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There is no such English word as "enserfment" and no obvious miss spelling that we can correct to provide you with an answer to a word that looks close.
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What has the author R E F Smith written?
R. E. F. Smith has written: 'The enserfment of the Russian peasantry' -- subject(s): Sources, History, Peasantry, Land tenure 'Peasant farming in Muscovy' -- subject(s): History, Peasantry, Agriculture, Rural conditions 'Bread and salt' -- subject(s): Beverages, Food, Food habits, Food industry and trade, Food supply, History, Salt, Social aspects, Social aspects of Beverages, Social aspects of Food, Social aspects of Salt
What was slavery like in Europe?
Slavery in early medieval Europe was relatively common. It was widespread at the end of antiquity. The etymology of the word slave comes from this period, the word sklabos meaning Slav. Slavery declined in the Middle Ages in most parts of Europe as serfdom slowly rose, but it never completely disappeared. It persisted longer in Southern and Eastern Europe. In Poland slavery was forbidden in the 15th century; it was replaced by the second enserfment. In Lithuania, slavery was formally abolished in 1588.Throughout this period slaves were traded openly in most cities, including cities as diverse as Marseilles,Dublin and Prague, and many were sold to buyers in the Middle East. The town of Caffa in the Crimeawas called the capital of the medieval slave trade, but an overland route to Caliphate of Córdoba took pagan and dualist Slavs from Kiev through Lviv and Prague, at that time the borderlands of Christianity, this arduous land route competing with the North-South route by river which led to the Black Sea.
What was Russia like before peter the greats rule?
Russia adopted Orhtodox Christianity in 990 AD from Byzantium because this was the most powerful political ally Russian princes could get at the time. However, in 1054, the great schism occured between the Orthodox chruch and the Roman Catholic church (this isolated Russia from much of the western world). The Mongols also invaded, and caused Russia to be driven apart from Europe. and by 1453 the fall of constantinople meant that the Orthodox religion had somewhat collapsed.
Words ending with the suffix ment?
5-letter wordsament6-letter wordscement, dement, foment, lament, loment, moment7-letter wordsailment, aliment, augment, clement, comment, element, ferment, figment, fitment, garment, hutment, oddment, payment, pigment, raiment, sarment, segment, torment, varment8-letter wordsabetment, abutment, argument, armament, averment, bailment, basement, bodement, casement, cerement, diriment, document, easement, filament, fragment, judgment, ligament, liniment, lodgment, monument, movement, muniment, ointment, ornament, orpiment, parament, pavement, pediment, regiment, rudiment, sediment, shipment, tegument, tenement, vehement, vestment, weldment9-letter wordsabasement, abashment, abatement, adornment, affixment, agreement, alignment, alinement, allotment, amassment, amazement, amendment, amusement, annulment, apartment, atonement, battement, besetment, blastment, catchment, condiment, debarment, decrement, deferment, determent, detriment, devilment, ejectment, elopement, embayment, embedment, emolument, enactment, endowment, enjoyment, equipment, excrement, extolment, feoffment, firmament, fleshment, fundament, hardiment, hatchment, implement, inclement, increment, interment, inurement, judgement, lineament, lodgement, merriment, nutriment, parchment, placement, ravelment, remitment, repayment, revetment, rousement, sacrament, sentiment, statement, strewment, testament, treatment, worriment10-letter wordsabridgment, accruement, adjustment, advisement, alightment, allurement, ambushment, amercement, anointment, arrestment, assessment, assignment, assoilment, assortment, attachment, attainment, attornment, attunement, avouchment, babblement, bafflement, banishment, battlement, bemusement, betterment, cajolement, cantonment, commitment, complement, compliment, conferment, couplement, debasement, debatement, decampment, defacement, defilement, definement, denotement, denouement, denudement, department, deployment, deportment, derailment, designment, detachment, detainment, devotement, disbarment, disownment, divestment, effacement, embalmment, embankment, embarkment, embodiment, embossment, employment, encampment, encasement, encashment, encystment, endearment, engagement, engulfment, enjambment, enlacement, enlistment, enmeshment, enrichment, enrollment, enserfment, entailment, enticement, entombment, entrapment, escapement, escarpment, evolvement, excitement, experiment, famishment, government, habiliment, harassment, immurement, impairment, impalement, impartment, impediment, incitement, indictment, inducement, instalment, instrument, integument, intendment, internment, investment, management, medicament, nonpayment, obtainment, ordainment, parliament, preachment, preferment, prepayment, punishment, puzzlement, rabblement, ravagement, ravishment, reargument, rearmament, recoupment, refinement, resentment, retirement, revealment, revilement, securement, seducement, settlement, signalment, solacement, subsegment, supplement, tanglement, tournament, unfoldment, wilderment, wonderment11-letter wordsabandonment, abolishment, abridgement, achievement, acquirement, adjournment, advancement, appeasement, appointment, arbitrament, arraignment, arrangement, assuagement, bedevilment, bedizenment, beguilement, bereavement, bewitchment, bombardment, commandment, compartment, comportment, concealment, concernment, confinement, congealment, consignment, containment, contentment, controlment, curettement, curtailment, debouchment, debridement, deforcement, depravement, derangement, despisement, despoilment, detrainment, development, disablement, disarmament, disbandment, discernment, dislodgment, disportment, dissepiment, divorcement, edutainment, embracement, embroilment, emplacement, empowerment, enchainment, enchantment, endorsement, enfeoffment, enforcement, enframement, engorgement, engraftment, engrossment, enhancement, enjambement, enlargement, ennoblement, enslavement, entitlement, entrainment, entreatment, entrustment, envelopment, environment, fulfillment, garnishment, impeachment, imperilment, impingement, impoundment, impressment, improvement, indorsement, installment, instillment, involvement, measurement, misjudgment, myofilament, nonargument, nourishment, overgarment, overpayment, predicament, prejudgment, presentment, procurement, realignment, recruitment, reenactment, reequipment, refrainment, refreshment, replacement, requirement, rescindment, restatement, startlement, subbasement, temperament, traducement12-letter wordsaccouchement, accouterment, accoutrement, admonishment, aggrievement, announcement, appraisement, astonishment, bedazzlement, befuddlement, belittlement, bewilderment, blandishment, chastisement, comanagement, commencement, decipherment, demolishment, denouncement, dethronement, diminishment, disagreement, disbursement, disendowment, disguisement, disinterment, dislodgement, displacement, disseverment, embattlement, embezzlement, embitterment, emblazonment, empoisonment, empressement, encipherment, encirclement, encroachment, endangerment, enfeeblement, enshrinement, entanglement, enthrallment, enthronement, entrancement, entrenchment, estrangement, hereditament, imprisonment, infotainment, infringement, intersegment, inveiglement, languishment, maltreatment, microelement, misalignment, misplacement, misstatement, mistreatment, monofilament, multielement, nonalignment, nontreatment, outplacement, overdocument, overornament, postponement, presentiment, pretreatment, radioelement, readjustment, reassessment, reassignment, reattachment, recommitment, redeployment, reemployment, reengagement, reenlistment, reindictment, reinvestment, renouncement, resettlement, ressentiment, retrenchment, stablishment, undergarment, underlayment, underpayment, unemployment, unsettlement13-letter wordsaccompaniment, admeasurement, advertisement, advertizement, apportionment, ascertainment, bamboozlement, beleaguerment, disburdenment, disengagement, disfigurement, disinvestment, dismantlement, dismemberment, disparagement, embarrassment, embellishment, embranglement, embrittlement, encompassment, encouragement, enlightenment, ensorcellment, entertainment, establishment, forestallment, interlacement, maladjustment, microfilament, misemployment, misgovernment, mismanagement, multifilament, nonattachment, noncommitment, nonemployment, nonengagement, nongovernment, nonmanagement, overstatement, overtreatment, posttreatment, precommitment, preemployment, preenrollment, preexperiment, prefigurement, preordainment, preretirement, presettlement, pretournament, pronouncement, rapprochement, reappointment, rearrangement, reconcilement, redevelopment, refurbishment, reimbursement, reinforcement, reinstatement, remeasurement, replenishment, subdepartment, subemployment, subgovernment, thermoelement, transshipment, vouchsafement14-letter wordsaccomplishment, acknowledgment, aggrandizement, antigovernment, antimanagement, arrondissement, bouleversement, disappointment, disarrangement, disconcertment, discontentment, discouragement, disembowelment, disenchantment, disfurnishment, disgruntlement, disheartenment, divertissement, extinguishment, impoverishment, intertwinement, nonachievement, nondevelopment, nonenforcement, nonfulfillment, noninstallment, noninvolvement, overadjustment, overassessment, overcommitment, overinvestment, overrefinement, postretirement, prearrangement, predevelopment, recommencement, relinquishment, semiretirement, subdevelopment, understatement15-letter wordsacknowledgement, antidevelopment, counterargument, countermovement, disentanglement, disillusionment, eclaircissement, enfranchisement, hyperexcitement, micromanagement, overachievement, overdevelopment, reapportionment, reestablishment, supergovernment, underemployment, underinvestment16-letter wordsantiunemployment, counterstatement, disestablishment, disfranchisement, embourgeoisement, hyperdevelopment, malapportionment, microenvironment, nonentertainment, nonestablishment, nonreappointment, underachievement, underdevelopment, undernourishment17-letter wordsantiestablishment, counterdeployment, countergovernment18-letter wordsdisenfranchisement, gedankenexperiment613 words found.
