Ukraine; A Case Study

20th of February, 2014. The starting date of the Ruso-Ukrainian conflict. In modern discussions of the Ukrainian geopolitical landscape, this war often takes center-stage. It makes for a good title, a nice story and often an easy template to push a predetermined message. However, it’s important to remember that Ukraine was a country before this conflict; a country drowning in debt and failing economically. It was this weakness that made Ukraine a target for both NATO and Russian imperialism. 

This article will aim to outline the history of Ukraine’s economy and give the reader a better understanding of how the current crisis in Ukraine came to be. 

The Birth of Ukraine

The modern state of Ukraine declared itself as an independent country on the 21st of August 1991, following the collapse of the USSR. Previously to this, it was a socialist republic within the USSR, and previous to that The Ukrainian People’s Republic. Many trace the idea of Ukraine back to the Kievan-Rus, a 12th century empire however the modern concept of a Ukrainian people and nationality only began to form within the 19th century, long after the Kievan-Rus. It is important to understand that the region of Eastern Europe is one with many different peoples, religions and national identities that have slowly either melded together or drifted apart. This makes it incredibly easy to claim almost anything. In the case of Ukraine for example, an argument could be made that Ukraine belongs to Poland just as much as you could argue that it belongs to Russia. Historical claims within the region will always be shaky at best therefore should not be taken at face value. 

Soviet Ukraine

Soon after the flurry of revolutions in 1917, the People’s Republic of Ukraine was announced, a socialist leaning country that was independent from the government in Moscow. However, after the Bolsheviks took power, this government was overthrown and power was ceded to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Under the USSR, Ukraine experienced incredible economic development and living conditions improved considerably. The current GDP of Ukraine only hovers at around 68% of it’s 1991 value. However, many may argue that the USSR wasn’t a net positive for the Ukrainian people due to supposed anti-Ukrainian policies implemented by the Soviet Government. However, this theory is ill-supported and a mischaracterisation of the actual causes of the famine. The causes of the famine can be traced back to kulak sabotage of worker’s supplies of food and poor on the ground reporting from agricultural regions in the Soviet Union to Moscow, leading to the avoidable deaths of millions due to bureaucratic inefficiency. However, it’s important to note that there still may have been very real biases present within the Soviet system, but it would not make sense for these famines to be a planned genocide considering how they spread into neighbouring Russia and various other countries.

Post Soviet Ukraine

After 1991, the Ukrainian state experienced a period of unprecedented instability and economic turmoil. Within the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine suffered from inflation rates of over 4700%.  Once their economy finally began to rebound after almost 2 decades as an independent nation, the 2008 financial crisis dashed hopes of economic recovery. 

All throughout this time, political tensions in the region were rising as a result of clashes between Russia in the East and America in the West. Both powers wanted to project influence onto Ukraine and predictably ended up in opposition to each other, creating a proxy war in Ukraine. This conflict lead to many interesting developments, such as Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden ending up on the board of Burisma, a natural resources giant in Ukraine. He supposedly played an important role as a business advisor, however his qualifications for any such role on a company of this scale are questionable. In the almost 32 years Ukraine has spent as a sovereign nation they have accomplished unfortunately little, with no real economic or technological success to speak of or point to, the current Ukrainian state is undoubtedly a disappointment considering they hold control over some of the world’s most valuable land, perfect for farming and large scale agriculture. However, this all begs the question, why exactly did Ukraine end up like this?

The Hard Truth

The honest answer is that Ukraine ended up like this through no fault of it’s own. While we would love to believe that our modern global economy is incredibly fair and allows for anyone to succeed, we do not live in a meritocracy. It is often those nations who were simply luckier from the onset that succeed. While it is impossible to say objectively that the United States of America had worse economic policy than Cuba for example, what we do know is that while the United States shovels almost 700 billion dollars each year into it’s military (and that spending is only increasing), Cuba spends a majority of it’s annual budget on social spending and welfare. America for example, only ended up in it’s position as a global power today due to sheer circumstance. There was no brilliant economic maneuver from the United States that allowed them to overtake other great powers in economic and military strength, but instead they simply controlled vast swathes of fertile, mineral rich and easy to industrialize land. This allowed them to in effect snow ball their economy to gargantuan proportions, by constantly imperialising and forcing their agenda upon weaker countries, most of whom were just recently colonies, allowing them to establish themselves as a world power.  A country like Ukraine however does not fair as well as America in our modern economy because they simply do not have access to the same tactics. They can not use their industrialized land to imperialise weaker nations as they’re surrounded by stronger powers who themselves wish to push their will onto those nations. They do not have the resources to simply brute force their economy, and so they fall behind the rest of the world, only to become a target for NATO and Russian imperialism.