Victory to independent Ukraine

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy Official website

Thirty-one years ago, on August 24th, Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union. Commemorating the birth of a modern, sovereign Ukraine takes on special meaning this year as Ukraine fights to retain that independence.?

Today also marks 18 months since Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine, escalating the eight-year conflict that was previously contained to the Donbas and Crimea. The world has watched as Ukrainians have, against all odds, held a much larger, wealthier, better armed adversary at bay. Perhaps more than ever before, the global community is familiar with the bravery and tenacity of Ukrainians. It has learned of Ukraine's distinct history and identity, the uniqueness of its language, the diversity of its people. And it has borne witness to Ukraine's fierce fight for independent statehood, a fight that began not in 2022, not in 2014, and not even in 1999, but in 1918 with the Ukrainian People's Republic.

Ukraine faces an existential threat, and it has sacrificed again and again for its freedom. As the country celebrates Independence Day, rejoicing in its victories thus far and bracing for battles to come, we're reminded of how precious— and fragile—freedom is.?

On this Independence Day, let us all renew our commitment to learn about Ukraine, share sound information and fight disinformation, and contribute to effective relief programs.

Ukraine in the Flames of the 1917 Revolution

September 13, 2017

One hundred years ago, a series of upheavals in the Russian Empire ended the rule of the Tsars and ushered in a new era of communism.

The Ukrainian People’s Republic, which was declared by the Central Rada in November in response to the Bolshevik coup in Petrograd, managed to resist a similar Bolshevik coup in Kyiv. Subsequently, the Central Rada proclaimed the political independence of the state in January 1918, severing its remaining ties with Bolshevik Russia.

Attacked by the communist regime in Moscow, Ukraine’s independent statehood didn’t last long, and the state was soon captured by the Bolsheviks, who proclaimed the creation of their own republic under Moscow’s control and eventually as part of the Soviet Union.

Now, a century later, Ukraine’s drive for independence and self-determination is once again facing tests. The Orange Revolution,?Euromaidan, and the ongoing battle with Russia over eastern regions highlight the people’s determination to reject subjugation by Russia and embrace their own vision for Ukraine. As Serhii Plokhii writes in his book?Lost Kingdom, the legacy of the 1917 events still endures: “The genie of independence was now out of the imperial bottle, and no force on earth could put it back.”

To commemorate this turning point in Ukrainian history, the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University (HURI) has organized a series of events examining the revolution and its consequences. In addition to our series, a number of events at Harvard are devoted to the 1917 revolutions in the Russian Empire and beyond. The Davis Center will host several talks and a?conference on the Russian Revolution?(which was organized by Serhii Plokhii, among others, and includes talks on Ukraine). Those who are interested in our?Ukraine in the Flames of the 1917 Revolution?series may also want to seek out these events.

Under the influence of Christianity, the Slavic ancestors of the Ukrainians began to search for their place in Medieval Europe. A powerful medieval state called Rus’ land or just Rus’ was born and it developed into Ukrainian lands, meeting its golden age at the turn of the 11th century. According to scientists, about 100,000 people lived in its main city called Kyiv (the modern capital of Ukraine), which exceeded the total then population of London and Paris. Later, in the 13th century, the princes of Rus’ were the first in Europe to meet the Mongol invasion, which undermined the state-building potential of the local nobility.

Ukrainian lands fell under the rule of neighbouring states – Lithuania and Poland. It merged into one of the largest and most powerful monarchies in Europe, the Commonwealth. This state existed from the 16th to the end of the 18th century, gathering the territories of modern Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and western Russia.

At the same time, the Ukrainian phenomenon of free chivalry reached its apogee, and Cossacks (‘free men’, from Turkic languages) appeared in the European arena. For a while, they even managed to create their own state called Hetmanate (Zaporizhzhia Host). Cossack detachments took part in almost all the great wars in the region, either as an independent military force or as mercenaries. They had their own unique customs, self-government and an original military tradition.

