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Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Yushchenko

Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian: Віктор Андрійович Ющенко) (born 23 February 1954) is the President of Ukraine. As leader of the Our Ukraine (Nasha Ukrayina) political coalition, he was the main opposition candidate in the October–November 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. Ukraine's Central Election Commission declared him the winner of the 26 December 2004 re-run of the runoff election, by 52% to 44% over Viktor Yanukovych. The popular protest movement which brought him to power is today dubbed the "Orange Revolution." Yushchenko had previously served as the chairman of the country's central bank from 1993 to 1999 and as the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 1999 to 2001. Born on February 23, 1954 in the village of Khoruzhivka, Sumy oblast, into a family of teachers. Father – Andriy Andriyovych Yushchenko (1919-1992), took part in the Second World War; after the war taught English at a local school. Mother – Varvara Tymofiyovna Yushchenko (1918-2005), a Physics and Math teacher. Marital Status : Married, with five children and two grandchildren; sons Andriy and Taras, daughters Vitalina, Sofia and Christina, grandchildren Yarynka and Victor. Wife – Kateryna Mykhailivna Yushchenko. Education: Higher. In 1975 graduated from the Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute. Candidate of Economic Sciences. The topic of the candidate thesis – “Development of Money Demand and Supply in Ukraine”. A member of the National Academy of Economic Sciences and the Academy of Economic Cybernetics. Work Experience and Socio-Political Life 1975 Chief accountant assistant, collective farm “40th Anniversary of the October Revolution.” 1975–1976 Service in the Soviet Army (frontier troops, the Soviet-Turkish border near Leninakan). 1976–1985 Acting economist, chief of the Ulyanovsk department of the State Bank. 1985–1987 Deputy Director of the Administration at the Ukrainian Republican Office of the USSR State Bank. 1988–1990 Department head, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Ukrainian Agro-Industrial Bank. 1990–1993 Deputy, First Deputy Chairman of the Board at the Republican Bank “Ukraina.” 1993–1999 Chairman and Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). 1999–2001 Prime Minister of Ukraine. 2001–2002 Director of the Borys Yeltsin Ukrainian-Russian Institute of Management and Business. 2002 – January 2005 People’s deputy of Ukraine, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Human Rights, National Minorities and Inter-national Relations. Leader of the “Our Ukraine” parliamentary faction. 2003 – January 2005 Chairman, All-Ukrainian “Our Ukraine” civil organization. Head of the Supervisory Council of the “Ukraine 3000” International Foundation (Victor Yushchenko Foundation). December 2004 Elected President of Ukraine.

Early life

Viktor A. Yushchenko was born on February 23, 1954 in Khoruzhivka, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine in a family of teachers. Graduated from the Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute. Has a degree of economy. Wrote a thesis “Development of supply and demand of money in Ukraine”. After studying he served in the Army. He served in a frontier regiment on Soviet–Turkish border. He had been working in a bank system since 1976. Since 1983 he was the Deputy Director for Agricultural Crediting at the Ukrainian Republican Office of the USSR State Bank. In 1993 he became the First Deputy Chairman of the Board at agro-industrial bank “Ukraine”.

Central banker

In 1993, Yushchenko was invited by Vadym Hetman to work in the newly-formed National Bank of Ukraine (Ukraine's central bank). After Hetman's resignation in 1993, Yushchenko was appointed the head of the supervisory board of the Bank. Later, in 1997, he was reappointed as the head of the Bank by the parliament. As a central banker, Yushchenko played an important part in the creation of Ukraine's national currency, the hryvnia, and the establishment of a modern regulating system for commercial banking. He also successfully overcame a debilitating wave of hyper-inflation that hit the country and managed to defend the value of the currency following the 1998 financial crisis in Russia.

Prime Minister

In December 1999, Yushchenko was unexpectedly nominated as prime minister by President Leonid Kuchma after the previous candidate, Valeriy Pustovoytenko, fell short of one vote to get ratified by the parliament. Yushchenko was confirmed to the post by an overwhelming majority of 296–12. Significant economic progress was made during Yushchenko's cabinet service, though critics argue that this was made possible by the general situation of the economy, and was not the result of his actions. Soon, his government (particularly, deputy prime minister Yuliya Tymoshenko) became embroiled in a confrontation with influential coal mining and natural gas industry leaders. The conflict resulted in a 2001 no-confidence vote by the parliament, which was mainly the work of Communists, who had opposed Yushchenko's economic policies, and centrist groups associated with the country's powerful "oligarchs". The vote was carried by 263 to 69 and resulted in Yushchenko's removal from office. The fall of his government was viewed with dismay by many Ukrainians; four million votes were gathered in support of a petition supporting him and opposing the parliamentary vote and a 10,000-strong demonstration was held in Kiev.

Our Ukraine leader and political portrait

In 2002, Yushchenko became the leader of the Our Ukraine (Nasha Ukrayina) political coalition, which received a plurality of seats in the parliamentary election that year. However, the number of seats won wasn't enough for a majority, and the efforts to form it together with other opposition parties failed. Since then, Yushchenko has remained the leader and public face of the Our Ukraine group (Ukrainian: fraktsiya "Nasha Ukrayina", фракція "Наша Україна"). Yushchenko was widely regarded as the leader of anti-president opposition in the government, since other opposition parties were less influential and had fewer seats in the parliament. Since the end of his term as prime minister, Yushchenko has become a charismatic political figure and he is popular among Ukrainians in the western and central regions of the country. As of 2001–2004, his rankings in popularity polls were higher than those of the president at the time, Leonid Kuchma. [http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/041121/250/f72mp.html] As a politician, Viktor Yushchenko is widely perceived as a mixture of West-oriented and moderate Ukrainian nationalist. He is also an advocate of massive privatization of the economy. His opponents (and allies) sometimes criticize him for indecision and failure to reveal his position, while advocates argue that these are the signs of Yushchenko's commitment to teamwork, consensus, and negotiation. He is also often accused of being unable to form a united and strong team that is free of inner quarrels. One of his political allies is Yulia Timoshenko who, during the Kuchma presidency, was arrested and then cleared of fraud charges relating to gas privatization, while serving as deputy prime minister in a Yushchenko cabinet.

