The People Of Ukraine
Demographic Setting
Ukraine has the 5th largest population in Europe (after Germany, Italy, UK, France) and is the 21st most populous country in the world. It accounts for 7.3% of European and 1% of the global population.
For centuries, Ukraine had been divided between its neighboring countries, each of them pursuing a policy of denationalization and complete assimilation. However, with the establishment of independence in 1991, a basis was created for the consolidation of the Ukrainian people, the development of their ethnical self-consciousness, and the union of the Ukrainian nation around its historic motherland.
Demographic dynamics
The systematic population census, carried out during the XXth century allows us to accurately track the changes in population number.
In 1913, 35.2 million people lived on the territory of modern Ukraine.
However, about 20 million people from Ukraine were killed in World War I & II, Civil War, the collectivization of agriculture, repressions, the artificial Famine of 1932-1933.
After the war, Ukraine experienced a massive inflow of population from other republics of the former USSR, though it was smaller than the concurrent mass migration of Ukrainians to build constructions in Siberia, Far East, virgin lands of Kazakhstan. The population reached the pre-war level of 40.6 million people only in 1956.
The population gradually rose in the second half of the XXth century due to the increase in birth rate. The population increase peaked at the beginning of 1993, when it reached 52.2 million people.
The crisis of 1990s negatively influenced the demographic situation in Ukraine. Massive migration, stimulated by the opportunities for free travel inside and outside the country, the decrease in the birth rate and increase in the death rate, caused by economic and sociopsychological factors, resulted in dramatic decline in Ukrainian population. Only in 2003 due to stabilization processes and steady economic growth, certain positive trends have developed, that could in time reverse the situation.
Ukrainian national population census
The first Ukrainian national population census was held on December, 5th, 2001 (the previous one took place in 1989 when Ukraine was part of the USSR).
According to the data of that census, the population of Ukraine amounted to 48.457 million people - substantially lower compared to 1989.
Density and allocation of the population on the territory of Ukraine
Like most European countries, Ukraine has a high density of population – 80 persons per sq. km. The lowest ratio is in the North, in Chernihiv region – 39 persons per sq. km. while the highest – in Donetsk region – 183 persons per sq. km. Eastern regions are populated comparatively densely – 90 persons per sq. km.
Ukraine is a predominately urban country, with an urban population of 32 million. The lowest rate of rural population is in such regions as Donetsk (10%), Luhansk (14%), Dnipropetrovsk (17%), Kharkiv (21%), Zaporizhzhya (24%). The rural regions are Ternopil and Zakarpattya (59% countryside), Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivsti – 58%, Vinnytsia – 56% and Rivne – 55%. At the same time the most urbanized regions are Donetsk (90%), Luhansk (86%) and Dnipropetrovsk (83%).
There are 454 cities in Ukraine, 37 of these have a population between 100 and 500 thousand. There are nine cities with populations of over 500 thousand, and there are 5 with over 1 milion people.
Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, has over 2.6 million inhabitants.
Gender composition of the population
In Ukraine the female population outnumbers the male: 25, 16 000 women (53.7%) against 22, 441 000 men (46.3%). Although, compared to the 1989 census, the disproportion between the two sexes has decreased due to the certain balance in rural sector; in cities, though, the number of women has risen (however, it’s characteristic for mostly older age groups, while the correlation in the younger age is almost the same). The highest percentage of women (55%) is in Chernihiv region, the lowest (52%) in Zakarpattya, the rest of the territory has a ration of between 53-54%.
Age composition
At the time of 2001 census Ukraine was “aging”. The number of people of pension age (23.9%) was increasing while the number of children (18.1%) was decreasing. The average life term is 68 years - 73 for females and 63 for males. The aging of the general population is a process typical for all European states.
Citizenship, ethnical composition of the population
Ukrainian citizens amount 47, 950 000 of the population, 168 000 inhabitants are foreigners, of which 151, 000 are citizens of CIS).
The highest concentration of foreigners is in Sevastopol (3.4%). The two largest ethnic communities are Ukrainians (37.5 million or 77.8%) and Russians (8.3 million or 17.3%). During the period between the censuses, the percentage of Ukrainians has grown, while the number of ethnical Russians has dropped 25%.
