HISTORY OF UKRAINE

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Re: HISTORY OF UKRAINE

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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary

During subsequent decades, Tsarist rule over central Ukraine gradually replaced 'protection'.

Sporadic Cossack uprisings were now aimed at the Russian authorities, but eventually petered out by the late 18th century, following the destruction of entire Cossack hosts.

After the Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793 and 1795, the extreme west of Ukraine fell under the control of the Austrians, with the rest becoming a part of the Russian Empire.


As a result of the Russo-Turkish Wars, the Ottoman Empire's control receded from south-central Ukraine, while the rule of Hungary over the Transcarpathian region continued.

Ukrainian writers and intellectuals were inspired by the nationalistic spirit stirring other European peoples existing under other imperial governments and became determined to revive the Ukrainian linguistic and cultural traditions and re-establish a Ukrainian nation-state, a movement that became known as Ukrainophilism.

Russia, fearing separatism, imposed strict limits on attempts to elevate the Ukrainian language and culture, even banning its use and study.


The Russophile policies of Russification and Panslavism led to an exodus of a number of Ukrainian intellectuals into Western Ukraine.

However, many Ukrainians accepted their fate in the Russian Empire and some were able to achieve great success there.

The fate of the Ukrainians was far different under the Austrian Empire where they found themselves in the pawn position of the Russian–Austrian power struggle for Central and Southern Europe.

Unlike in Russia, most of the elite that ruled Galicia were of Austrian or Polish descent, with the Ruthenians being almost exclusively kept in peasantry.


During the 19th century, Russophilia was a common occurrence among the Slavic population, but the mass exodus of Ukrainian intellectuals escaping from Russian repression in Eastern Ukraine, as well as the intervention of Austrian authorities, caused the movement to be replaced by Ukrainophilia, which would then cross over into the Russian Empire.

With the start of World War I, all those supporting Russia were rounded up by Austrian forces and held in a concentration camp at Talerhof where many died.

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thelivyjr
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Re: HISTORY OF UKRAINE

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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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Modern history

17th and 18th-century Ukraine


Ukraine emerges as the concept of a nation, and the Ukrainians as a nationality, with the Ukrainian National Revival in the mid-18th century, in the wake of the peasant revolt of 1768/1769 and the eventual partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Galicia fell to the Austrian Empire, and the rest of Ukraine to the Russian Empire.


While right-bank Ukraine belonged to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until late 1793, left-bank Ukraine had been incorporated into Tsardom of Russia in 1667 (under the Treaty of Andrusovo).

In 1672, Podolia was occupied by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, while Kyiv and Braclav came under the control of Hetman Petro Doroshenko until 1681, when they were also captured by the Turks, but in 1699 the Treaty of Karlowitz returned those lands to the Commonwealth.

Most of Ukraine fell to the Russian Empire under the reign of Catherine the Great; in 1793 right-bank Ukraine was annexed by Russia in the Second Partition of Poland.


Ukrainian writers and intellectuals were inspired by the nationalistic spirit stirring other European peoples existing under other imperial governments.

Russia, fearing separatism, imposed strict limits on attempts to elevate the Ukrainian language and culture, even banning its use and study.

The Russophile policies of Russification and Panslavism led to an exodus of a number some Ukrainian intellectuals into Western Ukraine, while others embraced a Pan-Slavic or Russian identity.

TO BE CONTINUED ...
thelivyjr
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Re: HISTORY OF UKRAINE

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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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Ukraine and the world wars

Territorial evolution of the Ukrainian SSR 1922–1954.


Okrug Taganrog and Shakhty lost (1924); Polish Volhynia gained (1939); Transnistria lost (1940); Transcarpatia gained (1945); Romanian islands gained (1948); Crimea gained (1954).

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thelivyjr
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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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Depopulation in 1929–1933, including Holodomor time

Ukraine, which included Crimea, the Kuban, and portions of Don Cossack lands with large Ukrainian populations (along with ethnic Russians, and Jews), tried to break free from Russia after the February 1917 revolution in St. Petersburg.

Historian Paul Kubicek states:

Between 1917 and 1920, several entities that aspired to be independent Ukrainian states came into existence.