Presidential election of 2004

In 2004, as President Kuchma's term came to an end, Yushchenko announced that he was an independent candidate for president. His major rival was Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Since his term as prime minister, Yushchenko had slightly modernized his political platform, adding social partnership and other liberal slogans to older ideas of European integration, including Ukraine joining NATO, and fighting corruption. Supporters of Yushchenko were organized in the "Syla Narodu" ("Power to the People") electoral coalition, which was led by himself and his political ally Yuliya Tymoshenko, with the Our Ukraine coalition being the main constituent force. Yushchenko's campaign was built on face-to-face communication with the voters, since the government prevented most major TV channels from providing equal coverage to the candidates. Meanwhile, his rival, Yanukovych, frequently appeared in the news, even accusing Yushchenko, whose father was a Red Army soldier imprisoned at Auschwitz, of being "a Nazi."

Dioxin poisoning

The campaign was often bitter, controversial, and violent, with accusations of "dirty tricks" from both sides. Yushchenko became seriously ill in early September 2004. He was flown to Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus clinic for treatment and diagnosed with "acute pancreatitis, accompanied by interstitial edematous changes", said to be due to "a serious viral infection and chemical substances which are not normally found in food products", which Yushchenko claimed to be the work of agents of the government. After the illness, his face became pale, heavily disfigured, bloated, and pockmarked. After seeing Mr. Yushchenko's deformed face on the evening news, the Dutch toxicologist Bram Brouwer contacted the Rudolfinerhaus to test some of Yushchenko's blood at the Free University of Amsterdam for dioxin. According to Dr Michael Zimpfer, president of the Rudolfinerhaus, these tests provided conclusive evidence that Yushchenko's condition resulted from "high concentrations of dioxin, most likely orally administered". [http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7061548] This hypothesis had already been suggested by British toxicologist John Henry of St. Mary's Hospital in London, as the marks on Yushchenko's face are chloracne, a characteristic symptom of dioxin poisoning. Other scientists suggested that the illness might have been the result of rosacea but this theory failed to account for the severe internal medical problems suffered by Yushchenko. On December 11, Austrian doctors confirmed Yushchenko was poisoned with TCDD dioxin, and has more than 1,000 times (other sources say 6,000 times) the usual concentration in his body [http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/12/11/yushchenko.austria/index.html]. This is the second highest dioxin level ever measured in a human. Yushchenko's chief of staff Oleg Ribachuk has suggested that the poison used was a mycotoxin called T-2, also known as "Yellow Rain", a Soviet-era substance which was reputedly used in Afghanistan as a chemical weapon. Yushchenko has linked the poisoning to a dinner with a group of senior Ukrainian officials, including the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ihor Smeshko, on the evening before Yushchenko fell ill. This hypothesis is disputed by some toxicologists, who claim that symptoms of dioxin poisoning usually take 3-14 days to appear—John Henry, professor of accident and emergency medicine at St Mary's Hospital in London, said "a few months after swallowing" or other contact[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=3613230]—and experiencing them a few hours after ingesting the poison would be unusual.

Unprecedented three rounds of voting

SBU Main articles:
- Orange Revolution
- Post-election developments in Ukraine, 2004 The initial vote, held on 31 October 2004, saw Yushchenko obtaining 39.87% in front of Yanukovych with 39.32%. As no candidate reached the 50% margin required for outright victory, a second round of run-off voting was held on 21 November 2004. Although a 75% voter turnout was recorded, observers reported many irregularities and abuses across the country, such as organized multiple voting and extra votes for Yanukovych after the polls closed. Exit poll results put Yushchenko ahead in the western and central provinces of the country. The alleged electoral fraud, combined with the fact that the exit polls recorded a result (an 11% margin of victory for Yushchenko in one poll) so radically different from the final vote tally (a 3% margin of victory for Yanukovych), prompted Yushchenko and his supporters to refuse to recognize the results. After thirteen days of massive popular protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, known as the Orange Revolution for the wearing of orange ribbons by Yushchenko supporters in a sign of solidarity, the election results were overturned by the Supreme Court and a re-run of the run-off election was ordered for December 26. Yushchenko proclaimed a victory for the opposition and declared his confidence that he would be elected with at least 60% of the vote. He did win the third round, but with a smaller, 8% margin.

President

Inauguration

On January 23, 2005, 12pm (Kyiv time), the inauguration of Viktor Yushchenko as the President of Ukraine took place. The event was attended by various foreign dignitaries, including Arnold Rüütel, Adrienne Clarkson, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, Vladimir Voronin, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Traian Băsescu, Ivan Gašparovič, Ferenc Mádl, Artur Rasizade, Jan Peter Balkenende, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nino Burjanadze, Artūras Paulauskas, Colin Powell, special guest Václav Havel, and numerous other guests.
Image:VRU_Jan23_2005_oath.jpg|Oath of Office Image:VRU_Jan23_2005_guests.jpg|VIP Guests Image:VRU_Jan23_2005_president.jpg|Holding a mace (bulava) Image:Yushchenko_family.jpg|After inaugural address

Presidency

bulava at a August 2005 CIS meeting.]] The first 100 days of Yushchenko's term, January 23, 2005, through May 1, 2005, were marked by numerous dismissals and appointments at all levels of the executive branch. Yuliya Tymoshenko was ratifed by the Verkhovna Rada as the Prime Minister. Oleksandr Zinchenko was appointed the head of the presidential secretariat with a nominal title of the Secretary of State. Petro Poroshenko, a cut-throat competitor of Tymoshenko for the post of the Prime Minister, was appointed the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council. Yushchenko extensively traveled abroad, having spent the yearly travel budget by mid-April. His most notable visits include Moscow (January 24), Strasbourg and European Parliament (February 23), and the United States (early April). On September 8 2005, Yushchenko fired his government, led by Yulia Tymoshenko, after resignations and corruption claims. On September 9, acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov tried to form a new goverment.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4228650.stm] On September 22, Mr. Yekhanurov was ratified by the parliament on second attempt (289 ayes). In the first attempt (September 20), Mr. Yekhanurov fell short of 3 votes (223 ayes, 226 needed). Also in September, former president of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk has accused exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky of financing Yushchenko's presidential election campaign, and provided copies of documents showing money transfers from companies he said are controlled by Berezovsky to companies controlled by Yuschenko's official backers. Berezovsky has confirmed that he met Yushchenko's representatives in London before the election, and that the money was transferred from his companies, but he refused to confirm or deny that the companies that received the money were used in Yushchenko's campaign. Financing of election campaigns by foreign citizens is illegal in Ukraine and might potentially lead to Yushchenko's impeachment.[http://lenta.ru/articles/2005/09/15/money/].

