Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an
East Slavic ethnic group native to
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. They are the seventh-largest nation in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. The native language of the Ukrainians is
Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are
Eastern Orthodox Christians
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...
.
While under the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...
, the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...
, and then
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, the East Slavic population who lived in the territories of modern-day Ukraine were historically known as
Ruthenians, referring to the territory of
Ruthenia, and to distinguish them with the Ukrainians living under the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, who were known as Little Russians, named after the territory of
Little Russia.
Cossack heritage is especially emphasized, for example in the
Ukrainian national anthem.
Ethnonym
The
ethnonym ''Ukrainians'' came into wide use only in the 20th century after the territory of Ukraine obtained distinctive
statehood in 1917. From the 14th to the 16th centuries the western portions of the European part of what is now known as Russia, plus the territories of northern Ukraine and Belarus (
Western Rus) were largely known as ''Rus'', continuing the tradition of
Kievan Rus
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Hist ...
. People of these territories were usually called ''
Rus'' or ''
Rusyns'' (known as Ruthenians in
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
and Central Europe). The period of Old Ukrainian (mid-11th to late 14th century) dates from the same time as the oldest extant Rus' texts and coincides with the rise and fall of Kievan Rus'.
The
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state lan ...
is, like modern Russian and Belarusian, a descendent of Old East Slavic. In Western and Central Europe it was known by the exonym "Ruthenian". In the 16th and 17th centuries, with the establishment of the
Zaporizhian Sich, names of Ukraine and Ukrainian began to be used in Sloboda Ukraine. After the decline of the Zaporizhian Sich and the establishment of
Imperial Russian hegemony in Left Bank Ukraine, Ukrainians became more widely known by Russians as "''Little Russians"'' (''Malorossy''), with the majority of Ukrainian élites espousing
Little Russian identity and adopting the Russian language (as Ukrainian was outlawed in almost all contexts).
This exonym (regarded now as a humiliating imperialist imposition) did not spread widely among the peasantry which constituted the majority of the population.
Ukrainian peasants still referred to their country as "Ukraine" (a name associated with the Zaporizhian Sich, with the
Hetmanate and with their struggle against Poles, Russians, Turks and Crimean Tatars) and to themselves and their language as
Ruthenians/
Ruthenian.
With the publication of
Ivan Kotliarevsky
Ivan Petrovych Kotliarevsky ( uk, Іван Петрович Котляревський) ( in Poltava – in Poltava, Russian Empire, now Ukraine) was a Ukrainian writer, poet and playwright, social activist, regarded as the pioneer of modern Ukra ...
's ''Eneyida'' (Aeneid) in 1798, which established the modern
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state lan ...
, and with the subsequent Romantic revival of national traditions and culture, the ethnonym ''Ukrainians'' and the notion of a Ukrainian language came into more prominence at the beginning of the 19th century and gradually replaced the words "Rusyns" and "Ruthenian(s)". In areas outside the control of the Russian/Soviet state until the mid-20th century (
Western Ukraine), Ukrainians were known by their pre-existing names for much longer.
The appellation ''Ukrainians'' initially came into common usage in
Central Ukraine and did not take hold in
Galicia and
Bukovina until the latter part of the 19th century, in
Transcarpathia until the 1930s, and in the
Prešov Region until the late 1940s.
The modern name ''Ukraintsi'' (Ukrainians) derives from ''Ukraina'' (Ukraine), a name first documented in 1187. Several scientific theories attempt to explain the etymology of the term. According to the traditional theory, it derives from the Proto-Slavic root *kraj-, which has two meanings, one meaning the homeland as in "''nash rodnoi kraj''" (our homeland), and the other "edge, border", and originally had the sense of "periphery", "borderland" or "frontier region".
According to another theory, the term ''ukraina'' should be distinguished from the term ''okraina'': whereas the latter term means "borderland", the former one has the meaning of "cut-off piece of land", thus acquiring the connotation of "our land", "land allotted to us".
In the last three centuries the population of Ukraine experienced periods of
Polonization
Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэя� ...
and
Russification, but preserved a common culture and a sense of common identity.
