Chapter 01 · c. 880 – 1240
Kievan Rus' and the Baptism of 988
A federation of Slavic and Varangian principalities centred on Kyiv adopted Christianity from Byzantium, flourished under Yaroslav the Wise, and was shattered by the Mongol invasion.
In the late ninth and tenth centuries the lands along the Dnieper River became the heart of Kievan Rus', a loose federation of principalities ruled by the Riurikid dynasty and centred on Kyiv. Founded where the trade routes from the Baltic to the Black Sea met, Rus' grew through commerce, war and the merging of East Slavic tribes with a Varangian (Scandinavian) ruling elite. By the reign of Volodymyr the Great (Vladimir I), grand prince of Kyiv from about 980, the realm stretched from the Baltic toward the Black Sea and had become the dominant power of eastern Europe.
Volodymyr's decisive act was the adoption of Christianity. In 988 he accepted baptism in the Byzantine (Eastern) rite and had the people of Kyiv baptized in the Dnieper, binding Rus' to the civilization of Constantinople rather than the Latin West. With the new faith came a written language in Old Church Slavonic, Byzantine forms of architecture, art and music, and a church hierarchy headed by the metropolitan of Kyiv. The conversion shaped the religious and cultural life of the East Slavs for a thousand years and is commemorated as the baptism of Rus'.
Rus' reached its apogee under Volodymyr's son Yaroslav the Wise, grand prince from 1019 to 1054, who codified law in the Russkaya Pravda, built churches and monasteries, gathered books and scribes, and raised the great Saint-Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv as a 'new Constantinople'. After his death the realm fragmented into rival principalities; in the south-west the powerful principality of Galicia-Volhynia emerged. The era ended in catastrophe when the Mongols of the Golden Horde stormed and sacked Kyiv in 1240, breaking the old order and scattering the political centre of the Rus' lands.
“In 988 Volodymyr adopted Christianity, and Rus' entered the orbit of Byzantine Christianity and culture, with a written language, architecture and art that would endure for a thousand years.”
— On the baptism of Rus'
Turning points
- 988Religion
- 1019–1054Politics & Power
- c. 1037Religion
- 1199Formation
- 1240War & Rupture
Mongol sack of Kyiv
The Mongols of the Golden Horde stormed and destroyed Kyiv, ending its dominance and breaking the political unity of the Rus' lands.
See the data
Figures of the era
Volodymyr the Greatc. 956 – 1015
Grand Prince of Kyiv
Grand prince of Kyiv who consolidated the provinces of Kyiv and Novgorod into a single state and in 988 adopted Byzantine Christianity, baptizing Rus' and anchoring it to Eastern Christendom. He was later canonized as 'equal to the Apostles'.
Yaroslav the Wisec. 978 – 1054
Grand Prince of Kievan Rus'
Son of Volodymyr, Yaroslav brought Kievan Rus' to its cultural and political height, issuing the Russkaya Pravda law code, founding churches and monasteries, gathering books, and building the Saint-Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv.
Chapter sources: Vladimir I (Volodymyr the Great), Yaroslav the Wise, Kyivan Rus, History of Ukraine, Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
Chapter 02 · 1240 – 1648
Between Lithuania, Poland and the Steppe
After the fall of Kyiv the Rus' lands passed under Lithuanian and Polish rule, while on the southern frontier the Cossacks and the Zaporozhian Sich took shape.
With Kyiv broken and Galicia-Volhynia extinguished by the mid-fourteenth century, most of the former Rus' lands were absorbed into the expanding Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while Galicia in the west passed to the Kingdom of Poland. When Poland and Lithuania were joined by the Union of Lublin in 1569, the bulk of the Ukrainian lands came under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There the Orthodox population and its nobility experienced growing pressure from Catholicism, serfdom and the magnate estates that spread across the fertile lands.