Family and private life

Yushchenko is married to Kateryna Yushchenko-Chumachenko (his second wife). She is a Ukrainian-American born in Chicago and a former official with the U.S. State Department, where she worked as a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Opponents of Yushchenko have criticized her for remaining a U.S. citizen. During the recent election campaign, Kateryna was accused of exerting the influence of the U.S. government on her husband's decisions, as an employee of the U.S. government or even a CIA agent. Russian television journalist Mikhail Leontyev had earlier accused her of leading a U.S. project to help Yushchenko seize power in Ukraine; in January 2002, she won a libel case against him. Ukraine's pro-government Inter television channel repeated Leontyev's allegations in 2001 but in January 2003 she won a libel case against the channel as well. Yushchenko has five children and two grand children: sons Andriy and Taras, daughters Vitalina, Sophia and Khrystyna, grand children Yaryna and Viktor. Yushchenko's main hobbies are Ukrainian traditional culture (including folk ceramics and archaeology), mountaineering and beekeeping. Mr. Yushchenko is keen on painting, apiculture, collects antiques, objects of folk-customs and Ukrainian national clothes, and restores objects of Tripilya culture. Each year he climbs Hoverla, Ukraine's highest mountain. After receiving a checkup in which doctors determined he was healthy despite the previous year's dioxin poisoning, he successfully climbed the mountain again on July 16, 2005.

See also


- Ukrainian presidential election, 2004
- Politics of Ukraine
- List of national leaders
- Victims of poisoning
- Ukrainization

References


- Сandidate Viktor Yushchenko wins first round of Ukraine election (10 November 2004). Rule of Law Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.rol.org.ua/eng/newsitem.cfm?unid=20.

External links


- [http://ww2.yuschenko.com.ua/eng/ Viktor Yushchenko Personal site My Ukraine] – English version
- [http://www.president.gov.ua/en/ Official site of the President of Ukraine]
- [http://www.razom.org.ua/set/en TAK!] (YES!) official presidential campaign website – English version
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4035789.stm BBC News profile]
- [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1393172,00.html Who poisoned Viktor Yushchenko?] from the Times Online
- [http://orangerevolution.org/ Orange Revolution]
- [http://www.rada.gov.ua/zakon/skl4/6session/STENOGR/23010506_UZ.htm Verbatim Account of the Inaugural Ceremony, January 23, 2005] - official site of the parliament (in Ukrainian) Yushchenko, Viktor Yushchenko Yushchenko, Viktor Yushchenko, Viktor Yushchenko, Viktor Yushchenko Yushchenko, Victor ja:ヴィクトル・ユーシェンコ simple:Viktor Yushchenko

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian (украї́нська мо́ва, ukrayins'ka mova, ) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Ukrainian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. It shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring Slavic nations, most notably with Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Slovakian. Ukrainian traces its origins to the Old East Slavic language of the ancient state of Kievan Rus'. The language has persisted despite the two bans by Imperial Russia and political persecution during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ukrainian has survived mainly due to its broad base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs, kobzars, prominent poets like Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka.

History

Perspective

Before the eighteenth century the precursor to the modern Ukrainian language was a vernacular language used mostly by peasants and petit bourgeois, existing side-by-side with a literary language of foreign origin, the Church Slavonic evolved from the Old Slavonic language from Bulgaria. Although the spoken Ukrainian language was in no danger of extinction, it was only raised to the level of a language of literature, philosophy and science by being promoted at the expense of a separate "high language", be it Greek, Church Slavonic, Polish, Latin or Russian. Ivan Kotlyarevsky in 1794 published an epic poem, Eneyida, a burlesque in Ukrainian, based on Vergil's Aeneid. The book turned out to be the first literary work published in the vernacular Ukrainian, becoming an undying classic of Ukrainian literature. The Ukrainian language has a rich history that reflects the history of Ukraine, full of foreign oppression and undying resistance. Ukrainian traces its roots through the mid-fourteenth century as one of the state languages of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, back to the early written evidences of tenth-century Kievan Rus'.

