Many people, including Ukrainians are not aware of how rich the history of Ukraine is. There are many facts concerning the culture, its cities and villages, the habitat that many people have little knowledge of. Here below are some of those interesting facts.
Ukraine’s history is a long and a very rich one. The country has undergone many changes over the years, these changes have impacted the character of Ukraine we see today. Furthermore, Ukraine’s fabulous natural environment together with its rich cultural heritage make it a wonderful place to explore. The many travelers who visit Ukraine, even during times of war, come to appreciate all that Ukraine has to offer. And that may even include a visit to a Golden Euro casino.
A few facts that might surprise even Ukrainians
- Ukraine enacted the world’s first constitution (the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk), which came into being in 1710 beating the US whose constitution was adopted in 1787.
- In 1553-1554 Zaporizhzhya Sich was founded by the Ukrainian Cossacks. Today, this organization is considered to have been one of the first democratic socio-political organizations to have existed anywhere.
- In Ukraine, 4 out of the 12 remaining Lavra’s in the world can be found. The one in Kyiv, the Pechersk Lavra has been around since 1051; the Pochayiv Lavra located in the region of Ternopil has existed since 1833 and the Holy Dormiton Univ Lavra of the Studite Statute has existed since 1898. In 2004, the Holy Dormition Syiatohirsk, located in the Donetsk region, was given Lavra status.
- A fact many do not know is that the musical masterpiece “Summertime” composed by George Gershwin was actually based on a famous Ukrainian lullaby “Oh, Sleep Walks by the Windows”. Gershwin heard the lullaby performed by the National Choir of Ukraine when directed by Oleksandr Koshits. It is also the case the many other loved musical masterpieces have also been based on Ukrainian folk songs.
- After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became a nuclear power, when thousands of nuclear arms were left there. However, Ukraine decided to completely denuclearize and become a nuclear free country (the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances of 1994).
- The village of Mezhyrichchia in the Rivne region is the site of the oldest human settlement known. It is here that the oldest map in the world was found, carved on the bone of a mammoth. It is estimated to have been carved some fifteen thousand years ago.
- The Stone Tomb (Kamyana Mohyla) in the Zaporizhzhia region is considered the world’s civilizational cradle. The Stone Tomb archeological site is older than the stones at Stonehenge or the pyramids in Egypt. The Stone Tomb contains 87 grottoes and caves, 65 of which preserve thousands of petroglyphs – drawings and symbols. The chronology of petroglyphs covers a huge period from the Late Paleolithic era to the Middle Ages (from 24-20 thousand years BC to 10-12th centuries AD).
Ukraine’s natural environment and resources
- Back in 1929, it was estimated by the USSR that 60% of its gas reserves were located in the area of Ukraine. It then continued to be one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to Europe for some time. Ukraine, is high up in the ranks of those countries in Europe involved in shale gas exploration today.
- Ukraine is known to have the world’s biggest reserves of manganese ore, around 2.3 billion tons, that’s about 11% of the entire world’s deposits.
- In Ukraine, the cave named “Optimistic” is the world’s longest gypsum cave.
- Ukraine has a quarter of the total amount of the Earth’s black soil reserves.
- The Black Sea is the location of the world’s one and only underwater river.
- In the Kherson region, on the island of Dzgarylgach, one can find the most fabulous white sandy beaches and the clearest blue sea. Another interesting fact is that listed in the Red Book of Ukraine is a list of local plants and fauna and that camels and mustangs used to inhabit the area.
And, what about the people of Ukraine
- The Ukrainian cosmonaut, Pavlo Popovych, while on the Vostok-2 spacecraft, sang the song “I look at the sky and think” for the designer of the spacecraft, Serhiy Korolyov. This song was the first to be sung in space. SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, also speaks of him as being “one of the best specialists in the industry”.
- It was the Ukrainian, Yuriy Konadratyuk who mastered the “stopping theory” on celestial objects which later went on to be used by the American astronauts when landing on the moon.
- Ukrainians rate extremely high in terms of the number of people in the world who have obtained higher degrees of learning.
- An interesting fact to learn is that Winston Churchill’s life was saved during the Anglo-Boer War in Africa by the Ukrainian, Yurii Burdiak, who was a commander of one of the units there. Churchill, as we know, went on to become the Prime Minister of England.
Ukraine Today
- In the video game Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars by Tom Clancy a large section of the game’s plot focuses on Ukrainian resistance to Russian infiltration troops – a forewarning or prediction. The game was released in 2011. Then in 2014 Combat Mission: Black Sea portrayed Ukraine and NATO again fighting the Russians.
- Right at the beginning of the invasion by Russia, the An-225 Mriya aircraft was destroyed. This was at the Gostomel (Hostomel) airport, close to Kyiv. This aircraft had the biggest cargo capacity of any other aircraft in the world.
- Right on the border between Ukraine and Slovakia, a checkpoint actually divides a village in half; one called Mali Selmentsi and the other Velyki Selmentsi. This occurred because Selmentsi was once a village that was split divided along one of its streets between Czechoslovakia and the USSR.
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