History of Ukraine and Kyiv
Kyiv is ancient city with long and interesting history.
Firstly it was the capital of Kyivian Rus - medieval state rulled by Rurickovichs dynasty, pre-modern ancestor of nowadays Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. This state could be compared with Carolingians Empire on French, German and Italian lands.
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| Silver coins of Kyivian Rus |
The political core of Kyivian Rus was here, in Ukraine (under "Ukraine" word in those times were ment lands on steppe and forest border), such as Kyiv and Chernihiv sities. Both of them are great to visit. But I'll tell about Kyiv - political, religion and culture center of medieval Eastern Europe.
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| St. Sophia Cathedral |
Kyivian Rus was devided on different states during feudal period. There were aristocratic republics (such as Novhorod, nowadays Russia), a lot of duchies (Polotsk, Belarus) and principalities (Chernihiv or Galich, Ukraine), tribes (Baltic, Slavic and Finnish) and nomad hordes (Turks).
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| Kyivian Rus map |
But the header was Grand Prince of Kyiv (like an emperor in Carolingians state). The most famous one is Volodymyr the Great who baptised all his state to Greek (Bysantine) Faith.
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| Prince Volodymyr monument |
Kyiv became the Metropolitan city of all Rus state. There are a lot of ancient and beautiful Orthodox churches of that period -
St. Sophia Cathedral,
Pechersk Monastery,
Vydubych Monastery et cetera.
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| St. Michael church in Vydubych Monastery |
Actually, most of them were rebuild in XVII century in Ukrainian barocco style. But there are still ancient Greek-style mosaics and frescoes.
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| Mosaics in St. Sophia |
After Mongols invasion, Kyivian Principality became just one of other feudal states. It became a vassal of Golden Horde and then - Grand Prince of Lithuania.
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| Coins of Kyivian Principality |
After all, Kyiv became a part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In the 1632 Metropolitan of Rus
Petro Mohyla (Metropolitan Peter) founded
Kyiv Academy - the first high education center in the region. It became a cultural center of all Orthodox Slavic world - from Moscow to Serbia.
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| Petro Mohyla (Metropolitan Peter) |
The next period in Kyiv history is related to people named Cossacks. Their ancestors were non-aristocrate warriors and soldiers who served to local dukes and princes. But after Ukraine became a part of Poland, there were no place for such kind of people - they had to become noble or servant according to Polish Law. And a big part of them desided to live on the steppe frontier between Crimean Khanate and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a few decades, they were known under name "Cossacks" and became strong military power - "The Zaporizhyan Army".
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| Barocco refectory in St. Michael Monastery |
The literature face of Cossacks you can read in books of
Mycola Hohol. He was a Cossack descendant and wrote in Russian such books as "Taras Bulba", "Viy", "A Terrible Venigence" et cetera.
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| Mycola Hohol |
In the middle XVII century there was a big Ukrainian uprising against Poles domination under leading of Rus-Ukrainian nobleman and Сossack Bohdan Chmelnytskiy. Ukrainian nobles were mostly loyal to Polish government. The main military power of Ukrainians were Cossacks.
They were succed to build an own state. They called it "Little Rus" (as a remember that Kyiv and Chernihiv were political core of Rus), "Ukraine", "Hetmanate" or "The Zaporizhyan Army". This state was headed by Hetmann - military Сossack leader.
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| Cossack hetmanate state |
This state was not really independent - it was a vassal of Poland, Turkey,
Sweden, Moscow. But, as Deniel Defoe wrote about Hetmann Ivan Mazeppa in "An Impartial History of the Life and Actions of Peter...":
Mazeppa was not a King in Title, he was a King in Power, and every way Equal if not Superior to King [of Poland] Augustus
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| Hetman Mazeppa |
It means that in fact Hetmans were quite independent monarchs.
This period became a golden age of Сossack (or Ukrainian) barocco style. There are a big number of barocco churches and other buldings in this style all around country - Chernihiv, Kozelets, Hlukhiv, Poltava and Kyiv, of course.
But after all, Ukraine lost it independence and authonomy. Cossacks got Russian Nobility status. Ukrainians (Little Russian), Belorussians and Moscovites (Great Russians) were proclaimed as one Russian nation. But a lot of Ukrainians ("Little Russians") still recognised themselves as separated people from Russians ("Great Russians").
In XIX century Kyiv became a financial center of region. A lot of neo-Renessance, neo-Gothic, neo-classic, modern building were created.
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| National University, Vincenzo Beretti |
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| Pedagogical museum, Paul Alyoshyn |
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| St. Sophia Square |
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| The house on Liuteranska street |
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| The house on Yaroslaviv Val street |
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| National Bank, Vlad Horodetsky |
There is house in Ukrainian modern style on Pankivska street:
In the period of Russian revolution, Ukraine was trying to get independence. Ukrainian socialists tried to build a republic, but Ukrainian aristocrates leaded by hetman Paul Skoropadsky wanted to rebuild Hetmanate.
As a result, Soviet Russia occupied Ukraine and gave formal independence but in fact it was only authonomy. The capital of Soviet Ukraine was Kharkiv firstly. And left-winged Ukrainian culture center was there for a few decades.
But than Kiyv became the capital of Ukraine again. And it was time of Stalin comunist dictatorship. As in fascist Italy, it was period of neo-classic and neo-barocco styles in monument arts. The government wanted people feel small and weak. So, there are examples of this architecture:
And neo-barocco main street of Kyiv, Khreshchatyk:
Kyiv Art Museum
Kyiv has a lot of Art museums. But my favourite one and the most "Kyivian" museum is Kyiv National Art Museum.
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| O. Murashko. Girl in the red hat. |
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| M. Pymonenko. Cossack is going to campaign |
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| Neo-Byzantine picture by M. Boychuk |
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| David Burliuk. "Alley in the park" |
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| Alexander Bohomazov |
This is the one of the main streets in Kyiv. It has beautiful artchitecture, restaurants, theaters, street merchants and painters.
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"Theater on Podol".
"Podol" is one of historical areas in Kyiv |
Ukrainian Kyiv Cuisine
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| Borscht |
Than my advice is "varenyky" (boiled dough with different fillings) and "salo" (pig fat; a bit looks like toscanian lardo).
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| Salo |
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| Varenyky |
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| Сhicken Kyiv |
And there is fast food "perepichka" in Kyiv - kind of Hot Dog.
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| Perepichka |
My favourite restaurants in Kyiv -
"Ostannia Barycada" and
"Varenyky now". You can taste mentioned dishes there. Except "perepichka" - there is a special place for this.
"Kanapa" restoraunt on Andrew's Descent is high level, too.
"Kanapa" ,
"Ostannia Barycada" and
"Varenyky now" belong to the same owner, but be sure, it's not advertisement. I really like it.
Nowadays
After crash of Soviet Union, Ukraine finally got independence. By the way, we product the biggest aiplane in the world here in Kyiv - "Mriya" ("The Dream"):
Nowadays we are still fighting for independence. There was Revolution of Maidan against pro-Russian president Yanukovich, and then - Russians annexated Crimea and invaded to Eastern Ukraine.
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| Maidan revolution picture |
Thanks to our soldieres, the EU and the US sanctions, front line is far away from Kyiv.
