Continuation, beginning of the series: Colonial backbones of Russia: Georgia. Colonial backbones of Russia: the Baltics.
Russian imperialism
English geological scientist, Sir Roderick Impi Murchinson: “Even if Russia expands its possessions at the expense of neighboring colonies, unlike other colonial powers, it gives these new acquisitions more than it takes from them.
The initial aspirations of all empires differ little, but where a Russian person appears, everything miraculously gets a completely different direction. Therefore, no matter how victorious the Russian weapon is, in a purely mercantile sense, Russia always remains the loser. Those defeated by it or taken under its protection usually win in the end by keeping their way of life and spiritual institutions intact, despite their obvious insufficiency for progress.
Illustrative examples of this are, for example, Estonia and the Caucasus, which for centuries have been despised and raped by their neighbors, but have taken an honorable place among the peoples and have achieved an incomparable prosperity under the auspices of Russia, while the position of the Russian people, that is, the indigenous population, is from the acquisition of Estland and the Caucasus. metropolis has not improved at all."
Zaporizhzhya Sich before 1654.
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Primordial lands
On the territory of modern Ukraine, the Slavs (no matter how they were called in antiquity) lived from before written times.
These lands are the junction of interests of various empires, have always been an arena of confrontation. As for the subject of this article, the concept of Ukraine / Ukrainian, in the sense of designating a specific territory, began to be used only in the 19th century. Before that, there were roamers, Cossacks, Cherkasy and so on, in essence they were foreigners.
The Russian Empire did not seek to absorb the lands of the Rusyns and Little Russians, realizing the need for war with neighboring empires. It was much more profitable and easier to use them as a "proxy" of forces. Rusyns who lived in the central and western parts of modern Ukraine and have always gravitated towards independence from everyone. Little Russians who lived in the northeastern part - to Central Russia.
The Zaporozhye Cossacks, as a military formation, did not obey and did not belong to anyone until 1654. It was this robbery freeman who became the catalyst for the events that led to the infusion of all the surrounding lands into the Russian Empire - under the protection of a powerful centralized (multinational) state.
Ukrainian territory map.
Where to go, who to go to?
As always, the redistribution of geographical boundaries began with questions of religion. These lands were (and are still) between the established zones of influence of Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Islam. In those days, they tried to actively expand into other denominations.
The Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire were doomed to fierce confrontation and mutual expansion. Why the Russian Empire turned out to be a secondary goal for them is another matter. But it just so happened. The extreme in the confrontation between Catholics and Muslims were Orthodox Rusyns and Little Russians.
Massacres, robberies, violence and forced change of religion - did not last for decades, but for centuries. The Zaporizhzhya Sich, which the current politicians in Ukraine proclaim almost the ancestor of all ethnic Ukrainians (in fact, the composition was multinational), at that time plundered in all directions, but the most famous, of course, were the raids on the Ottoman lands.
Sich - a restless freeman
Rzeczpospolita was able to separate and take into service a part of the Cossacks (settled), which received the name - Registered Cossacks. They did not serve the Poles for a long time, and soon (voluntarily) switched for the BEST SHARE to the service of the Russian (Orthodox) tsars. The Zaporozhians, in turn, rushed from the Ottomans to the Russians and back, choosing where they would plunder more freely.
Picture - the Cossacks are writing a letter to the Turkish Sultan.
The Poles, meanwhile, continued to press and cut, and the Ottomans did not give any protection. That is why, ataman Bogdan Khmelnitsky in 1654, used the only remaining chance to preserve the Faith and the population of the Dnieper region - entry into Russian citizenship. The Russian Empire was forced to go to war with the (Catholic) Poles to protect co-religionists from extermination.
After the Russian-Polish war of 1654-1667, the lands east of the Dnieper (Left-Bank Ukraine) passed to Russia, and the western territory (Right-Bank Ukraine) remained part of the Commonwealth. Subsequently, as a result of the ongoing wars with the Ottoman Empire and the Commonwealth, Right-Bank Ukraine was also recaptured.
Zaporozhye Cossacks.
The Zaporozhian Cossacks, raised today to the role of sinless heroes, have more than once betrayed their saviors - the Russian tsars. They entered into alliances with the Swedes (1709 - Mazepa) and the Ottomans (1775), robbed merchant caravans, and levied tribute (despised by them) the Little Russian population.
For this, the Russian emperors twice defeated the Sich and the freemen (easily and simply) moved to Ottoman citizenship! From where, on the instructions of the Turkish sultans, she was regularly nominated to pacify her fellow believers - Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks. Such are the warriors "for the faith" …
This is how the history of Ukraine began, but it was not yet a state - just the Outskirts / Ukraine of the Empire. And only with the arrival of the international Bolsheviks, the new pans-atamans pulled from all sides to themselves the regions inhabited by different nationalities and had NO relation to the outskirts / Ukrainians / Cossacks … read about this in the next part of the article.