Originally written : October 8, 2022
By Natasha Antoniuk
As Russia continues to stage invasions of and declare war on Ukraine, an independent neighboring country formerly part of the Soviet Union, more attention is being brought to Russia and how it treats its people, especially when it comes to the basic human rights that Russia routinely violates. This article will be going into some of the history of the Russian-Ukrainian relationship and why we should have been helping to prepare Ukraine for this forewarned invasion. A (Largely Shortened) History of the Soviet Union: The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the overthrow of Russia’s Czar Nicholas II by leftist revolutionaries who instead instated a socialist state in the former Russian Empire. In 1922, a treaty between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Transcaucasia was signed that brought into existence the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in other names the USSR or the Soviet Union, the government of which was taken control of by Vladimir Lenin and his Communist Part. Joseph Stalin took power after Lenin’s death in 1924 and ruled until his own death in 1953. During Stalin’s time in power was the Great Purge, where an estimated 600,000 Soviet citizens were executed; the Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine that by some estimates took as much as 13 percent of the population, or 3.9 million people; and a series of Five-Year Plans. The Holodomor was caused by Stalin as a punishment to Ukrainians who posed a threat to his totalitarian rule, as well as from result of Stalin’s imposition of collectivization. In 1955, the Cold War was set off through the formation of two alliances called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact. After Stalin died in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev took power, becoming the Communist Party’s premier in 1958, losing power when he was removed from office in 1964 after losing legitimacy in the eyes of the Communist party leadership. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985 and helped the Soviet Union become more prosperous and productive. One of his plans, the glasnost plan, called for political openness and addressed restrictions of the Soviet Union’s people. The other plan, perestroika, was his plan that would move the Soviet Union to a hybrid communist-capitalist system. After many internal as well as external conflicts of the Soviet Union began to arise, Gorbachev resigned as the Soviet Union’s leader a mere 6 days before the Soviet Union officially died on December 31, 1991. Why We Should Have Seen This Coming: In 2014, the Russian Federation conducted an invasion into Crimea, an autonomous republic of Ukraine, that went against International Law. Although article 73 of the constitution of Ukraine states that “Alterations to the territory of Ukraine shall be resolved exclusively by an all-Ukrainian referendum,” and the move was challenged in terms of legitimacy by the Ukrainian government, the European Union, and the United States, the Crimean parliament held a referendum on March 16, 2014, that forced voters to choose either to support Crimea’s rejoining with Russia as a part of the Russian Federation or to support the restoration of the 1992 Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and its status as a part of Ukraine. The referendum was seemingly largely supported by voters, and Russia granted the acceptance of Crimea as a portion of the Russian Federation. Ukraine continues to claim Crimea and the majority of United Nations member states still recognized Crimea as within Ukraine’s international borders as of March 27, 2014, although a few countries have since publicly recognized Crimea’s annexation by Russia, with others supporting the March 16 Crimean referendum. Although it does seem that Crimea’s annexation by Russia had large amounts of support within the region, this annexation still indisputably goes against international law and Ukraine’s constitution. Some outside accounts from the time show that people believed that Moscow was using the region to bargain with the Ukrainian government at the time for more influence within the country and its governing tactics. As Wojciech Konończuk said in an article for the Carnegie Endowment for Intenational Peace from March 2014, “the situation is similar to the protracted conflict over the Russian-controlled Moldovan territory of Transnistria... the most favorable Russian scenario for resolving the Transnistria problem is the federalization of Moldova. Such a model of governance would give Transnistria the right to veto important national-level decisions and would help keep the whole country within a Russian sphere of influence. It seems that Russia is trying to apply the Transnistrian model to its relations with Ukraine.” If this was expected at the time of Russia – to try and take influence over Ukraine and other nearby regions, especially those that were former areas of the Soviet Union – why were more precautions not taken in order to assure that the Soviet Union being brought back to power would be avoided? Although understandable that many would wish to avoid conflict with the powerhouse called the Russian Federation at all costs, other countries should have foreseen the future attempt to take over Ukraine and taken action to help secure Ukraine. As people say – the best offense is a good defense. And we – powerful countries – failed to prepare Ukraine – a far less wealthy portion of the world plagued largely with poverty – for the crisis we knew was imminent. Where Does That Leave Us Now? Now, we’re in a time of concern over how large of an effect the Russian invasion into Ukraine will prove to be. The Russian invasion of Ukraine started on February 24, 2022, over seven months ago. The United Nations estimates that 8 million people have been displaced in Ukraine. Russian forces have shelled over 1,000 schools in Ukraine and completely destroyed 95, according to the Ukrainian government. This isn’t only to topple buildings and kill people, though. This is an act to lower the ability of Ukraine to rebound after the fighting subsides, hopefully with a still-standing Ukraine. This indicates a possible war crime committed, one of many that result from accusations that suspects are deliberately aiming at civilian structures rather than government or military structure. This just contributes further to the question of “Why didn’t we begin to prepare Ukraine earlier?” We knew from the annexation of Crimea that Russia has committed and will commit international crimes, which we should have seen as an indication of how Russia would handle an invasion on Ukraine – as an opportunity to make a country lose any influence, prosperity, and life it has –, even if the Crimea invasion was tame in comparison. We should have seen this coming. Read about Human Rights in the Russian Federation as of 2021: https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/russian-federation/report-russian-federation/ Sources History.com Editors. “Soviet Union.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, September 1, 2017. https://www.history.com/topics/russia/history-of-the-soviet-union. Kiger, Patrick J. “How Joseph Stalin Starved Millions in the Ukrainian Famine.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, April 16, 2019. https://www.history.com/news/ukrainian-famine-stalin. “Autonomous Republic of Crimea.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, October 9, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Republic_of_Crimea#Occupation_and_annexation_by_Russia. Konończuk, Wojciech. “Russia's Real Aims in Crimea.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 13, 2014. https://carnegieendowment.org/2014/03/13/russia-s-real-aims-in-crimea-pub-54914. “How Many Ukrainian Refugees Are There and Where Have They Gone?” BBC News. BBC, July 4, 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60555472. Dearen, Jason, Juliet Linderman, and Oleksandr Stashevskyi. “War Crimes Watch: Targeting Ukraine Schools, Russia Bombs the Future.” PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, May 24, 2022. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/war-crimes-watch-ukraine-russia-targets-schools-bombs-future/.
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