The territory of Ukraine has been inhabited by people for at least 44 thousand years. The Pontic-Caspian steppe was the scene of important historical events of the Bronze Age. Here the migration of the Indo-European peoples took place. In the same Black Sea and Caspian steppes, people tamed the horse.
Later, the Scythians and Sarmatians lived on the territory of the Crimea and the Dnieper. Finally, these lands were inhabited by the Slavs. They founded the medieval state of Kievan Rus, which collapsed in the 12th century. By the middle of the XIV century, the current Ukrainian lands were ruled by three forces: the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. Later, the territory was divided by such powers as the Crimean Khanate, the Commonwe alth, the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary.
In the XX century, an independent Ukraine appeared. The history of the emergence of the country begins with attempts to create the states of the UNR and ZUNR. Then it was formedUkrainian SSR within the Soviet Union. And finally, in 1991, the independence of Ukraine was proclaimed, confirmed at a national referendum and recognized by the international community.
Ancient history of Ukraine
Archaeological excavations show that Neanderthals lived in the Northern Black Sea region as early as 43-45 millennium BC. Objects belonging to the Cro-Magnols were found in the Crimea. They are dated 32 millennium BC.
At the end of the Neolithic, the Trypillia culture arose on Ukrainian lands. It reached its peak in 4500-3000 BC.
With the onset of the Iron Age, the tribes of the Dacians, the ancestors of modern Romanians, passed through the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. Then nomadic peoples (Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmatians) settled the lands of Ukraine. The history of these tribes is known not only through archaeological sites, but also from written sources. Herodotus mentions the Scythians in his writings. The Greeks founded their colonies in the Crimea in the VI century BC.
Then the Goths and Huns came to the territory of Ukraine. This happened in the III-V centuries AD. Slavic tribes appeared here in the fifth century.
In the 7th century, the state of the Bulgars appeared in the Ukrainian steppes. But soon it broke up and was absorbed by the Khazars. This nomadic people from Central Asia founded a country that included vast territories - western Kazakhstan, the Caucasus, Crimea, the Don steppes and eastern Ukraine. The history of the emergence and flourishing of the Khazar Khaganate is closely connected with the process of formationstatehood of the Eastern Slavs. It is known that the title of kagan was worn by the first princes of Kyiv.
Kievan Rus
The history of Ukraine as a state, according to many researchers, begins in 882. It was then that Kyiv was conquered by Prince Oleg from the Khazars and became the center of a vast country. In a single state, the glade, drevlyans, streets, white Croats and other Slavic tribes were united. Oleg himself, according to the dominant concept in historiography, was a Varangian.
In the XI century, Kievan Rus becomes the largest state in Europe by territory. In Western sources of that time, her lands were most often designated as Ruthenia. The name Ukraine is first encountered in documents of the 12th century. It means "land", "country".
In the 16th century, the first map of Ukraine appears. On it, under this name, Kyiv, Chernigov and Pereyaslav lands are indicated.
The adoption of Christianity and the crushing of Russia
The first followers of Christ appeared in the Crimea at least in the IV century. Christianity became the official religion of Kievan Rus in 988 on the initiative of Volodymyr the Great. The first baptized ruler of the state was his grandmother, Princess Olga.
During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, a set of laws was adopted, called "Russian Truth". It was the time of the highest political power of the Kyiv state. After the death of Yaroslav, the era of fragmentation of Russia into separate, often warring with each other, principalities began.
Vladimir Monomakh tried to revive a single centralized state, but in the 12th century Russia finally disintegrated. Kyiv and the Galicia-Volyn principality became the territories on which Ukraine later arose. The history of the emergence of Russia begins with the rise of the city of Suzdal, which was the political and cultural center of the northeastern Russian lands. Later, Moscow became the capital of these territories. In the northwest, the Principality of Polotsk became the center around which the Belarusian nation was formed.
In 1240, Kyiv was sacked by the Mongols and for a long time lost any political influence.
Galicia-Volyn Principality
The history of the emergence of the state of Ukraine, according to some scientists, begins in the XII century. While the northern principalities fall under the rule of the Golden Horde, two independent Russian powers remain in the west with their capitals in the cities of Galich and Lodomir (now Vladimir-Volynsky). After their unification, the Galicia-Volyn principality was formed. At the height of its power, it included Wallachia and Bessarabia and had access to the Black Sea.
In 1245, Pope Innocent IV crowned Prince Daniel of Galicia and granted him the title of King of All Russia. At this time, the principality waged a complex war against the Mongols. After the death of Daniel of Galicia in 1264, he was replaced by his son Leo, who moved the capital to the city of Lvov. Unlike his father, who adhered to a pro-Western political vector, he cooperated with the Mongols, in particular, he entered into an alliance withNogai Khan. Together with his Tatar allies, Leo invaded Poland. In 1280, he defeated the Hungarians and captured part of Transcarpathia.