What does the suffix ment mean when added to a word?
The suffix "-ment" is used to form nouns from verbs, indicating the action or result of the verb it is attached to. For example, "enjoy" becomes "enjoyment," indicating the state of experiencing pleasure.
What changes occurred during the dark age in ancient Greece?
In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. From about the 9th century BC written records begin to appear. Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a pattern largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges. Early Athenian coin, 5th century BCThe Lelantine War (c.710-c.650 BC) was an ongoing conflict with the distinction of being the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period. Fought between the important poleis (city-states) of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea, both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, though Chalcis was the nominal victor. A mercantile class rose in the first half of the 7th century, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC.[citation needed] This seems to have introduced tension to many city states. The aristocratic regimes which generally governed the poleis were threatened by the new-found wealth of merchants, who in turn desired political power. From 650 BC onwards, the aristocracies had to fight not to be overthrown and replaced by populist tyrants. The word derives from the non-pejorative Greek τύραννος tyrannos, meaning 'illegitimate ruler', although this was applicable to both good and bad leaders alike.[2][3] A growing population and shortage of land also seems to have created internal strife between the poor and the rich in many city states. In Sparta, the Messenian Wars resulted in the conquest of Messenia and enserfment of the Messenians, beginning in the latter half of the 8th century BC, an act without precedent or antecedent in ancient Greece. This practice allowed a social revolution to occur.[4] The subjugated population, thenceforth known as helots, farmed and laboured for Sparta, whilst every Spartan male citizen became a soldier of the Spartan Army in a permanently militarized state. Even the elite were obliged to live and train as soldiers; this equality between rich and poor served to diffuse the social conflict. These reforms, attributed to the shadowy Lycurgus of Sparta, were probably complete by 650 BC. Athens suffered a land and agrarian crisis in the late 7th century, again resulting in civil strife. The Archon (chief magistrate) Draco made severe reforms to the law code in 621 BC (hence Draconian), but these failed to quell the conflict. Eventually the moderate reforms of Solon (594 BC), improving the lot of the poor but firmly entrenching the aristocracy in power, gave Athens some stability. The Greek world in the mid 6th century BC.By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs: Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control, and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well. Rapidly increasing population in the 8th and 7th centuries had resulted in emigration of many Greeks to form colonies in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy and Sicily), Asia Minor and further afield. The emigration effectively ceased in the 6th century by which time the Greek world had, culturally and linguistically, become much larger than the area of present-day Greece. Greek colonies were not politically controlled by their founding cities, although they often retained religious and commercial links with them. In this period, huge economic development occurred in Greece and also her overseas colonies which experienced a growth in commerce and manufacturing. There was a large improvement in the living standards of the population. Some studies estimate that the average size of the Greek household, in the period from 800 BC to 300 BC, increased five times, which indicates a large increase in the average income of the population. In the second half of the 6th century, Athens fell under the tyranny of Peisistratos and then his sons Hippias and Hipparchos. However, in 510 BC, at the instigation of the Athenian aristocrat Cleisthenes, the Spartan king Cleomenes I helped the Athenians overthrow the tyranny. Afterwards, Sparta and Athens promptly turned on each other, at which point Cleomenes I installed Isagoras as a pro-Spartan archon. Eager to prevent Athens from becoming a Spartan puppet, Cleisthenes responded by proposing to his fellow citizens that Athens undergo a revolution; that all citizens shared in the power, regardless of status; that Athens become a 'democracy'. So enthusiastically did the Athenians take to this idea, that, having overthrown Isagoras and implemented Cleisthenes's reforms, they were easily able to repel a Spartan-led three-pronged invasion aimed at restoring Isagoras.[5] The advent of the democracy cured many of the ills of Athens and led to a 'golden age' for the Athenians. Main article: Classical Greece == Main articles: Greco-Persian Wars and Peloponnesian War Athens and Sparta would soon have to become allies in the face of the largest external threat ancient Greece would see until the Roman conquest. After suppressing the Ionian Revolt, a rebellion of the Greek cities of Ionia, Darius I of Persia, King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, decided to subjugate Greece. His invasion in 490 BC was ended by the heroic Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon under Miltiades the Younger. Xerxes I of Persia, son and successor of Darius I, attempted his own invasion 10 years later, but despite his overwhelmingly large army he was defeated after the famous rearguard action at Thermopylae and victories for the allied Greeks at the Battles of Salamis and Plataea. The Greco-Persian Wars continued until 449 BC, led by the Athenians and their Delian League, during which time the Macedon, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and Ionia were all liberated from Persian influence. Delian League ("Athenian Empire"), immediately before the Peloponnesian War in 431 BC.The dominant position of the maritime Athenian 'Empire' threatened Sparta and the Peloponnesian League of mainland Greek cities. Inevitably, this led to conflict, resulting in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). Though effectively a stalemate for much of the war, Athens suffered a number of setbacks. A great plague in 430 BC followed by a disastrous military campaign known as the Sicilian Expedition severely weakened Athens. Sparta was able to ferment rebellion amongst Athens's allies, further reducing the Athenian ability to wage war. The decisive moment came in 405 BC when Sparta cut off the grain supply to Athens from the Hellespont. Forced to attack, the crippled Athenian fleet was decisively defeated by the Spartans under the command of Lysander at Aegospotami. In 404 BC Athens sued for peace, and Sparta dictated a predictably stern settlement: Athens lost her city walls (including the Long Walls), her fleet, and all of her overseas possessions. == Greece thus entered the 4th century under a Spartan hegemony, but it was clear from the start that this was weak. A demographic crisis meant Sparta was overstretched, and by 395 BC Athens, Argos, Thebes, and Corinth felt able to challenge Spartan dominance, resulting in the Corinthian War (395-387 BC). Another war of stalemates, it ended with the status quo restored, after the threat of Persian intervention on behalf of the Spartans. The Spartan hegemony lasted another 16 years, until, when attempting to impose their will on the Thebans, the Spartans suffered a decisive defeat at Leuctra in 371 BC. The Theban general Epaminondas then led Theban troops into the Peloponnese, whereupon other city-states defected from the Spartan cause. The Thebans were thus able to march into Messenia and free the population. Deprived of land and its serfs, Sparta declined to a second-rank power. The Theban hegemony thus established was short-lived; at the battle of Mantinea in 362 BC, Thebes lost her key leader, Epaminondas, and much of her manpower, even though they were victorious in battle. In fact such were the losses to all the great city-states at Mantinea that none could establish dominance in the aftermath. The weakened state of the heartland of Greece coincided with the rising power of Macedon, led by Philip II. In twenty years, Philip had unified his kingdom, expanded it north and west at the expense of Illyrian tribes, and then conquered Thessaly and Thrace. His success stemmed from his innovative reforms to the Macedon army. Phillip intervened repeatedly in the affairs of the southern city-states, culminating in his invasion of 338 BC. Decisively defeating an allied army of Thebes and Athens at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), he became de facto hegemon of all of Greece. He compelled the majority of the city-states to join the League of Corinth, allying them to him, and preventing them from warring with each other. Philip then entered into war against the Achemaenid Empire but was assassinated by Pausanias of Orestis early on in the conflict. Alexander, son and successor of Philip, continued the war. Alexander defeated Darius III of Persia and completely destroyed the Achaemenid Empire, annexing it to Macedon and earning himself the epithet 'the Great'. When Alexander died in 323 BC, Greek power and influence was at its zenith. However, there had been a fundamental shift away from the fierce independence and classical culture of the poleis-and instead towards the developing Hellenistic culture. Main articles: Wars of Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Period, and Hellenistic civilization The Hellenistic period lasted from 323 BC, which marked the end of the Wars of Alexander the Great, to the annexation of the Greece by the Roman Republic in 146 BC. Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the advent of Christianity, it did mark the end of Greek political independence. The major Hellenistic realms; the Ptolemaic kingdom (dark blue); the Seleucid empire (yellow); Macedon (green) and Epirus (pink).During the Hellenistic period, the importance of "Greece proper" (that is, the territory of modern Greece) within the Greek-speaking world declined sharply. The great centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively. The conquests of Alexander had numerous consequences for the Greek city-states. It greatly widened the horizons of the Greeks and led to a steady emigration, particularly of the young and ambitious, to the new Greek empires in the east. Many Greeks migrated to Alexandria, Antioch and the many other new Hellenistic cities founded in Alexander's wake, as far away as what are now Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom survived until the end of the 1st century BC. After the death of Alexander his empire was, after quite some conflict, divided amongst his generals, resulting in the Ptolemaic Kingdom (based upon Egypt), the Seleucid Empire (based on the Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia) and the Antigonid dynasty based in Macedon. In the intervening period, the poleis of Greece were able to wrest back some of their freedom, although still nominally subject to the Macedonian Kingdom. The city states formed themselves into two leagues; the Achaean League (including Thebes, Corinth and Argos) and the Aetolian League (including Sparta and Athens). For much of the period until the Roman conquest, these leagues were usually at war with each other, and/or allied to different sides in the conflicts between the Diadochi (the successor states to Alexander's empire). The Antigonid Kingdom became involved in a war with the Roman Republic in the late 3rd century. Although the First Macedonian War was inconclusive, the Romans, in typical fashion, continued to make war on Macedon until it was completely absorbed into the Roman Republic (by 149 BC). In the east the unwieldy Seleucid Empire gradually disintegrated, although a rump survived until 64 BC, whilst the Ptolemaic Kingdom continued in Egypt until 30 BC, when it too was conquered by the Romans. The Aetolian league grew wary of Roman involvement in Greece, and sided with the Seleucids in the Roman-Syrian War; when the Romans were victorious, the league was effectively absorbed into the Republic. Although the Achaean league outlasted both the Aetolian league and Macedon, it was also soon defeated and absorbed by the Romans in 146 BC, bringing an end to the independence of all of Greece.
