Ukraina

1. Ukraina

4. Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, Johann Baptiste Homann (Nuremberg, 1720) Euromaidan protest in Kyiv, 18 February 2014

5. Ukraina Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country by area in Europe after Russia, which it borders to the east and north-east. Ukraine also shares borders with Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the south; and has a coastline along the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. It spans an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi). With a population of 43.6 million, Ukraine is the eighth-most populous country in Europe. The nation's capital and largest city is Kyiv. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the loose tribal federation Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Reaching its height in the mid-11th century, during which it was among the richest and largest realms in Europe, Kievan Rus' gradually declined until its collapse from the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Over the next 600 years, the area was contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of powers, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Tsardom of Russia. March 2014 and the War in Donbas the following month, a protracted conflict with Russian-backed separatists that culminated in a Russian invasion in February 2022. Ukraine has continued seeking closer economic, political, and military ties with the West amid continuing war with Russia.

6. Kiev Kyiv is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north- central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. The city's name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, one of its four legendary founders. During its history, Kyiv, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of prominence and obscurity. The city probably existed as a commercial center as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the great trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kyiv was a tributary of the Khazars, until its capture by the Varangians (Vikings) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state. Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasions in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first Lithuania, then Poland and ultimately Russia. The city prospered again during the Russian Empire's Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. In 1918, after the Ukrainian People's Republic declared independence from Soviet Russia, Kyiv became its capital. From 1921 onwards, Kyiv was a city of Soviet Ukraine, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, and, from 1934, Kyiv was its capital. The city was almost completely ruined during World War II but quickly recovered in the postwar years, remaining the Soviet Union's third-largest city.

7. The first known humans in the region of Kyiv lived there in the late paleolithic period (Stone Age). The population around Kyiv during the Bronze Age formed part of the so-called Trypillian culture, as evidenced by artifacts from that culture found in the area. Kiev

9. In March 1169, Grand Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal sacked Kyiv, leaving the old town and the prince's hall in ruins. He took many pieces of religious artwork - including the Theotokos of Vladimir icon - from nearby Vyshhorod. In 1203, Prince Rurik Rostislavich and his Kipchak allies captured and burned Kyiv. In the 1230s, the city was besieged and ravaged several times by different Rus princes. The city had not recovered from these attacks when, in 1240, the Mongol invasion of Rus', led by Batu Khan, completed the destruction of Kyiv. Kyiv had had a reputation as one of the largest cities in the world, with a population exceeding 100,000 in the beginning of the 12th century. The Baptism of Kyivans, a painting by Klavdiy Lebedev

10. In the early 1320s, a Lithuanian army led by Grand Duke Gediminas defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kyiv at the Battle on the Irpen' River and conquered the city. The Tatars, who also claimed Kyiv, retaliated in 1324–1325, so while Kyiv was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to pay tribute to the Golden Horde. Finally, as a result of the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, incorporated Kyiv and surrounding areas into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1482, Crimean Tatars sacked and burned much of Kyiv. With the 1569 (Union of Lublin), when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was established, the Lithuanian-controlled lands of the Kyiv region (Podolia, Volhynia, and Podlachia) were transferred from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and Kyiv became the capital of Kyiv Voivodeship. Cossack Bohdan Khmelnytsky entering Kyiv after the Khmelnytsky Uprising against Polish domination. Painting by Mykola Ivasiuk

12. Occupied by Russian troops since the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav, Kyiv became a part of the Tsardom of Russia from 1667 on the Truce of Andrusovo and enjoyed a degree of autonomy. None of the Polish-Russian treaties concerning Kyiv have ever been ratified. In the Russian Empire, Kyiv was a primary Christian centre, attracting pilgrims, and the cradle of many of the empire's most important religious figures, but until the 19th century, the city's commercial importance remained marginal. The 1686 city map of Kyiv ("Kiovia")

13. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian military and ecclesiastical authorities dominated city life the Russian Orthodox Church had involvement in a significant part of Kyiv's infrastructure and commercial activity. In the late 1840s the historian, Mykola Kostomarov (Russian: Nikolay Kostomarov), founded a secret political society, the Brotherhood of Saint Cyril and Methodius, whose members put forward the idea of a federation of free Slavic peoples with Ukrainians as a distinct and separate group rather than a subordinate part of the Russian nation; the Russian authorities quickly suppressed the society. Following the gradual loss of Ukraine's autonomy, Kyiv experienced growing Russification in the 19th century by means of Russian migration, administrative actions and social modernization. At the beginning of the 20th century the Russian-speaking part of the population dominated the city centre, while the lower classes living on the outskirts retained Ukrainian folk culture to a significant extent.[citation needed] However, enthusiasts among ethnic Ukrainian nobles, military and merchants made recurrent attempts to preserve native culture in Kyiv, by clandestine book-printing, amateur theatre, folk studies etc.

