- Also spelled:
- Kiev, Kyyiv, or
- Russian:
- Kiyev
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Kyiv under the tsars
In 1793 the Second Partition of Poland, under Russian Empress Catherine II (the Great), brought Right Bank Ukraine into the Russian Empire, and Kyiv, assisted by the abolition in 1754 of the tariff barriers between Russia and the Ukrainian lands, began to grow in commercial importance. Catherine’s reign was marked by the abolition of the old administrative system and of the post of Cossack hetman (commander in chief) and by the division of Ukraine into new administrative provinces, for one of which Kyiv became the centre. Subsequently, Kyiv became the centre of a governor-generalship covering three provinces.
In the first half of the 19th century, Kyiv developed as a major focus of Ukrainian nationalism, although severe persecution from the tsarist government forced the movement to shift the brunt of its activities to Lviv in the Austrian-ruled Ukrainian regions. In Kyiv, as in Russian cities, there was clandestine revolutionary activity (beginning with the Decembrists in the early 19th century) that culminated in a series of strikes and demonstrations leading to the Russian Revolution of 1905. An important role in this revolutionary movement was taken by students of the University of Kyiv (now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), which had been established in 1834.
During the 19th century the expanding economic importance of Ukraine, and especially the growing export of grain, brought further commercial development to Kyiv. Modern factory industry appeared; to the Arsenal, which had been set up as early as the 18th century, were added lumber milling and the building of rivercraft. The town developed significant industries processing agricultural-related products—leather making, tobacco processing, distilling, brewing, and textile production. In the late 1860s Kyiv was connected by rail to both Moscow and the Black Sea port of Odessa, further enhancing its role as a centre of industry, commerce, and administration. By the outbreak of World War I, the city had a population of some 350,000.
The revolutionary period
With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917, a revolutionary parliament, the Central Rada (“Council”), was established through the initiative of the Society of Ukrainian Progressives and other cultural, professional, and political associations. Its membership was elected in April 1917 by the constituent All-Ukrainian National Congress. In January 1918 the Central Rada proclaimed an independent Ukrainian state with Kyiv as its capital. Minor uprisings by pro-Soviet Bolshevik workers, who were mostly concentrated in the Arsenal works, were suppressed, but Soviet troops under the command of Mikhail Muravev came to their aid and on February 9, 1918, entered Kyiv. The occupying troops carried out brutal reprisals against many Ukrainians in the city.
However, by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 3, 1918—which concluded World War I hostilities between the new Soviet government and the Central Powers—the Soviet government recognized the independence of Ukraine. German troops promptly occupied the country and set up a puppet Ukrainian government in Kyiv, but it collapsed with the German surrender to the Allies in November 1918 and the subsequent withdrawal of German troops. Once more an independent Ukraine was declared in Kyiv, under the leadership of Symon Petlyura, but its brief and stormy history was a series of struggles between Ukrainian nationalist, anti-Bolshevik (White), and Soviet (Red) forces. In November 1919 Kyiv was briefly taken by the White armies under Gen. Anton Ivanovich Denikin before being finally occupied by the Red Army. Yet peace was still denied the city, as the Russo-Polish War erupted in the spring of 1920. In May 1920 the Poles captured Kyiv but were driven out in a counterattack.
The Soviet period
Kyiv’s role as the centre for Ukrainian nationalists caused the Soviet government to transfer the capital of the new Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1937) to Kharkiv, and it was not until 1934 that Kyiv resumed its capital status. Meanwhile, restoration of the city’s shattered economy was undertaken. During the Soviet Five-Year Plans, from 1928 into World War II, new machine tool, electrical, and chemical industries were established. By 1939 the population had reached 846,724.
The German invasion in 1941 again brought severe suffering and destruction to the city. After a fierce 80-day battle, German forces entered it on September 19, 1941. Shortly thereafter, nearly 34,000 Jews were massacred within days in a nearby ravine known as Babi Yar; tens of thousands more Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and other Ukrainians were killed there over the next two years. Many of Kyiv’s other inhabitants were deported for forced labour and to concentration camps, including almost all the large prewar Jewish population. In 1943 the advancing Soviet troops forded the Dnieper and, after bitter fighting, took Kyiv on November 6. The city itself had suffered great destruction, including more than 40 percent of its buildings and some 800 of its industrial enterprises. For Kyiv’s role in the war, the Soviet government later honoured it with the Order of Lenin, the title of Hero-City, and the Gold Star medal. In the postwar Five-Year Plan, rapid reconstruction was undertaken.
Kyiv continued to grow and to strengthen its industrial base during the mid- and late 20th century. On April 25–26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power station some 65 miles (104 km) north of Kyiv suffered the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power generation. Although Communist Party officials were aware of the threat posed by windborne radioactive materials, they did not convey those concerns to the public, and Kyiv’s annual May Day parade was allowed to proceed as planned. By that time, the wind had shifted, and residents of Kyiv were being exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation. Elevated levels of radioactive isotopes such as cesium-137 were detected in plants and animals in the surrounding area for decades after the incident.