Bohdan Zynoviy Mykhailovych Khmelnytsky was a Ruthenian nobleman and military commander of Ukrainian Cossacks as Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, which was then under the suzerainty of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates (1648–1654) that resulted in the creation of an independent Cossack state in Ukraine. In 1654, he concluded the Treaty of Pereiaslav with the Russian Tsar and allied the Cossack Hetmanate with Tsardom of Russia, thus placing central Ukraine under Russian protection. During the uprising the Cossacks led a massacre of thousands of Poles and Jews during 1648–1649 as one of the most traumatic events in the history of the Jews in Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalism.
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno, also known as Bat'ko Makhno, was a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence. He established the Makhnovshchina, a mass movement by the Ukrainian peasantry to establish anarchist communism in the country between 1918 and 1921. Initially centered around Makhno's home province of Katerynoslav and hometown of Huliaipole, it came to exert a strong influence over large areas of southern Ukraine, specifically in what is now the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of Ukraine.
The Union of Brest took place in 1595–1596 and represented an agreement by Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Ruthenian portions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to accept the Pope's authority while maintaining Eastern Orthodox liturgical practices, leading to the formation of the Ruthenian Uniate Church, which currently exists as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church.
The Galician–Volhynian Chronicle (GVC), also known as Chronicle of Halych–Volhynia and The Dynastic Chronicle of the Romanovichi, is a prominent work of Old Ruthenian literature and historiography covering 1201–1292 in the history of the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia.
Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. Hrushevsky is often considered the country's greatest modern historian, the foremost organiser of scholarship, the leader of the pre-revolution Ukrainian national movement, the head of the Central Rada, and a leading cultural figure in the Ukrainian SSR during the 1920s.
Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University and the founder and first director (1973–1989) of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
The Volhynians were an East Slavic tribe of the Early Middle Ages and the Principality of Volhynia in 987–1199.
The Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) is a research institute affiliated with Harvard University devoted to Ukrainian studies, including the history, culture, language, literature, and politics of Ukraine. Other areas of study include sociology, archaeology, art, economics, and anthropology.
Adam Kisiel was a Polish nobleman of Ruthenian origin, the Voivode of Kyiv (1649-1653) and castellan or voivode of Czernihów (1639-1646). Kisiel has become better known for his mediation during the Khmelnytsky Uprising.
The Makhnovshchina was a mass movement to establish anarchist communism in southern and eastern Ukraine during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921. Named after Nestor Makhno, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, its aim was to create a system of free soviets that would manage the transition towards a stateless and classless society.
The Battle of Batih was fought between the Cossack Hetmanate and Crimean Khanate against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of the Khmelnytskyi Uprising. Near the village of Batih in the Bratslav Regiment, a forces of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars under the command of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, Tymofiy Khmelnytskyi and Ivan Bohun attacked and completely defeated the Polish–Lithuanian forces under the command of Marcin Kalinowski, Zygmunt Przyjemski and Marek Sobieski, all of them were killed in the action. After the battle, the captured Polish–Lithuanian troops were brutally slain and beheaded by the Zaporozhian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars, as a revenge for the Battle of Berestechko.
Various factions fought over Ukrainian territory after the collapse of the Russian Empire following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and after the First World War ended in 1918, resulting in the collapse of Austria-Hungary, which had ruled Ukrainian Galicia. The crumbling of the empires had a great effect on the Ukrainian nationalist movement, and in a short period of four years a number of Ukrainian governments sprang up. This period was characterized by optimism and by nation-building, as well as by chaos and civil war. Matters stabilized somewhat in 1921 with the territory of modern-day Ukraine divided between Soviet Ukraine and Poland, and with small ethnic-Ukrainian regions belonging to Czechoslovakia and to Romania.
Boz was the king of the Antes, an early Slavic people that lived in parts of present-day Ukraine. His story is mentioned by Jordanes in the Getica (550–551); in the preceding years, the Ostrogoths under Ermanaric had conquered a large number of tribes in Central Europe, including the Antes. Some years after the Ostrogothic defeat by the invading Huns, a king named Vinitharius, Ermanaric's great-nephew, marched against the Antes of Boz and defeated them. Vinitharius condemned Boz, his sons, and seventy of his nobles, to crucifixion, in order to terrorize the Antes. These conflicts constitute the only pre-6th century contacts between Germanics and Slavs documented in written sources.
Serhii Mykolayovych Plokhy is the Mykhailo Hrushevsky professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard University, where he also serves as the director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918–1921 is a book-length study of Nestor Makhno written by Michael Palij and published by the University of Washington Press in 1976.
Agafya "Halyna" Andriivna Kuzmenko was a Ukrainian teacher and anarchist revolutionary. After moving to southern Ukraine, she became a prominent figure within the ranks of the Makhnovshchina, a mass movement to establish a libertarian communist society. Kuzmenko spearheaded the movement's educational activities, promoted Ukrainization and acted as an outspoken advocate of women's rights. Along with her husband, the anarchist military leader Nestor Makhno, in 1921 she fled into exile from the political repression in Ukraine. While imprisoned for subversive activities in Poland, she gave birth to her daughter Elena Mikhnenko, whom she brought with her to Paris. Following the death of her husband, the outbreak of World War II saw her deportation for forced labour, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviets. After her release, she spent her final days with her daughter in Kazakh SSR.
This is a select bibliography of English-language books and journal articles about the history of Ukraine. Book entries have references to journal reviews about them when helpful and available. Additional bibliographies can be found in many of the book-length works listed below. See the bibliography section for several additional book and chapter-length bibliographies from academic publishers and online bibliographies from historical associations and academic institutions.
The Kropyvna Regiment was one the territorial-administrative subdivisions of the Cossack Hetmanate. The regiment's capital was the city of Kropyvna, now a village in Cherkasy Oblast of central Ukraine.
The Irkliiv Regiment was one the territorial-administrative subdivisions of the Cossack Hetmanate. The regiment's capital was the city of Irkliiv, now a village in Cherkasy Oblast of central Ukraine.
Ivan Pavlovych Lysiak Rudnytsky was a historian of Ukrainian socio-political thought, political scientist and scholar publicist. He significantly influenced Ukrainian historical and political thought by writing over 200 historical essays, commentaries, and reviews, and also serving as editor of several book publications. He has been praised as one of the most influential Ukrainian historians of the twentieth century. He is sometimes referred to as Ivan Łysiak-Rudnytsky, but the surname he used was his mother’s name Rudnytsky.
