Ukraine

History

In antiquity, parts (Southern and Eastern) of the current territory of Ukraine were populated by Iranian nomads called Scythians. The Kingdom of Scythia existed in Ukraine between 700 and 200 BC. At the beginning of the second millennium BC, the speakers of the Proto-Iranian language moved from Ukraine to the southeast but many also remained.

Related Topics:
Iranian - Scythian - Scythia

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In the 3rd century AD, the Goths arrived to Ukraine, which they called Oium and formed the Chernyakhov culture before moving on and defeating the Roman empire.

Related Topics:
3rd century - Goths - Oium - Chernyakhov culture - Roman empire

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Later the area of today's Ukraine encompassed the central portion (Rus' propria), and formed the southern part of the first Eastern Slavic state, Kievan Rus'. Its capital was Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine. According to Primary Chronicle the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of Varangians, Scandinavians, from present-day Sweden. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local population of Rus' and gave the Rus' its first powerful dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty.

Related Topics:
Eastern Slavic - Kievan Rus' - Kiev - Primary Chronicle - Varangian - Sweden - Rurik Dynasty

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In the 7th century AD the Khazars (a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia who adopted Judaism) founded the independent Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's Europe, near the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. In addition to western Kazakhstan, the Khazar kingdom also included territory in what is now eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, southern Russia, and Crimea.

Related Topics:
7th century - Khazars - Turkic - Nomadic people - Central Asia - Judaism - Khazar kingdom - Europe - Caspian Sea - Caucasus - Kazakhstan - Azerbaijan - Russia - Crimea

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During the 10th and 11th centuries the territory of Ukraine became the center of important state in Europe— 'Kievan Rus' laying the foundation for national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries.

Related Topics:
10th - 11th centuries - Europe

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The term "Rus'" referred to many of the East Slavic principalities in the Ukrainian regions (Rus' Chervona (Red Rus')/Ruthenia, for example). Kiev and Kievian Rus' were the seat of the Grand Prince of the Rurik Dynasty. The ruler of Kiev was also in effect the ruler of all the Rus' principalities. Kievan Rus', the root of the term "Rus'ki" (today 'Russians'), declined during the Mongol invasion. The term "Rus'" was originally applied to the inhabitants of all Rus' principalities, today comprising Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. After the fall of Kiev, and until the 18th century, the term "Rus" was self-applied by the members of all three East Slavic nations, but the latinized version, "Ruthenian", was used to designate inhabitants of Belarus and Ukraine only; while the ancestors of modern Russians were usually referred to as Muscovites or Muscovite Russians by the name of their state that Europe called Muscovy.

Related Topics:
Grand Prince - Mongol invasion - 18th century - East Slavic nations - Russians - Muscovy

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"Ukraine", originally a geographic term, dates to the 11th century. At that time, Ukraine was synonymous with Rus' proper (Rus' Propria). "Ruthenian" originally meant "Rus'", then Ukraine and Belarus, but later became limited to Ukraine alone, and then solely to West Ukrainians (Galicians). Originally it was a term applied to the Rus' by other Europeans (Poles, Germans, and Turks, especially).

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Kievan Rus' became weakened by internal quarrels and was destroyed by Mongol and Tatar invasions. On Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of Halych-Volynia. This was later subjugated by Lithuania and Poland, and after the 1376 marriage of Lithuania's Grand Duke Jagiello to Poland's Queen Jadwiga, was ruled by the Poles (see the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Although locally defeated, the Rurik Dynasty continued, first in Novgorod, and then in Moscow.

Related Topics:
Mongol - Tatar - Halych - Volodymyr-Volynskyi - Halych-Volynia - 1376 - Grand Duke Jagiello - Queen Jadwiga - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - Rurik Dynasty - Novgorod - Moscow

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During the mid-17th century, a Cossack state, the Zaporozhian Host, was established by Ukrainians and others fleeing Polish serfdom. Located in central Ukraine, it was an autonomous military state, initially independent. The suppression of the Ukrainian free farmers by the Polish nobility created a closer link to Russia and was one reason for the downfall of the Polish state. Eastern Ukraine was eventually integrated into Russia as the Cossack Hetmanate, as a consequence of the Treaty of Pereyaslav. After the partitions of Poland by Prussia, Austria, and Russia at the end of the 18th century, Western Ukraine (Galicia) was taken over by Austria, while most of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire. Ukrainians played an important role in the frequent wars between East European monarchies and the Ottoman Empire.

