Its 2022, and a war is going on between Russia and Ukraine. But the issue between the two nations isn't anything new and is part of various geopolitical tensions across the globe. The earliest conquest of Kyiv (or Kiev) was in the 12th century, by the forces of Andrey Yuryevich 'Bogolyubskiy' of Vladimir-Suzdal, one of the major principalities succeeding Kievan Rus' during that time (1169). This was followed by another attack from Chernigov (1173), Galich-Vladimir (1201), the Cuman-Kipchak (a medieval confederation of Cuman-Kipchak realm that expanded by Ukraine to Kazakhstan, allies of Ryurik Rostislavich (1203) and finally, the Mongols (1241). The name 'Ukraine' is pretty modern and even during the medieval era, the territory was scattered among various Slavic entities, breaking and annexing to the larger Rus' (or Russian) politics. Being an European geopolitical unit, the concepts of 'colony' was unknown to Ukraine (and every other European entities) and hence various 'nation-states' or 'territories' circled around this region.
The first entity to talk about wrt Ukraine would be the 'Hetmanate' or Zaporizhian Host, between the 17th-18th centuries. While the western Ukraine was part of the larger Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (a gigantic conglomerate of various sub-entities covering what today is Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and parts of Ukraine, Latvia and Russia). Situated on the banks of River Dnieper, the town of Zaporizhzhia is in today's eastern Ukraine and the Cossack forces originating from the region were known as the Zaporizhian Host or Hetmanate (a 19th century coined term, though). The Cossacks have been always a military unit attached to eastern Slavic culture and had their base around various rivers such as Dnieper, Don, Terek, Ural - that comprised river basins from Ukraine to the borders of today's Kazakhstan.
Throughout modern maps, the term that has been mostly used to denote Ukrainian lands were Tartary or Crimea (and various spellings attached to it). Crimea was well known even during ancient era and has been denoted as Taurica or Taurida - it's ancient name that stuck even throughout modern history. The ancient settlement of Chersonesus can also be seen on the map and the term Chersonesus Taurica was interchangeably used to denote the whole of Crimea or even the southern Ukrainian coast, at times. A medieval entity called Repubblica di Ginova or the Republic of Genoa had it's territories scattered around the Genonese coast of Italy, Corsica, northwestern Sardinia, the Dodecanese and adjacent islands of Turkey-Greece and a slice of Crimea that was labelled as Gazaria. This existed till the 19th century and the name Gazaria is marked on several maps. On the mainland Ukraine, the ethnic tribe Circassians can be seen marked as Cabardi - originating basically from the Caucasus (Georgia-Armenia) but are now spread throughout the world. And lastly, the usual ethnic tribe of the Cumans are mentioned as Cumani - an extremely integral Slavic entity stretching from Ukraine to Mongolia.
The chief cities marked on old maps in Ukraine were Carcolagua (Canköy / Dzhankoy), Oslan, Negropoli (Perekop), Porteti, Nubarum, Caniow (Kaniv), Swerskut etc. It is to be noted that the cities of Ukraine and Crimea hadn't been Russified as they are today. Mainland Ukraine (the southern region) was denoted as Tartaria Przecopelis, while the western portion was marked as Ducatus Severiensis (The Duchy of Severiensis). Soon, the mainland Ukraine would be seen as Tartarie Precopsie or Crismee. On a 1659 dated map of Europe sketched by Joan Blaeu (1596-1673), mention of a certain Ograina appears, marking one of the earliest variations to modern-day Ukraine. On another map dating 1708 (by Nicolas Sanson), a small portion called Okraina is seen while the southern coast is labeled as Petite Tartarie (Little Tartary). Proceeding, the city of Kiev is mentioned as Kiow or Kyow.
Another entity known as Kiev Governorate existed from 1796 to 1925 which is clearly shown on various maps as a narrow strip of land with Poland in the west, the Crimean Tartary in the south and Russian territory of Bielogorod (or Belgorod) Governorate in the east. Formerly, Ukrainian territories swung between the Ottoman dictatorship for a while before finally incorporating into the Russian Empire. Today's conflicted regions - Donetsk and Luhansk - have forever been part of the Crimean Tartary, mentioned under Tatares Nogais - referring to the Nogais tribe spread throughout the Caucasus and eastern European countries.
By the 19th century, one can see a fully-formed Ukraine in its current shape under the Russian Empire. Cities such as Kiev, Jitomir (Zhytomyr), Ekaterinoslav (Dnipro), Nikolaev (Mykolaiv), Simferopol, Kharkov, etc. can be seen clearly. Jumping to the 20th century when maps would show both the boundaries of the USSR (or Soviet Union) and the internal SSRs, a fully-shaped Ukraine is marked with more Soviet named towns such as:
- Vernoleninsk (Nikolaev/Mykolaiv)
- Olviopol (Pervomaisk)
- Zinovevsk (Kirova)
- Dmitrievsk (Dmitrievsk Makeevka/Makiivka)
- Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipro)
- Krym (Crimea)
- Aleksandrovsk (Zaporozh'e)
- Stalin (Donetsk)
- Pavlograd (Pavlohrad)
- Vorochilovgrad (Lugansk/Luhansk) etc.
A series of Turkish originated names (majorly of Crimea) have also changed during the course of history. Some of the notable changes are:
- Aqmeçit (Chornomorske)
- Kurman-Kumelĉi (Krasnohvardiyske)
- Albat (Kuibysheve)
- Büyük Onlar (Oktiabrske)
- Yañı Küçükköy (Parkove)
- Curçı (Pervomaiske)
- AqÅŸeyh (Rozdolne)
- İçki (Sovietskyi)
- İslâm Terek (Kirovske)
- Dolossı (Sovietske)
- Ermeni Bazar (Armiansk)
- Karasubazar (Bilohirsk)
While the Ukrainian SSR was a known republic of the Soviet Union, there were few temporary SSRs that existed in today's Ukraine. The PMSSR (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic) or Transnistria existed for a short-term between 1990 to 1991. The Odessa Soviet Republic was another one that expanded around the Odessa region in 1918 for about 3 months. The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Russian SFSR (1921-45) and later, the Ukrainian SSR (1991-92). The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic existed between predominantly Moldova and parts of Ukraine between 1924 to 1940.
On 19th February 1954, Crimea was transferred from the Russian SFSR to Ukraine. This was after the ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars under Joseph Stalin in 1944 where the Tatar people were forcibly deported to Central Asia, thus making Crimea more 'Russian' than it ever was. Yet, Crimea was transferred to show a friendship status between the Russians and the Ukrainians and thus, the exchange was confirmed in 1954. But the 2014 Russian claim on Crimea and the current ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine points to another direction where while the transfer was taking place in the 1950s, there was also a dumping of millions of Russians into these regions, making the whole surrounding of Russia as more Russian than ever. Similar population transfer could be observed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the 1940s.
On 16th July 1990, Ukraine declared state sovereignty and on 24th August 1991, it gained independence. Today, as on 15th March 2022, the conflict still goes on and the map of Ukraine is once again disrupted from being out-of-conflict to highly disturbed with Russian forces attacking and capturing different establishments of the country. Hence, the map here is of 1659, originally sketched by Joan Blaeu.
@mapsbysagar
@mapsbysagar
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