Ukraine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Ukraina" redirects here. For other uses, see Ukraina (disambiguation).
This article is about the country. For other uses, see Ukraine (disambiguation).Ukraine
Україна

Flag Coat of arms

Anthem: Ще не вмерла України і слава, і воля (Ukrainian)[1]
Shche ne vmerla Ukrayiny i slava i volya (transliteration)
Ukraine's glory has not perished, nor her freedom

Location of Ukraine (green)

on the European continent (dark grey) — [Legend]
Capital
(and largest city) Kiev
50°27′N 30°30′E
Official language(s) Ukrainian
Recognised regional languages Russian, Crimean Tatar
Ethnic groups 77.8 % Ukrainian
17.3 % Russian
4.9 % others[2]
Demonym Ukrainian
Government Unitary semi-presidential republic
- President Viktor Yanukovych
- Prime Minister Mykola Azarov
- Speaker of Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn
Legislature Verkhovna Rada
Formation
- Kievan Rus' 8821
- Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia 11991
- Cossack Hetmanate 1649
- Ukrainian National Republic November 7, 1917
- West Ukrainian National Republic November 1, 1918
- Ukrainian SSR December 30, 1922
- Independence from the Soviet Union August 24, 19912
Area
- Total 603,628 km2 (44th)
233,090 sq mi
- Water (%) 7%
Population
- 2010 estimate 45,888,000[3] (28th)
- 2001 census 48,457,102
- Density 77/km2 (115th)
199/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2010 estimate
- Total $302.454 billion[4]
- Per capita $6,650[4]
GDP (nominal) 2010 estimate
- Total $127.133 billion[4]
- Per capita $2,795[4]
Gini (2006) 31[5] (medium)
HDI (2007) ▲ 0.796 (medium) (85th)
Currency Hryvnia (UAH)
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Drives on the right
Internet TLD .ua
Calling code 380
1 The ancient state of Kievan Rus' was formed in 882 on the territory of modern Ukraine. From the historiographical point of view, Rus' polity is considered by some historians and the Ukrainian parliament as an early predecessor of the Ukrainian nation.[6]
2 An independence referendum was held on December 1 after which Ukrainian independence was finalized on December 26. The current constitution was adopted on June 28, 1996.


Ukraine (pronounced /juːˈkreɪn/ ( listen) ew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]) 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 Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the United Nations.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

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.Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Early history
1.2 Golden Age of Kiev
1.3 Foreign domination
1.3.1 The Ruin
1.3.2 19th century
1.4 World War I and revolution
1.5 Inter-war Polish Ukraine
1.6 Inter-war Soviet Ukraine
1.6.1 Famine
1.6.2 Attack on intellectuals and artists
1.7 World War II
1.8 Post-World War II
1.9 Independence
2 Government and politics
2.1 Military
3 Administrative divisions
4 Geography
4.1 Climate
4.2 Regionalism
5 Economy
6 Transportation in Ukraine
7 Tourism
8 Culture
8.1 Language
8.2 Literature
8.3 Music and Dance
8.4 Sport
9 Demographics
9.1 Demographic crisis
9.1.1 Fertility
9.1.2 Natalist policies
9.1.3 Famines
9.2 Migration
10 Religion
11 Education
12 Infrastructure
13 International rankings
14 See also
15 References
16 Notes
17 Print sources
17.1 Reference books
17.2 Recent (since 1991)
17.3 Historical
18 External links

[edit]
History
Main article: History of Ukraine
[edit]
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.[10] 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.
[edit]
Golden Age of Kiev
Main article: Kievan Rus'

Map of the Kievan Rus' in the 11th century. During the Golden Age of Kiev, the lands of Rus' 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.[5] In the following centuries, it laid the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians and Russians.[11] 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.[11] 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.[11] 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.[12] The 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.[13] 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.
[edit]
Foreign domination
See also: Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Crown of the Polish Kingdom, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Russian Empire

In the centuries following the Mongol invasion, 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.

"Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks 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.[14] 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.[15]

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.[16] Poland had little real control of this land, yet they found the Cossacks to be a useful fighting force against the Turks and Tatars,[17] and at times the two allied in military campaigns.[18] 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.[17]

The Khanate of Crimea 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,[16] and the preservation of the Orthodox Church and in Ukraine.[19]

In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir.[20] 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.[21] For example, from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six Tatar raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy.[22]
[edit]
The Ruin

The Battle of Poltava in 1709, drawing by Denis Martens the Younger, 1726.

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

Zaporozhian Cossack with the head of a Tatar.

