My Homeland, Ukraine

The largest country wholly in Europe, and yet when I answer that I am Ukrainian when people ask what my ethniticity is, most of them say, "What? Where?" That is truly unbelievable to me.
Ukraine has culture stemming back from the 1st millenium BC and the first identifiable groups to populate what is now Ukraine were Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and Goths. These peoples were all well know to colonists and traders of the ancient world, and they created trading posts which eventually became city states. The slavic tribes occupied central and eastern Ukraine and they had an important role in establishing Kyiv. Kyiv is still in this day, the capital of Ukriane. In the 14th century, Ukrainians began to fell a very distinct feeling of passion and pride for their culture and people and began to feel that they were a distinct people, something that still to this day, is felt throughout the country. Ukrainian peasants fled from Poland, who tried to force them into servitude in the 17th century, and these people came to be known as the Cossacks and they are known for their fierce spirit and love of freedom.

Now moving into the 20th century, Ukraine has suffered an unbelievable amount of toils and tribulations. Living under Communist domination was horrific and suffering from two artificial famines because of the Communists stripping Ukraine of all it's agricultural prosperity in wheats and potatoes and later the Nazis doing the same, about 16 million Ukrianians were killed in WWII between the famines and the crazy Nazis slaughtering anything and anyone in their path. Everyone is always sympathetic to the killing of the Jews, which they should be, I am Jewish by way of my mother, so I feel the pain, but what about my Ukrainian forefathers? People don't mention when they speak of the holocaust as the unbelievable demise of the Ukrainians and I feel that we should also be remembered in all the museums too.

Finally, after almost a century of being under the Communist rule and living throught the Nazi regime, Ukraine received it's independence from the USSR and finally became an independent state on August 24th, 1991 and was a co-founder of Commonwealth of Independent States. The government of Ukraine has a parliamentary-presidential system with seperate executive, judicial and legislative branches. There are currently many people who live under the povery line, actually about 29%, and yet the laborers of Ukraine are highly trained and skilled and there are about eighty colleges and universities in Ukraine. This difference is quite amazing to me. The people of Ukraine are still regaining their spirit, understandably, after living under severe oppression from the Soviet domination, which in a way is just like colonization and what they are living in now, is post colonialism.

Work Cited:http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3211.htm#people