tim@cole.de

Since Putin likes to write history the way he likes to read it, it is time to tell the whole truth about the relationship between Ukrainians and Russians. However, to do so, we have to dig deep into the history books.

From the 7th to the 6th century BC, numerous Greek colonies were founded on the northern coast of the Black Sea, on the Crimean peninsula and on the Sea of Azov, which later fell under the hegemony of the Roman Empire.

The invasion of the Goths from the Baltic into Ukraine around 200 AD marked the beginning of a period of great migrations. They displaced the Sarmatians, but their own power was broken around 375 by the Huns, who invaded from the east and were followed by the Bulgarians and Avars in the 5th and 6th centuries. Between the 7th and 9th centuries, the Ukrainian steppe was part of the Turkish trading empire of the Khazars, whose center was located on the lower Volga. The Khazars‘ control of the steppe was broken by the Magyars (Hungarians) in the late 9th century. The Pechenegs who followed them ruled over large parts of southern Ukraine in the 10th and 11th centuries, which in turn were replaced by the Cumans. During this period of nomadic invasions, only a few Greek settlements on the Crimean peninsula, especially Chersonesus, were able to maintain a precarious existence and were dependent on the support of the Byzantine Empire.

The formation of the Kievan state, which began in the mid-9th century, the role of the Varangians (Vikings) in this process and the name Rus, under which this state became known, are disputed among historians. However, it is certain that this foundation was linked to the development of international trade and the new importance of the Dnieper route from the Baltic to Byzantium, on which Kiev was strategically located. Weiterlesen →