What words begin with en?
* enable * enabled * enabler * enablers * enables * enabling * enact * enactable * enacted * enacting * enaction * enactions * enactive * enactment * enactments * enactor * enactors * enactory * enacts * enacture * enactures * enallage * enallages * enamel * enameled * enameler * enamelers * enameling * enamelist * enamelists * enamelled * enameller * enamellers * enamelling * enamellings * enamellist * enamellists * enamels * enamelware * enamelwares * enamelwork * enamelworks * enamine * enamines * enamor * enamorado * enamorados * enamoration * enamorations * enamored * enamoring * enamors * enamour * enamoured * enamouring * enamours * enantiodromia * enantiodromiacal * enantiodromias * enantiodromic * enantiomer * enantiomeric * enantiomers * enantiomorph * enantiomorphic * enantiomorphies * enantiomorphism * enantiomorphisms * enantiomorphous * enantiomorphs * enantiomorphy * enantiopathies * enantiopathy * enantioses * enantiosis * enantiostylies * enantiostylous * enantiostyly * enantiotropic * enantiotropies * enantiotropy * enarch * enarched * enarches * enarching * enargite * enargites * enarm * enarmed * enarming * enarms * enarration * enarrations * enarthrodial * enarthroses * enarthrosis * enate * enates * enatic * enation * enations * enaunter * encaenia * encaenias * encage * encaged * encages * encaging * encalm * encalmed * encalming * encalms * encamp * encamped * encamping * encampment * encampments * encamps * encanthis * encanthises * encapsulate * encapsulated * encapsulates * encapsulating * encapsulation * encapsulations * encapsulator * encapsulators * encapsule * encapsuled * encapsules * encapsuling * encarnalise * encarnalised * encarnalises * encarnalising * encarnalize * encarnalized * encarnalizes * encarnalizing * encarpus * encarpuses * encase * encased * encasement * encasements * encases * encash * encashable * encashed * encashes * encashing * encashment * encashments * encasing * encaustic * encaustically * encaustics * encave * encaved * encaves * encaving * enceinte * enceintes * encephala * encephalic * encephalin * encephaline * encephalines * encephalins * encephalitic * encephalitides * encephalitis * encephalitises * encephalitogen * encephalitogenic * encephalitogens * encephalocele * encephaloceles * encephalogram * encephalograms * encephalograph * encephalographic * encephalographically * encephalographies * encephalographs * encephalography * encephaloid * encephalomyelitic * encephalomyelitides * encephalomyelitis * encephalomyocarditis * encephalomyocarditises * encephalon * encephalons * encephalopathic * encephalopathies * encephalopathy * encephalotomies * encephalotomy * encephalous * enchafe * enchafed * enchafes * enchafing * enchain * enchained * enchaining * enchainment * enchainments * enchains * enchant * enchanted * enchanter * enchanters * enchanting * enchantingly * enchantment * enchantments * enchantress * enchantresses * enchants * encharge * encharged * encharges * encharging * encharm * encharmed * encharming * encharms * enchase * enchased * enchaser * enchasers * enchases * enchasing * encheason * encheasons * encheer * encheered * encheering * encheers * encheiridion * encheiridions * enchilada * enchiladas * enchiridia * enchiridion * enchiridions * enchondroma * enchondromas * enchondromata * enchorial * enchoric * encierro * encierros * encina * encinal * encinas * encincture * encinctured * encinctures * encincturing * encipher * enciphered * encipherer * encipherers * enciphering * encipherment * encipherments * enciphers * encircle * encircled * encirclement * encirclements * encircles * encircling * encirclings * enclasp * enclasped * enclasping * enclasps * enclave * enclaved * enclaves * enclaving * enclises * enclisis * enclitic * enclitically * enclitics * encloister * encloistered * encloistering * encloisters * enclosable * enclose * enclosed * encloser * enclosers * encloses * enclosing * enclosure * enclosures * enclothe * enclothed * enclothes * enclothing * encloud * enclouded * enclouding * enclouds * encode * encoded * encodement * encodements * encoder * encoders * encodes * encoding * encoignure * encoignures * encolour * encoloured * encolouring * encolours * encolpion * encolpions * encolpium * encolpiums * encolure * encolures * encomendero * encomenderos * encomia * encomiast * encomiastic * encomiastical * encomiastically * encomiasts * encomienda * encomiendas * encomion * encomium * encomiums * encompass * encompassed * encompasses * encompassing * encompassment * encompassments * encore * encored * encores * encoring * encounter * encountered * encountering * encounters * encourage * encouraged * encouragement * encouragements * encourager * encouragers * encourages * encouraging * encouragingly * encouragings * encradle * encradled * encradles * encradling * encraties * encraty * encrease * encreased * encreases * encreasing * encrimson * encrimsoned * encrimsoning * encrimsons * encrinal * encrinic * encrinital * encrinite * encrinites * encrinitic * encroach * encroached * encroacher * encroachers * encroaches * encroaching * encroachingly * encroachment * encroachments * encrust * encrustation * encrustations * encrusted * encrusting * encrustment * encrustments * encrusts * encrypt * encrypted * encrypting * encryption * encryptions * encrypts * enculturate * enculturated * enculturates * enculturating * enculturation * enculturations * encumber * encumbered * encumbering * encumberment * encumberments * encumbers * encumbrance * encumbrancer * encumbrancers * encumbrances * encurtain * encurtained * encurtaining * encurtains * encyclic * encyclical * encyclicals * encyclics * encyclopaedia * encyclopaedias * encyclopaedic * encyclopaedism * encyclopaedisms * encyclopaedist * encyclopaedists * encyclopedia * encyclopedian * encyclopedias * encyclopedic * encyclopedical * encyclopedically * encyclopedism * encyclopedisms * encyclopedist * encyclopedists * encyst * encystation * encystations * encysted * encysting * encystment * encystments * encysts * end * endamage * endamaged * endamagement * endamagements * endamages * endamaging * endameba * endamebae * endamebas * endamoeba * endamoebae * endamoebas * endanger * endangered * endangerer * endangerers * endangering * endangerment * endangerments * endangers * endarch * endarchies * endarchy * endart * endarted * endarterectomies * endarterectomy * endarting * endarts * endbrain * endbrains * endear * endeared * endearing * endearingly * endearingness * endearingnesses * endearment * endearments * endears * endeavor * endeavored * endeavorer * endeavorers * endeavoring * endeavors * endeavour * endeavoured * endeavouring * endeavourment * endeavourments * endeavours * endecagon * endecagons * ended * endeictic * endeixes * endeixis * endeixises * endemial * endemic * endemical * endemically * endemicities * endemicity * endemics * endemiologies * endemiology * endemism * endemisms * endenizen * endenizened * endenizening * endenizens * ender * endergonic * endermatic * endermic * endermical * endermically * enderon * enderons * enders * endew * endewed * endewing * endews * endexine * endexines * endgame * endgames * ending * endings * endiron * endirons * endite * endited * endites * enditing * endive * endives * endlang * endleaf * endleaves * endless * endlessly * endlessness * endlessnesses * endlong * endmost * endnote * endnotes * endobiotic * endoblast * endoblasts * endocardia * endocardiac * endocardial * endocarditic * endocarditis * endocarditises * endocardium * endocardiums * endocarp * endocarpal * endocarps * endocast * endocasts * endocentric * endochondral * endochylous * endocrania * endocranium * endocrinal * endocrine * endocrines * endocrinic * endocrinologic * endocrinological * endocrinologies * endocrinologist * endocrinologists * endocrinology * endocritic * endocytic * endocytose * endocytosed * endocytoses * endocytosing * endocytosis * endocytotic * endoderm * endodermal * endodermic * endodermis * endodermises * endoderms * endodontia * endodontias * endodontic * endodontically * endodontics * endodontist * endodontists * endodyne * endoenzyme * endoenzymes * endoergic * endogamic * endogamies * endogamous * endogamy * endogen * endogenic * endogenies * endogenous * endogenously * endogens * endogeny * endolithic * endolymph * endolymphatic * endolymphs * endometria * endometrial * endometrioses * endometriosis * endometritis * endometritises * endometrium * endometriums * endomitoses * endomitosis * endomitotic * endomixes * endomixis * endomixises * endomorph * endomorphic * endomorphies * endomorphism * endomorphisms * endomorphs * endomorphy * endonuclease * endonucleases * endonucleolytic * endoparasite * endoparasites * endoparasitic * endoparasitism * endoparasitisms * endopeptidase * endopeptidases * endoperoxide * endoperoxides * endophagies * endophagous * endophagy * endophyllous * endophyte * endophytes * endophytic * endoplasm * endoplasmic * endoplasms * endoplastic * endopleura * endopleuras * endopod * endopodite * endopodites * endopods * endopolyploid * endopolyploidies * endopolyploidy * endoradiosonde * endoradiosondes * endorhizal * endorphin * endorphins * endorsable * endorse * endorsed * endorsee * endorsees * endorsement * endorsements * endorser * endorsers * endorses * endorsing * endorsor * endorsors * endosarc * endosarcs * endoscope * endoscopes * endoscopic * endoscopically * endoscopies * endoscopy * endoskeletal * endoskeleton * endoskeletons * endosmometer * endosmometers * endosmometric * endosmos * endosmose * endosmoses * endosmosis * endosmotic * endosmotically * endosome * endosomes * endosperm * endospermic * endosperms * endospore * endospores * endosporia * endosporium * endosporous * endoss * endossed * endosses * endossing * endostea * endosteal * endosteally * endosteum * endostyle * endostyles * endosulfan * endosulfans * endosymbiont * endosymbionts * endosymbioses * endosymbiosis * endosymbiotic * endothecia * endothecium * endothelia * endothelial * endothelioid * endothelioma * endotheliomas * endotheliomata * endothelium * endotherm * endothermic * endothermies * endotherms * endothermy * endotoxic * endotoxin * endotoxins * endotracheal * endotrophic * endow * endowed * endower * endowers * endowing * endowment * endowments * endows * endozoa * endozoic * endozoon * endpaper * endpapers * endpin * endpins * endplate * endplates * endplay * endplayed * endplaying * endplays * endpoint * endpoints * endrin * endrins * ends * endship * endships * endue * endued * endues * enduing * endungeon * endungeoned * endungeoning * endungeons * endurabilities * endurability * endurable * endurableness * endurablenesses * endurably * endurance * endurances * endure * endured * endurer * endurers * endures * enduring * enduringly * enduringness * enduringnesses * enduro * enduros * endways * endwise * ene * enema * enemas * enemata * enemies * enemy * energetic * energetical * energetically * energetics * energic * energid * energids * energies * energise * energised * energises * energising * energization * energizations * energize * energized * energizer * energizers * energizes * energizing * energumen * energumens * energy * enervate * enervated * enervates * enervating * enervation * enervations * enervative * enervator * enervators * enerve * enerved * enerves * enerving * enes * enew * enewed * enewing * enews * enface * enfaced * enfacement * enfacements * enfaces * enfacing * enfant * enfants * enfeeble * enfeebled * enfeeblement * enfeeblements * enfeebler * enfeeblers * enfeebles * enfeebling * enfelon * enfeloned * enfeloning * enfelons * enfeoff * enfeoffed * enfeoffing * enfeoffment * enfeoffments * enfeoffs * enfested * enfestered * enfetter * enfettered * enfettering * enfetters * enfever * enfevered * enfevering * enfevers * enfierce * enfierced * enfierces * enfiercing * enfilade * enfiladed * enfilades * enfilading * enfiled * enfire * enfired * enfires * enfiring * enfix * enfixed * enfixes * enfixing * enflame * enflamed * enflames * enflaming * enflesh * enfleshed * enfleshes * enfleshing * enfleurage * enfleurages * enflower * enflowered * enflowering * enflowers * enfold * enfolded * enfolder * enfolders * enfolding * enfoldment * enfoldments * enfolds * enforce * enforceabilities * enforceability * enforceable * enforced * enforcedly * enforcement * enforcements * enforcer * enforcers * enforces * enforcing * enforest * enforested * enforesting * enforests * enform * enformed * enforming * enforms * enfouldered * enframe * enframed * enframement * enframements * enframes * enframing * enfranchise * enfranchised * enfranchisement * enfranchisements * enfranchises * enfranchising * enfree * enfreed * enfreedom * enfreedomed * enfreedoming * enfreedoms * enfreeing * enfrees * enfreeze * enfreezes * enfreezing * enfrosen * enfroze * enfrozen * eng * engage * engaged * engagement * engagements * engager * engagers * engages * engaging * engagingly * engagingness * engagingnesses * engaol * engaoled * engaoling * engaols * engarland * engarlanded * engarlanding * engarlands * engarrison * engarrisoned * engarrisoning * engarrisons * engender * engendered * engenderer * engenderers * engendering * engenderment * engenderments * engenders * engendrure * engendrures * engendure * engendures * engild * engilded * engilding * engilds * engilt * engine * engined * engineer * engineered * engineering * engineerings * engineers * enginer * engineries * enginers * enginery * engines * engining * enginous * engird * engirded * engirding * engirdle * engirdled * engirdles * engirdling * engirds * engirt * engiscope * engiscopes * englacial * english * englished * englishes * englishing * englobe * englobed * englobes * englobing * engloom * engloomed * englooming * englooms * englut * engluts * englutted * englutting * engobe * engobes * engore * engored * engores * engorge * engorged * engorgement * engorgements * engorges * engorging * engoring * engouement * engouements * engouled * engoument * engouments * engrace * engraced * engraces * engracing * engraff * engraffed * engraffing * engraffs * engraft * engraftation * engraftations * engrafted * engrafting * engraftment * engraftments * engrafts * engrail * engrailed * engrailing * engrailment * engrailments * engrails * engrain * engrained * engrainer * engrainers * engraining * engrains * engram * engramma * engrammas * engrammatic * engramme * engrammes * engrammic * engrams * engrasp * engrasped * engrasping * engrasps * engrave * engraved * engraven * engraver * engraveries * engravers * engravery * engraves * engraving * engravings * engrenage * engrenages * engrieve * engrieved * engrieves * engrieving * engroove * engrooved * engrooves * engrooving * engross * engrossed * engrosser * engrossers * engrosses * engrossing * engrossingly * engrossment * engrossments * engs * enguard * enguarded * enguarding * enguards * engulf * engulfed * engulfing * engulfment * engulfments * engulfs * engulph * engulphed * engulphing * engulphs * engyscope * engyscopes * enhalo * enhaloed * enhaloes * enhaloing * enhalos * enhance * enhanced * enhancement * enhancements * enhancer * enhancers * enhances * enhancing * enhancive * enharmonic * enharmonical * enharmonically * enhearse * enhearsed * enhearses * enhearsing * enhearten * enheartened * enheartening * enheartens * enhunger * enhungered * enhungering * enhungers * enhydrite * enhydrites * enhydritic * enhydros * enhydroses * enhydrous * enhypostasia * enhypostasias * enhypostatic * enhypostatise * enhypostatised * enhypostatises * enhypostatising * enhypostatize * enhypostatized * enhypostatizes * enhypostatizing * eniac * eniacs * enigma * enigmas * enigmata * enigmatic * enigmatical * enigmatically * enigmatise * enigmatised * enigmatises * enigmatising * enigmatist * enigmatists * enigmatize * enigmatized * enigmatizes * enigmatizing * enigmatographies * enigmatography * enisle * enisled * enisles * enisling * enjamb * enjambed * enjambement * enjambements * enjambing * enjambment * enjambments * enjambs * enjoin * enjoined * enjoiner * enjoiners * enjoining * enjoinment * enjoinments * enjoins * enjoy * enjoyable * enjoyableness * enjoyablenesses * enjoyably * enjoyed * enjoyer * enjoyers * enjoying * enjoyment * enjoyments * enjoys * enkephalin * enkephaline * enkephalines * enkephalins * enkernel * enkernelled * enkernelling * enkernels * enkindle * enkindled * enkindler * enkindlers * enkindles * enkindling * enlace * enlaced * enlacement * enlacements * enlaces * enlacing * enlard * enlarded * enlarding * enlards * enlarge * enlargeable * enlarged * enlargedly * enlargedness * enlargednesses * enlargement * enlargements * enlargen * enlargened * enlargening * enlargens * enlarger * enlargers * enlarges * enlarging * enleve * enlevement * enlevements * enlight * enlighted * enlighten * enlightened * enlightener * enlighteners * enlightening * enlightenment * enlightenments * enlightens * enlighting * enlights * enlink * enlinked * enlinking * enlinks * enlist * enlisted * enlistee * enlistees * enlister * enlisters * enlisting * enlistment * enlistments * enlists * enlit * enliven * enlivened * enlivener * enliveners * enlivening * enlivenment * enlivenments * enlivens * enlock * enlocked * enlocking * enlocks * enlumine * enlumined * enlumines * enlumining * enmesh * enmeshed * enmeshes * enmeshing * enmeshment * enmeshments * enmew * enmewed * enmewing * enmews * enmities * enmity * enmossed * enmove * enmoved * enmoves * enmoving * ennage * ennages * ennead * enneadic * enneads * enneagon * enneagonal * enneagons * enneahedral * enneahedron * enneahedrons * enneandrian * enneandrous * enneastyle * ennoble * ennobled * ennoblement * ennoblements * ennobler * ennoblers * ennobles * ennobling * ennui * ennuied * ennuis * ennuye * ennuyed * ennuyee * ennuying * enodal * enoki * enokidake * enokidakes * enokis * enol * enolase * enolases * enolic * enological * enologies * enologist * enologists * enology * enols * enomoties * enomoty * enophile * enophiles * enorm * enormities * enormity * enormous * enormously * enormousness * enormousnesses * enoses * enosis * enosises * enough * enoughs * enounce * enounced * enouncement * enouncements * enounces * enouncing * enow * enows * enphytotic * enplane * enplaned * enplanes * enplaning * enprint * enprints * enquiration * enquirations * enquire * enquired * enquirer * enquirers * enquires * enquiries * enquiring * enquiringly * enquiry * enrace * enraced * enraces * enracing * enrage * enraged * enragedly * enragement * enragements * enrages * enraging * enranckle * enranckled * enranckles * enranckling * enrange * enranged * enranges * enranging * enrank * enranked * enranking * enranks * enrapt * enrapture * enraptured * enrapturement * enrapturements * enraptures * enrapturing * enraunge * enraunged * enraunges * enraunging * enravish * enravished * enravishes * enravishing * enregiment * enregiments * enregister * enregistered * enregistering * enregisters * enrheum * enrheumed * enrheuming * enrheums * enrich * enriched * enricher * enrichers * enriches * enriching * enrichment * enrichments * enridged * enring * enringed * enringing * enrings * enriven * enrobe * enrobed * enrober * enrobers * enrobes * enrobing * enrol * enroll * enrolled * enrollee * enrollees * enroller * enrollers * enrolling * enrollment * enrollments * enrolls * enrolment * enrolments * enrols * enroot * enrooted * enrooting * enroots * enrough * enroughed * enroughing * enroughs * enround * enrounded * enrounding * enrounds * ens * ensample * ensampled * ensamples * ensampling * ensanguinated * ensanguine * ensanguined * ensanguines * ensanguining * ensate * enschedule * enscheduled * enschedules * enscheduling * ensconce * ensconced * ensconces * ensconcing * enscroll * enscrolled * enscrolling * enscrolls * enseal * ensealed * ensealing * enseals * enseam * enseamed * enseaming * enseams * ensear * enseared * ensearing * ensears * ensemble * ensembles * ensepulchre * ensepulchred * ensepulchres * ensepulchring * enserf * enserfed * enserfing * enserfment * enserfments * enserfs * ensew * ensewed * ensewing * ensews * ensheath * ensheathe * ensheathed * ensheathes * ensheathing * ensheaths * enshell * enshelled * enshelling * enshells * enshelter * ensheltered * ensheltering * enshelters * enshield * enshielded * enshielding * enshields * enshrine * enshrined * enshrinee * enshrinees * enshrinement * enshrinements * enshrines * enshrining * enshroud * enshrouded * enshrouding * enshrouds * ensiform * ensign * ensigncies * ensigncy * ensigned * ensigning * ensigns * ensignship * ensignships * ensilage * ensilaged * ensilageing * ensilages * ensilaging * ensile * ensiled * ensiles * ensiling * enskied * enskies * ensky * enskyed * enskying * enslave * enslaved * enslavement * enslavements * enslaver * enslavers * enslaves * enslaving * ensnare * ensnared * ensnarement * ensnarements * ensnarer * ensnarers * ensnares * ensnaring * ensnarl * ensnarled * ensnarling * ensnarls * ensorcel * ensorceled * ensorceling * ensorcell * ensorcelled * ensorcelling * ensorcellment * ensorcellments * ensorcells * ensorcels * ensoul * ensouled * ensouling * ensoulment * ensoulments * ensouls * ensphere * ensphered * enspheres * ensphering * enstamp * enstamped * enstamping * enstamps * enstatite * enstatites * ensteep * ensteeped * ensteeping * ensteeps * enstructured * enstyle * enstyled * enstyles * enstyling * ensue * ensued * ensues * ensuing * ensure * ensured * ensurer * ensurers * ensures * ensuring * enswathe * enswathed * enswathement * enswathements * enswathes * enswathing * ensweep * ensweeping * ensweeps * enswept * entablature * entablatures * entablement * entablements * entail * entailed * entailer * entailers * entailing * entailment * entailments * entails * entame * entameba * entamebae * entamebas * entamed * entames * entaming * entamoeba * entamoebae * entamoebas * entangle * entangled * entanglement * entanglements * entangler * entanglers * entangles * entangling * entases * entasia * entasias * entasis * entastic * entayle * entayled * entayles * entayling * entelechies * entelechy * entellus * entelluses * entender * entendered * entendering * entenders * entente * ententes * enter * entera * enterable * enteral * enterally * enterate * enterchaunge * enterchaunged * enterchaunges * enterchaunging * enterdeale * enterdealed * enterdeales * enterdealing * enterectomies * enterectomy * entered * enterer * enterers * enteric * enterics * entering * enterings * enteritides * enteritis * enteritises * enterobacteria * enterobacterial * enterobacterium * enterobiases * enterobiasis * enterocele * enteroceles * enterocenteses * enterocentesis * enterochromaffin * enterococcal * enterococci * enterococcus * enterocoel * enterocoele * enterocoeles * enterocoelic * enterocoelous * enterocoels * enterocolitis * enterocolitises * enterogastrone * enterogastrones * enterokinase * enterokinases * enterolith * enteroliths * enteron * enterons * enteropathies * enteropathogenic * enteropathy * enteropneust * enteropneustal * enteropneusts * enteroptoses * enteroptosis * enterostomal * enterostomies * enterostomy * enterotomies * enterotomy * enterotoxin * enterotoxins * enteroviral * enterovirus * enteroviruses * enterprise * enterprised * enterpriser * enterprisers * enterprises * enterprising * enterprisingly * enters * entertain * entertained * entertainer * entertainers * entertaining * entertainingly * entertainings * entertainment * entertainments * entertains * entertake * entertaken * entertakes * entertaking * entertissued * entertook * entete * entetee * enthalpies * enthalpy * enthetic * enthral * enthraldom * enthraldoms * enthrall * enthralled * enthralling * enthrallingly * enthrallment * enthrallments * enthralls * enthralment * enthralments * enthrals * enthrone * enthroned * enthronement * enthronements * enthrones * enthroning * enthronisation * enthronisations * enthronise * enthronised * enthronises * enthronising * enthronization * enthronizations * enthronize * enthronized * enthronizes * enthronizing * enthuse * enthused * enthuses * enthusiasm * enthusiasms * enthusiast * enthusiastic * enthusiastical * enthusiastically * enthusiasts * enthusing * enthymematic * enthymematical * enthymeme * enthymemes * entia * entice * enticeable * enticed * enticement * enticements * enticer * enticers * entices * enticing * enticingly * enticings * entire * entirely * entireness * entirenesses * entires * entireties * entirety * entitative * entities * entitle * entitled * entitlement * entitlements * entitles * entitling * entity * entoblast * entoblasts * entoderm * entodermal * entodermic * entoderms * entoil * entoiled * entoiling * entoilment * entoilments * entoils * entomb * entombed * entombing * entombment * entombments * entombs * entomic * entomofauna * entomofaunae * entomofaunas * entomologic * entomological * entomologically * entomologies * entomologise * entomologised * entomologises * entomologising * entomologist * entomologists * entomologize * entomologized * entomologizes * entomologizing * entomology * entomophagies * entomophagous * entomophagy * entomophilies * entomophilous * entomophily * entomostracan * entomostracans * entomostracous * entophytal * entophyte * entophytes * entophytic * entophytous * entopic * entoplastral * entoplastron * entoplastrons * entoproct * entoprocts * entoptic * entoptics * entotic * entourage * entourages * entozoa * entozoal * entozoan * entozoans * entozoic * entozoon * entrail * entrailed * entrailing * entrails * entrain * entrained * entrainement * entrainements * entrainer * entrainers * entraining * entrainment * entrainments * entrains * entrall * entralles * entrammel * entrammelled * entrammelling * entrammels * entrance * entranced * entrancement * entrancements * entrances * entranceway * entranceways * entrancing * entrancingly * entrant * entrants * entrap * entrapment * entrapments * entrapped * entrapper * entrappers * entrapping * entraps * entreasure * entreasured * entreasures * entreasuring * entreat * entreatable * entreated * entreaties * entreating * entreatingly * entreative * entreatment * entreatments * entreats * entreaty * entrechat * entrechats * entrecote * entrecotes * entree * entrees * entremes * entremesse * entremesses * entremets * entrench * entrenched * entrenches * entrenching * entrenchment * entrenchments * entrepot * entrepots * entrepreneur * entrepreneurial * entrepreneurialism * entrepreneurialisms * entrepreneurially * entrepreneurism * entrepreneurisms * entrepreneurs * entrepreneurship * entrepreneurships * entrepreneuse * entrepreneuses * entresol * entresols * entrez * entries * entrism * entrisms * entrist * entrists * entrold * entropic * entropically * entropies * entropion * entropions * entropium * entropiums * entropy * entrust * entrusted * entrusting * entrustment * entrustments * entrusts * entry * entryism * entryisms * entryist * entryists * entryphone * entryphones * entryway * entryways * entwine * entwined * entwinement * entwinements * entwines * entwining * entwist * entwisted * entwisting * entwists * enucleate * enucleated * enucleates * enucleating * enucleation * enucleations * enuf * enumerabilities * enumerability * enumerable * enumerate * enumerated * enumerates * enumerating * enumeration * enumerations * enumerative * enumerator * enumerators * enunciable * enunciate * enunciated * enunciates * enunciating * enunciation * enunciations * enunciative * enunciatively * enunciator * enunciators * enunciatory * enure * enured * enuredness * enurednesses * enurement * enurements * enures * enureses * enuresis * enuresises * enuretic * enuretics * enuring * envassal * envassalled * envassalling * envassals * envault * envaulted * envaulting * envaults * enveigle * enveigled * enveigles * enveigling * envelop * envelope * enveloped * enveloper * envelopers * envelopes * enveloping * envelopment * envelopments * envelops * envenom * envenomed * envenoming * envenomization * envenomizations * envenoms * envermeil * envermeiled * envermeiling * envermeils * enviable * enviableness * enviablenesses * enviably * envied * envier * enviers * envies * envious * enviously * enviousness * enviousnesses * enviro * environ * environed * environics * environing * environment * environmental * environmentalism * environmentalisms * environmentalist * environmentalists * environmentally * environments * environs * enviros * envisage * envisaged * envisagement * envisagements * envisages * envisaging * envision * envisioned * envisioning * envisions * envoi * envois * envoy * envoys * envoyship * envoyships * envy * envying * envyingly * envyings * enwall * enwalled * enwalling * enwallow * enwallowed * enwallowing * enwallows * enwalls * enwheel * enwheeled * enwheeling * enwheels * enwind * enwinding * enwinds * enwomb * enwombed * enwombing * enwombs * enwound * enwrap * enwrapment * enwrapments * enwrapped * enwrapping * enwrappings * enwraps * enwreathe * enwreathed * enwreathes * enwreathing * enzian * enzians * enzone * enzoned * enzones * enzoning * enzootic * enzootics * enzym * enzymatic * enzymatically * enzyme * enzymes * enzymic * enzymically * enzymologies * enzymologist * enzymologists * enzymology * enzyms
What is history like?
