Ukrainians
From Metapedia
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine (who may or may not be ethnic Ukrainians). Some 200 years ago and times prior to that, Ukrainians were usually referred to and known as Rusyny.
[edit] Locations
Ukrainians are one of the largest European ethnic groups with a population of more than 44 million people worldwide. Most ethnic Ukrainians, about 37 million in total, live in Ukraine where they make up over three-quarters of the population. The largest Ukrainian community outside of Ukraine is in Russia, about 3 million Russian citizens consider themselves ethnic Ukrainians, while millions of others (primarily in southern Russia and Siberia) have some Ukrainian ancestry.
There are also almost 2 million Ukrainians in North America (1,000,000 in Canada and 890,000 in the United States). Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil (950,000 - 1,000,000), Kazakhstan (about 500,000), Moldova (450,000), Poland (300,000), Belarus (250, 000), Argentina (305,000), and Slovakia (55,000). There are also Ukrainian diasporas in Germany, Portugal (65,000), UK, Romania, Latvia and former Yugoslavia.
[edit] Origins
Numerous nomadic tribes inhabited territories now known as Ukraine in antiquity. They included Iranic-speaking Scythians and Sarmatians, and also Greeks from the Black Sea colonies; Germanic-speaking Goths and Varangians as well as Turkic-speaking Khazars, Pechenegs and Cumans. However, Ukrainian origins are predominantly Slavic while non-Slavic nomads who mostly lived in the steppes of southern Ukraine had little influence on the ancestors of modern Ukrainians.[1]
Gothic historian Jordanes and 6th century Byzantine authors named two groups that lived on the south of Europe: sclavins (western slavs) and anti. The Anti are normally identified with proto-Ukrainians. The name anti is of Iranic origin and means people living on the borderland. The state of Anti existed from the end of 4th to early 7th century. In the 4th cen. the Anti fought against the Goths. In 375, the Gothic king Vinitar, facing the Antis, at first experienced defeat but later captured the king of Anti, Bozh, whom he executed together with his sons and 70 aristocrats. The Goths did not manage to subdue the Anti, since in the same year the Gothic union fell from the attack of the Huns. From the 6th century the Anti fought Byzantium and in the 6-7 cen. colonised the Balkan peninsula. From the end of 6th cen. they fought against the Avars. The Anti consisted of several East Slavic tribes, such as:
- Polans
- Drevlyans
- Severians
- Dulebes (that later likely became Volhynians and Buzhans)
- White Croats (Ukrainian mountaineers - Lemkos are direct offshoot descendants of White Croats)
- Tivertsi
- Ulichs
which lived on the territory of today's Ukraine. Undoubtedly these 7 tribes merged to form ethnic group known today as Ukrainians. The Ukrainian language is an East Slavic language and Ukrainian people belong to the same subdivision of Slavs as Rusyn (Ukrainian offshoot, as all Ukrainians were referred as Rusyns or Ruthenians before, from Kievan Rus' state of proto-Ukraine), Russian (which emerged as vernacular from Church-Slavic) and Belarusian.
Slavic tribes inhabited modern-day lands of Ukraine since the ancient times and by the 5th century A.D. became dominant there and founded the city of Kiev—later capital of a powerful state known as Kievan Rus'. Kniaz Volodymyr I of Kiev adopted Christianity in 988 and proceeded to baptise the whole Kievan Rus. Polans played the key role in formation of proto-Ukrainian Kievan Rus' state.
Among the native Ukrainian population of the Carpathians, there are differentiated several distinct groups, namely the Hutsuls, Lemkos and Boyko, each with peculiar area of settlement, dialect, dress, anthropological type and folk traditions. There are a number of theories as for origins each of these groups, some even connecting Boyky with the Celtic tribe of Boii and Hutsuls with Uz people of Turkic stock.
[edit] Non-Slavic elements
It is argued that the oldest known population of Ukraine - Scythians and Sarmatians were of Iranian stock. They inhabited Ukraine in 7 b.c. — 3 a.d. Absence of sounds g (marking use of h) and f (often spelled as khv in Ukrainian) in Ukrainian along with some folk traditions (as greeting with bread and salt, houses with straw-roof, popular through history selfdesigning terms Roxolany, Roxolana and Savromaty among Ukrainians) is attributed to ancient Scythian language and culture.[2]
Several other minor non-Slavic ethnic groups undoubtedly partially contributed to formation of Central Ukrainian ethnic type. These include a row of Turkic tribes, such as Chorni Klobuky, Berendei and Torks, who were settled along the river Ros and Rusava and eventually all being absorbed by Ukrainians. Many Turkic place names in Ukraine as Karabachyn, Torets, Torky, Berdychiv (lit. "of Berendychi" i.e. Berendei) remain in these areas. Likewise, a number of Circassians (the oldest indigenous people of Northwest Caucasus) merged with and played some role in formation of Ukrainian ethnicity. So the city of Cherkasy traces its name and origin to a Circassian settlement. Some Turkic and Circassian elements can be traced in Ukrainian language, last names, culture etc.[3]
In Western Ukraine, ancient Dacian influences can be traced. From the middle of the 1 st century (the peak period of Dacian society) until early 3 century, the left bank of the upper Dniester was populated by the Dacian tribe of Costoboci Transmontani (mentioned in Geography of Ptolomeus), who were the carriers of Lipica culture (of Verkhnya Lypytsya, Maydan Holohirskyy, Remezivtsi, Voronyaky etc.) The Dacian roots of Lipica culture is evidenced by findings of ceramic types, burning burials, houses analogical to those of Dacians in Romania. Costoboci were the most northernmost branch of Thracodacians and bordered with the carriers of Przeworsk culture to the north-west (i.e. Przeworsk culture settlement in Pidberiztsi near Lviv), Zarubintsy culture to the north who were all succeded by Chernyakhov culture. It is with Costoboci was the fight of Romans against the Free Dacians in the 2nd century mentioned in different written sources. In the beginning of 3rd century Dacian archeological elements in Upper Dniester disappear.[4]
So Roman chronicles of the 1st century report that in the Carpathians there was a Dacian tribe of Karpi. Karp-At meant mountains of Karpi. From possible Dacian meaning "mountains" may derive the name of people karpi—those who live in the mountains. At any case, the area of inhabitance of Free Dacians covered western Ukraine, and besides Costoboci, to the northern Dacians belonged Anarti and Teurisci. Ukrainian mountainiers Hutsuls, inhabiting the areas of old land of Free Dacians are often stated as being of Dacian stock. Archeologists also discovered several Celtic settlements in Zakarpattia Oblast of western Ukraine.
There were numerous cases of Jewish conversion to Eastern Orthodox or Catholic faith in Ukraine in medieval and early modern eras, whether forced (during the Deluge or Koliyivshchyna) or voluntary. Several cossack surnames are traced to such converts (see Jewish Cossacks).
Though non-Slavic elements did have some impacts on the Ukrainians, as mentioned above, they are predominantly Slavs.
