Added: Jan 8, 2008

From: Siavashian

Duration: 1:13

Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest and most powerful state in Europe. Weakened by internecine quarrels and Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The cultural and religious legacy of Kyivan Rus laid the foundation for Ukrainian nationalism through subsequent centuries. A new Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, was established during the mid-17th century after an uprising against the Poles. Despite continuous Muscovite pressure, the Hetmanate managed to remain autonomous for well over 100 years. During the latter part of the 18th century, most Ukrainian ethnographic territory was absorbed by the Russian Empire. Following the collapse of czarist Russia in 1917, Ukraine was able to bring about a short-lived period of independence (1917-20), but was reconquered and forced to endure a brutal Soviet rule that engineered two artificial famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over 8 million died. In World War II, German and Soviet armies were responsible for some 7 to 8 million more deaths. Although final independence for Ukraine was achieved in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR, democracy remained elusive as the legacy of state control and endemic corruption stalled efforts at economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties. A peaceful mass protest "Orange Revolution" in the closing months of 2004 forced the authorities to overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal squabbles in the YUSHCHENKO camp allowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH to stage a comeback in parliamentary elections and become prime minister in August of 2006. An early legislative election, brought on by a political crisis in the spring of 2007, saw Yuliya TYMOSHENKO, as head of an "Orange" coalition, installed as a new prime minister in December 2007. Capital: name: Kyiv (Kiev) Administrative divisions: 24 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast'), 1 autonomous republic* (avtonomna respublika), and 2 municipalities (mista, singular - misto) with oblast status**; Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Crimea or Avtonomna Respublika Krym* (Simferopol'), Dnipropetrovs'k, Donets'k, Ivano-Frankivs'k, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmel'nyts'kyy, Kirovohrad, Kyiv**, Kyiv, Luhans'k, L'viv, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sevastopol'**, Sumy, Ternopil', Vinnytsya, Volyn' (Luts'k), Zakarpattya (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhya, Zhytomyr https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/up.html

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Rating: 4.31 (54 ratings)    Views: 18716' favoriteCount='48    Comments: 116

ludwigvan17 Says:

Sep 17, 2008 - I'm Ukrainian. Russian people smell like poop.

blackguitar999 Says:

Sep 19, 2008 - ah... my country :) Proud to be Ukrainian ^^

blackguitar999 Says:

Sep 19, 2008 - I mean, Proud to be Ukrainian and Russian! :)

nasassafrasslaugh Says:

Sep 20, 2008 - proud to be black and ukrainian

fantasyfrk24 Says:

Sep 20, 2008 - hear hear!! XD

ArtGaul Says:

Sep 21, 2008 - I support an independent Ukraine thats not in NATO or EU but with privileged status and Russian can cut its gas only to reduce subsidies however Russia cannot interfere in elections and must recognize Holodomor massacre.

pakkkitos Says:

Sep 23, 2008 - greetings from colombia duzhe harna!!!!!!!

luckycanuck90 Says:

Sep 24, 2008 - I am Russian/Canadian but Ukrainians are pretty cool.

luckycanuck90 Says:

Sep 24, 2008 - ludwigvan17, your a fucking idiot. I have nothing against Ukrainians but i quote the movie blades of glory. "Ukrainians smell like soup" haha jk.

kos5000 Says:

Sep 25, 2008 - UKRAINE AND RUSSIA 4EVER

highschoolswimmer Says:

Sep 27, 2008 - im dating a ukraine boy named andriy budylin

machvis Says:

Sep 28, 2008 - I've got Ukrainian friends. I've got tremendous respect towards your nation like all Georgians do. Thanks for everything.

kedainius Says:

Sep 30, 2008 - Ukrain is part of Lithuanian land . . . .

kos5000 Says:

Sep 30, 2008 - Ukrainian = the same as russian

DemonLordChaos Says:

Sep 30, 2008 - ukraine isn't same as russian... it just took many words from russian since ukrainian was banned durning the reign of USSR... but generally ukrainian is more slavic than russian, russians can understand a lot of ukrainian but... by far not all of it... but in reality all slavic languages are just dialects of older slavic... isolations does such weird things to languages...

paul7from7ukr Says:

Oct 1, 2008 - you are very stupid

paul7from7ukr Says:

Oct 1, 2008 - ...in response to kos5000

jokubelis Says:

Oct 1, 2008 - Greetings from lithuania

kos5000 Says:

Oct 2, 2008 - people in east and south ukraine talk russian and not Ukranian.

Kobzatoronto Says:

Oct 4, 2008 - Hos5000 That is the result of centuries of russification. But all young people in Ukraine are being taught in Ukrainian. So just give it some time. I remember when one of my co-workers was in Kharkiv in 1991 and told me what he observed: Two women stopped on Sumska vul. and had a short coversation in russian. "We have to start learning Ukrainian", "why" was the answer, "my childrern are demanding that I speak Ukrainian to them".

kos5000 Says:

Oct 5, 2008 - Ik know lots of Ukranians that are speaking Russian and don't want to learn Ukranian, and in the Krim everyone speaks Russian.

Ukrainekiev95 Says:

Oct 6, 2008 - no Ukraine like Polish!

Tet1ana Says:

Oct 6, 2008 - obvisouly it is no the same lol.. where did u come up with that idea? is that why all russians speak ukrainian and vise versa? riiiight... just like all european languages...we share common dialogues the pronounciation is different.

Ukrainekiev95 Says:

Oct 6, 2008 - you're right but Ukraine also is a closly related to Poland and Belarus

NIGHTMAREuki Says:

Oct 8, 2008 - agree 100%, something i might of said :)