In October 2025, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is about to enter its fourth year, the front card is in the east, fighting and not winning, withdrawing and not withdrawing, the Russian economy is crushed by sanctions, and Ukraine's electricity must beined by pulling the gateway.
Russia's GDP has shrunk by 5% this year, Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been blown up almost everywhere, and the power grid is like a leaky kerosene lamp, flashing and flashing.
When the war came to this point, people can't help but look back at history and think of what Chairman Mao said to the Soviet Union 69 years ago. If they had listened to it back then, maybe today's bad war would not have happened at all.
What did Chairman Mao say? How did the Soviet Union "get in the left ear and get out of the right ear"?
The Russian conflict's confused account, who's the old account not counted.
On February 24, 2022, Russia raided Ukraine with the flag of "special military operation", and everyone thought it was a lightning battle, and a few days could end. As a result, the Ukrainian army, relying on the military aid of the West, supported the hard resistance, the front pushed back to Donbass from Kiev and finally landed in the four states of the East, and no one could catch up.
By 2025, more than half a million people were killed and injured on both sides, economic losses exceeded $1 trillion, domestic inflation rose to 15 percent, Ukraine’s power system was almost paralyzed, and the whole country could not be repaired like a leaked pot.
But this battle really did not happen overnight.
Historically, Ukraine and Russia were a family, Ukraine during the Soviet era was the "little brother" next to the big brother, but in this book of history, the most difficult thing to figure out is the "relocation issue". the Crimea was originally Russian, in 1954, Khrushchev gave a word to Ukraine; the Donbass region was clearly Russian, but was "forced" to remain in Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
These geographical and ethnic contradictions are like mines buried underground. Once there is a spark, they will explode immediately.
The “Middan Square incident” in 2014 was the headline.When the Ukrainian pro-Semitism came to power, close to NATO and the European Union, the pro-Russian people in the east promised independence directly, and Crimea was simply taken back by Russia.
From this point of view, today's battle is actually the "historical debt" left after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mao made a suggestion to the Soviet Union that year, but unfortunately the Soviet government did not listen, otherwise it would not bury the mine.
Chairman Mao has long seen through the root of the problem, and those three suggestions are the real "life-saving prescription"
Back in 1956, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union held a major meeting. Khrushchev severely criticized Stalin on stage, and even uprooted the entire Soviet Union's "roots".
Overnight, the Soviet Union turned from “leader supremacy” to “everyone doubts”, thinking chaotic to even Poland and Hungary followed the mess. After learning the news, President Mao said at a meeting in Beijing: people can not turn their faces without accountability, it is necessary to separate, criticism should be. In 1957, he went to Moscow, and gave three long-hearted suggestions.
First, adhere to state ownership.Because once privatized, the state machine is easily out of control, the economy is easily turned into a capital toy.The Soviet Union subsequently undertook market reforms, and the result is that the oligarchs take power, and the people suffer.
Second, do a good job in national unity. So many republics of the Soviet Union had language barriers and beliefs. If they did not unite, they would fall apart sooner or later. Chairman Mao knew at that time that if places like Ukraine and Georgia were not stable, something would happen sooner or later.
Third, be wary of revisionism. Once ideology is loosened, bureaucracy will take advantage of it, and power will become a game of interests.
These three suggestions, in fact, were a dose of “preventive medicine”, but unfortunately Khrushchev could not listen. he rushed to “stalinize”, and the result was to scare the whole Soviet Union.
Chairman Mao’s words at the time sounded like “greater brother’s advice,” but now look like “prophecy of prophets.”
The Soviet Union did not obey the counsel and buried the seeds of today’s messy war.
Khrushchev's subsequent reforms, the more and more disruptive, after Brzezinev came to power, appeared to be stable on the surface, and the reality was that the whole layer of the state was wrapped in bureaucracy, like a thick cotton wrap, and could not move.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union's economy stagnated and its thinking was rigid. Gorbachev came to a set of "new thinking" and directly lifted the lid of the pot. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the national and regional contradictions that had originally been drawn together by the "alliance" escaped.
Crimea became the focus of competition between Russia and Ukraine because of the "allocation" in 1954; Pro-Russian residents in the Donbas region have always denied the government in Kiev.
These contradictions began to erupt in 2014, 2014 was the first climax, and 2022 was the second thunder explosion.
You say that if President Mao had not proposed the three proposals at the time, we might not have questioned the "testament" of the Soviet Union today; but it is precisely because he said, analyzed, persuaded that the situation today appears to be more ironic.
If the Soviet Union adhered to state ownership, the economy would not be abducted by the oligarchs; if national unity had been achieved, Ukraine and Russia would not have had the situation of today's "brotherhood"; if revisionism had been observed, there would not have been so much corruption and bureaucracy.
After all, Mao's suggestion, in fact, was to see the root of the problem of the Soviet Union. At that time, the West engaged in cannon and capital, but within the Soviet Union was abolished, Mao's phrase "Eastern wind overwhelmed the western wind", heard like a slogan, behind it was actually the judgment of the world pattern.
Until the Soviet Union collapsed, the east wind did not overpower the west wind, but was blown down by the west wind.
A war, a textbook, the prediction of President Mao is only clearer today.
From 2022 to 2025, the Russo-Ukrainian war is not just a geopolitical conflict, but more like a textbook of "Soviet sequelae". Russia wants to regain its former glory in this battle, while Ukraine wants to completely get rid of the shadow of its "old club". But no matter how you fight, what you beat is not victory, but chicken feathers all over the place.
Until now, Russia's economy is weak, Ukraine's society is collapsing, and Western aid is beginning to fail. Europe is also getting exhausted internally, with Germany, France and Italy all struggling with energy and inflation headaches.
There are more and more voices for diplomatic settlement, but nobody wants to lower their heads first.This time to overthrow the suggestion of President Mao at the time, it was discovered that it was really "pre-guilty", not after-guilty.
Chairman Mao is looking at the overall situation and talking about the root. The problems of the Soviet Union are not superficial problems of the system, but systematic loopholes in governance methods, ethnic policies and ideologies. Isn't today's deadlock between Russia and Ukraine just a continuation of these loopholes?
If the Soviet Union had not blindly "gone to Stalin", but had listened to Chairman Mao's advice to "separate merits and demerits", perhaps today's Russia is still a cohesive country, and Ukraine would not be reduced to a geopolitical chessboard.
This war is not only heartbreaking, but also reflecting: the lessons of history, why are they always ignored?
conclusion
The battle between Russia and Ukraine is becoming more and more chaotic, and the more you watch it, the more it looks like a "replay of history." Those three words of Chairman Mao 69 years ago are now the key to breaking this deadlock.
Can the war stop? Maybe, but only if someone is willing to sit down and listen to history. History never lies, but we are too used to ignoring the truth.
Today’s world needs the wisdom of seeing far, speaking accurately, and daring to say the truth.President Mao’s advice is the most scarce awareness of this era.
References:
"The Reason and Strategic Thinking of Mao Zedong's Proposition of" The East Wind Overwhelms the West Wind "" by Li Bin