Kiev

Kiev (Kyiv in Ukrainian) is the capital city of Ukraine, located in the north-central part of the country along the banks of the Dnieper river (Dnipro). It has a population of about three million.

Kiev oblast is the province surrounding the city of Kiev.

History

Following are some historical milestones of Kiev's history:

• Legend has it that Kiev was founded about 500 by three brothers, Ky, Khoriv, and Shchek, along with their sister Lybid.
• Around 900, it was seized by the Varangians from the Khazars, who had built a fortress along the Dnieper. Varangians were a Baltic people linked with the Vikings, led by King Oleh from Scandinavia, who established the Rus' dynasty. (The term rus' means red-haired.)
• For 100 years the region expanded as a riverine trade route, sending fur, honey, and slaves south to Constantinople, and receiving luxury goods in return.
• Around 1000, King Volodymyr married into Constantinople royalty and forcibly converted the people of Kiev from paganism to Orthodox Christianity. Subsequently Yaroslav the Wise (Volodymyr's son) expanded Kiev into a major sociopolitical and economic center.
• Mongol raiders sacked Kiev in 1240, and the city languished and shrank.
• In 1362, Kiev was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Later, the city and surrounding area became a voivodeship of Poland as part of the Union of Lublin, a monarchical alliance that created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569.
• About 1800, czarist policies encouraged an influx of Russian immigration, boosting the population considerably.
• In the early 1900s, the Bolshevik Revolution resulted in many Red versus White battles in and around Kiev, and subsequent Stalinist famines killed many.
• Early in the 1940s, the German invasion of World War II also destroyed many lives, both military and civilian.
• Between 20-28 September 1941, the city centre of Kiev, in particular buildings along the Khreshchatyk and parallel streets, were destroyed in a series of controlled explosions initiated by NKVD agents left behind in Kiev by the retreating Soviet Army. Hundreds of people were killed and 23,000 left homeless.
• Around 1990, as the Soviet Union crumbled, Ukrainians agitated for independence, ultimately leading to the peaceful democratic Orange Revolution in the first decade of the 21st Century.