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I. Ukraine's Southern Boundary: The Black Sea and the Sea of Azov
II. The Ukrainian Carpathians: A Natural Treasure of Global Importance
III. The Ancient City of Chernihiv and the Chernihiv Region
IV. The Crimean Mountains and Crimean Riviera
V. The Dnieper (Dnipro), the Dniester, and Other Rivers of Ukraine
VI. The Flora of Ukraine: Forests, Forest-Steppe, and Steppes
VII. The City of Kharkiv and the Historic Slobidska Ukraine
VIII. The Picturesque Transcarpathia: The Westernmost Region of Ukraine
I. UKRAINE'S SOUTHERN BOUNDARY: THE BLACK SEA AND THE SEA OF AZOV
The coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov form the natural boundary of the Ukrainian territories in the south. These seas link Ukraine with the world. Since ancient times economic, political, and cultural influences from the south have reached Ukraine via the Black Sea. They easily penetrated to the interior of Ukrainian territory along the rivers that flow into the sea: the Danube River, Dniester River, Boh River, and particularly Dnieper River. For many centuries three expansion routes intersected on the north coast of the Black Sea. The peoples that inhabited Ukraine tried to reach the Black Sea, while the Mediterranean peoples--Greeks, Byzantines, Italians--strove to occupy its most northerly coast. But the steppes along the northern coast were continually invaded by nomadic hordes from Asia. The struggle for the northern coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov lasted for centuries, and the Ukrainian people established a permanent boundary on the Black Sea only at the close of the 18th century... Learn more about the history, nature, and geopolitical importance of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov by visiting the following entries:
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BLACK SEA. An interior sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean by several straits and the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. It lies between the East European massif in the north and Asia Minor in the south, between Caucasia in the east and the Balkan Peninsula in the west. Today the Black Sea coast is divided among Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania. The Black Sea was known under various names in the past. The ancient Greeks called it at one time Pontos Axeinos (the Hostile Sea), because of its storminess and lack of islands. After colonizing its coast, the Greeks renamed it Pontos Euxeinos (the Hospitable Sea). Arab travelers and writers called it the Rus' Sea. The Kyiv Chronicle referred to it as the Pontic or Ponetian Sea. Eventually, various nations adopted the name Black Sea... |
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BLACK SEA NATURE RESERVE. A state preserve located on the sandy banks of the lower Dnieper River and the coast and the islands of the Tendriv Bay and Yahorlyk Bay of the Black Sea. The preserve was established in 1927. It covers 9,421 ha of dry land and 24,700 ha of water (in 1976, 64,806 ha). It was created to protect nesting, wintering, and migrating birds and to preserve the natural environment. The steppe section of the preserve—the Yahorlyk Kut Peninsula and Potiivka—consists of the remains of the Black Sea steppes and is inhabited by such rare birds as the great bustard, the little bustard, and the white-tailed eagle and smaller animals such as the acclimatized bobac. In the forest-steppe sections are found the remains of island forests and small groves of oak, birch, and willow trees... |
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SEA OF AZOV. A shallow branch of the Black Sea, connected to it by the Kerch Strait. It covers a part of the Black Sea Depression lying between the Donets Ridge and the Azov Upland in the north and the foothills of the Crimean Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains in the south. It is located between mainland Ukraine in the north, the Crimea in the west, and the Kuban region in the east. The Sea of Azov was important in ancient times when Greek colonies were founded on its shores. These city-states belonged to the Bosporan Kingdom, which eventually gained control of the entire Azov coast. The ancient city-states on the Azov coast fell to the invading Huns in the 4th century. The Antes were the first Slavic people to settle in the Azov area (4th–7th century). Later a Slavic tribe, the Siverianians, occupied this land... |
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AZOV-SYVASH GAME PRESERVE. Located in the area of the Sea of Azov and Syvash Lake, the preserve covers an area of 6,850 ha including sandy Byriuchyi Island and the loess islands of Kuiuk-Tuk and Churiuk. The preserve was formed in 1957 out of a reservation established in 1927. The steppe vegetation includes about 240 species. The red deer and the pheasant have been acclimatized on Byriuchyi Island, and the buck and the wild goat have been reacclimatized. The purpose of the preserve is to protect the steppe and coastal flora, particularly waterfowl during their southward migration and wintering... |
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TAHANRIH BAY. The largest bay in the Sea of Azov. Situated in the sea's northeast corner with an entrance marked by Dovhyi Island and the Bilosarai Spit, the bay is approx 150 km long, 31 km wide (at its entrance), and 5 m deep. Its shore is generally quite high and is marked by a number of spits (such as Kryva Spit and Yeia Spit), shallow inlets, and coastal islands. The Don River, the Kalmiius River, the Miius River, and the Yeia River empty into the bay and add several estuaries to its geographical features. The bay freezes from December to March. The largest ports on it include Tahanrih, Mariiupil, and Yeisk... |
