The United States was founded on secession. It didn’t have to be violent, but it was. Whose fault was that? Was it the United States’ fault for insisting on more local governance? Or was it England’s fault for ignoring the consent of the governed?

In 1991, when Ukraine and Belarus declared their independence from the USSR, things did not end violently. They were allowed to exit the union peacefully. The Soviet Union dissolved without further violence.

Of course, there was plenty of past violence the Soviet Union had used since 1922 to keep Ukraine under their control. This included the orchestrated famines in the 1930’s which killed around 4 million Ukrainians.

But why is it so clear that places like Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and many other countries were justified in declaring their independence from the USSR?