The past week has made it clear that Putin believes in his own view of history. What is Putin's historical vision, what is true and what is not, and why is this so deep that in his eyes it justifies a war?
In July 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin published a lengthy article on the Kremlin's website entitled "On the Historical Unity of the Russians and the Ukrainians." In the article, Putin explains that Russia and Ukraine form one community. It pains him that in recent years a wall has been erected "between two parts of the same historical and spiritual space." He also makes it clear that Ukraine as an independent country is a historical mistake made in the creation of the Soviet Union. According to Putin, the West has also exploited this with a vicious divide-and-rule policy. This was done, among other things, by stirring up 'nationalist and Nazi sentiments' and by suppressing the Russian language and religion.
American historian and journalist Anne Applebaum tweeted on July 31:"Has anyone seen this article by Putin? It is now mandatory reading material for all Russian soldiers. And, in effect, an announcement of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Responses to Applebaum's tweet were resigned—historical nonsense, of course, but little news. Putin's article, as ominous as it may be, did not make the Western news even in the gloom. The tragedy of an announced invasion.
The past week has made it clear that Putin believes in his own view of history. He firmly believes that Russia and Ukraine belong together. That Ukraine should not exist as an independent country. And that he is the one who has to set that right. What is Putin's historical vision, what is true and what is not, and why is this so deep that in his eyes it justifies a war?
Kyiv-Rush
Russia and Ukraine share a long and intertwined history. The origin of this lies in the area around the city of Kyiv. This was colonized and loosely united in the early Middle Ages by Vikings from Scandinavia, who descended the great rivers from the north. The people became known as the 'Rush'. But the real joint history of what Putin calls "the historical and spiritual space" in his article begins in the year 988. Then Vladimir I (or Volodymyr, from Scandinavian Valdemar) "the Great", ruler of the Kyiv Empire, converts turn to Christianity. He is baptized in Chersonese on the Crimean peninsula. Vladimir makes the Kyiv Empire a thriving Christian culture.
At its height, the Kyiv Empire stretched from the Black Sea to what is now Saint Petersburg. In 1240, the country and the city of Kyiv was overrun by the Golden Horde, the Mongolian horsemen of Genghis Khan. Important to this story is that after the fall of Kyiv the seat of the Christian church was moved to the north. First in 1299 to the rich town of Vladimir and shortly afterwards in 1325 to Moscow, capital of the principality of the same name. Moscow at that time was still very little. But it cleverly exploited its underdog position by teaming up with the Mongol overlords. Grand Duke Ivan III quickly expanded the territory of Moscow and broke with the Golden Horde in 1471.
Empire Legitimation
Around 1500 Moscow was already a strong independent principality with a large territory. And it had the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church, which broke away from Rome and set out on an independent course. A strong state, a large territory and a universal belief. That reminded the Russian rulers of the old Roman Empire. The idea developed that Moscow would be the "third Rome", after Rome itself and Constantinople, which had been conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The idea that the Roman Empire should be continued was previously regarded as a legitimization of the power of Charlemagne and of the Holy Roman Empire. Now the Muscovites ran off with it as legitimacy for their own empire. Ivan IV was crowned Tsar in 1547. The word comes directly from Caesar and means emperor.
It is crucial that the Russian Orthodox Church originated in Kyiv. The country where Vladimir I was baptized and where the Russian people originated. That cradle, however, lives on in Moscow, strong and mighty. The realm that will not be conquered by the Golden Horde and will never be conquered. This is the historical core idea of the Russian World, the Russky Mir (the word Mir means both 'world' and 'peace'). This is what Putin means by that "historical and spiritual space" of which only Moscow can be the leader. Russky Mir is also the name of a cultural-political foundation founded by Putin.
It was Catherine the Great who managed to conquer the core countries of Ukraine from the Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania in the eighteenth century. Putin in his article speaks of a "war of liberation" and that the population of Kyiv was "reunited with the main part of the Russian Orthodox people". At its peak in the early twentieth century, the Russian Empire included not only Ukraine and Belarus, but also the Baltic countries, large parts of Poland and the Caucasus. Russian was the predominant language, the Russian Orthodox Church the faith. Other languages and beliefs were second-rate.
Celebration of National Cultures
We jump to World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917 to understand what Putin believes to be the "mistake" the Communists made in establishing the Soviet Union. After the revolution, the new communist government wanted to withdraw Russia from the war with Germany as soon as possible. The heads of government agreed to the humiliating Brest-Litovsk peace terms, which stipulated that Russia would lose large tracts of land, including the Baltic States and large parts of present-day Ukraine. Ukrainian nationalists made various attempts to establish a national Ukrainian state in the period 1917-1921, but in the end Ukraine was annexed to the Soviet Union.
Vladimir Lenin, the most important Russian revolutionary, was a child of his time. He saw the emerging national movements in the Russian Empire as a useful tool to overthrow the existing order. But Lenin also saw how, after the First World War, a multi-ethnic state like Austria-Hungary collapsed like a house of cards. That is why he decided in his own way to move along with the basic principle of the post-war world:the right to self-determination for all peoples. The young Soviet Union embarked on an active policy of de-Russification. All ethnic groups were given their own republic. The ethnic population was actively involved in governance. In schools in, for example, the Soviet Republic of Ukraine, much attention was paid to Ukrainian language and culture. National customs were suffused with a communist sauce. With this program of Korenizatsiya (‘displacement’) the Soviet Union wanted on the one hand to meet nationalist tendencies and on the other hand to prevent the republics from gaining real autonomy.
Celebrating cultures like the Ukrainian instead of making them part of the Russian World. Despite the fact that the Soviet republics were not truly independent states, the contrast with the Russian Empire could hardly be greater. According to Putin, the distinction between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus is therefore only the result of this Soviet policy. For they are one, and belong to the same Russian World. It's a simple look at a complex history. He completely ignores the deep-rooted Ukrainian language and culture and, above all, Ukraine's own choice to continue as a free, European country.
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Like a prison
Putin's Russian World is a rather compelling and inflexible concept. In his view, it is determined by language, religion and history. And it's like a prison. Moscow has seen itself as the guardian of the Russian world since the time of the first tsars. According to Putin, if a country belongs to it, he will not simply allow that country to choose to leave. All in all, it is a historical argument about the unity of church and state, cultural-political spheres of influence and power politics that is rather old-fashioned from the perspective of our democratic core values.
And that World is not limited to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Former Soviet states such as Georgia and the Baltic countries are also included. Ukraine is a special case, Putin reassured the other former Soviet states after the invasion, because the country has been in the hands of a fascist and Nazi government since the 2014 revolution. This government is foreign-led and regularly bombs ethnic Russians in the country, Putin said. He refers to the war that he himself started in eastern Ukraine.
Many countries that once belonged to this group are now members of the EU and NATO. Putin has been saying for years that he is not happy with that. These warnings have always been brushed aside by the West. In post-war Europe, a different principle applies. The principle that countries can choose for themselves which way they go. But Putin will not allow the loss of the cradle of the Russian World for the time being.