Geographic distribution
Most ethnic Ukrainians live in Ukraine, where they make up over three-quarters of the population. The largest population of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine lives in Russia where about 1.9 million Russian citizens identify as Ukrainian, while millions of others (primarily in
southern Russia and
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
) have some Ukrainian ancestry.
[Ethnic composition of the population of the Russian Federation](_blank)
The inhabitants of the
Kuban, for example, have vacillated among three identities: Ukrainian, Russian (an identity supported by the
Soviet regime
The political system of the Soviet Union took place in a federal single-party soviet socialist republic framework which was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the Co ...
), and "
Cossack".
[ in: Roman Senkus et al. (eds.), ''The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine'', revised and updated content based on the five-volume Encyclopedia of Ukraine (University of Toronto Press, 1984–93) edited by Volodymyr Kubijovyc (vols. 1–2) and Danylo Husar Struk (vols. 3–5). Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) (University of Alberta/University of Toronto).] Approximately 800,000 people of Ukrainian ancestry live in the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...
in an area known historically as "
Green Ukraine".
In a 2011 national poll of Ukraine, 49% of Ukrainians said they had relatives living in Russia.
According to some previous assumptions, an estimated number of almost 2.4 million people of Ukrainian origin live in North America (1,359,655 in Canada and 1,028,492 in the United States). Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil (600,000),
[See also Prudentópolis, Brazil.] Kazakhstan (338,022), Moldova (325,235), Argentina (305,000), (Germany) (272,000), Italy (234,354), Belarus (225,734), Uzbekistan (124,602), the Czech Republic (110,245), Spain (90,530–100,000) and Romania (51,703–200,000). There are also large Ukrainian communities in such countries as Latvia, Portugal, France, Australia, Paraguay, the UK, Israel, Slovakia, Kyrgyzstan, Austria, Uruguay and the former
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
. Generally, the Ukrainian diaspora is present in more than one hundred and twenty countries of the world.
The number of Ukrainians in Poland amounted to some 51,000 people in 2011 (according to the
Polish Census). Since 2014, the country has experienced a large increase in immigration from Ukraine. More recent data put the number of Ukrainian migrant workers at 1.2
– 1.3 million in 2016.
[Ukrainian citizens may take up employment in Poland without obtaining a work permit for a maximum period of 6 months within a year on the basis of a declaration of intention to entrust a job to a foreigner. In 2016, over 1.262 million such declarations were issued for Ukrainian national]
http://www.bankier.pl/wiadomosc/Milion-Ukraincow-zasililo-polski-rynek-pracy-w-2016-roku-7503408.html]
In the last decades of the 19th century, many Ukrainians were forced by the
Tsarist autocracy to move to the Asian regions of Russia, while many of their counterpart Slavs under
Austro-Hungarian rule emigrated to the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
seeking work and better economic opportunities. Today, large ethnic Ukrainian minorities reside in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, Italy and
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. According to some sources, around 20 million people outside Ukraine identify as having Ukrainian ethnicity,
however the official data of the respective countries calculated together doesn't show more than 10 million. Ukrainians have one of the largest
diasporas in the world.
Origin
The
East Slavs
The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor.John Channon & Robert H ...
emerged from the undifferentiated
early Slavs in the
Slavic migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries CE. The state of
Kievan Rus
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Hist ...
united the East Slavs during the 9th to 13th centuries. East Slavic tribes cited as "proto-Ukrainian" include the
Volhynians The Volhynians ( uk , Волиняни, Volyniany, pl , Wołynianie) were an East Slavic tribe of the Early Middle Ages and the Principality of Volhynia in 987–1199.
Historiography
Russian Perspective
Russian historiography on regions ...
,
Derevlianians,
Polianians
The Polans (, ''Poliany'', ''Polyane'', pl, Polanie), also Polianians, were an East Slavs, East Slavic tribe between the 6th and the 9th century, which inhabited both sides of the Dnieper river from Liubech to Rodnia and also down the lower s ...