14. During the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century, Kyiv became an important trade and transportation centre of the Russian Empire, specialising in sugar and grain export by railway and on the Dnieper river. By 1900, the city had also become a significant industrial centre, having a population of 250,000. Landmarks of that period include the railway infrastructure, the foundation of numerous educational and cultural facilities, and notable architectural monuments (mostly merchant-oriented). In 1892, the first electric tram line of the Russian Empire started running in Kyiv (the 3rd in the world). In 1934, Kyiv became the capital of Soviet Ukraine. The city boomed again during the years of Soviet industrialization as its population grew rapidly and many industrial giants were established, some of which exist today. In World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, and Nazi Germany occupied it from 19 September 1941 to 6 November 1943. Axis forces killed or captured more than 600,000 Soviet soldiers in the great encirclement Battle of Kyiv in 1941. Most of those captured never returned alive.[99] Shortly after the Wehrmacht occupied the city, a team of NKVD officers who had remained hidden dynamited most of the buildings on the Khreshchatyk, the main street of the city, where German military and civil authorities had occupied most of the buildings; the buildings burned for days and 25,000 people were left homeless. Kyiv prospered during the late 19th century Industrial Revolution in the Russian Empire, when it became the third most important city of the Empire and the major centre of commerce of its southwest. In the turbulent period following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Kyiv became the capital of several successive Ukrainian states and was caught in the middle of several conflicts: World War I, during which German soldiers occupied it from 2 March 1918 to November 1918, the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922, and the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921. During the last three months of 1919, Kyiv was intermittently controlled by the White Army. Kyiv changed hands sixteen times from the end of 1918 to August 1920. From 1921 to 1991, the city formed part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. The major events that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the interwar period all affected Kyiv: the 1920s Ukrainization as well as the migration of the rural Ukrainophone population made the Russophone city Ukrainian-speaking and bolstered the development of Ukrainian cultural life in the city Ruins of Kyiv during World War II

15. Kyiv recovered economically in the post-war years, becoming once again the third-most important city of the Soviet Union. The catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 occurred only 100 km (62 mi) north of the city. However, the prevailing south wind blew most of the radioactive debris away from Kyiv. In the course of the collapse of the Soviet Union the Ukrainian parliament proclaimed the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in the city on 24 August 1991. In 2004–2005, the city played host to the largest post-Soviet public demonstrations up to that time, in support of the Orange Revolution. From November 2013 until February 2014, central Kyiv became the primary location of Euromaidan. Euromaidan was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on the night of 21 November 2013 with public protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend the signing of the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and the Second Azarov Government. The protests were fueled by the perception of "widespread government corruption", "abuse of power", and "violation of human rights in Ukraine". Transparency International named President Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The situation escalated after the violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November, leading to many more protesters joining. The protests led to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, known as the Revolution of Dignity. Euromaidan collage. Clockwise from top left: A large EU flag is waved across Maidan on 27 November 2013, opposition activist popular singer Ruslana addresses the crowds on Maidan on 29 November 2013, Pro EU rally on Maidan, Euromaidan on European Square on 1 December, tree decorated with flags and posters, crowds direct hose at militsiya, plinth of the toppled Lenin statue

16. Lviv Lviv is the largest city in western Ukraine and the sixth-largest city in the country overall, with a population of 717,510 (2021 est.) Lviv is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Named in honour of Leo, the eldest son of Daniel, King of Ruthenia, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1349, when it was conquered by King Casimir III the Great of Poland. From 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1772, after the First Partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. In 1918, for a short time, it was the capital of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Between the wars, the city was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. After the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Lviv became part of the Soviet Union, and in 1944–46 there was a population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine. In 1991, it became part of the independent nation of Ukraine. Administratively, Lviv serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion and had the status of city of oblast significance before that designation was abolished in 2020. It has the administration of Lviv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine.