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.[23]

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.[24]

After the annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783, the region was settled by migrants from other parts of Ukraine.[25] 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.[a] 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.[26]
[edit]
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.[citation needed]
[edit]
World War I and revolution
Main article: Ukrainian War of Independence
See also: Ukraine in World War I, Russian Civil War, and Ukraine after the Russian 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.[27] 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).[28]

Soldiers of the Ukrainian People's Army 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.[29]

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.[30]
[edit]
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.
[edit]
Inter-war Soviet Ukraine

Soviet recruitment poster featuring the Ukrainisation theme. The text reads: "Son! Enroll in the school of Red commanders, 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.[31]

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.[32] 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.[30] The Bolsheviks were also committed to introducing universal health care, education and social-security benefits, as well as the right to work and housing.[33] Women's rights were greatly increased through new laws aimed to wipe away centuries-old inequalities.[34] 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.

DniproHES 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.[30]
[edit]
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.[30] 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".[c] 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.[c]

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.[35] 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.[36]
[edit]
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.[30][b]
[edit]
World War II
See also: Eastern Front (World War II)

Soviet soldiers 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.[37][38]

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.[39][40]

Victims of Soviet NKVD in Lviv, June 1941.

Although the wide majority of Ukrainians fought alongside the Red Army and Soviet resistance,[41] 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.[42][43]

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[41] to 7 million.[44][d] 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.[45] Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are very undependable, ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as much as 100,000 fighters.[46][47]

Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Kiev.

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.[48] 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,[48] which included a food blockade on Kiev.[49]

The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the Eastern Front,[50] and Nazi Germany suffered 93 percent of all casualties there.[51] The total losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated between five and eight million,[52][53] 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,[54][55][56] 1.4 million were ethnic Ukrainians.[54][56][d][e] So to this day, Victory Day is celebrated as one of ten Ukrainian national holidays.[57]
[edit]
Post-World War II
See also: History of the Soviet Union (1953–1985) and History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)

Sergey Korolyov, 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.[58] 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.[59]

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.[60]

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.[61]

Already by 1950, the republic fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production.[62] 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.[63] 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.[64] At the time of the accident seven million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine.[65] 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.[66]
[edit]
Independence

The first launch of a Ukrainian rocket at the Sea Launch complex

On July 16, 1990, the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.[67] 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.[68]

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).[69]

Orange-clad demonstrators 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,[70] Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union.[71] 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,[72][73] and suffered five-digit inflation rates.[74] Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as the amounts of crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and organised strikes.[75]

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.[8][76] 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.[77] 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.[78] 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.[79] Yanukovych returned to a position of power in 2006, when he became Prime Minister in the Alliance of National Unity,[80] until snap elections in September 2007 made Tymoshenko Prime Minister again.[81] Yanukovych was elected President in 2010.[82]

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.[83][84]
[edit]
Government and politics
Main article: Government of Ukraine
See also: Elections in Ukraine, Foreign relations of Ukraine, International membership of Ukraine, and Ukraine and the European Union

Verkhovna Rada, 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.[85]

Ukraine's legislative branch includes the 450-seat unicameral parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.[86] The parliament is primarily responsible for the formation of the executive branch and the Cabinet of Ministers, which is headed by the Prime Minister.[87]

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.
[edit]
Military
Main article: Military of Ukraine

Ukrainian army 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.[88][89] 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.[88] Currently Ukraine's military is the second largest in Europe, after that of Russia.[90]

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.[91]

A Ukrainian peacekeeper in Kosovo

Ukraine has been playing an increasingly larger role in peacekeeping operations. Ukrainian troops are deployed in Kosovo as part of the Ukrainian-Polish Battalion.[92] 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.[93]

Military units of other states participate in multinational military exercises with Ukrainian forces in Ukraine regularly, including U.S. military forces.[94]

Following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state.[95] 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.[91] Current President Viktor Yanukovych considers the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient.[96] Yanukovich is against Ukraine joining NATO.[97] 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.[96]
[edit]
Administrative divisions
Main articles: Ukrainian historical regions and Administrative divisions of Ukraine

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 (avtonomna respublika), 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 raions (districts), or second-level administrative units. The average area of a Ukrainian raion is 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi); the average population of a raion is 52,000 people.[98]

Urban areas (cities) can either be subordinated to the state (as in the case of Kiev and Sevastopol), the oblast or raion 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 raion-class cities, and two special legal status cities. These are followed by 886 urban-type settlements and 28,552 villages.[98]Administrative divisions of Ukraine Oblasts
Cherkasy
Chernihiv
Chernivtsi
Dnipropetrovsk
Donetsk Ivano-Frankivsk
Kharkiv
Kherson
Khmelnytskyi
Kiev Kirovohrad
Luhansk
Lviv
Mykolaiv
Odessa Poltava
Rivne
Sumy
Ternopil
Vinnytsia Volyn
Zakarpattia
Zaporizhia
Zhytomyr
Autonomous republic Municipalities
Autonomous Republic of Crimea City of Kiev
City of Sevastopol

