Introducing Ukraine
For those of you who came in late, in 2004 there was a popular revolution in Ukraine. And while that Orange-clad uprising failed to leave the nation basking in a happily-ever-after future, it was a revolution that, contrary to the famous dictum, didn’t eat its children.
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The map remains the same, with the awe-inspiring, monumental capital of Kyiv at its heart, irrepressible Odesa and striking Crimea on its southern shores, plus cosy central-European Lviv near rolling western hills. Several years down the track, the industrial, pro-Russian east has forgotten its threat to secede.
Nonetheless, the Ukraine you’re visiting today is not the country that previously existed. ‘Post-Orange Ukraine’ might have the political blues as successive parliamentary stalemates drag out, but its press is freer, its attitudes more open and its economy improving. Memories of demonstrating on ‘the maydan’ (Kyiv’s Independence Square) still fuel increased civic awareness. There’s fledgling democracy instead of autocracy, fair elections and a tolerance of genuine public debate. At the same time, the unfulfilled promises of a weakened president have injected a sense of realism, if not cynicism.
Ukraine, whose name means ‘borderland’, is slowly, and sometimes indecisively, shifting. You still frequently encounter the surly, unhelpful bureaucracy that reigned when this was part of the Soviet Union, but now it’s tempered by widespread aspirations to eventually join the EU. The younger generation, central to the Orange Revolution, are looking forward and revelling in newfound freedoms. Traditionalists, meanwhile, are concerned about floating too far out of neighbouring Russia’s orbit.
A patchwork nation, as contemporary pundits like to call it, Ukraine draws on numerous historical influences, and as a patchwork nation it’s searching for unifying 21st-century symbols. The dominant culture is Slavic, but Scythian gold is still hoarded in the history museum at Kyiv’s Kievo-Pecherska Lavra (Caves Monastery) and Byzantine mosaics line the capital’s St Sophia’s Cathedral.
The golden domes of myriad Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox cathedrals gleam out across one of Europe’s poorest nations. Yet, among the rocky outcrops of fascinating Crimea, you’ll also find Turkic architecture, not to mention ancient cave cities. The country’s marauding Cossacks are remembered on the Dnipro River’s Khortytsya Island, as well as in musical and dance rituals.
Not all Ukrainians get an equal (duck-) kick out of all these traditions. The Russian-speaking east, centre and south might take pride in Cossack history, but the Ukrainian-speaking west of the country lionises the native Hutsul culture of the Carpathians, while the Crimean Tatars are making a comeback on their homeland peninsula.
So any success that post-Orange Ukraine achieves is a building-block towards a new national identity. By hosting the Eurovision song contest in 2005, abolishing most visas to welcome more overseas tourists, being chosen to co-host the European Football Championships in 2012 and even angling for the 2018 Winter Olympics, this once-overlooked country hopes to show off its increasing capabilities to the world.
Meanwhile, it wants to prove them to all Ukrainians, too.
Last updated: Mar 24, 2009
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Ukraine
Things to do
- All things to do (510)
- Activities (24)
- Entertainment (75)
- Restaurants (145)
- Shopping (30)
- Sights (234)
- Tours (2)
Make it happen
Our Top Picks For Ukraine
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1 Lviv
Be seduced by the shabby Mitteleuropean charm of this popular city-break destination in the making
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2 Kamyanets-Podilsky
Be awestruck by this medieval town marooned atop a tall rock island
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3 Kyiv
Delight in a peerless capital – from the cradle of Slavic culture to the crucible of the Orange Revolution
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4 Sofiyivka Park
See devotion to beauty writ large in Uman’s spectacular formal gardens
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5 Odesa
Relive film history on the Potemkin Steps and dance till dawn in open-air seaside clubs
Fast Facts about Ukraine
- Railways
22,473km of track
- Natural gas consumption
74 billion cubic metres a year
- Official unemployment
2.7% (but believed to be as high as 6.7%)
- Area
603,700 sq km, just smaller than Texas
- Cigarettes smoked per day
5.4 per person
- National anthem
‘Ukraine Has Not Yet Died’
- Inflation
14.5% (2007 estimate)
- Population
46.7 million (UN)
- GDP per capita
$7800 (2006)
- Life expectancy
women 72.4 years, men 60.1 years (UNDP)
- GDP growth
6.8% (2007 estimate)
Our favourite Ukraine Blogs (beta)
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Vagobond Travel Museum – Curating travel around the web – 6 Jan 2012
Blog: Vagobond.com - 6 January 2012
Each Friday, I will bring you the highlights here at the Vagobond Travel Museum. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Adventure Travel Wrap Up – A Look Back on 2011
Blog: Canada's Adventure Couple - 9 December 2011
As I sit down to write this 2011 Adventure Travel Round up, I am in shock and awe that we really did all these things in a span of 365 days. We just lived a year of adventure travel that I never thought I would have the opportunity to ever do in my life
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The Utterly Amazing Ukraine
Blog: Nomadic Matt's Travel Site - 30 August 2011
As a native English speaker, I hit the traveling jackpot. Wherever I go anywhere in the world, I never have a problem communicating with people. English is the lingua franca of the world, and if anything is ever in a second language, it is always English. In hostels, people from around the world converse with [...]