The Ukrainian Carpathians constitute one of the most important and unique ecoregions in Europe. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recognized the Carpathian Mountains as a natural treasure of global importance and included it in its "Global 200" list of the most significant ecosystems on our planet. At the same time, the Ukrainian
Carpathians represent an ethnographic region rich in history and cultural
heritage and include such subregions as the Hutsul region, Boiko region, Lemko
region, as well as parts of Bukovyna and Transcarpathia. Learn more about this
natural jewel of Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS (Karpaty). Folded,
young mountains of medium elevation, stretching in an arc about 1,500 km long
(with a chord of almost 500 km) from the city of Bratislava in the northwest to
the Iron Gate on the Danube River in the southeast and covering an area of about
200,000 sq km. The Carpathians are part of the Alpine mountain system and border
on the old Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian massifs and Dobrudja, being separated
from them by a band of young depressions-along the Morava River and Vistula
River, the Sian Lowland and Dniester Lowland, the Subcarpathian Depression, and
the Wallachian Depression. The Pannonian Basin, which cuts north into the
mountains along the Tysa River and Bodrog River and their tributaries, occupies
the central part of the arc.… |
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BUKOVYNA. The territory between the middle Dniester River and the main range of the Carpathian Mountains, around the source of the Prut River and the upper Seret River, the border area between Ukraine and Romania. Today Bukovyna is divided between Ukraine (incorporating Chernivtsi oblast or most of northern Bukovyna) and Romania (containing most of the Suceava region or southern Bukovyna). The name of this territory is derived from its great beech (buk) forests and dates back to the 14th century when it designated the lands on the Moldavian-Polish border… |
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HUTSUL REGION (Hutsulshchyna). A region in the southeasternmost part of the Carpathian Mountains of Galicia, Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia (the basins of the upper Prut River, upper Suceava River, upper Bystrytsia Nadvirnianska River, and upper Tysa River valleys), inhabited by Ukrainian highlanders called Hutsuls. Except for eight settlements in Romania, the Hutsul region lies within the present-day borders of the Ukraine. In the southeast the Hutsul region borders on ethnic Romanian lands; in the west, on the region of the Boikos; in the north, on the region of the Subcarpathian Pidhiriany; and in the southwest, on long-cultivated Transcarpathian Ukrainian lands.… |
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LEMKO REGION (Lemkivshchyna). The territory traditionally inhabited by the Lemkos forms an ethnographic peninsula 140 km long and 25-50 km wide within Polish and Slovak territory. After the deportation of Lemkos from the northern part in 1946, only the southern part, southwest of the Carpathian Mountains, known as the Prešov region in Slovakia, has remained inhabited by Lemkos. The Lemko region occupies the lowest part of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains-most of the Low Beskyd, the western part of the Middle Beskyd, and the eastern fringe of the Western Beskyd. The landscape is typical of medium-height-mountain terrain, with ridges reaching 1,000 m and sometimes 1,300 m. Only small parts of southern Low Beskyd and the northern Sian region have a low-mountain landscape. A series of mountain passes along the Torysa River and Poprad River—Tylych Pass (688 m), Duklia Pass (502 m), and Lupkiv Pass (657 m)—facilitate communications between Galician and Transcarpathian Lemkos… |
III. THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHERNIHIV AND THE CHERNIHIV REGION
The Chernihiv region, located in northeastern Ukraine, has always played a prominent role in Ukrainian national life and has often rivaled the Kyiv region as the center of Ukrainian territory and the Ukrainian people. Chernihiv's cultural traditions date back to Kyivan Rus', when the Chernihiv dynasty's multifaceted political activity secured favorable conditions for cultural development and promoted the culture of Chernihiv to an all-Ukrainian level, particularly in the areas of architecture and painting. The city's monumental structures of the 11th–12th century, especially its churches, were remarkable achievements of the age. Chernihiv and the Chernihiv region played an important role in the Cossack Hetman state, when Baturyn and Hlukhiv were capitals of the Left-Bank Ukraine. Chernihiv preserved its importance in the 18th and 19th centuries when it become one of the most vital centers of the Ukrainian national movement... Learn more about the history and culture of the ancient city of Chernihiv and the Chernihiv region by visiting the following entries:
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CHERNIHIV. City (2001 pop 305,000) in the Dnieper Lowland situated on the high right bank of the Desna River, principal city of the Chernihiv region and capital of Chernihiv oblast, railway and highway junction, with a port on the river and an airport. Traces of settlements from the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age have been found on the site of present-day Chernihiv. In historical times Chernihiv was a center of the Siverianians. The city was incorporated into Kyivan Rus' in the 9th century and became one of the most important and wealthiest cities of the realm. The first mention of Chernihiv in the chronicles occurred in 907. In the 11th–13th century Chernihiv was the capital of Chernihiv principality, whose first ruler was Prince Mstyslav Volodymyrovych, the son of Volodymyr the Great... |
