Empires are always a great force. Their fall is usually accompanied by geopolitical convulsions and wars.. In addition, their citizens are entire nations that live too closely with each other.. The transformation of an empire into a series of nation-states with well-defined sovereign peoples and borders rarely goes smoothly and without much conflict..

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is just such a case, writes Dominic Lieven, a professor at the University of Cambridge, in The Economist.. In the 1880s, the chief legal adviser to the Russian Foreign Minister wrote that if the national principle that every nation has its own country were applied to the vast territory under the control of the Romanovs, Habsburgs and Ottomans, it would create chaos. He was right. It took two world wars, many smaller wars, genocide and massive ethnic cleansing to turn the imperial map of Central and Eastern Europe into a post-war national geography after 1945.. Much of the Middle East is still suffering from the fall of the Ottoman Empire.. The British and French empires only briefly filled the void left by the Ottomans.. The ethnolinguistic and democratic states of Europe found it hard to take root in a world where belonging was usually defined by local community, religion, dynasty and region..

The consequences of the collapse of an empire usually appear after a generation or more.. Bangladesh's withdrawal from Pakistan came 24 years after the collapse of British India. And while the end of the British Empire was relatively quiet, post-imperialist conflicts still rage from Ireland to the Middle East to Fiji.. The worst of them is the confrontation between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

[see_also ids\u003d"

The most terrible example of the delayed influence of the collapse of the empire was interwar Germany.. Like Russia in 1991, Germany was on its knees in 1919, but retained the status of the most powerful state in the region.. A mixture of post-imperialist grievances and a resurgence of power led to the breaking of the Treaty of Versailles, which ignited a new world war. And here it is not necessary to compare Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin. With or without Hitler, Germany would likely have called into question the post-war order in Eastern and Central Europe over time..

After 1945, the USSR survived as an empire. And now the consequences of its decay appear. It was a real miracle that an empire with such a bloodthirsty history and a powerful secret service apparatus fell apart between 1985 and 1991 with almost no shot fired to protect it..

The invasion of Ukraine is the belated revenge of the old Soviet secret service apparatus for what it considers 30 years of humiliation, retreat and defeat..

From a Western perspective, the almost bloodless collapse of Soviet communism was almost a fairy tale.. There was a belief that bore a terrible resemblance to pre-1914 European thinking that modern Western civilization had stopped the wheel of history and that liberal values \u200b\u200bhad finally triumphed.. But for Russians, the 1990s were not a fairy tale. Economy and political institutions collapsed. Life expectancy has been shortened. Russia has gone from a superpower to a beggar. This is why so many Russians love Putin.

As always happens, the loss of the Soviet empire was most mourned by its elites.. This greatly affected their sense of status, self-respect and importance to world history.. The loss of control over Ukraine was a particular tragedy for the Russians. After all, this control was the key to the existence of Russia as an empire.. Independence of Ukraine in 1991 determined the fate of the USSR.

The author admits that for all these reasons, he was convinced that an independent Ukraine could only survive if good relations between Russia and the West were maintained.. Kyiv in such a situation could act as a bridge between them. But when Ukraine had to choose one of them in 2014, disaster struck..

[see_also ids\u003d"

Putin's initial strategy failed. He will probably now try to conquer the entire Donbass, as well as a piece of land in the south, in order to connect it with the Crimea. If he succeeds, Ukraine will never accept such a new border as the basis for lasting peace.. A daring war of independence against an invading Russian monster will play a central role in Ukrainian national myth. Even if Putin is not in the Kremlin, it will be difficult for any future Russian government to leave Donbass, let alone Crimea, and still maintain legitimacy. If other border wars like Kashmir can be a guide, then the Russian-Ukrainian war could go on in a semi-frozen state for decades, undermining international stability.. It is possible that this conflict will even develop into a nuclear confrontation..