Is Communist Vladimir Lenin the creator of modern Ukraine? No, that's not true: Lenin and the Bolsheviks did not create Ukraine. They occupied it.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) published by @user2162848244803 on July 19, 2023.
The Bulgarian text of the claim disguised as a joke reads, translated by Lead Stories staff:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Show me a Russian invention that is used worldwide.
Sergey Lavrov: Lenin created Ukraine, and now the whole world uses it.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jul 26 08:07:26 2023 UTC)
The claim of the TikTok video echoes part of a speech that Putin made on February 21, 2022, in which he stated that modern Ukraine was the creation of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. This claim was intended to justify Russian interests in Ukraine and was used as part of the excuse for Russia's subsequent invasion of Ukraine. The historical roots of Ukraine date back from far earlier than Putin described it.
Today's borders of Ukraine reflect the result of the complex and dynamic historical evolution over the centuries, which has led to the striving for unification and independence of modern Ukraine. At various stages over the centuries, parts of the territory were controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, and even Poland.
The first serious indications of the formation of the Ukrainian vision of independence occurred at the beginning of the 16th century when the Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky briefly managed to build a state which fell apart after his death and the territory which he conquered was divided among Russia and Poland.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the two newly established states, the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) and the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR) concluded a treaty on December 1, 1918, which is considered pre-unification. On January 22, 1919, the two states were united under the Unification Act ("Act Zluky"). In February 1919 Lenin's Bolsheviks took over Kyiev and installed a new Ukrainian-Soviet government. On December 30, 1922, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became part of the USSR.
Later Ukraine became an independent state again, which was decided by a referendum in 1991. Its problems with Russia emerged after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted following the Maidan protests in 2014, leading to the annexation of Crimea and conflict with Russian-backed separatist territories.
Lenin and Russia did not invent or create Ukraine but were a significant part of the Communist's complete takeover of Ukraine.