Related Topics:
17th century - Cossack - Zaporozhian Host - Serfdom - Cossack Hetmanate - Treaty of Pereyaslav - Partitions of Poland - Prussia - Austria - Galicia - Ottoman Empire

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Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Ukraine was briefly independent in two states, then united, in 1920. By 1922 Ukraine was split between Poland and the Soviet Union. Also in 1922, most of Central and Eastern Ukraine became a constituent republic of the USSR as the Ukrainian SSR.

Related Topics:
1917 - 1920 - 1922 - Poland - Soviet Union - Ukrainian SSR

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To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies, the Soviet industrialization program called for the collectivization of agriculture, which had a profound effect on Ukraine, the nation's breadbasket (see Collectivization in the USSR). In the late 1920s and early 1930s the state compounded the peasants' lands and animals into collective farms and state farms. Although the program was designed to affect all peasants, the plan met particularly heavy resistance from the wealthiest peasants, the kulaks, and a desperate struggle of the peasantry against the authorities ensued. Peasants slaughtered their cows and pigs rather than turn them over to the collective farms, especially in Ukraine, with the result that livestock resources remained below the 1929 level for years afterward. The state in turn forcibly collectivized reluctant peasants and deported kulaks and active rebels to Siberia. Within the collective farms, the authorities in many instances exacted such high levels of procurements that starvation was widespread. In some places, famine was allowed to run its course; and millions of peasants in Ukraine starved to death in a famine, called the Holodomor in Ukrainian.

Related Topics:
Collectivization in the USSR - Kulak - Holodomor

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During World War II, some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground fought both Nazi and Soviet forces, while others collaborated with the Nazis. In 1941 the German invaders and their Axis allies initially advanced against desperate by unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the encirclement battle of Kiev, the city was acclaimed by the Soviets as a "Hero City", for the fierce resistance of the Red Army and of the local population. More than 660,000 Soviet troops were taken captive.

Related Topics:
World War II - Nazi - 1941 - Axis - Red Army - Kiev - Hero City

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Initially, the Germans were received as "liberators" by many Ukrainians. However, German rule in the occupied territories eventually aided the Soviet cause. Nazi administrators of conquered Soviet territories made little attempt to exploit the population's dissatisfaction with Soviet political and economic policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out genocidal policies against Jews, and deported others (mainly Ukrainians) to work in Germany. Under these circumstances, the great majority of the Soviet people fought and worked on their country's behalf, thus ensuring the regime's survival. Total civilian losses during the war and German occupation in Ukraine are estimated between five and seven million, including over half a million Jews shot and killed by the Einsatzgruppen, often with the help of Ukrainian collaborators. Of the estimated 11 million Soviet troops who fell in battle against the Nazis, about a quarter (2.7 million) were ethnic Ukrainians. Ukraine is distinguished as one of the first nations to fight the Axis powers in Carpatho-Ukraine, and one that saw some of the greatest bloodshed during the war.

Related Topics:
Einsatzgruppen - Carpatho-Ukraine

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After the Second World War, the borders of then-Soviet Ukraine were extended to the West (as stipulated in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, see also Curzon line), uniting most Ukrainians under one political state. In 1954, Crimea was transferred from the RSFSR to Ukraine. This decision of Nikita Khrushchev, intended to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, seen in Soviet historiography as the 'union of two fraternal peoples', led to tensions between Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - Curzon line - Crimea - RSFSR - Nikita Khrushchev - Treaty of Pereyaslav - Collapse of the Soviet Union

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Independence was achieved in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Ukraine was a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Related Topics:
1991 - Commonwealth of Independent States

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