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CHERNIHIV REGION (Chernihivshchyna). A historical and geographical territory in northeastern Ukraine on the border with Russia and Belarus. In the west the Chernihiv region borders on the Kyiv region; in the east, on Slobidska Ukraine; in the northwest, on Belarus; and in the north, on Russia (Briansk region). The precise boundaries of the Chernihiv region have changed over the centuries. The territory has an area of about 55,700 sq km. During the Princely era the Chernihiv region formed the nucleus of Chernihiv principality, which also encompassed large territories in the north (Briansk region), the northeast (Kursk region, Murom-Riazan land), and the southeast (Tmutorokan principality)... |
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NIZHEN or NIZHYN. A city (2001 pop 76,000) on the Oster River and a raion center in Chernihiv oblast. It is first mentioned as Unenezh or Unenizh under the year 1147 in the Hypatian Chronicle. The town was destroyed by the Tatars in 1239, and it recovered slowly. In the mid-14th century it came under Lithuanian rule, and in 1514 it was renamed Nizhen. In 1618 it was taken by Poland, and in 1625 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. In the Hetman state it was a regiment center of Nizhen regiment (1648–1782) and then a county center of Chernihiv vicegerency and Chernihiv gubernia (1802–1917)... |
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NOVHOROD-SIVERSKYI. A city (2001 pop 15,175) on the Desna River and a raion center in Chernihiv oblast. According to archeological evidence it was founded in the 980s. It is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 1044, and the Laurentian Chronicle lists it as the center of the Siversk principality in Kyivan Rus'. One of its rulers was Ihor Sviatoslavych, the central figure of Slovo o polku Ihorevi (The Tale of Ihor's Campaign)... |
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BATURYN. Town smt (2001 pop 3,078) in Bakhmach raion, Chernihiv oblast, 19km north of the railway station of Bakhmach. The earliest references to Baturyn date back to 1625, when it was granted to the Polish chancellor Jerzy Ossolinski. In 1648 it became a Cossack company center, and in 1669–1708 it was the Left-Bank hetman's capital. Russian troops, commanded by Aleksandr Menshikov, sacked and burned Baturyn at the beginning of November 1708, because it supported Hetman Ivan Mazepa... |
IV. THE CRIMEAN MOUNTAINS AND CRIMEAN RIVIERA
The exotically picturesque Crimean Mountains lie in the southernmost part of Ukraine, in the southern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Their highest range, the Yaila, forms a large, high plateau, which drops suddenly several hundred meters to the Black Sea coast. The original flora and fauna of the region are preserved best at the Crimean Game Preserve. In the west the Crimean Mountains descend directly into the Black Sea. East of Foros the mountains recede from the sea for a few kilometers and create a sheltered shore. This narrow (2–12 km) coastal lowland, known as the Crimean southern shore or the Crimean Riviera, has a subtropical Mediterranean climate and vegetation. Composed of the low-resistance schist, susceptible to abrasive activity, the mountains on the Black Sea shore form numerous cliffs and caves above and below water. Owing to its mild climate, the curative powers of the sea, salt lakes, and curative muds, and its natural beauty, the Crimean southern shore constitutes the principal resort and tourist area of Ukraine and one of the most important ones in Eastern Europe... Learn more about the Crimean Mountains and Crimean Riviera by visiting the following entries:
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CRIMEAN MOUNTAINS. Young, folded mountains of the Alpine mountain system located in the southern part of the Crimea. Including the foothills, they cover one-fifth of the peninsula's area. They extend for about 150 km from Sevastopil to Teodosiia and are 40–50 km in width. The Crimean Mountains consist of three long, parallel ranges, separated by valleys. They descend gradually towards the north and fall sharply towards the south. The first two ranges starting from the north constitute the foothills; the third range, called the Yaila (the name is sometimes applied to the Crimean Mountains as a whole), constitutes the mountains proper. Between the steep southern slope of the mountains and the Black Sea lies a hilly coastal strip, the Crimean southern shore... |
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CRIMEAN SOUTHERN SHORE (also known as the Crimean Riviera). Narrow (2–12 km) strip of land in the southern Crimea lying between the slope of the Crimean Mountains and the Black Sea. It stretches for about 150 km from Foros eastward to Kara-Dag, covering an area of about 600 sq km. Sheltered from north winds, the shore has a Mediterranean climate and flora. Its agriculture is subtropical. Because of its natural beauty and healthy climate, this area is heavily populated and famous for its health resorts and tourism. Visitors greatly outnumber residents: at the beginning of the 1880s about 8,000 people visited Yalta each year; in 1910, 50,000 came to Yalta; and today over 500,000 visit the shore. Yalta is the main resort area... |
