Kyiv, Ukraine

Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and its largest city, was under the control of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 until 1991. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine adopted a democratic system of government and a free-market economy. For the first few decades of the twenty-first century, Kyiv adapted better than most Ukrainian cities to a free-market economy—it had the lowest unemployment and poverty rates in the country during that time. Starting in February 2022, the city sustained extensive damage during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Landscape

Kyiv sits on the western and eastern banks of the Dnieper River in the lowlands of northern Ukraine, midway between the start of the Dnieper in northwest Russia and its mouth at the Black Sea. Kyiv has an area of 827 square kilometers (319 square miles), of which only about half is developed. The remaining land contains reservoirs, farms, and European mixed-wood forests. The average elevation of Kyiv is 179 meters (587 feet) above sea level.

Over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) of the Dnieper flows through Kyiv, along with a system of tributaries. The steep, hilly west bank of Dnieper within the city limits is known as the Right Bank, and the low-lying east bank is called the Left Bank.

There are ten raions, or administrative districts, in Kyiv, each with its own local government and multitude of informal historical neighborhoods. The oldest districts are on the Right Bank of the Dnieper. These include the Shevchenko district (Upper Town), where the city center and the main thoroughfare are located; the Podil district (Lower Town) north of Shevchenko; and Pechersk, south of Shevchenko. The Left Bank was settled in the twentieth century and contains the newest districts. The land area of the Left Bank was increased by means of sand deposits and dams to accommodate urban sprawl.

Kyiv is the administrative center of the Kyiv Oblast, one of twenty-four oblasts, or provinces, in Ukraine. The Kyiv Oblast has an area of 28,131 square kilometers (10,861 square miles) and encompasses twenty-five districts and twenty-five cities. Kyiv is a self-governing municipality, so it is not under the jurisdiction of the oblast governing body.

People

According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s World Factbook, greater Kyiv's estimated population in 2023 was roughly 3.02 million. A 2015 demographic study showed that 94 percent of the city's population was ethnic Ukrainian, and 5 percent ethnic Russian. However, 32 percent said Russian—the language of government and business during the Soviet era—was the language spoken at home; 27 percent said Ukrainian, and 40 percent said both Ukrainian and Russian were spoken equally at home.

Kyivans were also denied religious freedom during the Soviet era. The only religious expression permitted was observance of Russian Orthodoxy, but even that was discouraged. Today, religious diversity is encouraged in Kyiv, thanks to Ukraine's constitution. The constitution was written after the collapse of the Soviet Union; it guarantees religious freedom and separation of church and state.

A variety of religions and denominations are practiced in Kyiv; however, according to the 2015 study, 63 percent of Kyivans identified with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Twenty percent said they believed in God but did not belong to a particular religion, while 10 percent said they were atheist. Greek Orthodox and Catholic each accounted for about 1 percent of Kyivans.

Economy

After the fall of communism, Kyiv (and the rest of Ukraine) switched from a communist economy to a free-market economy. Under communism, almost all people worked in government-assigned jobs with little to no salary for the collective good of the state. The government owned everything, including housing, which it provided to the people. The government also rationed food amongst its citizens, practically free of charge. However, Ukrainians were largely oppressed by the communist state.

Kyiv has adjusted better than many Ukrainian cities to a free-market economy. The poverty and unemployment rates in Kyiv are lower than those in rural areas and other Ukrainian cities. Still, some residents rely on illegal activities to supplement their incomes. The CIA's World Factbook estimated that the national unemployment rate of Ukraine was 9.2 percent in 2017, noting that the statistic includes only those who are officially registered and does not include those who are unregistered or underemployed.

A major Ukrainian industrial center, Kyiv's hundreds of factories manufacture machine tools, building materials, aircraft, processed foods, wood products, precision instruments, chemicals, textiles, and consumer goods. At one point, Kyiv attracted over one-third of all foreign investment in Ukraine, due to its international airport, railroad system, and advanced telecommunication infrastructure.