[edit]
Geography
Main article: Geography of Ukraine

The Ai-Petri 1200 m above mean sea level

At 603,700 square kilometres (233,100 sq mi) and with a coastline of 2,782 kilometres (1,729 mi), 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).[i][5]

The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), 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 2,061 metres (6,762 ft), and those on the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.[99]
[edit]
Climate

Ukrainian traditional landscape, Kherson Oblast

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 1,200 millimetres (47.2 in) of precipitation annually, while Crimea receives around 400 millimetres (15.7 in). Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from 5.5 °C (41.9 °F)–7 °C (44.6 °F) in the north, to 11 °C (51.8 °F)–13 °C (55.4 °F) in the south.[100]
[edit]
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[101]). 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.[101][102]
[edit]
Economy
Main article: Economy of Ukraine

Kiev skyscrapers

Dnipropetrovsk skyscrapers

Kiev, the economic heart of the city

The building of the National Bank of Ukraine

The Ukrainian-made Antonov An-225.

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.[5] 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.[103] 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.[104]

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.[105] Those living on fixed incomes suffered the most.[30]

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,[106] but recovered to slightly above the 100 percent mark by the end of 2006.[72] 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.[107] 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.[108]

Ukraine's 2007 GDP (PPP), as calculated by the CIA, is ranked 29th in the world and estimated at $359.9 billion.[5] Its GDP per capita in 2008 according to the CIA was $7,800 (in PPP terms), ranked 83rd in the world.[5] Nominal GDP (in U.S. dollars, calculated at market exchange rate) was $198 billion, ranked 41st in the world.[5] By July 2008 the average nominal salary in Ukraine reached 1,930 hryvnias per month.[109] Despite remaining lower than in neighboring central European countries, the salary income growth in 2008 stood at 36.8 percent[110] According to the UNDP in 2003 4.9 percent of the Ukrainian population lived under 2 US dollar a day[111] and 19.5 percent of the population lived below the national poverty line that same year.[112]

Ukrainian administrative divisions by monthly salary

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.[113] 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.[114][115][116]

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.[117]

The World Bank classifies Ukraine as a middle-income state.[118] 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.[119] According to the CIA, in 2006 the market capitalization of the Ukrainian stock market was $111.8 billion.[5] 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.[120]
[edit]
Transportation in Ukraine
Main articles: Transport in Ukraine and Ukrainian Railways
[edit]
Tourism

Ukraine occupies 8th place in the world by the number of tourists visiting, according to the World Tourism Organisation rankings.[121]

The Seven Wonders of Ukraine are the seven historical and cultural monuments of Ukraine, which were chosen in the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.
[edit]
Culture
See also: Culture of Ukraine

A collection of traditional pysanky from Volyn

Ukrainian customs are heavily influenced by Christianity, which is the dominant religion in the country.[122] Gender roles also tend to be more traditional, and grandparents play a greater role in raising children than in the West.[123] 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.[124] 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.[125]

St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral 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.[126] 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 varenyky (boiled dumplings with mushrooms, potatoes, sauerkraut, cottage cheese or cherries), borscht (soup made of beets, cabbage and mushrooms or meat) and holubtsy (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 horilka.[127]
[edit]
Language
Main articles: Ukrainian language, Russian language in Ukraine, Russian language, Languages of Ukraine, and Name of Ukraine

Percentage of native Ukrainian speakers by subdivision.


Percentage of native Russian speakers by subdivision.[f]

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.[128] 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.[f] 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,[f] 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.[129] Following independence, the government of Ukraine began restoring the image and usage of Ukrainian language through a policy of Ukrainisation.[130] 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[131]) 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.[132] But in everyday life the majority of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea use Russian.[133]
[edit]
Literature
See also: Ukrainian literature

The history of Ukrainian literature dates back to the 11th century, following the Christianisation of the Kievan Rus’.[134] 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.[135][g] Literary activity faced a sudden decline during the Mongol invasion of Rus'.[134]

Taras Shevchenko (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.[134] The Cossacks established an independent society and popularized a new kind of epic poems, which marked a high point of Ukrainian oral literature.[135] 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.[134]

The 19th century initiated a vernacular period in Ukraine, lead by Ivan Kotliarevsky’s work Eneyida, 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.[136]

Then, in 1863, use of the Ukrainian language in print was effectively prohibited by the Russian Empire.[26] 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.[135]

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.[134]
[edit]
Music and Dance

Soviet postage stamp depicting traditional Ukrainian musical instruments

Performance of the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR

Ukrainian Welcome Dance Pryvit

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.
Main article: Music of Ukraine
Main article: Ukrainian folk music
Main article: Pop music in Ukraine
Main article: Ukrainian rock
Main article: Ukrainian hip hop
Main article: Kiev Conservatory
Main article: Ukrainian dance
[edit]
Sport
See also: Sport in Ukraine

