Ukraine

Country in eastern central Europe, bounded to the east by Russia, north by Belarus, south by Moldova, Romania, and the Black Sea, and west by Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Hungary.

Government

Ukraine has a multiparty political system with a French-style semi-presidential, or dual, executive in which executive power is shared by the prime minister and the president. Under the 1996 constitution, there is a 450-member legislature, the Supreme Council (Verkhovna Rada), to which deputies are elected by a majority system, with a second-ballot run-off race in contests in which there is no clear first-round majority. The president is directly elected for a five-year term. Before 1996, the president had greater executive and decree powers, and appointed the prime minister. The 1996 constitution reduced these powers, but the president nominates (for parliament's approval) the foreign and defence ministers, appoints one third of the Constitutional Court, can veto legislation, and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. A presidential veto can be overturned by a two-thirds majority vote by the legislature. The prime minister and cabinet, forming the government, are drawn from the majority grouping within the Supreme Council.

History

The position of Ukraine towards the western end of the great Eurasian steppes has meant that for much of its history wave after wave of nomadic peoples have swept across it from the steppes to the east, some of them settling for long periods, others passing through on their westward journeys of migration and conquest.

Ukraine in the ancient world

The steppes of the southern Ukraine were populated during the 1st millennium BC by the nomadic Scythians (see Scythia). From the 8th–7th centuries BC Greek settlers founded many colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea (see, for example, Bosporan Kingdom), and the Scythians themselves began to adopt a more settled way of life, their place on the steppes being taken from the 4th century BC by another nomadic people, the Sarmatians.

The Greek colonies later fell under Roman domination, but by the 3rd–4th centuries AD the whole of present-day Ukraine had been overrun by the Goths. The Goths were in turn defeated by the Huns when the latter began their onslaught on Europe.

The Middle Ages

The eastern Slav (Russian) peoples – Polyane, Severyane, Drevlyane, Volhynians, and so on – inhabited the forested and wooded steppe zones from the early Middle Ages. After a short period of Khazar domination, they were, in the 9th century, included in the state of Kievan Rus, whose capital Kiev and most other main centres were in Ukraine. Christianity was adopted from the Byzantine Empire in 988. The steppes remained the home of the nomadic Pechenegs and Cumans.

Uniting Ukrainians, Russians (Muscovites), and Belorussians, Kievan Rus became the leading power in eastern Europe, but was destroyed in the early 13th century by the Golden Horde, a Mongol–Tatar army led by a grandson of Genghis Khan. After the Mongol–Tatar conquest, only the kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (Volhynia) in west Ukraine remained outside the Mongol Empire, flourishing from the early 13th to the mid 14th century. By the middle of the 15th century most of Ukraine was ruled by the grand duchy of Lithuania (then a vast empire). In the southeast the Crimean khanate, one of the successor states of the Mongol Empire, was formed in 1443, and remained independent until annexed by Russia in 1783.

The early modern period

When Lithuania was absorbed by Poland in 1569, the Lithuanian-held territory came under Polish rule, and the peasantry were reduced to serfdom. Soon the struggle of the local Orthodox population against the Polish Catholics began – a struggle that had social and economic as well as religious and cultural dimensions. Particularly militant were the Cossacks, who in 1648 rose and won independence from Poland for central Ukraine, and a militarist state was established by the hetman (elected leader) Bohdan Khmelnytsky (died 1657). However, in return for military aid against the Poles, Khmelnytsky was obliged to recognize the sovereignty of Russia over east Ukraine in 1653.

East and west Ukraine were partitioned between Russia and Poland in 1667. Russia introduced serfdom into east Ukraine (‘Little Russia’) in 1783. In the late 18th century, by the partitions of Poland, Russia also secured control over all of west Ukraine (to the west of the River Dnieper), except Galicia, which was annexed by Austria in 1772. The Black Sea shores – which had been conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th and 16th centuries – were captured by Russia from Turkey in the later 18th century.

The struggle for independence

During the 14th–16th centuries the population of Ukraine had developed a separate identity and a certain degree of national consciousness, distinguishing themselves from the Russians of Muscovy (the Russian state based on Moscow) – ‘Muscovite’ is still the Ukrainian colloquialism for ‘Great Russian’. Such sentiments were suppressed under the tsars, and in 1720 Peter I banned the publication of books in the Ukrainian language.

A romantic and nationalist movement in Ukrainian literature began early in the 19th century, out of which emerged Ukraine's national poet T H Shevchenko. At the same time secret nationalist organizations flourished, especially in Galicia. Publications in Ukrainian were banned again after the Polish uprising in 1863, and only lifted with the Russian revolution, 1905. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries there was rapid economic development and urbanization, but under the late tsars suppression of Ukrainian culture and ‘Russification’ intensified.

