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Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus′ was the early, mostly East Slavic state dominated by the city of Kiev, located in modern Ukraine, from about 880 to the middle of the 12th century. From the historiographical point of view, Kievan Rus' is considered a predecessor state of three modern East Slavic nations: Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980-1015) and his son Yaroslav I the Wise (1019-1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda

Early history of Kievan Rus′

According to the Primary Chronicle, the earliest chronicle of Kievan Rus′, a Varangian (Viking) named Rurik first established himself in Novgorod (he was selected as common ruler by several Slavic and Finnic tribes) in about 860 before moving south and extending his authority to Kiev. The chronicle cites him as the progenitor of the Rurik Dynasty. The Primary Chronicle says:

Upon year 6367 (859): Varangians from over the sea had tribute from Chuds, Slavs, Merias, Veses, Krivichs....
Upon year 6370 (862): [They] Drove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them tribute, and set out to govern themselves. But there was no law among them, and tribe rose against tribe. Discord thus ensued among them, and they began to war one against the other. They said to themselves, "Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us according to custom." Thus they went overseas to the Varangians, to the Rus. These particular Varangians were called Rus, just as some are called Swedes, and others Normans and Angles, and still others Goths [Gotlanders], for they were thus named. The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichs and the Ves then said to the Rus, "Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come reign as princes, rule over us". Three brothers, with their kinfolk, volunteered. They took with them all the Rus and came.

862 These Varangians first settled in Ladoga, then moved southward to Novgorod eventually reaching Kiev, finally putting an end to the Khazars' collecting tribute from Kievans. The so-called Kievan Rus was founded by prince Oleg (Helgu in Khazarian records) about 880. During the next thirty-five years, Oleg and his warriors subdued the various Eastern Slavic and Finnic tribes. In 907, Oleg led an attack against Constantinople, and in 911 he signed a commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire as an equal partner. The new Kievan state prospered because it controlled the trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and the Orient and because it had an abundant supply of furs, beeswax, and honey for export. Given the postulated pro-Scandinavian bias of the Russian Primary Chronicle, some Slavic historians have debated the role of the Varangians in the establishment of Kievan Rus′ (see Rus′). By the reign of Svyatoslav (r. 945-972) Kievan rulers had adopted Slavic religion and names, but their druzhina still consisted primarily of Scandinavians. Svyatoslav's military conquests were astonishing: he dealt lethal blows to two of his strongest neighbours, Khazaria and the Bulgarian Empire, which collapsed soon after his raids.

The Golden Age of Kiev

The region of Kiev dominated the state of Kievan Rus′ for the next two centuries. The grand prince (velikiy kniaz') of Kiev controlled the lands around the city, and his theoretically subordinate relatives ruled in other cities and paid him tribute. The zenith of the state's power came during the reigns of Prince Vladimir (Vladimir the Great, r. 980-1015) and Prince Yaroslav (the Wise; r. 1019-1054). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus′ that had begun under Oleg. Vladimir rose to power in Kiev after the death of his father Sviatoslav I in 972 and after defeating his half-brother Yaropolk in 980. As Prince of Kiev, Vladimir's greatest achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus′, a process that began in 988. The annals of Rus¹ state that when Vladimir had decided to accept a new faith instead of the traditional idol-worship (paganism) of the Slavs, he sent out some of his most valued advisors and warriors as emissaries to different parts of Europe. After visiting the Roman Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims, they finally arrived in Constantinople. There, they were so astounded by the beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the liturgical service held there, that they made up their minds there and then about the faith they would like to follow. Upon their arrival home, they convinced Vladimir that the faith of the Greeks was the best choice of all, upon which Vladimir made a journey to Constantinople and arranged a marriage between himself and Princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Vladimir's choice of Eastern Christianity may also have reflected his close personal ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea and hence trade on Kiev's most vital commercial route, the Dnieper river. Adherence to the Eastern Orthodox Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences. The church had a liturgy written in Cyrillic and a corpus of translations from the Greek that had been produced for the Slavic peoples. The existence of this literature facilitated the conversion to Christianity of the Eastern Slavs and introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy, science, and historiography without the necessity of learning Greek. In contrast, educated people in medieval Western and Central Europe learned Latin. Enjoying independence from the Roman authority and free from tenets of Latin learning, the East Slavs developed their own literature and fine arts, quite distinct from those of other Orthodox countries. See Old Russian literature and Old Russian architecture for details. Yaroslav, known as "The Wise", also struggled for power with his brothers. Although he first established his rule over Kiev in 1019, he did not have uncontested rule of all of Kievan Rus until 1036. Like Vladimir, Yaroslav was eager to improve relations with the rest of Europe, especially the Byzantine Empire. Yaroslav's granddaughter, Eupraxia the daughter of his son Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev, was married to Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor. Yaroslav also arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary, and Norway. He built the first great edifice of Kievan Rus′, the Desyatinnaya Church in Kiev. Yaroslav promulgated the first East Slavic law code, Russkaya Pravda (Justice of Rus′); built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod; patronized local clergy and monasticism; and is said to have founded a school system. Yaroslav's sons developed the great Kiev Pechersk Lavra (monastery), which functioned in Kievan Rus′ as an ecclesiastical academy. Kiev Pechersk Lavra of Kiev.]] In the centuries that followed the state's foundation, Rurik's descendants shared power over Kievan Rus′. Princely succession moved from elder to younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their official careers as rulers of a minor district, progressed to more lucrative principalities, and then competed for the coveted throne of Kiev. In the 11th century and the 12th century, the princes and their retinues, which were a mixture of Slavic and Scandinavian elites, dominated the society of Kievan Rus′. Leading soldiers and officials received income and land from the princes in return for their political and military services. Kievan society lacked the class institutions and autonomous towns that were typical of West European feudalism. Nevertheless, urban merchants, artisans, and laborers sometimes exercised political influence through a city assembly, the veche (council), which included all the adult males in the population. In some cases, the veche either made agreements with their rulers or expelled them and invited others to take their place. At the bottom of society was a small stratum of slaves. More important was a class of tribute-paying peasants, who owed labor duty to the princes; the widespread personal serfdom characteristic of Western Europe did not exist in Kievan Rus′, however.

The Rise of regional centers

serfdom Kievan Rus′ was not able to maintain its position as a powerful and prosperous state, in part because of the amalgamation of disparate lands under the control of a ruling clan. As the members of that clan became more numerous, they identified themselves with regional interests rather than with the larger patrimony. Thus, the princes fought among themselves, frequently forming alliances with outside groups such as the Polovtsians, Poles, and Hungarians. During the years from 1054 to 1224 no less than 64 principalities had a more or less ephemeral existence, 293 princes put forward succession claims, and their disputes led to 83 civil wars. The Crusades brought a shift in European trade routes that accelerated the decline of Kievan Rus′. In 1204 the forces of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, making the Dnieper trade route marginal. As it declined, Kievan Rus′ splintered into many principalities and several large regional centers: Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal, Halych, Polotsk, Smolensk, Chernigov (modern Chernihiv), and Pereyaslav. The inhabitants of those regional centers then evolved into three nationalities: Ukrainians in the southeast and southwest, Belarusians in the northwest, and Russians in the north and northeast.

