A Short Course in Ukrainian History: Who Conquered Whom (04.04.2022)
A street argument between Vitaliy Dribnytsia and a Russian opponent (a biologist by profession) who repeats the claim that “we were constantly being attacked.” Dribnytsia develops a counter-narrative: to talk about “attacks on Russia,” one must first define what Russia is and from what point. Drawing on the examples of Tver, Ryazan, Veliky Novgorod (1471), the roughly eighty years of Muscovite–Lithuanian wars, the conquest of the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates under Ivan IV, the partition of Poland in 1939 together with Hitler, and the seizure of the Baltic states and Bessarabia, he shows that Muscovy / the Russian Empire / the USSR were, time and again, the aggressor rather than the victim. Used in the article on the colonial nature of Russia for the section on empire through conquest.
Key moments
- 12:54 Opponent: "how many times has Russia been attacked?" — Dribnytsia proposes first defining what "Russia" is and from what point
- 13:20 The Grand Duchy of Moscow subjugated Tver and Ryazan — an act of aggression by the Muscovite prince
- 13:49 Veliky Novgorod — a separate independent state; in 1471 Ivan III seizes it (the largest "act of aggression" of the 15th century)
- 14:17 Late 15th – 16th century — roughly 80 years of Muscovite–Lithuanian wars; Ivan III takes the Rus' territory around Kyiv from Lithuania
- 14:43 Under Ivan IV, Muscovy conquered the Astrakhan and Kazan khanates — the Muscovite tsardom acted as the aggressor
- 15:35 1812 — Napoleon, but the pretext was Russia's violation of the Continental Blockade; the rest of the wars began on Moscow's initiative
- 15:50 1939 — the USSR, together with Hitler, partitioned Poland; then came the attempt to subjugate Finland, the seizure of Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia and of Bessarabia from Romania
- 16:36 Conclusion: roughly 80% of the wars between Russia and its neighbors were acts of aggression by Moscow / the Russian Empire / the USSR / present-day Russia