Ukraine and Russia - rival brothers

Deutsche Welle, 16 March 2014

Russia and Ukraine face off in the Crimea dispute. It is not the first conflict between the two countries. A review of 1,200 years of history.

Common origins

Around 860 BC east Slavic tribes and Norman Vikings found Rus', the first state in the settlement area of the East-Slavs. The term Rus' stands for the ethnicity as well as for the state. The Rus' state is a federation of principalities with Kyiv in the center.

Slavic brothers on separate paths

During the 12th century the Kyiv Rus' disintegrates into rival states. They succumb to the Mongol's invasion in the first half of the 13th century - the Mongols subdue the north eastern part of Rus' and the grand duchy of Poland-Latvia controls the south-western areas.

Moscow's rise

Ivan the Terrible was the first
Russian tsar

The grand duchy of Moscow starts its "gathering Russian countries" policy from the 14th century onwards. Step by step, they come to control the principalities of the former Kyiv Rus' state. Moscow's rulers are able to free themselves from the Mongolian hegemony. In 1547, Ivan IV, better known as the Terrible due to his brutality, is crowned as the first Russian tsar.

Alliance of the 'fraternal nations'

With the treaty of Pereiaslav of 1654, the Ukraine on the left bank of the Dnieper, which includes Kyiv, joins the Russian tsarist empire and becomes Russian Orthodox. At first the Ukrainian parts on the right bank of the Dnieper remain with Poland-Latvia and become Catholic. Later, the major part of the western territories becomes gradually Russian due to Poland's divide.

Russian expansion in the south

Catherine the Great strengthened
Crimea's ties with Russia

During several wars Russia is able to conquer large parts of southern Ukraine from Turkey. Crimea becomes Russian in 1783. Catherine the Great settles loyal Zaporozhian Cossacks and settlers from central Russia in the new territories to strengthen Russia's supremacy.

Ban of the Ukrainian language

In 1876 tsar Alexander II signs the Ems Ukaz during his stay in the German spa town of Bad Ems - distributing literature in Ukrainian is now banned. For a long time, Ukrainian is just seen as a Russian dialect.

First Ukrainian nation state

On January 22, the government of central and eastern Ukraine declares its independence with German support. Germany wants to weaken its Russian enemy. The Ukrainian People's republic with Kyiv as capital is the first Ukrainian nation state. The western part of Ukraine with the capital Lviv becomes Polish.

Founding of the USSR

Soon the Ukrainian People's republic is history. Bolsheviks occupy Kyiv in 1919. They found the Socialist Soviet Republic with Kharkiv as capital. The Bolsheviks actually govern from Moscow. Four Soviet Republics, Ukraine, Belarus Russia, formally merge to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922.

The holodomor

In the 1930s, Stalin's dictatorship ends in disaster: the forced collectivization of agriculture and the ruthless requisition of crops leads to millions of Ukrainians starving in the winter of 1932/33. The Ukrainians call the millionfold starvation "holdomor."

The return of the western territories

The Soviet Union annexes parts of Poland on the basis of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. The western Ukraine is "united" with the Soviet East Ukraine. Like in the current Crimea crisis Russia just "met the request of the fraternal people."

Khrushchev's 'gift'

Krushchev handed Crimea back to Ukraine

In 1954, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Pereiaslav treaty, Party Chairman Nikita Khrushchev hands the Crimea over to Ukrainian authorities. The alleged generous gift is not just altruistic. Crimea hasn't yet recovered from the war and its situation is desolate.

Breakaway of Ukraine

On July 16, 1990, the parliament in Kyiv declares its independence. Leonid Kravchuk, the chairman of the parliament is the most prominent advocate of independence. Meanwhile, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev fails to prevent the USSR's decline. In December 1991, the Soviet Union is no longer.

The Crimea problem

In January 1991 the majority of ethnic Russians in Crimea vote in a referendum for an autonomous Crimea Republic in the Soviet Union. But the disintegration of the USSR renders the referendum null and void. After that, the Crimean parliament passes a constitution but the Ukrainians don't recognize it.

The orange revolution

In 2004, the Russia-friendly candidate Viktor Yanukovych is declared the winner of the presidential elections. After reports about irregularities, demonstrators take to the streets for weeks and trigger new elections. The pro-western politician Victor Yushchenko wins the elections. Due to the lack of reforms the Ukrainians turn away from pro-western politicians and Yanukovych is elected president in 2010.

The gas dispute

Russia's Gazprom delivers gas to central Europe via Ukraine on the basis of a treaty from 2002. It allows Ukraine to keep some of the gas for itself. In 2005, Moscow raises the price fourfold after the victory of the "orange revolution" and the pro-western orientation in Kyiv. The Ukraine refuses to accept the price increase and the Kremlin-directed Gazprom temporarily stops gas deliveries to Ukraine.

The Black Sea Fleet issue

Russia's Balck Sea Fleet has
14,000 soldiers

In 2010, after a long tug-of-war, Russia and Ukraine sign an agreement allowing the Russian Black Sea Fleet to remain in Crimea: Russia rents the major part of the port of Sevastopol and pays an annual rent of 100 million dollars. Ukraine also receives a 30-percent discount on the gas price. According to their own statement the Russian Black Sea Fleet consists of 14.000 soldiers.

The second revolution

Shortly before the planned signing of an association agreement between the EU and Ukraine, pressure from Moscow on Kyiv increases. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to convince Ukraine to join his alternative, the "Eurasian Union." At the end of 2013, Ukraine's President Yanukovych suspends the agreement with the EU and announces a strengthening of relations to Russia. That causes protests in Kyiv which lead to the downfall of Yanukovych

Related Articles:

Exit polls: Crimea votes to join Russia in referendum
Russia’s Move Into Ukraine Said to Be Born in Shadows

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy,Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) -(Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”