Origin

Until the end of 18th century the written language used in Ukraine was quite different from the spoken one. From these reasons, there is no direct data on the origin of the Ukrainian language. One has to rely on indirect methods: analysis of typical mistakes in old manuscripts, comparison of linguistic data with historical, antropological, archeological ones, etc. Because of the difficulty of the question, several versions of the origin of Ukrainian language exist. Some early versions have already been proven wrong by modern linguistics, while others are still being discussed in the academic community. The first version of the origin was proposed by Mikhail Lomonosov in the middle of the 18th century when modern linguistic studies were not available. Lomonosov assumed existence of the common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of Kievan Rus', the language he called Русский (Russkiy) (it should be noted that in the Russian language the word Russkiy (Russian) relates both to what pertains to modern Russia and to Rus', see also Etymology of Rus and derivatives). According to Lomonosov, the differences that subsequently developed between Great Russian and Ukrainian (then called Little Russian) could be explained by the influence of the Polish language when, after the disintegration of the East Slavic state, the lands of Ukraine fell under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This theory became a basis of the mainstream scholarship within the Russian Empire, largely due to its political convenience. The theory of "polonization" was supported by the government of the Imperial Russia when in 1876 Ukrainian was banned from printing in the territory of the empire (see Ems Ukaz). The "polonization" theory was criticised as early as in the first half of the nineteenth by Mykhailo Maxymovych. In fact, the most distinctive features of Ukrainian language are present neither in Russian nor in Polish. Ukrainian and Polish language do share a lot of common or similar words, but so are most Slavic languages, since many words are carried over from the extinct Proto-Slavic language, predecessors of the modern ones. Much smaller part of their common vocabulary can be attributed to the later interaction of the two languages. The "polonization" theory has not been taken seriously by the academic community since the beginning of 20th century, but still has some circulation among anti-Ukrainian organizations and politicians. Another point of view developed during nineteenth and twentieth centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia and Soviet Union. Similarly to Lomonosov they assume the existence of the common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. But unlike Lomonosov's hypothesis, this theory does not view "polonization" or any other external influence as the main driving force that led to the formation of three different languages: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian from the common Old East Slavic language. The supportes of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet historiography manifested an ideology of three brotherly East Slavic nations. Soviet scholars tend to admit a difference between Ukrainian and Russian only at later time periods (fourteenth through sixteenth centuries). According to this view, Old East Slavic diverged into Belarusian and Ukrainian to the west (collectively, the Ruthenian language of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries), and Old Russian to the north-east, after the political boundaries of Kievan Rus’ were redrawn in the fourteenth century. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia (Ukraine and Belarus) into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Ukrainian and Belarusian diverged into identifiably separate languages. Other scholars see a divergence between the language of Halych-Volhynia and the language of Novgorod-Suzdal by the 1100s, assuming that before the 12th century the two languages were practically indistinguishable. Some European and American linguists concur (see, for example the articlein Encyclopedia Britannica). This point of view is, however, in varience with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes (that later likely became Volhynians and Buzhans), White Croatians, Tivertsi and Ulichs lived on the theritory of today's Ukraine long before the 12th century. It is notable that Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. Some researches admitting the differencies between the dialects spoken by East Slavic tribes in 10th and 11th centuries still consider them as "regional manifestations of a common language" (see, for instance, the article by Vasyl Nimchuk). In contrast, Ahathandel Krymskyi and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Easten Slavs only in pre-historic times. According to their point of view, the disintegration of the Old East Slavic language took place in 8th or at the beginning of 9th century. The Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stockyi went even further: he denied the existence of common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar point of view was shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes derived gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermadiate stages during 6st - 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by mixing and convergence of tribal dialects mostly due to intensive migration of the population within the theritory of today's Ukraine in the later historical periods. This point of view was also confirmed by phonological studies of Yurii Shevelov. This theory gains growing number of supporters among Ukrainian scientists. See also Ruthenian language.

Ancient history

Beyond the polemics between several ideological conceptions, the continuous presence of Slavic settlements in Ukraine, since at least the sixth century, provides an underlying ethno-linguistic factual basis for the origins of the Ukrainian language. The westernmost areas of modern-day Ukraine lay to the south from the postulated homeland of the original Slavs. Immigration of Slavic tribes to the Western Slavic and Southern Slavic portions of Eastern Europe led to the dissolution of Early Common Slavic into three groups by the seventh century (East Slavic, West Slavic, and South Slavic). During this time period, some East Slavic elements could have already provided a Slavic identity to the Antes civilization (of which nothing but an Iranian name is known).

Kievan Rus' and Halych-Volhynia

During the Khazar period, the territory of Ukraine, originally settled by Iranian (post-Scythian), Turkic (post-Hunnic, proto-Bulgarian), and Finno-Ugric (proto-Hungarian) tribes, was progressively Slavicized by several waves of migration from the Slavic north. Finally, the Varangian ruler of Novgorod, called Oleg, seized Kiev (Kyiv) and established the political entity of Rus'. Some theorists see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here; others term this era Early East Slavic or Old Ruthenian/Rus'ian. Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus' to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. Some hold that linguistic unity over Rus' was not present, but tribal diversity in language was present. The era of Rus' is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as the language of much of the literature was purely or heavily Old Slavonic. At the same time, most legal documents throughout Rus' were written in a purely East Slavic language (supposed to be based on the Kiev dialect of that epoch). Scholarly controversies over earlier development aside, literary records from Rus' testify to substantial divergence between Russian and Ruthenian/Rusyn forms of the Ukrainian language as early as the era of Rus'. One vehicle of this divergence (or widening divergence) was the large scale appropriation of the Old Slavonic language in the northern reaches of Rus' and of the Polish language at the territory of modern Ukraine. As evidenced by the contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes of Halych and Kiev called themselves "Russkie," which contrasts sharply with the lack of ethnic self-appellation for the area until the mid-nineteenth century. One prominent example of this north-south divergence in Rus' from around 1200, was the epic, The Tale of Igor's Campaign. Like other examples of Old Russian literature (for example, Byliny, the Russian Primary Chronicle), it survived only in Northern Russia (Upper Volga belt) and was probably written there. It shows dialectal features characteristic of Severian dialect with the exception of two words which were wrongly interpreted by early nineteenth-century German scholars as Polish loan words.

Post-independence: Lithuania/Poland, Muscovy/Russia, and Austro-Hungary

Severia (1561).]] After the fall of Halych-Volhynia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania, then Poland. Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. Polish rule, which came mainly later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. The Polish language has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (and on Belarusian). As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from Tatar and Turkish occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ukrainian was also the official language of Ukrainian provinces of the Crown of Polish Kingdom. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kiev-Mogila Academy), founded by the Orthodox Metropolitan Peter Mogila (Petro Mohyla), was the most important. In the anarchy of the Khmelnytsky Uprising and following wars, Ukrainian high culture was sent into a long period of steady decline. In the aftemath, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by Russia. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian, in the territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and Russification of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian widely. After the partitions of Poland, the Ukrainian language was banned from printing by Alexander II of Russia, in the Ems Ukaz, which retarded the literary development of the Ukrainian language. At the same time, in Austria-ruled Galicia and Bukovina, Ukrainian was widely used in the education and in official documents.