Andriy Shevchenko, Ukrainian football player

The new Donbass Arena

Volodymyr Klychko 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.[137] 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.[138]

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.
[edit]
DemographicsEthnic composition of Ukraine

Ukrainians   77.8%
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%
Other   1.7%
Source: Ethnic composition of the population of Ukraine, 2001 Census

Main article: Demographics of Ukraine

Ethnic Ukrainians in Ukraine (2001)

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%).[139] 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.[140][141]
[edit]
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.[142]

Population of Ukraine (in millions) from 1950-2009.[143][144]

Life expectancy is falling. The nation suffers a high mortality rate from environmental pollution, poor diets, widespread smoking, extensive alcoholism, and deteriorating medical care.[145][146]

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.[147]

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.[147] In November 2009 Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Nina Karpacheva stated that the lives of many of Ukraine’s 8.2 million kids remain tough.[147]
[edit]
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.[148]
[edit]
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.[110][149] The demographic trend is showing signs of improvement, as the birth rate has been steadily growing since 2001.[150] 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.[151]
[edit]
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.[152]
[edit]
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).[153] 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.[154] In 2006, there were an estimated 1.2 million Canadians of Ukrainian ancestry,[155] giving Canada the world's third-largest Ukrainian population behind Ukraine itself and Russia.List of largest cities in Ukraine by population (2001 Census)[156]
Rank City Division Pop. Rank City Division Pop. view • talk • edit


Kiev

Kharkiv
1 Kiev Kiev 2,611,327 11 Luhansk Luhansk 463,097
2 Kharkiv Kharkiv 1,470,902 12 Makiivka Donetsk 389,589
3 Dnipropetrovsk Dnipropetrovsk 1,065,008 13 Simferopol Crimea 358,108
4 Odessa Odessa 1,029,049 14 Vinnytsia Vinnytsia 356,665
5 Donetsk Donetsk 1,016,194 15 Sevastopol Sevastopol 342,451
6 Zaporizhia Zaporizhia 815,256 16 Kherson Kherson 328,360
7 Lviv Lviv 732,818 17 Poltava Poltava 317,998
8 Kryvyi Rih Dnipropetrovsk 668,980 18 Chernihiv Chernihiv 304,994
9 Mykolaiv Mykolaiv 514,136 19 Cherkasy Cherkasy 295,414
10 Mariupol Donetsk 492,176 20 Sumy Sumy 293,141

[edit]
Religion
See also: History of Christianity in Ukraine
See also: Wooden churches in UkraineReligion in Ukraine.[157]
religion percent
Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate   50.4%
Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Patriarch of Moscow   26.1%
Ukrainian Greek Catholic   8%
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church   7.2%
Roman Catholic   2.2%
Protestant   2.2%
Muslim   0.7%
Jewish   0.6%
Other   3.2%


The Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, a UNESCO World Heritage Site[158]

"What religious group do you belong to?". Sociology poll by Razumkov Centre about the religious situation in Ukraine (2006)
Atheist or do not belong to any church
UOC - Kiev Patriarchate
UOC (Moscow Patriarchate)
UAOC
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church

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.[122]

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.[159]

Additionally, there are 863 Roman Catholic communities, and 474 clergy members serving some one million Roman Catholics in Ukraine.[122] 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.[122]

There are an estimated 500,000 Muslims in Ukraine, and about 250,000 of them are Crimean Tatars.[160] 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.[161]

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%.[162] 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.[122]
[edit]
Education
See also: Education in Ukraine and List of universities in Ukraine

Ukraine produces the fourth largest number of post-secondary graduates 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.[163] 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%.[5] 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.[164] 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.[165] 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.[166]
[edit]
Infrastructure
See also: Transport in Ukraine and Nuclear power in Ukraine

Ukraine's road network

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.[167] In total, Ukrainian paved roads stretch for 164,732 kilometres (102,360 mi).[5] 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.[168] The total amount of railroad track in Ukraine extends for 22,473 kilometres (13,964 mi), of which 9,250 kilometres (5,750 mi) is electrified.[5]

Ukraine is one of Europe’s largest energy consumers; it consumes almost double the energy of Germany, per unit of GDP.[169] 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.[170] Ukraine's power sector is the twelfth-largest in the world in terms of installed capacity, with 54 gigawatts (GW).[169] 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.[170]
Other
Ukraine travel guide from Wikitravel Poland Belarus Russia
Poland
Slovakia
Hungary Russia
Outline of Ukraine

Romania
Moldova Black Sea Sea of Azov
[show]
v • d • e
Ukraine topics


[edit]
International rankingsOrganization Survey Ranking
Institute for Economics and Peace [3] Global Peace Index[171] 82 out of 144
United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index 85 out of 182
Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 146 out of 180
World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 82 out of 133

