199 1 When Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union in August, its family foundation was quite strong. There are more than 600,000 square kilometers of territory, vast plains and endless black land, as well as very rich resources such as mines, iron mines and manganese mines. At the time of separation, it also acquired a huge army and more than 1200 nuclear weapons, and immediately became the third nuclear power in the world. These are nothing, but what is more dazzling is that it has a strong heavy industry infrastructure and a relatively complete world-class military industry system.
At that time, Russia had many key technologies and relied on Ukraine. The manufacturing base of rockets is in Ukraine, so the development of Russian satellite system and strategic missiles has stagnated after separation.
However, Ukraine, with such a good foundation, especially a strong industrial system, how did it get to this point and almost became the poorest country in Europe!
What a dazzling landscape that year was.
Ukraine's territory is second only to Russia, the second largest in Europe, and its land is very fertile. It is the third largest grain exporter in the world and has the reputation of "European granary", and its agricultural output value accounts for 20% of GDP. But it is wrong to think that Ukraine is a big agricultural country. In fact, its advantages are not limited to these.
During the Soviet Union, Ukraine had beautiful scenery and a population of 50 million, but there were more than 800 institutions of higher learning with rich educational resources, and its population was among the top in the world. Compared with Russia as the main body of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's national economy is complete, and its average level is no less than that of Russia. Moreover, according to the overall layout of Soviet industries, a large number of high-tech industries such as machinery, shipbuilding, electronics and chemistry have settled in Ukraine.
Therefore, Ukraine, which just left the Soviet Union at the beginning of its independence, is not generally rich. There are 3,594 military enterprises with 3 million employees, and 700 enterprises directly engaged in weapons production with 1.4 million employees. Production categories include rockets, large transport aircraft, military ships, armored vehicles and other land, sea and air equipment.
What makes Ukraine proud is that there is also a huge scientific research and production system with strong scientific and technological strength and military industry as the core. For example, the world-famous Antonov Aircraft Design Bureau, the Kharkov Design Bureau, which has developed and manufactured world-famous tanks such as T34, T64 and T80, the Nikolayev Shipyard, the cradle of the Soviet aircraft carrier, the Southern Design Bureau, which has developed four generations of Soviet strategic missiles, and Ukraine all have world-class scientific research institutions.
Therefore, independent Ukraine makes Russia and European countries envy and hate, and the mood is even more mixed. But I am more worried about its rise and strength. So Ukraine at that time was an impressive Ukraine, even an impressive Ukraine. At that time, in addition to the need for Russian energy supply, with the strength of Ukraine at that time, there was a foundation to become a miniature Soviet Union that made Europe tremble and made the world sit up and take notice!
The problem of separation
But surprisingly, with such a solid foundation, after nearly 30 years of development, Ukraine today is basically the same as an agricultural country like Albania and Moldova.
Then in less than 30 years, Ukraine only regressed and made no progress. What's going on here? The main reason is that the problems after separation have not been well solved and handled.
As we all know, the industrial layout and division of labor in the Soviet era were completely arranged from the perspective of a country. Although Ukraine's financial resources are super strong after separation, there is a big problem hidden in it. In the past, under the Soviet system, the upstream and downstream production lines of enterprises were smoothly connected, but after separation, the upstream and downstream were completely broken, resulting in the lack of east and west. In other words, without the support of Russia and other countries, a large number of enterprises were shut down.
For example, Russia and Ukraine held consultations on continuing to build the carrier Varyag. Nikolayev Shipyard replied: When the Soviet Union existed, it needed the CPC Central Committee, the State Planning Commission, the Military Industry Commission, nine national defense industries, 600 related disciplines and 8,000 supporting manufacturers to complete it, but the Soviet Union no longer exists!
For example, the famous Southern Design Bureau, an important aerospace enterprise built by Ukraine during the Soviet Union, has accumulated rich experience in high-end rocket technology and space rockets for many years. The rockets made have always been used by Russia. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine did not need the reformed rocket itself, nor did Russia. The talents who could launch rockets and engage in tracking control all returned to Russia.
In addition to the support problem, there is a bigger problem that there is no money! Generally speaking, it is not difficult to revitalize Ukrainian enterprises. As long as we can connect with the international market, it is only a matter of time before we can get out of the predicament on our own. However, in order to adapt to the international market, we must invest a lot of money in technological transformation. But where does the money come from?
