If you’re like me, you’ve followed the news of Russia’s baseless invasion of Ukraine since it began in February of 2022. Perhaps you’ve wondered, though, about the history of these two neighbors. Today’s post will discuss an important part of that history. I’ll describe for you the events that followed World War I and how that contributes to the present war between Ukraine and Russia.

The first important thing to know is that much of Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire when World War I began. Some Ukrainians lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as well. However, Ukrainians were Russians in a political sense only. They remained an ethnic group with a separate identity from ethnic Russians. Many wanted independence by the dawn of the 20th century.

Russia before World War I was an autocracy. The tsars ruled their empire without any democratic institutions. Tsar is Russian for Caesar—a throwback to the Roman emperors. It’s sometimes spelled czar, but the Russian alphabet has a specific letter that makes the “ts” sound. I’d show it to you, but my version of Word apparently doesn’t like Russian. It has no Cyrillic alphabet in its symbols submenu.

World War I – the Ultimate Monkey Wrench

Thus, Russia before 1914 was a pretty grim place to live for most Russians. The tsars ruled however they wanted to. For most of its history, the empire had no written constitution or bodies of government that represented the people. It was grimmer still for non-Russian people within the empire. The Russian economy was rather weak. The standard of living for most people was low.

World War I changed the equation dramatically. Russia did poorly in the war. It had counted on its size and vast reserves of manpower for success. But the Russian economy wasn’t up to the task of fighting an industrial war such as World War I. The Russian Army was inferior in quality and organization to the German Army as well.

As a result, Russia was defeated in 1917. It signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers in 1918. The tsars fell from power after three centuries. Briefly, a provisional government took the place of tsarist rule. But by 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution had begun. Russia descended into civil war for parts of six years. The Red Army of the Bolsheviks fought on one side. They wanted to establish a communist system in Russia. The White Army, seeking to restore the tsars, fought on the other.

Ukraine and Russia History

Where is Ukraine in all this? The collapse of the Russian Empire presented Ukraine with an opportunity. It had many reasons to desire independence.

Much of Ukraine had come under Russian influence by the early 1700s and Russian domination by the late 1700s. (I’m compressing a lot of nuance here for the sake of getting on with the story.) This domination was political, religious, and economic. The official Russian propaganda claimed the Ukrainians were “little Russians.” That is, they were Russian, but history had separated them from the rest of Russia temporarily.

But Ukrainian culture remained alive through art, education, and literature. The tsars therefore banned publications in Ukrainian from 1863 onward. Hopes rose somewhat in 1905 and 1906 when the tsars allowed the creation of a Duma, or representative body of elected people. The Ukrainians formed a caucus within the Duma. But the tsars retained ultimate power, the Duma accomplished little, and the Ukrainians remained under Russian rule.

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The Russian Revolution of 1917

When the Russian Revolution began in 1917, things changed between Ukraine and Russia. With the repression of the tsars removed, Ukrainian culture revived quickly. Ukrainians created a Central Council (the Rada) in Kyiv and elected a historian (sweet!) named Mykhaylo Hrushevsky as their president. The goal of the Rada was to help transition the Russian Empire into a democratic federation.

A democratic federation was absolutely not the goal of the Bolsheviks. (Well, maybe they claimed it was. But the reality of Bolshevik rule proved repressive and undemocratic.) When the Bolshevik Revolution began in November of 1917, the Rada proclaimed a Ukrainian National Republic. The Bolsheviks responded by declaring the Ukraine a Soviet republic. Ukraine, therefore, proclaimed its independence on January 22 of 1918.

But chaos followed. The Rada hoped for military support from the Central Powers of World War I, Germany and Austria-Hungary. But the Germans, now desperate to win World War I with the U.S. joining their enemies, tried to exploit the Ukrainians instead. A conservative aristocrat, Pavlo Skoropadsky, seized power in April of 1918. An uprising removed him from power later that year.

More Chaos

Things got crazier. When World War I ended in November of 1918, Poland became a nation once again. But Poland went to war with Ukraine. (Because the world hadn’t had enough war by then?) It sought to regain the territory of Galicia that it had held back in the 1700s. The Ukrainians also claimed Galicia as their historical territory.

This is, of course, one problem with nationalism. (As opposed to patriotism. See my post here on the difference between the two if you don’t know why they are different. The difference is critical.) When every nation on earth wants to reclaim the boundaries it held at the extent of its glory, that leads to overlapping claims. War often follows. Such was the case between Poland and Ukraine in late 1918.

But that wasn’t all. The Red and White Armies in the Russian Civil War both invaded the Ukraine, too. Destruction resulted. Irregular armies loyal to warlords proliferated. These often perpetrated pogroms against Ukrainian Jews. The White Army invaded in 1919. Officially, they fought the Bolsheviks, who had also invaded. But the Whites also terrorized Ukrainians and sought to erase Ukrainian culture. Times were as bad as they get in the Ukraine. (Until the 1930s, at least. But the Terror-Famine was still in the future as of 1919.)

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Ukraine and Russia Crisis

At this point, the Ukrainian Army was in a hopeless position. It was in conflict with Poland, the White Army, and the Red Army. Essentially, it disbanded and undertook guerilla operations. This was a desperate measure and the last gasp of hope that failed. Ukraine’s brief independence was over by 1921. Most of its land came under the control of the Soviet Union, dominated by Russia. The communist Red Army had defeated most of its enemies by this time. Some pieces of Ukrainian territory went to Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

So, here we have some of the historic reasons for the present conflict of Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine has, at times, been part of Russia’s empire. But never a willing part. Russia had tried to erase Ukrainian culture. (It would try again in the future. Joseph Stalin’s Terror-Famine was an indescribable horror. Look it up if you want, but be warned. You’ll cringe at what you discover.) But Russia has never succeeded completely.

I hope I’ve helped you understand some of the history behind Ukraine and Russia today. If so, please share this information and this blog. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog below for more quality history in the future.

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