, and
Siverianians and the less significant
Ulychians,
Tivertsi
The Tivertsi ( uk, Тиверці; ro, Tiverți or ), were a tribe of early East Slavs which lived in the lands near the Dniester, and probably the lower Danube, that is in modern-day western Ukraine and Republic of Moldova and possibly in east ...
ans, and
White Croats
White Croats ( hr, Bijeli Hrvati; pl, Biali Chorwaci; cz, Bílí Chorvati; uk, Білі хорвати, Bili khorvaty), or simply known as Croats, were a group of Early Slavic tribes who lived among other West and East Slavic tribes in the ar ...
.
The
Gothic historian
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') a ...
and 6th-century
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
authors named two groups that lived in the south-east of Europe: ''Sclavins'' (western Slavs) and
Antes. Polianians are identified as the founders of the city of
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
and as playing the key role in the formation of the Kievan Rus state. At the beginning of the 9th century,
Varangians
The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';[Varangian]
" Online Etymo ...
used the waterways of Eastern Europe for military raids and trade, particularly the
trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a medieval trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Eastern Roman Empire. The route allowed merchants along its length to establish a direct prosperous trade with the Empir ...
. Until the 11th century these Varangians also served as key mercenary troops for a number of princes in medieval Kyiv, as well as for some of the
Byzantine emperors, while others occupied key administrative positions in Kievan Rus society, and eventually became slavicized. Besides other cultural traces, several Ukrainian names show traces of
Norse origins as a result of influences from that period.
Differentiation between separate East Slavic groups began to emerge in the later medieval period, and an East Slavic
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
developed within the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...
, with the
Ruthenian language emerging as a written standard. The active development of a concept of a Ukrainian nation and a Ukrainian language began with the
Ukrainian National Revival in the early 19th century. In the
Soviet era
The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...
(1917–1991),
official historiography emphasized "the cultural unity of 'proto-Ukrainians' and 'proto-Russians' in the fifth and sixth centuries".
Genetics and genomics
In a survey of 97 genomes for diversity in full genome sequences among self-identified Ukrainians from Ukraine, a study identified more than 13 million genetic variants, representing about a quarter of the total genetic diversity discovered in Europe. Among these nearly 500,000 are previously undocumented and likely to be unique for this population. Medically relevant mutations whose prevalence in the Ukrainian genomes differed significantly compared to other European genome sequences, particularly from Western Europe and Russia. Ukrainian genomes form a single cluster positioned between the Northern on one side, and Western European populations on the other.
There was a significant overlap with Central European populations as well as with people from the Balkans.
In addition to the close geographic distance between these populations, this may also reflect the insufficient representation of samples from the surrounding populations.
The Ukrainian gene-pool includes the following Y-
haplogroup
A haplotype is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent, and a haplogroup (haploid from the el, ἁπλοῦς, ''haploûs'', "onefold, simple" and en, group) is a group of similar haplotypes that share ...
s, in order from the most prevalent:
*
R1a (43%)
*
I2a (23%)
*
R1b (8%)
*
E1b1b
E-M215, also known as E1b1b and formerly E3b, is a major human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. It is a division of the macro-haplogroup E-M96, which is defined by the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation M215. In other words, it is one of ...
(7%)
*
I1 (5%)
* N1 (5%)
*
J2 (4%)
*
G (3%)
*
T (1%)
Roughly all R1a Ukrainians carry
R1a-Z282; R1a-Z282 has been found significantly only in Eastern Europe.
Chernivtsi Oblast
Chernivtsi Oblast ( uk, Черніве́цька о́бласть, Chernivetska oblast), also referred to as Chernivechchyna ( uk, Чернівеччина) is an oblast (province) in Western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the regio ...
is the only region in Ukraine where Haplogroup I2a occurs more frequently than R1a, much less frequent even in
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. In comparison to their northern and eastern neighbors, Ukrainians have a similar percentage of
Haplogroup R1a-Z280 (43%) in their population—compare
Belarusians,
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
, and
Lithuanians and (55%, 46%, and 42% respectively). Populations in Eastern Europe which have never been Slavic do as well. Ukrainians in Chernivtsi Oblast (near the Romanian border) have a higher percentage of
I2a as opposed to R1a, which is typical of the Balkan region, but a smaller percentage than Russians of the N1c1 lineage found among Finnic, Baltic, and Siberian populations, and also less
R1b than
West Slavs
The West Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages. They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic lan ...
