What do you know about... Ukraine?

[u/MarktpLatz]

This is the eleventh part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Todays country:

Ukraine

Ukraine is the largest country that is completely on the european continent. The Ungarian people's republic was founded in 1917, the ukrainian state in 1918. It later became part of the soviet union and finally got independent in 1991. Currently, Ukraine is facing military combat with russia-backed rebels and the crimean peninsula was completely annexed by Russia. Ukraine will host the next eurovision song contest.

So, what do you know about Ukraine?

[u/[deleted]]

Unfortunetly it's not a country I know much about, but here's a few things (I think) I know. It's mostly history-related stuff:

• The Rus' - coming from somewhere near lake Ladoga in Russia - traveled/traded by using rivers, including the Dnieper. They took Kyiv in the 2nd half of the 800s and founded the Kievan Rus'. This would expand and cover a lot of Eastern Europe
• Volodymyr the Great converted to Orthodox Christianity by late 900s, supposedly because both Catholicism and Islam wouldn't let him get shit faced with alcohol. A sensible choice
• Proximity to the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines) influenced their early culture and architecture
• Attacked by Pechenegs and other Turkic groups, finally overran by Mongols.
• After the Mongols were given the boot, Poles/Lithuanians took control of most of the territory. They were Catholic, but in the end most people remained Orthodox
• Cossacks originated as people who fled oppression and adopted a freer lifestyle (I believe that's the origin of the word 'cossack') based on nomadic traditions from the steppe. As far as I know most people were welcomed to join, under certain conditions, ie Orthodox Christianity
• The Zaporozhian Sich formed their own political identity and fought numerous wars against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for the liberation of their territories
• The Zaporozhian gave a badass response to an Ottoman Sultan who demanded their submission
• Ukraine was subject to Russification, making the language mostly common in rural areas than within cities. This is still felt today causing issues in the political integrity of the country/society. I still do not know how insulting it is to address an Ukrainian in Russian, if at all
• Holodomor
• Migration was/is rather common, there's a significant community here in Portugal that's either the 2nd or 3rd largest in the country
• Ukrainians seem to be very hardworking and proficient at learning languages

[u/MrBIMC → u/[deleted]]

This is still felt today causing issues in the political integrity of the country/society. I still do not know how insulting it is to address an Ukrainian in Russian, if at all

1. I can't say it causes political issues, it only appears on the news when some populist party of any vector wants to score some points by forcefully promoting ukrainian or bravely defending russian language against inexistent threat.

2. In everyday life nobody cares what language you speak. Everyone knows both. Only case when you really have to use Ukrainian is in mandatory Ukrainian class in school and in national exams. And sometimes you also need Ukrainian to fill some legal forms. But that's pretty much it.

Ukrainians seem to be very hardworking and proficient at learning languages

I guess it's a bonus of being raised bilingual. Though I'd say this proficiency mostly applies to other slav languages (i.e. Polish and Czech), learning Romance or Germanic language still feels tough af.

[u/[deleted] → u/MrBIMC]

From my personal experience I can say that Ukrainians pick up Portuguese pretty quickly, I'm yet to meet one that didn't have basic fluency, and some spoke really well, and with a very understandable accent. Obviously my experience might be anedoctal evidence, but it's what I've got