User:WildFields/sandbox

Introduction and resources

This is an attempt to put the main outline of Ukraine history into a timeline form. Maps may be useful for explaining the various intersections of empires where Ukraine and its occupiers have inhabited parts of modern day Ukraine. Ultimately the goal is to assess what Wikipedia currently covers and identify additional content and resources that can go into "Main" Wikipedia.

Some of the other empires that border (or have bordered) the Black Sea aka Pontus Euxinus are relevant, for example the history of Byzantium / Constantinpole over the centuries has had a significant impact on the trade economy and culture of those that occupied the northern coast of the Black Sea.

Resources

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/03/09/maps-how-ukraine-became-ukraine/

BC era

Map of the distribution of Scythian cultures on the Eurasian Steppe.

• Scytho-Siberian world flourished across the entire Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age from approximately the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD. The various people groups are sometimes collectively referred to as Scythians, Scytho-Siberians, Early Nomads, or Iron Age Nomads

The Cimmerians and the Agathyrsi inhabited the land which is today Ukraine.

• the Cimmerians, an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe
• Between 600 and 300 BC, Pontic Scythia establishes its kingdom on the Pontic–Caspian steppe and pushes the Agathyrsi westward

Your Caption here

• 700 BC Ancient Greek sites of Tyras and Nikonion (both near the Dniester), Borysthenes (Berezan Island) and Olbia (in the Dnieper–Bug estuary) founded by colonists from Miletus. Trade with Scythians included export of cereals, fish, and slaves to Greece, and for the import of Attic goods to Scythia. Farther to the south, they also establish Histria near the mouths of the Danube on the Black Sea coast for similar reasons to trade with the Getae.

• 513 BC -- Persians Invade Thrace / Odrysian kingdom -- In around 513 BC, an army of the mighty Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids crossed the Bosphorus, after already having subdued the Thracians of Bithynia thirty years earlier. King Darius I's goal was a punitive expedition against the Scythians at the northern shores of the Black Sea.

When the Achamenid PErsians invaded Thrace, most eastern Thracian tribes submitted peacefully, except of the Getae, who were defeated. More expeditions under the generals Megabazus and Mardonius as well as king Xerxes I followed, even though they only managed to secure the Aegean coast.

During the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) Sparta fought the Athenians with support of the Persians / Achaemenid Empire.

• 486 BC The Persian king Darius the Great dies, and is succeeded by his son Xerxes I
• 480 BC The greek affiliated king Archaeanax (namesake of the Archaeanactid dynasty) establishes the Bosporan Kingdom (aka the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus) as an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, centered in the present-day Strait of Kerch

Map depicting the Caucasus region around 400 B.C. Siracena, land of the Siraces, is shown in grey, according to its approximate greatest extent.

• 465 - Artaxerxes I assumes the Persian throne after his father Xerxes was murdered.
• 431 - Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) Sparta fought the Athenians with support of the Persians / [[Achaemenid Empire].
• 438 -- Spartocus I overtakes the Archaeanactids and establishes the Spartocid dynasty in the Bosporan Kingdom.
• Bosporan Civil War was a war of succession in the Bosporan Kingdom. It occurred between 311 and 308 BCE and lasted for about a year.
• 281 BC - Mithridates I of Pontus (a Persian nobleman who built the Mithridatic dynasty) declares the Kingdom of Pontus, with its capital in Amasya (modern day central Turkey on the Black Sea Coast)

• 2 BC - Sarmatians (Iazyges and Roxolani, and perhaps Alans) move into Pontic Steppes 2nd century BC
• 107 BC Bosporan Kingdom becomes part of the Kingdom of Pontus.
• 88BC - 63 BC - Mithridatic Wars leading to the Asiatic Vespers massacres as Mithridates_VI_Eupator attempts to rid the Black Sea of Roman influence.

200BC. Roman Republic is shown in Purple. The Blue area represents the Seleucid Empire. The Parthian Empire is shown in Yellow. in 107 BC Bosporan Kingdom (near Crimea) became part of the Kingdom of Pontus.

The Kingdom of Pontus at its height: before the reign of Mithridates VI (dark purple), after his early conquests (purple), and his conquests in the first Mithridatic wars circa 63BC (pink)

• Early Slavs inhabit the land between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.
• 200BC - 100AD -- Zarubintsy culture flourished in the area north of the Black Sea along the upper and middle Dnieper and Pripyat Rivers, stretching west towards the Southern Bug river.

Slav origins in 300BC

0 AD

• 125 AD Roman Empire establishes Moesia Inferior as a

Moesia Inferior circa 125 AD

Rome and the Barbarians in Eastern and Central Europe around 100 AD

The Bastarnae lived in the region between the Carpathian Mountains and the river Dnieper, to the north and east of ancient Dacia. The Peucini occupied the region north of the Danube Delta.

• by 140 the Roman Empire has expanded to the Black sea.
• 196 -- Byzantium razed to the ground by Roman Emperor Septimius Severus
• 238 - Goths / Scythians sack Histria on the east coast of the Black Sea.

Roman Empire circa 30 AD

"Outsider Invasions" from the perspective of the Roman Empire

• 200s to 500s -- Chernyakhov culture north of the Black Sea

Chernyakhov culture, 4th c.

• during the Migration Period (loosely defined as between 300 to as late as 800), Germanic tribes and Slavs migrated into Europe and West of the Black Sea.

origin and dispersion of Slavs in the 5-10th centuries

• In 376, unmanageable numbers of Goths and other non-Roman people, fleeing from the Huns, entered the Roman Empire.
• 330 Roman Emperor Constantine I renames Byzantium as Constantinople, calls it New Rome, and declares it Rome's new capital as Rome enters a period of decline.
• 451 - Attila the Huns (Khanate of Great Bulgaria)
• 493 - 553 Theodoric the Great (after being taken as a hostage to Constantinople in his youth) wages war against the Sarmatians and competes for influence among the Goths of the Roman Balkans. At the behest of Emperor Zeno of Constantinople, in 489 Theodoric attacked Odoacer, the king of Italy, emerging victorious in 493. Ostrogoths form the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy.
• 550 Tatar (Avar) (used by the Byzantines)
• 602 - Avar Khaganate (to include Bulgars and other Slavic peoples) occupy the Pontic Steppes and west to Bavaria.

c602. Avar Khaganate (to include Bulgars and other Slavic peoples) occupy the Pontic Steppes and west to Bavaria.

The Pontic steppe, c. 650, showing the early territories of the Khazars, Bulgars, and Avars

• 630 -- Old Great Bulgaria -- Between 630 and 635, Khan Kubrat managed to unite the Onogur Bulgars with the tribes of the Kutrigurs and Utigurs under a single rule, and led a successful uprising to end Avar authority over the Pannonian Plain. He created a powerful confederation which was referred to by the medieval authors in Western Europe as Old Great Bulgaria. Its capital was at Phanagoria near the modern day Sea of Asov.

• 680 -- Asparuh of Bulgaria forms an alliance (Seven Slavic tribes and Severians) and leads the Bulgars to invade Thrace / Moesia. After the Battle of Ongal, Ottomans pay a tribute, and First Bulgarian Empire is established. Asparuh contributes to the building up of building the major centers of Pliska and Drăstăr.

Balkans about 680 A.D., foundation of the First Bulgarian Empire

The migration of the Bulgars after the fall of Old Great Bulgaria in the 7th century.

random things to move

• 650 to 750 Khazars ... split the Tatars. Wars against Arabs / Islam / enlightened tolderance... Ifil and Samander
• 880 Pechenegs
• Volhynians
• Polonians
• pripel marsh northwest of Kiev

Christianization of Bulgaria and other regional influence by Constantinople

East_Slavic_tribes_peoples_8th_9th_century

The Pontic steppes, c. 1015

Khazar Khanate, 650–850

• some time between 400 and 800, the Maygars (Hungarians) migrated across the pontic steppes.

some time between 400 and 800, the Maygars (Hungarians) migrated across the pontic steppes.