The revolutionary period

At the beginning of the 20th century nationalist agitation for autonomy increased. With the outbreak of World War I, Russian forces invaded Austrian-held Galicia, only to be ousted by the Austrians in early 1915. Western Ukraine continued to be the scene of many battles throughout the war.

Following the 1917 February Revolution (see Russian Revolution), the provisional government granted Ukrainian autonomy, recognizing the authority of the newly formed Ukrainian Central Rada (council) over central Ukraine. After the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in the 1917 October Revolution, the Rada, headed by Mykhaylo Hrushevsky, proclaimed the Ukrainian National Republic (20 November). Shortly afterwards the Bolsheviks declared the Ukrainian Soviet Republic (December), and fighting between the Bolsheviks and nationalists followed. The Russian civil war had started, and Ukraine was to be one of the areas most fiercely contested.

In January 1918 the Ukrainian National Republic declared complete independence from Russia, and the next month signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers. German and Austrian forces helped the nationalists to oust the Bolsheviks from Kiev, but, unhappy with the socialist policies of the nationalist government, helped to overthrow it and installed a conservative regime under Gen Pavlo Skropadsky, who took the title of ‘hetman of Ukraine’. Following the final defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary in November 1918, Skropadsky resigned and a nationalist government took power again in Kiev.

Meanwhile, nationalists in west Ukraine had declared (October 1918) the Western Ukrainian National Republic, and in January 1919 the union of the two independent Ukraines was declared. However, the western republic claimed Galicia – previously part of Austria-Hungary, and now also claimed by the newly independent Poland. Poland immediately went to war with the Ukrainian nationalists, and occupied Galicia.

During the following two years of war the situation was chaotic. The Bolshevik Red Army again penetrated Ukraine in late 1918, only to be pushed back by the White Russians – the anti-Bolshevik forces supported by the western Allies. The White Russians also attempted to suppress Ukrainian nationalism, and by the end of 1919 the Ukrainian nationalists found themselves surrounded by the Red Army, the Poles, and the White Russians.

By early 1920 the Red Army had ousted the Whites from Ukraine, and the Ukrainian nationalists made a peace with Poland, by which, in return for military aid, parts of west Ukraine (Galicia and Volhynia) were transferred to Polish rule. The Poles and Ukrainians were initially successful against the Red Army, but were eventually defeated. A peace treaty was signed in March 1921 by which Poland retained Galicia and Volhynia, and recognized Soviet control of the rest of Ukraine.

The early Soviet period and World War II

When the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed in 1922, Ukraine became one of the four original constituent republics. At first the communists cooperated with the nationalists in carrying out a policy of ‘Ukrainization’, but after the late 1920s all real or suspected nationalists were severely persecuted, and during the 1930s there was a mass purge of intellectuals, kulaks (‘rich farmers’) and the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The enforced collectivization of agriculture led to the famine of 1932–33, when at least 7 million peasants died.

Following the Nazi–Soviet Ribbentrop–Molotov pact, Polish-controlled west Ukraine was occupied by the Red Army from September 1939 until the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941. The Nazi occupation of Ukraine witnessed mass deportations and exterminations of more than 5 million Ukrainians and Ukrainian Jews. In 1944 Moscow ordered the deportation en masse to Central Asia of Crimean Tatars, who were accused of collaboration.

Sovietization and dissent

After World War II, Soviet-ruled Ukraine was enlarged to include territories formerly under Polish (west Ukraine), Czechoslovak (Transcarpathian Ukraine), and Romanian (north Bukovina and part of Bessarabia) control and became a founding member of the United Nations. West Ukraine remained the site of partisan resistance by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) until the early 1950s and, as part of a ‘sovietization’ campaign, there were mass arrests and deportations to Siberia of 500,000 people and inward migration of Russians.

After the Soviet leader Stalin's death in 1953, Ukraine was treated in a more conciliatory fashion by his successor Nikita Khrushchev, who had been Ukrainian Communist Party (UCP) leader 1938–47. In February 1954, to ‘celebrate’ the 300th anniversary of Slavic ‘fraternal union’, Crimea was transferred back to Ukraine's jurisdiction.

In the 1960s there was a Ukrainian literary revival and growth of the dissident movement. In 1972–73 a crackdown on dissent was launched and the Brezhnevite Vladimir Shcherbitsky replaced the more liberal Petro Shelest as UCP leader and ‘Russification’ intensified. However, following the 1975 Helsinki Conference, human-rights monitoring groups became active, and the officially abolished Uniate Church continued to operate underground in west Ukraine. In the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear power-plant accident in April 1986, a popular environmentalist movement, Green World, emerged in Ukraine.

