Ukraine ( ; ,
transliterated: , ) is the second largest country in
Eastern Europe. It is bordered by the
Russian Federation to the east;
Belarus to the north;
Poland,
Slovakia, and
Hungary to the west;
Romania and
Moldova to the southwest; and the
Black Sea and
Sea of Azov to the south. Ukraine is a member of the
CIS. From 1923 to 1991 most of the country was a constituent republic within the USSR. The city of
Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of Ukraine.
Ukraine's modern history began with the
East Slavs. From at least the 9th century, Ukraine was a centre of the medieval
living area of the East Slavs. This state, known as
Kievan Rus', became a large and powerful nation, but disintegrated in the 12th century. After the
Great Northern War, Ukraine was divided among a number of regional powers, and by the 19th century, the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the
Russian Empire, with the rest under
Austro-Hungarian control.
After a
chaotic period of incessant warfare and several attempts at independence (1917–21) following
World War I and the
Russian Civil War, Ukraine emerged on December 30, 1922 as one of the founding
republics of the Soviet Union. The
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward shortly before and after
World War II, and southwards in 1954 with the . In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the
United Nations.
Ukraine became independent again after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This began a period of transition to a
market economy, in which Ukraine was stricken with an eight year
recession. But since then, the economy experienced a high increase in
GDP growth.
Ukraine was caught up in the worldwide economic crisis in 2008 and the economy plunged. GDP fell 20% from spring 2008 to spring 2009, then leveled off as analysts compared the magnitude of the downturn to the worst years of economic depression during the early 1990s.Inozmi, "Ukraine - macroeconomic economic situation - June 2009"
online
Ukraine is a
unitary state composed of 24
oblasts (provinces), one
autonomous republic (
Crimea), and two cities with special status:
Kiev, its capital, and
Sevastopol, which houses the Russian
Black Sea Fleet under a
leasing agreement. Ukraine is a
republic under a
semi-presidential system with separate
legislative,
executive, and
judicial branches. Since the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine continues to maintain the second largest
military in Europe, after that of Russia. The country is home to 46 million people, 77.8 percent of whom are ethnic
Ukrainians, with sizable minorities of
Russians,
Belarusians and
Romanians. The
Ukrainian language is the only official language in Ukraine, while Russian is also widely spoken. The dominant religion in the country is
Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced
Ukrainian architecture,
literature and
music.
History
Early history
Human settlement in the territory of Ukraine dates back to at least 4500 BC, when the
Neolithic Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture flourished in a wide area that included parts of modern Ukraine including
Trypillia and the entire
Dnieper-
Dniester region. During the
Iron Age, the land was inhabited by
Cimmerians,
Scythians, and
Sarmatians. Between 700 BC and 200 BC it was part of the Scythian Kingdom, or
Scythia.
Later, colonies of
Ancient Greece,
Ancient Rome, and the
Byzantine Empire, such as
Tyras,
Olbia, and
Hermonassa, were founded, beginning in the 6th century BC, on the northeastern shore of the
Black Sea, and thrived well into the 6th century AD. The
Goths stayed in the area but came under the sway of the
Huns from the 370s AD. In the 7th century AD, the territory of eastern Ukraine was the center of
Old Great Bulgaria. At the end of the century, the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in different directions and the land fell into the
Khazars' hands.
Golden Age of Kiev
covered modern western Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. But it did not include modern central, eastern, and southern Ukraine, which were inhabited by nomads and had a different history.]]
In the 9th century, much of modern-day Ukraine was populated by the
Slavic tribes.
The so-called Kievan Rus was founded by
Rus' people,
Varangians who first settled around
Ladoga and
Novgorod, then gradually moved southward eventually reaching Kiev about 880.
Kievan Rus' included the western part of modern Ukraine, Belarus, with larger part of it situated on the territory of modern Russia.
During the 10th and 11th centuries, it became the largest and most powerful state in Europe. In the following centuries, it laid the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians and Russians. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine, became the most important city of the Rus'. According to the
Primary Chronicle, the Rus' elite initially consisted of
Varangians from
Scandinavia.
The Varangians later became assimilated into the local Slavic population and became part of the Rus' first dynasty, the
Rurik Dynasty. Kievan Rus' was composed of several
principalities ruled by the interrelated
Rurikid Princes. The seat of Kiev, the most prestigious and influential of all principalities, became the subject of many rivalries among Rurikids as the most valuable prize in their quest for power.
The Golden Age of Kievan Rus' began with the reign of
Vladimir the Great (980–1015), who
turned Rus' toward Byzantine Christianity. During the reign of his son,
Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power. This was followed by the state's increasing fragmentation as the relative importance of regional powers rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of
Vladimir Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son
Mstislav (1125–1132), Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav's death.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic
Turkic tribes, such as the
Pechenegs and the
Kipchaks, caused a massive
migration of
Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north. The 13th century
Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240. On the Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Galich (
Halych) and
Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of
Galicia-Volhynia.
Foreign domination
, much of Ukraine was controlled by Lithuania (from the 14th century on) and since the
Union of Lublin (1569) by Poland, as seen at this outline of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as of 1619.]]
to Sultan
Mehmed IV of the
Ottoman Empire." Painted by
Ilya Repin from 1880 to 1891.]]
In the mid-14th century, Galicia-Volhynia was subjugated by
Casimir III of Poland, while the heartland of Rus', including Kiev, fell under the
Gediminas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after the
Battle on the Irpen' River. Following the 1386
Union of Krevo, a
dynastic union between Poland and Lithuania, much of what became northern Ukraine was controlled by the increasingly Slavicised local Lithuanian nobles as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
By 1569, the
Union of Lublin formed the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the
Polish Crown. Under the cultural and political pressure of
Polonisation much upper class of Polish Ruthenia (another term for the land of Rus) converted to
Catholicism and became indistinguishable from the
Polish nobility.Subtelny, p. 92–93 Thus, the commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Rus nobility, turned for protection to the
Cossacks, who remained fiercely Orthodox at all times and tended to turn to violence against those they perceived as enemies, particularly the Polish state and its representatives.
In the mid-17th century, a Cossack military quasi-state, the
Zaporozhian Host, was established by the
Dnieper Cossacks and the Ruthenian peasants fleeing Polish
serfdom. Poland had little real control of this land, yet they found the Cossacks to be a useful fighting force against the
Turks and
Tatars, and at times the two allied in
military campaigns."
The Crimean Tatars and their Russian-Captive Slaves" (PDF). Eizo Matsuki,
Mediterranean Studies Group at Hitotsubashi University. However, the continued enserfment of peasantry by the
Polish nobility emphasized by the Commonwealth's fierce exploitation of the workforce, and most importantly, the suppression of the Orthodox Church pushed the allegiances of Cossacks away from Poland.
was one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe until the end of the 17th century.]]
Their aspiration was to have representation in Polish
Sejm, recognition of Orthodox traditions and the gradual expansion of the
Cossack Registry. These were all vehemently denied by the Polish nobility. The Cossacks eventually turned for protection to Orthodox
Russia, a decision which would later lead towards the downfall of the Polish-Lithuanian state, and the preservation of the
Orthodox Church and in Ukraine.Magocsi, p. 195
In 1648,
Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the
largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king
John II Casimir.Subtelny, p. 123–124
Left-bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into Muscovite Russia as the
Cossack Hetmanate, following the 1654
Treaty of Pereyaslav and the ensuing
Russo-Polish War. After the
partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century by
Prussia,
Habsburg Austria, and
Russia, Western Ukrainian
Galicia was taken over by Austria, while the rest of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire.
