Ukraine

Ukraine, republic in eastern Europe, bounded on the north by Belarus and Russia; on the east by Russia; on the south by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov; on the southwest by Romania and Moldova; and on the west by Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland. Formerly the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Ukraine is a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which in December 1991 succeeded the USSR.

With a total area of about 603,700 sq km (about 233,090 sq mi), Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe after Russia. Ukraine includes the Crimean Autonomous Republic, which was elevated from an oblast to a constituent republic in 1991 (see CRIMEA). Kyyiv (Kiev) is the capital and largest city.

Land and Resources

Almost the entire country of Ukraine is a vast flat plain, with elevations generally below 300 m (about 984 ft). The Carpathian Mountains intrude at the extreme west, and on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula are the Crimean Mountains. The highest point in Ukraine is Mt. Hoverla in the Carpathians, with an elevation of 2061 m (about 6762 ft). Most major rivers flow south to the Black Sea; they include the Dnepr River in central Ukraine, the Southern Bug and Dnestr rivers in the west, the Donets River in the east, and the Danube in the far south. The Western Bug, however, flows northward through the western part of the country and joins the Vistula, which empties into the Baltic Sea.

The climate of Ukraine is temperate continental, with a subtropical Mediterranean climate prevalent on the southern portions of the Crimean Peninsula. The average monthly temperature in winter ranges from -8° to 2° C (17.6° to 35.6° F), while summer temperatures average 17° to 25° C (62.6° to 77° F). The Black Sea coast is subject to freezing, and no Ukrainian port is permanently ice-free. Precipitation generally decreases from north to south; it is greatest in the Carpathians, where it exceeds more than 1500 mm (58.5 in) per year, and least in the coastal lowlands of the Black Sea, where it averages less than 300 mm (11.7 in) per year.

Ukraine has extremely fertile black-earth soils in the central and southern portions, totaling nearly two-thirds of the territory. The original vegetation of the area formed three broad belts that crossed the territory of Ukraine latitudinally. Mixed forest vegetation occupied the northern third of the country, forest-steppe the middle portion, and steppe the southern third of the country. Now, however, much of the original vegetation has been cleared and replaced by cultivated crops. Much of the original fauna has also disappeared, but many animal species still remain. Mammals include deer, beaver, and marten. Birds include the Eurasian black vulture, the steppe eagle, and the grey heron.

Population

With an estimated population of 52,057,000 in 1992, Ukraine is the second most populous country of the former USSR. Only Russia has more people. Ukrainians, also known as Little Russians, constitute 72 percent of the population. Ukrainian, a Slavic language closely related to Russian, is the official language, although Russian is widely spoken. Russians constitute 22 percent of the population. Other minorities include Belarusians, Moldovans, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Poles, and Crimean Tatars. Most of the Tatars were forcibly transported to Central Asia in 1944 for anti-Soviet activities during World War II (1939-1945). Orthodoxy is the predominant religion in the country, although western Ukrainians are Catholic, as are the Hungarian and Polish minorities. Protestantism, Islam, and Judaism are also practiced.

Ukraine is an urbanized society, with more than two-thirds of the population living in cities and towns. Kyyiv, the capital, is the largest city in Ukraine, with an estimated population of 2,616,000 in 1990. Other large cities include Kharkiv (1,618,000), Dnipropetrovs'k (1,187,000), Donets'k (1,117,000), Odesa (1,106,000), L'viv (798,000), and Mariupol' (520,000). Population growth, however, is low. The growth rate during the late 1980s was the lowest in the former USSR. Health standards, such as life expectancy, are generally positive.

Economy

Ukraine's economy is highly industrialized. Industry contributes more than 40 percent of total net material product (NMP) and accounts for more than one-fourth of total employment. Industry is based largely on the republic's vast mineral resources. The Donets'k Basin contains huge reserves of coal, and the nearby iron-ore reserves of Kryvyy Rih are equally rich. Among Ukraine's other mineral resources are manganese, bauxite, titanium, and salt. Coal and nuclear fission are the leading sources of energy, with each accounting for roughly 30 percent of Ukraine's domestic energy production. Despite these domestic sources, the economy is highly dependent on other former Soviet republics for oil and natural gas, the price of which has risen sharply in the early 1990s. A decline in domestic energy production during this same period made the country even more reliant on foreign sources. The energy shortage prompted Ukrainian officials to keep five nuclear power stations in operation despite safety problems. These stations included the one at Chernobyl', where there was a disastrous accident in 1986. The principal manufactures include iron and steel, heavy machinery, chemicals, transportation equipment, textiles, and processed food.

Agriculture accounts for about 30 percent of total NMP and one-fourth of total employment. Ukraine is a major producer and exporter of a wide variety of agricultural products, including wheat and sugar beets. Other crops include potatoes, vegetables, fruit, sunflowers, and flax. Livestock raising is also important. Agricultural production has suffered greatly since independence, however, and domestic food consumption has decreased. NMP declined by about 30 percent in 1992-one of the sharpest drops among the former Soviet republics.

After considerable delay, the process of economic reform began in Ukraine. Prices on food, transportation, and other services were deregulated in January 1993, although food prices remained low in comparison to prices in neighboring countries. The government issued privatization certificates and set up the western city of L'viv as a model for future privatization. A transitional currency, the karbovanet, was issued, and plans to issue a final currency, the hryvnia, were formed. However, the reform process stalled in the second half of 1993. Privatization was slowed by bureaucratic resistance and ineptitude. As a result, about 95 percent of all property still remained under state control. Production declined more rapidly, and the economy edged toward hyperinflation. In response, the government attempted to assert direct control over the economy by resorting to central planning techniques such as price controls. In order to foster economic cooperation with other former Soviet republics and improve economic conditions, Ukraine became an associate member of the Commonwealth of Independent States Economic Union in September 1993.

