10 Amazing Facts About Ukraine And Ukrainians

Ukraine is an incredible country which can amaze even the most experienced tourist with its history, objectives, and achievements. Many believe that there is nothing interesting in Ukraine, and our story is sad and unexpressive. However, the facts we are going to tell you will impress everyone who thinks so and force to rethink their ideas.

1. Ukraine is the largest European country which holds 0.41% of the global land area. On the territory of our country, the quarter of all reserves of black soils on the Earth is focused.

2. One of the world’s first Constitutions was adopted in Ukraine on April 5, 1710. On this day, Pylyp Orlyk was elected a hetman of Zaporizhia army, and on the same day he declared the Constitution Rights And Freedoms Of Zaporizhia Forces. The US Constitution adopted in 1787; in France and Poland they appeared only in 1791.

3. The oldest known map and ancient settlement of Homo sapiens were found in Ukraine, at the village of Mezhyrichchia of Rivne Region. They are about 14.5-15 thousand of years. The map is knocked on the bone of a mammoth.

4. The Ukrainian language was recognized as one of the world’s most melodic languages. On language beauty contest in Paris in 1934, the Ukrainian language took the third place after French and Persian according to such criteria as phonetics, vocabulary, phraseology, and the structure of proposals. Nowadays, it is the second melodic language in the world (after Italian).

5. Before the almost complete destruction of Kievan Rus by Mongol-Tatars in 1240, Kyiv was one of the largest and most developed cities in Europe, fifty times larger than London and ten times larger than Paris. Its population amounted to about 50,000 inhabitants.

6. Pablo Picasso was delighted with the work of Ukrainian artist Kateryna Bilokur (1900-1961). When in 1954 he saw her works at the exhibition, he said that they were brilliant and compared Kateryna with the known worldwide artist Serafin Luis.

7. Ukrainian Rebel Army (Ukrainian: UPA) has established an absolute record in the conduct of guerrilla warfare in the occupied territory. Almost for 20 years UPA opposed the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union. Technologies and methods of Ukrainian soldiers were even studied by the Cuban rebels of Fidel Castro. And the French president during 1958-1969 said, “If I had such army as UPA, German boots would never tread the land of France.”

8. During the Boer War (South Africa) in 1899-1902, a commander of one of the units of the Boers, Ukrainian man Yurii Budiak saved from death a young British journalist. Later, this journalist helped him to settle down to study in Oxford University. In 1917, Yurii worked in the government of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. In 1943, Yurii Budiak died in a Soviet concentration camp. The name of that English journalist was Winston Churchill.

9. In St. Barbara Church, located in the town of Berdychiv in Zhytomyr Region, on March 14, 1850, the local beauty Evelina Ganska was wedded with Honore de Balzac. In the same town, Frederic Chopin lived for a long time; in addition to writing music, he also led the work on the restoration of Gdańsk Authority.

10. The first higher educational institution in Ukraine was Ostrog College, founded in Ostrog by Count Kostiantyn Ostrozkyi in 1576. Back then, it was the only institution of higher education in Eastern Slavonic world.