powered more than a hundred aircraft.
In addition, 30% of the Soviet Shipbuilding Industry was in Ukraine, and almost all large warships, including aircraft carriers, were built in Ukraine.
Ann 225 transport aircraft
But after Gorbachev came to power in 1986, various anti-Soviet figures occupied the main propaganda posts in the Soviet Union. Large numbers of young Ukrainians in their youth began to be shaken by the Great Famine in Ukraine, while nationalists led by Bandera became national heroes.
As a result, in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was the first to declare independence in 1991.
In fact, when Ukraine first became independent, it was still optimistic about many experts, after all, its military production capacity was second only to Russia, which was more than ten times larger, and it had the best black land in Europe, which could be grasped by both industry and agriculture, and could also achieve both hands.
But such a powerful Ukraine is not in Russia's interests, nor is it in the interests of the United States. After all, the United States does not want to add a strong nuclear power to Russia. The United States and Russia began to unite and coerced Ukraine into signing the Budapest Agreement.
The collapse of the Soviet Union
As a result, since 1992, Ukraine has destroyed 176 missiles, 176 nuclear bomb silos, 1272 nuclear warheads, and sold or destroyed all long-range bombers.
The Ukrainian government is also worried about how the state finances will collapse and how to maintain such a huge amount of strategic weapons. Therefore, Ukraine's self-abolition of martial arts cannot be wrong at that time.
Pro-Western Ukrainians believe that as long as they get strong support from the United States and Britain, they will soon reach the level of content development in southern European countries. But they really thought it wrong. In the Soviet era, ukraine was almost all closely linked to Russia, except for the production of grain that was completely self-sufficient.
Soviet-era Ukraine
With the separation of Russia and Ukraine, the original division of labor and cooperation system completely disappeared. This is not so unbearable for a relatively large Russia, but it is a devastating blow to Ukrainian industry.
We can draw an analogy to the wave of layoffs from state-owned enterprises that emerged in China at the end of the 1990s. It is also because the old ones have been eliminated, and it is necessary to create new industries with the determination of a strong man to break his wrist. But after all, China has integrated into the world trading system, China's export-oriented economy has begun to develop, and Ukraine does not have such strength at all.
With hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from the West, Ukraine has completely abolished its own heavy industrial production system; it is impossible to establish an export-oriented light industrial production system in the same short period as China can. Therefore, the economy of the whole country began to collapse, and it has not yet returned to the level of the Soviet Union.
Wave of layoffs
In 2018, Ukraine had a population of 44 million, and the total economy was only $75 billion; 9 million people were in poverty, and a large number of Ukrainian women sold their dignity to survive. When it comes to Ukraine's economic difficulties since the 90s, many people will mention that American experts have fooled Russia and Ukraine with shock therapy.
This so-called shock therapy, at the cost of huge economic losses, forcibly transformed the Soviet-era planned economy into a market economy. The inevitable result was the stagnation of industrial production, the rapid contraction of the people's incomes and wealth, and the oligarchs, who had feasted heavily on privatization, took the opportunity to become the true masters of Ukraine.
At a time when the per capita wealth gap in Ukraine is rapidly increasing, Ukrainian politicians have also actively or passively become the tools in the hands of oligarchs.
In fact, the stormy "democratization" of Eastern European countries is unlikely to produce capable and responsible politicians; it is only natural that leadership positions will be occupied by those who can only elect and not govern.
Ukrainians who made a living on the streets in the 1990s
Behind Ukraine's second president, Kuchma, is his son-in-law, media tycoon Pinchuk, the third president, Yushchenko, who had a personal relationship with the chocolate king (fifth president) Poroshenko, and the fourth president, Yanukovych, who relied on Ukraine's richest man, Akhmetov.
It is now very funny to have Zelenskiy, a comedian, the president, who has been able to do so until now without anyone picking his faults, which is enough to show what so-called Western-style democracy is. Obviously, everyone sees that Ukraine is unable to achieve economic transformation on its own, while the Western countries are completely lip serviced.
In their eyes, Ukraine only needs to be the European granary and the European womb with peace of mind, how can it support the Ukrainians to restore the glory of the Soviet era. Unfortunately, to this day, Ukrainian public opinion circles rarely reflect on this, but instead fight with Russia to the end.
The second president of Ukraine, Kuchma
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > crimea has led to a populist epidemic and the two countries can never go back to before</h1>
If the previous grievances between Russia and Ukraine were just fighting, then after 2014 Ukrainians will only have a strong hatred and contempt for Russia.
This brings us to the Crimean affairs, which completely changed the relations between Russia and Ukraine and the entire Western bloc.
If you look at it on a map, you will assume that the Crimean Peninsula naturally belongs to Ukraine, but the real history is not like this.
