Short History of Ukraine

A Brief History

The Ukraine is the birthplace of Russia, but the Vikings were the first people to establish the initial state of Kyivan Rus in the 9th century. The Ukraine is filled with a convoluted history of foreign influences.
The Mongols invaded from the east, and Poland and Lithuania encroached from the west, but the country was finally absorbed by Russia in the north. In the 19th century the country was under Austrian-Hungary rule and pushed towards nationalism, but that dream never really materialized until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The centuries old dream of becoming an independent state was finally set in motion then and was fueled by the 2004 orange uprising.