Novgorod Republic

Main article: Republic of Novgorod In the north, the Republic of Novgorod prospered as part of Kievan Rus′ because it controlled trade routes from the Volga River to the Baltic Sea. As Kievan Rus′ declined, Novgorod became more independent. A local oligarchy ruled Novgorod; major government decisions were made by a town assembly, which also elected a prince as the city's military leader. In the 12th century, Novgorod acquired its own archbishop, a sign of increased importance and political independence. In its political structure and mercantile activities, Novgorod resembled the north European towns of the Hanseatic League, the prosperous alliance that dominated the commercial activity of the Baltic region between the 13th century and the 17th century, more than the other principalities of Kievan Rus′.

North-east

Main article: Vladimir-Suzdal In the northeast, Slavs colonized the territory that eventually became Muscovy by conquering the Finno-Ugric tribes already occupying the area. The city of Rostov was the oldest center of the northeast, but it was supplanted first by Suzdal′ and then by the city of Vladimir, which become the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal′. There was recorded a large wave of migrations from Kiev region northward, to escape continuing excursions of the Turkic nomads from the "Wild Steppe". As the southern lands were being depopulated and more boyars, nobles, artisans arrived to the court at Vladimir, the combined principality of Vladimir-Suzdal′ asserted itself as a major power in Kievan Rus′. In 1169 Prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy of Vladimir-Suzdal′ dealt a severe blow to the waning power of Kievan Rus′ when his armies sacked the city of Kiev. Prince Andrey then installed his younger brother, who ruled briefly in Kiev while Andrey continued to rule his realm from Suzdal′. Thus, political power began to drift away from Kiev in the second half of the twelfth century. In 1299, in the wake of the Mongol invasion, the metropolitan moved from Kiev to the city of Vladimir, and Vladimir-Suzdal′ replaced Kiev as a religious center for the northern regions.

South-west

metropolitan, supposedly executed by Galician masters in the 1080s.]] To the southwest, the principality of Galicia had developed trade relations with its Polish, Hungarian, and Lithuanian neighbors and emerged as the local successor to Kievan Rus′. In the early thirteenth century, Prince Roman Mstislavich united the two previously separate principalities, conquered Kiev, and assumed the title of grand duke of Kievan Rus′. His son, Prince Daniil (Danylo; r. 1238-1264) was the first ruler of Kievan Rus′ to accept a crown from the Roman papacy, apparently doing so without breaking with Constantinople. Early in the 14th century, the patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Constantinople granted the rulers of Galicia-Volhynia a metropolitan to compensate for the move of the Kievan metropolitan to Vladimir. Lithuanian rulers also requested and received a metropolitan for Novagrudok shortly afterwards. Early in the 15th century, these Metropolia were ruled again from Kiev by the "Metropolitan of Kiev, Halych and all Rus′". However, a long and unsuccessful struggle against the Mongols combined with internal opposition to the prince, and foreign intervention weakened Galicia-Volhynia. With the end of the Mstislavich branch of the Rurikids in the mid-fourteenth century, Galicia-Volhynia ceased to exist; Poland conquered Galicia; Lithuania took Volhynia, including Kiev, conquered by Gediminas in 1321 ending the rule of Rurikids in the city. Lithuanian rulers then assumed the title of the monarchs of Ruthenia.

Influence

Kievan Rus' left a powerful legacy. The leader of the Rurik Dynasty united a large territory inhabited by East Slavs into an important, albeit unstable, state. After Vladimir accepted Eastern Orthodoxy, Kievan Rus' came together under a church structure and developed a Byzantine-Slavic synthesis in culture, statecraft, and the arts. On the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus', those traditions were adapted to form the Russian autocratic state.

Notes

People speaking East Slavic dialects were known from 9th century as Rus (also referred to as ancient Russians or Ruthenians). Later, they diverged into three major nations — modern Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians, and also into several minor ethnic groups, including Carpatho-Ruthenians. autocratic, by Viktor Vasnetsov.]]

References

- - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/rutoc.html Russia]

External links

- [http://www.kievanrus.tk Graphic History of Kievan Rus from c.800 to 988 (Large file size)]
- [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pages\R\U\RushDA.htm Rus’, Encyclopedia of Ukraine] Category:Former countries in Europe Category:Kievan Rus Category:Byzantine Empire Category:History of Kiev city Category:History of Ukraine Category:History of Russia Category:History of Belarus Category:Ukrainian historical regions ko:키예프 공국 ja:キエフ大公国

Early East Slavs

The East Slavs are the ethnic group that evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples. Each of the many nationalities of Russia has a separate history and complex origins. The historical origins of the Russian state, however, are chiefly those of the East Slavs and the assimilated Finno-Ugric peoples of the North-Eastern Europe.

Inhabitants of the East European Plain

Relatively little is known about East Slavs prior to approximately 9th century AD. The reason for this lies mainly in the apparent absence of written language (Cyrillic was created around 863 specifically for adoption by Slavs) and remoteness of East Slavic lands. What little we know comes from archaeological digs, accounts of foreigners who occasionally visited Rus, and results of comparative analyses of Slavic languages by linguists. Except for the controversial Book of Veles, very few native Russian documents dating prior to 11th century (and none prior to 9th century) were ever discovered. The earliest known major manuscript with information on Russian history is the Primary Chronicle, written in late 11th - early 12th century. It lists the twelve Slavic plemena (tribal unions or nations) which settled by the 9th century between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea. These plemena are Polans, Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Radimichi, Vyatichs, Krivichs, Slovens, Dulebes (later known as Volhynians and Buzhans)(white) Khorvats, Severians, Ulichs, Tivertsi. Based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, historians theorize that the Slavs formed as an ethnic group in the middle of 2nd millennium BC in the area that is now split between Poland, Czech republic, Slovakia, western Belarus and northwestern Ukraine. By 8th century BC Slavs had entered the Iron Age and started their gradual expansion to the east and to the south. Iron Age In the centuries to follow, Slavic settlers met multiple other ethnic groups that either lived or moved to the East European Plain. The best known of these groups were the nomadic Scythians, who occupied the region of modern Ukraine and southwestern Russia from about the 6th century BC to the 2nd century BC and whose skill in warfare and horsemanship is legendary. Scythians largely disappeared by 1st century BC, but this term was sometimes used in later Roman documents as a reference to eastern Slavs. Between the 1st century AD and the 9th century, Goths, nomadic Huns, Avars, and Magyars passed through the region in their migrations. Although some of them subjugated the Slavs in the region, these tribes left little of lasting importance. More significant in this period was the expansion of the Slavs, who were agriculturists and beekeepers as well as hunters, fishers, herders, and trappers. By the 6th century, the Slavs were the dominant ethnic group on the East European Plain. By 600 AD, the Slavs split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. The East Slavs settled along the Dnieper river in what is now Ukraine; they then spread northward to the northern Volga valley, east of modern-day Moscow and westward to the basins of the northern Dniester and the Western Bug rivers in present-day Moldova and southern Ukraine. Their location allowed them to control the trade route between the Scandinavia-Baltic sea region and the eastern remnants of the Roman Empire, particularly the Byzantine Empire and the Grecian colonies on the northern coast of Black Sea. They had trade relations with both Vikings and Byzantines. Kiev - the future capital of Rus' - was likely established in 5-6th century AD as a fortress which controlled Dnieper river and was used to collect taxes from boats returning from Byzantia. Many other cities were built in the subsequent 500 years. In the eighth and ninth centuries, some East Slavic tribes had to pay tribute to the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking people who adopted Judaism in the late eighth or ninth century and lived in the southern Volga and Caucasus regions.