The situation in Ukraine
Since Ukraine remained in a state of tribal confederation after 1240, it did not establish an independent Ukrainian kingdom and thus had no concept of frontiers.
At the time of the annexation of Russia and Ukraine, there were still Tatars brought by the Mongols in Crimea. Crimea was in fact conquered by Russia after the unification of Russia and Ukraine. After the establishment of the Soviet Union, as part of the Russian Federation.
This changed during World War II, when the Germans, who had already occupied Ukraine in 1942, captured Crimea; the Tatars chose to cooperate with Germany, but within two years the Soviets had retaken the Crimean Peninsula.
tatars
Stalin, naturally furious at the original tatar betrayal, exiled him in large numbers to other parts of the Soviet Union; he did not allow Khrushchev to return home until he came to power, but could not eliminate his national hatred.
Khrushchev, who succeeded Stalin in 1954, visited Crimea and experienced the stagnation of Crimea's development for more than a decade after the war.
Khrushchev believes that since the Russian Federation and Crimea do not directly border each other, it is natural to be indifferent to their development.
He had the idea of giving Crimea to Ukraine, which would appease both Ukrainians and Tatars.
Khrushchev
Although it now seems that Khrushchev's almost brain-slapping approach is a dead knot that Russia and Ukraine cannot untie today.
Of course, under the political system of the Soviet Union at that time, this was only equivalent to a province dividing a city into another province. Since the issue of sovereignty was at stake, the Russian Federation had no objection at that time.
But this stupid decision created big trouble after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia does not covet tens of thousands of square kilometers of land in Crimea, but because the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet is stationed in Sevastopol on the peninsula. Sevastopol was built from the time of Tsarist Russia, the most important foothold of the whole of Russia on the Black Sea.
Fortress of Sevastopol
The Russian army fought fierce battles in both the Russo-Turkish War and the Second World War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia spent a lot of money to continue to lease, which inevitably caused strong dissatisfaction in the Rus' political and military circles.
So in March 2014, when pro-Russian Yanukovych was overthrown and pro-American factions came back to power, Putin decisively ordered the acceptance of the referendum in Crimea. This is also a step towards the helpless stop loss of the Russian terrain.
If it were not for Khrushchev's blind operation, how could the later Crimean problem come from?
Some people say that Russia has been too greedy in history, and some people even throw out the theology that Russia likes to close off other countries. But for Ukraine, Crimea should not have belonged to him in the first place. And without the loss of Crimea, Ukraine has not become a landlocked country.
Although Putin's actions broke the international norms after World War II, it was better than putting the Black Sea Fleet in danger every day.
Putin
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > if you can't be independent, you have to hug your thighs, and there is not much time left for Ukraine</h1>
After 2014, both Poroshenko and Zelenskiy made harsh remarks about Russia paying for Crimea when the president took office. But the War of East Ukraine has not been on the international news page now, which means that everyone has lost interest in it at all, and they do not think that Ukraine can make any progress.
But at the same time, everyone also tacitly agreed that Russia had no intention of annexing Ukraine. The human and material losses inflicted on Ukraine by the conflicts of the past few years coincided with the decline of its industrial system.
Ukrainian politicians, represented by Zelenskiy, have spent huge sums of money to buy weapons from the United States that are not advanced, but they have scoffed at their own military industry.
East Ukrainian War
This is no longer the rule of the comedian, but the typical comprador rule. For these compradors, the interests of the Ukrainian people are insignificant, and it is the real skill to get money from the imperialist masters.
The Ukrainian leader is actually the spokesman of the oligarchs, and in the context of the current oligarchs looking westward, they will naturally not choose to reconcile with Russia. Some people think that the tragedy in Ukraine is because it is too far from heaven and too close to Russia.
Let's think differently about Ukraine's own strength, if it can't be independent, whose lap should it hold?
In the 17th century, when England and France had no idea where Ukraine was, was there any other way for Ukrainians to escape from Polish enslavement than to defect to Russia, which was the same language as themselves?
Ukrainian military strength
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, if the United States is willing to support Ukraine as it did with South Korea, Ukraine's pro-American is also the right choice. But it is clear that the Americans are not so kind, and the Americans only want to abolish the Ukrainian martial arts and make possible powerful opponents completely subordinate.
Under these circumstances, the Ukrainian ruling class still refuses to make peace with Russia; instead, it tries to exchange a small amount of money from the United States and Europe by visiting Russia, which is simply a manifestation of the loss.
Considering that the Ukrainian leadership is unlikely to change drastically in the future, it is foreseeable that the Ukrainian state will be worse every day.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" > references</h1>
[1] Sad Ukraine: A 12-century history of ethnic and geopolitical relations. Www.phoenix.com
Ukraine country profile. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's
[3] The reality of 15 years after the upheavals in Eastern Europe The new capitalism controlled by foreign capitalism. Sohu