Portal:Ukraine
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Ukraine (
i/juːˈkreɪn/ yew-KRAYN; Ukrainian: Україна, transliterated: Ukrayina, [ukrɑˈjinɑ]) is a country in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine borders the Russian Federation to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after the Russian Federation.
From at least the ninth century, the territory of Ukraine was a centre of medieval East Slavic civilization that formed the state that became known as Kievan Rus' and for the following several centuries the territory was divided between a number of regional powers. After a brief period of independence (1917-1921) following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukraine became one of the founding Soviet Republics in 1922. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward after the Second World War and finally in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. Ukraine became independent again when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomous republic (Crimea), and two cities with special status: Kiev, its capital and largest city, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine continues to maintain the second largest military in Europe, after that of Russia. The country is home to 46 million people, 77.8 percent of whom are ethnic Ukrainians, with sizable minorities of Russians (17%), Belarusians and Romanians. The Ukrainian language is the official language in Ukraine. Russian is also widely spoken. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which has heavily influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature and music.
Featured article
The Rus' Khaganate was a polity that flourished during a poorly documented period in the history of Eastern Europe (roughly the late 8th and early to mid-9th centuries CE). A predecessor to the Rurik Dynasty and the Kievan Rus', the Rus' Khaganate was a state (or a cluster of city-states) in what is today northern Russia. The region's population at that time was composed of Slavic, Finnic, and Norse peoples, among which the dominant group was the Rus' tribe or tribes. The region was also a center of operations for eastern Scandinavian (Varangian) adventurers, merchants and pirates.
According to contemporaneous sources, the population centers of the region, which may have included the proto-towns of Holmgard (Novgorod), Aldeigja (Ladoga), Lyubsha, Alaborg, Sarskoe Gorodishche, and Timerevo, were under the rule of a monarch or monarchs using the Old Turkic title Khagan. The Rus' Khaganate period marked the genesis of a distinct Rus' ethnos, and its successor states would include Kievan Rus' and later states from which modern Russia evolved.
Selected picture
Zbarazh (Ukrainian: Збараж, Polish: Zbaraż, Yiddish: Zbarj) is a small city in the Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zbarazh Raion (district), and is located in the historic region of Galicia. The major attraction of the city is the Zbarazh Castle that played a key role during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the heroic defense of which eventually led to change of momentum and extinguishing the Cossack revolt.
Photo credit: plf16
Did you know...
Featured at Did you know section at the Wikipedia's Main Page
- ... that Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych (pictured), known for the "Carol of the Bells", was nicknamed "Ukrainian Bach" in France?
- ... that journalist Savik Shuster who used to work for Russian TV channels now prefers to work for the Ukrainian TV because he felt the Russian Government was limiting his journalistic freedom?
- ... that the married Western Ukrainian Clergy became a hereditary caste that dominated western Ukrainian society?
- ... that Ukrainian naturalist, lecturer, artist and author John Lhotsky was credited as the first discoverer of gold in New South Wales?
- ...that according to legend, a tunnel leads from the Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle to the Khotyn Fortress which is 20 kilometres (12 mi) away?
- ...that during the Shuliavka worker's uprising of 1905, groups of 150 armed men patrolled the streets of the Shuliavka neighborhood in Kiev to clean the area of any resistors to their movement?
- ...that Vasyl Krychevsky, a Ukrainian artist, designed the state emblem of the Ukrainian National Republic at the request of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi?
- ...that the Emperor of Russia, Alexander III bought the art of Ukrainian realist painter Volodymyr Orlovsky?
- ...that Swedish–Ukrainian relations have long traditions and that the Swedish king Charles XII was named protector of Ukraine in the first Ukrainian constitution of 1710 and that Hetman Pylyp Orlyk lived in Sweden 1716–1720?
- ...that the Russian composers Peter Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Serge Rachmaninoff used Ukrainian folk melodies in their works?
- ...that Polish–Ukrainian relations have been steadily improving since the fall of communism, and both countries now have a strong strategic relationship?
- ...that the Ukrainian Baroque architecture (pictured) is distinct from Western European Baroque in that its designs were more constructivist, had more moderate ornamentation, and were simpler in form?
- ...that according to Ukrainian folklore, the girl who finds Chervona Ruta, "Red Rue" in Ukrainian, on the Ivan Kupala Day, will be happy in love?
