Molotov (left) and Ribbentrop after the Soviet Union and Germany signing of the treaty of friendship, September 28, 1939. | Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Part II of the “Ukraine Crisis” Series
Here is a simple solution to end the international crisis in Ukraine. And also stop the war while giving the Russian president an excellent opportunity to save face, if not the prestige of his office. The solution? Create a new federation of these countries (in alphabetical order): Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine. And even the Russian Federation itself can be part of this proposed new federation. For want of a better name, this columnist suggests that it be called the “Federation of the United Nations of Five (F.U.N. Five).”
Here are the suggestion’s background, bases, and benefits, as stated in the 1939 invasion of the Republic of Poland. The present conflict in Ukraine is, ergo, about 83-years in the making. How so? Please read.
The media reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was acting to prevent “genocide” against Russian-speaking people in the sovereign nation and aiming for the “de-Nazification of Ukraine. (President) Putin’s claim that he wanted to “de-Nazify” Ukraine was striking — and in opposition to reality. For one thing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was democratically elected to office in 2019, is Jewish. It appears that Mr. Putin does not know the history of his country and its neighbors. Or he simply lies about facts.
Please read the entire article written by Dylan Stableford, a senior writer at Yahoo News, “Why Putin’s ‘de-Nazification of Ukraine’ argument makes no sense,”
Mr. Putin conveniently forgets that his Soviet-Union predecessors allied with Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his Nazi German government. And a Nazi German-Soviet alliance invaded the Republic of Poland in 1939. Here is a historical account of it: “What is now Western Ukraine was in turn annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939 from the Republic of Poland, after it was defeated by a combined invasion force of Nazi Germany and the Soviets.”
Readers may want to know what historians say about how they formed Ukraine in the 17th- and 18th-centuries. After Galicia fell to the Austrian Empire, the rest of Ukraine became part of the Russian Czarist Empire. While right-bank Ukraine belonged to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until late 1793, left-bank Ukraine had been incorporated into Tsardom of Russia in 1667 (under the Treaty of Andrusovo).
“It may interest readers to know that the last Prince of the Kingdom of Galicia was Vladimir II. Was President Putin named after Prince (wannabee King) Vladimir II? Or is Mr. Putin one of his descendants, that wants to revive the lost kingdom?”
Geographically, western Galicia–Volhynia extended between the rivers San and Wieprz in south-eastern Poland. At the same time, eastern territories covered the Pripet Marshes (now in Belarus) and the upper reaches of the Southern Bug river in modern-day Ukraine.
It may interest readers to know that the last Prince of the Kingdom of Galicia was Vladimir II. Was President Putin named after Prince (wannabee King) Vladimir II? Or is Mr. Putin one of his descendants that wants to revive the lost kingdom?
The borders of the modern country of Ukraine changed many times — from its status as an annexed part of Czarist Russia. Western Ukraine was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939 by the Republic of Poland after it was defeated by a combined invasion force of Nazi Germany and the Soviets.
Then the Soviet Union added to the “Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic” the Carpathian Ruthenia territory from Czechoslovakia in 1945.
To read a complete history of how the Russians — from the Czars to the Bolsheviks — took advantage of what is now modern-and-independent Ukraine and its people, please read History.com’s account of how Ukraine declared its Independence.
The National Geographic magazine also has an interesting article, “Russia and Ukraine: the tangled history that connects—and divides—them.”
My neighbor of a fellow columnist, Dr. Fernando B. Perfas, wrote earlier an excellent and well-researched piece about “A different ideological war” in Ukraine and its “tangled history,” to borrow the NatGeo term.
Perhaps to avert the possibility of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine turning into the beginning of World War III, international leaders and decision-makers must go back to look at how the 1939 invasion of Poland started World War II. This idea is very similar to a comment made by my Englishman of a friend, Graham John Corry. In Part I of this series, retired Engineer Corry commented, “Note the similarity to 1939.” The article was also published in the OFW/OF/Filipino Nation.
“Perhaps to avert the possibility of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine turning into the beginning of World War III, international leaders and decision-makers must go back to look at how the 1939 invasion of Poland started World War II.”
This columnist replied: @ Graham John Corry Yes, you are historically astute, my friend. The German invasion began on September 1, 1939, one week after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It officially started WWII. Nazi Germany and the Soviets were allies in their invasion of Poland, which fell quickly. Eventually, Nazi Germany also invaded Russia (aka the Soviet Union). Dr. Perfas describes in his column more of the Nazi-Bolsheviks invasion of Poland.
Perhaps they could have the new federation of the said four countries under the auspices of the United Nations. Maybe the new federation can be called “The Federation of the United Nations of Four.” If the Russian Federation wants to join it, it can be called the “Federation of the U.N. of Five.” Or perhaps we can just call it simply the “F.U.N. Five.” Maybe it will bring not smiles to Eastern Europe and lots of fun. What do you think?