17. Flag of Lviv

20. Gammalsvenskby (local Swedish dialect: Gammölsvänskbi; literally: "Old Swedish Village"; Ukrainian: Старошведське, romanized: Staroshvedske; German: Alt-Schwedendorf) is a former village that is now a neighbourhood of Zmiivka (Ukrainian: Зміївка) in Beryslav Raion of Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. It was briefly known as Verbivka (Ukrainian: Вербівка) prior to being integrated with Zmiivka. Gammalsvenskby is known for its Swedish cultural heritage. Resettlement of Estonian Swedes and founding of Gammalsvenskby The population of Gammalsvenskby traces its origins to Hiiumaa (Dagö) in present-day Estonia, once a part of the Duchy of Estonia. Under the Treaty of Nystad, the island was among the territory ceded to the Russian Empire in 1721 at the end of the Great Northern War. A few decades later, a portion of the peasant population in conflict with the local aristocracy, answered Catherine the Great's 1762 ukase calling for settlers in Novorossiya on territory newly conquered from the Ottoman Empire; today this land is in Southern Ukraine. Enticed by promises of new fertile land along the Dnieper, about 1,200 people departed Dagö on 20 August 1780 and trekked overland to Novorossiya, arriving on 1 May 1781. Only about 400 Swedes remained behind in Dagö. Regardless of the impetus, the outcome of this mass migration was disastrous. Of the 1,200 villagers who left Estonia, only 900 made it to Novorossiya. On arrival, there was no trace of the houses they had expected to find. Moreover, during their first year in Ukraine, an even larger portion of the settlers died, mainly due to dysentery. That first year, 318 died along with another 116 the following year. By 1794, only 224 people remained in Gammalsvenskby. In 1802, the Russian government ordered all male Swedes to marry by the age of 30 in an effort to boost the population. From 1787 to 1805, German colonists were invited to Gammalsvenskby to bolster the region's population. The Germans referred to the area as the "Schwedengebiet" (Swede's District) and the village as "Alt- Schwedendorf". They soon founded three neighbouring villages: Schlangendorf, Mühlhausendorf, and Klosterdorf. With the arrival of these Germans, the Swedes were quickly outnumbered and eventually many of the area's pastors and teachers were German-speakers who did not know Swedish. Maintaining the Swedish heritage

21. Relocation attempt to Sweden Despite this, the people of Gammalsvenskby maintained their traditions, Church of Sweden Lutheran faith, and old Swedish dialect. At the end of the 19th century, some ties with Sweden were re-established with the Ukrainian Swedes viewed as a "lost tribe" that preserved older Swedish traditions, such as writing in runes and maintaining an older form of the Church of Sweden's liturgy. Prince Carl raised more than 6,000 rubles in Sweden and Finland to support construction of a new Swedish church in the village to replace the previous wooden church given by Prince Potemkin that burned in the mid-19th century. The new parish church of St. John opened in 1885. For a time, before the revolutions that followed World War I, visits from Sweden became frequent, and some villagers subscribed to Swedish newspapers. During the Russian Civil War, Gammalsvenskby was largely held by the Red Army, although the village did come under artillery fire from the White Army under General Anton Denikin. After fighting moved away from the villages in 1921, villagers sought aid from Sweden, including writing to Archbishop of Uppsala Nathan Söderblom. In 1922, the Swedish Red Cross led an expedition to Gammalsvenskby to provide aid and guidance in developing the region and its farmland. Under this plan, two new Swedish villages, Nysvenskby ("New Swedish Village") and Svenskåker ("Swedish Field"), were established in part to preserve their right to the land. The neighboring German villages similarly established additional outposts, Friedenheim and Neuklsoterdorf. Despite this, there were efforts by Russia to better integrate the Ukrainian Swedes with the Russian Empire. The original settlement plans exempted Ukrainian Swedes from conscription into the tsar's army, but this changed by the end of the 1800s and 130 men from Gammalsvenskby were inducted into the Russian army during World War Conflicts with Soviet authorities over taxation, collectivization policies, and the right to maintain their Lutheran faith increased the efforts by some villagers to seek return to Sweden. On 1 September 1927, 136 farmers from the village petitioned "the people of Sweden, Finland, and America" for aid to reunite them with their fellow Swedes. These efforts were not immediately embraced by Sweden's representative to Moscow, Carl Gerhard von Heidenstam [sv], who urged caution. On 28 June 1928, 429 villagers voted to emigrate back to Sweden under the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia's support for ethnic self-determination. On July 22, 1929, the Swedes of Gammalsvenskby who'd received an exit permit were brought downriver to Kherson on two steamers. From there, the Swedish Red Cross brought them on the cargo ship Firuzan to Constanța, Romania where the overland journey began.