[edit]
See also Ukraine portal

Category:Ukraine-related lists
[edit]
References
^ "Law of Ukraine. State Anthem of Ukraine" (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. 2003-03-06.
^ "Population by ethnic nationality, 1 January, year". ukrcensus.gov.ua. Ukrainian Office of Statistics. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
^ "Ukrainian population keeps decreasing". National Radio Company of Ukraine. 2010. Retrieved 2010-6-20.
^ a b c d "Ukraine". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Ukraine". CIA World Factbook. December 13, 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Kievan Rus". 2001-2005.
^ "List of Member States". United Nations. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ a b "Macroeconomic Indicators". National Bank of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ Inozmi, "Ukraine - macroeconomic economic situation - June 2009" online
^ "Scythian". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ a b c "Kievan Rus". 2001–2005. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
^ Klyuchevsky, Vasily (1987). The course of the Russian history. v.1: "Myslʹ. ISBN 5-244-00072-1.
^ "The Destruction of Kiev". University of Toronto's Research Repository. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
^ Subtelny, p. 92–93
^ "Poland". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ a b Krupnytsky B. and Zhukovsky A.. "Zaporizhia, The". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ a b "Ukraine - The Cossacks". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ "The Crimean Tatars and their Russian-Captive Slaves" (PDF). Eizo Matsuki, Mediterranean Studies Group at Hitotsubashi University.
^ Magocsi, p. 195
^ Subtelny, p. 123–124
^ 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.
^ Subtelny, Orest (1988). "Ukraine: a history.". p 106
^ Reid (2000) p 27-30
^ Barbara Skinner, "Borderlands of Faith: Reconsidering the Origins of a Ukrainian Tragedy." Slavic Review 2005 64(1): 88-116. Fulltext: in Jstor
^ Ukraine under direct imperial Russian rule. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
^ a b Remy, Johannes (March-June 2007). "Valuev Circular and Censorship of Ukrainian Publications in the Russian Empire (1863-1876)". Canadian Slavonic Papers. findarticles.com. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ Subtelny, Orest (2000). Ukraine: A History. University of Toronto Press. pp. 340–344. ISBN 0-8020-8390-0.
^ Horbal, Bogdan. "Talerhof". The world academy of Rusyn culture. Retrieved 2008-01-20.
^ Cipko, Serge. "Makhno, Nestor". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
^ a b c d e f "Interwar Soviet Ukraine". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ Famine, Encyclopedia of Ukraine
^ Subtelny, p. 380
^ "Communism". Communism. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ Cliff, p. 138–39
^ 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
^ 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 [1]; 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.
^ Wilson, p. 17
^ Subtelny, p. 487
^ Roberts, p. 102
^ Boshyk, p. 89
^ a b "World wars". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
^ Piotrowski p. 352–54
^ Weiner p.127–237
^ "Losses of the Ukrainian Nation, p. 2" (in Ukrainian). Peremoga.gov.ua. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ Subtelny, p. 476
^ Magocsi, p. 635
^ "Ukrainian Insurgent Army". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
^ a b "Ukraine - World War II and its aftermath". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ Karel Cornelis Berkhoff. Harvest of despair: life and death in Ukraine under Nazi rule. Harvard University Press: April 2004. pg 164
^ Weinberg, p. 264
^ Rozhnov, Konstantin, Who won World War II?. BBC. Citing Russian historian Valentin Falin. Retrieved on 2008-07-05.
^ "Losses of the Ukrainian Nation, p. 1" (in Ukrainian). Peremoga.gov.ua. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ 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.
^ a b "Losses of the Ukrainian Nation, p. 7" (in Ukrainian). Peremoga.gov.ua. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ Overy, p. 518
^ a b Кривошеев 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) (Russian)
^ "Holidays". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
^ "Ukraine :: World War II and its aftermath". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ Kulchytsky, Stanislav, "Demographic losses in Ukraine in the twentieth century", October October 2–8, 2004. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
^ "Migration and migration policy in Ukraine". Olena Malynovska.
^ "The Transfer of Crimea to Ukraine". International Committee for Crimea. July 2005. Retrieved 2007-03-25.
^ "Ukraine - The last years of Stalin's rule". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ Magocsi, p. 644
^ Remy, Johannes (1996). "'Sombre anniversary' of worst nuclear disaster in history - Chernobyl: 10th anniversary". UN Chronicle. findarticles.com. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ "Geographical location and extent of radioactive contamination". Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. (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.
^ "IAEA Report". In Focus: Chernobyl. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
^ "Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. July 16, 1990. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ "Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Resolution On Declaration of Independence of Ukraine". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. August 24, 1991. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ "Soviet Leaders Recall 'Inevitable' Breakup Of Soviet Union". RadioFreeEurope. December 8, 2006. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ 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
^ Shen, p. 41
^ a b "Ukrainian GDP (PPP)". World Economic Outlook Database, October 2007. International Monetary Fund (IMF). Retrieved 2008-03-10.
^ "Can Ukraine Avert a Financial Meltdown?". World Bank. June 1998. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ Figliuoli, Lorenzo; Lissovolik, Bogdan (August 31, 2002). "The IMF and Ukraine: What Really Happened". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ Aslund, Anders; Aslund, Anders (Autumn 1995). "Eurasia Letter: Ukraine's Turnaround". Foreign Policy (JSTOR) 100 (100): 125–143. doi:10.2307/1149308. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ "Ukraine. Country profile" (PDF). World Bank. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
^ Wines, Michael (April 1, 2002). "Leader's Party Seems to Slip In Ukraine". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "The Supreme Court findings" (in Ukrainian). Supreme Court of Ukraine. December 3, 2004. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
^ "Ukraine-Independent Ukraine". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2008-01-14.
^ Ukraine comeback kid in new deal, BBC News (August 4, 2006)
^ Tymoshenko picked for Ukraine PM, BBC News (December 18, 2007)
^ Ukraine election: Yanukovych urges Tymoshenko to quit, BBC News (February 10, 2010)
^ Russia shuts off gas to Ukraine, BBC News (January 1, 2009)
^ Q&A: Russia-Ukraine gas row, BBC News (January 20, 2009)
^ "General Articles about Ukraine". Government Portal. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Official Web-site. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Constitution of Ukraine". Wikisource. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ a b "The history of the Armed Forces of Ukraine". The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "Ukraine Special Weapons". globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Ukraine". Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
^ a b "White Book 2006" (PDF). Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Multinational Peacekeeping Forces in Kosovo, KFOR". Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Peacekeeping". Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
^ Parliament approves admission of military units of foreign states to Ukraine for exercises, Kyiv Post (May 18, 2010)