Nationalism intensifies

Emboldened by the political openness of the glasnost initiative of the Soviet Union's reform-communist leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, nationalist and pro-reform demonstrations increased, led by the People's Movement of Ukraine for Restructuring (Rukh), established in February 1989 and enjoying particularly strong support in West Ukraine. Shcherbitsky was ousted as UCP leader in September 1989 and the Uniate Church was allowed to re-register in December 1989. In January 1990, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians organized a human chain for independence and in the March 1990 republic supreme-soviet election, ‘reform communist’ and Rukh candidates in the Democratic Bloc polled strongly in a number of areas. In July 1990 the new parliament declared the republic's economic and political sovereignty.

Declaration of independence

Ukraine's president, Leonid Kravchuk, who was chair of the Supreme Council and third in command in the UCP, was slow to condemn the August 1991 attempted anti-Gorbachev coup in Moscow, which had provoked a series of Rukh-led pro-democracy rallies in Lviv. However, after the coup's failure, Kravchuk swiftly donned nationalist colours, resigning from the Soviet Union communist party, banning the UCP, and declaring the republic's provisional independence on 24 September 1991, pending a referendum in December, which came out 90% in favour of independence. Simultaneously Kravchuk was popularly elected president, capturing 61% of the vote.

Ukraine joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) formed in December 1991, and its independence was immediately recognized by Canada, home to around 1 million Ukrainians, as well as by Ukraine's central European neighbours. In the same month its independence was recognized by the USA, who also accorded it full diplomatic recognition, and by the European Community (now the European Union).

Economic reforms and problems

A programme of market-centred economic reform and privatization was launched, with prices freed in January 1992. A pipeline deal completed with Iran helped to reduce Ukraine's dependence on Russia for oil. Coupons (karbuvanets) were introduced as a secondary currency to the rouble, pending the creation of an independent currency, the hryvna. However, the continued strength of ex-communist apparatchiks threatened to frustrate the programme. Production declined by 20% during 1992 and by early 1993 inflation stood at 35% a month and the budget deficit at 44% of gross domestic product (GDP).

Direct presidential rule

In September 1993 President Kravchuk took direct control of government, eliminating the post of prime minister. His action followed a long-running power struggle with his prime minister, Leonid Kuchma. In October 1993, with inflation at 70% a month and GDP contracting by 20% a year, a more conservative, centrally controlled economic strategy was adopted. In the same month the UCP was allowed to re-register.

Conflict over economic policy

In the April 1994 parliamentary elections, radical nationalists made gains in the west and Russian unionists in the east and Crimea, but the Communist and Socialist parties, in alliance, remained the largest bloc. In June Vitaly Masol became prime minister and in July former premier Leonid Kuchma, who advocated closer economic ties with Russia, defeated Kravchuk in the presidential election. Kuchma unveiled an economic programme in October that included large-scale privatization, cuts in subsidies, and decentralization.

In March 1995, in an effort to speed up the pace of economic reform, Kuchma replaced Prime Minister Masol, an anti-reformer, with the pragmatic Yevgheny Marchuk. The communist-dominated Supreme Council, however, continued to block radical changes. In June 1995, faced with Kuchma's threat to hold a national referendum on whether the public trusted the president or the parliament, the council voted to give Kuchma full control over ministerial appointments and enhanced decree powers.

Military reorganization

Ukraine inherited a substantial nuclear arsenal, but pledged to become a nuclear-free state by 1994, while establishing an independent 200,000–400,000-strong army. In March 1992 it suspended agreed tactical-arms shipments to Russia, claiming that there was no assurance that Russia was dismantling them. Post-independence quarrels with Russia over the division of military forces continued, although agreement was reached in August 1992 on joint control of the Black Sea fleet until 1995.

In November 1993 Ukraine became the last of the former Soviet republics to ratify the START-I nuclear-arms reduction treaty. This followed the signing of an agreement with the USA under which Ukraine would dismantle the majority of its nuclear weapons in return for $330 million of aid. A year later it ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In June 1995 Ukraine returned the remainder of its warheads to Russia for destruction, thus relinquishing its nuclear status.

