Was Ukraine founded by Lenin?-History’s response to Putin’s claim

In an address to his citizens, on 21 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, founder of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was the architect of the Ukrainian state and that Ukraine never had genuine statehood.

«It is important to understand that in Ukraine there has never been a stable tradition of true statehood», said the Russian President. At the beginning of 1991, the Ukraine began to mechanically copy foreign models detached from both history and Ukrainian reality.

As a result of the Bolshevik policy, Soviet Ukraine was founded, which up to now, by right can be called «Ukraine in the name of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin», because Lenin is the author and architect of Ukraine approved archival documents, including the Leninist report on the accession of Donbass to Ukraine by strict order», Putin said to the Russians.

It is no wonder that Ukrainian historians were shocked by the statement of the Russian leader. Indeed, Ukraine has a one-thousand-year history.

Did the history of Russian statehood begin in Ukraine? Is Lenin really the architect of the Ukrainian state? In today’s article, topics related to the history of Ukrainian statehood will be considered.

History of the Eastern Slavic peoples

The Slavic people have a common history and are the largest group of people in Europe. The Slavic people are divided into three groups. Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians), Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lithuanians), Southern Slavs (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Bosnians, Montenegrins). These peoples have inhabited the lands of Eastern Europe since ancient times.
In 980 Vladimir Svyatoslavich united the Eastern Slavic tribes into a single state. Thus, the new state of Kievan Rus emerged. The country consisted of modern Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, part of Poland and Lithuania.
In the 1930s, Mongols invaded Kievan Rus, weakened by the civil war. In December 1240, Batukhan, Jojihan’s second son, occupied Kyiv and annexed lands to the Golden Horde. The Mongols granted independence to the Russian principalities.  However, the princes were required to send an annual tribute to the treasury of the Golden Horde and, if necessary, troops.

Golden Horde Crisis.

In the 1980s, Moscow and the Tver principalities came to power and began a struggle to liberate Russian lands from the Mongol yoke. The Moscow principality won the battle. At that time, a new force was emerging in the West. The Grand Principality of Lithuania gradually conquered the weakened Russian principalities in the west. They initially occupied Belarusian lands. In 1324, the Grand Prince of Lithuania Hegemin captured Kyiv, once the capital of Kievan Rus. In 1362, Olgerd Gediminovich defeated the Golden Horde and took control of most of modern southern Russia and Ukraine.

In 1382, the khan of the Golden Horde Toktamish seized Moscow and forced it to pay taxes. Thus, Eastern, Central and Northern Russian principalities passed to the Mongols, and Southern and Western Russian principalities to the Grand Lithuanian sphere of influence. Since then, the Eastern Slavic peoples have been divided.

In 1395, at the Battle of the Tarak River in the Northern Caucasus, Amir Temur the Great defeated Khan of the Golden Horde, Toktamish. Amir Temur’s victory was of great benefit to the Russian principalities. The reason is that Sahibkiran’s attack on Toktamish significantly weakened the Golden Horde.

In 1480, the khan of the Golden Horde marched on Moscow. However, the attack failed. Prince Ivan III of Moscow put an end to the Mongol oppression on Russian land. After that, the Golden Horde weakened and disintegrated.

By the end of the 14th century, the Grand Principality of Moscow had expanded significantly to the west. The Lithuanian principality united with the Kingdom of Poland to fight the enemy. Poland then annexed Ukrainian territory from Lithuania. Lithuania, Novgorod and Vitebsk remained part of the Principality of Lithuania. These territories make up the land of modern Belarus.
Division of the nation into three

The Ukrainian principality developed under the influence of Polish-Slavs. Since then, a separate nation has been formed in the territory of Ukraine. At the same time, a modern Russian state and a Russian nation were born in the Moscow principality. As a result, the East Slavic peoples, once a united nation, have disintegrated into three nations.

In 1547, Ivan IV (the Terrible) ascended to the throne of the Principality of Moscow. He set out to restore the Russian Principality of Kyiv. Ivan IV went three times to capture Kazan. Finally, in 1552, Kazan was conquered.  In 1554, Astrakhan was occupied by Russian troops.

Ukraine during the Russian Empire

At the beginning of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Poland moved to Moscow and captured the city. But the Russian people displaced the Poles. Then Mikhail Romanov came to power and founded the dynasty of Romanov. The new king commanded the inhabitants of the united Russian principalities around Moscow to be called Great Russians.