^ "Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Official Web-site. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ a b NATO confirms readiness for Ukraine's joining organization, Kyiv Post (April 13, 2010)
^ Yanukovich vows to keep Ukraine out of NATO, Reuters (January 7, 2010)
^ a b "Regions of Ukraine and their divisions" (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Official Web-site. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Ukraine - Relief". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-12-27.
^ "Ukraine - Climate". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-12-27.
^ a b 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
^ Child poverty soars in eastern Europe, BBC News, October 11, 2000. Retrieved on 2009-01-12.
^ "Independent Ukraine". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-09-12.
^ 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
^ "CIA World Factbook - Ukraine. 2002 edition". CIA. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "CIA World Factbook - Ukraine. 2004 edition". CIA. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ Head of IMF's Resident Representative Office in Ukraine to change his job, Interfax-Ukraine (Retrieved on 2008-12-17)
^ "Average Wage Income in 2008 by Region". State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ a b "Bohdan Danylyshyn at the Economic ministry". Economic Ministry. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
^ Human and income poverty: developing countries / Population living below $2 a day (%), Human Development Report 2007/08, UNDP. Retrieved on 2008-02-03
^ 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
^ "Structure export and import, 2006". State statistics Committee of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "Statistics of Launches of Ukrainian LV". National Space Agency of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
^ "Missle defence, NATO: Ukraine's tough call". Business Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "Ukraine Special Weapons". The Nuclear Information Project. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "Ukraine's gas sector" (PDF). Oxford institute for energy studies. pp. 36 of 123. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "What are Middle-Income Countries?". The World Bank - (IEG). Retrieved 2008-01-03.
^ Pogarska, Olga. "Ukraine macroeconomic situation - February 2008". UNIAN news agency. Retrieved 2008-02-29.
^ Ballmer, Steve (May 20, 2008). "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Visits Ukraine". Microsoft. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
^ UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, volume 6, UNWTO (June 2008)
^ a b c d e "State Department of Ukraine on Religious". 2003 Statistical report. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
^ "Cultural differences". Ukraine's Culture. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
^ "Interwar Soviet Ukraine". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2007-09-12. "In all, some four-fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite was repressed or perished in the course of the 1930s"
^ "Gorbachev, Mikhail". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2008-07-30. "Under his new policy of glasnost (“openness”), a major cultural thaw took place: freedoms of expression and of information were significantly expanded; the press and broadcasting were allowed unprecedented candour in their reportage and criticism; and the country's legacy of Stalinist totalitarian rule was eventually completely repudiated by the government"
^ "Pysanky - Ukrainian Easter Eggs". University of North Carolina. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
^ Stechishin, Savella. "Traditional Foods". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
^ "Linguistic composition of the population". All-Ukrainian population census, 2001. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
^ Shamshur, p. 159-168
^ "Світова преса про вибори в Україні-2004 (Ukrainian Elections-2004 as mirrored in the World Press)". Архіви України (National Archives of Ukraine). Retrieved 2008-01-07.
^ National structure of the population of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, 2001 Ukrainian Census. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
^ Linguistic composition of population Autonomous Republic of Crimea, 2001 Ukrainian Census. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
^ 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.
^ a b c d e "Ukraine - Cultual Life - Literature". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2008-07-03.
^ a b c "Ukraine - Literature". Ukraine - Literature. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
^ Struk, Danylo Husar. "Literature". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
^ "Ukraine - Sports and recreation". Encyclopædia Britannica (fee required). Retrieved 2008-01-12.
^ Trophies of Dynamo - Official website of Dynamo Kyiv (Ukrainian). Retrieved 23-6-08.
^ "Ethnical composition of the population of Ukraine". 2001 Census. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "Ukraine - Statistics". United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Retrieved 2008-01-07.
^ "Total population, as of September 1, 2009. Average annual populations January-August 2009". State statistics Committee of Ukraine. 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
^ "Field Listing - Population growth rate". CIA World Factbook. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ State Statistics Committee of Ukraine Retrieved on 09-09-18
^ Demoscope Retrieved on 09-09-18
^ Hanna H. Starostenko, "Economic and Ecological Factors of Transformations in Demographic Process in Ukraine" Uktraine Magazine #2 1998 online at [2]
^ "What Went Wrong with Foreign Advice in Ukraine?". The World Bank Group. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
^ a b c Ukraine’s children still have it rough, Kyiv Post (November 26, 2009)
^ Brienna Perelli-Harris, "The Path to Lowest-low Fertility in Ukraine" Population Studies 2005 59(1): 55-70. in JSTOR
^ "President meets with business bosses". Press office of President Victor Yushchenko. Retrieved 2008-02-01.
^ (Ukrainian) The demographic situation in Ukraine in January-September 2009, State statistics Committee of Ukraine
^ Ukraine’s birth rate shows first positive signs in decade Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (UNIAN). 05.10.2007 Retrieved on 2008-07-03.
^ 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
^ 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.
^ "International migration 2006". United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
^ "Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories - 20% sample data". Statistics Canada.
^ "Ukrainian census of 2001". State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
^ CIA the World Fact Book
^ "Kiev Saint Sophia Cathedral". United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). UN. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
^ "Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)". Retrieved 2008-01-27.
^ "Caught Between East and West, Ukraine Struggles with Its Migration Policy". By Olena Malynovska. National Institute for International Security Problems, Kiev.
^ "International Religious Freedom Report 2007 - Ukraine". United States Department of State (USDOS). Retrieved 2008-01-27.
^ Jews. Encyclopedia of Ukraine.
^ 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.
^ "General secondary education". Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ "System of Higher Education of Ukraine". Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ "System of the Education of Ukraine". Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
^ Bose, Mihir (July 7, 2008). "The long road to Kiev". BBC. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
^ "Transportation in Ukraine". U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
^ a b "Ukraine". Energy Information Administration (EIA). US government. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
^ a b "Nuclear Power in Ukraine". World Nuclear Association. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
^ "Vision of Humanity". Vision of Humanity. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
[edit]
Notes

