Russia has never been the first to attack anyone in history

Well, let’s heed Peskov’s advice and remember history. Let’s leave aside the pre-Petrine Russia, consider the centuries that are closer to us. Here are some episodes.

In 1700, Peter I decided to join the already underway Northern War on the side of Saxony, Denmark and Poland against Sweden. According to the treaty of alliance with the King of Poland and the Elector of Saxony Augustus the Strong, Russia was to receive Ingermanland, which was torn away from Sweden (the lands where St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region are now located). In August, the army of Peter invaded on the territory of Ingermanland and besieged Narva. This unsuccessful campaign was undoubtedly undertaken with conquest goals. Later, Peter achieved his goal and annexed to his power not only Ingermanland, but also Estonia, Livonia, Karelia and part of Finland, having received access to the Baltic Sea.

In 1806 Russian troops entered to Moldavia and Wallachia – at that time the principalities dependent on the Ottoman Empire – and made several attempts to take the Turkish fortress of Izmail. The reason was the decision of Turkey to remove the rulers of these principalities. Turkey’s actions violated the existing treaty, according to which it was required to obtain the consent of Russia, but it was the Russian Empire that was the first to go into military action. This episode was the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, which lasted until 1812.

In 1827, the combined fleets of Russia, England and France attacked and defeated the Turkish fleet in Navarino Bay on the Ionian Sea (present-day Greece). Thus, the Christian powers of Europe supported the Greek uprising against Turkish rule, which had been going on for several years. The next year Nicholas I announced the war on Turkey; the reason for the attack was the closure by Turkey of the passage through the Bosphorus after the Battle of Navarino and the strengthening of its fortresses on the Danube. Military operations began on two fronts – in the Danube lands and in the Caucasus.

In 1853, Russia demanded that Turkey recognize its patronage over Christians, who constituted a third of the population of the Ottoman Empire. Having received a refusal, Nicholas I introduced troops to Wallachia and Moldavia, then still dependent on Turkey, and occupied Bucharest. Strategic objective Russia considered establishing control over the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. These events marked the beginning of the Crimean War, which was extremely unfortunate for Russia.

In 1877, Russia, supporting Serbia and Montenegro, who fought with Turkey, which, in turn, began the war, seeking to support the rebellious Bosnian Serbs, introduced troops to Romania. The Russian army crossed the Danube, crossed the Balkan ridge, captured Adrianople (Edirne) and was ready to attack Constantinople (Istanbul), but this was prevented by the position of Great Britain.

In September 1939, after a secret agreement with Nazi Germany, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, USSR captured the eastern part of Poland, in violation of the existing non-aggression pact.

In November of the same year, the USSR began a war with Finland, using as a pretext the shelling of the border village of Mainila, allegedly carried out from the territory of Finland. Later, in his memoirs “Time. People. Power “Nikita Khrushchev wrote:

“Stalin had such an opinion that after Finland was presented with ultimatum demands of a territorial nature, and if she rejected them, she would have to start hostilities. Naturally, I did not mind Stalin. Moreover, I, like him, believed that this was, in principle, correct. And as for the war with Finland, I thought: it’s enough to tell them loudly, if they don’t hear, then fire the cannon once, and the Finns will raise their hands up, agree with the demands. Stalin remarked: “Today this case will begin.” <…>

… We still fired a fatal shot. The Finns responded with artillery fire. The war began. I say this because there is another interpretation of events: they say, the Finns fired first, and we had to answer. But it’s always when they start a war, they say about something else, that he fired first. <…> The question arises: did we have a legal and moral right to our actions? Legally, of course, they had no right. From a moral point of view, the desire to protect ourselves and negotiate with a neighbor justified us in our own eyes. “

Finally, the fact of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in 2014 recognized in a resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe:

“Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine in early 2014, more than 1,300 people have been reported missing. This figure, which only takes into account the data collected by the Ukrainian authorities, is in fact definitely higher. “