Meanwhile, Crimean Tatars developed on their native soil in their own state — the Crimean Khanate. History both united Crimean Tatars with Cossacks in one coalition and brought them into collision in bloody fights. The Crimean state ceased to exist at about the same time as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided, and the Hetmanate finally lost its autonomy. Imperial Russia contributed to all of these tragic events.

From the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century, Ukrainian lands were part of two empires — Austrian (later Austro-Hungarian) and Russian. At that time, Ukrainians took part in the Napoleonic Wars, fought for political and civil rights, built powerful corporations and railways, opened gymnasiums and hospitals, contributed to science and technology as well as developed language and culture along the same lines as other European nations that did not have their own states and were parts of empires.

The 20th century began in a stormy way for Ukraine — millions of people were thrown into the chaos of World War I.

Witnessing the downfall of the age-old empires, Ukraine made an attempt to build its own nation-state in 1917-1921. Together with the Poles, Ukrainians managed to protect Europe from communism and defeat the Russian Bolshevik troops near Warsaw.

Poland resisted, while Ukraine was reconquered by its neighbours. Until 1991, Ukrainians lived under the power of the totalitarian regime as a constituent part of the communist USSR. It was a difficult time with terrible tragedies and challenges — forced collectivization, genocide-Holodomor, The Great Terror, Holocaust, deportations, GULAG, punitive psychiatry, Soviet military interventions, the Chornobyl disaster, among other events, that took the lives of millions of Ukrainians who represented many different nationalities.

Despite difficult conditions, Ukrainians founded and rebuilt cities and villages, created space missiles and nuclear power plants, developed medical technologies and invented new methods of welding. Some of the computers developed in Ukraine were among the very first ones the world has ever seen, not to mention the significant contribution to world culture and art (avant-garde, constructivism, futurism, experimental cinema and music).

Ukraine was at the heart of World War II not once but twice — first in the time of Hitler’s offensive and occupation, and then during the bloody expulsion of the Nazis. A total of 8 million Ukrainians died between 1939 and 1945, most of them were civilians. 1.5 million Jews from Ukraine became the victims of the Holocaust. The historical truth about all victims of World War II was censored for a long time in the Soviet Union and started to get restored in the late 1980s, shortly before the collapse of the USSR. 3 million soldiers lost their lives in the battles against the Nazis and in captivity, many went missing, died in hospitals during the war and in the first postwar years. Ukrainians fought against Hitler and his allies in the armies of Poland and the USSR, Canada and France, the United States and Czechoslovakia, in theaters of war in Europe, Africa and Asia, in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

After the war and up until its independence, many Ukrainian independence fighters, human rights defenders and dissidents contributed efforts to overthrow the totalitarian communist regime, which eventually succeeded.

In 1991, Ukraine declared independence in order to build a free, democratic and sovereign state within internationally recognized borders.

Since then, any attempts to restore authoritarianism have faced strong people’s resistance. The Orange Revolution (2004-2005) and the Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014) have proven that freedom is the ultimate choice and expression of the Ukrainian people.

In 2019, European and Euro-Atlantic integration was incorporated into Ukraine’s Constitution as a vision of national development.

Since 1991, more than 40 million people of different nationalities and religions had enjoyed peace in Ukraine until 2014 when Russia illegally occupied Crimea and sent its troops over the border in Ukraine’s Donbas region.?

Today, Russia carries out aggression and hybrid warfare against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, which has already resulted in over 14,000 people killed and more than 33,500 wounded, continuously building up its military capacities and drawing armed forces to the Ukrainian border.

On February 21, 2022, Russia made a decision to recognise the ‘independence’ of the quasi-entities it had created in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine — the so-called ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’ and ‘Donetsk People’s Republic.’?

While Russia violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, Ukraine continues to protect its independence, as well as freedom and democracy in Europe.?