Soviet era

Bukovina".]] During the seven-decade-long Soviet era, the Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the Ukrainian SSR. However, practice was often a different story: Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards the Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to discouragement and, at times, suppression. Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union. Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR, Uzbek would be used in the Uzbek SSR, and so on. However, Russian was used in all parts of the Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication" was coined to denote its status. In reality, Russian was in a privileged position in the USSR and was the state official language in everything but formal name—although formally all languages were held up as equal. Often the Ukrainian language was frowned upon or quietly discouraged, which led to the gradual decline in its usage. Partly due to this suppression, in many parts of Ukraine, notably most urban areas of the east and south, Russian remains more widely spoken than Ukrainian. Soviet language policy in Ukraine is divided into six policy periods # Ukrainianization and tolerance (1921–late-1932) # Persecution and russification (1933–1957) # Khrushchev thaw (1958–1962) # The Shelest period: limited progress (1963–1972) # The Shcherbytsky period: gradual suppression (1973–1989) # Gorbachev and perestroika (1990–1991)

Ukrainianization and tolerance

Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire was broken up. In different parts of the former empire, several nations, including Ukrainians, developed a renewed sense of national identity. In the chaotic post-revolutionary years, Ukraine went through several short-lived independent and quasi-independent states, and the Ukrainian language, for the first time in modern history, gained usage in most government affairs. Initially, this trend continued under the Bolshevik government of the Soviet Union, which in a political struggle with the old regime had their own reasons to encourage the national movements of the former Russian Empire. While trying to ascertain and consolidate its power, the Bolshevik government was by far more concerned about many political oppositions connected to the pre-revolutionary order than about the national movements inside the former empire. Soviet Union, and the defence of Soviet Ukraine will be ensured."]] The widening use of Ukrainian further developed in the first years of Bolshevik rule into a policy called Korenization. The government pursued a policy of Ukrainianization (Ukrayinizatsiya, actively promoting the Ukrainian language), both in the government and among party personnel, and an impressive education program which raised the literacy of the Ukrainophone rural areas. Newly-generated academic efforts from the period of independence were co-opted by the Bolshevik government. The party and government apparatus was mostly Russian-speaking but were encouraged to learn the Ukrainian language. Simultaneously, the newly-literate ethnic Ukrainians migrated to the cities, which became rapidly largely Ukrainianized—in both population and in education. The policy even reached those regions of southern Russian SFSR where the ethnic Ukrainian population was significant, particularly the areas by the Don River and especially Kuban in the North Caucasus. Ukrainian language teachers, just graduated from expanded institutions of higher education in Soviet Ukraine, were dispatched to these regions to staff newly opened Ukrainian schools or to teach Ukrainian as a second language in Russian schools. A string of local Ukrainian-language publications were started and departments of Ukrainian studies were opened in colleges. Overall, these policies were implemented in thirty-five raions

1954

1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February


- January 1 - Soviet Union no longer demands war reparations from East Germany
- January 12 - Large-scale avalanches in Austria - over 20 dead
- January 14 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation
- January 14 - Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.
- January 15 - Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya
- January 17 - In Yugoslavia, Milovan Djilas, Tito's second-in-command, is relieved of his duties
- January 20 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations
- January 21 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by First Lady of the United States Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- January 25 - The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference.
- January 26 - Milpitas, California was incorporated as a city.
- January 27 - Very freezing weather in Europe
- February 3 - Queen Elizabeth II is the first reigning monarch to visit Australia
- February 10 - President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam
- February 23 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- February 25 - Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser is made premier of Egypt.

March-April


- March 1 - Nuclear testing: Officials announce that an American hydrogen bomb test had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
- March 1 - Four Puerto Ricans open fire on United States House of Representatives and wound five. Security guards apprehend them.
- March 8 - PR Newswire founded in New York by Herb Muschel.
- March 9 - Edward Murrow and Fred W. Friendly produce a 30-minute See It Now special entitled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy".
- March 12 - Finland and Germany officially end the state of war.
- March 13 - French troops begin battle against Vietminh in Dien Bien Phu.
- March 19 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
- March 22 - The London bullion market reopens (it was closed in 1939).
- March 22 - London gold exchange opens for the first time since the war.
- March 23 - Viet Minh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu - French forces are partially isolated.
- March 25 - RCA manufactures first color TV set (12" screen; price: $1,000).
- March 25 - Soviet Union recognizes sovereignty of East Germany but Soviet troops remain in the country.
- March 29 - C-47 with Genevieve de Galard on board is incapacitated on Dien Bien Phu runway.
- March 30 - Canada's first subway opens in Toronto.
- April 1 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.
- April 3 - Vladimir Petrov defects from the Soviet Union and asks to seek political asylum in Australia.
- April 7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference.
- April 12 - Original recording of "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets.
- April 14 - – Aneurin Bevan resigns from the UK Labour shadow cabinet.
- April 22 - Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.

May


- May 1 - Taku (city in Japan) founded
- May 6 - Roger Bannister runs the first four minute mile
- May 7 - Construction started on Michigan's Mackinac Bridge.
- May 7 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
- May 14 - Boeing 707 released after about two years of development.
- May 17 - United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 347 US 483 1954
- May 17 - Petrov Royal Commission in Australia begains it's inqury
- May 20 - Chiang Kai-shek is reelected president of the Republic of China by the National Assembly.
- May 20 - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty launches Belarusian language programming (see also Piotra Sych).
- May 29 - Robert Menzies Government re-elected for 4th term in Australia.

June-July


- June 1 - Radio statio Sender Freies Berlin begins broadcasting
- June 9 - McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army
- June 14 - On United States Flag Day, the words "under God" added to the Pledge of Allegiance
- June 15 - UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) is formed in Basel, Switzerland
- June 17 - Military coup in Guatemala
- June 18 - Pierre Mendes-France becomes prime minister of France
- June 19 - The last regular-service streetcar operated by Twin City Rapid Transit runs in Minneapolis.
- June 27 - Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán steps down in a CIA-sponsored military coup–Operation PBSUCCESS–triggering a bloody civil war that would continue for more than 35 years.
- June 27 - The world's first atomic power station opened at Obnisnsk, near Moscow.
- July 3 - Food rationing ends in Britain
- July 4 - End of rationing of meat ends all the food rationing in Britain
- July 4 - West Germany beat Hungary 3-2 to win the
- July 5 - Andhra Pradesh High Court is established.
- July 7 - In Memphis, Tennessee, WHBQ becomes the first radio station to air an Elvis Presley record
- July 15 - Maiden flight of Boeing 707
- July 21 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
- July 28 - Foundation of the Situationist International.
- July 31 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition.