.
[Alexander Varzari, "Population History of the Dniester-Carpathians: Evidence from Alu Insertion and Y-Chromosome Polymorphisms" (2006)][
Marijana Peričić et al. 2005]
High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations.
In terms of haplogroup distribution, the genetic pattern of Ukrainians most closely resembles that of Belarusians. The presence of the N1c lineage is explained by a contribution of the assimilated
Finnic tribes.
Related ethnic groups
Within Ukraine and adjacent areas, there are several other distinct ethnic sub-groups, especially in western Ukraine: places like
Zakarpattia and
Halychyna. Among them the most known are
Hutsuls,
Volhynians,
Boyko
The Boykos ( uk, Бойки, Boiky; pl, Bojkowie; sk, Pujďáci), or simply Highlanders (верховинці, ''verkhovyntsi''), are an ethnolinguistic sub-group of Ukrainians located in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, ...
s and
Lemkos
Lemkos ( rue, Лeмкы, translit= Lemkŷ; pl, Łemkowie; uk, Лемки, translit=Lemky) are an ethnic group inhabiting the Lemko Region ( rue, Лемковина, translit=Lemkovyna; uk, Лемківщина, translit=Lemkivshchyna) of Car ...
(otherwise known as
Carpatho-Rusyns – a derivative of ''Carpathian
Ruthenians''), each with particular areas of settlement, dialect, dress, anthropological type, and folk traditions.
History
Early history
Ukraine has had a very turbulent history, a fact explained by its geographical position. In the 9th century the
Varangians
The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';[Varangian]
" Online Etymo ...
from
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
conquered the proto-Slavic tribes on the territory of today's Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia and laid the groundwork for the
Kyivan Rus state. The ancestors of the Ukrainian nation such as
Polianians
The Polans (, ''Poliany'', ''Polyane'', pl, Polanie), also Polianians, were an East Slavs, East Slavic tribe between the 6th and the 9th century, which inhabited both sides of the Dnieper river from Liubech to Rodnia and also down the lower s ...
had an important role in the development and culturalization of Kyivan Rus state. The internecine wars between Rus princes, which began after the death of
Yaroslav the Wise, led to the political fragmentation of the state into a number of principalities. The quarreling between the princes left Kyivan Rus vulnerable to foreign attacks, and the invasion of the Mongols in 1236. and 1240. finally destroyed the state. Another important state in the history of the Ukrainians is
Kingdom of Ruthenia (1199–1349).
The third important state for Ukrainians is
Cossack Hetmanate. The Cossacks of
Zaporizhia
Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populatio ...
since the late 15th century controlled the lower bends of the river Dnieper, between Russia, Poland and the
Tatars of Crimea, with the fortified capital,
Zaporizhian Sich. Hetman
Bohdan Khmelnytsky is one of the most celebrated and at the same time most controversial political figures in Ukraine's early-modern history. A brilliant military leader, his greatest achievement in the process of national revolution was the formation of the Cossack Hetmanate state of the Zaporozhian Host (1648–1782). The period of the
Ruin
Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...
in the late 17th century in the history of Ukraine is characterized by the disintegration of Ukrainian statehood and general decline. During the Ruin Ukraine became divided along the Dnieper River into
Left-Bank Ukraine and
Right-Bank Ukraine, and the two-halves became hostile to each other. Ukrainian leaders during the period are considered to have been largely opportunists and men of little vision who could not muster broad popular support for their policies. There were roughly 4 million Ukrainians at the end of the 17th century.
At the final stages of the First World War, a powerful struggle for an independent Ukrainian state developed in the central Ukrainian territories, which, until 1917, were part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. The newly established Ukrainian government, the
Central Rada, headed by
Mykhailo Hrushevsky, issued four universals, the Fourth of which, dated 22 January 1918, declared the independence and sovereignty of the
Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) on 25 January 1918. The session of the Central Rada on 29 April 1918 ratified the Constitution of the UNR and elected Hrushevsky president.
