1639French engineer and cartographer Guillaume Levasseur de Beauplan produces his first map of Ukraine, reflecting recent colonization of steppe borderlands.
World History: 1648 Peace of Westphalia establishes a new international order.
1648Cossack officer Bohdan Khmelnytsky launches an uprising against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that leads to the expulsion of Polish landowners, massacres of Jews, and creation of a Cossack state known as the Hetmanate.
1654Cossack officers recognize the suzerainty of the tsars of Moscow, leading to prolonged confrontation between Moscow and Warsaw over control of Ukraine.
1667Truce of Andrusovo divides Ukraine along the Dnieper between Muscovy and Poland, producing a Cossack uprising against both powers led by Hetman Petro Doroshenko.
1672–1699Ottomans rule Right-Bank Ukraine.
1674Monks of the Kyivan Cave Monastery publish the Synopsis, a historical text that presents Kyiv as the center of the Russian monarchy and nation, arguing for religious, dynastic, and ethnonational unity of Eastern Slavs in the face of threats from Poland and the Ottoman Empire.
1685Kyiv metropolitanate transferred from the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople to that of the patriarch of Moscow.
1708Upset by Russian assault on Cossack rights, Hetman Ivan Mazepa leads a revolt against Peter I and sides with the advancing army of Charles XII of Sweden.
1709Battle of Poltava brings victory to the Russian army, leading to the abolition of the hetman’s office and further curtailing of Hetmanate autonomy.
World History: 1721 Peace of Nystad makes Russia a European power.
1727–1734Temporary restoration of the office of hetman under Danylo Apostol.
1740sRabbi Israel ben Eliezer, better known as Baal Shem Tov, assembles his students and followers in the Podolian town of Medzhybizh and begins the teaching of Hassidism.
1764–1780Liquidation of the Hetmanate as part of the centralizing reforms of Catherine II of Russia.
1768Bar Confederation of the Polish nobility and the Haidamaky peasant uprising are accompanied by massacres of Uniates and Jews in Right-Bank Ukraine.
1775Liquidation of the Zaporozhian Host on the lower Dnieper following the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, in which the Russian Empire is victorious.
1783Russia annexes the Crimea.
World History: 1789 French Revolution begins.
1772–1795Partitions of Poland bring Galicia under the control of the Habsburgs and Right-Bank Ukraine and Volhynia under the control of the Russian Empire.
1791Catherine II creates the Pale of Settlement, prohibiting former Polish and Lithuanian Jewry from moving into the Russian heartland; Ukraine becomes part of the Pale.
1792Russian Empire wins another war with the Ottomans and consolidates control over southern Ukraine.
1798Poltava noble Ivan Kotliarevsky publishes Eneïda, the first poetical work in modern Ukrainian, ushering in modern Ukrainian literature.
1812Ukrainian Cossacks fight in the ranks of the Russian imperial army against Napoleon.
1818First grammar of the Ukrainian language is published.
1819Rapidly growing city of Odesa becomes a free port, attracting new business and new settlers.
1830Polish uprising leads to a contest between Polish landowners and Russian government for the loyalty of the Ukrainian peasantry.
1834Tsar Nicholas I establishes Kyiv University; efforts to turn Kyiv into a bulwark of Russian imperial identity get under way.
1840Taras Shevchenko, an artist and poet and, in the opinion of many, the father of the Ukrainian nation, publishes Kobzar.
1847Mykola Kostomarov drafts the first political program of the nascent Ukrainian movement, The Books of the Genesis of the Ukrainian People, where he calls for the creation of a Slavic federation with Ukraine at its center.
World History: Revolutions of 1848.
1848The Spring of Nations rocks the Habsburg Empire, causing the mobilization of the Polish and Ukrainian national movements; the Ukrainians unite around the Supreme Ruthenian Council; the imperial authorities decide to emancipate the serfs.
1850sOil exploration begins in Galicia, turning the Drohobych region into one of the world’s most productive oil fields.
1854British, French, and Ottoman forces land in the Crimea to lay siege to Sevastopol and build the first railroad on the territory of Ukraine, leading from Balaklava to Sevastopol; Russia loses the Crimean War and its Black Sea fleet.