It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania, Moldova (including the breakaway Pridnestrovie) to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev (Kyiv) is both the capital and the largest city of Ukraine.The nation's modern history began with that of the East Slavs. From at least the 9th century, the territory of Ukraine was a center of the medieval Varangian-dominated East Slavic civilization, forming the state of Kievan Rus' which disintegrated in the 12th century. From the 14th century on, the territory of 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 in 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 again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the United Nations.[4] 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.[5] Since then, the economy has been experiencing a stable increase, with real GDP growth averaging eight percent annually.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 46.2 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 and is known to most Ukrainians as a second language. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.Early historyHuman settlement in the territory of Ukraine dates back to at least 4500 BC, when the Neolithic Cucuteni culture flourished in a wide area that covered 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.[6] 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. In the 7th century AD, the territory of eastern Ukraine was part 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 KievMain article: Kievan Rus'Map of the Kievan Rus' in the 11th century. During the Golden Age of Kiev, the lands of Rus' covered much of present day Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. In the 9th century, much of modern-day Ukraine was populated by the Rus' people who formed the Kievan Rus'. Kievan Rus' included nearely all territory 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.[3] In the following centuries, it laid the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians and Russians.[7] 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.[7] 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 (Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь, Volodymyr, 980-1015), who turned Rus' toward Byzantine Christianity. During the reign of his son, Yaroslav the Wise (Russian: Ярослав Мудрый) (1019-1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power.[7] 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 (Russian: Мстислав Владимирович) (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.[8] The 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.[9] 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 dominationSee also: Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Crown of the Polish Kingdom, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Russian EmpireIn 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 the Great 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, most of Ukraine's territory was controlled by the increasingly Ruthenized local Lithuanian nobles as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, the term Ruthenia and Ruthenians as the Latinized versions of "Rus'", became widely applied to the land and the people of Ukraine, respectively.[10]By 1569, the Union of Lublin formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural and political pressure of Polonisation much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to Catholicism and became indistinguishable from the Polish nobility.[11] Thus, the Ukrainian commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Ruthenian 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.[12] Ukraine suffered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into jasyr.[13]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.[14] Poland had little real control of this land (Wild Fields), yet they found the Cossacks to be a useful fighting force against the Turks and Tatars, and at times the two allied in military campaigns.[15] 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.[15] 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,[14] and the preservation of the Orthodox Church and in Ukraine.[16]In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir.[17] Left-bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into 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. 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.[18][edit] World War I and revolutionMain article: Ukrainian War of IndependenceSee also: Ukraine in World War I, Russian Civil War, and Ukraine after the Russian RevolutionUkraine entered World War I on the side of both the Central Powers, under Austria, and the Triple Entente, under Russia. 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).[19]Soldiers of the Ukrainian People's ArmyWith 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 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.[20] 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.[21][edit] Interwar Soviet UkraineSoviet 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 poster uses traditional Ukrainian imagery and Ukrainian-language text. 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.[22] Seeing the exhausted society, the Soviet government remained very flexible during the 1920s.[23] Thus, the Ukrainian culture and language enjoyed a revival, as Ukrainisation became a local implementation of the Soviet-wide Korenisation (literally indigenisation) policy.[21] The Bolsheviks were also committed to introducing universal health care, education and social-security benefits, as well as the right to work and housing.[24] Women's rights were greatly increased through new laws aimed to wipe away centuries-old inequalities.[25] 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.DniproGES hydroelectric power plant under construction circa 1930Starting from the late 1920s, Ukraine was involved in the Soviet industrialisation and the republic's industrial output quadrupled in the 1930s.[21] However, 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 enforcing the policies by the regular troops and secret police.[21] 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.[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 the genocide of the Ukrainian people.[c]The times of industrialisation and Holodomor also coincided with the Soviet assault on the national political and cultural elite often accused in "nationalist deviations". 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.[21][b][edit] World War IISee also: Eastern Front (World War II)Soviet soldiers preparing rafts to cross the Dnieper (the sign reads "To 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.[26][27]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.[28][29] Although the wide majority of Ukrainians fought alongside the Red Army and Soviet resistance,[30] 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; while 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[30] to 7 million.[31][d] The pro-Soviet partisan guerrilla 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 48 percent of them being ethnic Ukrainians.[32] Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are very undependable, ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as much as 100,000 fighters.[33][34]Museum of the Great Patriotic War, KievInitially, 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.[35] 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,[35] which included a food blockade on Kiev.The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the Eastern Front,[36] and Nazi Germany suffered 93 percent of all casualties there.[37] The total losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated between five and eight million,[38][39] 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,[40][41][42] 1.4 million were ethnic Ukrainians.[42][40][d][e] So to this day, Victory Day is celebrated as one of ten Ukrainian national holidays.[43][edit] Post-World War IISee 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.[44] 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.[45]The nationalist anti-Soviet resistance lasted for years after the war, chiefly in Western Ukraine, but also in other regions.[46] The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, continued to fight the USSR into the 1950s. Using guerrilla war tactics, the insurgents targeted for assassination and terror those who they perceived as representing, or cooperating at any level with, the Soviet state.[47][48]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.[49]Already by the 1950s, the republic fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production.[50] 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.[51][52] At the time of the accident seven million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine.[53] 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. Around 150,000 people were evacuated from the contaminated area, and 300,000-600,000 took part in the cleanup. By 2000, about 4,000 Ukrainian children had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer caused by radiation released by this incident.[54] Other Chernobyl disaster effects include other forms of cancer and genetic abnormalities, affecting newborns and children in particular.[edit] IndependenceOn July 16, 1990, the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.[55] 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.[56] 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).[57]Orange-clad demonstrators gather in the Independence Square in Kiev on November 22, 2004 Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union.[58] 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,[59][60] and suffered five-digit inflation rates.[61] Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and organised strikes.[62]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 economic growth averaging about seven percent annually.[63][5] A new Constitution of Ukraine was adopted in 1996, which turned Ukraine into a semi-presidential republic and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticized by opponents for concentrating too much of power in his office, corruption, transferring public property into hands of loyal oligarchs, discouraging free speech, and electoral fraud.[64] 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.[65] The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the results and led the peaceful Orange Revolution. The revolution brought Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition.[66]
What is Ukraine's history like?