Soviet period
During the 1920s, under the Ukrainisation policy pursued by the national Communist leadership of
Mykola Skrypnyk
Mykola Oleksiiovych Skrypnyk ( uk, Микола Олексійович Скрипник; – 7 July 1933), also known as Nikolai Alekseyevich Skripnik (russian: Никола́й Алексе́евич Скри́пник), was a Ukrainian Bolshe ...
, Soviet leadership encouraged a national renaissance in the Ukrainian culture and language. Ukrainisation was part of the Soviet-wide policy of
Korenisation (literally indigenisation). The Bolsheviks were also committed to universal health care, education and social-security benefits, as well as the right to work and housing. Starting from the late 1920s with a centrally planned economy, Ukraine was involved in
Soviet industrialisation and the republic's industrial output quadrupled during the 1930s.
During 1932–1933, millions of Ukrainians were starved to death by a Soviet regime which led to a
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...
, known as the
Holodomor. The Soviet regime remained silent about the Holodomor and provided no aid to the victims or the survivors. But news and information about what was going on reached the West and evoked public responses in Polish-ruled Western Ukraine and in the
Ukrainian diaspora. Since the 1990s the independent Ukrainian state, particularly under President
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko ( uk, Віктор Андрійович Ющенко, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010.
As an informal leader of th ...
, the Ukrainian mass media and academic institutions, many foreign governments, most Ukrainian scholars, and many foreign scholars have viewed and written about the Holodomor as genocide and issued official declarations and publications to that effect. Modern scholarly estimates of the direct loss of human life due to the
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...
range between 2.6 million
[France Meslè et Jacques Vallin avec des contributions de Vladimir Shkolnikov, Serhii Pyrozhkov et Serguei Adamets]
Mortalite et cause de dècès en Ukraine au XX siècle
p.28, see also France Meslé, Gilles Pison, Jacques Valli
France-Ukraine: Demographic Twins Separated by History
''Population and societies'', N°413, juin 2005[Jacques Vallin, France Mesle, Serguei Adamets, Serhii Pyrozhkov]
A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses during the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s
''Population Studies Population study is an interdisciplinary field of scientific study that uses various statistical methods and models to analyse, determine, address, and predict population challenges and trends from data collected through various data collection me ...
'', Vol. 56, No. 3. (November 2002), pp. 249–264 (3–3.5 million)
and 12 million although much higher numbers are usually published in the media and cited in political debates.
[Peter Finn]
Aftermath of a Soviet Famine
''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', 27 April 2008, "There are no exact figures on how many died. Modern historians place the number between 2.5 million and 3.5 million. Yushchenko and others have said at least 10 million were killed." As of March 2008, the
parliament of Ukraine and the governments of several countries, including the United States have recognized the Holodomor as an act of
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...
.
[Sources differ on interpreting various statements from different branches of different governments as to whether they amount to the official recognition of the Famine as Genocide by the country. For example, after the statement issued by the Latvian Sejm on 13 March 2008, the total number of countries is given as 19 (according to ''Ukrainian ]BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in September 1939, German and Soviet troops divided the territory of Poland. Thus,
with their Ukrainian population became part of Soviet Ukraine. When the German armies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, those regions temporarily became part of the Nazi-controlled
. In total, the number of ethnic Ukrainians who fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army is estimated from 4.5 million to 7 million. 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 50% being ethnic Ukrainians. Of the estimated 8.6 million Soviet troop losses, 1.4 million were ethnic Ukrainians.
is celebrated as one of ten Ukrainian national holidays.
The Ukrainian state has occupied a number of territories since its initial foundation. Most of these territories have been located within Eastern Europe, however, as depicted in the maps in the gallery below, has also at times extended well into
and South-Eastern Europe. At times there has also been a distinct lack of a Ukrainian state, as its territories were on a number of occasions, annexed by its more powerful neighbours.