August-October


- August - First flight of a B-52 Stratofortress.
- August 6 - Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets, dies of asphyxiation following a epileptic seizure at Sainte Agathe, Quebec.
- August 16 - Volume 1, Issue 1 of Sports Illustrated is published
- August 24 - President of Brazil, Getulio Vargas, commits suicide; he's been accused of conspiracy to murder an air force officer.
- September 3 - The last new episode of The Lone Ranger is aired on radio after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years
- September 6 - SEATO treaty signed in Manila, Philippines
- September 8 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established in Bangkok, Thailand
- September 9 - An earthquake centered on the city of Oleansville in Algeria - 1500 dead and thousands homeless
- September 11 - First Miss America Pageant broadcast on television
- September 14 - USSR tests nuclear weapon
- September 30 - USS Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered vessel (submarine), commissioned by the US Navy
- October 11 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh takes control of North Vietnam.
- October 18 - Texas Instruments announces the worldwide first Transistor radio.
- October 20 - Dock workers' strike expands in England
- October 23 - West Germany joins NATO
- October 26 - – Member of Muslim Brotherhood Abdul Munim Abdul Rauf tries to kill Gamal Abdal Nasser
- October 31 - Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

November-December


- November - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes.
- November 2 - Dock workers' strike in England ends
- November 3 - The first in the Godzilla series of films is released in Japan.
- November 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery
- November 13 - Don Estes invents the disrupter (a part to help combines work)
- November 14 - Egyptian president Mohammed Naguib is deposed - Gamal Abdel Nasser replaces him
- November 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at an all-time high of 382.74. More significantly, this is the first time the Dow has surpassed its 1929 peak level reached just before that year's crash.
- November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, a 4 kg meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and hits Ann Hodges, badly bruising her, in the first documented case of an object from outer space hitting a person.
- December 2 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 67 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
- December 24 - Laos becomes independent.

unknown dates


- The first organ transplants are done in Boston and Paris.
- Battle of Dien Bien Phu between French and Viet Minh forces in Indochina
- Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race
- Stop signs are changed from black-on-yellow to white-on-red
- Gerbils (Meriones Unguiculatus), brought to the United States by Dr. Victor Schwentker.
- Unification Church founded.
- Case of Lothar Malskat, who had admitted that he had painted the frescoes in Marienkirche himself, goes into trial

Births

January-February


- January 2 - Henry Bonilla, American politician
- January 4 - Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliott, English professional poker player
- January 6 - Anthony Minghella, British film director
- January 12 - Howard Stern, American radio host
- January 17 - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., son of Robert F Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy and nephew of U.S president John F Kennedy and Edward M Kennedy
- January 22 - Peter Pilz, Austrian politician
- January 23 - Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer and songwriter
- January 29 - Oprah Winfrey, American actress, talk show host, producer, and publisher
- January 29 - Yukinobu Hoshino, Japanese cartoonist
- February 1 - Bill Mumy, American actor and musician
- February 2 - Christie Brinkley, American model
- February 6 - Argusto Emfazie, American occultist and author
- February 12 - Philip Zimmermann, American cryptographer
- February 13 - Donnie Moore, baseball player (d. 1989)
- February 15 - Matt Groening, American cartoonist
- February 18 - John Travolta, American actor
- February 19 - Socrates, Brazilian footballer
- February 20 - Anthony Stewart Head, English actor
- February 20 - Patty Hearst, American heiress and kidnapping victim
- February 23 - Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine
- February 25 - John Doe, American musician
- February 26 - Michael Bolton, American singer

March-June


- March 1 - Ron Howard, American actor, director, producer
- March 4 - Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress
- March 8 - David Wilkie, Scottish swimmer
- March 13 - The Baroness Amos, British politician
- March 15 - Craig Wasson, American actor
- March 16 - Nancy Wilson, American singer, musician, and actress
- March 17 - Lesley-Anne Down, British actress
- March 24 - Robert Carradine, American actor
- March 29 - Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (d. 1985)
- April 7 - Jackie Chan, Hong Kong-born actor
- April 7 - Tony Dorsett, American football player
- April 9 - Dennis Quaid, American actor
- April 10 - Peter MacNicol, American actor
- April 15 - Seka, American actress
- April 17 - Riccardo Patrese, Italian race car driver
- April 18 - Rick Moranis, Canadian actor and comedian
- April 28 - Robert Sargent Shriver III son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and nephew of John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy and Edward M Kennedy
- April 29 - Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian
- May 1 - Archie Norman, British politician and businessman
- May 7 - Amy Heckerling, American film director
- May 8 - David Keith, American actor
- May 19 - Phil Rudd, Australian drummer (AC/DC)
- June 9 - John Hagelin, American physicist and U.S. Presidential candidate
- June 20 - Ilan Ramon, Israeli Air Force, Israel first astronaut (d. 2003)
- June 22 - Freddie Prinze, American actor and comedian (d. 1977)
- June 26 - Steve Barton, American actor (d. 2001)
- June 27 - Ron Kirk, Mayor of Dallas, Texas
- June 30 - Pierre Charles, Prime Minister of Dominica (d. 2004)

July-October


- July 5 - John Wright, New Zealand cricket captains
- July 10 - Neil Tennant, British musician
- July 17 - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
- July 25 - Walter Payton, American football player (d. 1999)
- August 1 - Michael J. Badnarik, software engineer and U.S. Presidential candidate
- August 11 - Joe Jackson, British singer
- August 14 - Mark Fidrych, baseball player
- August 16 - James Cameron, Canadian-born film director
- August 20 - Al Roker, American television broadcaster
- August 21 - Ivan Stang, American author and publisher
- August 25 - Elvis Costello, British singer
- August 26 - Pauline Hanson, Australian politician
- September 13 - Steve Kilbey, Australian musician
- September 21 - Shinzo Abe, Japanese politician
- September 23 - Charlie Barnett, American actor (d. 1996)
- September 26 - Kevin Kennedy, baseball manager and television host
- September 30 - Barry Williams, American actor
- October 1 - Martin Strel, Slovenian swimmer
- October 3 - Dennis Eckersley, baseball player
- October 3 - Stevie Ray Vaughan, American musician (d. 1990)
- October 9 - Scott Bakula, American television actor
- October 10 - David Lee Roth, American singer
- October 13 - Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician
- October 15 - Peter Bakowski, Australian poet
- October 24 - Mike Rounds, Governor of South Dakota