East Slavs and the Varangians

By the ninth century, Scandinavian warriors and merchants, called Varangians (more commonly known as Vikings), had penetrated the East Slavic regions. See Kievan Rus' for continuation.

Tribes

References

- - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/rutoc.html Russia] Category:East Slavic history Category:Kievan Rus

Kiev

in the background.]] Kiev, also spelled Kyiv (Ukrainian: , Kyiv; Russian: , Kiev; see also Cities' alternative names) is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper river. As of 2003, Kiev officially had 2,642,486 inhabitants, although the large number of unregistered migrants would probably raise this figure to about three million. Administratively, Kiev is a national-level subordinated municipality, independent from surrounding Kiev Oblast. Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural center of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions, world-famous museums and art institutions. The city has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport, including a Kiev Metro system. During its history Kiev, one of the oldest cities in the Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. Founded probably in the 5th century, a trading post in the land of Early East Slavs, the city gradually acquired eminence as the center of the East Slavic civilization, in the tenth to twelfth centuries a political and cultural capital of Kievan Rus'. Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbors: the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Muscovite Russia, later the Russian Empire. The city prospered again during the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century. After the turbulent period following the Russian Revolution of 1917, from 1921 Kiev was an important city of Soviet Ukraine, and, since 1934, its capital. During World War II, the city was destroyed again, almost completely, but quickly recovered in the post-war years becoming the third most important city of the USSR. It now remains the capital of Ukraine, independent since 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Geography and climate

Kiev is located on both sides of the Dnieper river, which flows south through the city towards the Black Sea. Its geographic co-ordinates are . Geographically, Kiev belongs to the Polissya natural zone (a part of the European mixed woods). However, the city's unique landscape distinguishes it from the surrounding region. The elder right-bank (western) part of Kiev is represented by numerous woody hills, ravines and small rivers (now mostly extinct). It is a part of the larger Prydniprovska (near-Dnieper) upland adjoining the western bank of the Dnieper. The left-bank (eastern) part of the city was built in the Dnieper valley. Significant areas of it were artificially sand-deposited and are protected by dams. The river forms a branching system of tributaries, isles and harbors within city limits. The city is adjoined by the mouth of the Desna River and the Kyivs'ke reservoir in the north, and the Kanivs'ke reservoir in the south. Both the Dnieper and Desna rivers are navigable at Kiev, although regulated by the reservoir shipping locks and limited by winter freeze-over. Kiev's climate is continental humid, although it has changed significantly during recent decades due to global climate changes.

Modern Kiev

Like many other large cities of the former Soviet Union, modern Kiev is a mix of the old and the new, seen in everything from the buildings to the stores to the people themselves. Experiencing a fast growth rate between the 1970s and the mid-'90s, the city has continued its consistent growth after the turn of the millenium. As a result, Kiev's "downtown" is a dotted picture of new, modern buildings (known as novostroika) amongst the pale yellows, blues and grays of the older apartments. Urban sprawl has been gradually reducing while population densities of suburbs started increasing. Today, it is rather popular to own a novostroika in Kharkivskyi Raion, Troyeshchina, or Obolon along the Dnieper, around Khreschatyk, as well as in Pechersk or other better-established areas. With Ukrainian independence on the turn of the millennium, other changes came. Western-style novostroikas, hip nightclubs, classy restaurants and prestigious hotels opened in the center. Music from Europe and North America started rising on Ukrainian music charts. And most importantly, with the changes in visa rules in 2005, Ukraine is positioning itself as a prime tourist attraction, with Kiev, among the other large cities, looking to profit from the new opportunities. The center of Kiev has been cleaned up and buildings have been restored and redecorated, especially Khreschatyk and Independence Square. Many historic squares of Kiev, such as Andryivskyi Uzviz, have become popular street vendor locations, where one can buy traditional Ukrainian art, religious items, books, game sets (most commonly chess) as well as jewellery. With the partial collapse of the Kiev transit services, private investors have seen room for profit. While the publicly owned and operated Kiev Metro system remains the fastest, the most convenient and affordable network that covers most, but not all, of the city, the marshrutkas (private microbuses) have become the next most popular method of transportation, along with the public transit buses including electric trolley buses and trams. The trams are now being gradually phased out. Marshrutkas provide a good coverage of the smaller residential streets and have routes that are convenient for the residents — although on the busiest routes the buses get increasingly larger. Being more expensive, they are also faster and more available, although with an increased frequency of accidents. It is also quite common for any local with a car to act as a taxi driver now and then, although organized private taxi companies have increased competition dramatically. The metro is also expanding to cover the growing demand. Kiev is currently served by Boryspil Airport, and Zhulyany Airport. Image:Andreevskaja cerkov.jpg|St.Andrew's Church Image:Verkhovna Rada.jpg|Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament Image:Kiev Opera House.JPG|National Opera of Ukraine Image:Mariinsky Palace.jpg|Mariyinsky Palace Image:StMichaelCathedral.jpg|Post-1991 reconstruction of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral Image:Founders of Kiev.jpg|Founders of Kiev Image:National Bank of Ukraine.jpg|National Bank of Ukraine Image:Motherland Monument.jpg|Motherland Monument, dedicated to WWII

History

Historically, Kiev is one of the most ancient and important cities of the region, the center of the Rus' civilization, survivor of numerous wars, purges, and genocides. Many historical and architectural landmarks are preserved or reconstructed in the city, which is thought to have existed as early as the fifth century. With the exact time of city foundation being hard to determine, May 1982 was chosen to celebrate the city's 1,500th anniversary. During the eighth and ninth centuries Kiev was an outpost of the Khazar empire. Starting from some point during the late ninth or early tenth century, Kiev was ruled by the Varangian nobility and became the nucleus of the Rus' polity, which became known as Kievan Rus' during the Golden Age of Kiev. In 1240 Kiev was compeletely destroyed by the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan, an event that had a profound effect on the future of the city and the East Slavic civilization. From 1362, the area with what was left of the city, became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and from 1569 a part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569, as a capital of Kijów Voivodship). In the 17th century it fell under the Muscovite Russia (later Russian Empire), where for some time it remained a provincial town of marginal importance. Kiev prospered again during the Russian industrial revolution in the late nineteenth century. In the turbulent period following the Russian Revolution Kiev was caught in the middle of several conflicts: the Second World War, the Russian Civil War, and the Polish-Soviet War. Amidst these chaotic years, Kiev became the capital of several short-lived Ukrainian states and from 1921 the city was part of the Soviet Union, since 1934 as a capital of Soviet Ukraine. In World War II, the city was destroyed again, almost completely, but quickly recovered in the post-war years becoming the third most important city of the Soviet Union, the capital of the second largest Soviet republic. It now remains the capital of Ukraine, independent since 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Attractions