World History: 1861 American Civil War begins.
1861Emancipation of the serfs in the Russian Empire and liberal reforms of Alexander II transform the economic, social, and cultural landscape of Ukraine.
1863Alarmed by the new Polish insurrection and the possibility of a split within the “all-Russian nationality,” the Russian minister of the interior, Petr Valuev, introduces a ban on Ukrainian-language publications.
1870Welsh entrepreneur John James Hughes comes to southern Ukraine to establish metal works, initiating development of the Donets industrial basin and inaugurating Russian labor migration to Ukraine.
1876Ems Ukase, signed by Emperor Alexander II, introduces further restrictions on use of the Ukrainian language; Mykhailo Drahomanov, a young history professor at Kyiv University, emigrates to Switzerland, where he lays the ideological foundations of Ukrainian liberalism and socialism.
1890sLand hunger leads to increased emigration of Ukrainian peasantry from Austria-Hungary to the United States and Canada and from Russian-ruled Ukraine to the North Caucasus and the Russian Far East.
1900Mykola Mikhnovsky, a Kharkiv lawyer, formulates the idea of the political independence of Ukraine; similar ideas are expressed in Galicia.
1905Revolution in the Russian Empire ends prohibitions on the use of the Ukrainian language and allows creation of legal political parties; revolutionary upheaval leads to the rise of Russian nationalism and anti-Jewish pogroms; Sholem Aleichem leaves Kyiv for New York.
World History: 1914 World War I begins.
1914Outbreak of World War I turns Ukraine into a battleground between the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Germany.
1917Collapse of the Russian monarchy opens the door to the creation of a Ukrainian state, a process led by socialists in the Central Rada, Ukraine’s revolutionary parliament.
1918–1920Ukrainian governments in Russian- and Austrian-ruled parts of Ukraine declare independence but lose the war to their more powerful neighbors, Bolshevik Russia and the newly established Polish Republic.
1920sNational communism in Soviet Ukraine.
1921–1923Ukrainian territories are divided between Soviet Russia, Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia.
1927–1929Bolshevik authorities introduce large-scale industrialization, collectivization, and cultural revolution, policies intended to bring about the communist transformation of economy and society.
World History: 1929 Black Friday inaugurates the Great Depression.
1932–1933Close to 4 million die in Ukraine as a result of the man-made famine known today as the Holodomor.
1934Members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists assassinate Polish minister of the interior, Bronisław Pieracki, manifesting both growing dissatisfaction among Ukrainian society with Polish rule and the rising power of radical nationalism.
1937Stalinist purges, which sent millions to the Gulag and put hundreds of thousands on death row, reach their height.
World History: 1939 World War II begins.
1939Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact leads to the Soviet occupation of formerly Polish Volhynia and Galicia and formerly Romanian Bukovyna; Czech-ruled Transcarpathia, where Ukrainian activists declare short-lived independence, goes to Hungary.
1941Nazi invasion of the S
oviet Union results in German and Romanian occupation of Ukraine, turning it into one of the main killing fields of the Holocaust and costing millions of Ukrainians of all ethnic backgrounds their lives.
1943Soviet return to Ukraine brings back communist rule and launches a prolonged war between Soviet security forces and Ukrainian nationalist guerillas in western Ukraine.
1944Crimean Tatars are deported from the Crimea to Central Asia after being accused of collaboration with the Germans.
1945Yalta Conference provides international legitimacy for the new Polish-Ukrainian border, leaving Lviv on the Ukrainian side, and makes possible Ukrainian membership in the United Nations; later in the year, Transcarpathia is annexed to Soviet Ukraine as Moscow bullies Prague into submission.
1946Forcible liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, whose leaders are accused of following anticommunist policies of the Vatican and maintaining links with the nationalist underground.
World History: 1948 Cold War begins.
1953Stalin’s death ends the rising anti-Semitic campaigns and persecution of Ukrainian cultural figures for alleged nationalist deviations.