The watershed period in the development of modern Ukrainian national consciousness was the struggle for independence during the creation of the
from 1917 to 1921. A concerted effort to reverse the growth of Ukrainian national consciousness was begun by the regime of
in the late 1920s, and continued with minor interruptions until the most recent times. The man-made
s, the physical annihilation of the nationally conscious intelligentsia, and terror in general were used to destroy and subdue the Ukrainian nation. Even after Joseph Stalin's death the concept of a Russified though multiethnic Soviet people was officially promoted, according to which the non-Russian nations were relegated to second-class status. Despite this, many Ukrainians played prominent roles in the Soviet Union, including such public figures as
.
The creation of a sovereign and independent Ukraine in 1991, however, pointed to the failure of the policy of the "merging of nations" and to the enduring strength of the Ukrainian national consciousness. Today, one of the consequences of these acts is
is especially present in southeastern Ukraine where there is a significant Russian minority. Historical colonization of Ukraine is one reason that creates confusion about national identity to this day. Many citizens of Ukraine have adopted the Ukrainian national identity in the past 20 years. According to the concept of nationality dominant in Eastern Europe the Ukrainians are people whose native language is Ukrainian (an objective criterion) whether or not they are nationally conscious, and all those who identify themselves as Ukrainian (a subjective criterion) whether or not they speak Ukrainian.
Attempts to introduce a territorial-political concept of Ukrainian nationality on the Western European model (presented by political philosopher
) were unsuccessful until the 1990s. Territorial loyalty has also been manifested by the historical national minorities living in Ukraine. The official declaration of Ukrainian sovereignty of 16 July 1990 stated that "citizens of the Republic of all nationalities constitute the people of Ukraine."
Due to Ukraine's geographical location, its culture primarily exhibits Eastern European influence as well as Central European to an extent (primarily in the western region). Over the years it has been influenced by movements such as those brought about during the
and the Renaissance. Today, the country is somewhat culturally divided with the western regions bearing a stronger Central European influence and the eastern regions showing a significant Russian influence. A strong
was predominant for many centuries, although Ukraine was also the center of conflict between the Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic spheres of influence.
. It is the only
of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses the
. In its earlier stages it was called
in Latin. Ukrainian, along with all other East Slavic languages, is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kyivan Rus (10th–13th century).
While the
placed officials in key Kyivan Rus areas, practised forced resettlement, and even renamed urban centers to suit their own language, the Mongols did not attempt to annihilate Kyivan Rus society and culture. The second onslaught began with the destruction of
by the Golden Horde in 1240. This khanate formed the western part of a great
in the early 13th century. After the Mongol destruction of Kyivan Rus in the 13th century, literary activity in Ukraine declined. A revival began in the late 18th century in eastern Ukraine with overlapping literary and academic phases at a time when nostalgia for the
past and resentment at the loss of autonomy still lingered on.
The language has persisted despite several periods of bans and/or discouragement throughout centuries as it has always nevertheless maintained a sufficient base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs,
, and prominent authors.
A large portion of citizens of Ukraine speaks Russian. According to the 2001 Ukrainian census, 67.5% of Ukrainians (citizens of Ukraine) and 85.2% of ethnic Ukrainians named Ukrainian as their mother-tongue, and 14.8% named Russian as their mother-tongue.
This census does not cover Ukrainians living in other countries.
Christianity was introduced by the turn of the first millennium. It was imagined by later writers who sought to put Kyivan Christianity on the same level of primacy as Byzantine Christianity that
would be later built.
However, it was only by the 10th century that the emerging state, the Kyivan Rus, became influenced by the
in 945 or 957. Several years later, her grandson, Prince
. This began a long history of the dominance of the
in the world.
has a strong membership. Since the fall of the
religion. There are also ethnic minorities that practice other religions, i.e.
found that majority of Ukrainian populations was adhering to Christianity (81.9%). Of these Christians, 75.4% are Eastern Orthodox (34% of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and 13.8% of the Moscow Patriarchate, and 27.6% are simply Orthodox), 8.2% are Greek Catholics, 7.1% are simply Christians, a further 1.9% are Protestants and 0.4% are
. As of 2016, 16.3% of the population does not claim a religious affiliation, and 1.7% adheres to other religions.
According to the same survey, 70% of the population of Ukraine declared to be believers, but do not belong to any church. 8.8% do not identify themselves with any of the denominations, and another 5.6% identified themselves as non-believers.