Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman

About Ukraine

Trypillia culture, ancient Greek city states, farming Slavic tribes… "God's grace will shine from these hills" St Andrew The Apostle said once having approached the place on Dnieper, where Kyiv with its golden domes is situated now.His oracular utterance came true both in respect of Kyivan Rus, the first state on these sacred hills, and in respect of Ukraine, the new state on this historical land created as a result of the centuries of the development and the struggle of the unique Ukrainian society and people.

The Ukrainian people had to undergo a path from the period of stateless fragmentation through the formal autonomy and totalitarian dictate to the national statehood.The profound spiritual potential of the nation helped to not only preserve, but also reproduce its best features by placing defenders of national interests of the society at each dramatic stage of the history at the front.These were Cossacks, who were the first to come up with the idea of the protection of ethnic rights and freedoms of the Ukrainians and call the people for the insurgence, and attempted to restore the statehood in mid-17th century for the first time.These were the first generation of democrats and the Ukrainian ethnic intellectual elite, who aimed at developing the Ukrainian national idea and introducing the national consciousness to the broader society, and initiated the active participation of the Ukrainians in the nationhood movement of 1917 — 1921 as the second attempt to restore Ukraine's statehood.These were the patriots in the West of Ukraine in 1920s and 1930s and human rights advocates from the East of Ukraine, who took up the banner of independence under the gravest conditions of the totalitarian dictatorship and carried it through to the period of democratisation as the pre-condition for the declaration of the independence of the Ukrainian state in 1991.

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Today, Ukraine is a young independent and sovereign country, which aims at becoming a member of the European democratic community, while overcoming the difficulties of the transformation period.Its agenda includes the more profound implementation of modernisation reforms, the consolidation of the democracy and the unity of Ukraine as targets, whose achievement is based on the moral and material potential of the people in the society in spite of all internal difficulties.We refer to both regular citizens, whose labour contributed to the well-being of the state, and the prominent individuals being both ethnic Ukrainians and people born in Ukraine, whose achievements in various fields of the human activity placed Ukraine among the most developed countries of the world.These are prominent scientists, writers and artists, as well as famous political leaders and representatives of the Ukrainian national liberation movement, such as Bohdan Zynoviy Khmelnitsky, Petro Doroshenko, Taras Shevchenko, Mykhailo Drahomanov, Volodymyr Antonovych, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, who have made the Ukrainian state famous.

Notably, an ordinary Ukrainian guy from Zhytomyr Region, Serhiy Koroliov, became the first scientist who designed spacecraft capable of bringing a man to the Earth's orbit and back.Igor Sikorsky, an ex-Kyivite, whose talent fully developed in the USA, gave start to the modern helicopter building.No design office in the world managed to develop a machine that would outdo Mriya, the largest transport airplane of the world made in Ukraine.The Pivdennyi Machine Building Plant and Pivdenne Design Bureau in Dnipropetrovsk has been making missiles and rockets, for which it is hardly possible to find an equivalent even in the leading countries, since the Soviet times till now.We should not forget about medicine.There are internationally reputed scientists, such as Pirogov, Mechnikov, Shalimov and Amosov.Our country achieved a lot in the field of sports as well: brothers Volodymyr and Vitaly Klichko, who hold almost all champion belts of international boxing federations; Igor Belanov, Oleg Blokhin and Andriy Shevchenko, the holders of the Ballon d'Or; Vasyl Virastiuk, the strongest man in the world; Kateryna Serebrianska and Lilia Podkopaeva, the stars of gymnastics; the internationally renowned athletes Serhiy Bubka and Yana Klochkova.

If we look at the international cinema industry, we can also encounter fellow countrymen.Steven Spielberg, the best-known director of our times, and actress Milla Yovovich are descendants of emigrants from Ukraine…

People of the Ukrainian origin achieved a lot in the international politics as well.There are Ukrainians in the highest state authorities of the USA, France, the UK and the Russian Federation.Ray Hnatyshyn, a Ukrainian Canadian, used to be Governor General of Canada for some time.Kuzma Derevyanko, a Ukrainian, was a signatory of the armistice agreement with Japan ending World War II.      Pope John Paul II and parents of Zigmund Freud were also born in Ukraine.

This list can be continued. However, the above information is enough to state once and again that the Ukrainian people are among the most developed and successful people of the world.Our further progress depends a lot on our unity, because the unity of people means the strength of the State.

Movies about Ukraine

Last redaction: 20.02.23