Which country has the most disgraceful history?
An visitor give his opinion i am just sharing his opinion.
UKRAINE
I love reading history books and each country has its own disgraceful history. It is hard to say which one is “THE MOST”, but Ukraine is one of “THE MOST DISGRACEFUL”. Let me go step by step to explain why. ( I am sorry for some historical inaccuracy, since I am trying to give you just some general idea, not write the history book).
- In 1237 Mongols started their invasion of Kievan Rus. Territories of Modern Ukraine were occupied by mongols, many cities were burned, sacked and destroyed. For hundreds of years, people had to pay taxes to Mongols. Any refusal would end up in enslavement or slaughter.
- During 14th century, Ukrainian lands were invaded by Poland (and Lithuania). Later it transformed into Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Majority of Ukrainians were peasants, working on farms as serfs. In fact, the majority of population were illiterate serfs who worked for Polish masters.
- Many serfs ran away to southern part of modern Ukraine and declared their own military state of Cossack (History of the Cossacks - Wikipedia). Ukraine was constantly rebelling against poor treatment of serfs but almost every time such rebellions were suppressed and participants were executed or killed in action. Until successful rebellion of Khemnytsky (Khmelnytsky Uprising - Wikipedia). Examples of peasant (and cossack) uprisings:
- Koliyivshchyna - Wikipedia
- Kosiński uprising - Wikipedia
- Nalyvaiko Uprising - Wikipedia
- Zhmaylo uprising - Wikipedia
- Sulyma uprising - Wikipedia
- Meanwhile, Ukraine was divided between Poland (its western part) and Russia (eastern part). Serf under the rule of Poland had to fight against the serf under the rule of Russian empire in frequent Russo-Polish wars (Polish–Russian Wars - Wikipedia) - that’s more than 12 wars. Also, Ukraine had to fight with Ottoman Empire siding sometimes with Russia, sometimes with Poland and sometimes siding with Tatars or Ottomans to fight against Russians or Polish.
- In 1708 the Zaporozhian Cossacks became involved in the Great Northern War. Hetman Mazepa (leader of Cossacks), after realizing that the Russians planned to remove him from power, switched his allegiance toSweden (then at war with the Russian Empire) and began to place more emphasis onUkraine's independence. On 13 November 1708 a Russianarmy under the command ofAlexander Menshikovsacked and razed Baturyn and slaughtered all of its inhabitants (Baturyn - was capital of registred Cossacks ) in a punitive response. The Russians broke Dmytro Chechel , the commanding officer of the Baturin garrison,on the wheel. Historian Serhiy Pavlenko estimates that Menshikov's army murdered 6 to 7.5 thousand civilians and 5 to 6.5 thousand military personnel. In 1708 the city had had a population of 20,000; by 1726 it had become a ghost town.
- Ukraine was constantly raided by Ottomans and Tatars. Different historians give different estimates, but from 250,000 to 3 million Ukrainians were captured, enslaved and sold in slave markets in Crimea (They were sold mostly to Ottoman Empire and Northern Africa).
In May 1775, capital of Ukrainian Cossacks (Zaporizhska Sich) was destroyed by the order of Empress Catherine and stopped to exist.
During WW-1, Ukrainians were fighting each other on two sides: Half of Ukraine belonged to Austro-Hungarian Empire, while other half belonged to Russian Empire. Ironically, but quite often, Ukrainians had to fight against other Ukrainians under command of foreigners who even didn’t speak their language.
- After revolution in Russian Empire, Ukraine proclaimed its autonomy and Independence from Russian Empire. Western Ukraine did the same (from Austro-Hungarian Empire). Millions of people were killed during 3 years of non-stop war between Ukrainians, Russians, Poles - communists, nationalists, German occupants, “white” movement (monarchists), and anarchists.
- So, Ukraine declared it independence and even united with Western Ukraine to form one country…. Not for a long. Shortly after, both newly formed communist Russia from East and “nationalist” Poland from the West attacked Ukraine and occupied. Independent Ukraine stopped to exist again.
- In 1932–1933 due to climate reasons and poor economical choices, Ukraine faced terrible famine, which took away from 2 to 5 million people (Some people claim that it was man-maid famine, while others point that it happened due to several factors, including poor economical planning of communist party in Ukraine).
- In 1941 Ukraine was the main battlefield during WW2. Just like Poland and Belorus it suffered the most - millions of people were executed, killed, sent to concentration camps. Many cities were burned and their inhabitants enslaved (were forced to work on German factories or farms).
- After everything what Poland and Russia has done for the last 30 years, big chunk of Western Ukraine joined Nazi side (Example: SS Galychyna batallion). As result - mutual ethnic conflicts between Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. When Nazi were retreating, many Western Ukrainians started to fight against Nazi and Communists. This lasted almost till 1956, 11 years after WW-2 ended!
- In 1991 Ukraine gained its independence but not for a long. In 2004, Ukraine had first, “bloodless” revolution. New President was elected but he failed to fulfill his promises so his rival got elected during next elections, which ended up as another revolution (2014), which took away more than 150 lives. I was an active participant of this revolution (coup).
- After the revolution, Russia occupied Crimea and Military Conflict in Donbass emerged. Almost 10000 people were killed, millions displaced, economy is ruined.
- For me, this is one of the most disgraceful history you can think of. I can’t think of any century, when Ukraine didn’t have some sort of invasion from neighbors or civil war, or oppression.
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