Russia-Ukraine War: How Centuries of Alienation Crushed Ukrainians

“My grandmother’s sister had ten children. Nine of them, all daughters, died of starvation,” says Yulia.

When I visited Ukraine less than four years ago, the conflict in its Donbas region was still simmering. With tourists keeping away, I had Kyiv’s ample attractions to myself. I discovered a noble country rich in history and culture. Its brooding Carpathian Mountains, their boundless forests, steppes and ravines stained by continuous floods of blood and tears, are peopled by a vigorous humanity that has survived almost three thousand years of incessant oppression, assaults and wars. Breaking away from the USSR in 1991, Ukraine was now a proud nation shielded with the glow of golden-domed churches flying the colourful banners of orthodox Christianity.

Ukrainians faced tough times after independence. “All the savings my parents had were in roubles. It was all destroyed in the currency crash. For over a year, we did not have enough to eat. I hate the communists and Russians. The arrogant people of Moscow think that they are the only blessed ones,” said Yulia, my guide.

Going Back to the 11th Century

Ukrainian ill-will towards Russia dates back to the 11th century. Over a thousand years, the troubled relationship between the two neighbours, with the same cultural roots, worsened.

Under the rule of Yaroslav, from 1019-1054, the Kyivan Rus’ kingdom was vast. Kyiv, at the time, was a prosperous, radiant city. Paris was gloomy compared to it. Yaroslav the Wise had divided his realm unwisely amongst his five sons, each ruling his own principality under the patronage of the eldest, who ascended the throne of Kyiv.

Over the years, these princes began to assert their autonomy from Kyiv. In 1169, Andrei Bogoliubsky, a great-great-grandson of Yaroslav, one of the most powerful and ambitious Rus’ princes of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality in what is now Russia, took Kyiv and plundered it for two days. He took all the important religious relics from the Kyiv region to Vladimir, his drab capital. Andrei wanted his principality to establish its own identity independent of his ancestral Kyivan Rus’. Suzdal-Vladimir became the core of modern Russia. The principality of Galicia-Volhynia, in present-day western Ukraine, provided the foundation of modern Ukraine. Ever since then, Russia, under czars or communists, has been trying to eradicate the Ukrainian identity and treat it as a buffer state protecting the Russian heartland.

How Ukrainian Language Was Stifled

Cultural oppression unleashed by successive czars discouraged the development of the Ukrainian language. Taras Shevchenko, the Shakespeare of Ukraine, who helped codify the modern Ukrainian language in the mid-1800s and advocated an ethnic nationalism that divided Ukraine from its imperial Russian masters, was imprisoned. “We have good historical reasons to dislike the Russians. Instead of promoting our language and culture, they tried to eliminate it,” said Yulia, a devilish fire flashing in her eyes.

In modern times, the two world wars, the horrific Stalin-induced famine, and the Chernobyl disaster further alienated Ukrainians.

Stalin's Collectivisation of Land and Farmers' Struggles

Ukrainians are deeply religious. After the communists took over, all religious activities were banned, and several churches and monasteries were demolished for having no “historical value”. Most of the sacred objects were either sold by the Bolsheviks or taken to museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg, hurting the feelings of the Ukrainian masses.

In the late 1920s, after the Russian Revolution, after Lenin had died and Stalin became the indisputable leader of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian farmers were herded out of villages and forced to work at construction sites to build industries, dams and power stations.

In the autumn of 1929, Stalin stepped up the collectivisation of land. Police officers and party members fanned out into the countryside, forcing farmers to surrender their animals, agricultural equipment and land and join the collective farms. Farmers slaughtered their animals to prevent seizure by the authorities. About 75,000 dissenting farmers were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Some were taken into the forest and left to die. Thousands abandoned their fields and ran away to the cities, living like homeless orphans, easily identifiable by their ragged clothes, bare feet, and failing bodies. Corpses lay everywhere. Though the USSR had adequate stocks, it chose to export the grain to the West to earn hard currency rather than save starving Ukrainians. About seven million people perished in the famine between 1932 and 1934.