This period, however, was extremely chaotic, characterized by revolution, international and civil war, and lack of strong central authority.

Many factions competed for power in the area that is today’s Ukraine, and not all groups desired a separate Ukrainian state.

Ultimately, Ukrainian independence was short-lived, as most Ukrainian lands were incorporated into the Soviet Union and the remainder, in western Ukraine, was divided among Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.


Canadian scholar Orest Subtelny provides a context from the long span of European history:

In 1919 total chaos engulfed Ukraine.

Indeed, in the modern history of Europe no country experienced such complete anarchy, bitter civil strife, and total collapse of authority as did Ukraine at this time.

Six different armies-– those of the Ukrainians, the Bolsheviks, the Whites, the Entente [French], the Poles and the anarchists – operated on its territory.

Kyiv changed hands five times in less than a year.


Cities and regions were cut off from each other by the numerous fronts.

Communications with the outside world broke down almost completely.

The starving cities emptied as people moved into the countryside in their search for food.

The Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917 to 1921 produced the Free Territory of Ukraine, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (in 1919 merged from the Ukrainian People's Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic) which was quickly subsumed in the Soviet Union.

The Soviet famine of 1932–33, now known as the Holodomor, left millions dead in the Soviet Union, the majority of them Ukrainians not only in Ukraine but also in Kuban and former Don Cossack lands.

The Second World War began in September 1939, when Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland, the Soviet Union taking most of Eastern Poland.

Nazi Germany with its allies invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

Some Ukrainians initially regarded the Wehrmacht soldiers as liberators from Soviet rule, while others formed a partisan movement."

Some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground formed a Ukrainian Insurgent Army that fought both Soviet forces and the Nazi.

Others collaborated with the Germans.

Some 1.5 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during their occupation.

In Volhynia, Ukrainian fighters committed a massacre against up to 100,000 Polish civilians.

Residual small groups of the UPA-partizans acted near the Polish and Soviet border as long as to the 1950s.


Galicia, South Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and Carpathian Ruthenia were added as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 and the Soviet victory over Germany in the Second World War, 1939–45.

After World War II, some amendments to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR were accepted, which allowed it to act as a separate subject of international law in some cases and to a certain extent, remaining a part of the Soviet Union at the same time.

In particular, these amendments allowed the Ukrainian SSR to become one of the founding members of the United Nations (UN) together with the Soviet Union and the Byelorussian SSR.

This was part of a deal with the United States to ensure a degree of balance in the General Assembly, which, the USSR opined, was unbalanced in favor of the Western Bloc.


In its capacity as a member of the UN, the Ukrainian SSR was an elected member of the United Nations Security Council in 1948–1949 and 1984–1985.

The Crimean Oblast was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.

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thelivyjr
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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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Independence

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent state, formalised with a referendum in December 1991.

On 21 January 1990, over 300,000 Ukrainians organized a human chain for Ukrainian independence between Kyiv and Lviv.

Ukraine officially declared itself an independent country on 24 August 1991, when the communist Supreme Soviet (parliament) of Ukraine proclaimed that Ukraine would no longer follow the laws of USSR and only the laws of the Ukrainian SSR, de facto declaring Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union.

On 1 December, voters approved a referendum formalizing independence from the Soviet Union.

Over 90% of Ukrainian citizens voted for independence, with majorities in every region, including 56% in Crimea.

The Soviet Union formally ceased to exist on 26 December, when the presidents of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia (the founding members of the USSR) met in Białowieża Forest to formally dissolve the Union in accordance with the Soviet Constitution.

With this, Ukraine's independence was formalized de jure and recognized by the international community.

Also on 1 December 1991, Ukrainian voters in their first presidential election elected Leonid Kravchuk.

During his presidency, the Ukrainian economy shrank by more than 10% per year (in 1994 by more than 20%).

The presidency (1994–2005) of the 2nd President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, was surrounded by numerous corruption scandals and the lessening of media freedoms, including the Cassette Scandal.

During Kuchma's presidency, the economy recovered, with GDP growth at around 10% a year in his last years in office.

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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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2000s

In 2004, Kuchma announced that he would not run for re-election.