From the beginning of the 16th century until the end of 17th century the Crimean Tatar raider bands made almost annual forays into agricultural Slavic
lands searching for captives to sell as
slaves.
Halil Inalcik. "Servile Labor in the Ottoman Empire" in A. Ascher, B. K. Kiraly, and T. Halasi-Kun (eds), The Mutual Effects of the Islamic and Judeo-Christian Worlds: The East European Pattern, Brooklyn College, 1979, pp. 25-43. For example, from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six
Tatar raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy.Subtelny, Orest (1988). "
Ukraine: a history.". p 106
The Ruin
In 1657-1686 came "The Ruin," a devastating 30-year war between Russia, Poland, Turks and Cossacks for control of Ukraine. For three years Khmelnytsky's armies controlled present-day western and central Ukraine, but deserted by his Tatar allies, he suffered a crushing defeat at Berestechko, and turned to the Russian Czar for help.
In 1654, Khmelnytsky signed the Treaty of Pereiaslav, forming a military and political alliance with Russia that acknowledged loyalty to the Czar. The wars escalated in intensity with hundreds of thousands of deaths. Defeat came in 1686 as the "Eternal Peace" between Russia and Poland gave Kiev and the Cossack lands east of the Dnieper over to Russian rule and the Ukrainian lands west of the Dnieper to Poland.
In 1709 Cossack Hetman
Ivan Mazepa (1687–1709) sided with Sweden against Russia in the
Great Northern War (1700–1721). Mazepa, a member of the Cossack nobility, received an excellent education abroad and proved to be a brilliant political and military leader enjoying good relations with the Romanov dynasty. After
Peter the Great became czar, Mazepa as hetman gave him more than twenty years of loyal military and diplomatic service and was well rewarded.
Eventually Peter recognized that in order to consolidate and modernize Russia's political and economic power it was necessary to do away with the hetmanate and Ukrainian and Cossack aspirations to autonomy. Mazepa accepted Polish invitations to join the Poles and Swedes against Russia. The move was disastrous for the hetmanate, Ukrainian autonomy, and Mazepa. He died in exile after fleeing from the
Battle of Poltava (1709), where the Swedes and their Cossack allies suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Peter's Russian forces
The hetmanate was abolished in 1764; the
Zaporizhska Sich abolished in 1775, as centralized Russian control became the norm. With the partitioning of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, the Ukrainian lands west of the Dnieper were divided between Russia and Austria. From 1737 to 1834 expansion into the northern Black Sea littoral and the eastern Danube valley was a cornerstone of Russian foreign policy.
Lithuanians and Poles controlled vast estates in Ukraine, and were a law unto themselves. Judicial rulings from Cracow were routinely flouted. Heavily taxed peasants were practically tied to the land as serfs. Occasionally the landowners battled each other using armies of Ukrainian peasants. The Poles and Lithuanians were Roman Catholics and tried with some success to covert the Orthodox lesser nobility. In 1596 they set up the "Greek-Catholic" or Uniate Church, under the authority of the Pope but using Eastern rituals; it dominates western Ukraine to this day. Tensions between the Uniates and the Orthodox were never resolved, and the religious differentiation left the Ukrainian Orthodox peasants leaderless, as they were reluctant to follow the Ukrainian nobles.Reid (2000) p 27-30
The Cossack-led uprising called Koliivshchyna that erupted in the Ukrainian borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1768 involved ethnicity as one root cause of Ukrainian violence that killed tens of thousands of Poles and Jews. Religious warfare also broke out between Ukrainian groups. Increasing conflict between Uniate and Orthodox parishes along the newly reinforced Polish-Russian border on the Dnepr River in the time of Catherine II set the stage for the uprising. As Uniate religious practices had become more Latinized, Orthodoxy in this region drew even closer into dependence on the Russian Orthodox Church. Confessional tensions also reflected opposing Polish and Russian political allegiances.Barbara Skinner, "Borderlands of Faith: Reconsidering the Origins of a Ukrainian Tragedy."
Slavic Review 2005 64(1): 88-116. Fulltext: in
Jstor
After the annexation of the
Crimean Khanate in 1783, the region was settled by migrants from other parts of Ukraine.
Ukraine under direct imperial Russian rule.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Despite the promises of Ukrainian autonomy given by the Treaty of Pereyaslav, the Ukrainian elite and the Cossacks never received the freedoms and the autonomy they were expecting from Imperial Russia. However, within the Empire, Ukrainians rose to the highest offices of Russian state, and the
Russian Orthodox Church. At a later period, the
tsarist regime carried the policy of
Russification of Ukrainian lands, suppressing the use of the Ukrainian language in print, and in public.
19th century
In the 19th century Ukraine was a rural area largely ignored by Russia and Austria. With growing urbanization and modernization, and a cultural trend toward nationalism inspired by romanticism, a Ukrainian intelligentsia committed to national rebirth and social justice emerged. The serf-turned-national-poet
Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861) and the political theorist
Mykhailo Drahomanov (1841–1895) led the growing nationalist movement.
Nationalist and socialist parties developed in the late 19th century. Austrian
Galicia, which enjoyed substantial political freedom under the relatively lenient rule of the
Habsburgs, became the center of the nationalist movement. The Russian government responded to nationalism by placing severe restrictions on the Ukrainian language.
World War I and revolution
Ukraine entered
World War I on the side of both the
Central Powers, under Austria, and the
Triple Entente, under Russia. 3.5 million Ukrainians fought with the
Imperial Russian Army, while 250,000 fought for the
Austro-Hungarian Army. During the war,
Austro-Hungarian authorities established the Ukrainian Legion to fight against the Russian Empire. This legion was the foundation of the
Ukrainian Galician Army that fought against the Bolsheviks and Poles in the post World War I period (1919–23). Those suspected of the Russophile sentiments in Austria were treated harshly. Up to 5,000 supporters of the Russian Empire from Galicia were detained and placed in Austrian internment camps in
Talerhof,
Styria, and in a fortress at
Terezín (now in the
Czech Republic). listening to a blind
kobzar bandura player]]
With the collapse of the Russian and Austrian empires following World War I and the
Russian Revolution of 1917, a Ukrainian national movement for self-determination reemerged. During 1917–20, several separate Ukrainian states briefly emerged: the
Ukrainian People's Republic, the
Hetmanate, the
Directorate and the pro-Bolshevik
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (or Soviet Ukraine) successively established territories in the former Russian Empire; while the
West Ukrainian People's Republic and the
Hutsul Republic emerged briefly in the former Austro-Hungarian territory. In the midst of Civil War, an
anarchist movement called the
Black Army led by
Nestor Makhno also developed in Southern Ukraine.
However with Western Ukraine's defeat in the
Polish-Ukrainian War followed by the failure of the further
Polish offensive that was repelled by the Bolsheviks. According to the
Peace of Riga concluded between the Soviets and
Poland, western Ukraine was officially incorporated into Poland who in turn recognised the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in March 1919, that later became a founding member of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Soviet Union in December, 1922.
Inter-war Polish Ukraine
The war in Ukraine continued for another two years; by 1921, however, most of Ukraine had been taken over by the Soviet Union, while Galicia and Volhynia were incorporated into independent Poland.
A powerful underground Ukrainian nationalist movement rose in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s, led by the Ukrainian Military Organization and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The movement attracted a militant following among students and harassed the Polish authorities. Legal Ukrainian parties, the Ukrainian Catholic Church, an active press, and a business sector also flourished in Poland. Economic conditions improved in the 1920s, but the region suffered from the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Inter-war Soviet Ukraine
, and the defence of
Soviet Ukraine will be ensured."]]
