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Kiev (Kyiv) - History |
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Archaeological
excavations show evidence of the first settlements on the
territory of Kiev 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Legend has it that at the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th
centuries, three brothers, Kiy, Shchek, and Khoriv, and their sister,
Lybid, founded a town and named it after their elder brother Kiy, as
"Kyiv". The evolution of Kiev into a city is indivisible from
the development of the old Kievan- Rus feudal state. Legends and
historical documents describe courageous Kievites defending their city
over the ages against the Khazars and Pechenegs, Polovtsi, Tartars, and
Mongols, Lithuanian and Polish feudal lords, the Duchy of Muscovy, and the
Russian Empire. The
early settlers of Kiev built their first citadel on the steep right bank
of the Dnipro River to protect themselves from marauding nomadic tribes.
Later, Kiev's Grand Princes built their palaces and churches on
Starokievska
Hill, while artisans and merchants built their
houses next to the wharf on the Dnieper. By the end of the 9th century,
when the Kievan-Rus princes united scattered Slavic tribes, Kiev was the
political centre of the Eastern Slavs. Kiev maintained wide for links due
to its position in the middle of trade routes between the Vikings and the
Greeks. Kiev's development accelerated during the reign of Prince
Volodymir the Great (980 - 1015). In 988, intent on strengthening his
power on the broader international arena, Volodymir introduced
Christianity as the establishment of political and cultural relations with
the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, and other countries of Western
Europe and the Near East. By the 11th century, Kiev was one of the largest
centres of civilization in the Christian World. It boasted over 400
churches, eight markets and nearly 50,000 inhabitants. In comparison,
Novgorod, Rus' second largest city, had a population of 30,000. London,
Hamburg and Gdansk each had around 20,000.
In
the 14th century, the Kiev region became the cradle for the birth of the
modern Ukrainian nation. In
the 15th century, Kiev was granted the "Magdenburg Rights",
which permitted greater independence of the city in matters of
international commerce. In 1569, Poland and Lithuania united into what was
known as the Rzecz Pospolita Commonwealth. This led to the establishment
of the rule of the Polish and Lithuanian nobility in Ukraine. Repression
by the foreign nobility eventually inspired resistance from the Ukrainian
people.
In 1648, led by the Ukrainian Cossack Hetman
(military leader) Bohdan Khmelnitsky, the people began an uprising that
liberated Kiev and larger areas of Ukraine. Later, faced with ravaging
attacks by the armies of Polish and Lithuanian feudal lords from the West,
the Turkish Sultan and the Crimean Khan from the South, Hetman Khmelnitsky
was forced to seek military assistance by the Russian Czar. The union of
Ukraine and Russia was formalized by the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654).
Afterwards, Ukraine plunged into a long period of domination by the
Russian Empire. Despite repression and severe Czarist autocratic rule,
17th and 18th century Kiev still managed to preserve some niches of
political, economic, cultural, and religious development. Ukrainian
culture continued to flourish around institutions like the Kiev Mohila
Academia. Ukrainian scholars based in Kiev earned a strong reputation in
Moscow and elsewhere in the Russian Empire. By the 18th century, Kiev,
with its hundreds of churches, the world-known Pechersk Lavra Monastery,
Saint Sophia's Cathedral a number of other
monasteries and convents, became the Russian Empire's centre of worship
and symbol of Orthodox Christianity. After the social reforms of 1861,
which did away with some of the worst aspects of serfdom in Russia and
Ukraine, some improvements occurred in Kiev's cultural and economic
communities. The number of hospitals and educational establishments
increased. After the construction of the Odessa-Kursk railroad in the
1860's and the development of shipping on the Dnipro River, Kiev became a
major transportation and trade centre. Transactions at Kiev's grain and
sugar exchanges influenced world prices for food products. The first
electric streetcar line in the Russian Empire was built in Kiev in 1892.
Home and foreign business communities readily invested Kiev's industries.
