Ukraine is also called “the cradle of Eastern Slavic civilization”. A nickname that dates back to the time of the first Slavic Orthodox churches, founded by the princes of Rus’ (or Rus) of Kiev in the 9th century, explains Samantha de Bendern, researcher in the Russia-Eurasia department at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London , at 20 minutes. “Then, over the centuries, the interest was pushed eastwards, towards Moscow,” she continues.
Ukraine is this Thursday the target of a military aggression by Russia. The Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, announced the launch of a military operation, with the entry of ground troops and the bombing of several cities, based on various arguments with historical content, but often false. Because, “today any interpretation of the history of Slavic orthodoxy has become hostage to historians according to their ideological point of view, warns Samantha de Bendern. Kiev is a bit like the Jerusalem of the Orthodox”.
The Tsarist and Putinist idea of the same Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian people
Vladimir Putin’s historical pretexts echo a dominant doctrine in the time of the Tsars. For the head of the Kremlin, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians form only one people from the same history. A widespread thought at the time of Nicolas II, the last Russian tsar, when “the Romanov dynasty saw itself as the direct heiress of that of Kiev”, explained to Mediapart in 2014 Yaroslav Lebedynsky, French historian of Ukrainian origin.
Thus, if the Russian dictator “believes that Ukraine or Belarus are artificial states that have no place to exist”, underlines the researcher specializing in Russia, these countries nevertheless existed by themselves before the Bolshevik then Soviet era. But the borders were not drawn as they are now. « Pieces of Ukraine [actuelle] were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then of Poland, of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and part of it belonged to the Russian Empire,” recalls Samantha de Bendern.
A “Ukrainization” frowned upon in the USSR
In 1917, Ukraine was even able to live as a more or less independent state before being attached to the USSR as one of the fifteen independent republics. At the beginning, “they initially recognize the Ukrainian people and their language: it is in any case the Leninist discourse of the first years, motivated by tactical reasons and maintained until the 1920s”, explains Yaroslav Lebedynsky again.
The initial thought according to which the three Eastern Slavic peoples, which are the Russians, the Ukrainians and the Belorussians, form only one people returns under Stalin in the face of too strong a “Ukrainization”, as described by the historian Yaroslav Lebedynsky. “But deep down, I am convinced that the Russian elites have never believed in this theory of the same people, that they have always been deeply informed about the Ukrainian fact and at the same time deeply desirous of destroying it”, adds- he.
For Samantha de Bendern, there is even a paradox here, because if we follow the speech of Vladimir Putin who considers that Ukrainians and Russians are one, “he bombards his own people”.
A Ukrainian identity forged in opposition to the USSR
The Ukrainian identity will subsequently be forged and strengthened in response to Stalinist aggressions, in particular the famine artificially created by the communist dictator, which caused between three to five million deaths. “It’s part of the creation of the Ukrainian identity,” emphasizes Samantha de Bendern.
The Chernobyl disaster will further affirm this identity in opposition to Russia. “The Ukrainians felt betrayed by Moscow, which did not inform the population of the incident,” recalls the researcher. Especially since according to Yaroslav Lebedynsky, “the Ukrainians have always seen themselves as the first victims of Russian imperialism and at the forefront of the fight against it. The two specialists insist on the same point: the history of these peoples is much more complex than the facts presented by the two parties.
Populations linked beyond conflicts
Nevertheless, beyond political speeches and geostrategic conflicts, the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian populations are very close. There are three nationalities in the three countries. “Many Russian and Ukrainian families have family members across the border,” says Samantha de Bendern, and many Belarusian opponents of the incumbent president have taken refuge in Ukraine. “There is great solidarity between peoples,” she continues.
Today, the Head of State at the head of Belarus, Petro Poroshenko, is very close to Vladimir Putin, and the two countries seem very close, when Ukraine has turned towards Europe and has thus drawn the ire of Moscow.