The Russia and Ukraine Conflict; How and Why
By: Abhijay Bhosale
Long gone are the days of the Soviet Union. The Bering Strait, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin War, and the whole ordeal of the Cold War went down with the USSR. Now here we are, present day. What was known as a behemoth of a nation is now 15 individual countries, but 2 in particular are starting to light sparks on the ledge of another war. Russia and Ukraine.
HOW DID IT ALL START?
To even begin to comprehend this whole mess, you need to back. 1922. The Soviet Union has just been formed. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are living together under the rule of the big names like Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, basically the socialist government. But how did Ukraine get involved with the Soviets in the first place? Ukraine is in very close proximity to Russia, with a buffer of one or so small countries. It only makes sense that communist ideologies would be spreading Eastward. The goal of this economic system is to basically get rid of ranks, as it states in one of the first sentences of the Communist Manifesto, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." To get rid of the division between the Bourgeois (rich) and Proletarians (poor) since the concept was history is but a collection wars between the wealthy and the unfortunate. Going back to Ukraine, a group of Ukrainian Bolsheviks in 1917 who thought that communism was good way to go overthrew the government in Kiev. They established the USSR. (The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic not to be confused with the other USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and through the years became one of the founding nations of the Soviet Union. This is how Ukraine and Russia's string of events start.
THE GREAT PURGE AND A FAMINE
Ok, so let's set the field. Ukraine is being controlled by extreme communists due to a terrible overthrow, and a few years go by. Vladimir Lenin is dead, and here come's Joseph Stalin. Stalin knows one thing about the Soviet Union; nothing good can come out of it unless they industrialize. So that's exactly what Stalin did. In time called as the Great Purge, he started collecting all the farmers and started making them work together (aka collectivization). That may have been a good idea, if not for the fact all farmers had their lands and livestock being taken. To counter the higher-income farmers (aka kulaks) that weren't the same as the others, hundreds of thousands of them were promptly executed. Stalin was... pragmatic to say the least. Because of the confusion and overall resistance to Stalin's efforts, agricultural activity dropped all across the USSR. This lead to food shortages, namely in places like Ukraine, where upwards of 3.9 million people died (which at the time was 13% of the population). That, and the overall racism and resentment to Ukrainians (and also unrelatedly Germans) led the populous to a tipping point. They just needed a little push.
IT'S ABOUT TO GET COLD
Mind games where what the Ukrainians had to go through next. As WW2 ended, a new problem came up. How to split Germany? They didn't. Sort of. While the Soviets took over Germany as a whole, they Allied Powers split Berlin into East and West Berlin. East Berlin was owned by the USSR and West Berlin was owned by the Allies. With a capitalist area in a communist land, it was clear that the other Soviet looked on with envy. West Berlin had cinemas, better housing, many jobs, was an overall fun place to be, and had a taste of capitalism. After a few years with things like the Berlin Airlift and the Berlin Wall, Ukraine was getting tired.
CHERNOBYL
This was the last straw. Not only for Ukraine, but for basically all of the Soviet Nations. After the population was forcibly spoon-fed that the USSR was the best at everything for years, Chernobyl was the first time seeing just how terrible the government was. The censorship, the unfairness, and the people who lost their lives in something that could have been stopped. Even the undertrained workers were the government's fault. Since a communist government is a direct hands-on experience, the worker's action's were the government's fault. Radiation is invisible, but one of the most dangerous things on Earth. Now, here we see the Soviet Nations having enough. The military movements, the oppression, and now with a mad NATO to support them, the countries started leaving. One by one, the countries left, and the USSR came to an end (fun fact: Kazakhstan was the last nation to leave the USSR, not Russia).
THE ANNEXATION OF CRIMEA
Now it's 2014. The world's going great. But then Russia came along. By using a combination nuclear threats and military power, the country successfully invaded Crimea, supposedly to "ensure proper conditions for the people of Crimea to be to freely express their will" (Vladimir Putin). While an obvious interference of sovereignty, Russia took over. Now dangerously close to Ukraine, the two countries are now in a precarious position. Many ethnic Ukrainians were living in Crimea, and now the entire world is waiting for whether of not there will be a repeat of Crimea.
WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?
Ukrainian Allies and European countries trying to avoid war are talking furiously with Putin. So far, both forces are building up forces on the Russia-Ukraine border. But why would Russia want to invade Ukraine. There are many reasons many speculations, but there are 3 we should pay attention to:
- More land: Ukraine is roughly 35% of Russia in terms of size, so conquering this land would increase Russia's land significantly.
- More influence: Getting closer to more European and less Slavic countries, many more weapons can be used at a short range. It'll also be a show of power, and may be a statement of how Russia is going back to its golden days of the USSR. Ukraine also borders Poland, which borders Germany, making Russia a little too close for comfort. And it's a given to know about the history between Russia and Poland.
- More resources: With 20 thousand mineral deposits and 117 different types of minerals, Ukraine is a plentiful country. Iron, manganese, ilmenite-zirconium, uranium ore, as well as coal, graphite, kaolin, refractory and fire clay, flux, cement raw materials, facing and building stones are being mined in Ukraine. Great for infrastructure, trade, and more importantly, military power.
While these are all valid arguments, only Russia knows what Russia wants, so in the meantime, we just have to wait and see. This is Abhijay Bhosale, and thank you for reading this weeks edition of Fire Up: New Days, New News.
CREDITS:
- history.com
- en.wikipedia.com
- e-r.info (for picture)
- dictionary.com
- forbes.com
- slate.com
- bbc.com
- eng.minerals-ua.info
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