For four hundred years, Russia ruled Ukraine. Although many Ukrainians sought independence, many felt a growing affinity with Russia. That changed with the Russian Revolution that brought the Communists to power.
After Russia became the Communist Soviet Union, Ukrainians suffered under harsh government policies. Beginning in the 1920s, Soviet rulers forced farmers to give up their private land and work on large, state-run collective farms. Many resisted by burning their crops. The Soviets responded by seizing all grain and leaving the people to starve. As many as 12 million people died in the great manmade famine of 1932-33. Ukrainians remember it to this day as the Holodomor (famine).
Another disaster struck Soviet Ukraine in 1986 when an accidental explosion destroyed a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, sending a cloud of radiation into the air. At least 26 people were killed, hundreds more were injured, and millions more were exposed to radiation. More than 12 million acres (5 million hectares) of land was severely polluted by radiation. Even today, Ukrainians must deal with water pollution, birth defects, and various kinds of cancer that are the long-term effects of the disaster at Chernobyl.