1954Nikita Khrushchev engineers transfer of the Crimea from Russia to Ukraine to facilitate the economic recovery of the peninsula, which depends on the Ukrainian mainland for supplies.
1956Beginning of de-Stalinization and emergence of the Ukrainian party elite as a junior partner of the Russian leadership in running the Soviet Union.
1964Ouster of Nikita Khrushchev leads to the end of ideological and cultural concessions by the regime, initiating a partial return to the political norms of late Stalinism.
1970sEra of stagnation unfolds, characterized by slowing of economic growth and mounting social problems.
1975–1981Helsinki Final Act encourages Ukrainian dissidents to organize in defense of human rights; KGB arrests and imprisons members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
1985Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power and launches reforms aimed at improving the Soviet political and economic system.
1986Chernobyl nuclear disaster raises questions about the responsibility of central authorities for the ecological catastrophe and leads to the formation of the Green Party, the first mass political party in Soviet Ukraine.
1990First competitive elections to the Ukrainian parliament result in the formation of a parliamentary opposition and declaration of the sovereignty of the republic, still within the USSR.
World History: 1991 Soviet Union falls.
1991After a failed coup in Moscow, Ukraine leads the other Soviet republics out of the union, dealing a deathblow to the USSR in the independence referendum of December 1.
1994Russian, American, and British assurances with regard to Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity follow Ukraine’s transfer of nuclear warheads inherited from the Soviet Union to Russia.
1996New constitution guarantees democratic freedoms and divides power between the presidential office and parliament, establishing the parliament as a major actor in Ukrainian politics.
1997Russia and Ukraine sign an agreement on borders recognizing Ukrainian sovereignty over the Crimea and leasing the Sevastopol naval base to Russia.
2004Democratic Orange Revolution, fueled by widespread rejection of government corruption and Russian interference in the electoral process, brings to power the pro-reform and pro-Western government of President Viktor Yushchenko.
2008–2009Ukraine declares desire to join the European Union, applies for the NATO Membership Action Plan, and joins the European Union’s Eastern Partnership Program.
2013Russia starts a trade war with Ukraine, forcing the government of President Viktor Yanukovych to back down from signing an association agreement with the European Union, which sparks mass protests that become known as the EuroMaidan and Revolution of Dignity.
2014As the protests on the streets of Kyiv turn violent, the Ukrainian parliament removes President Yanukovych from office, while Russia launches a hybrid war against Ukraine by taking over the Crimean Peninsula and sending its troops and supplies into the Donbas region.
2015The Russo-Ukrainian conflict produces the acutest crisis in East-West relations since the end of the Cold War.
Who’s Who in Ukrainian History
Princes of Kyiv (to 1054)
Helgi (Oleg, Oleh) (? ca. 912)
Ingvar (Ihor, Igor) (? ca. 945)
Olha (Olga, Helga) (ca. 945–962)
Sviatoslav (962–972)
Yaropolk (972–980)
Volodymyr the Great (980–1015)
Sviatopolk the Accursed (1015–1019)
Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054)
Rulers of Galicia-Volhynia (1199–1340)
Roman the Great (1199–1205)
Danylo of Halych (1205–1264)
Lev (1264–1301)
Yurii (1301–1308)
Andrii and Lev (1308–1325)
Bolesław-Yurii (1325–1340)
Religious and Cultural Leaders (1580–1648)
Ivan Fedorov (ca. 1525–1583), printer of the Ostrih Bible (1581)
Prince Kostiantyn (Vasyl) Ostrozky (1526–1608), Volhynian magnate and promoter of Orthodox reform
Ipatii Potii (1541–1613), a founder and metropolitan of the Uniate Church
Meletii Smotrytsky (ca. 1577–1633), religious polemicist and author of the first grammar of Church Slavonic
Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny (ca. 1582–1622), Cossack hetman and supporter of the Orthodox Church
Peter Mohyla (1596–1646), Orthodox reformer and metropolitan of Kyiv (1632–1646)
Cossack Hetmans (1648–1764)
Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1648–1657)
Ivan Vyhovsky (1657–1659)
Yurii Khmelnytsky (1659–1663)
Pavlo Teteria (1663–1665)
Ivan Briukhovetsky (1663–1668)
Petro Doroshenko (1665–1676)
Demian Mnohohrishny (1668–1672)
Ivan Samoilovych (1672–1687)
Ivan Mazepa (1687–1709)
Ivan Skoropadsky (1708–1721)
Danylo Apostol (1727–1734)
Kyrylo Rozumovsky (Kirill Razumovsky) (1750–1764)
Figures in the Arts and Letters (1648–1795)
Inokentii Gizel (ca. 1600–1683), archimandrite of the Kyivan Cave Monastery (1656–1683) and publisher of the Synopsis (1674)
Nathan Hannover (d. 1663), Talmudist, kabbalist, and author of Abyss of Despair (1653)
Samiilo Velychko (1670–1728), Cossack official and historian
Teofan Prokopovych (1681–1736), rector of the Kyivan College and adviser to Peter I of Russia
Rabbi Baal Shem Tov (d. 1760), founder of Hassidism
Hryhorii Skovoroda (1722–1794), philosopher, poet, and composer
Oleksandr Bezborodko (1747–1799), Cossack officer, chancellor of the Russian Empire, and historian of the Hetmanate
National “Awakeners” (1798–1849)
Ivan Kotliarevsky (1769–1838), author of Eneïda (Travestied Aeneid)
Oleksandr Dukhnovych (Aleksandr Dukhnovich) (1803–1865), a Transcarpathian priest, poet, and educator
Tadeusz Czacki (1765–1813), founder of the Kremenets Lyceum (1805)
Markian Shashkevych (1811–1843), poet and a publisher of the almanac Mermaid of the Dniester (1837)
Mykola Hohol (Nikolai Gogol) (1809–1852), novelist and promoter of Ukrainian history and culture
Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861), artist, poet, and writer often regarded as the father of the Ukrainian nation
Yakiv Holovatsky (1814–1888), historian, ethnographer, a publisher of Mermaid of the Dniester (1837), and a leader of the Russophile movement
Mykola Kostomarov (1817–1885), historian, political a
ctivist, and author of the first political program of the Ukrainian movement
Administrators and Entrepreneurs (1800–1900)
Armand Emmanuel, Duke of Richelieu (1766–1822), French royalist and governor of Odesa (1803–1814), often considered its true founder
Nikolai Repnin-Volkonsky (1778–1845), Russian military commander and governor of Little Russia (1816–1834), where he helped improve living conditions for serfs and opposed the erosion of Cossack rights
Franz Stadion (1806–1853), Austrian statesman and governor of Galicia (1847–1848), where he freed the serfs and gave impetus to Ukrainian political mobilization
John James Hughes (1814–1889), Welsh entrepreneur, founder of the city of Yuzivka (present-day Donetsk), and initiator of development of the Donets basin industrial region
Platon Symyrenko (1821–1863), entrepreneur and benefactor who financed an edition of Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar
Lazar Brodsky (1848–1904), entrepreneur and philanthropist who financed the construction of Kyiv’s largest synagogue
Stanisław Szczepanowski (1846–1900), businessman, politician, and author of Galician Misery (1888) who contributed to the development of the Galician oil industry by introducing steam drills
Political and Cultural Activists (1849–1917)
Mikhail Yuzefovich (Mykhailo Yuzefovych) (1802–1889), educator and early supporter of the Ukrainophile movement who sponsored the Ems Ukase (1876)
Mykhailo Drahomanov (1841–1895), historian, political activist and thinker, and founder of Ukrainian socialism
Ismail Gasprinski (Ismail Gaspirali) (1851–1914), educator, political activist, and leading figure of the Crimean Tatar national revival
Ivan Franko (1856–1916), poet, writer, publicist, and a founder of the socialist movement in Galicia
Mykola Mikhnovsky (1873–1924), lawyer, political activist, and early promoter of the idea of Ukrainian independence
Writers and Artists (1849–1917)
Yurii Fedkovych (1834–1888), poet and folklorist known for his stories of Bukovynian life
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