The second geographical element, surface formation, has had as strong an influence upon the Ukrainian people as the geographical situation. The chief factor in the surface configuration of the Ukraine is the great preponderance of plains and plateaus. These take up nine-tenths of the area of the Ukraine. The difference in level of the ground is from 200 to 300 meters. Such slight variations in height are of great significance as far as anthropogeographical conditions are concerned. The most important characteristic of level countries such as this, is the complete lack of such obstacles as might make good natural boundaries. And the lack of good natural boundaries is very strongly felt in the history of all lowland peoples. This lack the Ukrainians have always felt very deeply. With the exception of the Black Sea, which was once the boundary of the ancient Ukrainian Kingdom of Kiev and now forms the southern boundary of the Ukraine, and, with the exception, also, of the forest swamps of the Polissye, the Ukraine never possessed, and does not now possess, any good natural boundaries. Neither the Carpathians nor the Caucasus have provided the Ukraine with a distinct natural boundary line. The borders and borderlands of the Ukraine lie open, were always easily accessible to all conquerors, and made the defense of their political independence much harder for the Ukrainians than it has been for any other nation of Europe. To be sure, the [221]lack of obstacles on the borders made it very easy for the Ukrainian Kingdom to extend its limits, as the rapid and appreciable growth of the ancient Kingdom of Kiev best proves. But later, unfortunately, this favorable surface formation was taken advantage of with much greater gain by the Tatars, Lithuanians, Poles and Russians, to the ruin of the Ukraine. The facility of military campaigns and of territorial conquests, two favorable foundations for the development of great land-conquering nations, and at the same time typical anthropogeographical characteristics of low countries, have played an active part in the history of the Ukraine. The pressure of various races, which is a characteristic of plain countries, is another condition the Ukraine had to face. From the Cimmerians to the Turks, how many races have inhabited the steppes of the Ukraine!