Everything about Ukrainians totally explained
Ukrainians (
Ukrayintsi) are an
East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in
Ukraine, or more broadly—
citizens of
Ukraine (who may or may not be ethnic Ukrainians). Some 200 years ago and times prior to that, Ukrainians were usually referred to and known as
Rusyny (commonly translated as
Ruthenians).
Locations
Ukrainians are one of the largest European ethnic groups with a population of more than 44 million people worldwide. Most ethnic Ukrainians, about 37 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 2.1 million Ukrainians in North America (1.2 million in
Canada and 890,000 in the
United States). Large numbers of Ukrainians live in
Brazil (950,000 - 1,000,000),
Kazakhstan (about 500,000),
Moldova (450,000),
Poland (300,000),
Belarus (250, 000),
Argentina (305,000), and
Slovakia (55,000). There are also Ukrainian diasporas in
Germany,
Portugal (65,000),
UK,
Romania,
Latvia and former
Yugoslavia.
Origins
Numerous nomadic tribes inhabited territories now known as
Ukraine in antiquity. They included
Iranic-speaking
Scythians and
Sarmatians, and also
Greeks from the Black Sea
colonies; Germanic-speaking
Goths and
Varangians as well as
Turkic-speaking
Khazars,
Pechenegs and
Cumans. However, Ukrainian origins are predominantly
Slavic while non-Slavic nomads who mostly lived in the steppes of southern Ukraine had little influence on the ancestors of modern Ukrainians.
Gothic historian
Jordanes and 6th century
Byzantine authors named two groups that lived on the south of Europe:
sclavins (western slavs) and
Antes. The Anti are normally identified with proto-Ukrainians. The name anti is of Iranic origin and means people living on the borderland. The state of Anti existed from the end of 4th to early
7th century. In the 4th cen. the Anti fought against the
Goths. In 375, the Gothic king
Vinitar, facing the Antis, at first experienced defeat but later captured the king of Anti,
Bozh, whom he executed together with his sons and 70 aristocrats. The Goths didn't manage to subdue the Anti, since in the same year the Gothic union fell from the attack of the
Huns. From the
6th century the Anti fought
Byzantium and in the 6-7 cen. colonised the
Balkan peninsula. From the end of 6th cen. they fought against the
Avars. The Anti consisted of several
East Slavic tribes, such as:
which lived on the territory of today's Ukraine. Undoubtedly these 7 tribes merged to form ethnic group known today as Ukrainians. The
Ukrainian language is an East Slavic language and Ukrainian people belong to the same subdivision of Slavs as
Rusyn (Ukrainian offshoot, as all Ukrainians were referred as Rusyns or Ruthenians before, from
Kievan Rus' state of proto-Ukraine),
Russian (which emerged as vernacular from
Church-Slavic) 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 I of Kiev adopted
Christianity in 988 and proceeded to
baptise the whole Kievan Rus.
Polans played the key role in formation of Kievan Rus' state.
Among the native Ukrainian population of the
Carpathians, there are differentiated several distinct groups, namely the
Hutsuls,
Lemkos and
Boyko, each with peculiar area of settlement, dialect, dress, anthropological type and folk traditions. There are a number of theories as for origins each of these groups, some even connecting Boyky with the Celtic tribe of
Boii and Hutsuls with
Uz people of Turkic stock.
Non-Slavic elements
It is argued that the oldest known population of Ukraine -
Scythians and
Sarmatians were of Iranian stock. They inhabited Ukraine in 7 b.c. — 3 a.d. Absence of sounds
g (marking use of
h) and
f (often spelled as
khv in Ukrainian) in Ukrainian along with some folk traditions (as greeting with bread and salt, houses with straw-roof, popular through history selfdesigning terms Roxolany, Roxolana and Savromaty among Ukrainians) is attributed to ancient Scythian language and culture.
Several other minor non-Slavic ethnic groups undoubtedly partially contributed to formation of Central Ukrainian ethnic type. These include a row of Turkic tribes, such as
Chorni Klobuky,
Berendei and
Torks, who were settled along the river
Ros and
Rusava and eventually all being absorbed by Ukrainians. Many Turkic place names in Ukraine as
Karabachyn,
Torets,
Torky,
Berdychiv (lit. "of Berendychi" for example
Berendei) remain in these areas. Likewise, a number of
Circassians (the oldest indigenous people of Northwest Caucasus) merged with and played some role in formation of Ukrainian ethnicity. So the city of
Cherkasy traces its name and origin to a Circassian settlement. Some Turkic and Circassian elements can be traced in Ukrainian language, last names, culture etc.
In
Western Ukraine, ancient
Dacian influences can be traced. From the middle of the 1 st century (the peak period of Dacian society) until early 3 century, the left bank of the upper
Dniester was populated by the Dacian tribe of
Costoboci Transmontani (mentioned in Geography of
Ptolomeus), who were the carriers of
Lipica culture (of
Verkhnya Lypytsya,
Maydan Holohirskyy,
Remezivtsi,
Voronyaky etc.) The Dacian roots of
Lipica culture is evidenced by findings of ceramic types, burning burials, houses analogical to those of Dacians in
Romania.
Costoboci were the most northernmost branch of
Thracodacians and bordered with the carriers of
Przeworsk culture to the north-west (for example
Przeworsk culture settlement in
Pidberiztsi near
Lviv),
Zarubintsy culture to the north who were all succeeded by
Chernyakhov culture. It is with
Costoboci was the fight of
Romans against the
Free Dacians in the 2nd century mentioned in different written sources. In the beginning of 3rd century Dacian archeological elements in Upper
Dniester disappear.
