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TO ME BELOVED KIEV!
Even do not think about closing this page without having enjoyed a mini trip around one of the most beautiful cities of the world. All year round due to its special charm Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, attracts visitors from all over the world. It's alluring, it's seducing, and it's fascinating.
Kyiv is the city of those in love, of those eager to love and be loved.
Chestnut trees, green parks, gardens, streets, famous memorials, old buildings, theatres, museums, cozy cafes and restaurants will please and satisfy any sophisticated taste. All that is created for romance and love.
Kyiv, like any other city with centuries-old history possesses its own spirit. Its unique atmosphere absorbs you, overfills you from inside and surrounds you from outside.
Every season brings Kyiv its glamour. Spring Kyiv though enchants visitors in some peculiar way. Have you an idea what spring Kyiv is like? And you will not have it until you see that on your own.
If you are romantic and long for something special, if you are a person of art, searching for genuine beauty, come to Kyiv and get acquainted with original Slavonic culture.
If you are tired, bored or frustrated, if you are looking for something unusual and magic welcome to Ukraine and warm your soul with our inimitable horilka (vodka). And then vareniki (dumplings) will fly to your mouth.
Got it? Already interested? Willing to order a trip to Ukraine? Our best congratulations! You have won a mini trip to our famous capital!
Welcome to Ukraine! The Mother of Russian towns is greeting you! Here you are in Boryspil International Airport. Surprise! Yes, you are not among bears and snowmen, and you have come here not by a light training plane, and you are not met by a wagon with yoked oxen.
Opa! And not a Russian womenfolk wearing valenki is proposing you bread and salt on the doorstep of the hata (peasant house).
Rather civilized, isn't it?
Relax! Do not be that disappointed. We shall give you an opportunity to enjoy the sight of genuine Ukraine from the sources of Slavonic civilization up to the European standard.
From the height of Kyiv five-star Premiere Palace Hotel you will be delighted with a marvelous view of the main street of Kyiv, Khreschatyk.
Walking slowly along the heart of the capital you will be able to satisfy your hunger with a piece of fresh salo on black bread (Yes to natural product! No to vacuum packing!), that can be easily bought at famous Kyiv Bessarabsky Rynok (farmer market).
Gobling salo with bread will not bother you to behold XX century Kyiv and to leave all your savings at super fashionable Khreschatyk shops.
Ups! A woman on phallus with shashlyk. Oh! You are finding yourself on famous newly reconstructed Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square).
Here you are observing local green houses where we breed the most beautiful girls in the world... about the girls a bit later.
Come on babies! We are approaching St. Sophia Cathedral. Our pride and power. IX century.
Turn right and you will see Mikhaylovsky Gold-domed Cathedral.
Well, we shall not concentrate your attention on Princess Olga's monument on Mikhaylovska plosha (square), the money for which are still being awaited by naive Italians.
Wow! And you are on the most Kyiv out of all Kyiv slopes, Andriyivsky Uzviz. You are standing in front of Andriyivska Church the only Kyiv church in baroque. Passing over Andriyivsky Uzviz you will be able to scrutinize the monument to famous Ukrainian cinema characters Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Joke! It's the place where you will finally empty your pockets buying matreshki (nested Russian dolls), brooms of happiness and other purely Ukrainian souvenirs.
Ups! A beautiful place for beautiful people. Podil. XVIII century. Little oasis. Here you will have a chance to go on a ride with a Cossack.
Here it is! The Dnipro. The inspirer of national poets, writers, musicians, artists. Maybe it will inspire you as well! Good luck!
To be continued... after your arrival.
A BIT OF FACTS
Population: 2.63 mln
Kiev Area: 827 km2
Year of foundation: 482 A.D.
Population in region: 1,938,000
Region area: 28,900 km2
Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is one of the oldest cities of Eastern Europe. It is situated on the hilly right bank and on the low left bank of the Dnieper River.
Inimitable in the beauty and variety of its green landscape, a garden city, a city of museums, Kiev is the historic, political, religious, scientific, and cultural center of Ukraine.
It is also the largest city (2.5 min.) of the country, and one of the largest industrial centers, and an important transport and communications hub.
The oldest human trances on the territory of Kiev date from the late Paleolithic period. Traces of Neolithic Trypilian culture settlements are numerous, as are those of the Iron and Bronze ages. Excavated Roman coins and burial grounds of the 2nd-4th centuries AD show that Kiev was already a large settlement and important trading locus at that time.
Archeological excavations show evidence of the first settlement on the territory of Kiev 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. Legend has it that at the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th centuries, three brothers, Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, and their sister, Lybid, founded a town and names it after their elder brother Kiy, as "Kyiv".