Crimean demands for autonomy

The Crimea – which, despite the return of 150,000 Tatars since 1989, is 70% Russian – declared its independence, within Ukraine, in September 1991. In May 1992 a declaration of sovereignty was made but subsequently rescinded after Ukraine's hostile response. A referendum held in March 1994 overwhelmingly supported greater autonomy as well as favouring closer links with Russia. In response, Ukraine annulled Crimea's constitution in March 1995 and sacked its pro-Russian president, Yuri Meshkov.

Economic problems continue

During 1995 the Ukrainian economy shrank by 12% as radical economic measures were introduced with the aim of bringing down inflation from its 1993 level of 10,000% to a projected 40% by 1996. Blamed for a growing ‘economic crisis’, Marchuk was sacked from the premiership by President Kuchma and replaced by Pavel Lazarenko, the former first deputy prime minister. In June 1996 a new constitution was adopted that reduced the powers of the executive president, to create a semi-presidential political system.

In September 1996, a new currency, the hryvna, was introduced. In February 1997, in response to criticisms from Prime Minister Lazarenko about the slow pace of change, new finance and economy ministers were appointed by President Kuchma. A month later, Viktor Pynzenyk, a deputy prime minister and leading economic reformer, resigned after parliament delayed passing the state budget. Kuchma campaigned further for closer ties with Russia, negotiating a treaty in May 1997, and received around 90% of the vote in Russian-speaking regions of east Ukraine and in Crimea. Lazarenko was replaced as prime minister by Valery Pustovoitenko. In December 1998, Lazarenko was arrested in Switzerland and charged with fraud and embezzling US$20 million during his period in office.

In August 1998, the IMF agreed to a $2.2 billion three-year loan to prevent Ukraine's default from its $10 billion foreign debt. In September the value of the hryvna fell by over 50% against the US dollar, after being affected by the neighbouring Russian currency crisis.

Re-election of Kuchmma

The government survived no-confidence votes in parliament, tabled by left-wing deputies, and in October 1999 Kuchma was re-elected president, defeating his communist opponent, Petro Symonenko, in a run-off race. In December 1999, he appointed Viktor Yushchenko as his prime minister.

By 2000, Ukraine's economy, which had contracted by 60% 1991–99, had stabilized and thereafter began to grow strongly, averaging 7% a year. However, there was growing popular discontent with corruption in government, the concentration of wealth and influence in the hands of pro-Kuchma oligarchs, and limitations on freedom of speech. In February 2001, thousands protested in Kiev, calling for the president's resignation. Kuchma was also questioned in February 2001 by prosecutors investigating the mysterious death of Georgy Gongadze, who ran an Internet newspaper. He strongly denied involvement.

Kuchma sacked the heads of the secret police and the presidential bodyguard, but the protests increased throughout February and March 2001. In mid February, former deputy prime minister Yulia Timoshenko, who was trying to unite opposition to Kuchma, was arrested on charges of corruption.

Removal of Prime Minister Yushchenko

In April 2001, Prime Minister Yushchenko was removed from office by a parliamentary vote of no-confidence, and replaced in May by Anatolii Kinakh, a former deputy prime minister.

Later, in the March 2002 Supreme Council elections, Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party polled strongly, winning 25% of the vote, just ahead of the Communist Party of Ukraine, but no party had a majority of seats.

In November 2002, Kuchma dismissed Kinakh and Viktor Yanukovych became prime minister.

‘ Orange Revolution’

The November 2004 presidential elections produced a close contest between Viktor Yanukovych, the candidate of the Kuchma camp, and former premier Yushchenko, who was supported by an opposition coalition. The election campaign had been marred by allegations of media bias, intimidation of the opposition, and the mysterious poisoning of Yushchenko, with serious health consequences. The official result declared a victory for Yanukovych, but international observers considered that the vote was rigged. Yushchenko and his supporters refused to accept the result. There were widespread peaceful street protests in Kiev, which became known as the Orange Revolution. After a standoff, the Ukrainian Supreme Court ordered a re-run of the second round. This was held in late December 2004 and brought victory for Yushchenko, with 53% of the vote in a much fairer contest. Yanukovych challenged the result, but failed in the courts, and in January 2005 resigned as prime minister, and Yushchenko was sworn in as president.

Yushchenko's nominee Yulia Tymoshenko became prime minister in February 2005, but was dismissed by Yushchenko in September 2005 and replaced by Yuriy Yekhanurov.

Return of Yanukovych

Legislature elections held in March 2006 produced an inconclusive result. However, in June 2006 Yanukovych formed a coalition government based around the Communist Party and Socialist Party to become prime minister and Oleksander Moroz, the Socialist Party leader, became chair of the Supreme Council. This meant that the bitter rivals, Yushchenko and Yanukovych, shared executive power.

Ukraine (redirected from Ukraninian)