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Ukraine is an Eastern European country. Located in
southeastern Europe, it is the second largest country on
the continent, after Russia, with an area of 603 700
km2. It is bordered by Belarus and Russia to
the north, Moldova and Romania to the south, Hungary to
the southwest, and Slovakia and Poland to the west,
being bathed in the south by the Black and Azov
seas. The main cities in Ukraine are Kiev, the capital,
with 2 598 000 inhabitants (2004), Kharkov (1 420 100
inhab.), Dnipropetrovsk (1 009 100 inhab.), Odessa (1
012 600 inhab.) And Donetsk (969 800 inhab.). Western
Ukraine is formed by the fertile platinum of Volhinia,
while in the North the Dniepre and Donetz river basins
dominate, with good agricultural land and swamps; this
is where the capital is located. The plains to the west
of Kirovograd have a black soil called chernozem; those
in the eastern part, although less fertile, support many
rural communities. These soils were largely contaminated
by radioactivity after the accident at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant in 1986. In the extreme south of
Ukraine, the dry plains of the Azov and Negro seas are
located. Crimea is one of the most famous tourist
regions in the country and is further south.
Climate
The climate is temperate continental, with severe
winters.
Economy
The main mining and energy products in the country are
iron, coal, manganese, oil and natural gas. Agricultural
production includes wheat, barley, rye, maize, sugar
beet, sunflower seed, cotton, potatoes and
vegetables. In the industry, the food, metal products,
mechanical construction and chemical industries deserve
mention. Ukraine's main trading partners are Russia,
Germany and China.
Environmental indicator: the value of carbon dioxide
emissions, per capita (metric tons, 1999), is
7.5.
Population
This republic of the former Soviet Union had, in 2006,
46 710 816 inhabitants. The birth and death rates are,
respectively, 8.82% and 14.39%. Average life expectancy
is 69.98 years. The value of the Human Development Index
(HDI) is 0.766 and the value of the Gender-adjusted
Development Index (IDG) is 0.761 (2001). It is estimated
that in 2025, the population will decrease to 43 293 000
inhabitants. Ethnically, the population is made up of
Ukrainians (73%) and Russians (22%), among other peoples
from neighboring countries. In terms of religion, the
Ukrainian Orthodox (of the Russian Patriarchate, of the
Kiev Patriarchate and the Autocephalus) stands out, with
around 60% of the population, the Ukrainian Catholic
(7%) and the Protestant (4%). The official language is
Ukrainian.
History
Different parts of Ukraine were occupied before the era
of Christ. In the first millennium after Christ, this
territory did not escape invasions either. Goths, Huns,
Bulgarians and Magyars were some of the peoples who
invaded this region. The people who contributed most to
its development in this period were the Ukrainian
(Ruthens), Eastern Slavs, in the 5th and 6th
centuries. Ukraine was the birthplace of the medieval
state of Kievan Rus, which emerged in the 9th century
and had its heyday in the 10th and 11th centuries, ruled
by Vladimir I and his son Yaroslav I. The Ukrainians,
together with Russian Muscovites and Belarusians, they
became leaders in Eastern Europe.
The 12th and 13th centuries saw the decline of
Kiev. The power of Kievan Rus was destroyed by the
Mongol invasion in the 13th century, although the
principality of Galicia, in western Ukraine, which
emerged in 1200, continued to exist until the 14th
century. In the middle of the 14th century Lithuania
annexed much of the land of Ukraine and the principality
of Galicia passed to the kingdom of Poland. The south of
the country was ruled by the Golden Horde. After the
Union of Lublin in 1569, Ukraine was transferred from
Lithuania to Poland. In 1596 Ukrainians were divided
between Catholics and Orthodox by the union of
Brest-Litovsk. In 1648 there was a revolt by runaway
slaves against Polish oppression led by the Cossacks.
During the 18th century, the Russian Empire obtained
the western zone of the Dnieper, with the exception of
Galicia, which came to belong to Austria. The Ukrainian
nationalist movement developed in the 19th century but
was subject to repression and restrictions on the part
of the Russians, due to the fact that nationalists
continue to use the Ukrainian language. During this
century and until the first years of the 20th century,
there was rapid economic and urban development.
After the Russian Revolution in 1918, Ukraine
proclaimed independence. Then the Ukrainian and
Bolshevik forces fought for control of the country until
1921, when the Soviet government was victorious. In 1924
the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine became part of
the republics of the Soviet Union. In the 1930s the
Soviet government pursued a policy of rapid
industrialization and collectivization of agriculture in
the Republic of Ukraine. The collectivization process
encountered resistance from farmers. Soviet authorities
confiscated grain and as a result the people went
hungry, leading to the death of five million people. In
this decade, the Soviet regime started to completely
control the country's cultural life and all
demonstrations were suppressed.
The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty (1939) caused
the territories that were still under Polish rule to
pass into the hands of the Soviet Republic of
Ukraine. Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941,
thus breaking the treaty, and quickly conquered
Ukraine. Initially, he found some support, but soon
Ukrainian farmers realized that they were being
exploited and formed a resistance guerrilla. After the
defeat of the Germans in 1945, the lands that had been
part of Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia between the
two Great Wars became part of the Socialist Republic of
Ukraine.
Only with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the
introduction of glasnost and perestroika
reformsin national politics in the 1980s, Ukrainian
nationalists awoke. The Ukrainian political system
changed in the early nineties when the country gained
independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in
1991. After gaining autonomy, the legislation of the
Supreme Soviet was converted into a democratic
parliamentary system, whose members are elected for four
years. in free and multiparty elections, a decision made
by referendum. Ukraine and Belarus were the only Soviet
republics to have an independent vote in the United
Nations other than the vote of the former USSR as a
whole. Since independence, in the early nineties,
Ukraine has been recognized internationally. |