On the open steppe frontier 'beyond the rapids' of the Dnieper, a new society emerged from the late fifteenth century: the Cossacks, free men and runaways who hunted, fished and fought on the borderlands between the Commonwealth, Muscovy and the Crimean Khanate. By the sixteenth century they had organised the Zaporozhian Sich, a fortified armed camp governed with a peculiarly democratic spirit through a general assembly, the rada, and elected officers led by a hetman. The Cossacks became both the Commonwealth's frontier guard against Tatar and Ottoman raids and, increasingly, the defenders of Orthodoxy and of popular grievances against Polish rule.
Tensions between the Cossacks and the Commonwealth mounted through the early seventeenth century in a series of revolts. Registered Cossacks pressed for recognition of their rights, Orthodox believers resented the Church union with Rome, and the peasantry chafed under serfdom. These grievances, fusing military, religious and social discontent, set the stage for the great rising of 1648 that would transform the Ukrainian lands and give birth to a Cossack state.
“By the mid-sixteenth century the Cossacks had developed a military organisation of a peculiarly democratic kind, with a general assembly as the supreme authority and an elected commander, the hetman.”
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, on the Cossacks
Turning points
- 14th centuryPolitics & Power
Rus' lands pass to Lithuania and Poland
Following the collapse of Galicia-Volhynia, most of the former Rus' lands were absorbed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while Galicia in the west passed to the Kingdom of Poland.
- late 15th–16th c.Peoples & Migration
Rise of the Cossacks
On the southern steppe frontier free men known as Cossacks emerged, evolving by the mid-sixteenth century a democratic military organisation with an assembly, the rada, and elected hetmans.
See the data - 16th centuryFormation
- 1 Jul 1569Politics & Power
Union of Lublin brings Ukraine into the Commonwealth
The union of Poland and Lithuania placed the bulk of the Ukrainian lands within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, intensifying pressures of serfdom and Catholicism on the Orthodox population.
Figures of the era
Dmytro Vyshnevetskydied 1563
Cossack leader, traditional founder of the Sich
A frontier prince associated in tradition with organising the early Zaporozhian Cossacks into a fortified host on the lower Dnieper, defending the steppe frontier against Tatar and Ottoman raids.
Roman Mstyslavychdied 1205
Prince of Galicia-Volhynia
Prince who in 1199 united Galicia and Volhynia into a single principality, the strongest of the south-western Rus' successor states before the Mongol invasions.
Chapter sources: History of Ukraine, Ukraine: The Cossacks, Zaporozhian Sich
Chapter 03 · 1648 – 1795
The Cossack Hetmanate and the Partition of Ukrainian Lands
Khmelnytsky's uprising created a Cossack state that fell under Muscovite protection in 1654, dividing the Ukrainian lands between Russia and Poland, while the west passed to Austria.
In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky, an officer of the registered Cossacks, raised a rebellion against Polish rule. Allied with the Crimean Tatars and supported by the peasantry, his forces won a string of victories and he entered Kyiv at the end of the year hailed as a liberator. The uprising shattered Polish authority over the eastern Ukrainian lands and created a self-governing Cossack polity, the Hetmanate, with Khmelnytsky as its hetman. The war was prolonged and ruinous, and to secure a powerful ally against Poland the hetman turned to Orthodox Muscovy.
At the Council of Pereiaslav in 1654 Khmelnytsky and the Cossack assembly swore allegiance to the tsar, placing the Hetmanate under the protection of Muscovy while expecting to retain its autonomy. The agreement drew Muscovy into war with Poland and, after decades of conflict, the Truce of Andrusovo (1667) and later settlements partitioned the Ukrainian lands along the Dnieper: the left bank and Kyiv fell under Russian control, the right bank remained with Poland. Over the following century the Russian state steadily eroded Cossack self-rule, finally destroying the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775 and abolishing the Hetmanate's autonomy.
In the west, the partitions of Poland in the late eighteenth century transferred Galicia to the Habsburg (Austrian) Empire in 1772, while most of the right-bank Ukrainian lands passed to the Russian Empire by 1795. From this point the Ukrainian people lived divided between two great empires, Russian and Austrian, a division that would shape the distinct regional histories and the national movement of the nineteenth century.
