For Ukraine and Teaching

Teaching resources for the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Depending on grade level, teachers are confronted with how to address the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. I have put together a short guide for teachers to use at each level to discuss the history of Ukraine, and the significance of the nation, and how to thoughtfully inform the conversation as the major world event unfolds.

For elementary students:

Ukraine is a unique culture with very ancient roots. Home to Slavic, or Eastern European people, Ukraine has strong ties with Poland. Ukrainians are different from Russians, and have been struggling for independence for a millennium. Ukrainians have a very important place in eastern Europe, with a warm water port on the Black sea, that is free of ice. Russians have wanted or coveted the area, and its access to trade ports for a thousand years.?

Ukraine is a place with a significant amount of natural resources. The minerals which are underground in Ukraine are needed for our high technology, and energy. Ukraine is also a very fertile area, with large spaces of farmland. For centuries (or hundreds of years) Ukraine has been a “bread basket” or center for wheat growth.?

Ukraine is a democracy, and has frequent elections. Its leaders answer to their people, and have tried to improve friendship with western European countries, due to how Russia has treated their nation in the past. Because Ukraine would like to work more with the west, especially a protection group called NATO, Russia’s leader, a dictator who answers only to the wealthy, has twice invaded Ukraine.?

It is important to remember that children will have many questions, and may be frightened, especially if they are members of a military family.? The New York Times has published a family friendly guide here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/well/family/kids-teens-ukraine-russia.html

Edweek has also produced a guide: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/why-the-russia-ukraine-crisis-is-relevant-to-teachers/2022/02

For middle/ high school students (6th, 9 +10 th grade in NYS is Eastern World)

Ukraine is an ancient, historical nation that has roots in the ancient world. The successor nation to the Byzantine Empire, its nation is located on the Northern Black Sea area which is a zone of commerce, and cultural diffusion.? Ukraine’s geography has in some ways positively influenced its development, with access to the ice free black sea, and large regions of rich fertile farmland. The geography has negatively influenced its development, however, as the steppe and plains have allowed easy invasions from the east and northwest. First conquered by the Romans, the area now known as Ukraine was a frontier region for the eastern end of the Roman Empire, and subject to frequent and destructive raids from the Golden Horde of the East, and the Goths from the northwest.?

As the Roman empire crumbled, and the increased frequency of the raids created instability, the Eastern Roman Empire, centered in Byzantium, or present day Constantinople Turkey, transmitted an eastern form of Christianity utilizing Greek script, and the worship of religious icons- or paintings. The Eastern orthodox Christanity of the Byzantines and the Ukrainians became the dominant form of worship in Eastern Europe. As the Eastern Roman Empire lost its outlying areas, a series of kingdoms arose, including the Kyivan Rus, which would form the core of the Russian Empire of the future.?

Expanding north and east, the Kyivan Rus encountered a number of Gothic, Viking, and central Asian steppe nomads, or the Huns. With successive invasions, and the rise of the Middle Eastern kingdoms, or Caliphates centered on Baghdad, the peoples who lived in Ukraine became enslaved, and subjected to raids and capture by multiple surrounding kingdoms. These activities resulted in a large number of peoples losing their own identity and named Slavs.? As the Central Asian nomadic peoples invaded, Ukraine became part of the front line in a centuries long conflict between western Europe, Central Asia, and the growing Islamic empire from the south.?

From the northwest, the Polish- Lithuanian kingdom invaded and conquered the area of Ukraine. The area was incorporated into the largest European Kingdom in the late Middle ages, and became an ongoing battle ground between the rising Ottoman Empire, the newly unified Russian Empire, the recently united Holy Roman Empire, and the Polish Lithuanian Empire. These four major powers all wanted the land for agriculture, the people for taxation, and the natural harbors and resources the land held.?

As the Russian Empire? began its look westward, under Peter and Catherine the Great, the Ottoman Empire peaked, and conflict over the Black Sea erupted into a western world war in the 1800s, with almost every nation becoming involved. Poland-Lithuania was partitioned three times, by the Prussians of German areas to the northwest,? the Austro-Hungarians to the southwest, and the Russians, to the Northeast. Napoleon’s eastern expansion through the religion resulted in an upswing of nationalism, and the creation of the Polish Congress Kingdom reignited thoughts of independence. The mid 1800s Crimean War became a prelude to the conflicts which would dominate Europe through the end of World War II.?

World War I created an opportunity for the Ukrainian people to rebel against the Russian Empire after its fall, and the assasination of the Russian Czar’s family. The War for independence in 1917-1919 resulted in a brief nation state, but due to Russian Communist interference it merged into the newly created Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The central planning of the Russian based Soviet Union,called collectivization,? and genocidal activities of Soviet dictator Stalin, resulted in a massive famine, or Holodomor, on a scale with other tragic and brutal events such as the Irish Famine.?

During World War II, Ukrainian territory was subjected to the Nazi German invasions, The Ukranian people, who have a strong military tradition, as evidenced by the Cossack calvary units under the czars, and the guerilla fighting of World War II, fought, and lost, untold numbers of people.?

The Ukrainians, during the Cold War, continued to see the collective farms and industry of the Russian leaders result in high levels of poverty, and a desire for the openness which finally arrived under Gorbachev, the fall of the USSR, and the creation of an independent nation in the late 1990s.?

The Crimea, a Ukrainian? region under Russian occupation, has often served as the playground of the wealthy and elite, and the Dachas, or palatial mansions of the wealthy are similar to the ocean front homes along Long Island, the Finger Lakes, and the a\Adirondacks.?

The Ukrainian people suffered one of the greatest economic, environmental, and safety disasters when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a horrible disaster. The central power core melted down, releasing radiation for hundreds of miles. The 1986 disaster negatively impacted agriculture,? the living conditions of the people, and added pressure on the failing Soviet Union’s nuclear power program.?

The fall of the Soviet Union, and the rise of an independent Ukraine has led to a stable democracy in the region, and increasing ties with the West. Ukrainian people, both in and abroad, are scientific, artisans, and creative scholars, students and researchers.?

Plokhy, (2021). The Gates of Empire: A History of Ukraine. Basic books is a comprehensive book resource for teachers and students.

Morgan (2021) The Dogs of Chernobyl from Paws on Publishing, is a student friendly book.

The HURI center of Harvard has a comprehensive guide to Ukraine: https://huri.harvard.edu/teaching-resources-list