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YALTA. A city (2001 pop 81,654) on the southern shore of the Crimea. The earliest recorded reference to settlement on the site is a reference to a Greek colony named Yalita (Halita) in the 1st century BC. Control of the area later passed to Byzantium. By the 12th century Yalta (called Dzhalita) had become an established port and fishing village. Genoese traders had control of the town (known as Etalita) in the 13th to 15th centuries, until they were succeeded by the Turks in 1475. Yalta fell under Russian control in 1783 with the annexation of the Crimea. At that time the region around it began to be colonized by estate owners. In 1823 the governor-general of the region, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, decided to cultivate Yalta as the major settlement on the Crimean southern shore. Yalta is nestled in a scenic location between the Black Sea and the Crimean Mountains. It is particularly noted for its Mediterranean climate... |
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SUDAK. A city (2001 pop 15,500) on the Black Sea coast and a raion center in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. A fortress called Sugdei was built there in 212. At the end of the 8th century it became an important seaport, which maintained economic ties with Byzantium. In the Kyivan Rus’ documents it was called Surozh. In the 13th century it became part of the Crimean Khanate, and in 1365, a Genoese trading colony called Soldaia. The Genoese built a fortress with 16 turrets and a church, remnants of which have been preserved. In 1475 Sudak was annexed by Turkey, and in 1783, by Russia. Since 1954 Sudak has been located within the Ukrainian borders. It was granted city status in 1982. Most of the inhabitants are employed in the city's health resorts... |
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LIVADIIA. A town smt (2001 pop 1,620) on the Crimean southern shore 3 km southwest of Yalta and under the administration of the Yalta city council. In the 18th century there was a Greek settlement at the site, which in the second half of the 19th century became an estate of the Russian royal family. After the Revolution of 1917 it was transformed into a health resort. Some sessions of the Yalta Conference in 1945 were held in Livadiia. Today the town has a vineyard and a winery, several sanatoriums, and resorts for victims of heart, lung, and nerve diseases. Livadiia's most important architectural monument is the Grand Palace, designed by M. Krasnov in 1910–11 and surrounded by a park designed by I. Peter in 1834. Traces of Copper Age and Taurian settlements and a burial place from the 1st century have been found near the town. The ruins of a 10th- to 12th-century castle are nearby... |
V. THE DNIEPER (DNIPRO), THE DNIESTER, AND OTHER RIVERS OF UKRAINE
From the dawn of history the Dnieper (Dnipro) River has been closely bound up with the life of the Ukrainian people. It is the ‘holy river' of Ukraine. It was known as the Borysthenes to the ancient Greeks and Romans (Herodotus first used the name in the 5th century BC). All the important towns of Kyivan Rus' (except those of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia) were located on the Dnieper or in its vicinity. In the 16th–17th century the Zaporozhian Sich arose on the lower Dnieper and became the nucleus of the second Ukrainian state. The river became the Cossack route to the Black Sea. During the hetmancy of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, it became the principal river of the Cossack state. Today the Dnieper is the main river network of Ukraine. Half of Ukraine's waterways belong to this system. Ukraine's second-largest river, the Dniester, is the main river in Galicia. For this reason Galicia is sometimes called Naddnistrianshchyna (Land by the Dniester). Other large rivers of Ukraine—the Donets in the east, the Boh in the southwest, and the Desna in the north—have had and continue to have a profound influence on the history of Ukraine and the life of its people. Learn more about the rivers of Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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DNIEPER RIVER (Dnipro River). The largest river in Ukraine and the third largest in Europe (after the Volga River and the Danube River). Its length is 2,285 km, of which 485 km lie within the Russian Federation, 595 km within Belarus, and 1,095 km within Ukraine. The Dnieper Basin covers 504,000 sq km, of which 289,000 sq km are within Ukraine (48 percent of its area). The basin occupies 42 percent of the territory of the Ukrainian state and 36 percent of Ukrainian ethnic territory. The Dnieper became an important water route in medieval times, when it became part of the Varangian route between the Baltic Sea and Byzantium across the Black Sea. Kyiv, the Rus' capital, stood on the Dnieper at the confluence of important water routes. The capitals of principalities—Chernihiv, Pereiaslav, Turiv, Smolensk—were built on or very near the Dnieper…