• 862 -- Varangians aka the Vikings -- According to the 12th-century Kievan Primary Chronicle, a group of Varangians known as the Rus' settled in Novgorod in 862 under the leadership of Rurik.

Bulgaria under rule of Boris I

• Christianization of the neighboring Bulgarians
  • Khan Boris began his reign in 852
  • Byzantine Empire began a race with Rome for domination over the Slavic tribes in modern-day Macedonia and Thrace.
  • In the middle Danube region, Bulgaria has interest in emerging regional powers: kingdom of the East Franks, the principality of Great Moravia, and Croatia.
  • In 852, Bulgarians send ambassador to Mainz to tell Louis II the German king of Khan Boris's assumption of power in Pliska. Some time later, Khan Boris concluded an alliance with Rastislav of Moravia (846–870) instigated by the King of the West Franks, Charles the Bald (840–877). The German Kingdom responded by attacking and defeating Bulgaria, forcing Khan Boris to later re-establish an alliance with the German king directed against Great Moravia, a Byzantine ally.
  • between 855 and 856 -- War broke out with the Byzantine Empire over control of fortresses on the Diagonal Road (Via Diagonalis or Via Militaris) that went from Constantinople, through Philippopolis (Plovdiv), to Naissus (Niš) and Singidunum (Belgrade). The Byzantine Empire was victorious and reconquered a number of cities, with Philippopolis being among them.
  • In 861 Khan Boris concluded an alliance with East Frankish King Louis the German, all while informing him that he would like to accept Christianity according to western rite. This renewed alliance threatened Great Moravia, which sought help from Byzantium (862–863). A Rome-dependent Bulgaria in the hinterland of Constantinople was a threat to the Byzantine Empire's immediate interests.
  • 862 -- Cyril and his brother Methodius begin a Byzantine mission to Great Moravia. (intended to draw Great Moravia closer to Constantinople). As part of their Moravian mission, the brothers Cyril and Methodius implement their Slavonic alphabet that they had created to make translations.
  • In the last months of 863 the Byzantines attacked Bulgaria again, probably after having been informed by their Moravian allies that Boris told the German king he was willing to accept Christianity and Byzantium had to forestall him from taking up Christianity from Rome. Khan Boris seeks Bulgarian conversion to Christianity to implement the Slavonic alphabet as well as a means to stop the cultural influence of the Byzantine Empire.
  • In 885, Pope Stephen V issued a papal bull to restrict spreading and reading Christian services in languages other than Latin or Greek. Around the same time, Svatopluk I, following the interests of the Frankish Empire, prosecuted the students of Cyril and Methodius and expelled them from Great Moravia. In 886, Clement of Ohrid (also known as Kliment), Naum, Gorazd, Angelar and Sava arrived in the First Bulgarian Empire where they were warmly accepted by the Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria.
  • 886 - Preslav Literary School established by Boris I in Bulgaria's capital, Pliska.
  • In 893, Simeon I of Bulgaria moved the seat of the school from the First Bulgarian capital Pliska to the new capital, Preslav

rise of the Keivan Rus

• 882 - 912 Oleg of Novgorod ... first of the Rurik dynasty... He attacks on Constantinople in 941

This ~910 AD map depicts the Patzinaks (aka the Pechenegs) occupying the Dniester River Basin

• 912 - 945 Igor of Kiev
• 945 - 960 Olga of Kiev rules for her son Sviatoslav from 945 until 960, and personally converts to Christianity.
• -972 Sviatoslav I ( He invaded Bulgaria between 967 and 971)
• Preslav was captured and burnt by the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces in the year 972 in the aftermath of Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria.
• 980 to 1015 Vladimir the Saint aka Vladimir the Great converts Rus to Christianity after his marriage to Byzantine Princess Anna Porphyrogenita (daughter of Emperor Romanos II|Romanos II and Empress Theophano).
• 1054 -- First evidence of East–West Schism -- In 1053, the first action was taken that would lead to a formal schism: the Greek churches in southern Italy were required to conform to Latin practices under threat of closure. In retaliation, Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople ordered the closure of all Latin churches in Constantinople. In addtion to mutual excommunications, the two church bodies, Roman Catholic church (based in Rome) and the Eastern Orthodox church (based in Constantinople) gradually drifted apart.
• 1010 - Yaroslav_the_Wise (having been sent north to Veliky Novgorod by his father Vladimir the Saint) founds the city of Yaroslavl.
• 1015 Vladimir the Saint dies. During the next four years Yaroslav waged a complicated and bloody war for Kiev against his half-brother Sviatopolk I of Kyiv, who was supported by his father-in-law, Duke Bolesław I the Brave (who would become the King of Poland from 1025). During the course of this struggle, several other older brothers (Boris, Gleb, and Svyatoslav) were brutally murdered.
• 1019 - 1054 Yaroslav the Wise defeats Sviatopolk and rules Kievan Rus for the next 25 years as Grand Prince of Kiev. While king, Yaroslav forms a treaty with Swedish / Viking kind Olof Skötkonung (the first Christian king of the Swedes) against "Saint" Olaf II of Norway . Yaroslav married Olof's daugter Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden in 1019.
• 1043 Rus fleet destroyed by the Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the main trading partner of the Kievan Rus

• 1037 or 1011 -- Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv build in 11th century.
• 1108 -- Sviatopolk II of Kiev builds the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev
• 1113 - 1125 Vladimir II (Monomakh) ... Primary Chronicle written to capture the glorious history of the Rus.

Georgia in 1213 at the end of the reign of Tamar.

the Kingdom of Georgia existed from 1008–1490 along the Black Sea, punctuated by Mongol invasions of Georgia between 1243 and 1320 during which time Georgia officially acknowledged the Great Khan as its overlord. In 1320 George V of Georgia drove out the Mongols. As a result of foreign and internal struggles unified Kingdom of Georgia stopped to exist after 1466 and was subdivided into several political units. By 1491, Georgia was shattered into a number of petty kingdoms and principalities

following the Mongolian invasian, the Golden Horde was overlord of Georgia in 1245.

• 1008–1490

1200s - 1400s: Tatar rules

• At the beginning of the 13th century, the Crimea, the majority of the population of which was already composed of a Turkic people — Cumans, became a part of the Golden Horde.

1200s

• in April 1204, Crusaders of the 4th Crusade sacked Constantinople, thus eakening the Byzantine empire and catastrophically wounding relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches for many centuries afterwards. The Latin Empire, led by a Catholic emperor, held considerably less territory.
• May 31, 1223 -- in the Battle of the Kalka River the Mongols defeat the Rus Army. The twosides were: (1) the Mongol Empire, whose armies were led by Jebe and Subutai, and (2) a coalition of several Rus' principalities, including Kievan Rus'/Kiev and Galicia-Volhynia / Halych, and the Cumans under Köten.
• 1237 begins 250 years of Tatar rule

• 1220s - 1323 Teutonic knights invade in the north

1300s

• 1325 - 1341 Ivan I of Moscow (Kalita , Monybags) --
  • After the death of his elder brother Yury in 1325, Ivan Kalita inherited the Principality of Moscow. Ivan participated in the struggle to get the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir which could be obtained with the approval of a khan of the Golden Horde. The main rivals of the princes of Moscow in this struggle were the princes of Tver – Mikhail, Dmitry the Terrible Eyes, and Alexander II, all of whom obtained the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir and were deprived of it. All of them were murdered in the Golden Horde.
  • In 1328 Ivan Kalita received the approval of khan Muhammad Ozbeg to become the Grand Duke of Vladimir with the right to collect taxes from all Russian lands. According to the Russian historian Kluchevsky, the rise of Moscow under Ivan I Kalita was determined by three factors:
    • The first one was that the Moscow principality was situated in the middle of other Russian principalities; thus, it was protected from any invasions from the East and from the West. Compared to its neighbors, Ryazan principality and Tver principality, Moscow was less often devastated.
  • The relative safety of the Moscow region resulted in the second factor of the rise of Moscow – an influx of working and tax-paying people who were tired of constant raids and who actively relocated to Moscow from other Russian regions.
    • The third factor was a trade route from Novgorod to the Volga river.