It is said that one can walk from one end of Kiev to the other in the summertime without leaving the shade of its many trees. Most characteristic are the horse-chestnuts (Ukrainian: каштани, "kashtany"). Kiev is known as a green city, with two botanical gardens and numerous large and small parks. Notable among these are the World War Two Museum, which offers both indoor and outdoor displays of military history and equipment surrounded by verdant hills overlooking the Dnieper river; the Hidropark, located on an island in the river and accessible by metro or by car, in which an amusement park, swimming beaches, and boat rentals can be found; and Victory Park, a popular destination for strollers, joggers, and cyclists. Boating, fishing, and water sports are popular pastimes. Since the lakes and rivers freeze over in the winter, ice fishermen are frequently seen, as are children with their ice skates. However, the peak of summer is when masses of people can be seen on the shores, swimming or sunbathing, with daytime high temperatures sometimes reaching 30 to 34 °C. Kiev's noteworthy architecture includes government buildings such as the Mariyinsky Palace (designed and constructed from 1745 to 1752, then reconstructed in 1870) and the sweeping Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, several Orthodox churches and church complexes such as the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), St. Sophia Cathedral, St. Andrew's, and St. Vladimir's, the historic Zoloti Vorota fortress, and others such as a nineteenth-century Lutheran church. The cylindrical Salut hotel, located across from Glory Square and an eternal flame at the WWII Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, is one of Kiev's most recognized landmarks. Its windows command views in all directions from one of the highest points in the city. Among Kiev's best-known public monuments are the statue of Bohdan Khmel'nyts'kyi astride his horse up the hill from Independence Square and the venerated Volodymyr the Great, baptizer of Rus, overlooking the river above Podil. Each residential region has its market, or rynok. Here one will find table after table of individuals hawking everything imaginable: vegetables, fresh and smoked meats, fish, cheese, honey, dairy products such as milk and home-made smetana (sour cream), caviar, cut flowers, housewares, tools and hardware, and clothing. Each of the markets has its own unique mix of products. There is a popular book market by the Petrivka metro station. Image:House with chimaeras.jpg|House with chimaeras, Pechersk district Image:Foreign Ministery.jpg|Ministry of Foreign Affairs Image:Uspensky Sobor.jpg|Post-1991 reconstruction of the Dormition Cathedral of the Cave Monastery Image:Palace of Ukraine.jpg|Palace of Ukraine Image:Kiev Conservatoriy.jpg|Kiev Conservatory Image:Vladimirsky Sobor.jpg|St. Volodymyr's Cathedral Image:Bogorodica-Pirogoscha.jpg|Post-1991 reconstruction of the church of the Theotokos of Pyrogoroshcha, Podil district Image:Olga Monument.jpg|Monument to Princess Olga Image:Shevchenko University.jpg|National Taras Shevchenko University Image:Kiev gate 2001 07 09.jpg|Post-1980 reconstruction of the Golden Gate (Zoloti Vorota) Image:Kyiv maidan nezalezhnosti.jpg|Independence Square by night Image:Photo cathedral 01065 Vid cerkvej Kievo-Pecherskoj lavry i r. Dnepr.jpg|View on the Dnieper

City districts

Dnieper In the 1930s, Kiev was subdivided into several districts, the number finally growing to fourteen in the early 1940s. Several years ago, this number was reduced to ten. Besides these, Kiev is also informally divided into large neighborhoods, each housing as many as 50,000 to 100,000 people.

Kiev or Kyiv?

Kiev is the traditional English name for the city, but the Ukrainianized version Kyiv is gaining popularity. The earliest known English-language reference is to Kiovia, in English traveller Joseph Marshall's book Travels (London, 1772). The name Kiev was used in print as early as 1823 in the English travelogue New Russia: Journey from Riga to the Crimea by way of Kiev, by Mary Holderness. By 1883, the Oxford English Dictionary included Kiev in a quotation. This name was established on the basis of Russian orthography and pronunciation , during a time when Kiev was a city in a governorate of the Russian Empire. Ukrainian was considered a language of the village, and attempts to introduce it as a literary language were suppressed (see Ems Ukaz). The spelling Kyiv, romanized version of the Ukrainian name for the city , has been used in English-language publications of the Ukrainian diaspora and in some academic publications concerning Ukraine during much of the twentieth century. Newly-independent Ukraine declared Ukrainian as its official language after 1991, and introduced a national Latin-alphabet standard for geographic names in 1995, establishing the use of the spelling Kyiv in official documents. Incidentally, Kyiv and Kiev reflect the divergence of the Ukrainian and Russian languages from the single Old East Slavic language spelling Киѣвъ. Today, Kiev remains the normal established spelling of the city's name in English. The alternate spelling Kyiv is used by most English-language publications in Ukraine. It is also used by the United Nations, many English-speaking diplomatic missions, and a few other media organizations worldwide (notably in Canada). The alternate romanizations Kyyiv and Kyjiv are also in use alongside Kiev in English-language atlases. Some proponents of the spelling Kyiv take exception with the use of Kiev as reflecting imposed Russification in Ukraine, and inappropriate since the country's independence in 1991.

Universities

Kiev is home to several post-secondary institutions, including the Taras Shevchenko State University of Kiev, the Polytechnic Institute, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the Agricultural University, and numerous scientific and technical institutes like Kiev National University of Construction and Architecture (KNUCA), former KISI.

References

- Joseph Marshall. Travels Through Germany, Russia, and Poland in the Years 1769 and 1770. London: J. Almon, 1772; reprint, New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1971. ISBN 0-405-02763-X.
- Mary Holderness. New Russia: Journey from Riga to the Crimea, by way of Kiev; with some account of the colonization, and the manners and customs of the colonists of New Russia; to which are added notes relating to the Crim Tatars London: Sherwood, Jones, & Co., 1823. ISBN 3-628-28986-5.

External links

- [http://www.uazone.net/Kiev_Kyiv.html Resolution of the Ukrainian commission for legal terminology No. 5], ([http://www.hostmaster.net.ua/docs/translit/ original Ukrainian])
- [http://www.kiev.info Kiev.info] - Kiev city guide
- [http://www.sensus.ws/eco.htm Environment pollution in Kiev] (in Ukrainian)
- [http://wek.kiev.ua/ Kyiv Encyclopedia] (in Ukrainian)
- [http://www.kyivpost.com Kyiv Post English Newspaper]
- [http://kyiv.ru/en/ Kyiv sites catalogue]
- [http://www.kiddofspeed.com/serpents-wall Pictorial tour of Kiev's WW2 era battlegrounds]
- [http://uamap.net/ua/map/kiev/ Map of Kiev] browsable and searchable by address
- [http://guide.kyiv.ru/ Kiev and Ukraine Travel Guide ] Category:Capitals in Europe Category:Cities in Ukraine Category:Kiev city Category:Khazar towns Category:History of Russia ko:키예프 ja:キエフ

880

See Interstate 880 for the American freeway

Events

- Oldest known mention of the city of Dortmund

Births

- Fujiwara no Tadahira, Japanese regent

Deaths

- Carloman, King of Bavaria
- Emperor Seiwa of Japan Category:880 ko:880년

12th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages. See also: Renaissance of the 12th century

Events

- The Song dynasty loses power over Northern China.
- The Kamakura Shogunate deprives the Emperor of Japan of political power.
- First, Second, and Third Crusades of western European kingdoms against Islam.
- Pope Adrian IV grants overlordship of Ireland to Henry II of England.
- Suger rebuilds the abbey church at St Denis north of Paris, regarded as the first major Gothic building.
- King Coloman unites Hungary and Croatia under the Hungarian Crown (1102)
- Portugal gains independence from the kingdom of León in 1128 (recognised by León in 1143).
- Nalanda, the great Indian Buddhist educational centre, is destroyed.
- Thomas Becket is murdered in 1170.
- The Toltec Empire collapses.
- Founding of the cathedral school (Katedralskolan) in Lund, Sweden, 1185. The school is the oldest in northern Europe, and one of the oldest in Europe as a whole.
- The medieval Serbian state formed by Stefan Nemanja and continued by the Nemanjić dynasty.