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DNIESTER RIVER (Dnister River). The second-largest river in Ukraine. It is 1,360 km long, and its basin covers 72,100 sq km. At one time the Dniester flowed only through Ukrainian territory. But after the ancestors of the Romanians settled the lands east of the Carpathian Mountains (beginning at the end of the 14th century) and after Bessarabia was Romanianized, the Dniester from Mohyliv-Podilskyi to its mouth (about one-third of its length) marked the Ukrainian-Romanian ethnic boundary. The Dniester is the main river in Galicia. The historical and ethnographical significance of the Dniester as the symbol of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia outlived its economic and political importance. This is the source of the piety towards the river that is found in the romantics of Western Ukraine. This also explains frequent references to the river in the names of Galician institutions and organizations… |
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RIVERS OF UKRAINE. There are approx 30,000 rivers crossing Ukrainian ethnographic territory. Of that number about 23,000 are in Ukraine. With a combined length of nearly 180,000 km, most are small; in Ukraine there are 117 rivers the watercourses of which exceed 100 km, but only 13 that are longer than 500 km. The characteristics of rivers, such as the density of the river network as well as the volume and the seasonality of the flow, depend on factors such as climate, geology, relief, vegetation, and human modifications of the landscape. The rivers of Ukraine generally flow southward into the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov. The notable exceptions are in the northwest, where the prevalent flow is northward into the Prypiat River, a tributary of the Dnieper River, or into the Vistula River, which flows through Poland into the Baltic Sea… |
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DONETS RIVER (also known as Dinets and Donets Siverskyi). The largest tributary of the Don River. The Donets is 1,050 km long and has a basin area of 98,900 sq km. Almost the entire stretch of the river lies within Ukrainian ethnic territory, and 950 km of it lie within Ukraine. The Donets rises in the Kursk region, south of the Central Upland, at an altitude of 215 m. Its upper stretch, above Belgorod, is narrow; farther down, the river attains a width of 100 m and an average depth of 1 m. Below Belgorod the river forms the Pechenihy Reservoir (86 sq km in area), which supplies Kharkiv with water. From there the right bank of the Donets is usually high and frequently dissected (especially the chalk hills called the Holy Hills [Sviati Hory] below Izium). The left bank is flat. About 220 km above its mouth the Donets cuts into the Donets Ridge near Hundorivka… |
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BOH RIVER (ancient Greek: Hipanis; now called Pivdennyi Buh [Southern Buh]). One of the largest rivers of Ukraine, 857 km in length (792 km to the liman). Its drainage basin covers an area of 63,740 sq km. In its upper section in the Podolian Upland the Boh flows slowly through a wide, muddy valley. Its middle section cuts into a crystalline massif, and the gradient increases as it flows between craggy banks. Rapids appear and are most concentrated in the 70 km stretch between the town of Pervomaiske and the village of Oleksandrivka, where the steep banks reach a height of 90 m (here the Myheiski, Bohdanivski, and other rapids are found). Below the rapids the river flows through the Black Sea Lowland. It spreads out to 800 m (2–3 m deep) and enters the deep Dnieper-Boh Estuary near the town of Nova Odesa… |
VI. THE FLORA OF UKRAINE: FORESTS, FOREST-STEPPE, AND STEPPES
Ukraine, like any other world region, is shaped by and fully dependent on its vegetation. The plants support critical functions in the biosphere, at all possible levels. They regulate the flow of numerous biogeochemical cycles; they influence the climate and affect soil characteristics; they serve as wildlife habitat and the energy source for animals and humans; they are also critically important to the national and world economy. In Ukraine, the close relation between vegetation and climate, relief, humidity, and soil is apparent in the organization of plant life into wide meridional belts stretching from the southwest to the northeast. Moving from north to south the belts are forest, forest-steppe, steppe, and the zone of Mediterranean vegetation. Human agricultural activity greatly altered the original vegetation of Ukraine. Almost all the steppe is under cultivation and devoted to agricultural species. Large areas of the forest belt have also been converted to agricultural use. Intense long-term logging in the Carpathian Mountains has diminished the protective influence of the forests, as frequent floods and increasing erosion have shown. Between 1814 and 1914 the forest area in Ukraine diminished by 30.5 percent. Only a few ancient tracts remain untouched by humans, and for their preservation they have been placed under state protection... Learn more about Ukraine's vital natural resource--its flora--by visiting the following entries:
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FLORA. The vegetation of Ukraine evolved through long geologic epochs and through many developmental phases before it attained its present form. In the Paleocene and Eocene, Ukraine had a tropical and subtropical flora. Palms, cinnamon trees, figs, laurels, eucalyptus, sequoias, and other trees grew in Ukraine. In the mid-Oligocene Mediterranean plants began to spread gradually to Ukraine, including oleander, pomegranate, beech, maple, and poplar. In the Miocene the vegetation generally assumed a temperate broad-leaved or broad-leaved-coniferous character, with a preponderance of deciduous forms such as beech, oak, and walnut. Gradually the flora changed to temperate warm-climate vegetation. In the Pliocene most of Ukraine was covered with forest vegetation. Among the evergreens were species of pine, with an admixture of hemlock, spruce, fir, and others; and among deciduous trees were birch, oak, hornbeam, maple, chestnut, walnut, and magnolia. The southern region was covered with steppe grasses... |