Halych–Volyn 2nd half of the 13th century – 1st half of the 14th century Halych-Volyn in mid-13th century Annexations by Halych-Volyn (years) Other Ruthenian Principalities Golden Horde Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Poland Teutonic Order Grand Duchy of Lithuania Borders of lands and regional principalities Main trade routes Borders of Ruthenian Principalities "Capital cities" Kyiv Chernihiv Pereyaslavl Horodok (Hrodna) Pinsk Turov Volodymyr Halych Minsk Sluchesk Dubrovytsia Stepan' Horchevsk Ovruch Iskorosten (Korosten) Vozviahel (Novohrad-Volynsky) Kolodiazhen Hubyn Medjybozh (Medzhybizh) Novhorodok Valkhovyisk Rodka Mukacheve Koshytsi Sandomierz Lublin Kholm Cherven Suteysk Vizna Bilsk Dorohychyn Kamyanets Kobryn Berestia (Brest) Vlodava Luboml Belz Zvenyhorod Lviv Buzhsk Peremyshl Yaroslavl Sanok Sambir Lutsk Dorogobuzh Peresopnytsia Duben (Dubno) Kremyanets Zaslav Terebovl Kolomyia Vasyliv Chern (Chernivtsi) Khotyn Boloto Ushytsia Kyiv Principality Turov–Pinsk Principality Minsk Principality Polatsk Principality Black Ruthenia Zakarpattia (1230–1240) (1230–ті) (1252–1276) (1280–1320) (1289–1302) (1251–1252) (1254) Halych Principality Land of Berestia Cherven– Kholm Land Volhynia Principality Belz Principality Lutsk Principality Dnipro Bozh (Southern Bug) Dnister Prut Seret Tysa Wisla San Bug Neman Prypyat Wieprz

• 1340s and 1350s - The Black Plague disrupted commerce and culture.

The Black Plague disrupted commerce and culture.

• 1359-89 Dmitry Donska / Dmitry Donskoy is the first prince of Moscow to openly challenge Mongol authority in Russia. Although the Battle of Kulikovo did not end Mongol domination over Rus, it is widely regarded by Russian historians as the turning point at which Mongol influence began to wane.
  • 1362 -- Battle of Blue Waters -- (Lithuanian: Mūšis prie Mėlynųjų Vandenų, Belarusian: Бітва на Сініх Водах, Ukrainian: Битва на Синіх Водах) It was a battle fought at some time in autumn 1362 or 1363 on the banks of the Syniukha river, left tributary of the Southern Bug, between the armies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Golden Horde. The Lithuanians won a decisive victory and finalized their conquest of the Principality of Kiev.
  • Lithuanian–Muscovite War (1368–1372) -- Three raids by Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1368, 1370, and 1372. Algirdas organized the raids against Dmitry Donskoy in support of the Principality of Tver, chief rival of Moscow. In 1368 and 1370, Lithuanians besieged Moscow and burned the posad, but did not succeed in taking the city's Kremlin. In 1372, the Lithuanian army was stopped near Lyubutsk where, after a standoff, the Treaty of Lyubutsk was concluded. Lithuanians agreed to cease their aid to Tver, which was defeated in 1375. Mikhail II of Tver had to acknowledge Dmitry as "elder brother".
  • Lithuanian Civil War (1381–1384) --
  • Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392)
• In 1395 Circassians fought violent wars against Tamerlane, and although the Circassians won, Tamerlane plundered their cities.
• 1395 - After the Battle of the Terek River, Tamerlane (Timur) destroys several cities including Astrakhan, Sarai, and Azov.

The fragmentation of the Mongol Empire loosened the political, cultural, and economic unity of the Silk Road. The demise of the Silk Road may have also been influenced by the declining influence of the Byzantine Empire, the devastation of the Black Death

Late 1300s to Early 1400s: Vasily I

• 1389 - 1425 Vasily I -- Vasily I Dmitriyevich (Russian: Василий I Дмитриевич, romanized: Vasiliy I Dmitriyevich; 30 December 1371 – 27 February 1425) was the Vasily was the oldest son of Dmitry Donskoy and Grand Princess Eudoxia, daughter of Grand Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhny Novgorod.. He was the Grand Prince of Moscow (r. 1389–1425), heir of Dmitry Donskoy (r. 1359–1389). He ruled as a Golden Horde vassal between 1389 and 1395, and again in 1412–1425. The raid on the Volgan regions in 1395 by the Turco-Mongol Emir Timur resulted in a state of anarchy for the Golden Horde and the independence of Moscow. In 1412, Vasily reinstated himself as a vassal of the Horde. He had entered an alliance with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1392 and married the only daughter of Vytautas the Great, Sophia, though the alliance turned out to be fragile, and they waged war against each other in 1406–1408.
• During the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars (late 1300s to early 1500s) the Grand Duchy of Lithuania fought with Muscovy over Lithuania territory from the Baltic to the Black Sea. (Gediminas)
  • 1387 -- Christianization of Lithuania initiated by King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Władysław II Jagiełło and his cousin Vytautas the Great.

1400s

• • 1409 - 1411 Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War between the Teutonic Knights and the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Inspired by the local Samogitian uprising, the war began with a Teutonic invasion of Poland in August 1409. As neither side was ready for a full-scale war, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (NOT "Good King" Wenceslaus I of Bohemia (907 - 929)) brokered a nine-month truce. The spate ended with the 1411 Peace of Thorn but territorial pissings would continue for another decade.
  • 1422 -- The Treaty of Melno ends the Gollub War and more broadly the era of the Lithuanian Crusade. The State of the Teutonic Order|Teutonic Knights]] and the Livonian Order had predicated their raids on the need to Christianize Lithuania. T

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania rules from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

• 1454 Constantinople falls to the Turks

Late 1400s: Russia as New Rome/Constantinope and the Tsars named Ivan

• 1462 - 1505 Ivan III (the great) ... beats the Tatars, fought Lithuania... creates "Third Rome" post Byzanitine Titles. At the Great Stand on the Ugra River Ivan III scared off the Great Horde forces of Ahmed Khan bin Küchük without a fight, and caused the Tatars to flee.

This 1552 map of Poland and Hungary (Polonia et Ungaria) shows the extent that these countries occupied the lands between the Baltic and the Black Sea.

• 1533 - 1584 Ivan the Terrible is the tsar
• 1569 the Union_of_Lublin creates a regional superpower, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1572 -- Registered Cossacks become part of the regular formations of the army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

• 1582 Russian treaty with Poland
• 1585 Russian peace with Sweden
• because of recent peace treaties, Baltic trade routes close.
• 1584 - 1589 Fyodor
• Boris Gudenov

Rus-sia as distinguished from Moscovy in the late 1500s.

Late 1500s - Early 1600s: Decline of Moscow and Rurik Dynasty during the Time of Troubles

• 1598 - Feodor I of Russia dies ending the Rurik Dynasty. He is succeeded by Boris Godunov the non-Rurik regent who had already been acting in this role. Godunov continued hius rule from 1585 to 1605. At the end of his reign, Russia descended into the time of Troubles
• During the Time of Troubles, (1598 - 1618) Ukraine was:
  • Polish (Zaporizhian Cossacks)
  • Ottoman (Black Sea coast)
  • Russian (especially the Don Cossacks)
  • between Poland and Russia (the Peace of Duelino)
• the Time of Troubles was marked by the following:
  • Sweden, Poland, and Lithuania are powerful
    • Poland (and Lithuanmore time of troublesia) led by Sigismund III Vasa, a zealous Catholic from 19 August 1587 – 30 April 1632
    • Sweden led by King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus from 1611 to 1632
  • peasant rebellions
  • False Dmitris
    • Vasili IV of Russia was Tsar of Russia between 1606 and 1610 after the murder of False Dmitri I.
  • leadership vacuum, first use of the term "Ukraine"???
  • Polish–Muscovite War (1609–1618)
    • in 1610, Poland-Lithuania invaded Moscow in the the Battle of Klushino
• 1606 - 1610 Tsar Vasily Shvisky / Vasili IV of Russia ... deposed by Zemiskii Sobor

1600s: the Romanovs take charge, and The Deluge marks the decline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

This portion of the 1613 Radziwiłł map shows Polesia, to include the Pinsk Marshes and the large forested area between modern day Ukraine and Belarus to the north.

