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Ukrainians

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Ukrainians (Українці, 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 (Русини, 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 million Ukrainians in North America (1,000,000 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 anti. 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 did not 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" i.e. 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 (i.e. Przeworsk culture settlement in Pidberiztsi near Lviv), Zarubintsy culture to the north who were all succeded 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 are 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.

Millions of Ukrainians starved to death in a famine, known as the Holodomor. Some historians claim Soviet authorities were responsible for nearly 10 million deaths of innocent men, women, and children killed by the deliberate famine in 1932-1933. Ukraine, along with 25 other countries, has declared the Holodomor to be 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 is 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 Halych 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 simbol 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.

See also

References

Footnotes

Sources

Online sources

External links



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