Does Putin mean Pan - Slavism? Security and Ethnic Issues.

Photo by Sansculotte (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

Mr Putin's claim that the issue has changed

Mr Putin initially stated that the reason for the invasion of Ukraine was the eastern expansion of NATO, but using another context that Russia and Ukraine are the same ethnic group, after expressing that NATO will not participate in the war, Mr Putin say the word that we are same ethnic group. On the other hand, there are many statements that they oppose the Naziization of Ukraine. It seems to mean a civil war attack from Ukraine on the Donbus region, which means that Russians in eastern Ukraine are being persecuted. However, it is not well understood whether such a fact exists or not. The problem is that the context has changed. What was initially a confrontational structure between NATO and Russia has been changed to a bilateral issue between Russia and Ukraine by changing the issue to ethnic issues.

Revival of Pan-Slavism?

It reminds me of pan-Slavism. It is an idea that began in the early 19th century with the aim of integrating the Slavic peoples. The Slavs, said to have lived north of the Baltic Sea, followed a different travel route than the Germanic. The Germanic migration expanded to the present Western Europe due to the population explosion of the people who were in the Nordic region. In many Western European countries such as Anglo-Saxon, Frank, Germany, and the Netherlands, one tribe of the Germanic people occupied each area. It was the Celts, an indigenous people of Europe, who were occupied. Pan-Germanism was born in opposition to Pan-Slavism during World War I. This is an idea that appeals for the unity and unity of the Germanic people. This idea was taken over by the Nazis and became Greater German Solution, and World War II was held with the aim of integrating the Germanic people and building an empire centered on Germany.

The former Soviet empire will not return

It was the Slavic people who became Eastern European countries after the war and formed the socialist camp. Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians / Slovaks, Czechs, Poles, Croatians, Serbs, Bulgarians, etc. In other words, Putin's context that Russia and Ukraine are the same ethnic group feels like the resurrection of the empire by the Great Russianism. This is exactly the nationalism that leads to Nazism and the former Soviet Union. Currently, many Slavic countries are members of the EU and NATO. Justifying war on ethnic issues is itself quite outdated. The structure has already been dismantled by the collapse of the former Soviet Union.