• 1613 Mikhail Romanov is 16 years old... his father was a church patriarch.
• 1620 Poland goes to war against he Ottomans Polish–Ottoman War (1620–1621)
• In 1620 The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople reestablished the Kyiv Metropolis for the Eastern Orthodox communities that refused to join the Union of Brest.
• 1626 - 1629 Poland goes to war against the Swedes Polish–Swedish War (1626–1629)
• 1648 Bogdan Khmelnitsky leads the Khmelnitsky Uprising against the Polish and Lithuanian rulers.
• 1647 - 1657 Polish-Russian War Russo-Polish War (1654–1667)
  • Alexis of Russia tsar of Russia from 1645 until his death in 1676
• 1667 - Poland cedes Kiev and east bank of Dnieper to Russia... Armstice of Andrusevno
• 1678 -- Russia ACTUALLY gets Kiev
• 1686 -- Eternal Peace of 1686
• Russia expands to China
• 1670 Don Cossack Rebellion (Cossack Stenka Razin rises against the Tsarists)

Late 1600s - Early 1700s: Peter the Great beats the Swedes and modernizes his empire

• 1682 - 1725 is reign of Peter the Great
• beats Charles XII of Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700 - 1721)
  • 1709 the decisive Battle of Poltava marked the beginning of Russian hegemony in Northern Europe.
  • Ivan Mazepa falls from Peter's favor as joins Charles XII's campaign against Russia. Mazepa feels Russia has abandoned its obligations to the Cossacks under the Pereiaslav Agreement.
  • Russian army sacked and razed the Cossack Hetmanate capital of Baturyn, killing most of the defending garrison and many common people.
  • in 1708, Peter the Great establishes Kiev Governorate (1708–1764) as part of government reforms creating eight guberniyas.

Division of Russia into eight governorates in 1708

Great Northern War Part2

• 1696 Sea of Asov captured.. naval base at Taganog (Crimea?)...
• 1697.. Peter takes an incognito tour of western capitols and is influenced by their styles and architecture. Thereafter, he tried to implement more western styled things in his tsardom. He also taxed beards and peasants.
• 1713 lost Asov again to Constantinople at the Peace of Adrianople..
• 1713 St Petersburg Russia is founded by Peter as the new capitol because he hated Moscow for killing his family.
• 1722 - 1723 invades Persia (east of the Black Sea)
• 1739 got Asov back again.

Early 1700s: Other Tsars

• Elizabeth
• Peter III
• 1730 - 1740 Anne -- persia gets its land back

Late 1700s: Catherine expands towards Poland and the Black Sea coast

• 1762 - 1796 Catherine the Great
  • 1764 - dissolved Hetmancy
  • defeats Pugachev rebellion (Don Cossacks)
  • Russia gets West Bank Dnieper from Poland.
• 1783 serfs introduced under Petr Rumiantsev
• after the Partition of Poland, Russia borders Austria and Prussia
• Tadeusz Kosciyskor?)
• 1774 under Catherine, the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ends the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) and obtains the Black Sea coast for Russia
• 1775 Catherine disbands the Zaporozhian Sich and creates the Novorossiya (New Russia) Governorate

RussianEmpireMap1800-38-NovorossiyskayaProvince

• 1774-1783 Annexation of Crimea
• Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)

Russian-Turkish-war 1787-1791

• Mass colonization of Ukrainan areas by outsiders. Potemkin village
  • Mennonite refugees from Germany begin to settle along the shores of the Black Sea.
  • 1791 -- Pale of Settlement limits areas where Jews can settle.
• 1792 -- end of Turkish War at the Treaty of Jassy (signed in Moldova)

Napoleonic Era

• 1797 - 1801 Tsar Paul I of Russia
  • Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812)
• 1807 - 1815 -- Napolenonic invasion of Poland creates Duchy of Warsaw from Prussia. 1815 Congress of Vienna divides up Poland and gives Russia a small part called the Congress Poland
• 1801 - 1825 Tsar Alexander I
• fends off attack on Moscow by Napoleon
• On 24 May 1829 Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland in Warsaw. Subsequently, the November Uprising aka Polish–Russian War occurred 1830–31
• 1830s - Constantine versus Nicholas I of Russia 1825 - 1855 succession showdown
• 1834 -- Nicholas I founds a national university and names it after Saint Vladimir. The university benefited from assets transferred from Vilnius University, which was closed in the aftermath of the November Uprising of 1831
• 1825 -- Alexander I dies, leading to Decembrist uprising
• Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) sparked by the Greek War of Independence (1821 - 1829) ... Treaty of Adrianople (1829) gives Russia the shore of the Black sea and the mouth of the Danube.

Treaty of Andrinople 1829

• 1840 - Taras Shevchenko publishes his first edition of his Magnum opus, Kobzar (poetry collection)
• 1838 - in response to unrest in Egypt and fears of Russian invasion of Ottoman lands, the Ottoman Empire enlists England's assistance in self-defense, leading to the Treaty of Balta Liman. This treaty allows England complete access to Ottoman trade markets. This begins the Ottoman period of Tanzimat, or modernization. that would last until the [[First Constitutional Era] of 1876.

Crimean War (1853) and Industrial Modernization

• Revolutions of 1848 also known as the Spring of Nations in Europe.
• 1853 - 1856 Crimean War
• 1856 - the Treaty of Paris (1856) brought an end to the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Russia lost Crimea? Nicholas gone?
• Owing to the Treaty of Paris, Russia loses protectorate of Christians in Ottoman lands (the treaty made the Black Sea neutral territory, closing it to all warships and prohibiting fortifications and the presence of armaments on its shores.). Additionally, Moldavia and Wallachia were recognized as quasi-independent states under Ottoman suzerainty. They gained the left bank of the mouth of the Danube and part of Bessarabia from Russia as a result of the treaty.
• 1840s - 1850s rail lines connect St. Petersburg and Moscow.
• Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius founded in December, 1845 or in January, 1846, ceated under the initiative of Mykola Kostomarov
• 1860s and 1870s intellectual unrest.
  • In 1857, Volodymyr Antonovych co-founded the Związek Trojnicki ("Triple Society"), named after the three Polish territories acquired by Russia in the 18th century: Volhynia, Podolia and the Kiev area. The society's goal was promoting the abolition of serfdom and persuading the peasants to support Polish independence, while preparing the members for their role in the planned all-national uprising. Due to his involvement, Antonowicz became one of the prominent examples of the "peasant-lovers" (or "Reds"), a loose group of young artists and liberal thinkers fascinated with the peasantry as the "core of the nation".
  • 1861 emancipated serfs via the Emancipation reform of 1861
  • January 1863 -- The January Uprising (Polish: powstanie styczniowe; Lithuanian: 1863 metų sukilimas; Ukrainian: Січневе повстання; Russian: Польское восстание; Belarusian: Паўстанне 1863–1864 гадоў) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at the restoration of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last insurgents were captured by the Russian forces in 1864.
  • First Prosvita society (celebrating Ukranian culture) founded in Lviv in 1868, with Anatole Vakhnianyn as society head. Oleksandr Konysky and Dmitry Pilchikov founded the Shevchenko Scientific Society founded in Lviv in 1873.
  • Ivan Franko studies Marx and Engels and publishes numerous articles in the Ukranian language.
  • Mykhailo Drahomanov participates in Hromada, publishes Ukrainian folk music with Volodymyr Antonovych, and articulated themes of Ukrainian nationalism and Great Russian chauvinism that earned him censorship.

