Ukrainians

Ukrainians

Vladimir I • Yaroslav I • Lev I • B. Khmelnytsky I. Mazepa • M. Hohol • T. Shevchenko • L. Ukrainka I. Franko • S. Tymoshenko • M. Leontovych • M. Hrushevskyi O. Dovzhenko • S. Bubka • A. Shevchenko • Y. Tymoshenko
Total population
45,551,667
Regions with significant populations
Ukraine 37,541,700[1]
Russia 2,942,961 [2]  Canada 1,209,805 [3][4]  USA 961,113 [3][5]  Kazakhstan 333,200 [6]  Brazil 500,000 [3][7]  Italy 320,070  Belarus 248,000 [3][8]  Uzbekistan 128,100 [3][9]  Czech Republic 126,613 [10]  Portugal 41,872 [11]  Azerbaijan 30,000 [12]  Syria 27,878 [13]  Poland 27,172 [14]  Lithuania 22,488 [15]  Argentina 8,290 [16]  Armenia 1,600 [17] Rest of world 765,000
Languages
Ukrainian,[18][19][20] Russian[21]
Religion
Predominantly Eastern Orthodox ; notable minority of Greek Catholics, Protestants
Related ethnic groups
Other Slavic peoples, especially Rusyns, Belarusians, Russians,

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 Ruthenians (Ukrainian: Русини, Rusyny).

The appellation ‘Ukrainian’ initially came into common usage in Eastern Ukraine and did not take hold in Galicia and Bukovyna until the first quarter of the 20th century, in Transcarpathia until the 1930s, and in the Preshov region until the late 1940s.

[edit] Locations

Spread of Ukrainian language in the beginning of 20th century

European territory inahibted by East Slavic tribes in 8th and 9th century.

Most ethnic Ukrainians live in Ukraine where they make up over three-quarters of the population. The largest population of ethnic Ukrainians outside of Ukraine live in Russia where 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 an estimated 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 the UK, Australia, Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Sweden and the former Yugoslavia.

[edit] Genetics

Ukrainians show the characteristic R1a genes of the patrilineal descent from a single male at a very high frequency of 41.5-54.0%.^[22] Such large frequencies of R1a have been found only in Poland, Russia, Slovenia and Indian subcontinent.^[23]

[edit] Origins

Historical map of Kievan Rus' at its zenith (980-1054). Slavic tribes are marked with green colour.

Halych-Volhynia (14th c.)

Cossack Hetmanate (1649–1653)

Ukrainian girls in traditional etno wear, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Population of Ukrainians in Ukraine (2001)

Population of those whose mother tongue is Ukrainian in Ukraine (2001)

Cucuteni-Trypillian culture is a late Neolithic archaeological culture which flourished between ca. 5500 BC and 2750 BC, from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dniester and Dnieper regions. In addition, 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 day Albania and former Yugoslavia, Germanic-speaking Goths and Varangians, Turkic-speaking Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs and Cumans, 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 are thought to have 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, closely related to Russian and Belarusian.

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 as a state religion 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, there are several distinct subethnic groups: the Hutsuls, Volhynians, Lemkos, Boykos, and Rusyns each with peculiar area of settlement, dialect, dress, anthropological type and folk traditions. There are a number of theories as to the origins each of these groups.

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.^[24]

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 and Rusava 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 Dacians in the 2nd century mentioned in different written sources. In the beginning of 3rd century Dacian archeological elements in Upper Dniester disappear.^[25]

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 of haplogroups. 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.^[26] 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.^[27]

[edit] Major sub-ethnicities

• Lemkos, some tend to identify as Rusyn
• Boykos
• Hutsuls
• Polishchuks
• Bodnars
• Rusyn, a derivative of Ruthenians

[edit] History

Ukraine had a very turbulent history, a fact explained by its geographical position. Up to the fifteenth century, Ukrainians were part of the Old East Slavic stock which according to some historians also gave rise to the Belarusians and Russians. However, a long history of separation and foreign influences have perceptibly reshaped their ethnolinguistic identity differentiating them from the rest of East Slavs.

The history of independent statehood in Ukraine is started with the Cossacks. The Cossacks of Zaporizhia since the late fifteenth century controlled the lower bends of the river Dnieper, between Russia, Poland and the Tatars of Crimea, with the fortified capital, Zaporizhian Sich. They were formally recognized as a state, the Zaporozhian Host, by treaty with Poland in 1649.

Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey. Painted by Ilya Repin from 1880 to 1891.

Modern day Ukraine encompasses the seats of six of the original twelve principalities of the ancient Kievan Rus empire which flourished from 882 to 1245 AD. Those principalities were Halych, Volodymyr-Volhynia, Kyiv, Pereyaslavl, Chernihiv, and Novhorod-Siverskyy and comprised the major centres of power of Kyivan Rus in its heyday. The thirteenth century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.^[28] Subsequent to the fall of a united Halych-Volodymr-Volhynia in 1342 these principalities were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and still later of the Russian, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, Poland and the Soviet Union, finally gaining its independence on August 24, 1991.

Modern Ukrainian national identity continued to develop, especially in opposition to foreign rule in the nineteenth century. In Imperial Russia the use of the Ukrainian language was discouraged and banned at different times in history;^[29] however, as many were illiterate, persecutions had little effect. During the Soviet era, the Ukrainian language was at times suppressed and at others tolerated or even encouraged.

