Ukraine is the largest country by territory in Europe. It has the 7th largest population of 46 million.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
882 AD - Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus' was the first organised state on Eastern Slav's territory. The modern peoples of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural inheritance.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Kievan Rus' 882 - 1240
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Kievan Rus peaked in the 10th and 11th centuries under Vladimir I and Yaroslav, becoming eastern Europe’s chief political and cultural center. It prospered because it controlled all of the major Eastern European trade routes. In the 11th century, Kyivan Rus' was, geographically, the largest state in Europe.
Ancient Kiev
Ancient Kiev, 10th-13th cc. A scale model Detail The town of Yaroslav. Artist D. Mazyukevich.
Monday, June 30, 2014
The first coins in the territory of Rus’ (9th-11th century)
Sunday, June 29, 2014
The Tryzub
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| Seal of Vladimir the Great (980) |
The Tryzub is the national coat of arms of Ukraine. The first known archeological and historical evidence of this symbol can be found on the seals of the Rurik dynasty. It was stamped on the gold and silver coins issued by Prince Volodymer the Great (980–1015).
Friday, June 27, 2014
St. Sofia Cathedral
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| St. Sophia Cathedral |
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| St. Sophia Cathedral. Drawing by A. van Westerveldt. 1651 |
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| The ruins of the Golden Gates |
Laid down 1017 or 1037, St. Sophia Cathedral and the ruins of the Golden Gates - the main entrance into ancient Kiev, are Kievan Rus' relics that have survived to this day.
The Fall of Kievan Rus'
In 1240, the Mongols sacked Kiev. Five years after the fall of Kiev, Papal envoy Giovanni di Plano Carpini wrote:
"They destroyed cities and castles and killed men and Kiev, which is the greatest Russian city they besieged; and when they had besieged it a long while they took it and killed the people of the city. So when we went through that country we found countless human skulls and bones from the dead scattered over the field. Indeed it had been a very great and populous city and now is reduced almost to nothing. In fact there are hardly two hundred houses there now and the people are held in the strictest servitude."
Thursday, June 26, 2014
1200–1400 Galicia-Volhynia
A successor state to the Kyivan Rus' on part of the territory of today's Ukraine was the principality of Galicia-Volhynia. Each principality was independent of the other for a period. The state of Halych-Volynia eventually became a vassal to the Mongolian Empire.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
1400 Hundreds
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| 1386 - 1434 |
During the 14th century, Poland and Lithuania fought wars against the Mongol invaders, and eventually most of Ukraine passed to the rule of Poland and Lithuania. Lithuania took control of the state of Volynia in northern and northwestern Ukraine, including the region around Kyiv (Rus'), and Poland took control of the southeastern region.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
1569 - Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
In 15th century the Golden Horde declined and Ukraine remained under the Great Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian union. In 1569 Ukraine, after the Union of Lublin which oversaw the formation of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, fell under the under Polish administration, becoming part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Under the Commonwealth
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| Kiev in Lithuania in the map produced in 1562. |
Under the Commonwealth many new cities and villages were founded. New schools spread the ideas of the Renaissance.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
The Cossack
Peasants (Ukrainians and some from other nations) who fled efforts to force them into serfdom came to be known as Cossacks and earned a reputation for their fierce martial spirit. Some Cossacks were enlisted by the Commonwealth as soldiers to protect the southeastern borders of Poland from Tatars or took part in campaigns abroad.
The Cossack Hetmanate
The 1648 Ukrainian Cossack (Kozak) rebellion or Khmelnytsky Uprising laid the foundation for the Cossak state and became a precursor for the modern Ukranian state. The Hetmanate was founded by the Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Uprising of 1648–57 and lasted until 1764. Soon the Hetmanate found itself in a three-sided military and diplomatic rivalry with the Ottoman Turks, who controlled the Tatars to the south, the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania, and the rising Russian Empire to the East.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the founder of the Hetmanate.