Ottoman Empire in 1875. Abdulaziz was the was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned from 25 June 1861 up until 30 May 1876, but he was overthrown via a government coup in 1876

• 1856 - 1881 Alexander II of Russia

• • 1863 -- Valuev Circular forbids publications in the Ukrainian language, except for belles-lettres works.
  • 1876 Alexander II issues a secret decree (ukaz) known as the Ems Ukaz, that bans the use of the Ukrainian language in print except for reprinting old documents.
  • 1875 Great Eastern Crisis begins as decision to increase taxes for paying the Ottoman Empire's debts to foreign creditors resulted in outrage in the Balkan provinces, particularly Rumelia
    • Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877)
    • 1876 - 1877 .. From 23 December 1876 until 20 January 1877 world leaders at the Constantinople Conference gathered in Constantinople to discuss political reforms in Bosnia and in the Ottoman territories with a majority-Bulgarian population.
    • 1877 - 1878 - Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
    • March 1878 -- Treaty of San Stefano ends hostilities between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
    • July 1878 The Treaty of Berlin (formally the Treaty between Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire for the Settlement of Affairs in the East) was signed on 13 July 1878. The treay formally recognized the independence of the de facto sovereign principalities of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria although the latter de facto functioned independently and was divided into three parts: the Principality of Bulgaria, the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia, and Macedonia, which was given back to the Ottomans, thus undoing Russian plans for an independent and Russophile "Greater Bulgaria". The Treaty of San Stefano had created a Bulgarian state, which was just what Britain and Austria-Hungary feared the most. The Treaty of Berlin also returned Southern Bessarabia to Russia.
  • 1881 Alexander II assasinated, leading to widespread pogroms against Jews, who were blamed for the assasination.
  • Welsh businessman John Hughes arrives near the Kalmius river (modern day Donetsk) and founds industrial iron forge in the area, which is soon named after him as "Yuzovo"
• 1881 - 1894 Alexander III of Russia
• ( settlement of free german peasants along Black Sea (Taurida)
• 1890 - 1891 -- the first tram system opens in Kiev

Nicholas II of Russia

Russia ethnic

• 1 November 1894 nicholas begins his rule.
• 9 February 1904 -- Russo-Japanese War breaks out. After a humiliating loss by the Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima, the war is settled by Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905.
• 1905 -- 1905 Russian Revolution breaks out due to the failures in the Russo-Japanese War. 22 January 1905 – 16 June 1907
• The Revolutionary Ukrainian Party founded on 11 February 1900 by the Kharkiv student secret society Hromada.
• Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party forms from the remains of the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party and adopts the Erfurt Program that declared the imminent death of capitalism and the necessity of socialist ownership of the means of production.
• 1909-1911 -- Teacher's House building built for the Kyiv Pedagogical Museum that had been founded in 1901. This building served as a meeting place for Ukranian nationlists such as the the Ukranian Club and the Rodyna society.

Russian Civil War and Lenin Stalin Era

Dismembered Russia — Some Fragments (NYT article, Feb. 17, 1918)

• 15 March 1917 -- Nicholas II abdicates after the February Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution // Russian Revolution begins

1917 - Russian Civil War begins

• Russian Civil War begins 1917 (it would last until June 1923)
  • February Revolution leads to the establishment of Russian Provisional Government .
  • Mykhailo Hrushevsky elected head of the Ukranian Central Rada in March 1917.
  • 19–21 April 1917 All-Ukrainian National Congress held
  • 23 June 1917 - Central Council of Ukraine (the Central Rada) issues the First Universal declaring the autonomy of Ukraine.
  • June 28, 1917 General Secretariat of Ukraine established as and autonomous Ukrainian executive government of the Russian Republic (headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko). The Prime Minister of Russia Alexander Kerensky recognized the Secretariat, appointing it as the representative governing body of the Russian Provisional Government and limiting its powers to five governorates: Volyn, Kyiv, Podolia, Chernigov, and Poltava. At first Vynnychenko protested and left his post as Secretariat leader, but eventually returned to reassemble the Secretariat after the Tsentralna Rada accepted the Kerensky Instruktsiya and issued the Second Universal on 16 July [O.S. 3 July] 1917.
• July 1917 -- Leader Alexander Kerensky, Minister of War in the Russian provisional government, decides to launch the last Russian offensive of the Imperial Russian Army in World War I. Led by General Aleksei Brusilov, the Kerensky offensive was disastrous, and demonstrated complete disintegration of the Russian Army. Kerensky expected Kornilov to restore discipline, and the death penalty for desertion was re-imposed by Kornilov and the Russian Provisional Government as a consequence. This led to a period of unrest in Petrograd known as the July Days.
  • Summer 1917 -- After serving as the first Prime Minister of Ukraine in the summer of 1917, Volodymyr Vynnychenko resigned from the First_Vynnychenko_government over disagreements and was replaced by Dmytro Doroshenko. Symon Petliura briefly oversaw military affairs via the Ukrainian General Military Committee
  • 1917 -- Sovnarkom is formed with with Lenin as Chairman. They implement War communism and Prodrazvyorstka (confiscation of grain) which would be implemented in Ukraine in 1919.
  • November 1917 -- On 20 November [O.S. 7 November] 1917 in November in Kyiv the Central Council of Ukraine (the Central Rada) issues the Third Universal declaring proclaiming the formation of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR).
  • 7 November 1917 -- October Revolution -- After the July Days, in which the Government killed hundreds of protesters, Alexander Kerensky became head of Government. He was unable to fix Russia's immediate problems, including food shortages and mass unemployment, as he attempted to keep Russia involved in the ever more unpopular war. The failures of the Provisional Government led to the October Revolution by the Communist Bolsheviks.
• December 1917 -- The Sovnarkom establishes the Cheka (All-Russian Extraordinary Commission), predecessor to the KGB) on December 5 (Old Style) 1917
  • 24-25 December 1917 -- Bolsheviks assemble in Kharkiv as the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Councils (radas, soviets) approve the formation of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic (a rival to the Kiev-based UPR government).

1918-1919: War between the Soviets and the Directorate Armies

• Spanish flu February 1918 – April 1920
  • January 22, 1918 -- Central Council of Ukraine (the Central Rada) issues the Fourth Universal declared full state independence of Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) aka the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR). This act also declares independence from the Russian Republic.
  • 9 February 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine–Central Powers) ("peace for bread") signed on between the Central Powers and the Ukrainian People's Republic,
  • 3 March 1918 -- Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (between Russia and the Central Powers, but annulled by the Armistice of 11 November 1918, when Germany surrendered to the western Allied Powers.)
  • 10 Jul 1918 -- Russians form THEIR constitution as a Soviet state aka the Soviet Russia Constitution of 1918
  • The Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine was created on 5–12 July 1918 in Moscow during the 1st Party Congress
• August 1918 -- Following several Bolshevik assassination attempts against Lenin including one on 17 August 1918, the Soviet leaders re-institute the death penalty and begin a campaign of Red Terror against their political enemies.
  • 29 April to 14 December 1918 -- Germans disband the Central Council of Ukraine (Rada) and install an anti-communist dictatorship led by Pavlo Skoropadskyi. the Ukrainian State collapses in November and is replaced by the Directorate of Ukraine
• 11 November 1918 -- Armistice agreement formally ends World War I. The Second Polish Republic was established on Armistice Day.
• Polish–Ukrainian War from November 1918 to July 1919. In 1919, while the Soviet Red Army was still preoccupied with the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, the Polish Army took most of Lithuania and Belarus. By July 1919, Polish forces had taken control of much of Western Ukraine and had emerged victorious from the Polish–Ukrainian War of November 1918 to July 1919.
  • On 18 October 1918, the Ukrainian National Council was formed in Eastern Galicia, still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; it was led by Yevhen Petrushevych. The establishment of a Ukrainian state there was proclaimed in November 1918; it had become known as the West Ukrainian People's Republic and it claimed Lviv as its capital.
  • November 1918 - July 1919 -- The West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) or West Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR), known for part of its existence as the Western Oblast of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was a short-lived polity that controlled most of Eastern Galicia from November 1918 to July 1919. It included the cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Kolomyia, Drohobych, Boryslav, Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk) and right-bank Przemyśl, and claimed parts of Bukovina and Carpathian Ruthenia. Politically, the Ukrainian National Democratic Party (the precursor of the interwar Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance) dominated the legislative assembly, guided by varying degrees of Greek Catholic, liberal and socialist ideology. Other parties represented included the Ukrainian Radical Party and the Christian Social Party.

