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'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).
Locations
Main articles: Ukrainian diaspora
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.
[1]
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 cen. In the 4th cen. the Anti fought against the
Goths. In
375, Gothic king
Vinitar, facing the Antis, first experienced defeat but later captured the king of Anti,
Bozh, whom he executed together with his sons and 70 aristocrats. Goths did not manage to subdue the Anti, since same year Gothic union fell from
Hunns. From the 6th cen. 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 were comprised of several
East Slavic tribes, such as:
★
Polans
★
Drevlyans
★
Severians
★
Dulebes (that later likely became
Volhynians and
Buzhans)
★
White Croats (Ukrainian mountainiers -
Lemkos are direct offshot descendents of White Croats)
★
Tivertsi
★
Ulichs
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 offshot, 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 proto-Ukrainian 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.
[2]
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.
[3]
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.
[4]
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 western Ukraine.
A large number of Polish colonists from the west, accompanied by
Jewish traders and artisans, during the times when Ukraine was subordinated to the Kingdom of Poland also had significant repercussions upon the origins of many Ukrainians. Many Ukrainians, epecially in the west, have got one of their great-grandfathers or -grandmothers to be a Pole. There were numerous cases of Jewish conversion to Christian faith in Ukraine. Many Jews adopted the last name of their Christian godfathers or after the month in which they were converted. Many Jews intermarried with Ukrainians.
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.
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.
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 and banned at different times in history;
[5] however, as many were illiterate, persecutions had little effect. The policy of persecution towards Ukrainians was even more pronounced in
Poland.
[6] 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.
[7] 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 has declared the Holodomor to be an act of genocide.
[8]
Culture
Main articles: Culture of Ukraine
Language
Main articles: 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. 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).
[9]
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
Main articles: Religion in Ukraine
Ukrainians are predominantly of the
Orthodox Christian faith. In eastern and southern Ukraine most common is the canonically recognised
Ukrainian Orthodox Church which recognises the authority of the
Russian Orthodox Church of 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.
[10] There are also ethnic minorities practicing
Judaism and
Islam.
Dance
Main articles: Ukrainian dance
Ukrainian Welcome Dance ''
Pryvit''.
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
Main articles: Flag of Ukraine,
Coat of arms of Ukraine
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 color fields are of same form and equal size. The colors of the flag represent a blue sky above yellow fields of wheat.
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
★
List of Ukrainians
★
Cossacks
★
Rusyns
★
Ruthenians
References
Footnotes
1. For alternative views, see Proto-Ukrainians.
2. Гринчук. Формування українського етносу (in Ukrainian)
3. For Circassian influence, see: Maksidov A.A. Families of the Adyghe peoples in Ukraine
4. В.М. Цигилик. Населення Верхнього Подністров’я перших століть нашої ери (Племена Липицької культури). Київ: Наукова Думка, 1975 (in Ukrainian)
5. For more information, see Russification.
6. For more information, see Polonization.
7. Available data is inconclusive as the Soviet government actively denied the existence of the famine. Therefore, precise calculations and estimates vary.
8. President calls Holodomor vote ‘historic’
9. Ukrainian language
10. For more information, see History of Christianity in Ukraine.
Sources
★
The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation, , Andrew, Wilson, Yale University Press, 2002,
★
A History of Ukraine, , Paul R., Magocsi, University of Toronto Press, 1996,
Online sources
★ "''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.
★ ''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
★
English-Ukrainian Dictionary
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