EastERN EURoPE UKRAINE

Ukraine is a large and always politically pivotal nation that has endured centuries of complicated territorial shifts -- ruled at points by Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire, Poland, Austria-Hungry and, most prominently throughout the 20th century — and, as we can appreciate in the context of the current war — Russia. Ukraine's fate intertwined with that of the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, enduring devastating famine and forced "Russification" under Joseph Stalin's rule. After becoming independent from the failing USSR in 1991 Ukraine went back and forth between aligning more closely with Russia and then, after the "Orange Revolution," with the West. The country continues its (let’s just say) tempestuous relationship with Russia.

Of course Ukraine is so much more that just a character in another nation's narrative. Ukrainians are proud of their perseverance through their challenging history as well as their Ukrainian language and a  pleasing diversity of people, cultures and music. Ukraine is home to a variety of mountain-dwelling ethnic groups, such as the Hutsuls whose dancing we may meet in class, while at the same time boasting cities, like Kiev, that were rapidly modernizing, increasingly “European,” until waylayed by war.