RURAL RUMINATIONS
The Ukraine Crisis
February 19, 2022
BY Haviland Smith
The Ukraine situation is probably the most dangerous international issue that we have faced since the Second World War. The sole purpose here is to examine that international problem while considering many of the underreported facts that weigh so extraordinarily heavily on it.
Russia is a country that has always been concerned with its geographical boundaries. This ancient condition came to a head under the Soviet Union when Soviet leadership truly believed that they needed to have a buffer zone between themselves and Western Europe. They felt compelled in this direction because the ideological challengers who confronted them (all the world’s anti-autocratic philosophical and governmental structures) were active and present and threatening them from Europe, the West and, particularly, NATO.
During the post-WWII years, the Soviets were able to establish hegemony over the ring of countries which abutted the western boundary of the USSR. Between 1945 and 1949 Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany, Yugoslavia, and Albania became “satellite states” of the USSR. Yugoslavia and Albania remained satellites until they established their own forms of independence from the Soviets in 1948 and 1960 respectively.
The creation of this satellite ring gave the Soviets the “protection” from western ideologies and military threats that they believed they needed for their own political survival.
What ultimately happened was that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 completely removed that “protection”. However, it did not remove the Russian conviction that protection was absolutely necessary. As a result, the post-Soviet leadership of the new Russia sought assurances from American leaders that their former satellites would not be taken into NATO, the sworn enemy of Soviet Russia and the new main enemy of the new Russia.
The post WWII American leadership, led philosophically by people like George Kennan, reassured the new Russian leadership that we would not seek to enroll the former Soviet Satellites into NATO. This non-threatening position was maintained by American governments until the Clinton Administration 1993-2001) began to support and sponsor the process of the integration of former Soviet satellites into NATO which continued through the George W. Bush administration (2001- 2009).
Since 1991, fourteen former Soviet satellite states have been absorbed into NATO. enough to bring current Russian leadership to full paranoia.
In 1991, the vast majority of the Russian people had never lived under any form of government other than the “socialism” foisted on them by the USSR. During that period, Soviet internal propaganda hammered away constantly against any form of government that provided democracy to its people.
It is important to understand that the Ukraine with its capital Kyiv is an historical predecessor (9-13thcenturies AD) to the modern Russian state. Thus, many Russians continue to view it as historically Russian. In this context it is interesting to note that when the USSR failed, there was a KGB Lt. Colonel named Vladimir PUTIN stationed in East Germany who said the fall of the USSR (which he referred to as “historical Russia”) was "the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century".
What we have here is a series of events which have, quite logically, led to hostility between Russia and the West, mostly in the shape of NATO. The Russians were told, honestly at the time, that her former satellites that emerged after the fall of the USSR would not be recruited into NATO. Then, during the administrations of Clinton and Bush, NATO began an expansion which not only incorporated most of the former Soviet satellites but grew into an implacable force of 30 nations devoted to hostility against Russia.
From the Russian point of view, that expansion has not stopped and additional countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine, that once were satellites of the USSR are now under official NATO consideration for membership. Countries that have never sought NATO membership like Finland, Ireland, Moldova, Serbia, Sweden and Kosovo are at least discussing changes in their relationships with NATO, possibly because of the dangerous current Ukraine situation.
Russia views NATO as a threat. It views the inclusion of its former satellites as a slap in the face. It will not countenance any move by Ukraine into NATO. NATO’s ongoing growth is a total anathema.
Is there a culprit here? Given all the realities of Russian history and paranoia, America’s radical policy change on Soviet satellites and NATO and the further expansion of NATO today, there is plenty of room to point fingers and make threats that will do no one any good.
Everyone involved bears a share of the guilt.
Haviland Smith is a long retired Cold War CIA Station Chief who served in East and West Europe and the Middle East. pursuing the Soviet target.