Kyiv trades primarily with Russia and the European Union (EU). However, it is becoming more globally competitive as its economy stabilizes. In 2017, Russia was Ukraine's largest trading partner, accounting for 9.2 percent of Ukraine's exports and 14.5 percent of its imports. However, these numbers represented steep declines from just a few years earlier, as Russian-Ukrainian relations deteriorated badly after 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea region and sectarian conflict broke out in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine. Relations between the counties continued to deteriorate until the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused extensive damage to Kyiv's infrastructure and economy.

Landmarks

Independence Square, or Maidan Nezalezhnosti, is Kyiv's main square. It is where Kyivans go for outdoor concerts, festivals, parades, and political rallies. Independence Square is lined with restaurants, shops, and hotels to accommodate visitors. Within the square itself are statues and fountains. The square also contains the Independence Monument, a tall column upon which a statue of the Archangel Mikhail rests. The square became internationally famous in 2013 and 2014 as the site of major demonstrations in favor of Ukraine moving toward joining the European Union; the square gave its name to the protests, which became known as Euromaidan.

Independence Square lies on the north end of Kreschatik, a 1.5 kilometer (0.93 mile)-long thoroughfare that runs north and south through the city center. Kreschatik is Kyiv's main street. It is lined with government buildings, but also caters to the public by becoming a pedestrian-only street during the weekends.

There are a number of historical churches in Kyiv. St. Sophia's Cathedral, located on the Right Bank close to the city center, is Kyiv's oldest standing church. It was built in the early eleventh century in honor of Prince Yaroslav the Wise. It is of Byzantine design, with frescos and mosaics of Orthodox imagery decorating its interior walls. St. Sophia's Cathedral became a museum during the Soviet era and was thus saved from destruction.

One of Kyiv's most unusual landmarks is the Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra, or Caves Monastery. Founded in 1051 and still in operation, the Ukrainian Orthodox monastery is a cluster of churches and man-made tunnels and caves in the hills along the southern Right Bank. Visitors with candles can see mummified monks on display in the underground passages.

History

Kyiv is believed to have been founded in 482 CE by four siblings of Eastern Slavic origin, and is named after the eldest brother, Kiy. Around 870 CE, Varangians—Scandinavians who inhabited what is now Russia—encountered the small village of Kyiv on their way to Constantinople and settled there.

Varangian chieftain Oleg conquered Kyiv in 882. Oleg was the first in a line of Varangians to rule Kyiv over a period of three hundred years, during which Kyiv and its surrounding communities were known as the Kievan Rus' state. Under the reign of Oleg, Kyiv became an important Slavic trade hub and political center. Prince Vladimir Sviatoslavich, who ruled from 980 to 1015, brought Christianity to Kievan Rus'. In 988, he had the entire population of Kyiv baptized in the Dnieper River. His son, Yaroslav the Wise, turned Kyiv into a prosperous cultural center that rivaled the great cities of the time. By the end of his reign in the mid-eleventh century, Kyiv had four hundred churches, eight markets, and over 50,000 residents.

After Yaroslav's death, in-fighting between his sons ushered in a period of decline that facilitated a Mongol invasion of Kyivan Rus' in 1240. The Mongols demolished Kyiv before moving on to Russia where they remained until the fifteenth century. Kievan Rus' became known as "Ukraine," which meant "borderland," because it bordered Russia. The Kievan Rus' state had come to an end.

Kyiv was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1362. In 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and Kyiv was passed into Polish hands. Kyiv adopted Orthodox Catholicism and the Polish language. Ukrainian Cossacks, horsemen from the Ukrainian steppes, rebelled against Polish rule, and in 1648 liberated Ukraine from Poland. In 1654, the Cossacks handed over Ukraine to Russia to protect it from Polish forces.