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FOREST. One of the basic types of vegetation groupings, consisting of trees and shrubs and covering an extensive area. Forests have an effect on climate; the hydrological regime of the soil and the environment; the retention of surface soils, particularly on steep slopes and sands; and the composition of flora and fauna. Forests also have an enormous economic and esthetic importance. The degree of forestation and the variety of forest species in Ukraine are determined by Ukraine's geographical position between the humid region of Western Europe and the dry steppes of Asia. The forests in the western part of Ukraine have a Western European character; in the southern part small woods rather than forests are found. As Ukraine's climate, relief, soils, and water regime change from the west and north towards the east and south, large differences arise in the extent of forestation and the composition of the forests. The eastern and part of the southern limits of dispersal for such tree species as the fir, spruce, beech, hornbeam, and ash dissect Ukraine... |
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FOREST-STEPPE. A natural belt characterized by the alternation of forests--mostly deciduous--with steppe vegetation and fauna. In Ukraine the forest-steppe is the central belt stretching between the forest belt in the north and the steppe belt in the south. It is part of the Eastern European forest-steppe and covers about 30 percent of Ukraine's territory. The boundary with the forest belt (Polisia) runs along the line Lviv-Kremianets-Zhytomyr-Kyiv-Nizhen-Hlukhiv and is distinct. Northwest of the main forest-steppe belt lies a large forest-steppe island called the Volhynia–Kholm forest-steppe. In the west the forest-steppe borders on a belt of forests of the Central European variety, covering Roztochia, the Sian Lowland, Subcarpathia, and the Opilia Upland. The southern border of the forest-steppe is not as distinct and is defined in different ways. The Ukrainian forest-steppe is a gently undulating plain, covered for the most part by a thick, loess stratum that overlies various geological layers dissected by gullies and ravines... |
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STEPPE. A term, originally applied to the natural grasslands of Southern Ukraine, which has been generalized to designate any natural grassland plain with a temperate, semiarid climate and chernozem or chestnut soils. The Ukrainian steppe encompasses most of the western segment of the Eurasian steppe that is known as the Black Sea (or Pontic) steppe province. The province forms a wedge, delimited by the forested foothills of the Crimean Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains in the south, the forest-steppe zone to the northwest, and the drier, more continental steppes east of the Volga River. The steppe thus occupies about 240,000 sq km (40 percent) of Ukraine, nearly 300,000 sq km (40 percent) of the compact Ukrainian ethnographic territory, and 460,000 sq km (48 percent) of both compact and mixed Ukrainian national territory. The steppe, endowed with the greatest heat resources in Ukraine, has the longest growing season, but receives the least precipitation and often suffers from drought... |
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PARK. A tract of wild or cultivated ground set aside for recreation. Larger parks, such as nature preserves, wildlife refuges, and national parks, are set aside by the state for the purpose of conservation and scientific research. Smaller parks or gardens are maintained by municipalities for decorative and recreational purposes. Specialized botanical gardens and zoological gardens and parks usually belong to scientific institutions and serve scientific ends. The earliest parks in Ukraine, dating back to the Princely era, were either royal hunting preserves or gardens cultivated by monasteries and princes. Private parks appeared only in the first half of the 18th century. They were designed in the Italian baroque or the French style, with a symmetrical composition and a clearly defined center. A large number of parks were established in the second half of the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century. Almost all of them were of the landscape or English type, based on the principle of free planning with the fullest utilization of natural conditions... |
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MEDICINAL PLANTS. Using plants for scientific medicine or folk medicine is known as phytotherapy. The roots, tubers, bulbs, leaves, flowers, seeds, and bark of medicinal plants are selectively used in making teas, infusions, tonics, juices, tinctures, powders, and poultices. About 80 percent of the ingredients in drugs for heart disease, gastrointestinal or nervous disorders, and other grave illnesses are taken from medicinal plants. A great number of plants have been used in Ukraine from time immemorial for the prevention or cure of sickness in humans and animals alike. Since the Second World War over 20 research institutions connected with medical and pharmaceutical institutes and universities have conducted research on medicinal plants in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Pharmaceutical Institute plays a leading role in this field. The gathering of wild plants and the cultivation of medicinal plants have expanded, and the research on new plants has led to the introduction of many foreign species and the adoption of many plants by official medicine... |
