It is under such conditions that the world has accepted the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic into the United Nations Organization. There may be questions as to the motives that inspired this demand of the Soviet Union. Yet once and for all it has answered the old charge iterated and reiterated so often during the past centuries that there is no Ukraine. Henceforth no historian will be able to accept the old thesis that Ukraine is only a rough name for some Russian or Polish provinces, that Ukraine was invented as a convenient tool for the destruction of two empires and that it has no existence in fact, in history, or in reality. What of the future? That is dark and uncertain but the trend of humanity toward the winning of freedom can hardly be stopped for long. For a thousand years Ukraine has shared in the vicissitudes of European and Christian civilization. It will continue to do so and if in the future Ukraine does not receive its just dues, if the Ukrainians fail to win the benefits of the Four Freedoms, it will be only because history has reversed itself and mankind in the midst of unparalleled scientific development has lost its hopes, its aspirations, and its power of moral advancement. To-day the name of Ukraine is once again upon the map of Europe. There it will stay. The Ukrainian spirit is not yet free but it has proved itself imperishable in the past and it will continue to remain so in the future. That is the point of the study of Ukrainian history and of this attempt to picture the past and the present of the country’s life, in the hope that it may throw some light upon the future. CHAPTER ONE _UKRAINE_ Ukraine is often called the granary of Europe and its natural wealth has long made it the object of envy of all of its neighbors and of all aggressive peoples in the eastern part of the continent. At the same time its geographical position has made it of pivotal importance in all of the European combinations, whether for war or peace. What then is Ukraine and where is it situated? In the simplest definition it is the area which is bounded by the Black Sea on the south, the Carpathian mountains on the west, and the Don River on the east. To the north its boundaries are far less definite, for there is no natural barrier and the northern section merges more or less imperceptibly into the southern part of the area inhabited by the Great Russians. This boundary has changed with the passing of the centuries but it has remained surprisingly constant when we consider the involved political history of eastern Europe.