Putin insists that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people.” Does the story give you reason?

Why does Vladimir Putin insist on the idea that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people”? The answer is going through centuries of colonization and resistance.

Putin is not interested in peace. Sunday’s missile attack on this year’s worst civil attack proves that Russian President is determined to expand to Ukraine at any cost.

The truth is that this is a war of ideas, narratives and myths – that can be tracked until the mid fifteenth centurywhen Ivan, the terrible, Grand Duke of Moscovia, declared the first “tsar” of all Russia.

In his pursuit of power, Ivan, the terrible, challenged King Sigismund I of Poland, who, as Duke of Rus, ruled the territories that today constitute parts of present -day Ukraine.

Russian rulers have often reused history to build their power – it is what sustains, in an article in the Australian Catholic University, historian, Darius von Guttner Sporzynski.

In 2021, Putin wrote a well -known essay that dubbed the Russians and the Ukrainians of “One people”. The author was based on old beliefs that the Russia has the right to “restore” or gather lands that once ruled.

Ukraine has survived prohibitions of its language, forced assimilation policies and a.

Ukraine declared independence From Russia in 1991; Now they try to resist it.

Putin does not drop the story

A vast extension of Old Medieval Kingdom of Kyivan Rus It incorporated territories in present -day Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, including the capital of Ukraine, Kiev.

From 1386 to 1772, most of these lands were under the domain of Poland-leitania, governed by the Lithuanian dynasty of Jagiellon and your successors.

Nowadays, Russia often points to Kyiv Rus (which lasted from the ninth century to the thirteenth century), stating that it is the gather these old landslike Ivan, the terrible, he said in the mid -fifteenth century.

In 1547, Ivan declared Moscovia as a tsardoma and Moscow as the “Third Rome” – in other words, the last center of true Christianity, after Rome and Constantinople. This idea made the achievement look a sacred mission. In the late 1700s, the Russian Empire had destroyed Poland-litania in a series of territorial annexations and wars. He had extended a lot to south and to the east, now bordering Prussia and Austria.

A Ukrainewith its rich agricultural lands and its cultural connection to the Rus of Kyivan, It was a top prize.

Russian leaders called Ukraine “Malorossiya”, or “Little Russia”to say that it was just a small part of a wider Russian whole. They banned publications in Ukrainian language, forced the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to respond to Moscow and tried to eliminate any sense of separate Ukrainian identity.

However, Ukraine has developed its own cultural identityshaped by its cosancan traditions, its history under the Polish-lituan rule and its separate experiences. Many Ukrainians argue that their culture already existed long before Moscow became an empire.

Nonetheless, Russia expanded to its nearest neighbors and then pretended that these lands have always been part of Russia.

The historian Alexander Etkindquoted by The Conversation, calls this process “Internal colonization”. This strategy helped Russia become a vast empire. But he also created lasting resentments, namely in Ukraine.

Hunger and “fascists”

A Soviet Union (USSR), created in 1922 following the successful Bolshevik coup of 1917, claimed to be a union of equal republics.

However, in practice, Moscow remained firmly in control.

Ukraine had the label of “Soviet Republic”, but had little genuine independence. Soviet leaders required huge amounts of cereals, coal and labor from Ukraine to support the rest of the USSR.

One of the most black periods in Ukrainian history was the aforementioned Holodomor, an orchestrated hunger that extended from 1932 to 1933, in which Millions of Ukrainians starvedafter the Government of Stalin has confiscated huge amounts of cereal to farmers. These policies aimed to break Ukrainian resistance and nationalist feelings.

Holodomor was a genocide act against the Ukrainiansalthough Russia contest this interpretation.

After World War II, the Soviet Union took over the Baltic States and parts of Poland, including the regions that are now part of the Western Ukraine.

Although Ukraine became one of the most industrialized regions of the USSR, the manifestations genuine of Ukrainian culture or independent thinking were often the object of severe punishment. People who manifested were labeled “Fascists”a term still used in current Russian advertising.

Ukraine recovery

The USSR was collapsed in 1991. Ukraine, along with other Soviet Republics, became independent nations. This was a rude blow to Russia’s idea of ​​itself as a world empire. For centuries, Moscow had seen Ukraine as a central element of his identity.

The 1990s brought hard economic reforms and political changes in Russia. In the early 2000s, Vladimir Putin rose to power, promising to restore the influence of Russia. He described the former Soviet states such as the “close foreigner”, suggesting that Moscow still had special rights over these regions.

In 2008, Russia came into war with Georgia. After winning, he recognized two separatist provinces from Georgia, effectively maintaining troops in the country.

In 2014, Russia attached Crimea to Ukraineclaiming that he was protecting Russian speakers. It also supported the separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine eastern Ukraine. The United Nations General Assembly approved Resolution 68/262 in March 2014, declaring the annexation of Crimea by Russia illegal. Kremlin continued their policies.

“Denazine” to Ukraine?

In February 2022, Russia widened the conflict when launching an invasion of Ukraine. He described his actions as a mission to “disinite” the country, accusing the Ukrainian government of being controlled by Nazis – although the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have Jewish ancestry.

There was no evidence to support these statements. Still, the Russian leaders used these slogans to justify their aggressive action. They also spoke of “Traditional values” and “orthodox unit”presenting themselves as advocates of a common Slavic culture.

The military objective was to completely capture Donbas, create a land bridge for Crimea and perhaps advance more to transnistria in Moldovaa pro-Russian separatist region.

What Russia expected to be a quick victory became a long and brutal conflict. For many Ukrainians, independence is more than just avoiding Moscow control. It is about creating a society based on democracy, human rights and ties with Europe.

These values ​​inspired them, where protesters demanded less corruption and narrow ties with the European Union. Russia used these protests to justify the seizure of Crimea in 2014.

A Self-Determination Message

Kremlin’s insistence on stating that Ukrainians and Russians are the same reflects the oldest imperial model: expanding, absorbing and stating that these territories have always been part of Russia. Freeing yourself from this “mental empire” requires a Deep change in the way the Russians, the Ukrainians and the world see the past and present of Eastern Europe.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, many expected a new era of cooperation in Eastern Europe. Instead, authoritarian policy and old beliefs about the empire led to a devastating conflict.

By refusing to be pulled back to the orbit of Russia, the Ukrainians send a message about self-determination. They reject the statement that larger nations can absorb the smaller ones simply by invoking a common past.