For the first time since WWII, the share of people who speak has Ukrainian increased. Only 4 out of 27 regions of the country are predominantly Russian-speaking (Sevastopol, Crimea, Donets and Luhansk), in three other regions the share of people speaking Ukrainian or Russian is more-less the same, and over 2/3 inhabitants of 20 regions name Ukrainian as their mother tongue.
Today, Ukrainians recognize their native ethnicity in an independent Ukraine.
Education
The Ukrainian National Census revealed the number of people with higher and general education is growing (28.9 million people, which is 17.6% more than at the time of 1989 census). The level of education in Ukraine is viewed as one of the best in Central Europe. Only the Baltic states and Hungary have a higher number of students among 15-18 year-olds.
The number of college graduates has also risen at 26%, a positive sign for the future. The urban sector has a slightly higher educational level, and the migration of young people from rural areas during or after the studies also adds to this tendency.
Modern trends
According to the Ministry of labor and social policy, on March 1, 2004 approximately 47.5 million people reside in Ukraine on March 1, 2004. Although the tendency for decrease of population still continues, certain positive trends have appeared.
Since 2001, the average life span in Ukraine has increased. Compared to 2003, the rate of the natural population reduction has slowed down at 7.1% due to both increase of birth rate and decrease of death rate.
During January – February 2004, the number of newborn increased by 2.5 thousand (3.8%), and the number of deceased decreased by 3.1 thousand (2.2%) compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. The death rate among the newborn children is also dropping.
The migration rate is also dropping. Its level in January – February, 2004 turned out to be 3 times lower than at the same period in 2003 – decreasing from 9,300 to 6, 000. Although it’s considered that labor emigrants are mostly representatives of the poorest groups of the population, research proves that 58% of those traveling abroad have a job in Ukraine. This means that the migration processes in Ukraine do not differ from other Central European countries, where people go to work in Western Europe because they can get better pay
National Structure
Ukraine is a multinational country with over 130 nationalities, national groups and ethnic associations residing on its territory. Ethnic Ukrainians make up 77.8 percent (over 37 million) of the population.
Forming of national composition (History)
The ancestors of the Ukrainians were the Trypilia tribe that populated the region between the rivers Dnistro, Southern Buh and Dnipro from 3500 to 2000 BC and of early Slavs that inhabited the territory and pre-Carpathian region afterward. The Slavonic tribes (i.e., Duliby, Poliany, Drevliany, Siveriany, Tyvertsi, Ukichi) made the basis of the Ukrainian people. During the centuries, in spite of incessant raids by nomads and the adoption of other cultures traits, Ukrainians managed to preserve their identity as shown in their language, mentality and behavior as well as material and spiritual heritage.
Concurrently, due to powerful migratory movements, many different peoples settled on the territory of modern Ukraine. A substantial portion of the land was peopled during the so-called “resettlement colonization” during the 16th to 19th centuries that in addition to ethnic Ukrainians also involved Russians, Germans, Armenian, Jews, Greeks, Bulgarians, etc. Polish, and partial Hungarian and Romanian colonization of Ukrainian lands also considerably affected the polyethnic composition of the present-day nation. Thus, virtually all the ethnic groups of Ukraine naturally consider this region as their homeland.
The number of Ukrainians in Ukraine was continuously influenced not only by natural factors but also by the politics of the Czarist government and later continued by the Soviet state, and which manifested in the deliberate restricting of social and cultural development of the Ukrainian people. Also, the migratory policy sharply increased the number and share of Russians within the national composition of population. Under the Soviets, during the industrialization of Ukraine and especially the post-war decades the number of Russians increased thrice.
After Ukraine gained independence, changes occurred in its population’s national composition. The remigration of Ukrainians from the member-countries of the former USSR, repatriation of Crimean Tartars and Germans deported during the War lead to the increase of their number. Conversely, the population of Jews decreased as many left for Israel, Europe and the USA.
