Ukraine: from the Past to the Future.

Position, History, Culture, Industry.

Bogdan Tokovenko. January 16, 2015.

• "By a recorded vote of 100 in favour to 11 against, with 58 abstentions, the Assembly adopted a resolution titled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”, calling on States, international organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any change in the status of Crimea or the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, and to refrain from actions or dealings that might be interpreted as such."

• Source: 27.03.2014 UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution 68/262 Calling upon States Not to Recognize Changes in Status of Crimea Region

Ukraine’s location in Europe

Ukraine is diverse and beautiful

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian language is euphonic.

Вороги:

die Feinde,

enemies.

Воріженьки:

“die Feindchen”,

“tiny / lilliputian / pet enemies”.

Taras Shevchenko

• 1814 – 1861

• Major contributor to Ukrainian literature

• Poet, writer, painter, illustrator

• Folklorist and ethnographer.

Taras Shevchenko. Self-portrait.

Andriy Shevchenko

• Ukrainian national football team

• Dynamo Kyiv

• Milan

• Chelsea

• 2004: Ballon D’or (Golden Ball)

• 2005: Golden Foot

Carpathians: mountains and forests

Crimea: big rocks and forests

Dnieper river near Kaniv

Dniester river near Khotyn fortress

Prut river

Natural caves

Kyiv

Kharkiv

Donets’k

Odesa

L’viv

Sophia Park in Uman’

Askania-Nova steppe wildlife park

Chufut-Kale

Bakhchi-Saray palace/museum

Sightseeing: Kyiv

Sightseeing: L’viv

Sightseeing: Odesa

Chernivtsi University

Kamyanets-Podilskyy fortress

Khotyn fortress

HISTORY OF UKRAINE.

From 5400 B.C. to nowadays

Trypillia culture, 5400 years BC.

Discovered 1883-1887

Vth century: Kyiv founded

IX: Kyiv Rus’ founded

988: baptism of Kyiv Rus’

Coat of arms and flag

Гривня (hryvnia), UAH, ₴

Kyiv Rus’, IX-XIII

Yaroslav the Wise: “Father-in-law of Europe”

• Married to the only daughter (Princess) of the king who Christianized Sweden.

• 3 daughters: queens of France (Anna), Hungary, Norway.

• Grand-daughters: Holy Roman Empress Eupraxia/Adelaida; also, possibly, one queen of Scotland.

• The list is incomplete!

Yaroslav the Wise

Ukrainian Cossacks, XV-XVIII

• Free warriors and mercenaries, mostly from Ruthenia, but also Poles and Tatars

• Not war alone: hunting, fishing, cattle breeding, bee keeping, salt mining and salt extraction.

Ukrainian Cossacks, XV-XVIII

• Headquarters: Zaporiz’ka Sich (literally, a “cleared area beyond the rapids”), now the city Zaporizhya

• 1684: Vkraina o Paese de Cossachi di Zaporowa

Ukrainian Cossacks, XV-XVIII

1710: the first Constitution.

Bohdan Khmelnytsky

Ivan Mazepa

Ukrainian People’s Republic, 1917-1920

Mykhailo Hrushevskyi

Undeclared Bol’shevik war

Holodomor 1932-1933

• Holodomor (extermination by hunger), an artificial famine and genocide of Ukrainian people

• 2.4 - 7.5 million people died, with total demographic losses of 10 million Ukrainians

Independence, 1991

Budapest memorandum, 1994

• Exchange of world’s 3rd largest nuclear arsenal for guarantees of territorial integrity and political independence, signed by United States of America, United Kingdom, and Russian Federation

• The only country in the world to willingly give up nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees

2013-14: Revolution of Dignity

Chornobyl’ 26.04.1986

• The most disastrous nuclear event in history

• 14 000 people evacuated

• 30 kilometre Exclusion Zone

Modern Ukraine

• Agriculture

• Sports

• Education

• Information technologies

• Industry

• Space exploration

• Science

Agriculture

• World’s leader in sunflower oil export

• World’s top-5 in production and export of:

– Barley

– Wheat

– Maize

– Honey

Ukrainian athletes

Ukrainian universities

Top earnings in IT (Elance)

WhatsApp: Jan Koum

PayPal: Max Levchin

Viewdle: facial recognition

Petcube

HDDs made possible by: Lyubomyr Romankiv

Ukraine’s industry: buses,

trams,

trains,

airplanes, and

rockets (Sea Launch)

Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet

Yuri Kondratyuk: Lunar Rendezvous

Selman Waksman

• Coined “antibiotics”

• Developed streptomycin against tuberculosis

• Nobel Prize 1952

Singing nation

Carol of the Bells

• Carol of the Bells / Shchedryk (Bountiful evening) by Mykola Leontovych in 1916

Okean Elzy

Ruslana (Eurovision 2004)

ONUKA (electronic music)

Actors of Ukrainian origin

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Bogdan Tokovenko. January 16, 2015