Back by Popular Demand

The readers have spoken, and I’m here today to continue my investigation into how relations between Ukraine and Russia got as bad as they are now. Yes, “bad” is an understatement. If you missed part one, “A Brief History of Russia’s History With Ukraine or How the F Did Things Get This Bad?” just click the link, read away, and you’ll be all caught up.

What Happened After Kievan Rus Fell?

Kievan Rus after being carved up into many smaller chunks. Image Credit: Brother_Judas via mapsontheweb.com

We left off our first part of the history of Ukraine, with the capital city being moved from Kyiv to Moscow after Mongol hordes laid waste to the former. Moscow was just a small trading outpost in the middle of nowhere at the time.

Over the years, the vast territory was carved up by many groups, all wanting a piece of the large plains filled with rich, productive soil. Years later, this rich earth would earn Ukraine the nickname “the breadbasket of Europe.” Catholic Poland and Lithuania ruled the area for hundreds of years (did I mention this was going to be an abbreviated history?), and by the end of the 18th century, Imperial Russia had already taken most of Ukraine, except for Galicia in the southeast. They remained under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

During the reign of the Czars, they referred to Ukraine as “little Russia.” Despite this, Ukraine had always maintained a strong national identity, which they threw in the face of Russia from time to time. When it got too much for their liking, as happened during a surge in Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1840s, mother Russia did its best to squash it. A mid-nineteenth-century example is when they banned the use of the Ukrainian language in schools.

The Collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires

The year was 1917, and Kyiv declared the first independent Ukrainian state following the collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires at the end of World War I. This didn’t last long as they were invaded by Poland in addition to being fought over by Moscow’s new Bolshevik government and forces still loyal to the Czar. It seemed that throughout history, no one wanted Ukraine to be their own independent nation. The land was just too valuable and strategically placed.

In 1922, Ukraine was incorporated into the Soviet Union. Their economy was a mess at the time, and the people were starving. They were not off to a good start, but things got worse. With their pesky streak of national pride, Ukrainian peasants refused to join Soviet collective farms in the 1930s. That didn’t go over well with Stalin. Big understatement there. He ordered mass executions of those who did not follow his orders. A famine of horrific proportions ensued, killing upwards of 10 million people. It’s almost unthinkable.