a.^ Among the Ukrainians that rose to the highest offices in the Russian Empire were Aleksey Razumovsky, Alexander Bezborodko, Ivan Paskevich. Among the Ukrainians who greatly influenced the Russian Orthodox Church in this period were Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Dimitry of Rostov.

b.^ See the Great Purge article for details.

c.1 2 Estimates on the number of deaths vary. Official Soviet data is not available because the Soviet government denied the existence of the famine. See the Holodomor article for details. Sources differ on interpreting various statements from different branches of different governments as to whether they amount to the official recognition of the Famine as Genocide by the country. For example, after the statement issued by the Latvian Sejm on March 13, 2008, the total number of countries is given as 19 (according to Ukrainian BBC: "Латвія визнала Голодомор ґеноцидом"), 16 (according to Korrespondent, Russian edition: "После продолжительных дебатов Сейм Латвии признал Голодомор геноцидом украинцев"), "more than 10" (according to Korrespondent, Ukrainian edition: "Латвія визнала Голодомор 1932-33 рр. геноцидом українців") Retrieved on 2008-01-27.

d.1 2 These figures are likely to be much higher, as they do not include Ukrainians from nations or Ukrainian Jews, but instead only ethnic Ukrainians, from the Ukrainian SSR.

e.^ This figure excludes POW deaths.

f.1 2 3 According to the official 2001 census data (by nationality; by language) about 75 percent of Kiev's population responded 'Ukrainian' to the native language (ridna mova) census question, and roughly 25 percent responded 'Russian'. On the other hand, when the question 'What language do you use in everyday life?' was asked in the 2003 sociological survey, the Kievans' answers were distributed as follows: 'mostly Russian': 52 percent, 'both Russian and Ukrainian in equal measure': 32 percent, 'mostly Ukrainian': 14 percent, 'exclusively Ukrainian': 4.3 percent.
"What language is spoken in Ukraine?". Welcome to Ukraine. 2003/2. Retrieved 2008-07-11.