Late 1919: Rise of the Kolchak's White Russian (Imperial Restoration) Army against the Reds (Bolsheviks)

• Russian Army (1919)Consolidation of the Russian Army -- at the turn of May – June 1919, generals Anton Denikin, Evgeny Miller, Nikolay Yudenich voluntarily submitted to Alexander Kolchak and officially recognized his Supreme High Command over all armies in Russia.
  • By October 1919, about 70% of the Directorate's troops and more than 90% of the allied Ukrainian Galician Army fell to typhus.
• Paris Peace Conference begins January 1919.
• 2 January 1919 -- a major invasion by the Red Army into Ukraine leads the Directorate to declare war once again against Russia on January 16.
  • Voronezh–Povorino Operation -- a battle in January 1919 between the White and Red Armies during the Russian Civil War around the city of Voronezh and the railway station of Povorino. The Red Army defeated the Don Army under Pyotr Krasnov
  • On January 6, 1919 the government of Bolshevik Georgy_Pyatakov officially declared the creation of the Ukrainian_Soviet_Socialist_Republic. Yet his government continued to stay in Kursk until January 24.
  • South Russia and their Armed Forces of South Russia were established on 8 January 1919 by the White movement after reorganization of their armed forces in the Southern Front, consisting of territory under their control in Ukraine, Crimea, Kuban, the North Caucasus, Black Earth region, Lower Volga, and the Don region. South Russia was an anti-Bolshevik military state under the Armed Forces of South Russia led by General Anton Denikin, and its borders were undefined, changing based on victories or defeats against the Red Army.
• March 1919 -- Vyoshenskaya Uprising -- an uprising of the Don Cossacks during the Russian Civil War led by Pavel Kudinov against the Bolsheviks, which had occupied the Upper Don district in January–March 1919.
• Winter 2019 -- atrocities from the White Terror mount. After Three battles for Tsaritsyn fought by the White Cossack Army of Pyotr Krasnov the Soviets forced Krasnov's army to withdraw from Tsaritsyn in mid-February 1919. Bolsheviks implement scorched earth De-Cossackization policy in response to growing Cossack insurgency.
  • By 27 June 1919, the White Army overtook the Ukrainian Soviet capital of Kharkiv, defeating the Bolsheviks. The White Army also spent 12 January – 31 May 1919fighting the Reds for control over the Donbas Region
• 28 June 1919 the Treaty of Versailles is signed. Among its many provisions was the forcing of Germany to recognize the independence of Poland and renounce "all rights and title over the territory" including that which was obtained through the Greater Poland uprising.
  • July 1919 -- White Army begins its march on Moscow
  • August 1919 -- On 31 August [O.S. 18 August] 1919 the White Army and the UPR Army retook Kiev from the Bolsheviks. The White Army then disarmed the UPR troops at the conclusion of the battle.
  • December 1919 -- the Bolsheviks retake Kiev
  • 18 December 1919 – 6 January 1920 -- the Red Army defeats the White Army in the Donbas Region

1920-1921

• Saint Vladimir University in Kiev was renamed as Mykhailo Drahomanov University in honor of one of its prominent alums.
• April to July 1920 -- Józef Piłsudski, in alliance with Ukrainian leader Symon Petliura of the Ukrainian People's Republic begin a military offensive to liberate Ukraine. The Kiev Offensive was the central component of Piłsudski's plan for a new order in Eastern Europe centered around a Polish-led Intermarium federation.
  • April 1920 -- Following their recent defeats in the Donbas and the dissolution of General Anton Denikin's South Russian Government in February 2020, the white Army remnants retrench and Pyotr Wrangel forms the Government of South Russia with control over the area of the former Russian Empire's Taurida Governorate, i.e., the Crimean Peninsula and adjacent areas of the mainland.
• August 1920 -- Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) formed as a Ukrainian paramilitary body, engaged in terrorism (especially in Poland) during the interwar period. Initially headed by Yevhen Konovalets, the organization promoted the idea of armed struggle for the independence of Ukraine. The headquarters of the organization was located in Lwów (present-day Lviv in Ukraine) in the Second Polish Republic.
• 7 to 17 November 1920 -- Siege of Perekop (1920), the final battle of the Southern Front in the Russian Civil War. The Southern Front of the Red Army and the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, under the command of Mikhail Frunze, launched an offensive on Crimea with an invasion force four-times larger than the defenders, the Russian Army under the command of General Pyotr Wrangel. Despite suffering heavy losses, the Reds broke through the fortifications, and the Whites were forced into retreat southwards. Following their defeat at the siege of Perekop, the Whites evacuated from the Crimea, dissolving the Army of Wrangel and ending the Southern Front in Bolshevik victory.

Spring 1921 - 1922 -- Russian famine of 1921–1922 leads to increased grain demands on Ukranians. Additionally, to aid in famine relief, the Soviets remove jewelry from Orthodox churches, some of which was given to the Pomgol organization.

• March 1921 -- Peace of Riga treaty was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War.
• August 1921 -- After having fought nearly every army in Ukraine and Russia, Anarchist Nestor Makhno and his Makhnovshchina followers are persecuted by the Bolsheviks. The Makhnovshchina was disestablished on 28 August 1921 and Makhno moves with his family to Paris.

More things

• • 1920s policy of Korenizatsiya temporarily reverses the Russification policies banning Ukranian language and literature in an attempt by Stalin and Lenin to incorporate all the sub-nationalities into the Soviet project.
  • 1923 -- The Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema Arts of Ukraine was founded in Kyiv as part of Les Kurbas's Berezil Theatre and it chronicled the history of Ukrainian performing arts.
  • 1921 - Lenin proposes the New Economic Policy that would open Russia to a market economy. In addition, the NEP abolished prodrazvyorstka (forced grain-requisition) and introduced prodnalog: a tax on farmers, payable in the form of raw agricultural product.
  • 1921 - Following the dissolution of the Russian Empire, an All-Ukrainian Sobor (Synod) was called in Kyiv, the capital of the newly independent Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was declared independent from the Moscow Patriarchate (MP). The Sobor delegates chose Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky as head of the church. The 1921 Sobor has become known as the "first resurrection" of the UAOC.
  • 30 December 1922 - a conference of delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approve two documents -- the Treaty on the Creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics along with the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR.
• January 1924 - Lenin dies.
• 1926 - 1928 Bolshevik and Left Opposition leader Leon Trotsky forms the Anti-Stalinist and anti-NEP United Opposition. Trotsky would be expelled from the Soviet union in February 1929.
• 1927–29 Bolshevik and Communist leader Mykola Skrypnyk fosters Ukrainization initiative that supports development of educational and cultural institutions
• 1928 -- First five-year plan centered around rapid industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture.
  • The USSR anti-religious campaign (1928–1941) ramps up that which had been accomplished in the 1920s. In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to less than 500. The League of Militant Atheists (formed in 1925) had its first affiliates at factories, plants, collective farms (kolkhozy), and educational institutions, and collaborated with the Komsomol (All-Union Leninist Young Communist League) to influence irreligion.
• 1929 - In 1929, Stalin edited the plan to include the creation of "kolkhoz" collective farming systems that stretched over thousands of acres of land and had hundreds of thousands of peasants working on them. The creation of collective farms essentially destroyed the kulaks as a class (dekulakization). Another consequence of this is that peasants resisted by killing their farm animals rather than turning them over to the State when their farms were collectivized.
• Joseph Stalin turns 50, leading to cultural celebrations and the promotion of a Stalinist cult of personality in the Soviet Union.
• 1929 -- two veterans of the WWI era Sich Riflemen military unit, Andriy Melnyk and Yevhen Konovalets, founded the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Two members of the OUN assasinate Polish politician Tadeusz Hołówko due to his moderate stance on the "Ukrainian problem" faced by the Polish government.