The revolution that brought the Soviet government to power devastated Ukraine. It left over 1.5 million people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. The Soviet Ukraine had to face the
famine of 1921.
Famine,
Encyclopedia of Ukraine
Moscow encouraged a national renaissance in literature and the arts, under the aegis of the Ukrainization policy pursued by the national Communist leadership of
Mykola Skrypnyk (1872–1933). Seeing the exhausted society, the Soviet government remained very flexible during the 1920s.Subtelny, p. 380 Thus, the
Ukrainian culture and
language enjoyed a revival, as
Ukrainisation became a local implementation of the Soviet-wide policy of
Korenisation (literally
indigenisation) policy. The Bolsheviks were also committed to introducing
universal health care, education and social-security benefits, as well as the right to work and housing.
Women's rights were greatly increased through new laws aimed to wipe away centuries-old inequalities.Cliff, p. 138–39 Most of these policies were sharply reversed by the early 1930s after
Joseph Stalin gradually consolidated power to become the de facto communist party leader and a
dictator of the Soviet Union.
The communists gave a privileged position to manual labor, the largest class in the cities, where Russians dominated. The typical worker was more attached to class identity than to ethnicity. Although there were incidents of ethnic friction among workers (in addition to Ukrainians and Russians there were significant numbers of Poles, Germans, Jews, and others in the Ukrainian workforce), industrial laborers had already adopted Russian culture and language to a significant extent. Workers whose ethnicity was Ukrainian were not attracted to campaigns of Ukrainianization or de-Russification in meaningful numbers, but remained loyal members of the Soviet working class. There was no significant antagonism between workers identifying themselves as Ukrainian or Russian; however, anti-Semitism was widespread.
hydroelectric power plant under construction circa 1930]]
Starting from the late 1920s, Ukraine was involved in the
Soviet industrialisation and the republic's industrial output quadrupled in the 1930s.
Famine
The industrialisation had a heavy cost for the peasantry, demographically a backbone of the Ukrainian nation. To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies and to finance industrialisation, Stalin instituted a
program of collectivisation of agriculture as the state combined the peasants' lands and animals into collective farms and enforced the policies by the regular troops and
secret police. Those who resisted were
arrested and deported and the increased production quotas were placed on the peasantry. The collectivisation had a devastating effect on agricultural productivity. As the members of the collective farms were not allowed to receive any grain until the unachievable quotas were met,
starvation in the Soviet Union became widespread. In 1932–33, millions starved to death in a man-made
famine known as
Holodomor or "Great Famine". Scholars are divided as to whether this famine fits the definition of
genocide, but the
Ukrainian parliament and more than a dozen other countries recognise it as such.
The famine claimed up to 10 million of Ukrainian lives as peasants' food stocks were forcibly removed by the Soviet government through
NKVD (predecessor of KGB) and secret police. Stalin had full knowledge of the destructive force of the famine. It was his war on the peasantry that began with collectivization and dekulakization and as an attempt to eradicate peasant culture in its entirety. Stalin well understood that no sane person would voluntarily give up all of their hard-earned property for the withering idea of 'bright communist future'. Therefore, the famine's purpose was to break the spirit of Ukrainian farmers - the land owners - by depriving them of private property and means of survival. Ellman explains the causes for the excess deaths in rural areas of Ukraine and Kazakhstan during 1931–34 by dividing the causes into three groups: objective non-policy-related factors, like the drought of 1931 and poor weather in 1932; inadvertent result of policies with other objectives, like rapid industrialization, socialization of livestock, and neglected crop rotation patterns; and deaths caused intentionally by a starvation policy. The Communist leadership perceived famine not as a humanitarian catastrophe but as a means of class struggle and used starvation as a punishment tool to force peasants into collective farms.Michael Ellman, "The Role of Leadership Perceptions and of Intent in the Soviet Famine of 1931-1934."
Europe-Asia Studies 2005 57(6): 823-841. Issn: 0966-8136 Fulltext in
Ebsco
It was largely the same groups of individuals who were responsible for the mass killing operations during the civil war, collectivisation, and the
Great Terror. These groups were associated with Efim Georgievich Evdokimov (1891–1939) and operated in Ukraine during the civil war, in the North Caucasus in the 1920s, and in the Secret Operational Division within General State Political Administration (OGPU) in 1929–31. Evdokimov transferred into Communist Party administration in 1934, when he became Party secretary for North Caucasus Krai. But he appears to have continued advising Joseph Stalin and
Nikolai Yezhov on security matters, and the latter relied on Evdokimov's former colleagues to carry out the mass killing operations that are known as the Great Terror in 1937–38.Stephen G. Wheatcroft, "Agency and Terror: Evdokimov and Mass Killing in Stalin's Great Terror."
Australian Journal of Politics and History 2007 53(1): 20-43. Issn: 0004-9522 Fulltext in
Ebsco; Robert Conquest,
The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet collectivization and the terror-famine (1986). Mark B. Tauger, "The 1932 Harvest and the Famine of 1933"
Slavic Review, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 70-89, notes the harvest was unusually poor.
online in JSTOR; R. W. Davies, M. B. Tauger, S. G. Wheatcroft, "Stalin, Grain Stocks and the Famine of 1932-1933,"
Slavic Review, Vol. 54, No. 3 (Autumn, 1995), pp. 642-657
link; online in JSTOR]; Michael Ellman. "Stalin and the Soviet famine of 1932-33 Revisited,"
Europe-Asia Studies, Volume 59, Issue 4 June 2007 , pages 663-93.
Attack on intellectuals and artists
With
Stalin's change of course in the late 1920s, however, Moscow's toleration of Ukrainian national identity came to an end. Systematic state terror of the 1930s destroyed Ukraine's writers, artists, and intellectuals; the Communist Party of Ukraine was purged of its "nationalist deviationists". Two waves of Stalinist
political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union (1929–34 and 1936–38) resulted in the killing of some 681,692 people; this included four-fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite and three quarters of all the
Red Army's higher-ranking officers.
World War II
preparing rafts to cross the
Dnieper (the sign reads "Give me Kiev!") in the 1943
Battle of the Dnieper.]]
Following the
Invasion of Poland in September 1939,
German and
Soviet troops divided the territory of Poland. Thus, Eastern
Galicia and
Volhynia with their Ukrainian population became reunited with the rest of Ukraine. The unification that Ukraine achieved for the first time in its history was a decisive event in the history of the nation.Wilson, p. 17Subtelny, p. 487
After
France surrendered to Germany,
Romania ceded
Bessarabia and northern
Bukovina to
Soviet demands. The Ukrainian SSR incorporated northern and southern districts of Bessarabia, the northern Bukovina, and the Soviet-occupied
Hertsa region. But it ceded the western part of the
Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the newly created
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. All these territorial gains were internationally recognised by the
Paris peace treaties of 1947.
German armies invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, thereby initiating four straight years of incessant
total war. The
Axis allies initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the
Red Army. In the encirclement battle of
Kiev, the city was acclaimed as a "
Hero City", for the fierce
resistance by the Red Army and by the local population. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers (or one quarter of the
Western Front) were killed or
taken captive there.Roberts, p. 102Boshyk, p. 89
in
Lviv, June 1941.]]