From 1932–1933 millions of Ukrainians starved to death in a famine, known as the Holodomor. Modern scholarly estimates of the direct loss of human life due to the famine range between 2.6 million^[30][31] and 3-3.5 million^[32] although much higher numbers are sometimes published in the media and cited in political debates.^[33] As of March 2008, the parliament of Ukraine and the governments of several countries have recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide.^[34]

[edit] Culture

[edit] Language

Ethnographic map of the Slavic peoples prepared by Czech ethnographer Lubor Niederle showing territorial boundaries of Slavic languages in Eastern Europe in the mid 1920's, including the Ukrainian language, given in dark green.

Ukrainian (украї́нська мо́ва, ukrayins'ka mova, [ukraˈjinʲsʲka ˈmɔʋa]) is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the only official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. The language shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring Slavic nations, most notably with Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Slovak.

The Ukrainian language traces its origins to the Old East Slavic language of the medieval state of Kievan Rus'. In its earlier stages it was called Ruthenian language or Little Russian. Ukrainian, along with other East Slavic languages, is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kievan Rus' (10th–thirteenth century).^[35]

The language has persisted despite several periods of bans and/or discouragement throughout centuries as it has always nevertheless maintained a sufficient base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors.

According to 2001 All-Ukrainian census, 85.2% of all people of Ukrainian ethnicity living in Ukraine named Ukrainian as their mother-tongue, and 14.8% named Russian as their mother-tongue^[36]. This census doesn't cover Ukrainians living in other countries^[37].

[edit] Religion

The historic Vydubychi Monastery in Kiev. The monastery is administered by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate.

Ukrainians are predominantly Orthodox Christians. In the eastern and southern areas of Ukraine the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate is the most common. In central and western Ukraine there is support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate headed by Patriarch Filaret and also in the western areas of Ukraine and with smaller support throughout the country there is support for the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Mefodiy. In the Western region known as Galicia the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, one of the Eastern Rite Catholic churches has a strong membership. Various Protestant churches have a growing presence among the Ukrainian population.^[38] There are also ethnic minorities that practice other religions, i.e. Crimean Tatars (Islam), and Jews and Karaim (Judaism).

[edit] Music

[edit] Dance

Ukrainian Welcome Dance Pryvit.

Ukrainian dance refers to the traditional folk dances of the peoples of Ukraine. Today, Ukrainian dance is primarily represented by what ethnographers, folklorists and dance historians refer to as "Ukrainian Folk-Stage Dances", which are stylized representations of traditional dances and their characteristic movements that have been choreographed for concert dance performances. This stylized art form has so permeated the culture of Ukraine, that very few purely traditional forms of Ukrainian dance remain today.

Ukrainian Dance is often described as energetic, fast-paced, and entertaining, and along with traditional Easter eggs (pysanky), it is a characteristic example of Ukrainian culture recognized and appreciated throughout the world.

[edit] Symbols

Flag of Ukraine.

Coat of arms.

The national symbols of the Ukrainians are the Flag of Ukraine and the Coat of arms of Ukraine.

The national flag of Ukraine is a blue and yellow bicolor rectangle. The color fields are of same form and equal size. The colors of the flag represent a blue sky above yellow fields of wheat^[39][40][41]. The flag was designed for the convention of the Supreme Ruthenian Council, meeting in Lviv in October 1848. Its colors were based on the coat-of-arms of the Galicia-Volhynia Principality ^[42].

The Coat of arms of Ukraine features the same colours found on the Ukrainian flag: a blue shield with yellow trident—the symbol of ancient Slavic tribes that once lived in Ukraine, later adopted by Ruthenian and Kievan Rus rulers. Others say that the coat represents also the importance of the Holy Trinity, although coincidently prior to Christianity the people of today's Ukraine believed in Triglav, with the similar concept of three.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ukrainians

• List of Ukrainians
• List of Ukrainian rulers
• Lemkos
• Rusyns
• Ruthenians
• Ukrainians in Russia
• Green Ukraine
• Soviet population transfers

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Sources

Part of a series on
Ukrainians
Diaspora
see Template:Ukrainian diaspora
Closely-related peoples
East Slavs (parent group) Boykos · Hutsuls · Lemkos · Rusyns Poleszuks · Kuban Cossacks Pannonian Rusyns
Culture
Architecture · Art · Cinema · Cuisine Dance · Language · Literature · Music Sport
Religion
Eastern Orthodox (Ukrainian) Greek Catholicism Roman Catholicism Judaism
Languages and dialects
Ukrainian Polish · Canadian Ukrainian Rusyn · Pannonian Rusyn Balachka · Surzhyk
History · Rulers List of Ukrainians
v • d • e

• Wilson, Andrew (2002). The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation (2nd edition ed.). New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09309-8. 
• Magocsi, Paul R. (1996). A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-300-09309-8. 

[edit] Online sources

[edit] External links

• Ukrainians on Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Races of Europe 1942–1943 (English)
• Hammond's Racial map of Europe, 1919 (English) "National Alumni" 1920, vol.7
• Peoples of Europe / Die Voelker Europas 1914 (German)
• Ethnographic map of Europe 1914 (English)
• Linguistic Divisions of Europe in 1914 (German)
• Ethnic Territory of the Ukrainian people in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (English)

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