Ukrainians

Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Українці, Ukrayintsi) are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine.

Origin

Ukrainians are the descendants of several peoples who inhabited the vast area extending from north of the Black Sea to the borders of Russia, Poland, Moldova, Belarus and Slovakia. These people included numerous nomadic tribes such as Iranic-speaking Scythians and Sarmatians; Germanic-speaking Goths and Varangians as well as Turkic-speaking Khazars, Pechenegs and Cumans. However, Ukrainian origins are overwhelmingly Slavic while non-Slavic nomads who mostly lived in the steppes of southern Ukraine had little influence on the ancestors of modern Ukrainians. Several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes (that later likely became Volhynians and Buzhans), White Croats, Tivertsi and Ulichs lived on the territory of today's Ukraine. The Ukrainian language is an East Slavic language and Ukrainian people belong to the same subdivision of Slavs as Russian and Belarusian. Slavic tribes inhabited modern-day lands of Ukraine since the ancient times and by the 5th century A.D. became dominant there and founded the city of Kiev – later capital of a powerful state known as Kievan Rus'. Kniaz Volodymyr of Kievan Rus adopted Christianity in 988.

History

Ukraine had a very turbulent history, a fact explained by its geographical position. Up to the fifteenth century, Ukrainians were part of the Old East Slavic stock which also gave rise to the Belarusians and Russians. However, long history of separation and foreign influences have perceptibly reshaped their ethnolinguistic identity splitting them from the rest of East Slavs.

The history of independent statehood in Ukraine is started with the Cossacks. The Cossacks of Zaporizhia since the late fifteenth century controlled the lower bends of the river Dnieper, between Russia, Poland and the Tatars of the Crimea, with the fortified capital, Zaporizhian Sich. They were formally recognized as a state, the Zaporozhian Host, by treaty with Poland in 1649.

Modern Ukrainian national identity developed in opposition to foreign rule in the nineteenth century. In Imperial Russia the use of the Ukrainian language was discouraged at different times in history (see Russification); however, as most people were illiterate, persecutions had little effect. The policy of persecution towards Ukrainians was even more pronounced in Poland (see Polonization) and Austria-Hungary. During the Soviet era, the Ukrainian language was at times suppressed at others tolerated or even encouraged.

Ukraine originally formed part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , later of the Russian, Ottoman and Austo-Hungarian empires, Poland and the Soviet Union, finally gaining its independence on August 24 1991.

Population

Ukrainians are one of the largest European ethnic groups with a population of more than 42 million people worldwide. Most ethnic Ukrainians, about 36 million in total, live in Ukraine where they make up over three-quarters of the population. The largest Ukrainian community outside of Ukraine is in Russia, about 3 million Russian citizens consider themselves ethnic Ukrainians, while millions of others (primarily in southern Russia and Siberia) have some Ukrainian ancestry. There are also almost 2 million Ukrainians in North America (890,000 in USA and 1,000,000 in Canada). Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil (550,000), Kazakhstan (about 500,000), Moldova (450,000), Poland (300,000), Belarus (250, 000), Slovakia (200,000) and Argentina (100,000). There are also Ukrainian diasporas in Germany, UK, Portugal, Romania, Latvia and former Yugoslavia.

Religion

Ukrainians are predominantly of the Orthodox Christian faith, in eastern and southern Ukraine most common is the cannonically recognised Ukrainian Orthodox Church which recognises the authority of the Moscow Patriarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Central and west Ukraine show some support to the unrecognized Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchy headed by Patriarch Filaret. Some Ukrainians especially in the Western region of Galicia belong to Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church more specifically to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Various Protestant churches as well have a growing presence among Ukrainians. (See History of Christianity in Ukraine).

References

Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Yale University Press; 2nd edition (2002) ISBN 0-3000-9309-8.

Online references

"How Rusyns Became Ukrainians", Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), July, 2005. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
"When Was the Ukrainian Nation Born", Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), April 23 - May 6, 2005. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
'We are more "Russian" then them', the History of Myths and Sensations, Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), January 27 - February 2, 2001. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
"When Was the Ukrainian Nation Born", Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), April 23 - May 6, 2005. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
External Migration - the Main Cause of Ethnically non-Ukrainian Population in Modern Ukraine. Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), January 26 - February 1, 2002. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
Halyna Lozko, "Ukrainian ethnology. Ethnographic division of Ukraine" (in Ukrainian). Available online.

External links

Map of territories inhabited by Ukrainian speakers before 1939

Notes

Statistics include non-primary ancestry reports. "Ukrainians" being of partial descent figured in numbers.

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