Significant people

- Genghis Khan, Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.
- Pierre Abélard, one of the first scholastic philosophers; author of "Historia calamitatum mearum", a description of his love affair with Héloïse.
- Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot influential in church politics.
- Saladin, ruler of Egypt and Syria who resisted the Crusaders.
- Hugh of St. Victor, French scholar.
- Richard of St. Victor, theologian.
- Alfonso I Henriques, first King of Portugal.
- Maimonides, leading Jewish philosopher.
- Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury.
- Minamoto no Yoritomo, first shogun of Japan.
- Omar Khayyám, Persian poet and astronomer
- Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen consort of France and later England.
- Hildegard of Bingen, first Western musical composer known by name.

Inventions, discoveries and introductions

- Beginning of the Gothic architecture style.
- First European universities founded.
- Christian humanism becomes a self-conscious philosophical tendency in Europe.
- Earliest record of a miracle play, in Dunstable, England.
- Beginning of troubador and trouvère music in France.
- Earliest account of a mariner's compass, by Alexander Neckam is "De utensilibus".
- First fire and plague insurance (in Iceland).
- First authenticated influenza epidemics.
- Start of Middle English

Decades and years

Category:12th century Category:Centuries ko:12세기 ja:12世紀 simple:12th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 12

Historiography

Historiography is the study of the way history is and has been written. In a broad sense, history refers to the methodology and practices of writing history. In a more specific sense, it can refer to writing about rather than of history. As a meta-level analysis of descriptions of the past, this latter conception can relate to the former in that the analysis usually focuses on the narrative, interpretations, worldview, use of evidence, or method of presentation of other historians. The term can also describe a body of historical writing. For example, "medieval historiography during the 1960s" means "medieval history written during the 1960s".

Defining historiography

Conal Furay and Michael J. Salevouris define "historiography" as "the study of the way history has been and is written--the history of historical writing... When you study 'historiography' you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of individual historians." (The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide, 1988, p. 223, ISBN 0882959824) Although questions of method have concerned historians since Thucydides, many trace the modern study of historiography to E. H. Carr's 1961 work What is History? (ISBN 0333977017). Carr challenged to the traditional belief that the study of the methods of historical research and writing were unimportant. His work remains in print to this day, and is common to many postgraduate programs of study in both the United States and in Great Britain. Historiography is often political in nature. For example, much 1960s historiography focused on the exclusion of the roles of women, minorities, and labor from written histories of the USA. According to these historiographers, historians in the 1930s and 1940s had a bias towards well-connected white males. Many historians from that point onward devoted themselves to what they saw as more accurate representations of the past, casting a light on those who had been previously disregarded as non-noteworthy. The study of historiography demands a critical approach that goes beyond the mere examination of historical fact. Historiographical studies consider the source, often by researching the author, his or her position in society, and the type of history being written at the time.

Basic issues studied in historiography

Some of the common questions of historiography are:
- Who wrote the source (primary or secondary)?
- For primary sources, we look at the person in his or her society, for secondary sources, we consider the theoretical orientation of the approach for example, Marxist or Annales School, ("total history"), political history, etc.
- What is the authenticity, authority, bias/interest, and intelligibility of the source?
- What was the view of history when the source was written?
- Was history supposed to provide moral lessons?
- What or who was the intended audience?
- What sources were privileged or ignored in the narrative?
- By what method was the evidence compiled?
- In what historical context was the work of history itself written? Issues engaged in so-called critical historiography includes topics such as:
- What constitutes an historical "event"?
- In what modes does a historian write and produce statements of "truth" and "fact"?
- How does the medium (novel, textbook, film, theatre, comic) through which historical information is conveyed influence its meaning?
- What inherent epistemological problems does archive-based history contain?
- How does the historian establish their own objectivity or come to terms with their own subjectivity?
- What is the relation of historical theory to historical practice?
- What is the "goal" of history?
- What is history?

Foundation of Important historical Journals (Selection)

- 1859 Historische Zeitschrift (Germany)
- 1876 Revue Historique (France)
- 1895 American Historical Review (USA)
- 1914 Mississippi Valley Historical Review/Journal of American History (Beginning 1964) (USA)
- 1916 The Journal of Negro History
- 1929 Annales. Économies. Sociétés. Civilisations
- 1952 Past & present: a journal of historical studies (Great Britain)
- 1953 Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (Germany)
- 1956 Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria (Nigeria)
- 1960 Journal of African History (Cambridge)
- 1960 Technology and culture : the international quarterly of the Society for the History of Technology (USA)
- 1975 Geschichte und Gesellschaft. Zeitschrift für historische Sozialwissenschaft (Germany)
- 1982 Subaltern Studies (Oxford University Press)
- 1986 [http://www.stiftung-sozialgeschichte.de/ 1999. Zeitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20.und 21. Jahrhunderts], new title since 2003: Sozial.Geschichte. Zeitschrift für historische Analyse des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts. (Germany)
- 1990 [http://www.univie.ac.at/Geschichte/LHOMME/ L’Homme. Zeitschrift für feministische Geschichtswissenschaft] (Austria) +
- 1993 [http://www.historische-anthropologie.uni-goettingen.de/ Historische Anthropologie]

Styles of Historiography

- Annales School
- Big History
- Deconstruction
- Diplomatic history
- Feminist History
- Gender History
- Historiophoty
- Historiosophy
- History from below
- History of ideas
- Marxist analysis
- Metahistory
- Microhistory
- Numismatics
- Oral history
- Paleography
- Political history
- Postmodernism
- Prosopography
- Psychohistory
- Revisionism
- Social history
- Universal History
- World History