Government

The governmental system of Ukraine has retained several aspects of the old Soviet-era system. The chief legislature, the 450-member Supreme Council, is controlled by former Communists and their allies, who retained power after the country's first free parliamentary elections in 1994. The legislature is also composed of a large number of independent legislators and a small number of reformers. The post of president, which was created during the last months of the USSR, has been held since 1991 by Leonid Kravchuk, a long-time member of the Communist party who only recently began to support Ukrainian nationalism. The Communist party was officially banned in the country in 1990, but was renamed the Socialist party of Ukraine and has retained political control. Hard-line Communists protested the ban, which was rescinded by the Supreme Council in May 1993. Several important democratic institutions have recently appeared in Ukraine, however, including a free press, a new constitution, and several popular opposition groups, such as Rukh and New Ukraine.

History

The early history of Ukraine is also an important chapter in the history of Russia. Kyyiv was the center of the Rus principality in the 11th and 12th centuries AD, and it is still known as the "Mother of Russian Cities." In the 13th century the area was invaded by Tatar-Mongols, who inflicted extensive damage. The western Ukrainian principality of Galicia, founded in the 12th century, suffered less from the Mongol invasion than the rest of the area, and was annexed by Poland in the 14th century. At about the same time Kyyiv and the Ukrainian principality of Volhynia were conquered by Lithuania and later came, with the latter country, into the possession of Poland. Poland, however, could not subjugate the Ukrainian cossacks, who allied themselves with Russia. The lands east of the Dnepr River were ceded to Russia in 1667 (some parts of Ukraine had been annexed by Muscovy much earlier), and the remainder of Ukraine, except for Galicia (part of the Austrian Empire; 1772-1919), was incorporated into the Russian Empire after the second partition of Poland in 1793. During World War I, following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the Ukraine proclaimed its independence.

In Galicia, meanwhile, and in Bukovina and in the region known as the Carpatho-Ukraine the Ukrainians under Austrian rule preserved their identity as a separate group and engendered a forceful nationalist movement. They established (1918) their own republic in East Galicia, which was federated with the Russian Ukraine. A year later, however, East Galicia was put under a Polish protectorate by the Paris Peace Conference. Subsequently, the government of the republic of Ukraine, led by Simon Petlyura, declared war on Poland; meanwhile a counter-government was set up in Ukraine by Communists who declared the country a Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1920 the advance of the Russian Bolshevik armies caused the Petlyura government and Poland to become allies; they were too weak, however, to prevent the Soviet government from assuming control of the country. In 1922 Communist Ukrainian delegates joined in the formation of the USSR.

In the period between 1922 and 1939 drastic efforts were made by the USSR to suppress Ukrainian nationalism. Ukraine suffered terribly from the forced collectivization of agriculture and the expropriation of foodstuffs from the countryside; the result was the famine of 1932 and 1933, when more than 7 million people died. The ultimate goal of Ukrainian nationalism was the independence of a Greater Ukraine, embracing Russian Ukraine, Polish Galicia, and Czechoslovakian Ruthenia.

Following the Soviet seizure of eastern Poland in September 1939, Polish Galicia, comprising nearly 62,160 sq km (24,000 sq mi), was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. When the Germans invaded Ukraine in 1941 during World War II (1939-1945), Ukrainian nationalists hoped that an autonomous or independent Ukrainian republic would be set up under German protection. Much to their disappointment, the Germans not only divided Russian Ukraine and West Ukraine (Galicia) but came as hostile conquerors. Ukraine was retaken by the USSR in 1944. In the same year parts of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina of Romania were added to it, and the Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia was added in 1945. The Ukrainian SSR became a charter member of the United Nations in 1945. The Crimean region in Russia was added to Ukraine in 1954. Communism in the USSR collapsed in 1991. At the end of 1991, the USSR ceased to exist, and Ukraine became an independent republic.

After independence, political tension developed over the Crimea, which was part of Russia until 1954. Shortly after Ukrainian independence in 1991, a Russian-led movement to secede from Ukraine was formed in the Crimea, which succeeded in changing the status of the Crimean oblast to an autonomous republic. The Crimea also issued a declaration of independence, which was rescinded in May 1992. In the same month, however, the Supreme Soviet of Russia declared the 1954 transfer of the Crimea null and void. In January 1994 Yuryy Meshkov, a former Soviet border guard and legal prosecutor, was elected president of the Crimea on a platform of reunification with Russia. After his inauguration, Meshkov removed local appointees of the Ukrainian government, an action that the government declared illegal. Meanwhile, a second separatist movement had developed in eastern Ukraine, where coal miners and other workers went on strike in June 1993 to protest the poor state of the economy.

Also following independence, Ukraine and Russia both claimed ownership of the 350-ship Black Sea Fleet, stationed in the Crimean port of Sevastopol'. An agreement was reached in 1992 to share joint command of the fleet until 1995, when it would be divided between the two countries. However, tensions have continued over the issue, sometimes erupting into armed confrontations. In January 1994 President Kravchuk agreed to transfer part of Ukraine's nuclear arsenal to Russia for disposal in exchange for nuclear fuel for power generation. In February 1994, in an effort to support the disarmament process and prevent the total collapse of Ukraine's economy, the United States government pledged to double the amount of aid to Ukraine. Also that month, Ukraine agreed to join the Partnership for Peace program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a plan designed to promote military cooperation between NATO and non-NATO members. In July former prime minister Leonid Kuchma was elected president with a narrow 52 percent of the vote.

Contributed by:

Kurt E. Engelmann