PSKOV, Russia - Pskov shopping mall manager Nikolai Rassadin said
"Russia is a country that for all of its existence has been at war,” War is in our blood."
WSJ and paywall
Ok I agree with this 100% My question is WHY???
What exactly is your problem, Russia??!! Can't you chill out for a few hundred years??
To be fair it isn't all their fault. They have been invaded by Mongols, Swedes, Germans (at least three times), Poles, Ukranians, Romanians, Turks, British, French blah blah blah. It is a rough neighborhood and it is a hard sell to say that it will never happen again.
Is there any country in Europe that has been invaded less frequently than Russia? Maybe Switzerland because of its topography and its obsessive neutrality. UK because it is an island nation, but they've been in plenty of wars not on their own soil. Anybody else? The former Warsaw Pact nations have basically been a nearly constant battleground for counties near them. And Russia has been the most recent aggressor against these countries, hence why they are so enthusiastic about helping Ukraine.
I suppose we could go through but I would say very few countries have been invaded less then Russia, and certainly when you remember that Russia as a country has existed much longer and with the corresponding sense of self, for a very long time, in comparison. Germany has existed only since 1870 and has only really been invaded once where the country paid a terrible price, at the end of the Second World War. I think you are absolutely wrong to say Russia has been the least invaded country in Europe. That is just wrong.
Again, this isn't justification this is explanation. It isn't to say Russia hasn't invaded others throughout history. But their war mentality isn't the product of nothing or a fatal flaw in their society. The U.S. helped grind two countries to dust including the use of nuclear weapons and became the World's Policeman because Japan conducted a sneak attack that killed like 2,500 people and led to a war that killed about 600,000 citizens. Russia still has living memory of the same war and they entered because of a sneak attack that ended up killing 20 to 30 million. These events shape policies and assumptions of countries and result in "never again" mindsets.
I never said Russia has been invaded the least, only that all of Europe has basically been a battlefield for a thousand years. Russia invaded both Prussia and Austria-Hungary at the outbreak of World War 1. Their attacks were unsuccessful, but they were an aggressor there against what is now Germany.
And the former Warsaw Pact countries have very vivid memories of Russia attacking them (Poland and Finland were both invaded by Stalin while the Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany, before Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa). The Baltic states were annexed as part of the Molotov- Von Ribbentrop pact in 1940. Hungary was invaded in 1956. Czechoslovakia was invaded in 1968. Up until Gorbachev, there was a full expectation for any Warsaw Pact country that they would see Soviet tanks on their soil if they got out of line. There are a lot of people in that neck of the woods with very long memories, not just the Russians.
What you said was Russia was maybe the 3rd least invaded country in Europe behind Switzerland and Great Britain. I would challenge that statement.
Yes, Russia has been an aggressor before, but every country there has been. But let's just do the 20th century for Russia to understand their point of view.
1904, Japan opens the Russian vs. Japanese war with a surprise attack on Port Arthur and Russia's Eastern Fleet. The result of this war was defeat, blocking the Russians from a warm water port in the Pacific and the emergence of a hostile Empire in Asia.
World War One ends in 1917 with the Germans getting control of the Ukraine, the Baltic countries, Finland becomes an independent country. This is only prevented from being permanent when Germany is defeated in 1918. They still lose Finland and the Baltic Countries.
Civil War breaks out and the Whites are supported with actual troops on the ground and supplies against the Communists.
1919 to 1921 Newly established Poland seeks to expand its borders east to take advantage of the Russian Civil War. At one point occupying Kiev. This is a back-and-forth war with Russians attacking Warsaw at one point but by the end Poland has pushed its borders further East. Ends 1922.
1939 Ribbentrop and Molotov pact. Spurned by France and Great Britain in its efforts to form an alliance against Nazi Germany and with a still hostile Poland, Finland, and the Baltic countries, on its Borders it makes a deal with the devil to get territory to protect its vital interior. If Germany would have been able to attack from positions further East like the borders of Poland and the Baltic Countries, they may very well have succeeded in capturing Moscow and Leningrad and won the war.
Then World War 2.
Then the Cold War.
Then the collapse of the Soviet Union and the slow March of the European Union and Nato into Eastern Europe. For what purpose?
Now yes that is the Russian point of view and covers up many cynical and horrible things that were done by the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. But many countries have done cynical and horrible things in service of defense of the country. From the Russian point of view this is a defensive war and if they lose it Russia will lose much more than the Ukraine. Most likely they would lose its influence in the Countries on the Turkey Border, in central Asia, and be open to Western influences it has resisted for like a century at least. Coupled with the Russian demographic collapse we could be looking at an end to Russia as anything more than a country centered around Moscow. Getting the Russians to accept that without a nuclear war is going to be the trick for the West and pressing too hard on Russia could be disastrous.