Two major candidates emerged in the 2004 presidential election.

Viktor Yanukovych, the incumbent Prime Minister, supported by both Kuchma and by the Russian Federation, wanted closer ties with Russia.

The main opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, called for Ukraine to turn its attention westward and aim to eventually join the EU.

In the runoff election, Yanukovych officially won by a narrow margin, but Yushchenko and his supporters alleged that vote rigging and intimidation cost him many votes, especially in eastern Ukraine.


A political crisis erupted after the opposition started massive street protests in Kyiv and other cities ("Orange Revolution"), and the Supreme Court of Ukraine ordered the election results null and void.

A second runoff found Viktor Yushchenko the winner.

Five days later, Yanukovych resigned from office and his cabinet was dismissed on 5 January 2005.

During the Yushchenko term, relations between Russia and Ukraine often appeared strained as Yushchenko looked towards improved relations with the European Union and less toward Russia.

In 2005, a highly publicized dispute over natural gas prices with Russia caused shortages in many European countries that were reliant on Ukraine as a transit country.

A compromise was reached in January 2006.


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2010s

By the time of the presidential election of 2010, Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko — allies during the Orange Revolution — had become bitter enemies.

Tymoshenko ran for president against both Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych, creating a three-way race.


Yushchenko, whose popularity had plummeted, persisted in running, and many pro-Orange voters stayed home.

In the second round of the election, Yanukovych won the run-off ballot with 48% to Tymoshenko's 45%.

During his presidency (2010–2014), Yanukovych and his Party of Regions were accused of trying to create a "controlled democracy" in Ukraine and of trying to destroy the main opposition party Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, but both have denied these charges.

One frequently cited example of Yanukovych's attempts to centralise power was the 2011 sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko, which has been condemned by Western governments as potentially being politically motivated.


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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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2014 Euromaidan protests in Kyiv

In November 2013, President Yanukovych did not sign the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement and instead pursued closer ties with Russia.

This move sparked protests on the streets of Kyiv and, ultimately, the Revolution of Dignity.

Protesters set up camps in Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), and in December 2013 and January 2014 protesters started taking over various government buildings, first in Kyiv, and later in Western Ukraine.


Battles between protesters and police resulted in about 80 deaths in February 2014.

Following the violence, the Ukrainian parliament on 22 February voted to remove Yanukovych from power (on the grounds that his whereabouts were unknown and he thus could not fulfil his duties), and to free Yulia Tymoshenko from prison.

On the same day, Yanukovych supporter Volodymyr Rybak resigned as speaker of the Parliament, and was replaced by Tymoshenko loyalist Oleksandr Turchynov, who was subsequently installed as interim President.

Yanukovych had fled Kyiv, and subsequently gave a press conference in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

In March 2014, the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation occurred.

Though official results of a referendum on Crimean reunification with Russia were reported as showing a large majority in favor of the proposition, the vote was organized under Russian military occupation and was denounced by the European Union and the United States as illegal.

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History of Ukraine, continued ...

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War in Donbass, Pervomaisk City, July 2014

The Crimean crisis was followed by pro-Russian unrest in east Ukraine and south Ukraine.

In April 2014 Ukrainian separatists self-proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic and held referendums on 11 May 2014; the separatists claimed nearly 90% voted in favor of independence.

Later in April 2014, fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Ukrainian volunteer battalions on one side, and forces supporting the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics on the other side, escalated into the War in Donbass.


By December 2014, more than 6,400 people had died in this conflict, and according to United Nations figures it led to over half a million people becoming internally displaced within Ukraine and two hundred thousand refugees to flee to (mostly) Russia and other neighboring countries.

During the same period, political (including adoption of the law on lustration and the law on decommunization) and economic reforms started.

On 25 May 2014, Petro Poroshenko was elected president in the first round of the presidential election.

By the second half of 2015, independent observers noted that reforms in Ukraine had considerably slowed down, corruption did not subside, and the economy of Ukraine was still in a deep crisis.


By December 2015, more than 9,100 people had died (largely civilians) in the War in Donbass, according to United Nations figures.

On 1 January 2016, Ukraine joined the DCFTA with the EU.