Friday, June 20, 2014
1667 - The Splitting of the Cossack State
The Zaporizhian Host, in order to leave the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, sought a treaty of protection with Russia in 1654. By the terms of the Agreement, Ukraine was to be largely independent, but Ukraine found itself under the long lasting domination of the Russian Empire. After thirteen years of incessant warfare, the 1667 Polish-Russian Treaty of Andrusovo divided Ukrainian territory between the Commonwealth and Russia. As a result, the Hetmanate was split into pro-Polish and pro-Muscovite factions, each with its own hetman, army, and administration. Russia secured the territories of the Left-bank Ukraine, Siever lands, and Smolensk, and although Kiev is located on the right bank it secured it as well. Poland-Lithuania was left with the Right-bank Ukraine, and the Russian-occupied Belarus with Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Dzwinsk. The Zaporizhian Sich was recognized as a condominium of both states.
Sloboda Ukraine
The Cossacks also maintained a colony on the Russian frontier called Sloboda Ukraine. The Russian monarchs started to encourage the settlement of the region by the Cossacks. Apart from the Cossacks, the settlers included peasants and townspeople from Right and Left-bank Ukraine. The name Sloboda Ukraine derives from the word sloboda, a Slavic term meaning "freedom" (or "liberty)", and also the name of a type of settlement. The Tsar would free the settlers of a sloboda from the obligation of paying taxes and fees for a certain period of time, which proved very enticing for settlers. It became increasingly organized according to Cossack military custom, similar to that of the Zaporozhian Host and the Hetmanate. The relocated cossacks became known as Sloboda Cossacks. The territory of historic Sloboda Ukraine corresponds to the territory of the present-day Ukrainian oblast (province) of Kharkiv (in its entirety), and parts of the Sumy, Donetsk, and Luhansk Oblasts, as well as parts of the Belgorod, Kursk, and Voronezh Oblasts of Russia.
The Zaporozhian Cossacks
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks is a supposedly historical tableau by Ilya Repin, set in 1676, exploiting the legend about Cossacks sending a reply to the ultimatum of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed IV.
The Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host (from 'beyond the rapids', za porohamy), inhabiting the lands around the lower Dnieper River in Ukraine, had defeated Ottoman Turkish forces in battle. However, Mehmed demanded that the Cossacks submit to Turkish rule. The Cossacks, led by Ivan Sirko, replied in an uncharacteristic manner: they wrote a letter, replete with insults and profanities. The painting exhibits the Cossacks' pleasure at striving to come up with ever more base vulgarities. During Repin's time, the Cossacks enjoyed great popular sympathy. Repin also admired them: "All that Gogol wrote about them is true! A holy people! No one in the world held so deeply freedom, equality, and fraternity.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Reply to the Sultan
Sultan Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:
As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians -- I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.
--Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV
The reply:
Version 1
Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil excretes, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.
You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!
So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our arse!
Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian Host.
Version 2
The Kozaks of the Dnieper to the Sultan of Turkey:
Thou Turkish Satan, brother and companion to the accursed Devil, and companion to Lucifer himself, Greetings!
What the hell kind of noble knight art thou? The Devil voids, and thy army devours. Never wilt thou be fit to have the sons of Christ under thee: thy army we fear not, and by land and on sea we will do battle against thee.
Thou scullion of Babylon, thou wheelwright of Macedonia, thou beer-brewer of Jerusalem, thou goat-flayer of Alexandria, thou swineherd of Egypt, both the Greater and the Lesser, thou sow of Armenia, thou goat of Tartary, thou hangman of Kamenetz, thou evildoer of Podoliansk, thou grandson of the Devil himself, thou great silly oaf of all the world and of the netherworld and, before our God, a blockhead, a swine's snout, a mare's arse, a butcher's cur, an unbaptized brow, May the Devil take thee! That is what the Kozaks have to say to thee, thou basest-born of runts! Unfit art thou to lord it over true Christians!
The date we write not for no calendar have we got; the moon is in the sky, the year is in a book, and the day is the same with us here as with thee over there, and thou canst kiss us thou knowest where!
Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian Host.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
1710 - Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk
In 1710, Ukrainian Hetman Pylyp Orlyk introduced “Pacts and Constitutions of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host. The first constitution which outlined the separation of powers, well before the publication of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws in 1748. Some researchers believe that this document is one of the world’s first constitutions.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
The destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich
The last Hetman of Ukraine was forced by Empress Catherine II to resign in 1764. In May 1775, General Pyotr Tekeli received direct orders from Empress Catherine to occupy the main Zaporizhian fortress, the Sich, and to destroy it. Its political autonomy terminated, the period of Cossack Republic in Ukraine independence history was over. With the liquidation the area was renamed Novorossia.