“By the 1654 Council of Pereiaslav the Cossack Hetmanate passed under the protection of the Muscovite tsar, beginning the long incorporation of the eastern Ukrainian lands into the Russian state.”
— On the legacy of Pereiaslav
Turning points
- 1648War & Rupture
Khmelnytsky's uprising
Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the Zaporozhian Cossacks, allied with the Crimean Tatars, in a great rebellion against Polish rule, founding a self-governing Cossack Hetmanate in the Ukrainian lands.
See the data - 1654Politics & Power
- 1667Politics & Power
- 1772–1795Politics & Power
Galicia to Austria, right bank to Russia
The partitions of Poland transferred Galicia to the Habsburg Empire in 1772 and most of the right-bank Ukrainian lands to the Russian Empire by 1795, dividing the Ukrainian people between two empires.
- 1775Politics & Power
Figures of the era
Bohdan Khmelnytskyc. 1595 – 1657
Hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
Leader of the 1648 uprising against Polish rule, Khmelnytsky founded the Cossack Hetmanate and, by the 1654 Council of Pereiaslav, placed it under Muscovite protection, a turning point that drew the eastern Ukrainian lands into the Russian orbit.
Ivan Mazepa1639 – 1709
Hetman of Ukraine
Hetman of the Cossack state who, seeking to escape growing Russian domination, allied with Sweden against Tsar Peter I; his cause was lost at the Battle of Poltava in 1709, after which Cossack autonomy was sharply curtailed.
Chapter sources: Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ukraine: The Cossacks, Zaporozhian Sich, History of Ukraine
Chapter 04 · 1795 – 1921
National Awakening and the Ukrainian People's Republic
Divided between the Russian and Austrian empires, Ukrainians built a modern national identity, voiced by Taras Shevchenko, that erupted into a short-lived independent republic during the First World War.
Through the nineteenth century the Ukrainian lands remained split between the Russian Empire, which held the centre and east, and Austria-Hungary, which ruled Galicia in the west. In the Russian Empire the Ukrainian language and culture were repeatedly suppressed; in Austrian Galicia, by contrast, a measure of constitutional freedom allowed Ukrainian political and cultural life to develop more openly. Across both empires a modern national consciousness took shape, rooted in language, folklore and history, and articulated above all by the poet Taras Shevchenko, whose verse imagined Ukraine as a distinct nation and helped found the modern literary language.
The First World War tore apart the empires that had divided Ukraine. As Russia collapsed into revolution in 1917, a Ukrainian Central Rada (council) was formed in Kyiv under the historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky and moved steadily toward self-rule. In November 1917 it proclaimed the Ukrainian People's Republic, and on 22 January 1918 declared full independence from Russia. In the west, a parallel West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed in Galicia in 1918.
Independence proved fragile. The young republic was caught between German occupation, the Bolshevik Red Army, White Russian forces, Polish armies and internal upheaval. Governments rose and fell, from the Central Rada to Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky to the Directory under Symon Petliura. By 1921 the Bolsheviks had prevailed over most of the Ukrainian lands, which were incorporated into the Soviet state, while Galicia and Volhynia passed to the reborn Polish republic. The bid for independence had failed, but it left a powerful precedent for the statehood reclaimed in 1991.
“Shevchenko's poems imagined Ukraine as a distinct nation, with a people, culture and history separate from Russia, and laid the foundation for modern Ukrainian literature.”
— On Taras Shevchenko
Turning points
- 1840Culture & Ideas
- Nov 1917Formation
- 22 Jan 1918Independence
Declaration of independence
The Central Rada's Fourth Universal proclaimed the full independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic from Russia, as German, Bolshevik and other forces contested the country.
See the data - 1921War & Rupture
Defeat and Soviet incorporation
After years of war between Bolshevik, Polish, White and Ukrainian forces, the People's Republic was defeated; most Ukrainian lands were incorporated into the Soviet state, while Galicia passed to Poland.
See the data
Figures of the era
Taras Shevchenko1814 – 1861
Poet and national figure
Born a serf, Shevchenko became Ukraine's national poet. His collection Kobzar (1840) imagined Ukraine as a distinct nation with its own culture and history, and he is regarded as the founder of the modern Ukrainian written language.
