Ukrainians

Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Українці, Ukrayintsi, [ukrɑˈjinʲtsʲi]) are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine (who may or may not be ethnic Ukrainians). Some 200 years ago and times prior to that, Ukrainians were usually referred to and known as Rusyny (Ukrainian: Русини, commonly translated as Ruthenians).

A 2002 study found that 57 percent of Ukrainians base their identity upon citizenship, 34 percent by ethnicity and 13 percent on language.

 

Locations

Main article: Ukrainian diaspora

Spread of Ukrainian language in the beginning of 20th century

Most ethnic Ukrainians live in Ukraine where they make up over three-quarters of the population. The largest Ukrainian community outside of Ukraine is in Russia, about 3 million Russian citizens consider themselves ethnic Ukrainians, while millions of others (primarily in southern Russia and Siberia) have some Ukrainian ancestry.

There are also almost 2.1 million of people of Ukrainian origin in North America (1.2 million in Canada and 890,000 in the United States). Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil (1,100,000), Kazakhstan (about 700,000), Moldova (450,000), Poland(estimates from 300,000 to 400,000), Argentina (305,000), Belarus (estimates from 250,000 to 300,000), Portugal (100,000),Romania (estimates from 60.000 to 90.000) and Slovakia (55,000). There are also Ukrainian diasporas in thethe UK, Australia,Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Sweden and former Yugoslavia.

 

Origins

Kievan Rus (11th c.)Halych-Volhynia (14th c.)Cossack Hetmanate (1649 - 1667)Population of Ukrainians in Ukraine (2001)Population of those whose mother tongue is Ukrainian in Ukraine (2001)

 

In antiquity, numerous nomadic tribes inhabited the territory of modern Ukraine.  They included Iranic-speaking Scythians and Sarmatians, Greeks from the Black Sea colonies, Thracians from modern-day Bulgaria and Romania, Illyrians from modern dayAlbania and former Yugoslavia, Germanic-speaking Goths and Varangians, Turkic-speaking Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs andCumans, and the Crimean Armenians in the early second millennium AD. However, Ukrainian origins are predominantly Slavic, while non-Slavic nomads who lived in the steppes of southern Ukraine had little influence on the ancestry of modern Ukrainians.

 

Gothic historian Jordanes and sixth-century Byzantine authors named two groups that lived in the south of Europe: Sclavins(western Slavs) and Antes. The Antes are normally identified with proto-Ukrainians.

 

The name Antes is of Iranic origin and means people living on the borderland. The state of Antes existed from the end of 4th to early seventh century. In the fourth century. the Antes fought against the Goths. In 375, the Gothic king Vinitar, facing the Antes, at first experienced defeat but later captured the king of Antes, Bozh, whom he executed together with his sons and 70 aristocrats. The Goths did not manage to subdue the Antes, since in the same year the Gothic union fell from the attack of the Huns.

 

From the sixth century the Antes fought Byzantium and in the sixth and seventh centuries colonised the Balkan peninsula. From the end of sixth century they fought against the Avars.

 

The Antes included of several East Slavic tribes who lived on the territory of today's Ukraine, including  the Polans,  Drevlyans, Severians,  Dulebes  (which later likely became Volhynians and Buzhans),Tiverians, and Ulichs. 

 

The Ukrainian language is an East Slavic language, and Ukrainian people belong to the same branch of the Slavs as Rusyns,  Russians  (which emerged as vernacular from Church-Slavic) and Belarusians.

 

Slavic tribes inhabited modern-day lands of Ukraine from ancient times, and were dominant by the fifth century AD, founding the city of Kiev—later capital of a powerful state known as Kievan Rus'. Kniaz Volodymyr I of Kiev adopted Christianity in 988 and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. Polans played the key role in the formation of the Kievan Rus' state.  

 

Among the native Ukrainian population of the Carpathians, there are several distinct groups, namely the Hutsuls, Volhynians, Lemkos  and Boykos, each with peculiar area of settlement, dialect, dress, anthropological type and folk traditions.  

 

There are a number of theories as for origins each of these groups, the Volhynians with Romanians or shared a Romance-Latin culture in the 10th century AD, the Lemko with Baltic Finno-Ugric peoples, some even connecting Boykos with the Celtic tribe of Boii and Hutsuls with Uz people of Turkic stock. 

 

It is argued that the oldest known population of Ukraine - Scythians and Sarmatians were of Iranian stock. They inhabited Ukraine in 7 b.c. — 3 a.d.  Rarity of hard g sound (use of guttural gh instead) and absence f in some dialects (often rendered as khv in the countryside) in Ukrainian along with some folk traditions (as greeting with bread and salt, houses with straw-roof, popular through history self-designations Roxolany, Roxolana, Sava or Sevae, and Savromaty among Ukrainians) is attributed to ancient Scythian language and culture.

Several other minor non-Slavic ethnic groups undoubtedly partially contributed to formation of Central Ukrainian ethnic type. These include a row of Turkic tribes, such as Chorni Klobuky, Berendei and Torks, who were settled along the river Ros andRusava and eventually all being absorbed by Ukrainians.