Ukrainian citizens were granted visa-free travel to the Schengen Area for up to 90 days during any 180-day period on 11 June 2017, and the Association Agreement formally came into effect on 1 September 2017.

Significant achievements in the foreign policy arena include support for anti-Russian sanctions, obtaining a visa-free regime with the countries of the European Union, and better recognition of the need to overcome extremely difficult tasks within the country.

However, the old local authorities did not want any changes; they were cleansed of anti-Maidan activists, but only in part.

The fight against corruption was launched, but was limited to sentences of petty officials and electronic declarations, and the newly established NABU and NAPC were marked by scandals in their work.

Judicial reform was combined with the appointment of old, compromised judges.


The investigation of crimes against Maidan residents was delayed.

In order to counteract the massive global Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda of the "information war", the Ministry of Information Policy was created, which for 5 years did not show effective work, except for the ban on Kaspersky Lab, Dr.Web, 1С, Mail.ru, Yandex and Russian social networks VKontakte or Odnoklassniki and propaganda media.

In 2017, the president signed the law "On Education", which met with opposition from national minorities, and quarreled with the Government of Hungary.

On May 19, 2018, Poroshenko signed a Decree which put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on the final termination of Ukraine's participation in the statutory bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

As of February 2019, Ukraine minimized its participation in the Commonwealth of Independent States to a critical minimum and effectively completed its withdrawal.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine did not ratify the accession, i.e. Ukraine has never been a member of the CIS.

The Kerch Strait incident occurred on 25 November 2018 when the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels attempting to pass from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait on their way to the port of Mariupol.

On January 6, 2019, in Fener, a delegation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine with the participation of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko received a Tomos on autocephaly.

The Tomos was presented to the head of the OCU, Metropolitan Epiphanius, during a joint liturgy with the Ecumenical Patriarch.

The next day, Tomos was brought to Ukraine for a demonstration at St. Sophia Cathedral.

On January 9, all members of the Synod of the Constantinople Orthodox Church signed the Tomos during the scheduled meeting of the Synod.

On February 21, 2019, the Constitution of Ukraine was amended, with the norms on the strategic course of Ukraine for membership in the European Union and NATO being enshrined in the preamble of the Basic Law, three articles and transitional provisions.

On 21 April 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president in the second round of the presidential election.

Early parliamentary elections on July 21 allowed the newly formed pro-presidential Servant of the People party to win an absolute majority of seats for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine.

Dmytro Razumkov, the party's chairman, was elected speaker of parliament.

The majority was able to form a government on August 29 on its own, without forming coalitions, and approved Oleksii Honcharuk as prime minister.

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2020s

On March 4, 2020, due to a 1.5% drop in GDP (instead of a 4.5% increase at the time of the election), the Verkhovna Rada fired Honcharuk's government and Denys Shmyhal became the new Prime Minister.

On July 28, 2020, in Lublin, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine created the Lublin Triangle initiative, which aims to create further cooperation between the three historical countries of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and further Ukraine's integration and accession to the EU and NATO.

On February 2, 2021, a presidential decree banned the television broadcasting of the pro-Russian TV channels 112 Ukraine, NewsOne and ZIK.

The decision of the National Security and Defense Council and the Presidential Decree of February 19, 2021 imposed sanctions on 8 individuals and 19 legal entities, including Putin's pro-Russian politician and Putin's godfather Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife Oksana Marchenko.


On May 17, 2021, the Association Trio was formed by signing a joint memorandum between the Foreign Ministers of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Association Trio is tripartite format for the enhanced cooperation, coordination, and dialogue between the three countries (that have signed the Association Agreement with the EU) with the European Union on issues of common interest related to European integration, enhancing cooperation within the framework of the Eastern Partnership, and committing to the prospect of joining the European Union.

At the June 2021 Brussels Summit, NATO leaders reiterated the decision taken at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine would become a member of the Alliance with the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as an integral part of the process and Ukraine's right to determine its own future and foreign policy without outside interference.

As of 2021, Ukraine is preparing to formally apply for EU membership in 2024, in order to join the European Union in the 2030s.

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