g.^ Such writings were also the base for Russian and Belarusian literature.

h.^ Without the city of Inhulets.

i.^ Russia and Khazakstan are the first and second largest but both these figures include European and Asian territories. Russia is the only country possessing European territories larger than Ukraine.
[edit]
Print sources[edit]
Reference books
Encyclopedia of Ukraine (University of Toronto Press, 1984–93) 5 vol; partial online version, from Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia. ed by Volodymyr E. KubijovyC; University of Toronto Press. 1963; 1188pp [1] online at Questia
Dalton, Meredith. Ukraine (Culture Shock! A Survival Guide to Customs & Etiquette) (2001)
Evans, Andrew. Ukraine (2nd ed 2007) The Bradt Travel Guide online excerpts and search at Amazon.com
Johnstone, Sarah. Ukraine (Lonely Planet Travel Guides) (2005)
[edit]
Recent (since 1991)
Aslund, Anders, and Michael McFaul.Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough (2006)
Birch, Sarah. Elections and Democratization in Ukraine Macmillan, 2000 online edition
Edwards Mike: "Ukraine - Running on empty" National Geographic Magazine March 1993
Kuzio, Taras: Contemporary Ukraine: Dynamics of Post-Soviet Transformation, M.E. Sharpe, 1998, ISBN 0-7656-0224-5
Kuzio, Taras. Ukraine: State and Nation Building Routledge, 1998 online edition
Shamshur O. V., Ishevskaya T. I., Multilingual education as a factor of inter-ethnic relations: the case of the Ukraine, in Language Education for Intercultural Communication, By D. E. Ager, George Muskens, Sue Wright, Multilingual Matters, 1993, ISBN 1-85359-204-8
Shen, Raphael (1996). Ukraine's Economic Reform: Obstacles, Errors, Lessons. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0275952401.
Whitmore, Sarah. ''State Building in Ukraine: The Ukrainian Parliament, 1990-2003 Routledge, 2004 online edition
Wilson, Andrew, Ukraine's Orange Revolution (2005)
Wilson, Andrew, The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation, 2nd ed. 2002; online excerpts at Amazon
Wilson, Andrew, Ukrainian Nationalism in the 1990s: A Minority Faith, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-57457-9
Zon, Hans van. The Political Economy of Independent Ukraine. 2000 online edition ^ "Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia Vol. 1". Questia.com. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
[edit]
Historical
Boshyk, Yuri (1986). Ukraine During World War II: History and Its Aftermath. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. ISBN 0920862373.
Berkhoff, Karel C. Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule. Harvard U. Press, 2004. 448 pp.
Cliff, Tony (1984). Class Struggle and Women’s Liberation. Bookmarks. ISBN 0906224128.
Gross, Jan T. Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia (1988).
Hrushevsky, Michael. A History of Ukraine (1986)
Kohut, Zenon E.; Nebesio, Bohdan Y.; and Yurkevich, Myroslav. Historical Dictionary of Ukraine. Scarecrow Press, 2005. 854 pp.
Luckyj, George S. Towards an Intellectual History of Ukraine: An Anthology of Ukrainian Thought from 1710 to 1995. (1996)
Lower, Wendy. Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine. U. of North Carolina Press, 2005. 307 pp.
Magocsi, Paul Robert, A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press, 1996 ISBN 0-8020-7820-6
Overy, Richard : The Dictators, W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, ISBN 0-393-02030-4
Piotrowski Tadeusz, Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947, McFarland & Company, 1998, ISBN 0-7864-0371-3
Redlich, Shimon. Together and Apart in Brzezany: Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, 1919-1945. Indiana U. Press, 2002. 202 pp.
Reid, Anna. Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine (2003) online edition
Roberts, Geoffrey (2006). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War 1939-1953. Yale University Press. ISBN 0920862373.
Subtelny, Orest. Ukraine: A History, 1st edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8020-8390-0.
Weiner, Amir, Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-09543-4, Part II
Weinberg, Gerhard L (1995). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521558794.
Zabarko, Boris, ed. Holocaust In The Ukraine, Mitchell Vallentine & Co, 2005. 394 pp.

[edit]
External linksFind more about Ukraine on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity

Government
The President of Ukraine
Government Portal of Ukraine
The Parliament of Ukraine
Chief of State and Cabinet Members
General information
Ukraine entry at The World Factbook
Ukraine information from the United States Department of State
Portals to the World from the United States Library of Congress
Ukraine at UCB Libraries GovPubs
Ukraine at the Open Directory Project
Wikimedia Atlas of Ukraine
Ukraine travel guide from Wikitravel
Ukrainian culture
Ukrainian art. Most famous modern painters