Why Russia is Invading Ukraine | The Complicated History Between Russia and Ukraine
Russia has had a long history of invasions. Once they were invaded by Britain, France, and Turkey at the same time. The allied forces attacked an annexed Crimea after a Russian invasion of Turkey. The thing is, Russia only invaded Turkey to test them after Turkey made some big demands. Also, it was 1854.
That was the Crimean War, and it somewhat ended in a stalemate. Threatened by Austria joining the war against them, Russia agreed to a ceasefire.
What does that have to do with today? Russia has invaded Ukraine, and most people don’t understand why. It’s deeply rooted in Russia’s past, and there’s a lot of history to go over…
The Fall of The Soviet Union
Well, to understand the story of the Russian-Ukrainian War, we have to go back in time and understand how we got here. And it starts with the former Soviet Union…
“WE turn deserts into flowered lands, THEY turn cities and villages into deserts”
The Soviet Empire
The Soviet Union: the great nation that stood up to the United States. The country that bested America in almost every space achievement. The country that prevented America from total control. The Soviet Union, portrayed by the West as authoritarian, oppressive, and evil, was nonetheless a great power.
Peter the Great was the man who made Russia into a great power who could become the great Soviet Empire. Here’s how he turned Russia from a backwater to an empire
In 1989, the total population of the Soviet Union was almost 286 million. The people who made up the Soviet Union’s population were also a diverse group. In fact, during the Space Race, the Soviet Union even made it a point to be racially diverse. In an article by The New York Times,
“the Soviet Union often emphasized the sexism and racism of its capitalist opponents — particularly the segregated United States… After putting the first man in space in 1961, the Soviets went on to send the first woman, the first Asian man, and the first black man into orbit.”
Mikhail Gorbachev and the Fall of the Soviet Union
However, after a failed 10-year-long invasion of Afghanistan to back the pro-Soviet government, the Soviet Union’s power began to slip. Under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union began a process of becoming more open and transparent (Glasnost and Perestroika). Gorbachev believed that in order for the Soviet Union to continue, it needed to undergo major changes.
When Lenin established the Soviet Union around 60 years before Gorbachev, he intended for it to be a “true democracy”. Gorbachev wanted to bring the Soviet Union back to that ideal. However, the loosening restrictions led to protests and independence movements all over the Soviet Union. They could feel the power of the Soviet Union, and by extension Russia, was draining.
Boris Yeltsin’s Rise
When the Communist Party realized that Gorbachev was draining the Soviet Union’s power, they kidnapped him, declared a state of emergency, and began ordering the military to move into Moscow to suppress the protests. When they were met by human chains and protesters protecting the Russian Parliament, the military refused to fire on them, and the attempted coup crumbled.
In the middle of all the chaos, the Chair of the Russian Parliament, Boris Yeltsin, stood on top of a tank and rallied the crowds. He soon controlled the Parliament and the KGB (Soviet Secret Police). His rising popularity, and Gorbachev’s falling popularity, led to Yeltsin breaking Russia away from the Soviet Union and being elected the first President of Russia.
Most people in the West think that the fall of the Soviet Union was a good thing, and believe that most Russians see it the same way. After all, the Soviet Union was oppressive, and now people are more free in Russia, right? But in a poll in February 2020, around 75% of Russians regretted the dissolution of the Soviet Union, according to the Levada Center.
What was Russia Like Under Yeltsin?
Yeltsin’s Drunken Reign
The Soviet Union had fallen. Boris Yeltsin became president of the new, independent Russian Republic. However, it only took a few years for the new, free Russia to deteriorate into a lawless, poor country — a shadow of its former self.
“Lawlessness was pervasive. One afternoon in the early fall of 1995, someone fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the embassy building.” — William J. Burns
William J. Burns was an American diplomat during the Russian political turmoil of the 1990s and 2000s. He wrote a book called “The Back Channel,” in which he writes about his 33-year-long career as an American diplomat.
He writes that under Yeltsin, at least 30% of the Russian population was living in poverty, inflation was rampant, and tuberculosis and diphtheria were beginning to spread. Production had fallen too, leading to fewer jobs and a weakening economy.
Political tensions were high as Yeltsin was embroiled in scandals and investigations, and he himself was considered a drunken fool. His political enemies saw this as an opportunity to oust him from office.
