The Brink of War Trivia Quiz

Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine all have a common cultural ancestry that dates back to the Kievan Rus' federation that existed from the late 9th until the mid-13th century, until the Mongols invaded. Two hundred years later, Ivan (III) the Great would lift the Grand Duchy of Moscow (a vassal state of the Golden Horde) to prominence, conquering neighbouring lands in a 43-year campaign that culminated in his taking the title of 'tsar' and claiming the title of "Ruler of all Rus'." Ivan the Great's grandson, Ivan (IV) the Terrible would establish the Tsardom of Russia in 1547, which would expand greatly until Peter (I) the Great transformed it into the Russian Empire in 1721.

The land that is modern-day Ukraine was divided between different ruling powers during the centuries following the fall of the Kievan Rus', beginning with the Golden Horde, and followed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland (which later became the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), and the Crimean Khanate. Over time, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth diminished, due to multiple conflicts on multiple fronts, until it ceased to exist through the "Partitions of Poland" in the 18th century. The Russian Empire, under Catherine (II) the Great, now controlled all the Ukrainian lands within its borders.

From the time of Peter I, laws and edicts were established to strengthen Russian influence in the Ukrainian region, referred to as 'Russification'. One of the aspect of this was in limiting the use and teaching of the Ukrainian language. After various edicts limiting printing of books and orders in Ukrainian in the 18th century, a royal decree was made in 1804 by Alexander I that banned all Ukrainian-language schools.

During the Great War, conflict between the Russian Empire and the Central Powers was largely held in the Ukrainian region that was the border between the two factions, and as the war neared its end, opportunity arose for Ukraine.

With the Russian (February) Revolution of 1917 and the fall of the Romanov dynasty, a new era began for both Ukraine and Russia. In Russia, a short-term provisional government resulted in the establishment of the even shorter-lived Russian Democratic Federal Republic, as the Bolsheviks seized power in the 'Great October Socialist Revolution'.

During the brief tenure of the Russian Provisional Government, the lifting of tsarist restrictions resulted in the establishment of a Ukrainian representative council - the 'Central Rada.' The Provisional Government recognized the Central Rada's autonomy, but the Bolsheviks who seized power on November 7th did not, consequently on November 20th, the Central Rada proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian National Republic. The Bolsheviks responded in December by declaring Ukraine to be a Soviet republic and formed a rival government (in the city of Kharkiv).

In January of 1918, the Bolsheviks began a military action, advancing on Kiev. The Central Rada, trying to secure allies with the Central Powers, declared the Independence of Ukraine on January 22nd. The struggle for independence did not end there, as the Great War continued and loyalties within Ukraine were divided to different sides of the conflict. In late 1919 and early 1920, Bolshevik forces occupied the country, forcing the fledgling government of the Ukrainian National Republic into exile. Thus the rival Bolshevik government (the Ukrainian Soviet Republic) prevailed and the whole era (1917-1921) came to be known as the The Soviet-Ukrainian War, or Ukrainian Civil War.

In March of 1918, the new Bolshevik government (the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) signed the Treaty of Brest-Livotsk, which withdrew them from the Great War, and forced them to yield all captured Ukrainian territory. This stipulation did not last, however, as the war ended mere months later (November 1918) as the Central Powers collapsed, and Vladimir Lenin annulled the treaty and moved to claim lands formerly held by the German Empire and Austria-Hungary. This led to the Polish-Soviet War of 1918-1921, that occurred alongside the aforementioned Ukrainian Civil War.

Suffice it to say that it all culminated in the Treaty of Riga (also called the 'Peace of Riga') between Poland, Soviet Russia, and the newly-established Soviet Ukraine. This set the borders between the three governments that would last until World War II, with present-day Western Ukraine part of the Republic of Poland.

On December 30th, 1922, The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was created, with the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR.

With the death of Lenin in 1924, Joseph Stalin rose to power in the USSR, ousting his adversaries and effectively taking control of the Soviet Union by 1927. In 1928, Stalin instituted his first 'five-year plan' economic plan, which included the creation of collective farms. This practice (and the resistance to it) caused widespread famine in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and areas of the Northern Caucasus.

The Ukrainian term 'Holodomor' translates as 'killing by starvation'.

While estimates vary, a 2003 statement by the United Nations (signed by 25 nations) set the death toll of this catastrophe between seven and ten million people. Whether the famine was a deliberate effort at genocide by Stalin, or as the inadvertent result of his nationwide policies of rejection of outside (foreign) aid, confiscation household foods, and restriction of population movement, there is no international agreement on the point.

In 2010, the Kyiv Appellate Court posthumously found Joseph Stalin, Lazar Kaganovich, Viacheslav Molotov, and the Ukrainian Soviet leaders Stanislav Kossior and Vlas Chubar, amongst other functionaries, guilty of genocide against Ukrainians during the Holodomor famine.

"The Conclusions of the forensic court demographic expertise of the Institute of Demography and Social Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, dated November, 30, 2009, state that 3.941m people died as a result of the genocide perpetrated in Ukraine." (Source: Holodomor Museum website)

The region known as Crimea was a part of the Crimean Khanate that existed from 1441 to 1783. In 1774, at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War, the Empire of Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, which guaranteed that neither empire could interfere in the affairs of the Crimean Khanate. This treaty held until 1783, when Catherine (II) the Great took advantage of the Ottoman Empire's decline to annex the Khanate.