Although the wide majority of Ukrainians fought alongside the
Red Army and
Soviet resistance, some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground created an anti-Soviet nationalist formation in
Galicia, the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army (1942) that at times engaged the
Nazi forces and continued to fight the USSR in the years after the war. Using
guerilla war tactics, the insurgents targeted for
assassination and terror those who they perceived as representing, or cooperating at any level with, the Soviet state.Piotrowski p. 352–54Weiner p.127–237
At the same time
another nationalist movement fought alongside the Nazis. In total, the number of ethnic Ukrainians that fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army is estimated from 4.5 million to 7 million. The
pro-Soviet partisan guerilla resistance in Ukraine is estimated to number at 47,800 from the start of occupation to 500,000 at its peak in 1944; with about 50 percent of them being ethnic Ukrainians.Subtelny, p. 476 Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are very undependable, ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as much as 100,000 fighters.Magocsi, p. 635
.]]
Initially, the Germans were even received as liberators by some western Ukrainians, who had only joined the Soviet Union in 1939. However, brutal German rule in the occupied territories eventually turned its supporters against the occupation. Nazi administrators of conquered Soviet territories made little attempt to exploit the population of Ukrainian territories' dissatisfaction with Stalinist political and economic policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out
genocidal policies against
Jews,
deported others to work in Germany, and began a systematic depopulation of Ukraine to prepare it for German colonisation, which included a food blockade on Kiev.Karel Cornelis Berkhoff. Harvest of despair: life and death in Ukraine under Nazi rule. Harvard University Press: April 2004. pg 164
The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the
Eastern Front,Weinberg, p. 264 and
Nazi Germany suffered 93 percent of all casualties there.Rozhnov, Konstantin,
Who won World War II?. BBC. Citing Russian historian
Valentin Falin. Retrieved on 2008-07-05. The total losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated between five and eight million,Kulchytsky, Stalislav,
"Demographic losses in Ukrainian in the twentieth century",
Zerkalo Nedeli, October 2–8, 2004. Available online
in Russian and
in Ukrainian. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. including over half a million Jews killed by the
Einsatzgruppen, sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 8.7 million Soviet troops who fell in battle against the Nazis,Overy, p. 518Кривошеев Г. Ф.,
Россия и СССР в войнах XX века: потери вооруженных сил. Статистическое исследование (Krivosheev G. F.,
Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century: losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study) 1.4 million were ethnic
Ukrainians. So to this day,
Victory Day is celebrated as one of ten Ukrainian national holidays.
Post-World War II
, the head
Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the
Space Race.]]
The republic was heavily damaged by the war, and it required significant efforts to recover. More than 700 cities and towns and 28,000 villages were destroyed. The situation was worsened by a
famine in 1946–47 caused by the drought and the infrastructure breakdown that took away tens of thousands of lives.Kulchytsky, Stanislav, "Demographic losses in Ukraine in the twentieth century"'', October October 2–8, 2004. Available online
in Russian and
in Ukrainian.
In 1945 Ukraine was one of the founding members of the
United Nations organization. First Soviet computer
MESM was built in
Kiev Institute of Electrotechnology and became operational in 1950.
According to statistics, as of 1 January 1953, Ukrainians were second only to Russians among adult "
special deportees", comprising 20% of the total. Apart from Ukrainians, over 450,000 ethnic
Germans from Ukraine and more than 200,000
Crimean Tatars were victims of
forced deportations.
"Migration and migration policy in Ukraine". Olena Malynovska.
Following the death of Stalin in 1953,
Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the USSR. Being the First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Ukrainian SSR in 1938-49, Khrushchev was intimately familiar with the republic and after taking power union-wide, he began to emphasize the friendship between the Ukrainian and Russian nations. In 1954, the 300th anniversary of the
Treaty of Pereyaslav was widely celebrated, and in particular,
Crimea was transferred from the
Russian SFSR to the
Ukrainian SSR.
Already by 1950, the republic fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production. During the 1946-1950
five year plan nearly 20 percent of the Soviet budget was invested in Soviet Ukraine, a five percent increase from prewar plans. As a result the Ukrainian workforce rose 33.2 percent from 1940 to 1955 while industrial output grew 2.2 times in that same period. Soviet Ukraine soon became a European leader in industrial production.Magocsi, p. 644 It also became an important center of the Soviet
arms industry and high-tech research. Such an important role resulted in a major influence of the local elite.
Many members of the Soviet leadership came from Ukraine, most notably
Leonid Brezhnev, who would later oust Khrushchev and become the Soviet leader from 1964 to 1982, as well as many prominent Soviet sportspeople, scientists and artists. On April 26, 1986, a reactor in the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in the
Chernobyl disaster, the worst
nuclear reactor accident in history. At the time of the accident seven million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine. (quoting the "Committee on the Problems of the Consequences of the Catastrophe at the Chernobyl NPP: 15 Years after Chernobyl Disaster", Minsk, 2001, p. 5/6 ff., and the "Chernobyl Interinform Agency, Kiev und", and "Chernobyl Committee: MailTable of official data on the reactor accident") Retrieved on 2008-01-27. After the accident, a new city,
Slavutych, was built outside the exclusion zone to house and support the employees of the plant which was decommissioned in 2000. A report prepared by the
International Atomic Energy Agency and
World Health Organization attributed 56 direct deaths to the accident and estimated that there may have been 4,000 extra cancer deaths.
Independence
at the
Sea Launch complex]]
On July 16, 1990, the new parliament adopted the
Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine. The declaration established the principles of the self-determination of the Ukrainian nation, its democracy, political and economic independence, and the priority of Ukrainian law on the Ukrainian territory over Soviet law. A month earlier, a
similar declaration was adopted by the parliament of the
Russian SFSR. This started a period of confrontation between the central Soviet, and new republican authorities. In August 1991, a conservative faction among the Communist leaders of the Soviet Union
attempted a coup to remove
Mikhail Gorbachev and to restore the Communist party's power. After the attempt failed, on August 24, 1991 the Ukrainian parliament adopted the
Act of Independence in which the parliament declared Ukraine as an independent democratic state.
A
referendum and the
first presidential elections took place on December 1, 1991. That day, more than 90 percent of the Ukrainian people expressed their support for the Act of Independence, and they elected the chairman of the parliament,
Leonid Kravchuk to serve as the first
President of the country. At the
meeting in Brest, Belarus on December 8, followed by
Alma Ata meeting on December 21, the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, formally dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
gather in the
Independence Square in
Kiev on November 22, 2004]]
Although the idea of an independent Ukrainian nation had previously not existed in the
20th century in the minds of international policy makers,
The International Politics of Eurasia: The Influence of National Identity v. 2 by Roman Szforluk,
M.E. Sharpe, 2004, ISBN 1563243555/ISBN 978-1563243554, page 118/119 Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union.Shen, p. 41 However, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown than some of the other
former Soviet Republics. During the recession, Ukraine lost 60 percent of its
GDP from 1991 to 1999, and suffered five-digit inflation rates. Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as the amounts of crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and organised strikes.
The Ukrainian economy stabilized by the end of the 1990s. A new currency, the
hryvnia, was introduced in 1996. Since 2000, the country has enjoyed steady
real economic growth averaging about seven percent annually. A new
Constitution of Ukraine was adopted under second President
Leonid Kuchma in 1996, which turned Ukraine into a
semi-presidential republic and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticized by opponents for corruption,
electoral fraud, discouraging free speech and concentrating too much of power in his office. He also repeatedly transferred public property into the hands of loyal
oligarchs.