Western countries will never invest in Ukraine, because it is tantamount to cultivating a strong competitor for themselves. They are more concerned about how to transfer "democracy" to Ukraine and how to turn Ukraine into a pawn to contain Russia.
It seems impossible to cooperate with Russia? First, it is difficult for Russia to protect itself by crossing the river, and it is almost impossible to expect Russian investment. Second, when Russia split at that time, Ukraine was repeatedly retained, and Ukraine did not give any face, which made it quite unpleasant with Russia. At that time, kravchuk, chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet, was also very hard on Yeltsin!
Often bicker openly on such issues: "We won't give you an engine!" ""Then we won't supply you with natural gas and oil! " "Then we won't give you more food! "This kind of thing is like a child playing house. State affairs are no joke, and no good result will come if you don't calm down.
Shock therapy brings disaster.
199 1 After Ukrainian independence, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet kravchuk was successfully transferred to the presidency. In order to get the Ukrainian economy out of stagnation, he, like Yeltsin of Russia at that time, firmly believed that "shock therapy" was necessary. However, the result is no different from that of Russia. The economy has gone from stagnation to chaos, prices have soared, currencies have depreciated, enterprises have stopped production, and people's grievances are boiling. Some senior officials took the opportunity to use their power to seek state property and become oligarchs. In the end, economic reform failed and kravchuk had to step down.
Subsequently, Kuchma had a good relationship with Russia, which once brought a glimmer of vitality and a glimmer of light to Ukrainian enterprises. However, Kuchma is not an incorruptible person. After taking power, he began to engage in nepotism. At the same time, his attitude towards Russia made the western countries very unhappy. Seeing that the chess pieces were about to defect, he quickly put lazarenko, who got along well with them, on the throne of the Prime Minister.
Although this man has been in the position of deputy prime minister and prime minister for more than two years, he has made a mess of the Ukrainian economy and completely fell to the bottom. Before taking office, he used his close relationship with President Kuchma to embezzle state-owned assets. After he became deputy prime minister and prime minister, he even used his power to foster a group of energy oligarchs to make money for himself.
1997, lazarenko quarreled with President Kuchma, lost his official position and had to flee overseas. At this point, he has accumulated hundreds of millions of money! At the critical moment when Ukraine's industrial transformation is in urgent need of funds, such a huge amount of funds was swallowed up by corrupt oligarchs, which undoubtedly made Ukraine worse and lost a good opportunity to come back to life.
Although lazarenko fled overseas, the oligarch he cultivated still exists and continues to control the Ukrainian economic lifeline. Tymoshenko, known as the "natural gas princess", is one of them. Under the protection of lazarenko, she became one of the few heavyweight oligarchs in Ukraine, entered politics and became prime minister.
Naturally, other oligarchs are not far behind, and they are busy with their own affairs with perseverance. At present, the governors of all Ukrainian states are mostly oligarchs, and there are more than 400 millionaires in the 450-member parliament. These oligarchs became politicians and continued to control Ukraine.
Victims of the color revolution
However, compared with these oligarchs who manipulate the lifeline of the country's economy, it is even more tragic and terrible that these oligarchs in Ukraine do not understand geopolitics and the way of national survival and development. On the issue of national positioning, they are vacillating between the East and the West, and they are completely confused. This is the greatest tragedy.
In fact, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the West has been paying attention to the movements of Ukraine, Russia and other countries, resolutely preventing Ukraine from falling to Russia, and doing everything possible to turn Ukraine into an important pawn to contain Russia.
When Kuchma was nice to Russia, the west was not so nervous, because Russia was still busy at that time, so it just became an acting prime minister.
Later, Yanukovych, who was obviously pro-Russian, had a strong momentum and was likely to win the presidency. Just as Putin came to power, Russia went through some rectification and returned to the right track. At this time, the western countries no longer stood still and launched a "color revolution" against Ukraine, and helped lovers Yushchenko and Tymoshenko come to power.
After this pair of lovers came to power, they naturally knew to vote for plum blossoms and began to stay away from Russia. Yushchenko is an economist who has worked in the economic sector for a long time. To be fair, many of his views are practical as far as Ukraine's economic development is concerned. But he doesn't understand politics, because it is naive to hope that the west will inject a lot of money into Ukraine! The western idea is to bring down Ukraine and mess it up. How can you support a strong competitor for your own investment?