Relevant Literature

Philosophy of history:
- Frank Ankersmit (ed), A New Philosophy of History, 1995, ISBN 0226021009
- E. H. Carr, What is History? 1961, ISBN 039470391X
- R.G. Collingwood, The Idea of History, 1936, ISBN 0192853066
- Geoffrey Elton, The Practice of History, 1969, ISBN 0631229809
- Richard J. Evans In Defence of History, 1997, ISBN 3579108642
- Keith Jenkins, Rethinking History, 1991, ISBN 0415304431
- Arthur Marwick, The Nature of History, 1970, ISBN 0333109414
- John Tosh, The Pursuit of History, 2002, ISBN 0582772540
- W.H. Walsh, An Introduction to Philosophy of History, 1951.
- Hayden White, The Content of Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation, 1987, ISBN 0801841151
- Tessa Morris-Suzuki, The Past Within Us: Media, Memory, History, 2005, ISBN 1859845134 Broad histories of historical writing:
- Michael Bentley (ed.), Companion to Historiography, Routledge, 1997, ISBN 0415285577
- Michael Bentley, Modern Historiography: An Introduction, 1999 ISBN 0415202671
- Ernst Breisach, Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, 1994, ISBN 0226072789
- Peter Burke, History and Social Theory, Polity Press, Oxford, 1992
- Mark T. Gilderhus, History and Historiographical Introduction, 2002, ISBN 0130448249
- Susan Kinnell, Historiography: An Annotated Bibliography of Journal Article, Books and Dissertations, 1987, ISBN 0874361680
- Arnaldo Momigliano, The Classical Foundation of Modern Historiography, 1990, ISBN 0520078705 Regional or thematic:
- John Ernest. Liberation Historiography: African American Writers and the Challenge of History, 1794-1861. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004
- Marc Ferro, Cinema and History, Wayne State University Press, 1988
- Ranajit Guha, Dominance Without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India, Harvard UP 1998
- Gerda Lerner, The Majority Finds its Past: Placing Women in History, New York: Oxford University Press 1979
- Peter Novick, That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession 1988, ISBN 0521343283
- Roland Oliver, In the Realms of Gold: Pioneering in African History, University of Wisconsin Press 1997
- Christopher Saunders, The making of the South African past : major historians on race and class, Totowa, N.J. : Barnes & Noble, 1988
- Bonnie G. Smith, The Gender of History: Men, Women, and Historical Practice, Harvard UP 2000 Teaching History
- James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, Touchstone Books 1996 Journals
- [http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/index.html Cromohs - cyber review of modern historiography]
- History and Theory
- [http://www.cisi.unito.it/stor/home.htm History of Historiography]

External links

- [http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/Bibliographies/feminist-historiography Feminist historiography 1968-1993 a bibliography]
- [http://www.galilean-library.org/int18.html Philosophy of History] introduced at The Galilean Library
- [http://www.galilean-library.org/tucker.html Scientific Historiography], explained in an interview with Aviezer Tucker at the Galilean Library
- [http://www.africawithin.com/schomburg/negro_digs.htm The Negro Digs Up His Past (1925)] by Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
- [http://concepts.essential-facts.com/Historiography_and_Historical_methods.html W Notes and Historiography Bibliography]
- [http://www.history-journals.de/journals/hjg-subject-his.html The History Journals Guide]
- Category:Historiosophy

Predecessor state

A predecessor state is an established state in international law that is succeeded by a new state or states.

External link

[http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol7/No4/art1-05.html European Journal of International Law - State Succession in Respect of Human Rights Treaties] Category:International law Category:Historiography

Ukraine

Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, Ukrayina, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the northeast, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest and the Black Sea to the south. The territory of present-day Ukraine was a key centre of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers, notably Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Austria, Romania and the Ottoman Empire. A brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917 was ended by Ukraine's absorption into the Soviet Union and the republic's present borders were only established in 1954. It became independent once more following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Name

Etymology
There are three main versions of the Slavic etymology for the name, all of them ultimately stem from the slavic root
- kraj- with the meaning 'cut'. Opinions vary as to the immediate derivation.
- By one theory the name is directly translated as 'borderland, frontier' (cf. Russian окраина/okraina 'outskirts' or Serbo-Croatian Krajina; this would be a semantic parallel to -mark in Denmark, cf. Marches).
- Another one associates it with the Ukrainian word країна/krajina 'country' (cf. also Belarusian краіна/kraina; these words can be compared to Polish kraj 'country'; this is also one of the meanings of Ukrainian and Russian край/kraj).
- Still another one derives the name directly from the Ukrainian verb краяти/krajaty, meaning 'to cut', indicating the land the Rus' (or Ruthenians or Ukrainians) carved out for themselves.

Ukraine or the Ukraine?