Monday, June 16, 2014
1795
After the Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795, the extreme west of Ukraine fell under the control of the Austrians, with the rest becoming a part of the Russian Empire. As a result of Russo-Turkish Wars the Ottoman Empire's control receded from south-central Ukraine, while the rule of Hungary over the Transcarpathian region continued.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
The Russification of Ukraine
Russia, fearing separatism, imposed strict limits on attempts to elevate the Ukrainian language and culture, even banning its use and study. The Russophile policies of Russification and Panslavism led to an exodus of a number some Ukrainian intellectuals into Western Ukraine Over its history, the Ukranian language has been banned and restricted over 53 times.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Ukrainophilia in Galacia
The fate of the Ukrainians was far different under the Austrian Empire. Unlike in Russia, most of the elite that ruled Galicia were of Austrian or Polish descent, with the Ruthenians being almost exclusively kept in peasantry. During the 19th century, Russophilia was a common occurrence among the Slavic population, but the mass exodus of Ukrainian intellectuals escaping from Russian repression in Eastern Ukraine, as well as the intervention of Austrian authorities, caused the movement to be replaced by Ukrainophilia, which would then cross-over into the Russian Empire.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Ukrainian National Revival
Ukraine emerges as the concept of a nation, and the Ukrainians as a nationality, with the Ukrainian National Revival in the early 19th century. This period also birthed national Ukrainian figures and authors.
Taras Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko is also known for many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator.
Larysa Petrivna Kosach-Kvitka better known under her literary pseudonym Lesya Ukrainka, was one of Ukraine's best-known poets and writers and the foremost woman writer in Ukrainian literature. She also was a political, civil, and female activist.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was Ukranian.
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol was Ukranian.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
The Ukrainian War of Independence
Ukraine first became independent with the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917 to 1921. The February Revolution of 1917 encouraged many ethnic groups in the Russian Empire to demand greater autonomy and various degrees of self-determination. A month later, the Ukrainian People's Republic was declared in Kiev as an autonomous entity. The Kiev Uprising in November 1917 led to the defeat of Russian imperial forces in the capital.
The Other Ukrainian People's Republic
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| [Pink] Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets (pre-January 1918) |
In late December 1917 the Bolsheviks set up a rival Ukrainian republic in the eastern city of Kharkov (Ukrainian: Kharkiv) – initially also called the "Ukrainian People's Republic". Hostilities against the Central Rada government in Kiev began immediately. Under these circumstances, the Rada declared Ukrainian independence on January 22, 1918 and broke ties with Russia.
Bolsheviks out of Ukraine
Western Ukrainian People's Republic
Almost immediately after the defeat of Germany, Lenin's government annulled the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and invaded Ukraine and other countries of Eastern Europe that were formed under German protection. Simultaneously, the collapse of the Central Powers affected the former Austrian province of Galicia, which was populated by Ukrainians and Poles. The Ukrainians proclaimed a Western Ukrainian People's Republic in Eastern Galicia, which wished to unite with the Ukrainian People's Republic.
The Polish-Ukrainian War
On January 22, 1919, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic signed an Act of Union in Kiev. By October 1919, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic was defeated by Polish forces in the Polish-Ukrainian War and Eastern Galicia was annexed to Poland; the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 granted Eastern Galicia to Poland for 25 years.
Return of the Red Army
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| March 1919 |
A new, swift Bolshevik offensive overran most of Eastern and central Ukraine in early 1919. Kiev – under the control of Symon Petliura's Directorate – fell to the Red Army again on February 5, and the exiled Soviet Ukrainian government was re-instated as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic moved to Kiev on March 15. The Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) faced imminent defeat against the Bolsheviks – it was reduced to a strip of land along the Polish border with its capital moving from Vinnytsia to Proskurov (now Khmelnytskyi), then to Kamianets-Podilskyi, and finally to Rivne.
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