The west has never done business at a loss, and has long had its own plans to support these two men to come to power. On the one hand, they know that Ukraine's energy is almost completely dependent on Russia, which determines that Yushchenko can't do anything once he is in trouble with Russia. On the other hand, Tymoshenko is the largest oil and gas merchant in Ukraine, and it is the natural gas imported from Russia that makes her rich. Therefore, in order to get the support of the west, it is ok to look at Russia temporarily and superficially, but if she and Russia go all out, will there be no money to earn?
Therefore, the west has long assumed that there will be quarrels between the two and cooperation will not last long. Things are developing in the direction predicted by the west. As soon as Tymoshenko became prime minister, their cooperation came to an end, followed by endless struggles between them. After that, Ukraine has to make a big fuss every year, and it still has the mind to grasp the economy.
Before the color revolution, although the Ukrainian economy was controlled by oligarchs, it was still recovering, with an increase of about 5%. Because of the super technical unit like Southern Design Bureau, you can make money by selling rocket engines and satellites. There is also the world's first tank factory like Kharkov. Their T80 world of tanks is very famous, and many people want to buy it.
However, the struggle between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko supported by the West, as well as Yanukovych's constant agitation, made Ukrainian politics very chaotic. By 2009, Ukraine's economy shrank 15% under the financial crisis, and the inflation rate reached 100%!
The pro-Russian Yanukovych became president, and the situation has not improved. Therefore, the West does not want to see a pro-Russian president come to power and then launch a color revolution to support an anti-Russian poroshenko.
While making money, politicians are also looking for external backers and thinking about how to win the support of domestic people. People with political achievements are definitely not recognized enough. So they had to stir up nationalist sentiments, causing conflicts between two Eastern Slavs who spoke Ukrainian and Russian and had little cultural difference. Politicians pushed the country to the brink of danger for self-interest.
Domestic troubles and foreign invasion continue the national chaos.
As a result, due to ethnic problems, Ukraine has been very busy. After five years of civil war, the situation in Ukraine became worse.
Ironically, as an important military production center, Ukrainian government forces began to reach out to western countries for vehicles, weapons, ammunition and food, as well as military uniforms. If you want oil, you can understand, but it's not! This makes people who don't understand the situation ask, how did Ukraine become the third agricultural country in the world?
However, during the five-year civil war, Ukrainian enterprises still made money, such as the chocolate factory of the "chocolate king" President poroshenko. It is said that in the five years of the civil war, the family's assets increased tenfold.
However, the civil war caused the heavy industry system that needed a lot of capital to realize the transformation to collapse completely, and the original cooperation with Russia also died because of political factors. Moreover, it made Russia wake up and clearly realized that Ukraine at this time is not the Ukraine it used to be, because it completely fell to the west and became an accomplice to completely help the United States contain Russia. So Russia's efforts to get rid of its dependence on Ukraine are due to the industrial layout of the Soviet Union.
This makes the situation of Ukrainian industrial system more difficult. Before 20 13, the southern design bureau was still profitable, but it suffered serious losses in the last two years. Without Russia as the main customer, Antonov Design Bureau is even worse, because it resolutely opposes the Ukrainian government as an enemy with Russia, and as a result, all the leaders are swept out of the house, leading to the floating of corporate hearts and the loss of technical backbone. Jean Kowalski, the chief engineer of An 255, the world's largest transport plane, was beaten by the police for selling foreign exchange in the street in order to live at the age of 8/kloc-0. He didn't know the importance of his identity until he found the plane design in his briefcase.
In this way, Ukraine's military industrial system struggled to collapse in the infighting. As time goes on, the thick family wealth becomes thinner and thinner. Because of the bankruptcy of various supporting manufacturers, the production of T80 tanks, which once made money for Ukraine, is now unsustainable. To the point where we look everywhere for old tanks left by the Soviet Union to disassemble parts, or even disassemble parts from tanks and armored vehicles polluted by the Chernobyl accident to maintain production, we simply dare not want to upgrade and develop.
The general election in Ukraine is quite dramatic. A comedian who has never set foot in politics can be elected with 75% of the votes, which proves the disappointment and helplessness of the Ukrainian people to those oligarchs!
What is the future development prospect of Ukraine? No one dares to talk nonsense, let's wait and see!