- ...that the 11th century Duke Yaropolk Izyaslavich is an Eastern Orthodox saint?
- ...that in 1956 the Pidhirtsi Castle in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine burned for three weeks costing US$12 million in damages?
- ...that the Holy Trinity Church was the oldest church in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine, until it was destroyed by the Soviets in 1935?
Archive ...
Selected painting
Konstiantyn Trutovsky was a Ukrainian realist painter and graphic artist. His artistic heritage includes numerous genre screens on Ukrainian themes. Trutovsky was interested in ethnography and depicted colorful Ukrainian folk customs, not shying away from "a dash of good humour".
In the news
News from Ukraine
- August 3, 2010 - Shevchenko Raion Court in the city of Kiev recognized the citizen of Ukraine Mykhailo Kubil guilty in wearing a T-shirt of the "AU Svoboda" and a national flag on his neck during the visit of Vladimir Gundyayev to Kiev. The Russian citizen Vladimir Gundyayev is better known as Patriarch Kirill. The court chose not to consider the administrative infringements in the case either. Blog of Oleh Tyahnybok at Ukrainska Pravda
Categories
WikiProjects and collaborations
Things you can do
- Articles needing major work, Be Bold!: Ukrainian literature, List of universities in Ukraine, Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks, Ukrainian Navy, Foreign relations of Ukraine, Cinema of Ukraine, Antonov.
- To start: Moldavian speaking Ukrainians, Ukrainian speaking Moldavians, Miroslav Skochilyas, Smerichka, Roman Oleksiv, Metropolitan Oleksiy (Hromadsky), Political reform in Ukraine (2004), Ukrainian Stock Exchange
- Stubs needing expansion:
- {{Ukraine-stub}} : Mayor of Kiev, Ukrainian Navy, Ukrainian rock, State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Berkut (Ukraine), Sport in Ukraine, Supreme Court of Ukraine, Kiev Bank Union, Ukrzaliznytsia, Shevchenko National Prize
- {{Ukraine-hist-stub}} : Koliyivschyna, Elected Cossacks, Koshovyi Otaman, Ataman, 1st Ukrainian Front
- {{Ukraine-bio-stub}} : Pylyp Orlyk, Ivan Pidkova, Kyrylo Rozumovsky,
- {{Ukraine-geo-stub}} : Ros' River, Yayla Mountains, Yablonitsky Pass, Arcadia Beach, Poshtova Square
- {{East-Slavic-history-stub}} : Battle on the Irpen' River, List of early East Slavic states, Hypatian Codex
- {{Soviet-stub}} : Ukrainian SSR, Flag of the Ukrainian SSR, Coat of arms of the Ukrainian SSR
- Featured portal: Portal:Ukraine
- Featured pictures: Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks (Commons), 1691 map of Kamianets-Podilskyi, Downtown Lviv (C), Nataliya Gotsiy, Donbas Arena
- Featured articles: St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, Sviatoslav I of Kiev, Rus' Khaganate, Caspian expeditions of the Rus, House with Chimaeras
- Featured article candidate's status within reach: Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle
- Good articles: Andriyivskyy Descent, Rus'-Byzantine War (860), Kiev Offensive (1920), Onion dome, Oleg of Novgorod, Second Battle of Kharkov, Kiev Expedition (1018), Mezhyhirskyi Monastery, Ukraine, Battle of the Kalka River, Battle of Kostiuchnówka, Yulia Tymoshenko, Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle, Vorontsov Palace (Alupka)
- Tetyana Yablonska photograph or painting?
- Proposed featured images;
- A picture of the ministry of defense building.
Selected anniversaries for March
- March 9, 1814 — Taras Shevchenko was born into a serf family in the village of Moryntsi, of Kiev Governorate (then a part of the Russian Empire).
- March 10, 1967 — Olena Prytula, a Ukrainian journalist, was born in Russia.
- March 13, 1961 — the large scale Kurenivka mudslide disaster happened in Kiev.
- March 20, 1639 — Ivan Mazepa, a Cossack Hetman, was born near Bila Tserkva.
Main topics
Related portals
Ukrainian editions of Wikimedia projects
Associated Wikimedia
- What are portals?
- List of portals
- Featured portals
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