Mykhailo Hrushevsky1866 – 1934
Historian and head of the Central Rada
Ukraine's foremost historian and chairman of the Central Rada, Hrushevsky presided over the proclamation of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1917 and became a symbol of the modern national movement.
Chapter sources: Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet and national hero, Ukraine: World War I and the struggle for independence, History of Ukraine
Chapter 05 · 1921 – 1991
Soviet Ukraine, the Holodomor and the Second World War
Soviet rule brought the man-made famine of the Holodomor, the devastation and Holocaust of the Second World War, the 1954 transfer of Crimea, and finally independence in 1991.
As a founding republic of the Soviet Union, Soviet Ukraine endured the upheavals of Stalin's rule. Forced collectivisation of agriculture and the seizure of grain triggered a catastrophic famine in 1932-33 known as the Holodomor, 'death by hunger'. The famine, widely regarded by historians as the result of deliberate Soviet policy, killed millions of Ukrainians; in 2022 the European Parliament joined many states in recognising the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian people. The same decade brought waves of political terror that decimated Ukraine's cultural and political elite.
The Second World War made Ukraine one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the conflict. Occupied by Nazi Germany after 1941, it became a principal site of the Holocaust: at the Babyn Yar ravine outside Kyiv, German forces shot 33,771 Jews on 29-30 September 1941, and in total some 100,000 people were murdered there over the occupation. Millions of Ukrainians, soldiers and civilians alike, perished in the war, and the country was left devastated before the Red Army drove out the Germans.
Post-war Soviet Ukraine was rebuilt and its borders enlarged. In 1954 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet transferred the Crimean Peninsula from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian SSR, citing economic and geographic ties, a decision that would become a flashpoint after 1991. The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the reforms of the late Soviet era weakened the system; as the Soviet Union disintegrated, Ukraine's parliament declared independence on 24 August 1991, confirmed by a referendum on 1 December in which over 90 percent of voters approved.
“The European Parliament recognises the famine inflicted by the Soviet regime on Ukraine in 1932-1933, known as the Holodomor, as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.”
— European Parliament resolution, 15 December 2022
Turning points
- 1932–33Catastrophe
The Holodomor
Soviet collectivisation and grain seizures caused a man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians; many states and, in 2022, the European Parliament have recognised it as a genocide.
See the data - 29–30 Sep 1941War & Rupture
Babyn Yar massacre
German SS and police units shot 33,771 Jews at the Babyn Yar ravine outside Kyiv over two days; in all some 100,000 people were murdered there during the occupation.
See the data - 19 Feb 1954Politics & Power
- 26 Apr 1986Catastrophe
Chernobyl disaster
An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine caused the worst nuclear accident in history, exposing Soviet failings and fuelling Ukrainian discontent in the final Soviet years.
See the data - 24 Aug 1991Independence
Declaration of independence
Amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's parliament declared independence on 24 August 1991, confirmed by referendum on 1 December with over 90 percent voting in favour.
See the data
Figures of the era
Leonid Kravchuk1934 – 2022
First President of independent Ukraine
Former Communist official who led Ukraine to independence, was elected its first president in December 1991, and co-signed the Belavezha Accords dissolving the Soviet Union.
Vyacheslav Chornovil1937 – 1999
Dissident and national leader
A leading Soviet-era dissident and founder of the Rukh popular movement, Chornovil campaigned for Ukrainian independence and democracy in the final years of Soviet rule.
Chapter sources: Holodomor, Holodomor: Parliament recognises Soviet starvation of Ukrainians as genocide, Mass Shootings at Babyn Yar (Babi Yar), Babi Yar massacre site, Transfer of Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR, 19 February 1954, History of Ukraine
Chapter 06 · 1991 – present
Independent Ukraine, Revolutions and the Defence of Sovereignty
A sovereign Ukraine surrendered its nuclear arsenal for security assurances, turned toward Europe through two revolutions, and faced annexation and invasion that the United Nations has declared without legal validity.
