In the first round of polling on March 31, 2019, Zelensky won over 30 percent of the vote, and Poroshenko finished second with 16 percent. The second round was held on April 21, and Zelensky crushed the incumbent in a landslide, capturing more than 73 percent of the vote. Poroshenko’s concession speech was marked with a promise that his political career was not yet over, while Zelensky vowed that his first goal as president would be to achieve a lasting peace in war-torn eastern Ukraine. Zelensky took office on May 20, 2019, and used his inauguration speech to announce the dissolution of parliament and the triggering of snap legislative elections. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Citation Information
Article Title: Ukraine
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 21 August 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine
Access Date: August 29, 2019
Additional Reading
General works
Encyclopaedic reference sources on the country include M.P. Bazhan et al. (eds.), Soviet Ukraine (1969; originally published in Ukrainian, 1964); and the most extensive reference works available in the West: Volodymyr Kubijovyč (ed.), Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia, 2 vol. (1963–71; originally published in Ukrainian, 3 vol., 1949–52), a thematic approach; and Volodymyr Kubijovyč and Danylo Husar Struk (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ukraine, 5 vol. (1984–93; originally published in Ukrainian, 10 vol., 1955–84), an alphabetic treatment. Zenon E. Kohut, Bohdan Y. Nebesio, and Myroslav Yurkevich, Historical Dictionary of Ukraine (2005), is another useful reference work.
Geography
English-language sources on the physical geography of Ukraine are limited. L.S. Galetskii, An Atlas of the Geology and Mineral Deposits of Ukraine (2007), is an invaluable work. Regional geography studies cited in the bibliography to the article Union of Soviet Socialist Republics can be informative. A brief survey, Geography of Ukraine (1985), prepared by the Ukrainian Information Collective in Australia, is also useful. Details on all aspects of the geography of Ukraine are found in O.M. Marynych et al. (eds.), Heohrafichna entsyklopediia Ukraïny, 3 vol. (1989–93), a beautifully illustrated encyclopaedic work in Ukrainian.
Among surveys of the country’s economy are I.S. Koropeckyj (ed.), Ukrainian Economic History: Interpretive Essays (1991), and The Ukraine Within the USSR: An Economic Balance Sheet (1977); and Vsevolod Holubnychy, Soviet Regional Economics (1982). Other solid studies include I.S. Koropeckyj, Development in the Shadow: Studies in Ukrainian Economics (1990), and The Ukrainian Economy: Achievements, Problems, Challenges (1992); and King Banaian, The Ukrainian Economy Since Independence (1999).
Soviet-era issues that influenced the political and social situation in Ukraine are dealt with in separate chapters of Lubomyr Hajda and Mark R. Beissinger (eds.), The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society (1990). Book-length studies include Jaroslaw Bilocerkowycz, Soviet Ukrainian Dissent: A Study of Political Alienation (1988); Bohdan Krawchenko, Social Change and National Consciousness in Twentieth-Century Ukraine (1985); Peter J. Potichnyj (ed.), Ukraine in the Seventies (1975); Bohdan Krawchenko (ed.), Ukraine After Shelest (1983); and Serhy Yekelchyk, Stalin’s Empire of Memory: Russian-Ukrainian Relations in the Soviet Historical Imagination (2004).
Ukrainian cultural expression is the subject of M.P. Bazhan (ed.), Istoriia ukraïns’koho mystetstva, 6 vol. in 7 (1966–70); George S.N. Luckyj, Between Gogol and Sevcenko: Polarity in the Literary Ukraine: 1798–1847 (1971); Dmytro Čyževs’kyj, A History of Ukrainian Literature, from the 11th to the End of the 19th Century (1975; originally published in Ukrainian, 1956); George G. Grabowicz, Toward a History of Ukrainian Literature (1981); George S.N. Luckyj, Literary Politics in the Soviet Ukraine, 1917–1934, rev. and updated ed. (1990), and Ukrainian Literature in the Twentieth Century: A Reader’s Guide (1992); and Sviatoslav Hordynsky, The Ukrainian Icon of the XIIth to the XVIIIth centuries, trans. from Ukrainian (1973).
Religion is examined in Borys A. Gudziak, Crisis and Reform: The Kyivan Metropolitanate, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest (1998, reissued 2001); Piotr Wawrzeniuk, Confessional Civilising in Ukraine: The Bishop Iosyf Shumliansky and the Introduction of Reforms in the Diocese of Lviv, 1688–1708 (2005); John-Paul Himka, Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine: The Greek Catholic Church and Ruthenian National Movement in Galicia, 1867–1900 (1999); Frank E. Sysyn, The Ukrainian Orthodox Question in the USSR (1987); Bohdan Rostyslav Bociurkiw, The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Soviet State, 1939–1950 (1996); and Ivan Hvat, “The Ukrainian Catholic Church, the Vatican, and the Soviet Union During the Pontificate of Pope John Paul II,” Religion in Communist Lands, 11(3):264–294 (Winter 1983). Serhii Plokhy and Frank E. Sysyn, Religion and Nation in Modern Ukraine (2003), addresses the role played by religion in the creation of a Ukrainian national identity.
History
Comprehensive historical surveys include Michael Hrushevsky (Mykhailo Hrushevskyi), A History of Ukraine, trans. from Ukrainian (1941, reissued 1970); Dmytro Doroshenko, A Survey of Ukrainian History, updated ed., rev. by Oleh W. Gerus, trans. from Ukrainian (1975); Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, 2nd ed. (1994); and Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine (1996), a large-scale work with modern and balanced syntheses. Mykhailo Hrushevsky (Mykhailo Hrushevskyi), History of Ukraine-Rus’, trans. by Marta Skorupsky, ed. by Andrzej Pope, Frank E. Sysyn, and Uliana M. Pasicznyk (1997– ; originally published in Ukrainian, 10 vol., 1898–1937), is a monumental work by the preeminent Ukrainian historian. Hrushevsky’s life and work are examined in Thomas M. Prymak, Mykhailo Hrushevsky: The Politics of National Culture (1987); and Serhii Plokhy, Unmaking Imperial Russia: Mykhailo Hrushevsky and the Writing of Ukrainian History (2005). Concise survey histories of Ukraine include Roman Szporluk, Ukraine: A Brief History, 2nd expanded ed. (1982); and Paul R. Magocsi, Ukraine: An Illustrated History (2007). Ivan L. Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, ed. by Peter L. Rudnytsky (1987); and Ihor Ševčenko, Ukraine Between East and West: Essays on Cultural History to the Early Eighteenth Century (1996), are useful collections of essays by outstanding historians. Ukraine’s relations with other peoples and countries are examined in Peter J. Potichnyj, Poland and Ukraine, Past and Present (1980); Howard Aster and Peter J. Potichnyj (eds.), Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective, 2nd ed. (1990); Peter J. Potichnyj et al. (eds.), Ukraine and Russia in Their Historical Encounter (1992); and Hans-Joachim Torke and John-Paul Himka (eds.), German-Ukrainian Relations in Historical Perspective (1994). Paul Robert Magocsi and Geoffrey J. Matthews, Ukraine: A Historical Atlas (1985), offers a helpful supplement for the better understanding of interpretive discussions.