VII. THE CITY OF KHARKIV AND THE HISTORIC SLOBIDSKA UKRAINE
The territories in northeastern Ukraine centered today on the city of Kharkiv once belonged to the Kyiv and Chernihiv principalities of Kyivan Rus'. With the Mongol invasions of the 13th century they were largely unsettled and constituted part of the so-called Dyke Pole, a wild steppe dominated by nomadic tribes. In the 16th century Ukrainian Cossacks and Russian peasants began settling there, and they became part of Slobidska Ukraine, a region of self-governing settlements called slobody. The generally accepted date of Kharkiv's founding is 1654/5, when Ukrainian Cossacks built a fortified settlement on the plateau surrounded by the Kharkiv River and the Lopan River. A fortress was completed in 1659. Today Kharkiv is Ukraine's second-largest city and a bustling industrial and cultural center. From 1920 to 1934 it was the capital of Soviet Ukraine... Learn more about the city of Kharkiv and the historic Slobidska Ukraine by visiting the following entries:
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KHARKIV. Ukraine's second-largest city (2005 pop 1,465,000), situated at the confluence of the Lopan River, the Udy River, and the Kharkiv River; the historic capital of Slobidska Ukraine, it is an important industrial, commercial, communications, scientific, and cultural center. Kharkiv's proximity to the Donets Basin and its location at the intersection of the trade routes between Russia and the Black Sea and central Ukraine and Caucasia have facilitated its economic growth. The city is over 300 sq km in area. Kharkiv is the most important machine-building industrial center in Ukraine. With over 450 industrial enterprises, it has some of the largest factories in Ukraine. Kharkiv is also a major cultural and scientific center in Ukraine, second only to Kyiv...
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SLOBIDSKA UKRAINE. A historical-geographic region in northeastern Ukraine that corresponds closely to the area of the following Cossack regiments: Ostrohozke, Izium, Kharkiv, Okhtyrka, and Sumy regiments. Its name, derived from the sloboda settlements founded there, came into use in the early 17th century and continued until the early 19th century. In the 1630s and 1640s hundreds of slobody were created in the border region between the Cossack Hetman state and Muscovy and they attracted peasants from Left-Bank and Right-Bank Ukraine. Slobidska Ukraine bordered on the Hetman state to the west, the borderlands of the Crimean Khanate and the Zaporizhia to the south, the Don River to the east, and Muscovy to the north... |
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KHARKIV OBLAST. An administrative region in northeastern Ukraine, formed on 27 February 1932. Its area is 31,400 sq km; its population peaked at 3,196,600 in 1990; by 2005 it declined to 2,848,000. The oblast is one of the most industrialized in Ukraine. In 2000, with its population accounting for 5.9 percent of the population of Ukraine, the oblast produced 6.8 percent of Ukraine's industrial output by value. Kharkiv oblast is also a major agricultural producer. Occupying 5.2 percent of the land area of Ukraine, it accounts for 6.2 percent of Ukraine's area sown to crops and 5.6 percent of Ukraine's total agricultural output (in 2003) by value... |
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IZIUM. City (2005 pop 54,600) and raion center in Kharkiv oblast, situated in a picturesque setting at the foot of Kremianets Mountain on the right bank of the Donets River. A settlement was established there in the second quarter of the 17th century; in 1681 it was fortified by Kharkiv regiment's Col H. Donets, and the fortress served as an important defense outpost against Tatar incursions. From 1685 to 1765 Izium was a regimental town in Slobidska Ukraine. Because of its importance as an industrial and commercial center between Kharkiv and the Donets Basin, it has expanded rapidly (1926 pop 12,000; 1959 pop 38,000; 1970 pop 52,000)... |
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KUPIANSK. City (2005 pop 31,200) and raion center under Kharkiv oblast jurisdiction, situated on the Oskil River. It was founded in 1655 as a sloboda (self-governing settlement) and was a company town in Kharkiv regiment and Izium regiment of Slobidska Ukraine (1685–1765). It became a county town in Voronezh vicegerency in 1780, in Slobidska Ukraine gubernia (1797), and in Kharkiv gubernia (1835). Since the late 19th century Kupiansk has been an important railway junction: five lines intersect there and at the adjacent town of Kupiansk Vuzlovyi. The city has an agricultural-machinery factory and food-processing industry. There is a historical-regional museum and an automobile-transportation tekhnikum.... |
VIII. THE PICTURESQUE TRANSCARPATHIA: THE WESTERNMOST REGION OF UKRAINE
