According to an old proverb, "Moscow is the heart of Russia; St. Petersburg, its head; but Kiev, its mother."
How can Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, be the mother of Russia? The answer is that the first Russian state began more than 1,000 years ago in Kiev. Kievan traders carried fur, honey, and farm products to the busy markets of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. By the 1200s, Russian power had shifted northeast to Moscow and foreign forces fought for control of the region. For nearly 500 years, the region that would be Ukraine was controlled by foreign powers--first the Mongols, then the Lithuanians, and then the Poles. The Poles tried to establish Roman Catholicism, but the Ukranians remained orthodox.
Russians regained control in the 1700s. They called the region Ukraine, which means "the border." Can you think why? Ukraine is at the far west border of Russia. Russian attempts to impose the Russian language on Ukrainians have been unsuccessful, but nearly four centuries of Russian rule developed strong ties between Ukrainians and Russians. Indeed, Ukrainians came to call their country Malaya Russiya, or "Little Russia." Still, the Ukrainians valued their independence, and in 1917, in the midst of the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainians tried to establish their independence, but failed.