So they voted to impeach him, and it nearly happened. Yeltsin dismissed his prime minister, the most popular politician in the country, and it sparked controversy within his own government.
It was this upside-down condition, the fact that only years ago the Soviet Union was a powerful country challenging the US, that created the ability for Vladimir Putin to rise.
Putin’s Ascension
Putin was a KGB agent stationed in Dresden, East Germany, on the night the Berlin Wall fell. An angry mob started to crowd around the Russian Intelligence Building, where only he and a few other men were.
Putin phoned Moscow for help, but they told him that he was on his own. So he bluffed. Putin walked outside with his gun and announced to the crowd that he and the armed guards stationed inside were ordered to fire if anyone broke in. There were no armed guards, only Putin and a few other men. However, the bluff worked, and the crowd soon dispersed.
Vladimir Putin soon became the Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg and eventually moved up to a position on the presidential staff in Moscow. There, he was appointed by Yeltsin as the head of the Federal Security Service (the successor to the KGB).
Yeltsin’s career was dying, and everyone could see it. So he began to look around for a potential successor. He found Putin. Nobody knew who Putin was, and surprisingly, that played in his favor.
He hadn’t been embroiled in all the scandals of the Yeltsin government, and nobody really expected much from him. And so Putin was appointed Prime Minister and was immediately faced with the task of defeating a brewing rebellion.
Putin’s (And Russia’s) Rise to Prominence
The Second Chechen War
Remember that 10-year-long invasion of Afghanistan that led to the end of the Soviet Union? The defeat of the Soviet Union in the Soviet-Afghan War resulted in many seasoned Islamist fighters dispersing to other Muslim areas to fuel more jihads. One of these areas was a region in southern Russia bordering the country of Georgia: Chechnya.
The First Chechen War was instigated by Boris Yeltsin three years earlier. He had sent a large military force to Chechnya to deal with an uprising. With 8,000 Russian deaths and 52,000 Russians wounded later, the Russians were forced to make peace on less than favorable terms.
“Nothing captured more vividly the disarray of Yeltsin’s Russia than the brutal ineptitude of the first Chechen war… Equipped with bandoliers and large knives in their belts, they looked more like gang members than professional soldiers.” — William J. Burns
And so, when Putin was put in charge of the Second Chechen War, he had a lot to live up to. The people were losing faith in the political system and were worried Yeltsin would find any reason he could to stop the elections happening in June 2000 from taking place. Yeltsin’s approval rating at that time was a stunning 2%. Putin’s approval rating was also 2%.
A series of bombings in Moscow and other cities stirred up fear and anger in the Russian population.
The blast ripped off the facade of a nine-story apartment building. The dead bodies of 18 persons, including two children, were pulled from the rubble. Eighty-nine persons were hospitalized. The explosion, like that on Kashirskoye Highway, took place at five in the morning. The psychological shock was so great that afterward hundreds of people were unwilling to sleep in their homes and insisted on spending the night outdoors.
They wanted revenge and justice for the terrorists who did it. And the Russian government blamed the Chechen rebels. So, Russia and Putin went to war against the Chechen rebels.
This time, however, the war was a success, and Putin suddenly became the most popular Russian politician. Although the conflict isn’t officially over, as rebel guerrillas still fight in the countryside, major resistance has been quashed by Russia. Russia had learned from the previous war and captured the Chechen capital much easier than the first time.
David Satter of the Hudson Institute describes how Putin’s war won him the presidency,
In August, 2 percent of the population favored Putin for the presidency. By September, his popularity was 4 percent. In October, it reached 21 percent. In November, Putin was favored for the presidency by 45 percent of the population, far more than any other candidate. It was now clear that there would be no need to introduce emergency rule and postpone the elections. Putin would be able to win the election on his own with the help of a new war.
The Unity Party was created with no other platform other than support for Putin. Pro-Putin forces took the majority of the Parliament, and now there is no other real opposition.
And so, on New Year’s Eve 1999, President Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin as acting president and resigned from his position. Immediately, Putin made a decree stating that Yeltsin was free from prosecution.
The story doesn’t end there. Read about how Putin subdued Russia’s oligarchs, why the 2014 Ukraine Crisis happened, and how conflict in eastern Ukraine led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finish the story at Our Mammoth World…