Ukrainians and the national minorities
According to the results of the all-Ukrainian population census of 2001 Ukrainians are the largest population with 37,541,700 or 77.8 percent of the total. During the years that passed the previous census of 1989 the number of Ukrainians increased by 0.3 percent with their proportion among the inhabitants of Ukraine by 5.1 percent.
Russians are the largest minority in Ukraine, and, compared with the census report data of 1989, their number had decreased by 26.6 percent, making up 8,334,100 persons at the time of the 2001 census. The portion of Russians in the total of the population had declined by 4.8 percent and amounts to 17.3 percent.
Every other ethnic minority makes less than 1% of the total population; standing put among them are Byelorussians (0.6 %), Moldovians (0.5 %), Crimean Tatars (0.5 %), Bulgarians (0.4 %), Hungarians (0.3 %), Romanians (0.3 %), Poles (0.3 %), Jews (0.2 %), Armenians (0.2 %), Greeks (0.2 %), Romas (Gypsies) (0.1 %), Georgians (0.1%), Gagauz (0.1%) and so on.
In Ukraine, the settlement of ethnic groups is distinctively regional. The Central and North-Western Ukraine is historically the basic regions of ethnic Ukrainians settlement the least ethnically diluted. The largest share of Ukrainians in the population is in Ternopil (6.8 %) and Volyn (94.6 %) regions, while the lowest shows in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (25.8 %), Lugansk (51.9 %), Donetsk (50.9 %), and Odessa (54.6 %) oblasts.
Most of all Russians reside in the Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kharkov regions, as well as in the South of Ukraine. Moreover, they make up absolute majority in Crimea.
Practically all the Crimean Tatars repatriated have settled in Crimea in their historical homeland. Their increase in the number is being accompanied by the population growth of other turkiphonic peoples.
Protecting Rights of National Minorities
According to its ethnic and national policy, the Ukrainian government guarantees respect and equal participation of persons belonging to different ethnic associations in all spheres of life of Ukrainian society, and assists them in removal obstacles that may be encountered on their way.
The Ukrainian legislation and Constitution of Ukraine allows for the all basic rights and freedoms of all national minorities. The rights of existence, of applying their cultural achievements and of using their language, including the right to obtain education, are guaranteed by the Articles 10, 11, 22, 53 and 119 of the Constitution, the Laws “On the Languages” and “On the National Minorities”. The right of Representation is guaranteed in part by the Article 14 of the Law “On the National Minorities” and Article 22 of the Constitution concerning prevention of narrowing of the form and extent of the existing rights and freedoms.
The Verkhovna Rada ratified the framework on the protection of national minorities in December 1997 and in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine it became part of the national legislation. The next step towards the introduction of international standards in the sphere of protection of the minorities’ rights should be the ratification of the European Charter on the regional languages or languages of minorities’, which draft have been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for consideration.
Articles concerning protection of minorities’ rights have become integral part of all the treaties on good neighborhood, friendly relations and cooperation signed by Ukraine with the neighbor-countries.
Ethnic and National Policy
The national minorities participate actively in the state building process in Ukraine. Ethnic Russians occupy over 20 percent of top positions in the Ukrainian political life and in government; this meets the percentage of the Russian population in the country. To reinforce interaction of the minorities’ public organizations with the central executive organs and that of the local self-government the Rada (Council) of the minorities’ public organizations was set with the President of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian state is actively instrumental in satisfying ethno-cultural needs of national minorities: revival of their customs and traditions, all-round development of language and education, amateur and professional art, protection and preservation of historical and cultural monuments, foundation of periodicals, etc.
Two million children study in the languages of national minorities in Ukraine. This country is one of the few that provide opportunity for minorities to obtain full secondary education in all the subjects in their native tongue (as a rule, national minorities in European countries are taught only the native speech, history and humanities). Currently being considered is the issue of introducing mother-tongue preschool education. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, there are 1880 schools teaching in Russian, 94 in Romanian, 69 in Hungarian, 12 in the language of Crimean Tatars, 4 in Polish, and 9 in Moldavian, as well as 2242 schools with two or more languages of instruction. For cases of non-compact residence of minorities, special classes are allowed to be set for five or more children at ordinary schools.
