History.com: This Day In History (January 26-1918): Ukraine declares its independence

The second largest on the continent after Russia, today has again to fight for its independence

Ukraine had already experienced a brief period of independence in 1918–20, but portions of western Ukraine were ruled by Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia in the period between the two World Wars, and Ukraine thereafter became part of the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (S.S.R.). Now the new tsar or dictator Vladimir Putin wants it back in his territory.

Today Belarusians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Roma (Gypsies), and other groups, all part of the Ukrainian populations have very well seen what atrocious deeds that man from the North brought over the land he was so called to come to liberate.

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To remember

• principality of Galicia—remained part of the Austro-Hungarian empire = key battleground on World War I’s Eastern Front.
• February 1917 overthrow of the czar => Ukraine set up provisional government + proclaimed itself republic within structure of a federated Russia
• Bolsheviks = radical socialist group led by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) working to harness opposition to the czar + revolution begin in Russia
• Soon after Bolsheviks seized control in immense, troubled Russia in November 1917 + moved towards negotiating peace with the Central Powers > former Russian state of Ukraine declares its total independence > January 1918.
• flat Ukraine = borderland = major wheat-producing regions of Europe + rich with mineral resources, including vast deposits of iron + coal
• Bolshevik opposition + counter-revolutionary activity
• March 1918 > treaty at Brest-Litovsk = Russia signed treaty with Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria) ending participation in World War I (1914-18)
• defeat of the Central Powers => Germany + Austria to withdraw from Ukraine
• Soviet assault => 1922 = one of the original constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.)
• 1991 = U.S.S.R.’s collapse => Ukraine independence
• 2022 Ukraine invaded by Russia

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Preceding

1. USSR – USA – Cold-, Hot Wars and memorandi
2. A Brief Look at NATO and Russia’s Push to Reform the Old Soviet Union
3. A country willing to stand tall against any invasion
4. The mainstay of Ukrainian statehood
5. The moral failure of considering Ukraine for NATO
6. The First Great Information War 
7. Launched ill-judged invasion of Ukraine

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Additional reading

1. Ukrainians should be free to shape the future of their country
2. “If Perestroika Fails…”: The Last Summer of the Cold War – June-July 1991.
3. Appeal by the independent labor unions of Ukraine
4. Powerful Russia rising from the ashes
5. Entering a new period of ‘Cold War’
6. PM warns Vladimir Putin against ‘tragic mistake’ as tensions rise with Ukraine
7. Sings of the times – Difficult moments at the borders of Europe
8. The world on the very brink of conflict
9. The biggest ground offensive in Europe since World War II
10. Putin plays dangerous poker game
11. Putin is sabre-rattling at the West’s moment of maximum weakness
12. A useless but very dangerous challenge game
13. Russia-Ukraine war: Putin lays waste to cities
14. Pushing Russia
15. Putin adressing tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters at Moscow’s main football stadium
16. Southern Ukrainian city Kherson back in the hands of Ukraine

Levant's Agora

By History.com Editors.

Soon after the Bolsheviks seized control in immense, troubled Russia in November 1917 and moved towards negotiating peace with the Central Powers, the former Russian state of Ukraine declares its total independence.

One of pre-war Russia’s most prosperous areas, the vast, flat Ukraine (the name can be translated as at the border or borderland) was one of the major wheat-producing regions of Europe as well as rich with mineral resources, including vast deposits of iron and coal. The majority of Ukraine was incorporated into the Russian empire after the second partition of Poland in 1793, while the remaining section—the principality of Galicia—remained part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was a key battleground on World War I’s Eastern Front.

Immediately following the overthrow of the czar in February 1917, Ukraine set up a provisional government and proclaimed itself a republic within the structure of a federated Russia…

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