An ancient legend has it that three brothers, namely Kiy, Schek and Khoriv along with their sister Lebed founded a settlement on the slopes of the Dnepr River and called it Kiev after the eldest brother. It did not take long for this settlement to become the political center for Eastern Slavic tribes.
THRESHOLD OF 8-9TH CENTURY:
The formation of Kiev Rus, powerful medieval state unifying Eastern Slavic nations in the expanse from the Baltics to the Black Sea, from the Volga to Tisza rivers.
JULY 28, 988:
Russian Grand Prince Vladimir adopts Christianity as the official religion of Kiev Rus. This act has a positive impact on the development of political and cultural relations with Byzantium and other European and Middle East countries. Kiev becomes one of the most famous centers of Christian civilization.
BEGINNING OF 16TH CENTURY:
The formation of Zaporozhskaya Sech, sociopolitical and military-administrative organization of Cossacks. The Cossacks provided resistance to the invasions of the Turks, the Tatars and the domination of Polish nobility.
OCTOBER 23, 1545:
Cossacks took the Turkish fortress Achi-kali (Ochakov, Nikolaev region).
1648-1654:
The Liberation War of the Ukrainian people led by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky against Poland.
OCTOBER 6, 1648:
Troops under command of Bogdan Khmelnitsky laid siege to the city of Lvov.
AUGUST 16, 1649:
The Cossack army led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky won a battle against Polish troops near the town of Zborov, Ternopol region.
JANUARY 8, 1654:
Fighting against Polish oppression, Bogdan Khmelnitsky turns to Russian Tsar Alexei for help and enters into an alliance with Russia in the Ukrainian town of Pereyaslav; Ukraine, or Malorossia (Little Russia), becomes a protectorate of Russia. Kiev keeps its role as the economic and cultural center of Ukrainian lands. In the 18th century Kiev becomes an Orthodox symbol for the entire Russian Empire.
MARCH 16, 1686:
In Moscow Russian prince Vasiliy Galitzine and Polish envoys signed the Eternal Peace Treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and Poland. The treaty secured Russia’s possession of left-bank Ukraine plus the right-bank city of Kiev. The region of Zaporozhskaya Sech, Severian Lands, cities of Chernigov and Starodub were also ceded to Russia. The treaty was a major success for Russian diplomacy.
NOVEMBER 23, 1708:
The Russian Orthodox Church declared an anathema on Ukrainian hetman Ivan Mazepa who betrayed Czar Peter the Great.
DECEMBER 12, 1764:
Russian Empress Catherine the Great abolished hetmanate, rule by a hetman, in Ukraine, or Malorossia (Little Russia).
FEBRUARY 13, 1784:
In accordance with a decree issued by Russian Empress Catherine the Great, the Tavria oblast (region) was formed. The oblast included the Crimean peninsula, Taman and the modern Kherson region.
FEBRUARY 21, 1784:
In accordance with a decree issued by Russian Empress Catherine the Great, the fortress Akhtiar in the Crimea was renamed Sevastopol.
NOVEMBER 22, 1801:
Vladimir Dal, Russian scientist, writer, lexicographer and dialectologist, was born in the city of Lugansk. He is famous as the author of the unique Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language.
FEBRUARY 17, 1852:
Art collections at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg were opened to the public by Russian czar Nicholas I. The “Hermitage” pavilion adjoining the Winter Palace was built for Catherine II (the Great) as a private gallery for treasured collections. The museum is now housed in five interconnected buildings, including the Winter Palace and the Small, Old, and New Hermitages. Along with thousands of art objects from Central Asia, India, China, Egypt, the pre-Columbian Americas, Greece and Rome, the Hermitage houses outstanding collections of Western painting. Russian history is represented by archaeological material from prehistoric times onward.
APRIL 11, 1857:
Czar Alexander II approved the National Emblem of the Russian Empire, namely the double-headed eagle.
NOVEMBER 30, 1867:
The Vorontsov lighthouse was put into operation in Odessa. It became the first signal tower in the Russian Empire, which was equipped with electric lamps.
APRIL 17, 1877:
Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer and one of the world’s greatest novelists, finished writing the novel Anna Karenina. His great novel (1875-77) concerns the aristocratic woman, who deserts her husband for a lover, and the search for meaning by another autobiographical character Levin.
FEBRUARY 26, 1886:
For the first time in history of the Russian Empire mercury was produced at the cinnabar processing plant based in the city of Gorlovka, Donetsk region.