22. The majority of the villagers stayed in Sweden, many of them settling in Gotland, as well as in Västergötland and Småland. In an effort to integrate these "ancient Swedes" with modern Sweden, officials did not allow them to stay in a single, common settlement. Instead, the government took a very paternalistic approach towards the Gammalsvenskby emigrants, requiring them to apprentice with established farmers to learn Swedish agricultural practices. About four months after arriving in Sweden, some emigrants requested to return to Ukraine. Peter Knutas and Waldemar Utas wrote to the Ukrainian SSR that the move to Sweden was a thoughtless step and sought permission for three families to return to Ukraine. Some emigrants also joined the Communist Party of Sweden in hope of reflecting their loyalty to Soviet authorities. The movement of Ukrainian Swedes — both to Sweden and then back to the Ukrainian SSR — was used for propaganda purposes by both anti-Soviet and pro-Soviet media. Soviet repression, Holodomor, and World War II In total, around 250 villagers chose to return to Gammalsvenskby. With the support of the Communist Party of Sweden, they established a minor collective farm called Röd Svenskby (Red Swedish Village). Life in the Soviet Union turned out to be hard. In 1929, the church in Gammalsvenskby was closed by the Soviet government. The famine of 1932–1933 renewed interest in the idea of returning to Sweden, and some villagers signed a list stating that they wanted to leave the country. This led to the arrest of 20 people by the secret police, the GPU. Five of them were sent to prison. Several villagers were killed in the Stalinist purge of the following years. 3,500 Scandinavian descendants living in the Southern Ukraine were accused of spying and sent with their families to katorga in Siberia and Karelia. Memorial to the 16 men and one woman from Gammalsvenskby who were killed or disappeared in the Stalinist purge of 1937–1938.

23. With the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the German army arrived in Gammalsvenskby on 25 August 1941 where the soldiers were welcomed as liberators. During the Nazis's three- year occupation, they granted the Swedish Ukrainians German citizenship and many of the men from Gammalsvenskby joined the German forces — both voluntarily and through conscription. As Soviet troops advanced in October 1943, Swedes and Germans were removed from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine under Germany's evacuation plans. Many evacuees from Gammalsvenskby ended up in Krotoschyn, in the German Warthegau that had been annexed from Poland. Nearly 150 residents of Gammalsvenskby were caught by Soviet authorities at the end of the war and sent to labor camps, but were allowed to return to Ukraine as early as 1947. Others managed to go to Sweden or directly back to Gammalsvenskby. Prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, contacts with Sweden and Canada were re-established, and in the 1990s the Church of Sweden, Gotland Municipality, and other Swedish organizations lent economic support and led relief efforts. Chumak, a Swedish-owned producer of oil, ketchup and canned food, was established in the nearby town of Kakhovka. In 2008, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia visited Zmiivka and Gammalsvenskby as part of a state visit to Ukraine. As of 2016, the village had only around 108 people who share a Swedish cultural heritage. Only a few of them still speak the local Swedish dialect fluently and German is often used instead. However, the Swedish heritage is reflected in Zmiivka's emblem, which incorporates the Swedish national symbol (the Tre Kronor), as well as a blue cross on a yellow field, which inverses the Swedish flag's colors. The former Swedish church in Gammalsvenskby. St John's Lutheran parish church has been rebuilt and serves as an Orthodox church today

24. Svenskbyborna kom från Dagö (Hiiumaa). År 1781 fotvandrade de till södra Ukraina och grundade Gammalsvenskby 1782 (marschvägen markerad med röd streckad linje på kartan ovan). Det är dock omtvistat om resan till Gammalsvenskby gick via Moskva.

25. Återkomsten till Sverige den 1 augusti 1929 till Trelleborg där prins Carl, president i Svenska Röda Korset, tog emot på kajen. Hemresan gjordes möjlig genom en nationalinsamling för att "få hem" svenskbyborna. Insamlingen inbringade närmare en miljon kr och en fond bildades. Pengarna kom att användas för rese-och inkvarteringskostnader, förvärv av jordbruksfastigheter mm. Dagösvenskarna Sedan åtminstone 1200-talet har det i det nuvarande Estlands kusttrakter och på de större öarna bott en svensktalande bondebefolkning. Befolkningen hade sin största utbredning under 1400- och 1500-talen. Dagö var i svensk besittning åren 1563–1721 och ön var länge ett viktigt centrum för svenskarna i Estland. I slutet av 1700-talet fanns där cirka 2 000. De var bland annat bosatta i byarna Malmas, Röicks, Buskby, Mutas och Hohenholm. Av dessa deporterades 1781 ungefär hälften till Ukraina av kejsarinnan Katarina II. De få som överlevde den långa vandringen till fots till Ukraina via Moskva grundade byn Gammalsvenskby. De kvarvarande svenskarna på Dagö bodde framförallt i området i och kring Kärrdal, där det fortfarande finns ett fåtal personer som betraktar sig som svenskar. Flertalet svenskar på Dagö uppgick emellertid antingen i den estnisktalande majoritetsbefolkningen eller flyttade över till Ormsö, när godset Hohenholm upplöstes under 1800-talet. Fortfarande är dock de estniska dialekterna på Dagö påverkade av svenskan i ännu högre grad än den estniska som talas på fastlandet.

26. Storhovet på Dagö En herrgård har funnits på platsen sedan 1500-talet och som bland varit i Jacob de la Gardies ägo. Nuvarande byggnad, en slottsliknande barockbyggnad, uppfördes 1755-1760 av familjen Stenbock.