It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania, Moldova (including the breakaway Pridnestrovie) to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev (Kyiv) is both the capital and the largest city of Ukraine.The nation's modern history began with that of the East Slavs. From at least the 9th century, the territory of Ukraine was a center of the medieval Varangian-dominated East Slavic civilization, forming the state of Kievan Rus' which disintegrated in the 12th century. From the 14th century on, the territory of 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 in 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 again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the United Nations.[4] 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.[5] Since then, the economy has been experiencing a stable increase, with real GDP growth averaging eight percent annually.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 46.2 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 and is known to most Ukrainians as a second language. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.Early historyHuman settlement in the territory of Ukraine dates back to at least 4500 BC, when the Neolithic Cucuteni culture flourished in a wide area that covered 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.[6] 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. In the 7th century AD, the territory of eastern Ukraine was part 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 KievMain article: Kievan Rus'Map of the Kievan Rus' in the 11th century. During the Golden Age of Kiev, the lands of Rus' covered much of present day Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. In the 9th century, much of modern-day Ukraine was populated by the Rus' people who formed the Kievan Rus'. Kievan Rus' included nearely all territory 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.[3] In the following centuries, it laid the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians and Russians.[7] 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.[7] 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 (Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь, Volodymyr, 980-1015), who turned Rus' toward Byzantine Christianity. During the reign of his son, Yaroslav the Wise (Russian: Ярослав Мудрый) (1019-1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power.[7] 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 (Russian: Мстислав Владимирович) (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.[8] The 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.[9] 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 dominationSee also: Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Crown of the Polish Kingdom, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Russian EmpireIn 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 the Great 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, most of Ukraine's territory was controlled by the increasingly Ruthenized local Lithuanian nobles as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, the term Ruthenia and Ruthenians as the Latinized versions of "Rus'", became widely applied to the land and the people of Ukraine, respectively.[10]By 1569, the Union of Lublin formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural and political pressure of Polonisation much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to Catholicism and became indistinguishable from the Polish nobility.[11] Thus, the Ukrainian commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Ruthenian 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.[12] Ukraine suffered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into jasyr.[13]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.[14] Poland had little real control of this land (Wild Fields), yet they found the Cossacks to be a useful fighting force against the Turks and Tatars, and at times the two allied in military campaigns.[15] 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.[15] 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,[14] and the preservation of the Orthodox Church and in Ukraine.[16]In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir.[17] Left-bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into 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. 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.[18][edit] World War I and revolutionMain article: Ukrainian War of IndependenceSee also: Ukraine in World War I, Russian Civil War, and Ukraine after the Russian RevolutionUkraine entered World War I on the side of both the Central Powers, under Austria, and the Triple Entente, under Russia. 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).[19]Soldiers of the Ukrainian People's ArmyWith 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 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.[20] 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.[21][edit] Interwar Soviet UkraineSoviet 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 poster uses traditional Ukrainian imagery and Ukrainian-language text. 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.[22] Seeing the exhausted society, the Soviet government remained very flexible during the 1920s.[23] Thus, the Ukrainian culture and language enjoyed a revival, as Ukrainisation became a local implementation of the Soviet-wide Korenisation (literally indigenisation) policy.[21] The Bolsheviks were also committed to introducing universal health care, education and social-security benefits, as well as the right to work and housing.[24] Women's rights were greatly increased through new laws aimed to wipe away centuries-old inequalities.[25] 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.DniproGES hydroelectric power plant under construction circa 1930Starting from the late 1920s, Ukraine was involved in the Soviet industrialisation and the republic's industrial output quadrupled in the 1930s.[21] However, 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 enforcing the policies by the regular troops and secret police.[21] 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.[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 the genocide of the Ukrainian people.[c]The times of industrialisation and Holodomor also coincided with the Soviet assault on the national political and cultural elite often accused in "nationalist deviations". 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.[21][b][edit] World War IISee also: Eastern Front (World War II)Soviet soldiers preparing rafts to cross the Dnieper (the sign reads "To 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.[26][27]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.[28][29] Although the wide majority of Ukrainians fought alongside the Red Army and Soviet resistance,[30] 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; while 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[30] to 7 million.[31][d] The pro-Soviet partisan guerrilla 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 48 percent of them being ethnic Ukrainians.[32] Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are very undependable, ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as much as 100,000 fighters.[33][34]Museum of the Great Patriotic War, KievInitially, 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.[35] 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,[35] which included a food blockade on Kiev.The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the Eastern Front,[36] and Nazi Germany suffered 93 percent of all casualties there.[37] The total losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated between five and eight million,[38][39] 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,[40][41][42] 1.4 million were ethnic Ukrainians.[42][40][d][e] So to this day, Victory Day is celebrated as one of ten Ukrainian national holidays.[43][edit] Post-World War IISee 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.[44] 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.[45]The nationalist anti-Soviet resistance lasted for years after the war, chiefly in Western Ukraine, but also in other regions.[46] The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, continued to fight the USSR into the 1950s. Using guerrilla war tactics, the insurgents targeted for assassination and terror those who they perceived as representing, or cooperating at any level with, the Soviet state.[47][48]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.[49]Already by the 1950s, the republic fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production.[50] 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.[51][52] At the time of the accident seven million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine.[53] 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. Around 150,000 people were evacuated from the contaminated area, and 300,000-600,000 took part in the cleanup. By 2000, about 4,000 Ukrainian children had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer caused by radiation released by this incident.[54] Other Chernobyl disaster effects include other forms of cancer and genetic abnormalities, affecting newborns and children in particular.[edit] IndependenceOn July 16, 1990, the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.[55] 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.[56] 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).[57]Orange-clad demonstrators gather in the Independence Square in Kiev on November 22, 2004 Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union.[58] 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,[59][60] and suffered five-digit inflation rates.[61] Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and organised strikes.[62]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 economic growth averaging about seven percent annually.[63][5] A new Constitution of Ukraine was adopted in 1996, which turned Ukraine into a semi-presidential republic and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticized by opponents for concentrating too much of power in his office, corruption, transferring public property into hands of loyal oligarchs, discouraging free speech, and electoral fraud.[64] 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.[65] The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the results and led the peaceful Orange Revolution. The revolution brought Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition.[66]
What is Ukraine like?