Military and political power in Kiev changed numerous times in the years
following the Bolshevik's overthrow of Russia's Czars during the October
Revolution in 1917. Between 1917 and 1921, three successive governments of
an independent but constantly besieged Ukrainian State were based in Kiev.
On January 22,1918, the Ukrainian Central Rada (Council), led by historian
Mikhaylo Hrushevsky, formally proclaimed Ukraine's independence. One of
the first countries to officially recognize Ukraine's independence was
Russia, who was trying to solidify its grasp over what was soon to become
the U.S.S.R. Shortly thereafter, Russia's Red Army, led by Vladimir
Antonov-Ovseyenko, attacked Ukraine. In
1919, amid great fanfare, the Ukrainian People's Republic, led by
journalist Simon Petliura, formally united with the West Ukrainian
People's
Republic (which was part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire) based in Lviv. This union of Ukraine's lands proved to be short
lived as the Red Army forced the West Ukrainian National Government’s
Army lost the war against Polish expansionists, while the Kiev- based
Ukrainian Army out of Ukraine. Soon after, Ukraine was officially
incorporated into the Soviet Union. Under Stalin, tile Ukrainian
political, social, economic and cultural fabric was atomised through
totalitarian terror, involving massive purges, executions, and the exile
of millions to the infamous labour camps of Siberia's "Gulag".
During World War II, Kiev again was heavily damaged. For 72 days its
citizens defended the city and Soviet troops against the invading Nazis. On
July 6, 1990, the legislature proclaimed Ukraine's sovereignty. In August
1991, a failed three-day military coup of the Kremlin's would-be dictators
led to the Declaration of Independence by the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament)
on August 24. On December 1, in a nationwide referendum, 93% of Ukraine's
citizens voted for an independent Ukraine and chose Leonid Makatovich
Kravchuk, former communist ideologist, as their first democratically
elected President. On July 10, 1994, Leonid Kuchma, former director of the
world's biggest rocket plant, defeated Leonid Kravchuk to become the
second President of independent Ukraine
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After
the death of the great Kievan Prince Vladimir Monomakh (1125), Kievan Rus
became involved in a long period of feudal wars. Foreign powers were quick
to take advantage of this situation. In the autumn of 1240, the
Tartar-Mongols headed by Batu-Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, captured
Kiev after a series of long and bloody battles. Thousands of people were
killed and much of the city was razed. Kiev fell into a prolonged period
of decline. The Tartar- Mongols ruled for almost a century. Despite
foreign rule, Kiev retained its artisan, trade, and cultural traditions of
ancient Kievan-Rus and remained an important political, trade and cultural
centre. 
On September 19, 1941, Nazi troops entered Kiev. The Nazis also built two
concentration camps for civilians and Paw's near Kiev. During this period,
over 200,000 people were killed and over 100,000 were deported to Germany
for forced labour. Kiev was liberated on November 6,1943, by Soviet
troops. Soon after celebrating the defeat of Hitler's Germany, Ukraine
learned that "liberation" by the Soviet Army meant a different
kind of dictatorship. The post war years in Kiev were marked by intensive
restoration of the damage caused during the war. The city began to dress
its wounds. Politically, however, new waves of Stalinist terror again tore
at the Ukrainian social fabric, with more purges, executions, and mass
exiles to the Gulag. As the worst features of the Stalinist police state
began to dissipate during Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's leadership, the
Kremlin intensified its policy of "Russification", barring the
Ukrainian language from government, education, courts and so on, pursuant
to the theory that the "Soviet peoples" would become better
unified if they adopted the Russian language and culture. With so many
economic and social disincentives at work, the policy itself worked
amazingly well, and new habit, especially in Kiev and other large cities
of central and eastern Ukraine. Increasing political impotence of Soviet
leadership marked the 1980’s. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident
of April 26,1986, brings back painful memories for all Ukrainians. This
disaster caused tens of thousands of deaths and health related problems,
and inflicted enormous ecological and 