In 2004,
Viktor Yanukovych, then Prime Minister, was declared the winner of the
presidential elections, which had been largely rigged, as the
Supreme Court of Ukraine later ruled. The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate,
Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the outcome of the elections. This resulted in the peaceful
Orange Revolution, bringing
Viktor Yushchenko and
Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition. Yanukovych returned to a position of power in 2006, when he became Prime Minister in the
Alliance of National Unity,
Ukraine comeback kid in new deal,
BBC News (August 4, 2006) until
snap elections in September 2007 made Tymoshenko Prime Minister again.
Tymoshenko picked for Ukraine PM,
BBC News (December 18, 2007) Yanukovych was
elected President in 2010.
Ukraine election: Yanukovych urges Tymoshenko to quit,
BBC News (February 10, 2010)
Conflicts with Russia over the price of natural gas briefly stopped all gas supplies to Ukraine in 2006 and again in 2009, leading to gas shortages in several other European countries.
Russia shuts off gas to Ukraine,
BBC News (January 1, 2009)
Q&A: Russia-Ukraine gas row,
BBC News (January 20, 2009)
Government and politics
, the Parliament of Ukraine]]
Ukraine is a
republic under a mixed semi-parliamentary
semi-presidential system with separate
legislative,
executive, and
judicial branches. The
President is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and is the formal
head of state.
Ukraine's legislative branch includes the 450-seat
unicameral parliament, the
Verkhovna Rada. The parliament is primarily responsible for the formation of the executive branch and the
Cabinet of Ministers, which is headed by the
Prime Minister.
Laws, acts of the parliament and the cabinet, presidential decrees, and acts of the
Crimean parliament may be abrogated by the
Constitutional Court, should they be found to violate the
Constitution of Ukraine. Other normative acts are subject to judicial review. The
Supreme Court is the main body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction.
Local self-government is officially guaranteed. Local councils and city mayors are popularly elected and exercise control over local budgets. The heads of regional and district administrations are appointed by the president.
Ukraine has a large number of political parties, many of which have tiny memberships and are unknown to the general public. Small parties often join in multi-party coalitions (electoral blocs) for the purpose of participating in parliamentary elections.
Military
soldiers aboard a
BTR-80 in
Iraq]]
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited a 780,000 man military force on its territory, equipped with the third-largest
nuclear weapons arsenal in the world.
In May 1992, Ukraine signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in which the country agreed to give up all nuclear weapons to Russia for "disposal" and to join the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ukraine ratified the treaty in 1994, and by 1996 the country became free of nuclear weapons. Currently Ukraine's military is the second largest in Europe, after that of
Russia.
Ukraine took consistent steps toward reduction of conventional weapons. It signed the
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which called for reduction of tanks, artillery, and armoured vehicles (army forces were reduced to 300,000). The country plans to convert the current
conscript-based military into a professional
volunteer military not later than in 2011.
]]
Ukraine has been playing an increasingly larger role in peacekeeping operations. Ukrainian troops are deployed in
Kosovo as part of the
Ukrainian-Polish Battalion. A Ukrainian unit was deployed in
Lebanon, as part of
UN Interim Force enforcing the mandated ceasefire agreement. There was also a maintenance and training battalion deployed in
Sierra Leone. In 2003–05, a Ukrainian unit was deployed in
Iraq, as part of the
Multinational force in Iraq under
Polish command. The total Ukrainian military deployment around the world is 562 servicemen.
Military units of other states participate in multinational military exercises with Ukrainian forces in Ukraine regularly, including
U.S. military forces.
Parliament approves admission of military units of foreign states to Ukraine for exercises,
Kyiv Post (May 18, 2010)
Following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. The country has had a limited military partnership with Russia, other CIS countries and a
partnership with NATO since 1994. In the 2000s, the government was leaning towards the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and a deeper cooperation with the alliance was set by the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan signed in 2002. It was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Current
President Viktor Yanukovych considers the current level of co-operation between
Ukraine and NATO sufficient.
NATO confirms readiness for Ukraine's joining organization,
Kyiv Post (April 13, 2010) Yanukovich is against Ukraine joining NATO.
Yanukovich vows to keep Ukraine out of NATO,
Reuters (January 7, 2010) During the
2008 Bucharest summit NATO declared that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, whenever it wants and when it would correspond to the criteria for the accession.
Administrative divisions
The system of
Ukrainian subdivisions reflects the country's status as a
unitary state (as stated in the
country's constitution) with unified
legal and
administrative regimes for each unit.
Ukraine is subdivided into twenty-four
oblasts (
provinces) and one
autonomous republic (),
Crimea. Additionally, the cities of
Kiev, the capital, and
Sevastopol, both have a special legal status. The 24 oblasts and
Crimea are subdivided into 490 (
districts), or second-level administrative units. The average area of a Ukrainian raion is ; the average population of a raion is 52,000 people.
Urban areas (cities) can either be subordinated to the state (as in the case of Kiev and Sevastopol), the oblast or administrations, depending on their population and socio-economic importance. Lower administrative units include
urban-type settlements, which are similar to rural communities, but are more urbanized, including industrial enterprises, educational facilities, and transport connections, and
villages.
In total, Ukraine has 457 cities, 176 of them are labeled oblast-class, 279 smaller -class cities, and two special legal status cities. These are followed by 886 urban-type settlements and 28,552 villages.
Geography
1200 m above mean sea level]]
At and with a coastline of , Ukraine is the world's
44th-largest country (after the
Central African Republic, before
Madagascar). It is the largest wholly-European country and the
second largest country in Europe (after the European part of Russia, before
metropolitan France).
The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or
steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the
Dnieper (),
Seversky Donets,
Dniester and the
Southern Buh as they flow south into the
Black Sea and the smaller
Sea of Azov. To the southwest, the
delta of the
Danube forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are the
Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the
Hora Hoverla at , and
those on the
Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.
Climate
]]
Ukraine has a mostly
temperate continental climate, although a more
Mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean coast.
Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, receives around of precipitation annually, while
Crimea receives around . Winters vary from cool along the
Black Sea to cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from – in the north, to – in the south.
Regionalism
There are not only clear regional differences on questions of identity but historical cleavages remain evident at the level of individual social identification. Attitudes toward the most important political issue, relations with
Russia, differed strongly between
Lviv, identifying more with
Ukrainian nationalism and the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and
Donetsk, predominantly Russian orientated and favorable to the
Soviet era, while in central and southern Ukraine, as well as
Kiev, such divisions were less important and there was less antipathy toward people from other regions (a poll by the
Research & Branding Group held March 2010 showed that the attitude of the citizens of Donetsk to the citizens of Lviv was 79% positive and that the attitude of the citizens of Lviv to the citizens of Donetsk was 88% positive). However, all were united by an overarching Ukrainian identity based on shared economic difficulties, showing that other attitudes are determined more by culture and politics than by demographic differences.
UKRAINE. WEST-EAST: UNITY IN DIVERSITY,
Research & Branding Group (March 2010)Oksana Malanchuk,
"Social Identification Versus Regionalism in Contemporary Ukraine." Nationalities Papers 2005 33(3): 345-368. Issn: 0090-5992
Economy
of the
National Bank of Ukraine]]
.]]
In Soviet times, the economy of Ukraine was the second largest in the
Soviet Union, being an important
industrial and
agricultural component of the country's
planned economy. With the collapse of the Soviet system, the country moved from a planned economy to a
market economy. The transition process was difficult for the majority of the population which plunged into poverty.
Child poverty soars in eastern Europe, BBC News, October 11, 2000. Retrieved on 2009-01-12. Ukraine's economy contracted severely following the years after the Soviet collapse. Day to day life for the average person living in Ukraine was a struggle. A significant number of citizens in
rural Ukraine survived by growing their own food, often working two or more jobs and buying the basic necessities through the
barter economy.