The early settles of Kiev built their citadel on the steep right bank of the Dnipro river to protect themselves from marauding nomadic tribes. Later, Kiev`s Grand Princes built their palaces and churches on Starokievska hill, while artisans and merchants built their houses next to the wharf on the Dnieper. By the end of the 9th century, when the Kievska Rus princes united scattered Slavic tribes, Kiev was the political centre of the Eastern Slavs. Kiev maintained wide foreign and commercial trade links due to its position in the middle of trade routes between the Vikings and the Greeks.
Kiev`s development accelerated durign the reign of Prince Volodymir the Great (980-1015). In 988, intent on strengthening his power on the broader international arena, Volodymir introduced Christiany as the official religion of the realm. By the 11th century Kiev was one of the largest centers of civilization in the Christian World.
After the death of the great Kiev`s Prince Vladimir Monomakh (1125). Kievska Rus became involved in a long period of feudal wars. Foreign powers were quick to take advantage of this situation. IN the autumn of 1240, the Tatar-Mongols headed by BatuKhan, captured Kiev after series of long and bloody battles. Kiev fell into a prolonged period of decline. The Tartar-Mongols ruled for almost a century. Despite foreign rule, Kiev retained its artisan, trade and cultural traditions and remained an important political, trade and cultural center. In the 14th century, the Kiev region became the cradle for the modern Ukrainian nation.
In the 15 th century Kiev was granted the "Magdenburg Rights", which permitted greater independence of the city in matters of international commerce.
The next time the world heard about Ukraine was during the period of the Cossack Republic - centered in the famed "Zaporizka Sich" Fortress - at the end of the 15th century. The long road to independence by the Ukrainian people began with Cossack military campaigns. In 1648-1654 Cossack armies, headed by Hetman (Ukrainian for Cossack leader) Bohdan Khmelnytsky waged several wars to liberate Ukraine.
Confronted by the armies of Polish and Lithuanian feudal lords, Bohdan Khmelnytsky sought the protection of the Russian Tsar in the Treaty of Pereyaslav.
Unfortunately, as a result, Ukraine was plunged into a long period of domination by the Russian Empire. Despite such repression and severe Tsarist autocratic rule, Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries nonetheless managed to preserve and enjoy some of the richness of its political, economic, cultural, and religious development. The Kyiv Mohyla Academy, founded by Metropolitan Petro Mohyla in the 17th century, became the first university in Eastern Europe. In that period, the Ukrainian people were among the most educated in the world and almost all were literate. Books were printed, philosophy was studied; music, literature and painting flourished. The first Constitution appeared in Ukraine during the Cossack period (1711).
In January 1918 when the Russian Empire fell, the independence of Ukraine was proclaimed and the Ukrainian National Republic was established. Mykhaylo Hrushevsky became the first President of Ukraine. But at that time Ukrainian statehood was not adequately defended. It is only recently that this became possible.
After the revolution of 1917 Vladimir Illyich Lenin and his Bolshevik Party seized power and expanded their sphere of control into Ukraine.
Ukraine experienced a brief period of independence when on January 22, 1918, the Ukrainian Central Rada (Council) formally
issued a proclamation for Ukraine's independence. But shortly thereafter in 1919, the Ukrainian National Republic was defeated in a war against Polish expansionists and overrun once again. Eventually, Bolshevik and Communist forces retook Ukrainian lands, and as a means to control the population, leader Josef Stalin caused the Great Famine of 1932-33 by forcibly collecting grain and deliberately starving to death nearly ten million people. Nazi Germany then began World War II and entered Kyiv in September 1941 razing the city. In November 1943, Soviet forces retook the city in fierce fighting and began their final domination of Ukraine for almost the next fifty years. Attention from the West turned to Ukraine after the nuclear meltdown at the Chornobyl power plant in April 1986. Since then Ukrainians felt the decreased political power wielded by the Soviet Union's Communist leaders. After the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic proclaimed Ukraine's sovereignty in July 1990, Ukrainians fulfilled their dream of independence during the failed Soviet coup of August 1991. In a referendum held on December 1, 1991 the people of Ukraine endorsed independence and voted Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk as Ukraine's first ever democratically elected President. The United States recognized Ukraine's
independence on December 25, 1991; and the first American Ambassador, Roman Popadiuk, arrived in Kyiv on June 8, 1992. On July 10, 1994, Leonid Kuchma, former director of the world's biggest rocket plant, defeated Leonid Kravchuk to become the second President of independent Ukraine. In Janury 2006 after a resonance Orange Revolution new president Victor Yuschenko was inaugurated.
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