So Roman chronicles of the 1st century report that in the
Carpathians there was a Dacian tribe of
Karpi. Karp-At meant mountains of Karpi. From possible
Dacian meaning "mountains" may derive the name of people karpi—those who live in the mountains. At any case, the area of inhabitance of
Free Dacians covered western Ukraine, and besides Costoboci, to the northern Dacians belonged
Anarti and
Teurisci. Ukrainian mountainiers
Hutsuls, inhabiting the areas of old land of Free Dacians are often stated as being of Dacian stock. Archeologists also discovered several
Celtic settlements in
Zakarpattia Oblast of southwestern Ukraine.
There were numerous cases of Jewish conversion to Eastern Orthodox or Catholic faith in Ukraine in medieval and early modern eras, whether forced (during the
Deluge or
Koliyivshchyna) or voluntary. Several cossack surnames are traced to such converts (see
Jewish Cossacks).
Though non-Slavic elements did have some impacts on the Ukrainians, as mentioned above, they're predominantly Slavs.
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 Crimea, with the fortified capital,
Zaporizhian Sich. They were formally recognized as a state, the
Zaporozhian Host, by treaty with Poland in 1649.
Modern day Ukraine encompasses the seats of six of the original twelve principalities of the ancient
Kievan Rus empire which flourished from 882 to 1245 AD. Those principalities were Halych, Volodymyr-Volhynia, Kyiv, Pereyaslavl, Chernihiv, and Novhorod-Serverskyi and comprised the major centers of power of Kyivan Rus in its heyday. The
13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'.
Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240. Subsequent to the fall of a united Halych-Volodymr-Volhynia in 1342, Ukraine/Ruthenia became the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and still later of the
Russian,
Ottoman and
Austo-Hungarian empires,
Poland and the
Soviet Union, finally gaining its independence on
August 24,
1991.
Modern Ukrainian national identity continued to develop, especially in opposition to foreign rule in the nineteenth century. In
Imperial Russia the use of the Ukrainian language was discouraged and banned at different times in history; however, as many were illiterate, persecutions had little effect. During the
Soviet era, the Ukrainian language was at times suppressed at others tolerated or even encouraged.
From 1932-1933 millions of Ukrainians starved to death in a famine, known as the
Holodomor. Modern scholarly estimates of the direct loss of human life due to the
famine range between 2.6 million
As of
March 2008, the
parliament of Ukraine and the governments of several countries have recognized the Holodomor as an act of
genocide.
Culture
Language
Ukrainian (украї́нська мо́ва,
ukrayins'ka mova, ) is a language of the
East Slavic subgroup of the
Slavic languages. It is the only
official state language of
Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a
Cyrillic alphabet. The language shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring
Slavic nations, most notably with
Belarusian,
Polish,
Russian and
Slovak.
The Ukrainian language traces its origins to the
Old East Slavic language of the medieval state of
Kievan Rus'. In its earlier stages it was called
Ruthenian or
Little Russian. Ukrainian, along with other East Slavic languages, is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kievan Rus' (10th–
13th century).
The language has persisted despite several periods of bans and/or discouragement throughout centuries as it has always nevertheless maintained a sufficient base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs,
itinerant musicians, and prominent authors.
Religion
Ukrainians are predominantly of the
Orthodox Christian faith. In eastern and southern Ukraine most common is the canonically recognised
Ukrainian Orthodox Church an autonomous Church from the
Moscow Patriarchate. Central and western Ukraine show some support to the unrecognised
Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate headed by
Patriarch Filaret. Some Ukrainians especially in the Western region of
Galicia, belong to the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, one of the
Eastern Rite Catholic churches. Various
Protestant churches as well have a growing presence among Ukrainians. There are also ethnic minorities practicing
Judaism and
Islam.
Music
Main article
Music of Ukraine
Dance
Ukrainian dance refers to the traditional
folk dances of the peoples of Ukraine. Today, Ukrainian dance is primarily represented by what
ethnographers,
folklorists and dance historians refer to as "Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dances", which are stylized representations of traditional dances and their characteristic movements that have been choreographed for
concert dance performances. This stylized art form has so permeated the
culture of Ukraine, that very few purely traditional forms of Ukrainian dance remain today.
Ukrainian Dance is often described as energetic, fast-paced, and entertaining, and along with traditional Easter eggs (
pysanky), it's a characteristic example of Ukrainian culture instantly recognized and highly appreciated throughout the world.
Symbols
The national symbols of the Ukrainians are the
Flag of Ukraine and the
Coat of arms of Ukraine.
The national flag of Ukraine is a blue and yellow bicolor rectangle. The color fields are of same form and equal size. The colors of the flag represent a blue sky above yellow fields of wheat. The flag was designed for the convention of the Supreme Ruthenian Council, meeting in
Lviv in October 1848. Its colors vere based on the coat-of-arms of the
Galicia-Volhynia Principality .
Another theory states that colours of Ukrainian flag stem from the Swedish flag . This theory goes back to the
Battle of Poltava of 1709 when some Ukrainian
cossack regiments changed sides and joined Swedes. In order to distinguish themselves in battle from cossacks loyal to Russian tzar
Peter I they put on scarfs of Swedish soldiers. From that time the blue-and-yellow colours of Swedish flag became a symbol of independence from Russia.
The
Coat of arms of Ukraine features the same colours found on the
Ukrainian flag: a blue
shield with yellow
trident—the symbol of ancient
Slavic tribes that once lived in Ukraine, later adopted by
Ruthenian and
Kievan Rus rulers.
Further Information
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