The Guinness Encyclopedia

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The Guinness Encyclopedia / The Guinness Encyclopedia - Wayzata Technology (3221-1B) (Disc 2) (1995).iso / countrie / countrie.s / card_49211.xml < prev next >

Wrap

Extensible Markup Language | 1995-06-15 | 8KB | 19 lines

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <!DOCTYPE card PUBLIC "-//Apple, Inc.//DTD card V 2.0//EN" "" > <card> <id>49211</id> <filler1>0</filler1> <cantDelete> <false /> </cantDelete> <showPict> <true /> </showPict> <dontSearch> <false /> </dontSearch> <owner>5472</owner> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet_3106.css" /> <content> <layer>background</layer> <id>31</id> <text>UKRAINEOfficial name: Ukraina (The Ukraine)Member of: UN, CIS, OSCEArea: 603700 km2 (233100 sq mi)Population: 52345000 (1993 est)Capital: Kiev (Kyiv) 2616000 (1990 est)Other major cities: Kharkov (Kharkiv) 1618000, Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipropetrovske) 1187000, Donetsk (Donetske) 1117000, Odessa 1106000, Zaporozhye (Zaporizhia) 891000, Lvov (Lviv) 798000 (1990 est)Languages: Ukrainian (74%), Russian (22%)Religions: Orthodox majority ΓÇô Ukrainian Autocephalous and Russian; Ukrainian Uniat (Roman Catholic; largest denomination)GOVERNMENTA 450-member legislature is elected for four years by universal adult suffrage. Voting is conducted in three rounds and to be successful, in either of the first two rounds, candidates must have an overall majority. The President ΓÇô who appoints a Prime Minister and a Council of Ministers ΓÇô is directly elected for five years.GEOGRAPHYMost of Ukraine ΓÇô after Russia, the largest country in Europe ΓÇô comprises plains (steppes), interrupted by low plateau and basins. The north includes part of the Pripet Marshes; the south is a coastal lowland beside the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Central Ukraine comprises the Dnepr Lowland and the Dnepr Plateau, the most extensive upland in the republic. Eastern Ukraine comprises the Don Valley and part of the Central Russian Upland. The most diverse scenery is in the west, where an extensive lowland stretches into Hungary and the Carpathian Mountains rise to 2061 m (6762 ft) at Mount Hoverla. The Crimean Peninsula consists of parallel mountain ridges and fertile valleys. Climate: The Crimean Peninsula has a Mediterranean climate. The rest of Ukraine is temperate. Winters are milder and summers are cooler in the west. Snowfall is heaviest in the north and the Carpathians. Rainfall is moderate, usually with a summer maximum.ECONOMYUkraine was known as the bread basket of the USSR. Large collectivized farms on the steppes grow cereals, fodder crops and vegetables. Potatoes and flax are important in the north; fruit farming (including grapes and market gardening) is widespread, particularly in the Crimea. Natural resources include iron ore, oil, manganese and rock salt, but the vast Donets coalfield is the principal base of UkraineΓÇÖs industries. The Ukrainian iron and steel industry was almost as large as that of Russia. Other major industries include consumer goods, heavy engineering (railway locomotives, shipbuilding, generators), food processing, and chemicals and chemical equipment. Within the USSR, Ukraine had surpluses of electricity, cereals and many industrial goods. The economy has been almost untouched by reform since the break-up of the USSR. Production has fallen; the country faces a huge energy deficit, rampant inflation and declining industries and standards of living. Currency: Karbovanets.HISTORYGreek colonies flourished on the Crimean coast from about the 7th century bc. The earliest known homeland of the Slavs is thought to be in the north foothills of the Carpathians in Ukraine, from whence the East Slavs migrated towards the Dnepr valley during the first millennium bc. The state of RusΓÇÖ, centered on Kiev, is the common ancestor of both Russia and Ukraine. It developed from the 9th century on the trade route linking the Baltic with the Black Sea. Its first princes were of Viking origin, though its population was largely East Slav. In ad 988, Grand Prince Volodymyr (Vladimir) of Kiev established Orthodox Christianity in RusΓÇÖ. Kiev subsequently declined and was wrecked by the invasion of the Tatars (1237ΓÇô41), but other powerful centers grew to the west in Galicia. These centers came under Polish rule in the 14th century when both Poland and Lithuania extended south and east into the steppes on their border (from which is derived the original name u krajina, ΓÇÿon the borderΓÇÖ).Polish influence increased in Ukraine, particularly after the formal union of Poland and Lithuania (1569), but Polish landowners and administrators were resented by the Ukrainians, who were reduced to serfdom. In the 16th century, Poland encouraged the foundation in Ukraine of autonomous colonies of Cossacks ΓÇô Slavic warrior-peasants who formed mercenary cavalry forces ΓÇô to act as buffers against Tatar invasions. However, the Cossacks grew overstrong and challenged the Poles, most seriously in the 1648ΓÇô51 rebellion, when the Cossacks requested assistance from the Russian tsar. Two Russo-Polish wars followed and in 1660 Ukraine was partitioned between Poland and Russia. The Ottoman Turks occupied Polish Ukraine from 1672 to 1699. Tsarist Russia suppressed the autonomy of the Cossacks in 1775 and reunited most of Ukraine under Russian rule (1793) in the second partition of Poland. In 1876 Russia banned the use of the Ukrainian language in schools and in print. However, the Ukrainian nationalist movement continued in the more liberal atmosphere of Galicia in the west, which had been annexed by Austria in the first partition of Poland (1772). The Ukrainians in Russia took the opportunity afforded by World War I and the Russian Revolution to proclaim independence (1918), but a Ukrainian Soviet government was established in Kharkov. Ukraine united with Galicia when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. The new state was invaded by Poland in pursuit of territorial claims and by the Soviet Red Army in support of the Kharkov Soviet. The Red Army prevailed and in 1922 Ukraine became one of the founding republics of the USSR, but the Lvov district of Galicia remained in Polish hands.From 1928, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin instituted purges in Ukraine and a new program of Russification. After World War II ΓÇô when Ukraine was occupied by Nazi Germany ΓÇô Soviet Ukraine was enlarged by the addition of Lvov (from Poland), Bukovina (from Romania), and Ruthenia (from Czechoslovakia), and finally, in 1954, Crimea (from Russia). Ukrainian nationalism was spurred by the perceived Soviet indifference to Ukraine at the time of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, north of Kiev, in 1986. Ukrainian politicians responded to the restructuring of the USSR in the late 1980s by seeking increased autonomy. The decision of the republic to declare independence following the abortive coup by Communist hardliners in Moscow (September 1991) hastened the demise of the USSR. Ukraine gained international recognition in December 1991 when the Soviet Union was dissolved, but tension remained between Moscow and Kiev concerning the allegiance of Soviet forces in Ukraine, and the status of Crimea and the Black Sea fleet.# UkraineΓÇÖs economic collapse since independence increased the separatist feelings of the Russian majority in eastern Ukraine and in Crimea. </text> </content> <name>Ukraine</name> <script></script> </card>