169 publications are published in the languages of national minorities with 46 of them nationally distributed. As supplements to parliamentary paper Holos Ukrayiny (The Voice of Ukraine) Roden Krai for Bulgarians, Dzennil Kiyovsky for Poles, Conkordia for Romanians, Aragats for Armenians, Yevreiski Visti for Jews and Golos Kryma for Crimean Tatars are released. The national and cultural associations are also founders of the joint periodicals Nasha Batkivschyna (Our Fatherland) and Forum Natsiy (Forum of Nations).
Today, close to 600 public national minorities associations are operating with thirty of them on the national scale. Some of these are: The Association of the National and Cultural Unions of Ukraine; The Ukrainian Association of Russian Culture Rus’; The Jewish Council of Ukraine; The Association of Koreans of Ukraine; The Association of Jewish Organizations and Societies of Ukraine; The Union of Poles of Ukraine; The Democratic Union of Hungarians of Ukraine; The all-Ukrainian National Cultural and Educational Association Russkoye Sobraniye; The Federation of Greek Organizations in Ukraine; The Union of Bulgarian National-Cultural Associations.
The State organizationally and financially assists in marking Culture Days of national minorities, remembrance dates, religious and ritual holidays. Such cultural-artistic actions are held annually: The forum of national cultures “We are all your children, Ukraine”; the all-Ukrainian festival “We are of Ukraine”; International Roma festival Akmala; and numerous regional festivals of Romanian, Hungarian, Polish, Korean, Moldavian and Greek culture that gained recognition in Ukraine and beyond its borders.
National minorities together with the Ukrainians are building the independent and democratic state
Mentality
Mentality of the Ukrainian people had been formed affected by complex historical circumstances with the principal role played by the fact of the country’s ‘bordering’, that is, due to its territory located on the intersection of historical routes from the East to the West and from the North to the South. This reality stipulated a phantasmal interlacing in the worldview of a Ukrainian of the Western mentality (that is, active and rationalistic, individualistic and mundane) with that of the East (in other words, passively contemplative and directed at abstract matters). Thus, for instance, as a westerner, the present-day Ukrainian values highly the achievements of science and technology, but he believes strongly that they are used for humanitarian purposes.
Without stopping to think rationally, Ukrainian gives great priority to showing emotions and feelings, sometimes even seen as sentimental or even too lyrical. In particular, the phenomenon is reflected in the folk vocabulary where endearment forms are often present even for negative characters (e.g., vorizhenky (pretty foes)).
Side by side with lyricism, there is certain Ukrainian ‘detachment’ from the world and orientation at some truth of higher order. Thus, if forced to emigrate, it is often hard for Ukrainian to adjust to a new environment.
Ukrainian is tied very much to his family where he attempts to build strong and very close relationship. To care is characteristic for his mentality. As a rule, Ukrainians surround their kin with care of the motherhood sort giving support to their children until they reach maturity, and often also from then on. To some extent, such amicable relationship is also defined by the historical past: wars virtually never ceased on the territory located on the crossroads of the Western and Eastern worlds. The land suffered from predatory raids, and it was dangerous to live here: those in power changed often, and to survive intact was only possible within the circle of close relations.
For quite a long time the society was divided into those who fed (peasantry) this land and those who defended it (Cossacks). This entailed two almost opposite forms of consciousness. The first is of a defender and fighter reckless, irrepressible and adventurous that is easily overcome by strong feeling and emotion resulted from a youth’s brawl and capable of affective, rash and heroic actions. It is as such they appear in the Shevchenko’s Kobzar and are depicted by the Ukrainian and Polish romanticists.
The other type of consciousness was marked by moderateness and peaceableness that permitted “to wait through” the numerous adversities and misfortunes of the historical fate. Such type of consciousness was the cause of insularity and defensive position against the world around, circumspection and directing mental powers inward upon oneself. The countryside habit of replying with a question is one of the traits of the style that allows avoiding contact.
The exclusive advantage of the class country folk during certain periods of the Ukrainian history affected the nationals’ mentality, however positively too: ruralism that makes one more dependent on the nature than on other people stirs up deep empathy with the nature and makes for restraint, elegiac, tender and introversive moods. These features also favored preservation of family and clan groups, goodwill and friendliness.