November-December


- November 2 - Pat Croce, American entrepreneur
- November 3 - Brigitte Lin, Actress
- November 7 - Kamal Haasan, Indian actor
- November 8 - Michael D. Brown, U.S. Undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response
- November 14 - Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
- November 14 - Willie Hernández, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
- November 15 - Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland
- November 16 - Bruce Edwards, golf caddy (d. 2004)
- November 27 - Patricia McPherson, American actress
- December 2 - Dan Butler, American actor
- December 7 - Mark Hofmann, American forger and murderer
- December 14 - Ib Andersen, Danish dancer
- December 14 - Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (d. 1993)
- December 20 - Michael Badalucco, American actor
- December 26 - Susan Butcher, American dog-sled racer
- December 28 - Denzel Washington, American actor

Unknown dates


- Nenad Prokic, Serbian playwright

Deaths


- January 18 - Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879)
- February 12 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (b. 1896)
- March 7 - Otto Diels, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
- March 31 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, American electrical engineer and inventor (b. 1890)
- May 6 - B.C. Forbes, Scottish-born publisher (b. 1880)
- May 19 - Charles Ives, American composer (b. 1874)
- April 10 - Auguste Lumière, French inventor (b. 1862)
- April 28 - Léon Jouhaux, French labor leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1879)
- June 7 - Alan Turing, British mathematician (b. 1912)
- July 11 - Henry Valentine Knaggs, English physician and author (b. 1859)
- July 13 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (b. 1907)
- July 14 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866)
- July 29 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (b. 1879)
- August 24 - Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (b. 1882)
- September 21 - Kokichi Mikimoto, Japanese pearl farm pioneer (b. 1858)
- November 3 - Henri Matisse, French painter (b. 1869)
- November 28 - Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- November 29 - Dink Johnson, American musician (b. 1892)
- November 30 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor (b. 1886)
- December 8 - Claude Cahun, French photographer and writer (b. 1894)
- December 30 - Eugen, Archduke of Austria, Austrian field marshal (b. 1863)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Max Born, Walther Bothe
- Chemistry - Linus Carl Pauling
- Medicine - John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller, Frederick Chapman Robbins
- Literature - Ernest Hemingway
- Peace - The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fields Medalists


- Kunihiko Kodaira, Jean-Pierre Serre Category:1954 ko:1954년 ms:1954 ja:1954年 simple:1954 th:พ.ศ. 2497

Ukraine

Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, Ukrayina, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the northeast, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest and the Black Sea to the south. The territory of present-day Ukraine was a key centre of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers, notably Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Austria, Romania and the Ottoman Empire. A brief period of independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917 was ended by Ukraine's absorption into the Soviet Union and the republic's present borders were only established in 1954. It became independent once more following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Name

Etymology

There are three main versions of the Slavic etymology for the name, all of them ultimately stem from the slavic root
- kraj- with the meaning 'cut'. Opinions vary as to the immediate derivation.
- By one theory the name is directly translated as 'borderland, frontier' (cf. Russian окраина/okraina 'outskirts' or Serbo-Croatian Krajina; this would be a semantic parallel to -mark in Denmark, cf. Marches).
- Another one associates it with the Ukrainian word країна/krajina 'country' (cf. also Belarusian краіна/kraina; these words can be compared to Polish kraj 'country'; this is also one of the meanings of Ukrainian and Russian край/kraj).
- Still another one derives the name directly from the Ukrainian verb краяти/krajaty, meaning 'to cut', indicating the land the Rus' (or Ruthenians or Ukrainians) carved out for themselves.

Ukraine or the Ukraine?

The country is often referred to in English with the definite article, as the Ukraine. This usage is now deprecated by many media organizations (compare "the Lebanon" and "the Sudan") and partly because of the implication that Ukraine is merely a region rather than an independent state. There was, however, no change in Ukrainian or Russian usage with Ukraine's independence, as there are no articles, definite or indefinite, in either language. However there is a parallel concerning the usage of the preposition na or v with Ukraine, both in Ukrainian and in Russian. Traditional usage is na Ukrayini (loosely, "at Ukraine"), but recently Ukrainian authorities have been using v Ukrayini ("in Ukraine"), as this preposition is used with most other country names. While in Ukrainian the newly introduced usage of v Ukrayini took hold, the usage in Russian varies. Russian language media from within Ukraine are increasingly using this form. However, the media in Russia mostly uses traditional na Ukraine, maintaining that it remains a proper usage and questioning the authority of the Ukrainian government over the Russian language. (See also Kiev or Kyiv for a similar debate).