 

Many Turkic place names in Ukraine as Karabachyn, Torets, Torky,Berdychiv (lit. "of Berendychi", or Berendei) remain in these areas.

In Western Ukraine, ancient Dacian influences can be traced. From the middle of the first century (the peak period of Dacian society) until early 3 century, the left bank of the upper Dniester was populated by the Dacian tribe of Costoboci Transmontani(mentioned in Geographia of Ptolemaeus), who were the carriers of Lipica culture (of Verkhnya Lypytsya, Maydan Holohirskyy, Remezivtsi, Voronyaky etc.) The Dacian roots of Lipica culture is evidenced by findings of ceramic types, burning burials, houses analogous to those of Dacians in Romania. Costoboci were the most northernmost branch of Thracodacians and bordered with the carriers of Przeworsk culture to the north-west (i.e. Przeworsk culture settlement in Pidberiztsi near Lviv), Zarubintsy culture to the north who were all succeeded by Chernyakhov culture. It is with Costoboci was the fight of Romans against the Free Daciansin the 2nd century mentioned in different written sources. In the beginning of 3rd century Dacian archeological elements in UpperDniester disappear. 

 

So Roman chronicles of the 1st century report that in the Carpathians there was a Dacian tribe of Karpi. Karp-At meant mountains of Karpi. From possible Dacian meaning "mountains" may derive the name of people karpi—those who live in the mountains. At any case, the area of inhabitation of Free Dacians covered western Ukraine, and besides Costoboci, to the northern Dacians belonged are the Anarti and Teurisci. Ukrainian mountaineers Hutsuls, inhabiting the areas of old land of Free Dacians are often stated as being of Dacian stock. Archeologists also discovered several Celtic settlements in Zakarpattia Oblast of south-western Ukraine. There were numerous cases of Jewish conversion to Eastern Orthodox or Catholic faith in Ukraine in medieval and early modern eras, whether forced (during the Deluge or Koliyivshchyna) or voluntary. Several Cossack surnames are traced to such converts (see Jewish Cossacks). Though non-Slavic elements did have some impacts on the Ukrainians, as mentioned above, they are predominantly Slavs.

 

DNA tests of Y chromosomes from representative sample of Ukrainians were analyzed for composition and frequencies ofhaplogroups. In the Ukrainian gene, pool six haplogroups were revealed: E, F (including G and I), J, N3, P, and R1a1. The major haplogroup in the Ukrainian gene pool, Haplogroup R1a is thought to mark the migration patterns of the early Indo-Europeans and is associated with the distribution of the Kurgan archaeological culture. The second major haplogroup is haplogroup F, which is a combination of the lineages differing by the time of appearance. Haplogroup P found represents the genetic contribution of the population originating from the ancient autochthonous population of Europe. Haplogroup J and Haplogroup E mark the migration patterns of the Middle-Eastern agriculturists during the Neolithic.

 

The presence of the N3 lineage is likely explained by a contribution of the assimilated Finno Ugric tribes.[22] A recent study (Rebala et al. 2007) studied several Slavic populations with the aim of localizing the Proto-Slavic homeland. A significant finding of this study is that according to the authors most Slavic populations have similar Y chromosome pools, and this similarity can be traced to an origin in middle Dnieper basin of Ukraine.

Reference :  http://www.thefullwiki.org/Ukrainians

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Ukrainian Origin Facts (Українське Походження Факти)   

A brief overview (not checked for historical correctness!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGsEDwGUHTk&sns=em

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History of Ukraine 

The territory of Ukraine was a key center of East Slavic culture in the Middle Ages, before being divided between a variety of powers. However, the history of Ukraine dates back many thousands of years. The territory has been settled continuously since at least 5000 BC, and is also a candidate site of the origins of the Proto-Indo-European language family.

Reference : http://www.thefullwiki.org/History_of_Ukraine

 

BRAMA - History of Ukraine

(Chronologically Synchronized Tables)

These web pages are based on the scholarly work of Leonid Sonnevytsky

Reference :  http://www.brama.com/ukraine/history/

 

Chronological Historical Table (839 A.D. - 1996 A.D. )

Reference :  http://ukraine.uazone.net/history.html

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF UKRAINE

http://www.syrucc.org/history.html

 

HISTORY OF UKRAINE

Includes ABRIDGED HISTORY OF UKRAINE - Parts 1 to  6  by Mykhaylo Hrushevskyi - 

Reference :  http://www.torugg.org/History/history_of_ukraine.html

 

KYIVAN-RUS: BOOKS

A list of books and articles that have information about Ancient Rus as well as the historical setting.

Many focus on later Russian history also.

Reference :  http://kievan-rus.appspot.com/rusbooks.html

 

KYIVAN-RUS: LINKS

Links to webpages that have information about Ancient Rus, its neighbors and the time period in general. 

Reference :  http://kievan-rus.appspot.com/ruslinks.html