Independent Ukraine inherited the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal. Under the Budapest Memorandum, signed on 5 December 1994, Ukraine agreed to give up these weapons and accede to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; in return the Russian Federation, the United States and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their commitment to respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and existing borders and to refrain from the threat or use of force against it. Over the following decades Ukrainians repeatedly chose a European, democratic path. The fraudulent 2004 presidential election triggered the Orange Revolution, whose mass protests forced a re-run that brought Viktor Yushchenko to power.
In late 2013 President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign an association agreement with the European Union set off the Euromaidan protests, which grew into the Revolution of Dignity; after deadly clashes Yanukovych fled in February 2014. In the ensuing power vacuum Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula, and following a referendum that Ukraine and most of the world deemed illegal, declared its annexation in March 2014. The United Nations General Assembly responded with Resolution 68/262 of 27 March 2014, affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity and declaring the Crimean referendum without legal validity. Fighting also erupted in the eastern Donbas region, in Donetsk and Luhansk, beginning a war that simmered for eight years.
On 24 February 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the largest ground war in Europe since 1945. On 2 March 2022 the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution ES-11/1, deploring in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demanding the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian forces from within Ukraine's internationally recognised borders. After Russia proclaimed the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in September 2022, the Assembly adopted Resolution ES-11/4 on 12 October 2022, condemning the 'attempted illegal annexation' as invalid under international law and calling on all states not to recognise it. The international community's position is that Ukraine's borders, including Crimea and the four oblasts, remain those recognised at its independence.
“The General Assembly deplores in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands that it immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”
— UN General Assembly Resolution ES-11/1, 2 March 2022
Turning points
- 5 Dec 1994Politics & Power
Budapest Memorandum
Ukraine agreed to surrender its nuclear arsenal and join the Non-Proliferation Treaty; Russia, the US and the UK pledged to respect its sovereignty and existing borders and to refrain from the use of force against it.
- 2004Politics & Power
The Orange Revolution
Mass protests against a fraudulent presidential election forced a court-ordered re-run that brought the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency over Viktor Yanukovych.
- 2013–14Politics & Power
Revolution of Dignity (Euromaidan)
Protests sparked by the rejection of an EU association agreement grew into the Revolution of Dignity; after deadly clashes President Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014.
- Mar 2014War & Rupture
Russia annexes Crimea; UN Resolution 68/262
Russia seized Crimea and declared its annexation after a referendum deemed illegal; the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/262, affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity and declaring the referendum without legal validity.
See the data - 24 Feb 2022War & Rupture
Full-scale invasion; UN Resolution ES-11/1
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine; the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution ES-11/1 deploring the aggression and demanding the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Russian forces.
See the data - Sep–Oct 2022War & Rupture
Purported annexation of four oblasts; UN Resolution ES-11/4
Russia proclaimed the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson; the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution ES-11/4, condemning the attempted annexation as invalid and calling for non-recognition.
See the data
Figures of the era
Viktor Yushchenkoborn 1954
President of Ukraine
Pro-Western reformer whose disputed defeat in the 2004 election sparked the Orange Revolution; a court-ordered re-run made him president, marking Ukraine's turn toward Europe.
Volodymyr Zelenskyborn 1978
President of Ukraine
Elected president in 2019, Zelensky became the wartime leader of Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, rallying national and international support for the country's defence.
Chapter sources: Budapest Memorandum on security assurances (Ukraine's accession to the NPT), 5 December 1994, Orange Revolution, Ukraine crisis of 2013-14 (Euromaidan, annexation of Crimea, war in the Donbas), General Assembly Resolution 68/262, Territorial integrity of Ukraine (27 March 2014), United Nations Resolution Declares Crimea Referendum Invalid, Russia-Ukraine War (2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine), General Assembly Resolution ES-11/1, Aggression against Ukraine (2 March 2022), General Assembly Resolution ES-11/4, Territorial integrity of Ukraine: defending the principles of the Charter of the United Nations (12 October 2022)