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Revision as of 11:40, 7 May 2007 by 62.90.101.55 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Russiansform the second biggest ethnic group in Ukraine, forming more than 30% of the population. Ukraine is the secound country with the most significant Russian population after Russia.
Historic Background
Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians together formed the medieval East Slavic nation Rus'. They were split into differenet people when their state Kievan Rus' was mostly occupied by other people. The seperation was what created the difference between the three groups, and Rus' breaking into three people.
Russian Empire period
The historical Ukraine was actually a country consisting of parts of a few of todays regions: Poltava Oblast, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast and Zaporizhia Oblast. Ukrainians leaded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky were fighting in a war for independence against Poland. When it became obviouse that Ukrainians alone can't win, they started looking for allice. In 1654 Ukraine signed Treaty of Pereyaslav, where it was agreed that Ukraine would accept the tsar's overlordship and become a part of Russia, and thats when first Russians came to live in the regions that priviously formed the historical Ukraine.
Ukrainian SSR
Since USSR was formed in 1922 Ukraine was a constituent republic in it. While being a Soviet republic, Ukrainian SSR recived regions that were historicaly not her, and whose population was almost entierly Russian (], Lugansk Oblast, Odessa Oblast, Crimea).
Ukraine
Thought reciving independence from the USSR , Ukraine kept the regions that contained Russian population. The Ukrainian Goverment tried to "Ukranize" the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine, but all those tries didn't work.
Politics
Russians in Ukraine support those political fgroups who agree to give Russians in Ukraine the cultural freedom they request. The party that gets most of the support of the Russians in Ukraine is the Party of Regions, but many also support the Communist Party of Ukraine.