In 1991, the government liberalized most prices to combat widespread product shortages, and was successful in overcoming the problem. At the same time, the government continued to subsidize state-run industries and agriculture by uncovered monetary emission. The loose monetary policies of the early 1990s pushed
inflation to
hyperinflationary levels. For the year 1993, Ukraine holds the world record for inflation in one calendar year.
Skolotiany, Yuriy, The past and the future of Ukrainian national currency, Interview with Anatoliy Halchynsky,
Mirror Weekly, #33(612), 2—September 8, 2006. Retrieved on 2008-07-05 Those living on fixed incomes suffered the most.
Prices stabilized only after the introduction of new currency, the
hryvnia, in 1996.
The country was also slow in implementing structural reforms. Following independence, the government formed a legal framework for
privatization. However, widespread resistance to reforms within the government and from a significant part of the population soon stalled the reform efforts. A large number of state-owned enterprises were exempt from the privatization process.
In the meantime, by 1999, the GDP had fallen to less than 40 percent of the 1991 level, but recovered to slightly above the 100 percent mark by the end of 2006. In the early 2000s, the economy showed strong export-based growth of 5 to 10 percent, with industrial production growing more than 10 percent per year. Ukraine was hit by the
economic crisis of 2008 and in November 2008, the IMF approved a stand-by loan of $16.5 billion for the country.
Head of IMF's Resident Representative Office in Ukraine to change his job,
Interfax-Ukraine (Retrieved on 2008-12-17)
Ukraine's 2007 GDP (
PPP), as calculated by the
CIA, is ranked
29th in the world and estimated at $359.9 billion. Its GDP per capita in 2008 according to the CIA was $7,800 (in PPP terms), ranked 83rd in the world. Nominal GDP (in U.S. dollars, calculated at market exchange rate) was $198 billion,
ranked 41st in the world. By July 2008 the average nominal salary in Ukraine reached 1,930 hryvnias per month. Despite remaining lower than in neighboring central European countries, the salary income growth in 2008 stood at 36.8 percent
According to the
UNDP in 2003 4.9 percent of the Ukrainian population lived under 2
US dollar a day
Human and income poverty: developing countries / Population living below $2 a day (%),
Human Development Report 2007/08,
UNDP. Retrieved on 2008-02-03 and 19.5 percent of the population lived below the national
poverty line that same year.Data
Human and income poverty: developing countries / Population living below the national poverty line (%),
Human Development Report 2007/08,
UNDP. Retrieved on 2008-02-03
]]
Ukraine produces nearly all types of transportation vehicles and
spacecraft.
Antonov airplanes and
KrAZ trucks are exported to many countries. The majority of Ukrainian
exports are marketed to the
European Union and
CIS. Since independence, Ukraine has maintained its own space agency, the
National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU). Ukraine became an active participant in scientific space exploration and remote sensing missions. Between 1991 and 2007, Ukraine has launched six self made
satellites and 101
launch vehicles, and continues to design spacecraft.
The country imports most energy supplies, especially
oil and
natural gas, and to a large extent depends on Russia as its energy supplier. While 25 percent of the natural gas in Ukraine comes from internal sources, about 35 percent comes from Russia and the remaining 40 percent from
Central Asia through transit routes that Russia controls. At the same time, 85 percent of the Russian gas is delivered to Western Europe through Ukraine.
The
World Bank classifies Ukraine as a middle-income state. Significant issues include underdeveloped infrastructure and transportation, corruption and bureaucracy. In 2007 the
Ukrainian stock market recorded the second highest growth in the world of 130 percent. According to the CIA, in 2006 the market capitalization of the Ukrainian stock market was $111.8 billion. Growing sectors of the Ukrainian economy include the
information technology (IT) market, which topped all other Central and Eastern European countries in 2007, growing some 40 percent.
Transportation in Ukraine
Tourism
Ukraine occupies 8th place in the world by the number of tourists visiting, according to the
World Tourism Organisation rankings.
UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, volume 6,
UNWTO (June 2008)
The
Seven Wonders of Ukraine are the seven historical and cultural monuments of Ukraine, which were chosen in the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.
Culture
from
Volyn]]
Ukrainian customs are heavily influenced by
Christianity, which is the dominant religion in the country. Gender roles also tend to be more traditional, and grandparents play a greater role in raising children than in the West. The culture of Ukraine has been also influenced by its eastern and western neighbours, which is reflected in its
architecture, music and art.
The Communist era had quite a strong effect on the art and writing of Ukraine. In 1932, Stalin made
socialist realism state policy in the Soviet Union when he promulgated the decree "On the Reconstruction of Literary and Art Organisations". This greatly stifled creativity. During the 1980s
glasnost (openness) was introduced and Soviet artists and writers again became free to express themselves as they wanted.
in
Kiev, an example of Ukrainian architecture.]]
The tradition of the
Easter egg, known as
pysanky, has long roots in Ukraine. These eggs were drawn on with wax to create a pattern; then, the dye was applied to give the eggs their pleasant colours, the dye did not affect the previously wax-coated parts of the egg. After the entire egg was dyed, the wax was removed leaving only the colourful pattern. This tradition is thousands of years old, and precedes the arrival of
Christianity to Ukraine.{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/pysanky/index.html|title=Pysanky - Ukrainian Easter Eggs
|accessdate=2008-07-28|publisher=
University of North Carolina}} In the city of Kolomya near the foothills of the
Carpathian mountains in 2000 was built the museum of Pysanka which won a nomination as the monument of modern Ukraine in 2007, part of the
Seven Wonders of Ukraine action.
The traditional Ukrainian diet includes chicken, pork, beef, fish and mushrooms. Ukrainians also tend to eat a lot of potatoes, grains, fresh and pickled vegetables. Popular traditional dishes include (boiled dumplings with mushrooms, potatoes, sauerkraut, cottage cheese or cherries),
borscht (soup made of beets, cabbage and mushrooms or meat) and (stuffed cabbage rolls filled with rice, carrots and meat). Ukrainian specialties also include
Chicken Kiev and
Kiev Cake. Ukrainians drink
stewed fruit, juices, milk, buttermilk (they make cottage cheese from this), mineral water, tea and coffee, beer, wine and .
Language
}}
According to the
Constitution, the
state language of Ukraine is
Ukrainian.
Russian, which was the
de facto official language of the Soviet Union, is
widely spoken, especially in eastern and southern Ukraine. According to the 2001 census, 67.5 percent of the population declared Ukrainian as their native language and 29.6 percent declared Russian. Most native Ukrainian speakers know Russian as a second language.
These details result in a significant difference across different survey results, as even a small restating of a question switches responses of a significant group of people. Ukrainian is mainly spoken in western and central Ukraine. In western Ukraine, Ukrainian is also the dominant language in cities (such as
Lviv). In central Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian are both equally used in cities, with Russian being more common in
Kiev, while Ukrainian is the dominant language in rural communities. In eastern and southern Ukraine, Russian is primarily used in cities, and Ukrainian is used in rural areas.
For a large part of the Soviet era, the number of Ukrainian speakers declined from generation to generation, and by the mid-1980s, the usage of the Ukrainian language in public life had decreased significantly.Shamshur, p. 159-168 Following independence, the government of Ukraine began restoring the image and usage of Ukrainian language through a policy of
Ukrainisation. (National Archives of Ukraine)}} Today, all foreign films and TV programs, including Russian ones, are subbed or dubbed in Ukrainian.