After the death of Leo, the decline of the Galicia-Volyn principality began. In 1323, the last representatives of this branch of the Rurik family died in a battle with the Mongols. After that, Volyn came under the control of the Lithuanian princes Gedeminovich, and Galicia fell under the rule of the Polish crown.
Rzeczpospolita
After the Union of Lublin, the Ruthenian lands became part of the Kingdom of Poland. During this period, the history of Ukraine as a state is interrupted, but it was at this time that the Ukrainian nation was formed. Contradictions between Poles-Catholics and Rusyns-Orthodox gradually resulted in inter-ethnic tensions.
Cossacks
The Poles were interested in protecting their eastern borders from the Ottoman Empire and its vassals. For these purposes, the Cossacks were best suited. They not only repulsed the raids of the Crimean khans, but also participated in the wars of the Commonwe alth with the Moscow kingdom.
Despite the military merits of the Cossacks, the Polish gentry refused to grant them any significant autonomy, trying instead to turn most of the Ukrainian population into serfs. This led to conflicts and uprisings.
Ultimately, in 1648, the liberation war began under the leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. The history of the creation of Ukraine has entered a new phase. The state of the Hetmanate that emerged as a result of the uprising was surrounded by three forces:Ottoman Empire, the Commonwe alth and Muscovy. A period of political maneuvering has begun.
In 1654, the Zaporozhian Cossacks made an agreement with the Moscow Tsar. Poland tried to regain control over the lost territories by signing an agreement with Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky. This was the cause of the war between the Commonwe alth and Muscovy. It ended with the signing of the Andrusov Treaty, according to which the Hetmanate was ceded to Moscow.
Under the rule of the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary
The further history of Ukraine, whose territory was divided between two states, was characterized by the rise of national consciousness among writers and intellectuals.
During this period, the Russian Empire finally breaks the Crimean Khanate and annexes its territories. There are also three partitions of Poland. As a result, most of its lands inhabited by Ukrainians are part of Russia. Galicia retreats to the Austrian Emperor.
Many Russian writers, artists and statesmen of the 18th-19th centuries had Ukrainian roots. Among the most famous are Nikolai Gogol and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Unlike Russia, in Galicia almost the entire elite consisted of Austrians and Poles, and the Rusyns were mostly peasants.
National Revival
In the XIX century in Eastern Europe began the process of cultural revival of the peoples who were under the rule of large empires - Austrian, Russian and Ottoman. Ukraine has not remained aloof from these trends. History of occurrenceThe movement for national independence begins in 1846 with the founding of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. The poet Taras Shevchenko was also a member of this organization. Later, social-democratic and revolutionary parties appeared that advocated the autonomy of Ukrainian lands.
About the same time, in 1848, Golovna Ruska Rada, the first political organization of Western Ukrainians, began its activity in Lvov. At that time, Russophile and pro-Russian sentiments dominated among the Galician intelligentsia.
Thus, the history of the creation of Ukraine within its modern borders begins with the birth of nationally oriented parties in the middle of the 19th century. It was they who formed the ideology of the future unified state.
World War I and the collapse of empires
The armed conflict that began in 1914 led to the fall of the largest monarchies in Europe. The peoples, who for many centuries lived under the rule of powerful empires, have a chance to determine their own future destinies.
On November 20, 1917, the Ukrainian People's Republic was created. And on January 25, 1918, she proclaimed her complete independence from Russia. A little later, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. As a result, on November 13, 1918, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed. On January 22, 1919, the UNR and ZUNR were reunited. However, the history of the emergence of the state of Ukraine was far from over. The new power found itself at the epicenter of the civil, and then the Soviet-Polish war, and as a resultlost independence.
USSR
In 1922, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was created, which became part of the USSR. From the moment the Soviet Union appeared until the collapse of the Soviet Union, it ranked second among the republics in terms of economic power and political influence.
The map of Ukraine during this period changed several times. In 1939, Galicia and Volhynia were returned. In 1940 - some areas that previously belonged to Romania, and in 1945 - Transcarpathia. Finally, in 1954, Crimea was annexed to Ukraine. On the other hand, in 1924 the Shakhtinsky and Taganrog districts were transferred to Russia, and in 1940 Transnistria was ceded to the Moldavian SSR.
After World War II, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding countries of the UN. According to the results of the 1989 census, the population of the republic was almost 52 million people.
Independence
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent state. This was preceded by a rise in patriotic sentiment. On January 21, 1990, three hundred thousand Ukrainians organized a human chain from Kyiv to Lvov in support of independence. Parties based on national-patriotic positions were founded. Ukraine became the legal successor of the Ukrainian SSR and the UNR. The UNR government-in-exile officially transferred its powers to the first president, Leonid Kravchuk.
As you can see, the history of Ukraine since ancient times has been filled with great victories, unsurpassed defeats, noble catastrophes, terrible and bewitching stories.
