History of Ukraine

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History of Ukraine
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The history of Ukraine spans thousands of years. Prehistoric Ukraine, as a part of the Pontic steppe in Eastern Europe, played an important role in Eurasian cultural events, including the spread of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, Indo-European migrations, and the domestication of the horse.^[1][2][3]

A part of Scythia in antiquity, Ukraine was largely settled by Greuthungi, Getae, Goths, and Huns in the Migration Period, while southern parts of Ukraine were previously colonized by Greeks and then Romans. In the Early Middle Ages it was also a site of early Slavic expansion.

Ukraine enters into written history with the establishment of the medieval state of Kievan Rus'. In Dnieper Ukraine, the tribe of Polans served as the organizers of Kievan Rus' state, beginning to name themself and their land Rus' in 9th century, a word that probably derived from Varangians, who laid the foundation of the state itself.^[4][5][6] It emerged as one of the most powerful and advanced nations of Europe at that time, with Kyiv meeting its golden age and Christianization under Vladimir the Great and Yaroslav the Wise. Kievan Rus' started to disintegrate in High Middle Ages, with Kievan monarchs competing and fighting over the throne in the core Rus' land,^[7] while experiencing Turkic raids from Southern Ukraine. In 13th century Kievan Rus' was destroyed by the Mongol invasion, leaving it's core in Dnieper Ukraine absolutely devastated. Principality of Galicia-Volhynia then succeed Rus', and became Kingdom of Ruthenia (Kingdom of Rus') under King Daniel.

In 14th and 15th centuries, majority of Ukrainian territories became part of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia, while Galicia and Zakarpattia came under Polish and Hungarian rule. Lithuania kept the local Ruthenian traditions, and was gradually influenced by Ruthenian language, law and culture, until Lithuania itself came under Polish influence, following the Union of Krewo and Union of Lublin, resulting in two countries merging into Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, leaving Ukrainian lands under the dominance of Polish crown. Meanwhile Southern Ukraine was dominated by Golden Horde and then Crimean Khanate, which came under protection of the Ottoman Empire, major regional power in and around Black Sea, which also had some of its own directly-administrated areas as well.

After a 1648 rebellion of the Cossacks against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, they established a sovereign Cossack Hetmanate. In January 1654 Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky agreed to the Treaty of Pereyaslav. The exact nature of the relationship established by this treaty between the Cossack Hetmanate and Russia remains a matter of scholarly controversy.^[8] The agreement precipitated the Russo-Polish War of 1654–67 and the failed Treaty of Hadiach, which would have formed a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth. In consequence, by the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, signed in 1686, the eastern portion of Ukraine (east of the Dnieper River) was ruled by Cossacks dependent on the Russian rule.^[9]: 199

During the Great Northern War, Hetman Ivan Mazepa allied with Charles XII of Sweden in 1708. However, the Great Frost of 1709 greatly weakened the Swedish army. Following the Battle of Poltava later in 1709, there was a diminishment in Hetmanate power, culminating with the disestablishment of the Cossack Hetmanate in the 1760s and the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich in the 1770s. Following the Partitions of Poland (1772–1795) and the Russian conquest of the Crimean Khanate, the Russian Empire and Habsburg Austria were in control of all the territories that constitute present-day Ukraine for over a hundred years. Ukrainian nationalism developed in the 19th century.

A chaotic period of warfare ensued after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as well as a simultaneous war in the former Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria following the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy after World War I. The Soviet–Ukrainian War (1917–1921) followed, in which the Bolshevik Red Army established control in late 1919.^[9]: 537 The Ukrainian Bolsheviks, who had defeated the national government in Kiev, established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which on 30 December 1922 became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. Initial Soviet policy on the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture made Ukrainian the official language of administration and schools. Policy in the 1930s turned to Russification. In 1932 and 1933, millions of people in Ukraine, mostly peasants, starved to death in a devastating famine, known as the Holodomor. It is estimated that 6 to 8 million people died from hunger in the Soviet Union during this period, of whom 4 to 5 million were Ukrainians.^{[10]: §§ 8.1.3}

After the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the Ukrainian SSR's territory expanded westward. Axis armies occupied Ukraine from 1941 to 1944. During World War II, elements of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought for Ukrainian independence against both Germany and the Soviet Union, while other elements collaborated with the Nazis, assisting them in carrying out the Holocaust in Ukraine and their oppression of Poles. In 1953, Nikita Khrushchev, ethnic Russian former head of the Communist Party of Ukraine, succeeded as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and enabled more political and cultural freedom, which led to a Ukrainian revival. In 1954 the republic expanded to the south with the transfer of Crimea from Russia. Nevertheless, political repressions against poets, historians and other intellectuals continued, as in all other parts of the USSR.

Ukraine became independent when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. This started a period of transition to a market economy, in which Ukraine suffered an eight-year recession.^[11] Subsequently however, the economy experienced a high increase in GDP growth until it plunged during the Great Recession.^[12]

A prolonged political crisis began on 21 November 2013, when president Viktor Yanukovych suspended preparations for the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union, instead choosing to seek closer ties with Russia. This decision resulted in the Euromaidan protests and later, the Revolution of Dignity. Yanukovych was then impeached by the Ukrainian parliament in February 2014. On 20 February, the Russo-Ukrainian War began when Russian forces entered Crimea. Soon after, pro-Russian unrest enveloped the largely Russophone eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, from where Yanukovych had drawn most of his support. An internationally unrecognized referendum in the largely ethnic Russian Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea was held and Crimea was de facto annexed by Russia on 18 March 2014. The War in Donbas began in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine involving the Russian military. The war continued until 24 February 2022, when Russia launched a major invasion of much of the country.