HISTORY OF UKRAINE

Ancient and Medieval times

The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Kievan Rus was founded in the city of Kyiv around 880 AD. Kievan Rus included the central, western and northern part of modern Ukraine, Belarus, far eastern strip of Poland and the western part of present-day Russia. According to Primary Chronicle, the Rus elite initially consisted of Varangians from Scandinavia. During the 10th and 11th centuries, it became the largest and the most powerful state in Europe. Kyiv, the capital of modern Ukraine, became the most important city of the Rus. The Varangians later assimilated into the Slavic population and became part of the first Rus ruling dynasty, Rurikovichi.

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 top of its cultural development and military power. The state soon fragmented, as the relative importance of regional powers rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of Vladimir II Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132), Kievan Rus finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav’s death. The 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus and its territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia.

XVII - XVIII centuries: Cossacks

During the 17th and 18th centuries the Cossack Republic emerged and prospered. In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Petro Doroshenko led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish King John II Casimir. After Khmelnytsky made an entry into Kyiv in 1648, where he was hailed as the liberator of the people from Polish captivity, he founded the Cossack Hetmanate which existed until 1764. Khmelnytsky, deserted by his Tatar allies, suffered a crushing defeat at Berestechko in 1651, and turned to the Russian tsar for help. In 1654, Khmelnytsky signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav, forming a military and political alliance with Russia that showed loyalty to the Russian Tsar.

In 1657–1686 came “The Ruin“, a devastating 30-year war amongst Russia, Poland, Turks and Cossacks for control of Ukraine, which occurred at about the same time as the Deluge of Poland. Defeat came in 1686 as the “Eternal Peace” between Russia and Poland, dividing Ukrainian lands between them. In 1709, Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709) defected to Sweden against Russia in the Great Northern War (1700–1721). Mazepa died in exile after fleeing from the Battle of Poltava (1709), where the Swedes and their Cossack allies suffered a catastrophic defeat.

The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk or Pacts and Constitutions of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host was a 1710 constitutional document written by Hetman Pylyp Orlyk, a Cossack of Ukraine, then within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Constitution was unique for its historic period, and was one of the first state constitutions in Europe.

The Hetmanate was abolished in 1764; Sich (Zaporizhian State) was abolished in 1775, as Russia centralised control over its lands. As part of the division of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795, Ukrainian lands on the Western Bank of the Dnipro were divided between Russia and Austria. From 1737 to 1834, expansion into the northern Black Sea shores and the eastern Danube valley was a cornerstone of Russian foreign policy. Despite promises in the Treaty of Pereyaslav, the Ukrainian elite and the Cossacks never received freedom and the autonomy they were expecting. At a later period, tsarists established a policy of Russification, suppressing the use of the Ukrainian language in print and in public.

XIX century

In the XIX century with growing urbanization and modernization, and a cultural trend toward romantic nationalism, a Ukrainian intelligentsia committed to national rebirth and social justice. The serf-turned national poet Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861) and the political theorist Mykhailo Drahomanov (1841–1895) led the growing nationalist movement. Beginning in the 19th century, there was migration from Ukraine to distant areas of the Russian Empire. According to the 1897 census, there were 223.000 ethnic Ukrainians in Siberia and 102.000 in Central Asia.

World War I and early Soviet times

Ukrainians 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 together with the Imperial Russian Army, while 250.000 fought for the Austro-Hungarian Army. Austro-Hungarian authorities established the Ukrainian Legion to fight against the Russian Empire. This became the Ukrainian Galician Army that fought against the Bolsheviks and Poles in the post-World War I period (1919–23). World War I destroyed both empires. The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the foundation of the Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks, and subsequent civil war in Russia.

During the Ukrainian national movement appeared Ukrainian People’s Republic and the pro-Bolshevik Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic; as well as West Ukrainian People’s Republic. Unification Act was signed on January 22, 1919 between the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic in Kyiv. Poland defeated Western Ukraine in the Polish-Ukrainian War, but failed against Bolsheviks in an offensive against Kyiv. According to the Peace of Riga, western Ukraine was incorporated into Poland, which recognised the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in March 1919. With establishment of the Soviet power, Ukraine lost half of its territory to Poland, Belarus and Russia. Ukraine became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1922. The Russian Civil War devastated Ukraine and left over 1.5 million people dead. In early 1930s Joseph Stalin started the programme of collectivisation of agriculture, enforced by regular troops and secret police. Those who resisted were arrested and deported, millions starved to death in a famine known as the "Holodomor". Ukrainian Parliament confirmed it as the genocide of Ukrainian people by soviet authorities.

World War II and late Soviet times

Eastern Galicia and Volynia became parts of Ukraine after Nazi invasion to Poland, and in 1940 Soviets annexed Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. On 22 June, 1941, German Nazi armies invaded the Soviet Union, initiating four years of war. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers were killed in Kyiv. Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists supported the goal of an independent Ukrainian state, and this brought the conflict with Nazi Germany, as well as with USSR. The Nazis led genocidal policies against Jews, deported millions of people to work in Germany, and began a depopulation programme to prepare for German colonisation. The total losses is estimated at for about 5 million Ukrainians, including an estimated 1.5 million Jews. Victory Day is celebrated as one of eleven Ukrainian national holidays at 9 May.

The republic was heavily damaged by the war: more than 700 cities and towns and 28,000 villages were destroyed. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations organization. Post-war ethnic cleansing occurred with more than 200,000 Crimean Tatars were victims of deportations. By 1950, the republic had fully restored the pre-war level of industry and production, Soviet Ukraine became a European leader in industrial production, an important centre of the Soviet arms industry and high-tech research.Sergei Korolev from Zhytomyr, the graduate of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, was the leading Soviet rocket engineer and designer during the Space Race, the Father of Soviet cosmonautic science.

On 26 April 1986 occurred the Chernobyl disaster. After the accident, cities of Pripyat and Chernobyl, as well as many villages and towns were abandoned.

Independence and modernity

On 24 August, 1991 the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Independence Act. More than 90% supported the Act during the referendum in 1992. However, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown, which stabilized only by the end of the 1990s. A new currency, hryvnia, was introduced in 1996. A new Constitution of Ukraine was adopted in 1996. In 2004, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner of the presidential elections, and the results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, what has turned into peaceful "Orange Revolution". All of this eventually resulted in bringing Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition. Finally, Viktor Yanukovych was elected as President in 2010. In November 2013, the "Euromaidan" protests started after the president Viktor Yanukovych failed with an association agreement with EU. Euromaidan came to describe a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine. Violence escalated after January 2014, demonstrators occupied buildings in Kyiv centre, riots left 122 dead. In February 2014 Yanukovich left the country. In May, 2014 Petro Poroshenko from pro-European Union platform won the presidential elections. In March 2014 Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and began the agression towards Ukrainian region of Donbass, using the local separatistic movements.

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