Ukrainians are deeply affected by the country’s long history that predates the independent state by some 1,500 years. The march of successive civilizations from prehistoric times, the Scythians, Greeks, Varaungian, Slavic, and Turkic peoples have all left their mark. The birthplace of the Slavic state was Kievan Rus which flourished a thousand years ago.

There is an old legend which tells of three brothers who found Kiev (also known as Kyiv in Ukrainian spelling) at the end of the fifth century. The brothers Kiy, Khoriv, and Shchek, along with their sister, Lybid, decided to name this newly founded town “Kiev”, which means Kiy’s town or the town of Kiy . On the photo below you may see the monument to the founders of Kiev brothers Kiy, Khoriv, and Shchek, and their sister Lybid on the Dnieper River.

Kiev bloomed during the end of the ninth century as a political center inhabited by Eastern Slavs. Kiev had an advantageous trade route in the center of Europe which allowed it to maintain political and economic ties with the West.

In 988, Kiev’s Prince Volodymer the Great introduced Christianity to Kiev making it the official religion of Kievan Rus. This move played an important role in Kiev’s political development and cultural relations with the European and Near Eastern countries.

In 1240, Kiev was invaded by the Tatar-Mongols led by the grandson of Genghis Khan. The city was captured and its glory fell into decline during the period of almost century-long rule by the Tatar-Mongols.

For many centuries thereafter Ukraine was attacked and ruled by Poland and Lithuanian in the Rzecz Pospolita Commonwealth, Russia, Germany and others. During this time Ukrainian Cossack armies were formed which were led by a Hetman (military leader). One of the most famous Hetman is Bohdan Khmelnitsky who inspired one of the greatest Cossack uprisings that led to the liberation of Kiev in 1648. He was considered by some a traitor after he signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav which authorized protection from the Russian Czar. This treaty joined Ukraine and Russia into one and led to a long period of domination by the Russian Empire and ultimately the Soviet Union.

After the revolution of 1917 Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik Party seized power and expanded their sphere of control into Ukraine.

Ukraine experienced a brief period of independence when on January 22, 1918; the Ukrainian Central Rada (Council) formally issued a proclamation for Ukraine’s independence. But shortly thereafter in 1919, the Ukrainian National Republic was defeated in a war against Polish expansionists and overrun once again.

Eventually, Bolshevik and Communist forces retook Ukrainian lands, and as a means to control the population, leader Josef Stalin caused the Great Famine of 1932-33 by forcibly collecting grain and deliberately starving to death nearly ten million people. Nazi Germany then began World War II and entered Kiev in September 1941 razing the city. In November 1943, Soviet forces retook the city in fierce fighting and began their final domination of Ukraine for almost the next fifty years.

Attention from the West turned to Ukraine after the nuclear meltdown at the Chernobyl power plant in April 1986. Since then Ukrainians felt the decreased political power wielded by the Soviet Union’s Communist leaders.
After the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic proclaimed Ukraine’s sovereignty in July 1990, Ukrainians fulfilled their dream of independence during the failed Soviet coup of August 1991. In a referendum held on December 1, 1991 the people of Ukraine endorsed independence and voted Leonid Kravchuk as Ukraine’s first ever democratically elected President.

Nowadays Ukraine has a popularly-elected President (Viktor Yanukovych), a 450-person single chamber national parliament Verkhovna Rada, and a Prime Minister (Nikolay Azarov), nominated by the President subject to approval by the Rada. The new post-Soviet Constitution was adopted by Verkhovna Rada on June 28, 1996.