1930s: Great Depression

• 1932-33 Using confiscation, punishments, and class warfare, the Russian Stalinist government imposes harsh demands for Ukraine to produce grain, leading to widespread famine and starvation in Ukraine which would be eventually known as The Holodomor. Estimates of 5.7 to 8.7 million people died of famine across the Soviet Union, with at least half of that being borne in Ukraine.
• 1933 -- Hrushevsky completes his History of Ukraine-Rusʹ, dies 24 November 1934.
• August 1936 to March 1938. -- During the Great Purge, also known as the Great Terror, the Year of '37 (37-й год, Tridtsat sedmoi god) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov') -- Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin's campaign to solidify his power over the party and the state; the purges were also designed to remove the remaining influence of Leon Trotsky as well as other prominent political rivals within the party.
  • 27 June 1938 -- Ukranian-born Sergei Korolev , future director of the Soviet Space Program is held at a special labor camp for scientists and engineers.
• 1938 -- Polish-American covert missionary Walter Ciszek (under the assumed identity of Władymyr Łypynski) stops in Kiev to meet with Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky before heading to the Ural mountains. (as documented in his memoir With God in Russia.
• 1939 -- on the eve of the Soviet Invasion of Poland, Ukrainian nationalist writer, publisher, journalist and political thinker Dmytro Dontsov left Poland, living in Bucharest, Prague, Germany, Paris and the United States. His writings inspired the OUN and other Ukranian Nationalists.
• 23 August 1939 -- Nazi Germans and Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact carving up Poland as part of a Treaty of Non-Aggression
• On 17 September 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland began. Many of the Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union included Western Ukraine to include parts of Belorussia and Lviv and Lutsk in Galicia and Volhynia

1940s

World War II

1941

• 22 June 1941 – 7 January 1942 Hitler launches his Operation Barbarossa invasion of western Soviet Union with the intent to repopulate it with Germans (Lebensraum). His Hunger Plan was to seize food from the Soviet Union (with Ukraine in particular being the bread basket of the Soviet Union) and give the food to German soldiers and civilians. The plan entailed the genocide by starvation of millions of Soviet citizens.
• 7 July to 26 September 1941 -- Battle of Kiev (1941) -- in an an unprecedented defeat for the Red Army, the Nazis encircle Russia's Southwestern Front, trapping 452,700 soldiers, 2,642 guns and mortars, and 64 tanks, of which scarcely 15,000 had escaped from the encirclement by 2 October. The Southwestern Front suffered 700,544 casualties, including 616,304 killed, captured, or missing during the battle. The 5th, 37th, 26th, 21st, and 38th armies, consisting of 43 divisions, were almost annihilated and the 40th Army suffered many losses. Like the Western Front before it, the Southwestern Front had to be recreated almost from scratch.
  • Eight days after Germany's invasion of the USSR, on 30 June 1941, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists led by Stepan Bandera proclaimed the establishment of Ukrainian State in Lviv, with Yaroslav Stetsko as premier.
• The Reichskommissariat Ukraine was established August 1941. During the German Occupation, some Ukrainians welcomed the Nazis as liberators.
• The Holocaust in Ukraine
  • 29–30 September 1941 the Babi Yar massacre resulted from the decision to murder all the Jews in Kyiv.
  • 22–24 October 1941 -- the massacre of all the Jews in Odesa.
  • Many other massacres of the Jews occurred during WWII, perpetuated by the Nazi Army as well as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and others. The Ukranian Insurgent Army massacred Poles as well as Jews.

1943

• 5 July 1943 – 23 August 1943 -- Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, during which Germany's extensive losses of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army enjoyed the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war. Hitler canceled the offensive at Kursk after only a week, in part to divert forces to Italy.
  • Operation Citadel -- German offensive operation in July 1943 against Soviet forces in the Kursk salient, proposed by Generalfeldmarschall Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein during the Second World War on the Eastern Front that initiated the Battle of Kursk. The deliberate defensive operation that the Soviets implemented to repel the German offensive is referred to as the Kursk Strategic Defensive Operation. The German offensive was countered by two Soviet counter-offensives, Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev (Russian: Полководец Румянцев) and Operation Kutuzov (Russian: Кутузов).
  • 12 July – 18 August 1943 -- Operation Kutuzov -- the first of the two counteroffensives launched by the Red Army as part of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation utilizing their Deep Operation strategy to wear down the advancing Germans.
  • 3–23 August 1943 Belgorod–Kharkov offensive operation aka Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev -- a Soviet strategic summer offensive that aimed to recapture Belgorod and Kharkov, and destroy the German forces of the 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf. The operation was codenamed Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev (Russian: Полководец Румянцев), after the 18th-century Field Marshal Peter Rumyantsev and was conducted by the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts (army groups) in the southern sector of the Kursk Bulge. The battle was referred to as the Fourth Battle of Kharkov (German: Vierte Schlacht bei Charkow) by the Germans.
• The Red Army Liberated Kiev on September 29, 1943, and members of the Syrets concentration camp revolted against their guards. On December 6, 1943, Soviet authorities took a number of Western journalists to the site of the Babi Yar massacres, including Bill Downs and Bill Lawrence
• 3 November and 22 December 1943. Second Battle of Kiev -- Following the Battle of Kursk, the Red Army launched the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation, pushing Erich von Manstein's Army Group South back towards the Dnieper River. Stavka, the Soviet high command, ordered the Central Front and the Voronezh Front to force crossings of the Dnieper. When this was unsuccessful in October, the effort was handed over to the 1st Ukrainian Front, with some support from the 2nd Ukrainian Front. The 1st Ukrainian Front, commanded by Nikolai Vatutin, was able to secure bridgeheads north and south of Kiev (Kyiv).

1944

• 24 December 1943 – 6 May 1944 -- Dnieper–Carpathian offensive / Proskurov–Chernovtsy offensive
  • The initial phase of the offensive, it lasted from 24 December 1943, to 29 February 1944. It included the following operations:
    • Zhitomir–Berdichev Offensive (24 December 1943 – 14 January 1944);
    • Kirovograd Offensive (5–16 January 1944);
    • Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive (24 January 1944 – 17 February 1944);
    • Rovno–Lutsk Offensive (27 January 1944 – 11 February 1944) in Western Ukraine;
    • Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive (30 January 1944 – 29 February 1944).
  • 24 January – 16 February 1944 Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy (Korsun–Cherkasy pocket)
  • 4 March – 17 April 1944 Battle of the Kamenets–Podolsky pocke (or Hube Pocket) -- The Red Army successfully created a pocket, trapping some 220,000 German soldiers inside. With the Soviet 1st Tank Army crossing the Dniester river and reaching Chernivtsi near the Carpathian Mountains, the 1st Panzer Army's links with the 8th Army in the south had been cut off. As a result, Army Group South was effectively split into two – north and south of Carpathians. The northern portion was renamed to Army Group North Ukraine, while the southern portion to Army Group South Ukraine, which was effective from 5 April 1944, although very little of Ukraine remained in German hands. As a result of this split, the Soviets had cut the main supply lifeline of Army Group South, the Lviv–Odessa railway. Now, the southern group of German forces would have to use the long roundabout route through the Balkans, with all of the supplies being rerouted over the Romanian railroads, which were in poor condition.
  • 22 June – 19 August 1944 Operation Bagration aka the the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation
    • 13 July – 29 August 1944 Lvov–Sandomierz offensive
    • 18 July – 2 August 1944 Lublin–Brest offensive
  • 1–4 August 1944 The Battle of Radzymin may be the reason that Red Army failed to provide support to the Polish Warsaw Uprising that occurred 1 August – 2 October 1944
• 18 to 20 May 1944 -- Soviet deportation of the Crimean Tatars and subsequent De-Tatarization of Crimea. Lavrentiy Beria, head of the Soviet state security and secret police ordered the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimean peninsula on behalf of Joseph Stalin, resulting in the ethnic cleansing of the region. As a result, this region was now predominantly ethnically Russian.
• 9 October to 19 October 1944 negotiation meeting in Moscow between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin dividing up the postwar Europe into Western and Soviet spheres of influence.

