Bill Rentz, age 14, of Patterson, N.J., for his Question:
WHERE IS THE UKRAINE?
Ukraine is a rich farming, industrial and mining region in southeastern Europe. It is located to the east of Poland and Romania and the north of the Black Sea.
The region makes up the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. It has a population of about 50 million and covers about 233,000 square miles. About half of the people live in urban areas.
Today, Kiev is the capital and largest city. Around A.D. 800, a Slavic civilization called Rua grew up at Kiev and at other points along the river transportation routes from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. In time, Kiev became the first of the independent Russian city states.
During the 1200s, Mongol tribes conquered the Ukrainian region. Beginning in the early 1300s, Lithuania and Poland gradually took control. In the 1400s, many discontented peasants joined bands of independent soldiers called Cossacks. The Cossacks occupied the territory and the region became known as the Ukraine.
By the mid 17009, Russia had gained control over almost all the Ukraine. Under Russian rule, the Ukrainians could practice their religion freely but they remained serfs. Many of them objected to this harsh way of life and to Russia's efforts to replace the Ukrainian language with Russian.
In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution led to the establishment of a Communist government in Russia. After the revolution, many Ukrainians tried to form an independent Ukrainian state. But in time, the Communists brought most of the Ukraine under Communist rule as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialists Republic.
In 1922, the Ukraine became one of the four original republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
About three fourths of the people of the Ukraine are Ukrainians, a Slavic national group that has its own customs and language. Russians make up about one fifth of the population.
In rural areas, nearly all the people speak Ukrainian. Each region has its own dialect.
Ukrainian farms produce more than half of the Soviet Union's sugar beets, nearly one fourth of its meat and dairy products, and a fifth of its grain. Wheat ranks as the main crop in the south. Ukrainian farmers also raise barley, corn, rye and other crops.
The Ukraine has rich deposits of coal, iron ore, manganese, mercury, natural gas and salt. Heavy industries have developed around these mineral deposits.
About two fifths of all the steel and nearly a third of the coal produced in the Soviet Union comes from the Ukraine.
Major manufactured goods from the Ukraine include agricultural machinery, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, food products, locomotives, ships and trucks.