Ukraine 10 клас History of Ukraine (1914–1945)

1. Review and introduction

Ukraine at the turn of the 20th century

• Periodisation: How Historians Divide Time into Periods – Periodisation means cutting the long line of time into named periods so we can study it. Years are counted BCE (before) and CE (after) year 1, and grouped into centuries. A common scheme has four great periods: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the early modern period and the modern/contemporary period, separated by turning points such as 476, 1453 or 1492, and 1789. Other schemes use dynasties, technology ages or regional divisions. Periods are useful tools chosen by historians, not natural facts.

2. Ukraine in the First World War

Ukraine in WWI

• World War I (1914–1918): Causes, Course and Consequences – World War I was fought from 1914 to 1918 between the Allies (France, Britain, Russia, later Italy, the USA and others) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria). Four long-term causes built tension: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism (MAIN). The spark was the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. On the Western Front the war became a stalemate of trenches; new weapons made it very deadly. It was a total war: whole economies, women workers and colonies were mobilised, including about 1.3 million Indians. Russia left after its 1917 revolution, the USA joined in 1917, and fighting stopped with the armistice of 11 November 1918. The peace treaties of 1919–1920, including Versailles, redrew Europe, ended four empires, created the League of Nations and left anger that helped cause World War II.

3. Ukrainian revolution and national statehood

Central Rada and the UPR

Coming soon

4. Struggle for independence

Hetmanate and Directorate · West Ukrainian People's Republic · Wars and outcome

Coming soon

5. Ukraine in the totalitarian USSR

1920s · 1930s

• The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Its Empire (1953–2000) – After Stalin died in 1953, the USSR tried to reform without losing control. Khrushchev denounced Stalin and eased terror, but crushed Hungary in 1956. Under Brezhnev (1964–82) growth slowed and leaders grew old: the 'years of stagnation'. The satellite states of Eastern Europe were kept in line by force (Prague 1968) and by a promise of a quiet life paid for with Western loans. Protest grew, above all Poland's Solidarity union (1980). Gorbachev (1985–91) tried glasnost and perestroika and stopped using force abroad. In 1989 the satellites threw off communism, and in 1991 the USSR split into 15 states. Yeltsin's Russia then went through painful 'shock therapy' until Putin took over in 2000.
• Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia and Stalin's Soviet Union (1917–1953) – In 1917 war defeats, hunger and anger at Tsar Nicholas II led to the February Revolution; the Tsar abdicated and a weak Provisional Government took over. In October Lenin's Bolsheviks seized power. They closed the elected Constituent Assembly, made peace with Germany, won a civil war against the Whites (1918–21) and built a one-party state with a secret police (Cheka). War Communism caused hunger and revolt, so Lenin switched to the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921. After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin used his post as General Secretary to defeat Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin by 1929. He then forced fast industrialisation through Five-Year Plans and collectivised farming, which brought big gains in heavy industry but a terrible famine in 1932–33. Through purges, show trials and the Great Terror (1936–38), the Gulag and a personality cult, Stalin ruled by fear. The USSR survived the German invasion of 1941 and won the Great Patriotic War at a huge cost, becoming a superpower. Stalin's harsh rule continued until his death in 1953.

6. Western Ukrainian lands between the wars

Lands within Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia

• The Interwar Period (1918–1939) – Between the end of the First World War (1918) and the start of the Second (1939), four empires collapsed and many new states appeared in Central and Eastern Europe. The Versailles–Washington peace system and the League of Nations tried to keep order. After unrest in the early 1920s came a short period of stability, but the 1929 crash started the Great Depression. Mass unemployment weakened democracies; most new states turned authoritarian, while fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and the Stalinist USSR became totalitarian. Governments began to manage the economy, the League failed to stop aggression, and the Spanish Civil War and appeasement led towards war in 1939.

7. Ukraine in the Second World War

1939–1941 · Occupation and resistance · End of the war

• World War II (1939–1945) – World War II was the deadliest war in history. Its roots were the anger left by World War I, the Great Depression and the rise of dictators in Germany, Italy and Japan. It began when Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. The Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) fought the Allies (Britain and its empire, France, the USSR, the USA, China and others). It was a total war and a war of annihilation: about 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and 70–85 million people died. Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in September 1945. The war led to the United Nations, the Cold War and the end of empires.