According to the Constitution of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukrainian is the only state language of the republic. However, the republic's constitution specifically recognises Russian as the language of the majority of its population and guarantees its usage 'in all spheres of public life'. Similarly, the
Crimean Tatar language (the language of 12 percent of population of Crimea
National structure of the population of Autonomous Republic of Crimea,
2001 Ukrainian Census. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.) is guaranteed a special state protection as well as the 'languages of other ethnicities'. Russian speakers constitute an overwhelming majority of the Crimean population (77 percent), with Ukrainian speakers comprising just 10.1 percent, and Crimean Tatar speakers 11.4 percent.
Linguistic composition of population Autonomous Republic of Crimea,
2001 Ukrainian Census. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. But in everyday life the majority of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea use Russian.For a more comprehensive account of language politics in Crimea, see Natalya Belitser, "
The Constitutional Process in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the Context of Interethnic Relations and Conflict Settlement," International Committee for Crimea. Retrieved August 12, 2007.
Literature
The history of Ukrainian literature dates back to the 11th century, following the Christianisation of the Kievan Rus’. The writings of the time were mainly liturgical and were written in
Old Church Slavonic. Historical accounts of the time were referred to as
chronicles, the most significant of which was the
Primary Chronicle. Literary activity faced a sudden decline during the
Mongol invasion of Rus'. (1814–1861)]]
Ukrainian literature again began to develop in the 14th century, and was advanced significantly in the 16th century with the introduction of
print and with the beginning of the Cossack era, under both Russian and Polish dominance. The Cossacks established an independent society and popularized a
new kind of
epic poems, which marked a high point of Ukrainian
oral literature. These advances were then set back in the 17th and early 18th centuries, when publishing in the Ukrainian language was outlawed and prohibited. Nonetheless, by the late 18th century modern literary Ukrainian finally emerged.
The 19th century initiated a
vernacular period in Ukraine, lead by
Ivan Kotliarevsky’s work , the first publication written in modern Ukrainian. By the 1830s, Ukrainian
romanticism began to develop, and the nation’s most renowned cultural figure, romanticist poet-painter
Taras Shevchenko emerged. Where Ivan Kotliarevsky is considered to be the father of literature in the Ukrainian vernacular; Shevchenko is the father of a national revival.
Then, in 1863, use of the Ukrainian language in print was effectively
prohibited by the Russian Empire. This severely curtained literary activity in the area, and Ukrainian writers were forced to either publish their works in Russian or release them in Austrian controlled
Galicia. The ban was never officially lifted, but it became obsolete after the revolution and the Bolsheviks’ coming to power.
Ukrainian literature continued to flourish in the early Soviet years, when nearly all literary trends were approved. These policies faced a steep decline in the 1930s, when Stalin implemented his policy of
socialist realism. The doctrine did not necessarily repress the Ukrainian language, but it required writers to follow a certain style in their works. Literary activities continued to be somewhat limited under the communist party, and it was not until Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 when writers were free the express themselves as they wished.
Music and Dance
Music is a major part of Ukrainian culture, with a long history and many influences. From traditional
folk music, to
classical and
modern rock, Ukraine has produced a long list of internationally recognized musical talent including
Tchaikovsky and
Okean Elzy. Elements from traditional Ukrainian folk music made their way into Western music and even into modern
Jazz. In the world of dance, Ukrainian influence is evident from
Polka to the
The Nutcracker.
Sport
, Ukrainian football player]]
]]
and
Vitaliy Klychko]]
Ukraine greatly benefited from the Soviet emphasis on
physical education. Such policies left Ukraine with hundreds of stadia, swimming pools, gymnasia, and many other athletic facilities. The most popular sport is
football. The top professional league is the
Vyscha Liha, also known as the
Ukrainian Premier League. The two most successful teams in the Vyscha Liha are rivals
FC Dynamo Kyiv and
FC Shakhtar Donetsk. Although Shakhtar is the reigning champion of the Vyscha Liha, Dynamo Kyiv has been much more successful historically, winning two
UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, one
UEFA Super Cup, a record 13
USSR Championships and a record 12
Ukrainian Championships; while Shakhtar only won four Ukrainian championships and one and last
UEFA Cup.
Trophies of Dynamo - Official website of Dynamo Kyiv . Retrieved 23-6-08.
Many Ukrainians also played for the
Soviet national football team, most notably
Igor Belanov and
Oleg Blokhin, winners of the prestigious
Golden Ball Award for the best football player of the year. This award was only presented to one Ukrainian after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Andriy Shevchenko, the current captain of the
Ukrainian national football team. The national team made its debut in the
2006 FIFA World Cup, and reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions,
Italy. Ukrainians also fared well in
boxing, where the brothers
Vitaliy Klychko and
Volodymyr Klychko have held world heavyweight championships.
Ukraine made its Olympic debut at the
1994 Winter Olympics. So far, Ukraine has been much more successful in
Summer Olympics (96 medals in four appearances) than in the
Winter Olympics (five medals in four appearances). Ukraine is currently ranked 35th by number of gold medals won in the
All-time Olympic Games medal count, with every country above it, except for Russia, having more appearances.
Demographics
According to the
Ukrainian Census of 2001, ethnic
Ukrainians make up 77.8% of the population. Other significant ethnic groups are
Russians (17.3%),
Belarusians (0.6%),
Moldovans (0.5%),
Crimean Tatars (0.5%),
Bulgarians (0.4%),
Hungarians (0.3%),
Romanians (0.3%),
Poles (0.3%),
Jews (0.2%),
Armenians (0.2%),
Greeks (0.2%) and
Tatars (0.2%). The industrial regions in the east and southeast are the most heavily populated, and about 67.2 percent of the population lives in urban areas.
Demographic crisis
Ukraine has been in a demographic crisis since the 1980s because of its high death rate and a low birth rate. The population is shrinking 150,000 a year because of the lowest birth rate in Europe combined with one of the highest death rates in Europe.
In 2007, the country's population was declining at the fourth fastest rate in the world.
Life expectancy is falling. The nation suffers a high
mortality rate from environmental pollution, poor diets, widespread smoking, extensive alcoholism, and deteriorating medical care.Hanna H. Starostenko, "Economic and Ecological Factors of Transformations in Demographic Process in Ukraine"
Uktraine Magazine #2 1998 online at
link
In 2008 more than 500,000 children were born in Ukraine, 20 percent more than in 2004. Infant mortality rates have also dropped from 10.4 deaths to 8.9 per 1,000 children under one year of age. This is still high in comparison, however, to many other nations.
Ukraine’s children still have it rough,
Kyiv Post (November 26, 2009)
According to the
United Nations poverty and poor
health care are the two biggest problems Ukrainian children face. More than 26 percent of families with one child, 42 percent of families with two children and 77 percent of families with four and more children live in poverty, according to
United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. In November 2009 Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Nina Karpacheva stated that the lives of many of Ukraine’s 8.2 million kids remain tough.
Fertility
The current birth rate in Ukraine is 9.55 births/1,000 population, and the death rate is 15.93 deaths/1,000 population.
