History is a science that studies the life of people in the past. Interest in the past never fades, a person needs to know his history and, of course, draw conclusions. History studies various sources, establishes a chain of events, a historical process, systematizes. The historical map is one such source. Let's consider what kind of source it is and what information we can get from it.
Historical map as a source of information
The main purpose of the historical map is to convey to posterity the recorded and preserved display of historical events in a certain area, that is, to show that historical process, that time and those events in space clearly. A historical map is an image of a planet or a certain part of it, a territory at different times in human history. Thus, historical events become not just dry facts in a textbook, they come to life before our eyes and become more understandable and visual. We can see the emergence of wholecivilizations, the economic development of a state, trade routes, the course of hostilities, the conquest of one state by another, the rise and fall of entire empires - a whole era on just a few historical maps. Historical maps are divided into ethnographic, archaeological, historical-economic, historical-political, military-historical and historical-cultural. For these industries, maps are general, which show the processes as a whole, and private, characterizing individual aspects of events or phenomena and facts. Thanks to these maps, we can get more information about our native land, about the history of our native country.
Ukraine and Russia: common history
Ukraine and Russia have a common history, and this cannot be disputed. Historical maps of Russia will always tell about this close relationship, because for many centuries they displayed the territory of present-day Ukraine. The borders between Russia and Ukraine were artificially created, although the national and cultural differences between the peoples who found themselves in neighboring states on opposite sides of the border are minimal. This happened after the First World War. Under pressure from the occupation by Germany at the Paris Peace Conference, Ukraine appeared on the world political map.
How the historical map of Ukraine was formed
The location of Ukraine in the central part of Eastern Europe, in addition to profitable trade routes, led to the fact that the country repeatedly became a participant in hostilities. Allbegan with Kievan Rus, with the decline of which the Galicia-Volyn principality arises, most of which is later captured by neighboring countries. In 1569, these neighboring countries - Poland and Lithuania - united into one state - the Commonwe alth, which included almost all the lands of present-day Ukraine. At the beginning of the 17th century, the division of territories between Poland and Russia took place, thanks to which more and more lands were part of Russia. This was initiated by an uprising in 1648 of the Zaporizhian Cossacks due to increased pressure from the Polish magnates. The uprising was led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and in 1654, at a meeting called the Pereyaslav Rada, it was announced that the rebel territories were going under the protectorate of Russia. During the Russian-Turkish wars, the development of the lands of the so-called "Wild Field" took place. Thanks to the conquests of Russia, the modern largest cities of the south and southern coast of the Black Sea were founded: Kirovograd, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk. Then came the annexation of Bessarabia. Austria-Hungary still included the territories of Transcarpathia, Bukovina and Galicia.
Ukraine within the USSR: continued formation of modern borders
USSR liberates the current territories of Western Ukraine in 1939, which were previously captured by Poland in 1918 and 1920. In 1940, in response to the demand of the USSR, Romania returned the territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina captured in 1918. Transcarpathia was liberated in 1945 and also became part ofTHE USSR. Thus, thanks to Tsarist Russia and the redistribution of the borders of the USSR after the First and Second World Wars, a new historical map of Ukraine was formed in its current borders.
