It is curious that Vladimir Putin's article "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" is also published in Ukrainian. What is this: a technical reception for expanding the readership, a sign of respect or a manifestation of sympathy? Everyone will find their answer. Just like everyone has their own, purely personal explanation of the reasons for the dissolution of the Soviet Union or the collapse of the Romanov Empire, the correspondent of The Moscow Post reports.
The important thing is that the President of Russia called the wall that grew between Russia and Ukraine a tragedy. In 2005, he compared the collapse of the USSR with a geopolitical catastrophe, then describing this event in a message to the Federal Assembly. The disaster led one people - Russians and Ukrainians - to tragedy, a great common misfortune, the causes of which are both in "our own mistakes" and in the actions of those forces that "have always sought to undermine our unity".
The Role of the Bolsheviks
Apparently, our own mistakes include the fact that three decades ago the victorious people in the Great Patriotic War and World War II were humiliated by their own regime, which voluntarily turned Russia into a "state without borders." Then, according to Vladimir Putin, the collapse of the once united country led to the fact that more than 25 million Russian people who were overnight abroad were separated from their historical homeland.
The president writes: "In the USSR, the borders between the republics, of course, were not perceived as state, were conditional in the framework of a single country, which, with all the attributes of the federation, was essentially highly centralized."
The irony that the progenitors of this later degraded authoritarian regime feared the internal power of Greater Russia was afraid of losing power. The task was set for Russia to weaken! They carelessly cut off entire pieces of Russian lands in favor of a new not yet proletarian, but already Soviet Ukraine, which "was largely created at the expense of historical Russia."
Vladimir Putin recalls that "in early 1918, the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic was proclaimed, which turned to Moscow with a question about joining Soviet Russia. There was a refusal. V. Lenin met with the leaders of this republic and persuaded them to act as part of Soviet Ukraine.... The territories of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic in the future were mainly the regions of the Southeast of Ukraine. "
In 1922, when the USSR was created, one of the founders of which was the Ukrainian SSR, the Leninist plan for the formation of the Union State as a federation of equal republics was implemented. The text of the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR, and then the Constitution of the USSR of 1924, included the right of free exit of the republics from the Union.
"The Bolsheviks treated the Russian people as inexhaustible material for social experiments.... One thing is obvious: Russia was actually robbed, "Vladimir Putin concludes.
… and the fate of the Communists
The Russian leader says that "the most dangerous" time mine "was laid in the basis of our statehood. It exploded as soon as the safety, safety mechanism disappeared in the form of the leading role of the CPSU, which as a result fell apart from the inside. "
It was Soviet national policy - instead of a large Russian nation, a three-united people, consisting of Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians - that consolidated at the state level the provision for three separate Slavic peoples: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian.
Later, one leader of the "country of victorious socialism" and a Ukrainian by the roots "presented" the Ukrainian SSR Crimea. Then another, greedy leader and communist of the post-war generation of party nomenclature, "surrendered" Crimea to the separatist communist Kravchuk, and together with Sevastopol.
Now, outside the "one historical and spiritual space" consisting of Ukraine (Small Russia, Little Russia), Russia (Velikorossiya) and Belarus (Novorossiya), forces of a ruling clique and radical dangerous minority the whole country actually escapes. This country is Ukraine, which is largely "Russian" according to the results of the last census, and very "Russian" in language, culture, customs, relations.
And modern Ukraine is "the whole brainchild of the Soviet era," the author concludes. But what is characteristic: having gained independence and long before the 2014 coup, Ukraine refused to sign the CIS Charter, adopted in 1993.
In 2014, the post-Soviet geopolitical space was covered with new cracks. Faults in relations between Kiev and Moscow went from the territory of Ukraine itself, which rushed to Europe. First, in the form of a rejection of its own Constitution and a bloody coup, before that, in denying the inhabitants of Crimea the right to autonomy, and Sevastopol the right to self-determination, and after the Maidan in defiance of the rights of Russian-speaking residents of the southeastern regions.
Threats to the lives, property and rights of those living in Lugansk and Donetsk forced Moscow to intervene, using so far only political, diplomatic and humanitarian instruments.
From history
Vladimir Putin, calling for "a better understanding of the present and a look into the future," addresses the millennial history of Russia and Ancient Russia, during which "ordinary people perceived Russia as a common space, as their Fatherland," being united by the Orthodox faith, in one language. Until the middle of the 15th century, a single church administration was preserved. People of different classes considered themselves Russian and Orthodox.
The southwestern lands of the Russian Empire, Little Russia and New Russia, Crimea developed as diverse in their ethnic and religious composition. Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Karaites, Krymchaks, Bulgarians, Poles, Serbs, Germans and other peoples lived here. All of them maintained their faith, traditions, customs.
The article also noted that "The integration of Western Russian lands into the common state space was not only the result of political and diplomatic decisions. It took place on the basis of common faith and cultural traditions. And again I will emphasize - linguistic proximity. " "In the Russian Empire, there was an active process of development of Little Russian cultural identity within the framework of a large Russian nation that united Great Russians, Little Russians and Belarusians," he continues with a line of historical analysis and emphasizes that "Little Russians in many ways created a large common country, its statehood, culture, science. Participated in the development and development of the Urals, Siberia, the Caucasus, the Far East. By the way, in the Soviet period, the natives of Ukraine held the most significant, including the highest posts in the leadership of a single state. Suffice it to say that a total of almost 30 years of the CPSU was headed by N. Khrushchev and L. Brezhnev, whose party biography was most closely connected with Ukraine. "
Understand the present
According to Vladimir Putin, "The leaders of modern Ukraine and their external patrons prefer not to recall these facts.... At the same time, the actions of the Bolsheviks to reject its historical territories from Russia are not considered a criminal act. It's clear why. Since this led to the weakening of Russia, it suits our ill-wishers. "
Vladimir Putin recalled that "long enough, long before 2014, the United States and EU countries systematically and persistently pushed Ukraine to curtail, limit economic cooperation with Russia. But the Russian Federation is still among the top three trading partners in Ukraine. Countries developed together as a single economic system. "We are natural, mutually reinforcing economic partners. Such a close relationship can strengthen competitive advantages, increase the potential of both countries, "said Vladimir Putin.
In the current situation in Ukraine, it is not easy to even "understand the present," and "look into the future" few people can. The word "Ukrainian," which referred to border service people who protected external borders, takes on the opposite in essence, especially if we take into account the desire of the ruling elite in NATO, which draws Ukraine "into a dangerous geopolitical game, the purpose of which is to turn the country into a barrier between Europe and Russia, into a springboard against Russia. "In fact, Ukrainian elites decided to justify the independence of their country through the denial of its past, however, with the exception of the issue of borders," the Russian President noted.
The Russian Federation recognized new geopolitical realities. And not only recognized, but did a lot to make Ukraine take place as an independent country. Do you want to create your own state? Please! But on what terms? The founding republics of the Union, after they themselves annulled the 1922 Treaty, must return to the borders in which they joined the Union. Nevertheless, the remaining territorial acquisitions are a subject for discussion and negotiations, because the basis has been canceled, "Vladimir Putin referred to the opinion of a professional lawyer and his former boss.
And full external control may again turn out to be fatal for the regime ruling in Kiev.