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Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, behind Russia—which for centuries dominated Ukrainian history. Many in the Western world thought of Ukraine as part of Russia, though Ukrainian culture stretches back centuries.
Ukraine was the center of the first Slavic state: Kievan Rus, a powerful nation that dominated Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries. The cultural and religious legacy of Kievan Rus eventually led to the founding of the Ukrainian nation state, the Cossack Hetmanate, in the 17th century. The Hetmanate remained independent for over 100 years before succumbing to the continuous pressure of its bigger neighbor, Russia.
The Russian Revolution and the collapse of tsar rule in 1917 lead to a brief fling with independence for Ukraine. The Bolsheviks in Russia began a brutal civil war in Ukraine that culminated in the armies of Russia, Poland, and various Ukrainian factions fighting for dominance, with the Russians taking most of Ukraine and forcing the country to become a part of the newly-named Soviet Union. The brutal Soviet rule of the next decades culminated in artificial famines orchestrated by Soviet leaders that in 1921-22, and again in 1932-33, decimated the population of Ukraine—with more than eight million presumed dead. This was followed by the horrific fighting of German and Soviet armies in the Ukraine during World War II in which another eight million Ukrainians died.
The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, coupled with slow Soviet response, left many in Ukraine embittered with their subservience to the Soviet state. A small nationalist movement founded in Kiev in 1990 eventually grew in power and scope and helped contribute to the next step—independence. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent country for the first time since the 18th century.