MAY 21, 1892:
For the first time in history of the Russian Empire an electric streetcar entered service in Kiev.
OCTOBER 25, 1897:
The first football match took place in the Russian Empire.
SEPTEMBER 12, 1898:
In accordance with a decree issued by Russian czar Nicholas II, the Polytechnic Institute opened in Kiev.
JANUARY 12, 1906:
The first number of the Russian-language newspaper Kievskaya Mysl was published in Kiev.
FEBRUARY 12, 1914:
The first bomber Ilya Muromets with 16 passengers took to the air for the first time. The airplane was designed by Kiev engineer Igor Sikorsky and manufactured by the Russian-Baltic railroad car building plant.
MARCH 14, 1914:
Russian pilot Peotr Nesterov made the first flight from Kiev to Odessa.
FEBRUARY 27, 1918:
In Kiev Central Draft Headquarters started full mobilization of the Red Army.
NOVEMBER 3, 1918:
A public assembly (veche) in the city of Chernovtsy passed a decision to make Northern Bukovina a part of the Soviet Ukraine.
NOVEMBER 14, 1918:
Vladimir Vernadsky was elected first president of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
APRIL 6, 1919:
Soviet troops won back Odessa from Entente forces that included British and French invaders.
APRIL 9, 1921:
The country-house museum of Russian dramatist and short-story writer Anton Chekhov opened in the Crimean port city of Yalta.
DECEMBER 4, 1921:
More than 108,000 residents of lands along the Volga River migrated to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
MARCH 21, 1922:
The Council of People’s Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic established, by its ordinance, 32 ore mining managements in the Donbas region. They came within jurisdiction of the State Coal Industry Administration.
DECEMBER 1922:
The formation of the U.S.S.R. incorporating the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the Soviet Union.
DECEMBER 28, 1922:
The Workers-Inventors Society was set up in Odessa.
SEPTEMBER 25, 1923:
The Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic allocated 12 million rubles to the first state reserve Askania-Nova in the Kherson region.
OCTOBER 1, 1923:
A sea route between Odessa and Rostov-on-Don via the ports of Yevpatoria, Sevastopol, Feodosiya, Kerch, Berdyansk, Mariupol and Taganrog reopened in the Soviet Union.
FEBRUARY 28, 1924:
A new telephone line with Nizhniy Novgorod entered service in the city of Kharkov.
APRIL 30, 1925:
In Moscow the Soviet of Labor and Defense adopted a program for the construction of a bakery in Kiev. It had a capacity to produce 4,500 poods of baked goods per day. A pood is the old Russian unit of weight equal to 16.38 kilograms.
OCTOBER 15, 1926:
The Russian Drama Theater opened its first season in Kiev.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1929:
The Zaporozhye-based plant Kommunar manufactured the first Soviet combine harvester.
NOVEMBER 17, 1933:
The Academic Russian Drama Theater named after Alexander Pushkin was established in the city of Kharkov.
APRIL 20, 1938:
A decision about the compulsory learning of the Russian language in all schools was passed in Ukraine.
DECEMBER 20, 1938:
Work-record books were introduced in the Soviet Union. They are still valid in Ukraine.
JANUARY 6, 1939:
Valeriy Lobanovskiy, distinguished Soviet footballer and merited coach of the U.S.S.R., was born.
JUNE 4, 1939:
The Ukrainian Arts Committee invited a group of experts of the Moscow-based Tretyakov Gallery to restore 11th-century mural frescoes at the St. Michael chancel of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev.
OCTOBER 10, 1939:
The Moscow-based Library of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. supplied 100,000 books on various subjects to the Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia by free gift.
OCTOBER 12, 1939:
The People’s Assembly of Western Ukraine issued declarations aimed to join the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
1941-1944:
The Nazi German occupation of Ukraine, including the capital of Kiev from 1941-1943, during the Great Patriotic War.
OCTOBER 26, 1941:
A municipal committee on a defense was formed in the port city of Sevastopol. The committee played an important role in the organization of the defense against German fascist invaders.
MAY 20, 1942:
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. established, by its decree, the Order of the Patriotic War (First and Second Class). It was the first decoration awarded to heroic defenders of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War against German fascist invaders.
OCTOBER 17, 1943:
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. conferred, by its decree, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 306 generals, officers, sergeants and soldiers of the Red Army for the successful forcing of the Dnepr River during the Great Patriotic War against German fascist invaders.