History

Human settlement in the territory of Ukraine has been documented into distant prehistory. The late neolithic Trypillian culture flourished from ca. 4500 BC to 3000 BC. In antiquity, the southern and eastern parts of modern Ukraine were populated by Iranian nomads called Scythians. The Scythian Kingdom existed in Ukraine between 700 BC and 200 BC. In the third century, the Goths arrived, calling their country Oium, and formed the Chernyakhov culture before moving on and defeating the Roman empire. In the 7th century Ukraine was the core of the state of the Bulgars (often referred to as Great Bulgaria) who had their capital in the city of Phanagoria. The majority of the Bulgar tribes migrated in several directions at the end of the seventh century and the remains of their state was swept by the Khazars, a Turkic semi-nomadic people from Central Asia which later adopted Judaism. The Khazars founded the independent Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's Europe, near the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. In addition to western Kazakhstan, the Khazar kingdom also included territory in what is now eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, southern Russia, and Crimea. During the tenth and eleventh centuries the territory of Ukraine became the center of important state in Europe— Kievan Rus laying the foundation for national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries. Its capital was Kiev, the capital of modern Ukraine, ruled by Askold and Dir in the late 800s. According to the Primary Chronicle the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of Varangians, or Vikings, from present-day Scandinavia. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local population of Rus' and gave the Rus' its first powerful dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty. Rurik Dynasty Rurik Dynasty For the etymology of the terms Rus and Russia, see Etymology of Rus and derivatives. Kiev and Kievian Rus' were the seat of the Grand Prince of the Rurik Dynasty. The ruler of Kiev was also in effect the ruler of all the Rus' principalities. Kievan Rus' was fragmentated after Mstislav the Great's death in 1125. The term "Rus'" was originally applied to the inhabitants of all Rus' principalities, today comprising Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. After the fall of Kiev, and until the eighteenth century, the term "Rus" was self-applied by the members of all three East Slavic nations, but the latinized version, "Ruthenian", was used to designate inhabitants of Ukraine only; while the ancestors of modern Russians were usually referred to as Muscovites or Muscovite Russians by the name of their state that Poland called Muscovy. Kievan Rus' became weakened by internal quarrels and was destroyed by Mongol and Tatar invasions. On Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of Halych-Volynia. In the mid 14th century it was subjugated by Kazimierz IV of Poland, and after the 1386 marriage of Lithuania's Grand Duke Jagiello to Poland's Queen Jadwiga, was ruled by the Lithuanians as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed in 1569 Union of Lublin, significant part of Ukraine was moved under the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural pressure of polonization much of the Ukrainian (or rather Ruthenian) upper class converted to Catholicism as such transitions was beneficial for achieving the political influence within the state, e.g. one of the Wiśniowiecki's even became king of Poland. At the same time the common people (peasants) retained their old ways (including the Orthodox religion), which led to the increasing social tensions, visible in such events as the 1596 Union of Brest, created by Zygmunt III, who attempted to bring the Orthodox population closer to Catholicism. This move failed to achieve its goals. The new "intermediate" religion was unnecessary for the upper class, much of whom turned directly towards Catholicism. Thus, the Ukrainian commoners were deprived of their native protectors and turned for the protection to the Cossacks who remained fiercely Orthodox at all times. In the mid of the 17th century, a Cossack state, the Zaporizhian Sich, was established by Ukrainians and others fleeing Polish serfdom which formally belonged to Poland. Located in central Ukraine, it was an autonomous military state, initially allied with the Commonwealth. However the suppression of the Ukrainian free farmers by the Polish nobility, further imposition of serfdom and the suppression of the Orthodox church pushed the allegiances of Cossacks away from Poland. Their aspiration was to have a representation in Polish Seim, recognition of Orthodox traditions, which was vehemantly denied by Polish kings. They turned toward Orthodox Russia, which was one reason for the later downfall of the Polish-Lithuanian state. In 1648 Bohdan Khmelnytsky organized the largest of the Cossacks upprising, against the Commonwealth and the Polish king Jan II Kazimierz. This uprising finally led to a partition of Ukraine between Poland and Russia. Left-Bank Ukraine was eventually integrated into Russia as the Cossack Hetmanate, as a consequence of the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1667. After the partitions of Poland by Prussia, Austria, and Russia at the end of the eighteenth century, Western Ukraine (Galicia) was taken over by Austria, while the rest of Ukraine was progressively incorporated into the Russian Empire. The treaty of Pereyaslav was abolished and Ukrainians never received the freedoms they were hoping for from Tsarist Russia. Ukrainians played an important role in the frequent wars between East European monarchies and the Ottoman Empire, they rised to the highest offices of Russian state (e.g., Aleksey Razumovsky, Alexander Bezborodko, Ivan Paskevich), and dominated the Russian Orthodox Church (e.g., Stephen Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich, Dimitry of Rostov). During the first world war austro-hungarian authorities in territory of Galicia subject to repression Ukrainians, sympathizing Russia. Over twenty thousand supporters of Russia are arrested and placed in the Austrian concentration camp in Talerhof, Stiria, and in fortress Terezien, Czechia. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Ukraine was briefly independent in two states, then united by cruel war, in 1920. In the period when the independent Ukrainian government was headed nationalist leader Simon Petlura (1919), there were numerous Jewish pogroms. By 1922 Ukraine was split between Poland and the Soviet Union. Also in 1922, most of Central and Eastern Ukraine became a constituent republic of the USSR as the Ukrainian SSR. In 20s years the communist leaders realized a policy of Ukrainization (коренизация), introduction of the Ukrainian language and culture in Russian-speaking Ukrainian cities. To satisfy the state's need for increased food supplies, the Soviet industrialization program called for the collectivization of agriculture, which had a profound effect on Ukraine, the nation's breadbasket (see Collectivization in the USSR). In the late 1920s and early 1930s the state compounded the peasants' lands and animals into collective farms and state farms. Although the program was designed to affect all peasants, the plan met particularly heavy resistance from the wealthiest peasants, the kulaks, and a desperate struggle of the peasantry against the authorities ensued. The idea of collective farming was foreign to Ukrainian farmers where emphasis was always made on individual achievements. Peasants slaughtered their cows and pigs rather than turn them over to the collective farms, especially in Ukraine, with the result that livestock resources remained below the 1929 level for years afterward. The state in turn forcibly collectivized reluctant peasants and deported kulaks and active rebels to Siberia. Within the collective farms, the authorities in many instances exacted such high levels of procurements that starvation was widespread. In some places, famine was allowed to run its course; and millions of peasants in Ukraine starved to death in a famine, called the Holodomor in Ukrainian. An estimated 3-6 million people died in this horrible manmade famine ([http://rg-new.w-m.ru/Anons/arc_2003/0917/5.shtm]) similar to the Russian famine of 1921. The disaster also has captured many regions of southern Russia. During World War II, some elements of the Ukrainian nationalist underground fought both Nazi and Soviet forces, while others collaborated with the Nazis. In 1941 the German invaders and their Axis