At the same time, such positive features as diligence, hospitality, yearning for education, sound optimism, manliness, universalism, and development of strong family ties are peculiar to Ukrainians.
For a Ukrainian family the dominating role of a woman, especially of a mother, is traditionally intrinsic. When husband dies, the wife advances to the forefront to become the head of a family even if remarried. The image of a widowing mother – sober-minded, kind, and at the same time rigorous, is depicted in classic literature. Ukrainian woman used to participate in all the family issues not only after her husband expired but during his life as well. “Husband holds the household by one corner with the remaining three left for his wife,” the popular saying goes. In ancient times, during the patriarchal society in Europe admissible was for a girl to seek marriage with a boy.
In formation of the Ukrainian mentality, the Church played pronouncedly great role. Historically, the popular worldview of the Ukrainians is made up of the following three basic layers: demonological, mythological, and Christian. The Christian religion that came to Ukrainian terrain at the end of the 10th century monopolized the pre-Christian hierarchic system of beliefs, trying at the same time as much as possible not to destroy but to adapt the old form to its needs. This opposition of ideas resulted in religious dualism (ditheism) which elements makes itself felt even nowadays in the form of customs and rituals.
With introductions of Christianity, the constituent of supernatural grew in the beliefs and pieties. Simultaneously, the fantastic and supernatural not linked to the official trust in God was forced out to the sphere of folklore tradition (that is, poetry, fairy tales, legends, etc.).
Ukrainian Language
The official language of Ukraine is Ukrainian. The Ukrainian language is also the mother tongue of Ukrainians residing in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Canada, the USA, Australia and other countries. Approximately 45 million people speak Ukrainian placing it among the twenty most widespread languages in world.
In accord with the all-Ukrainian census of 2001, 67 percent of the country’s population believes Ukrainian to be their native tongue. This figure is 2.8 percent higher than that recorded in the census of 1989. The largest minority language is Russian, with 29.6 percent of the population taking it as their first language: this figure turned out to be 3.2 percent lower than the previous count. The portion of remaining languages was 2.9 percent.
The Language Origin
Ukrainian belongs to the Indo-European linguistic family tree and forms, jointly with Russian and Belarusian, the East-Slavic group of the Slavic sub-family. While the West-Slavic group includes Slovak, Czech, Polish, Kashubian, High and Low Lusatian (Germany) and correspondingly the South-Slavic branch Slovenian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian (or Croato-Serbian) languages as well as Old Slavonic.
The history of the Ukrainian language starts with the pre-Slavic (common Slavonic) language that was shaped out of the Proto-Indo-European language around the third millennium B.C. The pre-Slavonic period lasted for close to two thousand years.
It is traditionally believed, due to czarist and then Soviet ideological directives that in the 11th to 12th centuries during the feudal fragmentation of Kyivan Rus, the so-called Old Russian language common for the entire East Slavs formed, which served as the basis for the three East-Slavic languages- Ukrainian, Russian and Byelorussian. The present-day linguistic, archeological and historical knowledge allows substantial amendments to this idea.
Today, researchers mark out the Ukrainian language immediately from the pre-Slavic and discard the intermediate links. Under this approach, Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Russian developed independently from each other.
Ukrainian inherited from the pre-Slavic the tangible lexical fund and numerous phonetic and grammatical (mainly morphologic) features that in other Slavic languages were substituted by new forms, leaving the Ukrainian language with the oldest still exisiting linguistic peculiarities.
Together with the Orthodox Christian faith, the Old Slavic (or Old Church Slavic) language, created by Cyril and Methodius, the first Slavonic culture figures in the field and based on old Bulgarian dialects arrived in Kyivan Rus. Religious and official texts were inscribed in Old Slavic.
During the 14th to 18th centuries, the old-Ukrainian vernacular was used. The 19th century marked the emergence of the modern Ukrainian as a literary language. Based on the system of parlance of the Poltava-Dnipro region, Ivan Kotliarevsky is believed to be its originator while Taras Shevchenko realized its artistic possibilities.