NOVEMBER 6, 1943:
Troops of the First Ukrainian Front under command of General Nikolai Vatutin took Kiev by assault, liberating the capital city of Soviet Ukraine from German fascist invaders.
NOVEMBER 7, 1943:
The 3rd Guards tank army liberated the town of Fastov, Kiev region, from German fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
OCTOBER 8, 1944:
Victorious Soviet forces took the village of Lavochnoe, Lvov region, thus driving last German fascist invaders from the Ukrainian territory.
1945:
Ukraine, together with 50 other states, becomes a U.N. Charter member.
JULY 6, 1952:
A monument to Pavel Nakhimov, gifted Russian naval commander, was founded in the port city of Sevastopol on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth. Today Sevastopol is the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
JANUARY 25, 1957:
The Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic established annual prizes for the best scientific works.
MAY 25, 1957:
The largest Soviet hotel Ukraina opened in Moscow.
NOVEMBER 6, 1957:
The Eternal Glory Park in honor of the Victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and the Soviet heroes, who defeated German fascism, with a well-proportioned obelisk at the grave of the Unknown Soldier opened in Kiev.
JULY 10, 1958:
Construction of the 80-kilometer gas pipeline Amvrosievka-Stalino (Donetsk)-Makeevka commenced in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was the branch of a main pipeline between the cities of Stavropol and Moscow.
JANUARY 23, 1959:
The world largest whale factory ship Soviet Ukraine was launched in the city of Nikolaev.
FEBRUARY 14, 1965:
The air route between the cities of Kirovograd and Moscow opened in the Soviet Union. A direct flight took three hours, using the airplane Antonov-24.
MAY 8, 1965:
Kiev, Moscow and the Byelorussian city of Brest were given the title of “Hero-City [of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945]”.
APRIL 29, 1966:
The Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine established, by its ordinance, the Institute of Strength Problems under the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
OCTOBER 30, 1967:
The Soviet Union was the first in the world to perform the unmanned docking of the spacecraft Kosmos-186 and Kosmos-188.
JULY 9, 1970:
The literary-memorial museum of Russian writer Alexander Green opened in the Crimean resort town of Feodosiya. It must be noted that Green is the assumed name of Alexander Stepanovich Grinevsky (1880-1932).
JULY 2, 1976:
A monument to victims murdered by German fascist invaders in the ravine Babiy Yar during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) was inaugurated in Kiev. More than 100,000 peaceful residents of Kiev, prisoners of war, hostages, prisoners of Gestapo and the Syrets concentration camp were killed and buried in the ravine and trenches around it.
MARCH 28, 1979:
The hotel complex Yalta opened in the Massandra park of this Crimean seaport. The hotel was constructed by Soviet and Yugoslav builders for the All-Union joint-stock company Inturist.
JUNE 6, 1984:
The Finance Ministry of the State Bank of the U.S.S.R. put the one-ruble coin into circulation, which was dedicated to the 185th anniversary of the birth of Russia’s greatest poet Alexander Pushkin.
DECEMBER 21, 1988:
The world largest transport airplane Antonov-225 Mria took to the air for the first time. The Ukrainian-built airplane has a carrying capacity of 250 tons.
AUGUST 1991:
Visiting Kiev, then U.S. president George Bush lectured Ukrainian parliamentarians on the virtues of remaining in the U.S.S.R. and warned them not to be tempted by dangerous nationalism into the ridiculous project of trying to form their own state.
AUGUST 24, 1991:
The Supreme Council adopts the Act on the Declaration of State Independence of Ukraine. Today, however, most citizens of Ukraine are wishing for a reunion with Russia, Byelorussia and other former Soviet republics.
OCTOBER 24, 1991:
The Supreme Council proclaimed nuclear [weapon]-free status of Ukraine.
MAY 30, 1998:
The reconstructed bell tower of the St. Michael Golden Domed Cathedral was inaugurated and consecrated in Kiev. Since the 12th century, majestic domes of the Cathedral have inspired warriors to defend Kiev Rus from foreign invaders.
SEPTEMBER 26, 2000:
A Dnepr-1 rocket blasted off from the cosmodrome Baikonur in Kazakhstan and put five commercial satellites into orbit. It is important to note that Dnepr-1 was designed by the Ukrainian-Russian company Kosmotras.
MARCH 16, 2014:
More than 96% of the Crimea’s population voted in favor of secession from Ukraine and joining Russia. The referendum attracted 83% voter turnout. Importantly, opinion polls showed that 91% of citizens of Russia approved of the reunification of Crimea with their country.
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