1945 -- end of WWII

• 4–11 February 1945 -- Yalta Conference held in Crimea among President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin.
• May 1945 -- End of WWII as Germany surrenders and fighting stops in Eastern Europe.
• 17 July – 2 August 1945 Potsdam Conference held in Potsdam, Germany to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace. Potsdam Agreement signed 1 August 1945.

Post-War 1940s

• 1945 to 1947 -- Forced repatriation of citizens of the Soviet Union via Operation Keelhaul. This was done despite the official statement of the British Foreign Office policy after the Yalta Conference, that only Soviet citizens who had been such after 1 September 1939, were to be compelled to return to the Soviet Union or handed over to Soviet officials in other locations (see Repatriation of Cossacks after World War II). Many were sent to the Gulags.
• March 1946 all People's Commissariats were renamed to Ministries. The NKVD became the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). the NKVD / MVD continued to administer / house prisoners in special camps in Germany until 1950 (at which point they were turned over to the East Germans). A total of ten camps existed, set up in former Nazi concentration camps, former stalags, barracks, or prisons.
• NKVD special camp Nr. 1 in the former Stalag IV-B near Mühlberg[
• NKVD special camp Nr. 2 in Buchenwald
• NKVD special camp Nr. 3 in Hohenschönhausen[1] (later Stasi-Arbeitslager X)
• NKVD special camp Nr. 4 in Bautzen (since 1948 Nr. 3)
• NKVD special camp Nr. 5 in Ketschendorf / Fürstenwalde
• NKVD special camp Nr. 6 in Jamlitz near Lieberose
• NKVD special camp Nr. 7 in Weesow near Werneuchen (until August 1945) and Sachsenhausen (since August 1945)
• NKVD special camp Nr. 8 in Torgau[1] (Fort Zinna)
• NKVD special camp Nr. 9 in Fünfeichen, Neubrandenburg
• NKVD special camp Nr. 10 in Torgau[1] (Seydlitz-Kaserne)

• February 21, 1948 MVD establishes special camps for political prisoners as part of the Gulag system. Many would last until the death of Stalin in the early 1950s.

1950s

• 1953 -- Joseph Stalin dies, leading to De-Stalinization. Monuments to Stalin were removed or toppled, his name was removed from places, buildings, and the state anthem, and his body was removed from the Lenin Mausoleum (from 1953 to 1961 known as Lenin and Stalin Mausoleum) and buried. Many political prisoners were released or "rehabilitated" rather than be held in gulag labor camps.
• 1954 -- Transfer of Crimea from Russian SFSR to Ukraine SSR by Nikita Khrushchev --

1960s

• 1961 -- as a part of the rebuilding of Kiev, a Hotel Moscow (present day Hotel Ukraine) opens, built as a replacement of the Ginzburg house that had been destroyed during WWII.
• 13 March 1961 -- A dam near the Babi Yar ravine (outside of Kiev) collapses, causing the Kurenivka mudslide
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", about a typical day in the life of a Gulag inmate, was originally published in the most prestigious Soviet monthly, Novy Mir (New World), in November 1962, but was soon banned and withdrawn from all libraries.
• After folk collections were separated from the central art collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine in 1954, the folk collections National Folk Decorative Art Museum is opened in Kiwv in 1964.
• 14 October 1964 -- the Khrushchev Thaw ends, as Leonid Brezhnev implements Real socialism (taking loans from the Paris Club, engaging in Soviet-type economic planning, increased military expenditure over consumer goods and other economic spheres) and begins the Era of Stagnation
• 1966 -- Kremenchuk Oil Refinery opens in n Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast.
• 1968 -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn finishes The Gulag Archipelago manuscript and despite Soviet repression, he is able to have it smuggled out of country for publication by 1973.

1970s

• 1972 Construction begins on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (completed in 1977). The nearby Polissya hotel is built in [[Pripyat] to house delegations and guests visiting the plant.
• 1975 the initial, Pravoberezhna line, of the Kyiv Light Rail opens in Kiev.

1980s

• May 1981 -- foundation of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War
• Rapid secession of USSR leadership. -- When Brezhnev died in 1982, his position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died quickly after taking power. Andropov was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko, who ruled for little more than a year. Chernenko was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. Under Gorbachev, a new era of Perestroika and Glasnost was instituted primarily to fix structural problems with the Soviet economy.
• 26 April 1986 -- Chernobyl disaster
  • the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukraine SSR.
  • Despite fallout travelling through the air to Kyiv, the Moscow leadership declared that there was no reason to postpone the 1 May International Workers' Day celebrations in Kyiv (including the annual parade).
  • May 1 1986 -- the Pripyat amusement park was scheduled to have opened on this date, but officially never did.
  • On 2 May 1986 the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was established as an area of a 30-kilometre (19 mi) radius from Reactor 4.
  • this incident did much to delegitimize the power of both the Communist Party and Volodymyr Shcherbytsky locally, after he ordered the children of the central committee and the Communist Party away from Kyiv to the Caucausus, while the city celebrated May Day. It also put Ukraine back on the world map, as the disaster was seen as an ecologically problem not only locally, but potentially globally as well. The tragedy also started mobilizing the diaspora.

• 1987 -- foundation of the Museum of Outstanding Figures of Ukrainian Culture in Kiev.
• 7 to 30 July 1987 --

1990s

• July 16, 1990 -- The newly elected parliament adopted a Ukraine's Declaration of Sovereignty, declaring that Ukrainian SSR laws took precedence over the laws of the USSR, that the Ukrainian SSR would maintain its own army and its own national bank with the power to introduce its own currency, and that it had the "intention of becoming a permanently neutral state that does not participate in military blocs and adheres to three nuclear free principles"
• 1991 -- Ukranian Independence
  • On March 11, 1990, Lithuania declared its independence from the USSR, and Latvia and Estonia were actively preparing for the restoration of independence. On the streets of Ukrainian cities, the Ukrainian Interparty Assembly had already registered citizens of the Ukrainian People's Republic
  • on March 17, 1991, the Ukrainian sovereignty referendum was conducted, as part of the first and only Soviet Union referendum. Throughout the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, voters were asked two questions on remaining part of the Soviet Union on New Union Treaty terms.
  • Following the failed August Coup in Moscow on 19–21 August 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine declared independence on 24 August 1991, which renamed the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to Ukraine.
  • On 1 December 1991, A 1991 independence referendum was held, with the results proving to be a surprise: An overwhelming majority, 92.3%, voted for independence.
• 1992 -- Basketball Federation of Ukraine and Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague founded after the revolution.
• 28 June 1996 -- Constitution of Ukraine signed, officially replacing the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic which had been in place since 1991.
• May 28, 1997 -- Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet -- consists of three bilateral agreements[2] between Russia and Ukraine signed on 28 May 1997 whereby the two countries established two independent national fleets, divided armaments and bases between them,[3][4] and set forth conditions for basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. The treaty was supplemented by provisions in the Russian–Ukrainian Friendship Treaty, which was signed three days later Kyiv on 31 May 1997 by the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

2000s

• Orange Revolution
• May 22, 2006 -- Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex opens on the grounds of a former ammunition arsenal. Its stated mission is to modernize Ukrainian society through raising awareness of social issues, fostering communication with the international community, and introducing outstanding local and international artists to the world.

2010s

• 21 November 2013 – 23 February 2014 -- Euromaidan protests sparked by the Ukrainian government's sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union
• 18–23 February 2014 -- Revolution of Dignity results in the ousting of elected President Viktor Yanukovych from office.
• 20 February - 26 March 2014 -- [[[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation]]
• 27 February 2014 -- Capture of the Crimean Parliament leading to the Russo-Ukrainian War

2020s

• 24 February 2022 -- Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This included the capture of Chernobyl and a Kyiv offensive (2022). At the same time, Russian trains began derailing at a high rate.
• List of military engagements during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
• On 30 September 2022, Ukraine formally applied to join NATO, following Russia's annexation of Southern and Eastern Ukraine.