The country is often referred to in English with the definite article, as the Ukraine. This usage is now deprecated by many media organizations (compare "the Lebanon" and "the Sudan") and partly because of the implication that Ukraine is merely a region rather than an independent state. There was, however, no change in Ukrainian or Russian usage with Ukraine's independence, as there are no articles, definite or indefinite, in either language. However there is a parallel concerning the usage of the preposition na or v with Ukraine, both in Ukrainian and in Russian. Traditional usage is na Ukrayini (loosely, "at Ukraine"), but recently Ukrainian authorities have been using v Ukrayini ("in Ukraine"), as this preposition is used with most other country names. While in Ukrainian the newly introduced usage of v Ukrayini took hold, the usage in Russian varies. Russian language media from within Ukraine are increasingly using this form. However, the media in Russia mostly uses traditional na Ukraine, maintaining that it remains a proper usage and questioning the authority of the Ukrainian government over the Russian language. (See also Kiev or Kyiv for a similar debate).
History
Human settlement in the territory of Ukraine has been documented into distant prehistory. The late neolithic Trypillian culture flourished from ca. 4500 BC to 3000 BC. In antiquity, the southern and eastern parts of modern Ukraine were populated by Iranian nomads called Scythians. The Scythian Kingdom existed in Ukraine between 700 BC and 200 BC. In the third century, the Goths arrived, calling their country Oium, and formed the Chernyakhov culture before moving on and defeating the Roman empire. In the 7th century Ukraine was the core of the state of the Bulgars (often referred to as Great Bulgaria) who had their capital in the city of Phanagoria. The majority of the Bulgar tribes migrated in several directions at the end of the seventh century and the remains of their state was swept by the Khazars, a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia which later adopted Judaism. The Khazars founded the independent Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's Europe, near the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. In addition to western Kazakhstan, the Khazar kingdom also included territory in what is now eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, southern Russia, and Crimea. During the tenth and eleventh centuries the territory of Ukraine became the center of important state in Europe— Kievan Rus laying the foundation for national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries. Its capital was Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine, ruled by Askold and Dir in the late 800s. According to the Primary Chronicle the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of Varangians, or Vikings, from present-day Scandinavia. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local population of Rus' and gave the Rus' its first powerful dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty. Rurik Dynasty Rurik Dynasty For the etymology of the terms Rus and Russia, see Etymology of Rus and derivatives. Kiev and Kievian Rus' were the seat of the Grand Prince of the Rurik Dynasty. The ruler of Kiev was also in effect the ruler of all the Rus' principalities. Kievan Rus' was fragmentated after Mstislav the Great's death in 1125. The term "Rus'" was originally applied to the inhabitants of all Rus' principalities, today comprising Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. After the fall of Kiev, and until the eighteenth century, the term "Rus" was self-applied by the members of all three East Slavic nations, but the latinized version, "Ruthenian", was used to designate inhabitants of Ukraine only; while the ancestors of modern Russians were usually referred to as Muscovites or Muscovite Russians by the name of their state that Poland called Muscovy. Kievan Rus' became weakened by internal quarrels and was destroyed by Mongol and Tatar invasions. On Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of Halych-Volynia. In the mid 14th century it was subjugated by Kazimierz IV of Poland, and after the 1386 marriage of Lithuania's Grand Duke Jagiello to Poland's Queen Jadwiga, was ruled by the Lithuanians as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed in 1569 Union of Lublin, significant part of Ukraine was moved under the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural pressure of polonization much of the Ukrainian (or rather Ruthenian) upper class converted to Catholicism as such transitions was beneficial for achieving the political influence within the state, e.g. one of the Wiśniowiecki's even became king of Poland. At the same time the common people (peasants) retained their old ways (including the Orthodox religion), which led to the increasing social tensions, visible in such events as the 1596 Union of Brest, created by Zygmunt III, who attempted to bring the Orthodox population closer to Catholicism. This move failed to achieve its goals. The new "intermediate" religion was unnecessary for the upper class, much of whom turned directly towards Catholicism. Thus, the Ukrainian commoners were deprived of their native protectors and turned for the protection to the Cossacks who remained fiercely Orthodox at all times. In the mid of the 17th century, a Cossack state, the Zaporizhian Sich, was established by Ukrainians and others fleeing Polish serfdom which formally belonged to Poland. Located in central Ukraine, it was an autonomous military state, initially allied with the Commonwealth. However the suppression of the Ukrainian free farmers by the Polish nobility, further imposition of serfdom and the suppression of the Orthodox church pushed the allegiances of Cossacks away from Poland. Their aspiration was to have a representation in Polish Seim, recognition of Orthodox traditions, which was vehemantly denied by Polish kings. They turned toward Orthodox Russia, which was one reason for the later downfall of the Polish-Lithuanian state. In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky organized the largest of the Cossacks upprising, against the Commonwealth and the Polish king Jan II Kazimierz. This uprising finally led to a partition of Ukraine between Poland and Russia. Left-Bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into Russia as the Cossack Hetmanate, as a consequence of the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1667. After the partitions of Poland by Prussia, Austria, and Russia at the end of the eighteenth century, Western Ukraine (Galicia) was taken over by Austria, while the rest of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire. The treaty of Pereyaslav was abolished and Ukrainians never received the freedoms they were hoping for from Tsarist Russia. Ukrainians played an important role in the frequent wars between East European monarchies and the Ottoman Empire, they rised to the highest offices of Russian state (e.g., Aleksey Razumovsky, Alexander Bezborodko, Ivan Paskevich), and dominated the Russian Orthodox Church (e.g., Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Dimitry of Rostov). During the first world war austro-hungarian authorities in territory of Galicia subject to repression Ukrainians, sympathizing Russia. Over twenty thousand supporters of Russia are arrested and placed in the Austrian concentration camp in Talerhof, Stiria, and in fortress Terezien, Czechia. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Ukraine was briefly independent in two states, then united by cruel war, in 1920. In the period when the independent Ukrainian government was headed nationalist leader Simon Petlura (1919), there were numerous Jewish pogroms. By 1922 Ukraine was split between Poland and the Soviet Union. Also in 1922, most of Central and Eastern Ukraine became a constituent republic of the USSR as the Ukrainian SSR. In 20s years the communist leaders realized a policy of Ukrainization (коренизация), introduction of the Ukrainian language and culture in Russian-speaking Ukrainian cities. To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies, the Soviet industrialization program called for the collectivization of agriculture, which had a profound effect on Ukraine, the nation's breadbasket (see Collectivization in the USSR). In the late 1920s and early 1930s the state compounded the peasants' lands and animals into collective farms and state farms. Although the program was designed to affect all peasants, the plan met particularly heavy resistance from the wealthiest peasants, the kulaks, and a desperate struggle of the peasantry against the authorities ensued. The idea of collective farming was foreign to Ukrainian farmers where emphasis was always made on individual achievements. Peasants slaughtered their cows and pigs rather than turn them over to the collective farms, especially in Ukraine, with the result that livestock resources remained below the 1929 level for years afterward. The state in turn forcibly collectivized reluctant peasants and deported kulaks and active rebels to Siberia. Within the collective farms, the authorities in many instances exacted such high levels of procurements that starvation was widespread. In some places, famine was allowed to run its course; and millions of peasants in Ukraine starved to death in a famine, called the Holodomor in Ukrainian. An estimated 3-6 million people died in this horrible manmade famine ([http://rg-new.w-m.ru/Anons/arc_2003/0917/5.shtm]) similar to the Russian famine of 1921. The disaster also has captured many regions of southern Russia. During World War II, some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground fought both Nazi and Soviet forces, while others collaborated with the Nazis. In 1941 the German invaders and their Axis allies initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of the Red Army. In the encirclement battle of Kiev, the city was acclaimed by the Soviets as a "Hero City", for the fierce resistance of the Red Army and of the local population. More than 660,000 Soviet troops were taken captive. Initially, the Germans were received as "liberators" by many Ukrainians. However, German rule in the occupied territories eventually aided the Soviet cause. Nazi administrators of conquered Soviet territories made little attempt to exploit the population's dissatisfaction with Soviet political and economic policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out genocidal policies against Jews, and deported others (mainly Ukrainians) to work in Germany. Under these circumstances, the great majority of the Soviet people fought and worked on their country's behalf, thus ensuring the regime's survival. Total civilian losses during the war and German occupation in Ukraine are estimated between five and eight million, including over half a million Jews shot and killed by the Einsatzgruppen, often with the help of Ukrainian collaborators. Of the estimated eleven million Soviet troops who fell in battle against the Nazis, about a quarter (2.7 million) were ethnic Ukrainians. Ukraine is distinguished as one of the first nations to fight the Axis powers in Carpatho-Ukraine, and one that saw some of the greatest bloodshed during the war. After the Second World War, the borders of then-Soviet Ukraine were extended to the West (as stipulated in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, see also Curzon line), uniting most Ukrainians under one political state. The expellation of the Poles began in 1942-1943 with the massacres of Wolynia, where more than 40.000 people where killed by Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Over one million Poles were expelled from Ukraine. In 1954, Crimea was transferred from the RSFSR to Ukraine. This decision of Nikita Khrushchev, intended to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, seen in Soviet historiography as the 'union of two fraternal peoples', led to tensions between Russia and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Independence was achieved in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Ukraine was a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Government and Politics
Commonwealth of Independent States Commonwealth of Independent States Ukraine is a democracy under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The President of Ukraine (elected by popular vote) nominates the Prime Minister, who must be confirmed by the 450-seat parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. The President (on advice and consent of the Prime Minister) appoints members of the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as heads of all central agencies and regional and district administrations. Laws, acts of the parliament and the Cabinet, presidential edicts, and acts of the Crimean parliament (Autonomous Republic of Crimea) may be nullified by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, when they are found to violate the Constitution of Ukraine. Other normative acts are subject to judicial review. The Supreme Court of Ukraine is the main body in the system of courts of general jurisdiction. Local self-government is officially guaranteed. Local councils and city mayors are popularly elected and exercise control over local budgets. In practice, the scope of local self-government is limited. Ukraine has a large number of political parties, many of which have tiny memberships and are unknown to the general public. Small parties often join in multi-party coalitions (electoral blocks) for the purpose of participating in parliamentary elections. See also:
- Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
- Foreign relations of Ukraine
Subdivisions
Ukraine is subdivided into twenty-four oblasts (provinces) and one autonomous republic (Crimea). Additionally, two cities have a special legal status. See also regions of Ukraine.
Geography
regions of Ukraine The Ukrainian landscape consists mostly of fertile plains, or steppes, and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as the Dnieper, Seversky Donets, Dniester and the Southern Buh as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. To the southwest the delta of the Danube forms the border with Romania. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 m, and those in the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast. Ukraine has a mostly temperate continental climate, though a more mediterranean climate is found on the southern Crimean coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed; it is highest in the west and north and lesser in the east and southeast. Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Summers are warm across the greater part of the country, but generally hot in the south.
Economy
Precipitation Precipitation Precipitation Formerly an important agricultural and industrial region of the Soviet Union, Ukraine now depends on Russia for most energy supplies, especially natural gas, although lately it has been trying to diversify its sources. The lack of significant structural reform has made the Ukrainian economy vulnerable to external shocks. After 1991 the government liberalised most prices and erected a legal framework for privatisation, but widespread resistance to reform within the government soon stalled reform efforts and led to some backtracking. Output by 1999 had fallen to less than 40% of the 1991 level. Loose monetary policies pushed inflation to hyperinflationary levels in late 1993. The current government has pledged to reduce the number of government agencies, streamline the regulatory process, create a legal environment to encourage entrepreneurs, and enact a comprehensive tax overhaul. Reforms in the more politically sensitive areas of structural reform and land privatisation are still lagging. Outside institutions—particularly the IMF—have encouraged Ukraine to quicken the pace and scope of reforms and have threatened to withdraw financial support. The GDP in 2000 showed strong export-based growth of 6%—the first growth since independence—and industrial production grew 12.9%. The economy continued to expand in 2001, as real GDP rose 9% and industrial output grew by over 14%. Growth was undergirded by strong domestic demand and growing consumer and investor confidence. Rapid economic growth in 2002 - 2004 is largely attributed to a surge in steel exports to China.
Demographics
2004 2004 Ethnic Ukrainians make up 77.8% of the population. The minorities include significant groups of ethnic Russians (17.3%), Belarusians (0.6%), Moldavians (0.5%), Crimean Tatars (0.5%), Bulgarians (0.4%), Hungarians (0.3%), Romanians (0.3%), Poles (0.3%), Jews (0.2%), Armenians (0.2%), Greeks (0.2%) and Tatars (0.2%) [http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/]. The industrial regions in the east and south-east are the most heavily populated, and about 67.2% of the population lives in urban areas. Ukrainian is the only official state language. Russian, which was the official language in the Soviet Union, is still used by many people, especially in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian is considered to be a native language by 67.5% of the population and Russian by 29.6% (according to the 2001 census). It is sometimes difficult to determine the extent of the two language, since many people use a mixed language (Surzhyk) containing elements of both, while thinking they speak Russian or Ukrainian. Standard literary Ukrainian is mainly spoken in western and central Ukraine. In western Ukraine, Ukrainian is also the dominant language in cities (e.g. Lviv). In central Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian are both equally used in cities (including Kiev), while Ukrainian is the dominant language in rural communities. In eastern Ukraine mainly Russian and Surzhyk are used. In the Autonomous Republic of Crimea practically all of the population speaks Russian and Ukrainain is virtually unused. Both languages are official within the autonomous republic. The share of students receiving their education in Russian has significantly declined from 41% in 1995 to 24% in 2004, in favour of Ukrainian-language education. Still, many urban Ukrainian schools are de facto Russian-speaking, especially in the east and south. Russian continues to be the language of international communication for many Ukrainians and is generally understood throughout the country.
Religion
de facto The dominant religion in Ukraine is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which is currently split between three Church bodies. The distant second is the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which practices similar Liturgical rite to Eastern Orthodoxy, but is in communion with the Catholic see and recognizes the primacy of the Roman Pope as head of the Church. There are also smaller Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim communities.
Culture