Kyiv prospered as part of the Russian Empire. It experienced tremendous growth in infrastructure and population, so much so that by the Russian industrial revolution of the late nineteenth century, it had become a trade and transportation center with a population of nearly 250,000. An effort was made to assimilate the Ukrainian people to Russian customs by abolishing the Ukrainian language and culture and forcing them to join the Russian Orthodox Church. This caused resentment among Ukrainians, who desired independence.

Ukraine changed hands once again during World War I (1914–8). Vladimir Lenin, the communist leader who had gained power in Russia after the Russian Revolution of 1917, gave Ukraine to Germany in 1918. Germans occupied Kyiv until the Bolsheviks reclaimed the city later that year. At the end of World War I, Ukraine was divided up between Poland, Russia, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. Kyiv and the rest of central and eastern Ukraine went to Russia.

In 1922, Ukraine, known then as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, joined the communist Soviet Union. Places of worship were demolished in Kyiv, and its citizens were subjected to starvation, imprisonment in labor camps, and mass executions by a suspicious government. The capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv in 1934.

Germany occupied Kyiv for several years during World War II (1939–45), and inflicted severe damage to the city as part of its violent invasion of the Soviet Union. In the peaceful decades following the Second World War, Kyiv's infrastructure was rebuilt, and its economy and quality of life slowly improved. Kyiv grew in size and became more industrialized. The Communist Party, however, entered a state of decline that culminated in its dissolution in 1991. When the Soviet Union disbanded, Ukraine became an independent nation with Kyiv as its capital.

In November 2013, about one hundred thousand protesters demonstrated in Kyiv, demanding that the government of Ukraine develop closer ties with the European Union instead of Russia. The protests of what became known as the Euromaidan movement grew in December, with about 800,000 demonstrating in the capital, along with occupations of Kyiv's city hall and Independence Square. In early 2014, violent clashes between police and demonstrators broke out in the city, resulting in dozens killed and hundreds wounded. In February, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal with leaders of the opposition, but was ousted by Ukraine's parliament; Yanukovych subsequently fled to Russia and Petro Poroshenko was elected president later that year.

After the Euromaidan protests, the new government in Ukraine pursued a variety of measures intended to affirm and support Ukrainian culture, including the Ukrainian language. As part of this effort, in 2018, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs started the "KyivNotKiev" campaign; this led many foreign governments and news organizations to stop calling the city Kiev, the Russian-based name it had long been referred to as, and instead begin using the preferred name Kyiv, which is based on the Ukrainian language and pronunciation.

While Kyiv was far from the front lines of the sectarian conflict that began in eastern Ukraine in 2014, the city began to face a new threat in November 2021, when Russian president Vladimir Putin began massing Russian soldiers on the country's border with Ukraine, which prompted fears of a full-scale invasion. Diplomatic efforts conducted into February 2022 failed to deescalate the situation, and on February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As part of the initial attack, the Russian military bombed a number of targets in Kyiv, including Boryspil International Airport.

In subsequent weeks, while the Ukrainian military was able to halt Russian attempts to surround and invade the city itself, Kyiv sustained extensive damage from missiles and air attacks, and many citizens fled. By March 2022, the Russian military had mostly withdrawn from the area surrounding Kyiv as it began shifting its forces toward the eastern part of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian counteroffensive in late March helped push remaining Russian forces away from the city by the first week of April.

The Russian retreat from Kyiv in mid-2022 left behind extensive damage along with evidence of war crimes allegedly committed by the Russian military, including the murder of possibly hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, a small city roughly twenty miles from the center of Kyiv. As the Russian invasion continued into 2023, Kyiv continued to face period missile attacks from the Russian military. While these Russian attacks killed Ukrainian civilians and damaged infrastructure, leading to occasional power blackouts, many municipal services continued to operate. During this time a number of Western leaders visited Kyiv; for example, in February 2023, the city received a surprise visit from US president Joe Biden.

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