Transcarpathia is the only part of Ukraine situated beyond the Carpathian Mountains. Accessible to the main territory of Ukraine through numerous mountain passes, it joins Ukraine with the core of East-Central Europe. Transcarpathia encompasses two different natural regions, the Tysa Lowland and the picturesque southern watershed of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. In the 10th century, Transcarpathia came under the sphere of influence of Kyivan Rus'. Following its incorporation by Prince Volodymyr the Great into his realm, the name Rus' or Ruthenia became entrenched in Transcarpathia. In the 11th century most of Transcarpathia came under Hungarian rule. Ukrainians constituted the majority of the region's population, but they were a minority element among its aristocracy. Deprived of a political structure and social elite the Transcarpathian Ukrainians preserved their ethnic identity principally through their religious distinction. It was not until the early 1920s that Transcarpathia was established as a separate administrative region. The Ukrainians' struggle for self-rule resulted in the creation of the autonomous Carpatho-Ukraine on 11 October 1938. On 12 February 1939, elections to the first parliament of Carpatho-Ukraine took place in which the Ukrainian National Alliance won a resounding victory. However, on 14 March 1939, Adolf Hitler entrusted Hungary with the occupation of Transcarpathia which marked the actual beginning of the Second World War... Learn more about Transcarpathia, its history, cities, inhabitants, and natural resources by visiting the following entries:
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TRANSCARPATHIA. A historical-geographic region in southwestern Ukraine. Until 1919 Transcarpathia denoted that part of Hungary where Ukrainians lived, and the synonymous terms Hungarian Ruthenia (Uhorska Rus') and Hungarian Ukraine (Uhorska Ukraina) were widely used. Bounded by the ethnographic boundary with Romanians and Hungarians in the south and Slovaks in the west, the region encompassed 15,600 sq km. After the First World War Transcarpathia was separated from Hungary, and the bulk of its territory was formed into an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia called Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Pidkarpatska Rus'). A small part, located south of the Tysa River, became part of Romania, while in its western reaches, the Presov region was allocated to Slovakia. Joined with the Ukrainian SSR in June 1945, Transcarpathia constitutes a separate administrative unit, Transcarpathia oblast, within the borders of Ukraine, with a territory of 12,800 sq km and a population of 1,258,300 (2001)... |
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UZHHOROD. A city (2001 pop 117,600) on the Uzh River and the capital of Transcarpathia oblast. According to the archeological evidence the site was inhabited as early as the Stone Age. A Slavic tribe of White Croatians founded a fortified settlement there in the 8th or 9th century. Early in the 10th century it was controlled by the Hungarians and then by Kyivan Rus'. Hungary regained control of the town in the 11th century and remained the dominant influence there until the 20th century. Its economy was initially based on wine-making, agriculture, and animal husbandry. Trade and manufacturing, stimulated by the town's military and administrative needs, developed through the 15th to 18th centuries. The religious struggle of the 17th century culminated in the Uzhhorod Union of 1646. In the late 1770s Bishop Andrii Bachynsky transferred the seat of Mukachiv eparchy to Uzhhorod... |
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MUKACHIV or MUKACHEVO. A city (2001 pop 82,200) on the Liatorytsia River and a raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. The site has been settled since prehistoric times. In the 10th century Mukachiv belonged to Kyivan Rus', and in the 11th century, to Hungary. The fortress, rising high above the town, was destroyed by the Cumans in 1086 and by the Tatars in 1241. It was rebuilt by Fedir Koriiatovych, who also built Mukachiv Saint Nicholas's Monastery. By the end of the 14th century Mukachiv was an important manufacturing and trading center on a trade route between Hungary and Galicia. In 1445 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. Because of the monastery the town became a cultural and religious center in the 15th century, and until the end of the 18th century it was the seat of the Mukachiv eparchy... |
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KHUST. City (2001 pop 29,100) and raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. It arose in the 10th century at the foot of a mountain of volcanic origin, on which a Hungarian castle was built ca. 1090 to control access to salt mines located nearby. Khust belonged to the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia from 1281. In 1321 Hungarian rule was restored. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Habsburg dynasty and the Transylvanian princes fought each other for control of the town and its castle. On 21 January 1919 the Central Ruthenian People's Council in Khust voted to unite Transcarpathia with Ukraine. From 1919 to 1938 the city belonged to Czechoslovakia. After Hungary occupied southwestern Transcarpathia, in November 1938, the autonomous Carpatho-Ukrainian government headed by Avhustyn Voloshyn was evacuated from Uzhhorod to Khust, which became the capital of Carpatho-Ukraine... |
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BEREHOVE or BEREHOVO. A city (2001 pop 26,700, with a substantial Hungarian population), located in the Tysa Lowland; raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. Founded as a Saxon colony in the 11th century AD, Berehove is situated in Hungarian ethnic territory (before the Second World War Ukrainians constituted 10 percent of the population in Bereg komitat [Berehove county]). Under Czechoslovakian rule it was a center of Ukrainian cultural life in southern Transcarpathia. A Ukrainian gymnasium was situated here. Berehove has furniture, clothing, brick-and-tile, and ceramics plants and a wine and food industry. A 15th-century Gothic Roman Catholic church is located in the city... |
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