'Family Suffered Badly During Famine'

“My grandmother’s sister had ten children. Her family suffered very badly during the famine. They were so desperate that they could not wait for the vegetables in their kitchen garden to fully mature. They would eat them raw. They even made a soup from grass. Nine of her children, all daughters, died of starvation. I am told that some people in their village also resorted to cannibalism. Eating dogs, cats and birds was common. For the rest of her life, my grandmother’s sister would cry all the time. Sometimes she would choke on her sobs. The thought of her nine children frothing at their mouth, starving slowly to death, must have wrung her heart,” said Yulia, her eyes filled with sorrow.

Kyiv’s Holomodor Memorial, opened in 2009, ensures that Stalin’s horrendous act will always remain a part of Ukraine’s national memory.

How Russia Refuses to Acknowledge Ukraine's Contribution

When Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, Ukraine bore the brunt of the attack. By the end of 1941, the entire Ukraine and 3.5 million Red Army soldiers were in German hands. While retreating, the Soviets devastated Ukraine. Following a scorched-earth policy, they burnt villages and fields, dismantled and took away 550 factories and 3.5 million skilled workers.

Ukraine suffered the most during World War II. Of the 41.7 million people living in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic before the war, only 27.4 million were alive in 1945. That’s 14 million people

The war destroyed 720 Ukrainian cities and towns, 28,000 villages, more than 16,500 industrial enterprises, 18,000 medical institutions, 33,000 schools, universities, colleges and research institutes, and 33,000 farms and state farms. Yet, the Russians refuse to acknowledge Ukraine’s contribution and sacrifice. President Vladimir Putin has gone on record to say that the Soviet Union could have won the Second World War without Ukrainian forces.

Memories of Chernobyl and a Workers' Day Parade

Memories of the 26 April 1986 Chernobyl disaster and its mismanagement still haunt Ukrainians. Kyiv, 110 km from Chernobyl, was badly affected. The news of the accident was hidden from the people of Ukraine. On 1 May, Labour Day, the wind changed direction and blew radioactive clouds towards Kyiv, a city of two million people. An International Workers’ Day parade was to be held that day. Ukrainian officials, who were in the know of the danger, requested Moscow to cancel the event. Mikhail Gorbachev refused. He insisted that the show must go on. He had to show the world that everything was under control and there was no danger to the population from radiation.

The radiation fallout affected millions of people in Ukraine and Belarus. River Dnipro was contaminated, affecting 30 million people dependent on its water supply. Forests, crops, milk were poisoned. Children, closer to the affected area, began losing hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. Many children born later had deformities. Official deaths were 31, but some studies say anywhere from 4,000 to 93,000 deaths could result from radiation poisoning in the long term. Disillusioned Ukrainians began to question their relationship with Moscow. Gorbachev later said that it was Chernobyl that hastened the disintegration of the USSR.

Nobody Wants to be Back in the USSR

Once free from Soviet shackles, Ukrainians busied themselves building their nation and destroying vestiges of their Soviet past. Over 3,700 statutes of Lenin were dismantled or destroyed. In 2015, a law was passed to ban communist symbols. Heritage hotels spent millions on renovations to dilute their agonising Stalinist design.

Ukraine’s Orthodox Christians, comprising 70% of the population, freed themselves from the tutelage of the Patriarchate of Moscow by establishing the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In January 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Istanbul-based Pope of the Orthodox Christian world, granted full independence to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – which led Moscow to terminate its relations with him – resulting in the biggest split in Christianity since 1054, when the Eastern Orthodox church and Rome parted company. Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s President, hailed this as “a great victory of the God-loving Ukrainian people over the Moscow demons, the victory of good over evil, the victory of light over darkness”.

Young Ukrainians, keen to shake off the Soviet legacy of corruption and violation of human rights, want to distance themselves from Russia and integrate with western Europe. They want a Ukraine that respects democracy, freedom, rule of law, and its citizens. Nobody wants to be ‘back in the USSR’.

(Akhil Bakshi is the author of Ukraine: A Stolen Nation. This is an opinion article and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)