It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania, Moldova (including the breakaway Pridnestrovie) to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev (Kyiv) is both the capital and the largest city of Ukraine.The nation's modern history began with that of the East Slavs. From at least the 9th century, the territory of Ukraine was a center of the medieval Varangian-dominated East Slavic civilization, forming the state of Kievan Rus' which disintegrated in the 12th century. From the 14th century on, the territory of 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 in 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 again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the United Nations.[4] 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.[5] Since then, the economy has been experiencing a stable increase, with real GDP growth averaging eight percent annually.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 46.2 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 and is known to most Ukrainians as a second language. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.Early historyHuman settlement in the territory of Ukraine dates back to at least 4500 BC, when the Neolithic Cucuteni culture flourished in a wide area that covered 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.[6] 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. In the 7th century AD, the territory of eastern Ukraine was part 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 KievMain article: Kievan Rus'Map of the Kievan Rus' in the 11th century. During the Golden Age of Kiev, the lands of Rus' covered much of present day Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. In the 9th century, much of modern-day Ukraine was populated by the Rus' people who formed the Kievan Rus'. Kievan Rus' included nearely all territory 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.[3] In the following centuries, it laid the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians and Russians.[7] 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.[7] 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 (Old East Slavic: Володимеръ Святославичь, Volodymyr, 980-1015), who turned Rus' toward Byzantine Christianity. During the reign of his son, Yaroslav the Wise (Russian: Ярослав Мудрый) (1019-1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power.[7] 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 (Russian: Мстислав Владимирович) (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.[8] The 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.[9] 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 dominationSee also: Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Crown of the Polish Kingdom, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Russian EmpireIn 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 the Great 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, most of Ukraine's territory was controlled by the increasingly Ruthenized local Lithuanian nobles as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, the term Ruthenia and Ruthenians as the Latinized versions of "Rus'", became widely applied to the land and the people of Ukraine, respectively.[10]By 1569, the Union of Lublin formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural and political pressure of Polonisation much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to Catholicism and became indistinguishable from the Polish nobility.[11] Thus, the Ukrainian commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Ruthenian 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.[12] Ukraine suffered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into jasyr.[13]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.[14] Poland had little real control of this land (Wild Fields), yet they found the Cossacks to be a useful fighting force against the Turks and Tatars, and at times the two allied in military campaigns.[15] 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.[15] 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,[14] and the preservation of the Orthodox Church and in Ukraine.[16]In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king John II Casimir.[17] Left-bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into 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. 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.[18][edit] World War I and revolutionMain article: Ukrainian War of IndependenceSee also: Ukraine in World War I, Russian Civil War, and Ukraine after the Russian RevolutionUkraine entered World War I on the side of both the Central Powers, under Austria, and the Triple Entente, under Russia. 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).[19]Soldiers of the Ukrainian People's ArmyWith 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 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.[20] 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.[21][edit] Interwar Soviet UkraineSoviet 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 poster uses traditional Ukrainian imagery and Ukrainian-language text. 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.[22] Seeing the exhausted society, the Soviet government remained very flexible during the 1920s.[23] Thus, the Ukrainian culture and language enjoyed a revival, as Ukrainisation became a local implementation of the Soviet-wide Korenisation (literally indigenisation) policy.[21] The Bolsheviks were also committed to introducing universal health care, education and social-security benefits, as well as the right to work and housing.[24] Women's rights were greatly increased through new laws aimed to wipe away centuries-old inequalities.[25] 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.DniproGES hydroelectric power plant under construction circa 1930Starting from the late 1920s, Ukraine was involved in the Soviet industrialisation and the republic's industrial output quadrupled in the 1930s.[21] However, 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 enforcing the policies by the regular troops and secret police.[21] 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.[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 the genocide of the Ukrainian people.[c]The times of industrialisation and Holodomor also coincided with the Soviet assault on the national political and cultural elite often accused in "nationalist deviations". 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.[21][b][edit] World War IISee also: Eastern Front (World War II)Soviet soldiers preparing rafts to cross the Dnieper (the sign reads "To 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.[26][27]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.[28][29] Although the wide majority of Ukrainians fought alongside the Red Army and Soviet resistance,[30] 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; while 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[30] to 7 million.[31][d] The pro-Soviet partisan guerrilla 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 48 percent of them being ethnic Ukrainians.[32] Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are very undependable, ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as much as 100,000 fighters.[33][34]Museum of the Great Patriotic War, KievInitially, 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.[35] 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,[35] which included a food blockade on Kiev.The vast majority of the fighting in World War II took place on the Eastern Front,[36] and Nazi Germany suffered 93 percent of all casualties there.[37] The total losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated between five and eight million,[38][39] 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,[40][41][42] 1.4 million were ethnic Ukrainians.[42][40][d][e] So to this day, Victory Day is celebrated as one of ten Ukrainian national holidays.[43][edit] Post-World War IISee 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.[44] 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.[45]The nationalist anti-Soviet resistance lasted for years after the war, chiefly in Western Ukraine, but also in other regions.[46] The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, continued to fight the USSR into the 1950s. Using guerrilla war tactics, the insurgents targeted for assassination and terror those who they perceived as representing, or cooperating at any level with, the Soviet state.[47][48]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.[49]Already by the 1950s, the republic fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production.[50] 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.[51][52] At the time of the accident seven million people lived in the contaminated territories, including 2.2 million in Ukraine.[53] 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. Around 150,000 people were evacuated from the contaminated area, and 300,000-600,000 took part in the cleanup. By 2000, about 4,000 Ukrainian children had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer caused by radiation released by this incident.[54] Other Chernobyl disaster effects include other forms of cancer and genetic abnormalities, affecting newborns and children in particular.[edit] IndependenceOn July 16, 1990, the new parliament adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine.[55] 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.[56] 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).[57]Orange-clad demonstrators gather in the Independence Square in Kiev on November 22, 2004 Ukraine was initially viewed as a republic with favorable economic conditions in comparison to the other regions of the Soviet Union.[58] 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,[59][60] and suffered five-digit inflation rates.[61] Dissatisfied with the economic conditions, as well as crime and corruption, Ukrainians protested and organised strikes.[62]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 economic growth averaging about seven percent annually.[63][5] A new Constitution of Ukraine was adopted in 1996, which turned Ukraine into a semi-presidential republic and established a stable political system. Kuchma was, however, criticized by opponents for concentrating too much of power in his office, corruption, transferring public property into hands of loyal oligarchs, discouraging free speech, and electoral fraud.[64] 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.[65] The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the results and led the peaceful Orange Revolution. The revolution brought Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Viktor Yanukovych in opposition.[66]