Fast forward to 1954. After the death of Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev came out on top of the subsequent power struggle. Having governed in the Ukraine SSR for over a decade, Khrushchev had an intimate understanding of the relationship between Ukraine and the Russian SFSR, so in an effort to reconcile that relationship, he arranged for the Crimean Oblast to be transferred to Ukrainian control. But the process by which this occurred would have unforeseen ramifications six decades later.

Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, and his era became synonymous with the terms 'perestroika' (economic/political restructuring) and 'glasnost' (openness). This led to the beginnings of the end for the USSR. In 1990, four Soviet Republics declared their independence (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Armenia).

An attempt was made to salvage the fraying Soviet Union with the establishment of a New Union Treaty that would have reformed the USSR into the Union of Soviet SOVEREIGN Republics. The Ukrainian SSR did not sign the treaty.

Just before this new treaty was to be signed by Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan on August 20th, 1991, a 'Gang of Eight' senior military and civilian hard-liners organized the 'State Committee for the State of Emergency' and attempted a coup d'état to overthrow Gorbachev. They were unsuccessful, but the action prompted the parliament of the Ukrainian SSR to quickly adopt their own 'Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine', which was overwhelmingly passed on August 24th. A referendum followed on December 1st, and 82% of the population participated in the voting, with 90% in favour of independence.

With the new reality of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the newfound independence of Ukraine, and the establishment of the Russian Federation (Dec. 25, 1991), there was a need to establish new understandings between the two nations. To that end, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a new agreement in 1997, entitled the 'Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership.' It came into effect on April 1st, 1999.

This treaty "fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, and respect for territorial integrity and mutual commitment not to use its territory to harm the security of each other." (Source: Wikipedia) By the terms of the treaty, it would renew automatically every ten years, unless one of the parties declared the intention NOT to renew at least six months prior to that renewal date.

After tensions between the two countries escalated over Crimea and the Donbas region, Ukraine announced its intention not to renew the treaty in September of 2018, resulting in the treaty officially expiring on March 31st, 2019.

The relationship between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) actually began shortly after they gained their independence from the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian government applied in 1992 to begin a 'NATO Membership Action Plan' in 2008, which would require the hopeful nation to meet a number of requirements, and to be unanimously approved by all current NATO member states.

At the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO decided it would not yet offer membership to Ukraine (and Georgia, which had also applied). Over subsequent years, further steps were taken by Ukraine to meet all requirements for both NATO and European Union membership, including multiple referendums to gauge the views of the populace, which has always approved moving forward with the goals. Yet, the process is long and convoluted, and at the June, 2021 NATO Summit in Brussels, Ukraine still had not completed the process, even though things had progressed to the point of joint naval drills in the Black Sea that same month.

Viktor Yanukovych won the Ukrainian presidential election in 2010, having served previously in the role of Prime Minister (who presides over the Cabinet of Ministers) on multiple occasions. Trouble arose for Yanukovych in late 2013 when he rejected a pending association agreement with the European Union in favour of fostering closer ties with Russia and through a loan bailout. This sparked a series of protests (known as the 'Euromaidan') against Yanukovych over perceived "widespread government corruption", "abuse of power", and "violation of human rights in Ukraine."

With the country on the brink of civil war, this 'Revolution of Dignity' ended with Yanukovych fleeing the country to the Crimea on February 21st (and then later into exile in Southern Russia). He was subsequently removed from office by the Ukrainian parliament, and then (much later, in 2019) sentenced by a Ukrainian court (in absentia) to thirteen years' imprisonment for high treason.

Which brings us to Russian involvement.

On February 22nd, President Vladimir Putin held an all-night meeting with his security service chiefs to discuss the extrication of the deposed Yanukovych, concluding the meeting with the statement, "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia." Within days, masked troops (without identifying insignia) captured the Crimean parliament and other strategic points, resulting in the installation of a pro-Russian government. On March 11th, that government declared their independence from Ukraine (supported by a referendum on March 16th). On March 18th, the Russian Federation formally announced their annexation of the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol.
(Quoted segments sourced from Wikipedia)

Concurrent with the Euromaidan protests and the events that led to the annexation of Crimea in early 2014, a pro-Russian, anti-government separatist movement took action in the Dunbas region of Southeastern Ukraine (on the border with Russia), comprised of the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk. Supported by Russian elements, armed conflicts became common and, in May 2014, both Donetsk and Luhansk declared their independence from Ukraine as the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, even jointly announcing their intention to form a confederative "union of People's Republics" called New Russia.

Since the onset of hostilities in early 2014, many efforts have been made to secure a cease-fire, but none of these efforts lasted longer than six weeks. After nearly eight years of continuous fighting, things changed on February 21st, 2022, when Vladimir Putin announced Russia's official recognition of the DPR and LPR as sovereign states. The next day, the Russian Federation Council unanimously authorized the use of military force outside Russia, and then, on February 24th, Russian forces entered Ukraine on multiple fronts, by sea, land, and air.