After the reforms of Emperor Peter I, Russia became much more powerful. By this time, the Kingdom of Poland had lost its former power. Poland was forced to fight Sweden in the north, Prussia in the west, Austria in the south and Russia in the east. In 1783, the Russian Empire annexed the Crimean Khanate. In 1795, Poland was bereaved by three states: Prussia, Russia and Austria. Later the northern territories of Ukraine came under the control of the Russian Empire. The western part of the country was under the control of Austria-Hungary.

The Russian Empire, which occupied Ukraine, pursued a policy of Russification there. In particular, Peter I and Catherine II put forward a consistent policy aimed at undoing the Ukrainian language and statehood. Because the Russian Empire considered itself the true heir of Kievan Russia.

In 1876, Emperor Alexander II banned the publication of books in the Ukrainian language. This in turn, displeased the people of Ukraine. They began to hate Russians.  Russians also tried not to involve Ukrainians in state affairs. The Ukrainians complained that they were discriminated against to an extent and that Ukrainians were the real generation of Kievan Rus. Proof of this is the similarity of the Ukrainian language to the Old Kievan Rus language. However, the Russian Empire, unwilling to admit it, persecuted the Ukrainian intelligentsia. As a result, many intellectuals fled to the western part of the Austro-Hungarian state. That is why today the western part of Ukraine is the cultural center of the country.
Formation of the Ukrainian State

After the February Revolution of 1917, royal power in Russia was overthrown. Under Alexander Kerensky, an interim government was formed. On 19 March 1917, a demonstration of 100,000 people took place in Kyiv. Protesters demanded the restoration of Ukrainian statehood and self-determination. In a hurry, the provisional government allowed Ukraine to speak the national language and teach children in their native language. The Central Rada, the Supreme Legislative body of Ukraine, was soon formed. Rada began negotiations on autonomy with the Provisional Government in Saint Petersburg.

During the Russian uprising, Ukraine was encouraged to become independent. In November 1917, the Central Rada announced the formation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. However, the Bolsheviks opposed it. As a result, war broke out between them. On 9 January 1918, Ukraine declared its independence. At that time, the Red Army crossed the border into Ukraine. In the fighting, the national liberation forces of Ukraine were defeated and the country came under the control of the Red Empire. On 30 January, at the 4th Congress of the Soviets, Donetsk and Krivoy Rog were declared autonomous republics within the Soviet Republic. However, a month later, two autonomous republics were amalgamated to the Soviet Republic of Ukraine.

In 1920, Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union. However, the Ukrainian people hated Russians. As a result of the repressive policy of 1930-1937, many Ukrainian writers and intellectuals were physically destroyed. It was like putting gasoline on the flame in people’s hearts.

On 21 June 1941, Germany declared war on the Soviet Union. When the German army arrived in Ukraine, the locals took to the streets to greet the German soldiers with flowers. This shows that Ukrainians have historically hated Russians. However, in World War II, Germany was defeated. The Ukrainian lands were occupied by the Soviet Army. In 1954, Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union.
Independence of Ukraine

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it became clear that the Soviet Union was falling apart. In the first years of the policy of «reconstruction», carried out by the leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, inter-ethnic relations within the country became more acute. In this turbulent situation, on 24 August 1991 Ukraine, the second-largest country in the Soviet Union, declared its independence. Its independence was recognized only after the collapse of the USSR. Russia and Ukraine soon established friendly relations. Shortly after, however, the two countries failed to agree on some issues. These are:

First, it is a problem of demarcation. Ukraine and Russia are debating who will own the strategically important Crimean Peninsula and Sevastopol. Russia wants to own these lands. Because in Soviet times, Sevastopol was directly subordinate to the Kremlin. However, Ukraine resisted.

Second, Russia and Ukraine could not agree on the ownership of the Black Sea fleet of the USSR.

Third, Ukraine was geographically at the crossroads of two civilizations (Ukrainian Western Catholic civilization and Eastern Orthodox civilization). It was for that reason that the inhabitants of the Eastern Region had requested that Russian should be made a state language. There were even those who wanted to join Russia.

These differences themselves created problems between the two countries. Of course, this is a different matter.