The Written Language
After adoption of Christianity in 988 two types of writing the language were known in Kyivan Rus: Cyrillic alphabet (named after Constantine Filosof, Cyril in monastic life), and Glagolitic letters (from old-Slavic word glagol meaning “a word”).
The Glagolitic is viewed as the older writing system, however no consensus exists as to its origin. Its alphabet consisted of 39 letters with highly complex inscription in the form of interconnected circles and loops. Despite this complexity, it was in use for quite long time in some South Slavonic countries.
The Cyrillic alphabet is the original Slavic writing system that resulted from a creative remake of the Greek alphabet that consisted of 43 letters including 24 Greek and 19 original Slavic letters with a script very close to that of Greek and Byzantium characters. From those times on such lettering became the graphic basis for modern Ukrainian, Russian, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian writing language systems.
The modern Ukrainian alphabet consists of 33 letters to denote 38 phonemes with 21 letters б, в, г, ґ, д, ж, з, к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ indicating consonants sounds while 10 of them stand for vowels. Of the latter, the letters а, е, и, і, о, у represent a single sound each, while the symbols є, ю, я only if they follow soft consonant [e.g., синє (blue), люди (people), ряд (row)], and are diphthongal at the beginning of a word, followed by vowels or after apostrophe (’), that is, [y + е], [y + u], [y + a] as in має (has), юнак (a youth), в’янути (to fade); the letter ї always denotes diphthong [y + і] as in їжа (food), з’їзд (convention); the letter й reproduces consonant [y] before о as in його (his) and non-syllabic [i] in other positions, for instance, йду (I’m going), гай (wood); the letter ь indicates no sound but serves as a softening symbol as in кінь (horse), льон (flax). The letter г denotes pharyngeal [h] in голова (head), while ґ – velar plosive [g] in ґава(crow), ґрунт (soil), ґудзик (button), while the letter щ indicates combination of consonants [sch] as in щука (pike). Characters of the Ukrainian alphabet are used upper- and lower-cased in shape; the symbols may be represented as block letters as well as handwritten.
Modern Ukrainian Language
Modern Ukrainian language is inflectional; in other words, grammatical features are indicated by alternation of the word by adding affixes. The function of suffixes and prefixes is to specify the meaning of the root having the principal lexical value.
Seven cases characterize a noun; one is vocative distinguishing the Ukrainian conjugation from similar systems of other East Slavic languages. The Ukrainian verb has four tenses: in addition to the habitual past, present and future tenses, there is pluperfect, a verb tense used to express action completed before a specified or implied past time.
The principal Ukrainian vocabulary has four layers of words of Slavonic origin: common Indo-European stock of words [батько(father), матір (mother), сестра (sister), дім (house), вовк (wolf), бути (to be), жити (to live), їсти (to eat), etc]; pre-Slavic words [коса (scythe), сніп ( sheaf, жито (rye), віл (bullock), корова (cow), ловити (to catch), etc.]; properly Ukrainian words present only in this language [кисень (oxygen), водень (hydrogen), мрія (a dream), зволікати (to delay), зайвий (superfluous), байдуже (indifferently), примхи (whims), перекотиполе (tumbleweed), etc]; borrowing from other Slavic languages [розкішний (luxurious), набридати (to be bored with), нащадок (a descendant) from Byelorussian; перешкода (obstacle), недолугий (good for nothing), дощенту (utterly), обіцяти (to promise), цікавий (interesting), гасло (slogan), міць (power), шлюб (marriage), раптом (suddenly), принаймні (at least), etc. from Polish; брама (gates), огида (disgust), ярка (young sheep), паркан (fence), карк (neck), etc. from Czech; хлопець (boy) from Serbian; храм (temple), глава (chapter), владика (ruler), сотворити (to create), etc. from Bulgarian]. The rest of the vocabulary comprises the later borrowings mostly from the dead classic languages-Greek, Latin and Old Slavic. During the Soviet period, the vocabulary absorbed quite a few borrowings from Russian that were often introduced even without adaptation to the grammar rules’ requirements. Lately, the lexical composition of the language is being vigorously supplied by borrowings from English, although general development of the language occurs at the account of internal resources of it-the new words are created on the use of the basis already existing.