The phenomenon of lowest-low fertility, defined as total fertility below 1.3, is emerging throughout Europe and is attributed by many to postponement of the initiation of childbearing. Ukraine, where total fertility (a very low 1.1 in 2001), is one of the world's lowest, shows that there is more than one pathway to lowest-low fertility. Although Ukraine has undergone immense political and economic transformations during 1991-2004, it has maintained a young age at first birth and nearly universal childbearing. Analysis of official national statistics and the Ukrainian Reproductive Health Survey show that fertility declined to very low levels without a transition to a later pattern of childbearing. Findings from focus group interviews suggest explanations of the early fertility pattern. These findings include the persistence of traditional norms for childbearing and the roles of men and women, concerns about medical complications and infertility at a later age, and the link between early fertility and early marriage.Brienna Perelli-Harris, "The Path to Lowest-low Fertility in Ukraine"
Population Studies 2005 59(1): 55-70.
in JSTOR
Natalist policies
To help mitigate the declining population, the government continues to increase child support payments. Thus it provides one-time payments of 12,250 Hryvnias for the first child, 25,000 Hryvnias for the second and 50,000 Hryvnias for the third and fourth, along with monthly payments of 154 Hryvnias per child. The demographic trend is showing signs of improvement, as the birth rate has been steadily growing since 2001.
The demographic situation in Ukraine in January-September 2009,
State statistics Committee of Ukraine Net population growth over the first nine months of 2007 was registered in five provinces of the country (out of 24), and population shrinkage was showing signs of stabilising nationwide. In 2007 the highest birth rates were in the Western Oblasts.
Ukraine’s birth rate shows first positive signs in decade Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (UNIAN). 05.10.2007 Retrieved on 2008-07-03.
Famines
The government-imposed
famines of the 1930s, followed by the devastation of World War II, comprised a demographic disaster. Life expectancy at birth fell to a level as low as ten years for females and seven for males in 1933 and plateaued around 25 for females and 15 for males in the period 1941-44.Jacques Vallin; Meslé, France; Adamets, Serguei; and Pyrozhkov, Serhii. "A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses During the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s."
Population Studies (2002) 56(3): 249-264.
in JSTOR
Migration
Significant migration took place in the first years of Ukrainian independence. More than one million people moved into Ukraine in 1991–2, mostly from the other former Soviet republics. In total, between 1991 and 2004, 2.2 million immigrated to Ukraine (among them, 2 million came from the other former Soviet Union states), and 2.5 million emigrated from Ukraine (among them, 1.9 million moved to other former Soviet Union republics).
Malynovska, Olena, Caught Between East and West, Ukraine Struggles with Its Migration Policy, National Institute for International Security Problems, Kiev, January 2006. Retrieved on 2008-07-03. Currently, immigrants constitute an estimated 14.7 % of the total population, or 6.9 million people; this is the
fourth largest figure in the world. In 2006, there were an estimated 1.2 million
Canadians of Ukrainian ancestry,
"Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories - 20% sample data".
Statistics Canada. giving
Canada the world's third-largest Ukrainian population behind Ukraine itself and Russia.
Religion
, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site]]
about the religious situation in Ukraine (2006)
]]
The dominant religion in Ukraine is
Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which is currently split between three Church bodies: the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate, the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church autonomous church body under the
Patriarch of Moscow, and the
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
A distant second by the number of the followers is the
Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which practices a similar
liturgical and
spiritual tradition as Eastern Orthodoxy, but is in
communion with the
Holy See of the
Roman Catholic Church and recognises the primacy of the
Pope as head of the Church.
Additionally, there are 863
Roman Catholic communities, and 474
clergy members serving some one million Roman Catholics in Ukraine. The group forms some 2.19 percent of the population and consists mainly of ethnic
Poles and
Hungarians, who live predominantly in the western regions of the country.
Protestant Christians also form around 2.19 percent of the population. Protestant numbers have grown greatly since Ukrainian independence. The
Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine is the largest group, with more than 150,000 members and about 3000 clergy. The second largest Protestant church is the Ukrainian Church of Evangelical faith (
Pentecostals) with 110000 members and over 1500 local churches and over 2000 clergy, but there also exist other Pentecostal groups and unions and together all Pentecostals are over 300,000, with over 3000 local churches. Also there are many Pentecostal high education schools such as the Lviv Theological Seminary and the Kiev Bible Institute. Other groups include
Calvinists,
Jehovah's Witnesses,
Lutherans,
Methodists and
Seventh-day Adventists.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (
Mormon Church) is also present.
There are an estimated 500,000
Muslims in Ukraine, and about 250,000 of them are
Crimean Tatars."
Caught Between East and West, Ukraine Struggles with Its Migration Policy". By Olena Malynovska. National Institute for International Security Problems, Kiev. There are 487 registered Muslim communities, 368 of them on the Crimean peninsula. In addition, some 50,000 Muslims live in
Kiev; mostly foreign-born.
The
Jewish community is a tiny fraction of what it was before
World War II. The cities with the largest populations of Jews in 1926 were
Odessa, 154,000 or 36.5% of the total population; and
Kiev, 140,500 or 27.3%.
Jews.
Encyclopedia of Ukraine. The 2001 census indicated that there are 103,600 Jews in Ukraine, although community leaders claimed that the population could be as large as 300,000. There are no statistics on what share of the Ukrainian Jews are observant, but
Orthodox Judaism has the strongest presence in Ukraine. Smaller
Reform and
Conservative Jewish (
Masorti) communities exist as well.
Education
in Europe, while being ranked seventh in population.]]
According to the
Ukrainian constitution, access to free
education is granted to all citizens. Complete general
secondary education is compulsory in the state schools which constitute the overwhelming majority. Free higher education in state and communal educational establishments is provided on a competitive basis.
Constitution of Ukraine Chapter 2, Article 53. Adopted at the Fifth Session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on June 28, 1996. Retrieved on 2008-07-03. There is also a small number of accredited private secondary and higher education institutions.
Because of the Soviet Union's emphasis on total access of education for all citizens, which continues today, the
literacy rate is an estimated 99.4%. Since 2005, an eleven-year school program has been replaced with a twelve-year one: primary education takes four years to complete (starting at age six), middle education (secondary) takes five years to complete; upper secondary then takes three years. In the 12th grade, students take Government Tests, which are also referred to as school-leaving exams. These tests are later used for
university admissions.
The Ukrainian higher education system comprises higher educational establishments,
scientific and
methodological facilities under
federal,
municipal and self-governing bodies in charge of education. The organisation of higher education in Ukraine is built up in accordance with the structure of education of the world's higher
developed countries, as is defined by
UNESCO and the
UN.
Infrastructure
]]
Most of the Ukrainian road system has not been upgraded since the Soviet era, and is now outdated. The Ukrainian government has pledged to build some 4,500 km (2,800 mi) of
motorways by 2012. In total, Ukrainian paved roads stretch for .
Rail transport in Ukraine plays the role of connecting all major
urban areas,
port facilities and
industrial centers with neighbouring countries.
The heaviest concentration of
railroad track is located in the
Donbas region of Ukraine. Although the amount of
freight transported by rail fell by 7.4 percent in 1995 in comparison with 1994, Ukraine is still one of the
world's highest rail users. The total amount of
railroad track in Ukraine extends for , of which is electrified.
Ukraine is one of
Europe’s largest
energy consumers; it consumes almost double the energy of Germany, per unit of
GDP. A great share of energy supply in Ukraine comes from nuclear power, with the country receiving most of its nuclear fuel from Russia. The remaining
oil and
gas, is also imported from the former Soviet Union. Ukraine is heavily dependent on its
nuclear energy. The largest
nuclear power plant in Europe, the
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, is located in Ukraine.
In 2006, the government planned to build 11 new
reactors by the year 2030, in effect, almost doubling the current amount of nuclear
power capacity. Ukraine's power sector is the twelfth-largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, with 54 gigawatts (GW). Renewable energy still plays a very modest role in electrical output. In 2007 47.4% of power came from coal and gas (approx 20% gas), 47.5% from nuclear (92.5 TWh) and 5% from hydro.
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