- List of famous Ukrainians
- Music of Ukraine
- Ivan Kupala
- Sports in Ukraine
Miscellaneous topics

- Chernobyl accident
- Communications in Ukraine
- List of cities in Ukraine
- List of newspapers in Ukraine
- Military of Ukraine
- Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)
- Scouting in Ukraine
- Tourism in Ukraine
- Transportation in Ukraine
- Ukraine at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Ukrainian cuisine
- 2005 Eurovision Song Contest
References

- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/up.html CIA World Factbook - Ukraine]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1102303.stm Country profile: Ukraine], BBC's Country Profile on Ukraine.
- [http://www.economist.com/countries/Ukraine/index.cfm Country Briefings: Ukraine], by The Economist
- [http://eb.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=oneclick&country_id=980000298 Executive Briefing: Ukraine], by Economist Intelligence Unit.
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine Special Report: Ukraine], ongoing coverage by Guardian Unlimited
- [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3211.htm Background Note: Ukraine], the U.S. Department of State website
- [http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/european/ukraine/ua.html Ukraine], Portals to the World, Internet resources selected by Library of Congress subject experts
- [http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20031/4 "Ukraine: Briefly about Her Past and Present"], in Welcome to Ukraine, 2003, 1]
External links

- [http://www.president.gov.ua/en/ Official presidential site of Ukraine]
- [http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/en Government Portal of Ukraine] - Official governmental portal
- [http://www.rada.gov.ua Verkhovna Rada]—Official parliamentary site (in Ukrainian)
- [http://www.archives.gov.ua/Eng/ Archives of Ukraine]
- [http://www.ukrtelecom.ua/en/offers/web_cam/ Web cam shots for selected cities across Ukraine]
- [http://www.infoukes.com Infoukes]—General info on Ukraine's History and Politics
- [http://myukraine.info My Ukraine]—General info on Ukraine's culture and geography.
- [http://www.kyivpost.com Kyiv Post]—Kyiv News in English
- [http://www.ukraina.at Ukraina.at]—Ukraine Fanpage from Mr. Bartosch (in German)
- [http://pages.prodigy.net/l.hodges/ukraine.htm Ukrainian Language, Culture and Travel Page]
- [http://guide.kyiv.ru/ Kiev and Ukraine Travel Guide ]
- [http://www.skrobach.com/ Information about Independent Ukraine] Category:Black Sea countries zh-min-nan:Ukrayina als:Ukraine ko:우크라이나 ms:Ukraine ja:ウクライナ simple:Ukraine th:ประเทศยูเครน fiu-vro:Ukraina

Vladimir the Great

Saint Vladimir Svyatoslavich the Great (c. 958–1015) was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988, and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. His name may be spelt in different ways: in Old East Slavic as Volodimir (Володимир), in modern Ukrainian as Volodymyr (Володимир), in Old Church Slavonic and modern Russian as Vladimir (Владимир), and in the Norse and modern Scandinavian languages as Valdemar.

Bloody way to the throne

Vladimir was the youngest son of Svyatoslav I by his slave girl Malusha, described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the