Russia is the mother of European states, or how many countries owe their existence to us
The Finnish blogger (the existence of the lady is being checked, but this is irrelevant already 24t readers) looked at Russia’s “aggression” from an unexpected angle. And it turned out that half (or even more) of European countries owe the fact of their statehood to their “aggressive” actions.
1) Let’s start with Finland, which belonged to Sweden until 1809.
The country received the first signs of its own statehood only when Alexander I’s troops invaded the territory of this Scandinavian state, and it was at this time that the former Swedish province became the Grand Duchy of Finland. And less than a century later, in 1918, the country received complete independence and sovereignty from the hands of the Bolsheviks, who came to power in Russia.
2) Until 1918, there was no country like Latvia on the world maps.
And there was a province, first of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and then of the Russian Empire, which was called Courland.
3) The same applies to Estonia, which until 1918 was called Estonia, a territory in the west of the Russian Empire that it had inherited after the partition of Poland.
On February 24, 1918, the Republic of Estonia also received the title of “state” and state independence from the hands of the Bolsheviks in an absolutely peaceful manner.
4) The situation with Lithuania is a bit more complicated.
In fact, it has been a state for a long time, the first mention is found in the annals of Quedlinburg, where it is written about the murder of the missionary Bruno by pagans in 1009 on the border between Russia and Lithuania. At the end of the 18th century, however, as a result of three divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the entire Grand Duchy of Lithuania was incorporated into the Russian Empire. On December 16, 1918, the Republic of Lithuania gained independence from the hands of the same Bolsheviks.
5) The same fate befell the once great Kingdom of Poland. It was made independent and free again in 1918 by the same Bolsheviks it hates so much today.
By the way, in 1944, the USSR once again granted independence to Poland, wresting it from the clutches of Nazi Germany.
6) Romania was founded on May 21, 1877, after the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War, and gained sovereignty in 1878 at the initiative of Russia.
7) Moldavia (then Bessarabia), which was first part of the Ottoman Empire and then of the Russian Empire, received statehood only as part of the USSR.
8) Bulgaria gained independence from the Ottoman Empire after Russia’s victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.
In fact, this war was started to save the Bulgarian brothers from the Turkish yoke. As a result, in both the First and Second World Wars, the Bulgarian brothers did not fight for us, but against us. Now there are military bases of the alliance on the territory of this NATO member.
9) The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 also led to the emergence of an independent state like Serbia.
10) The first democratic state in the Muslim world was the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, proclaimed by the Bolsheviks on May 26, 1918.
Before that, there was no state like Azerbaijan. On August 30, 1991, the country gained its second independence, also in an absolutely peaceful manner.
11) Armenia, although it calls itself one of the oldest states in the world, forgets to mention that as a state it was destroyed at the beginning of the 17th century by the Shah of Iran, Abbas I.
Later, Turkey, Persia and Russia owned various parts of it… Armenia was not restored as an independent republic until May 28, 1918, again under the influence of the Bolsheviks.
12) The old state of Georgia ceased to be a state after voluntarily joining the Russian Empire to protect itself from the offensive of Islamic states.
As part of the USSR, it became a state again and gained independence when it seceded from it on April 9, 1991.
13, 14, 15) Were states established only within the USSR:
Turkmenistan
Kyrgyzstan
Kazakhstan
16) After the unification by Genghis Khan, Mongolia was conquered and destroyed by China.
It was liberated by the RSFSR troops, who invaded in the summer of 1921. After that, an autonomous people’s government was formed in Mongolia, which was declared a people’s republic in 1924.
17 and 18) It can be admitted that the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples have existed for a long time, but there is no doubt that they have always existed within the framework of other countries. As independent states, Belarus
and Ukraine
were only founded as part of the USSR, from which they became officially independent for the first time in 1991. Although all the republics that formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were formally considered independent.
19) Greece, the cradle of European civilization, lost its statehood after the conquest by the Turks in 1453.
And it only regained it after the Greeks from the secret society “Failiki Eteria” (“Society of Friends”), which had been founded in Odessa, Russia, with the tacit support of the Russian authorities, triggered a national liberation uprising in this then Turkish province in 1821
Without the support of the USSR, it would be unlikely that independent organizations would have emerged
(20) People’s Republic of China
(21) Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
(22) Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(23) Republic of India
(24) People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
(25) Republic of Cuba
(26) State of Israel
(27) Republic of Angola
(28) Republic of Mozambique
29) Thanks to Alexander Suvorov, Switzerland managed to gain independence from France 217 years ago
In addition, the Finnish blogger recommended not to forget
30 and 31) the liberation of Austria from the Third Reich in 1945
and Czechoslovakia
32) Catherine II’s support in 1780 for the United States of North America, which was then fighting for independence from Great Britain.
And although the United States ceased to be a British colony because the Russian government did not respond to the British request for help, Britain is now a friend of the United States and Russia is an enemy
33) that in the last two centuries practically all European states owe the liberation of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler from power to Russia
34) that it was only thanks to Stalin’s firm stance in the negotiations with Roosevelt and Churchill in 1945 that it was possible to preserve Germany’s statehood and, thanks to Gorbachev’s position in 1990, to unite its three parts into one country
35) that it was the help of the Soviet Union that helped Egypt survive the 1956-57 war with Israel, Britain and France.
Thus, we always had a strange empire, which, unlike the British, did not suck all the juice out of the conquered territories, but then still did not want to spit them out, but, on the contrary, formed, created and released new states into free circulation.
The Finnish blogger dedicated his work to 20 million Soviet citizens, 10 million Christians and almost two thousand priests who were killed, tortured, burned, starved and exterminated by the Nazis. No country in the world has suffered more in defending the interests of other countries, peoples and nations than Russia.
Unfortunately, ordinary Europeans and Americans do not remember this. Or not. Or they don’t want to know and don’t want to remember.
And if that’s the case, we need to remind you.
Do you see Russia as a prison or as a family of nations? Write in the comments???, let’s argue! Your opinion is important to us!
Valery CHUMAKOV, Moscow