LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ukraine: Russian Revolution
built 230 days ago
The population of Ukraine is about 46.9 million. Ethnic Ukrainians make up about 73% of the total; ethnic Russians number about 22%, ethnic Belarusians number about 5%. The industrial regions in the east and southeast are the most heavily populated, and the population is about 67% urban. Ukrainian and Russian are the principal languages. Although Russian is very widely spoken, in the 1989 census (the latest official figures) 88% of the population identified Ukrainian as their native language. There are ... small Tatar and Hellenic minorities centered mainly in Crimea.
Source:
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine is set to hold parliamentary elections March 26. While the results will reflect the influence of Russian interests, the West is too busy elsewhere to put up much of a struggle.
Source:
In contemporary Ukraine ethnic communities enjoy governmental support for their cultural development. Ethnic language instruction increased considerably in multicultural regions. The first center for preservation and development of Roma culture opened in Izmail near Odessa. Two prominent issues in ethnic relations concern the return to Crimea of the Crimean Tatars exiled in Soviet times and the problem of the Russian-speaking population. The Crimean Tatar Medjlis (parliament) demands citizenship for Tatars returning from Stalinist exile while the Russian-dominated parliament of the Crimean autonomous republic opposes that demand.
Source:
Mariupol-based Azovmash, Ukraine's leader in heavy machinery construction, increased sales by 40% in 2007 to UAH 4.3 billion. The company exported 70.4% of its products last year. Azovmash doubled its car production to UAH 3.8 billion. The company produced 9,827 freight cars and flatcars (8,464 freight cars and flatcars in 2006), 2,600 gondola cars, 5,836 cisterns, 867 covered cars and 524 platform cars. Azovmash remains a leading machine-building company in the world, which produces tanker cars, freight and platform cars, metallurgical equipment, bridge and frame cranes, fuel dispensers and consumer goods. In 2007, the company signed contracts to build three converters for India and Algeria and is now performing a number of orders for Ukrainian and Russian metallurgical plants.
Source:
Europe is now the destination of over one third of Ukraine's exports, while around one quarter of Ukraine's exports go to Russia and the CIS. Exports of machinery and machine tools are on the rise relative to steel, which constitutes over 30% of exports. Ukraine imports over 80% of its oil and 73% of its natural gas. Russia ranks as Ukraine's principal supplier of oil and Russian firms now own and/or operate the majority of Ukraine's refining capacity. Natural gas imports come from Russia and Turkmenistan, which deliver the gas through a pipeline system owned and controlled by Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas monopoly. In 2005 and 2006, Ukraine switched from barter to cash payments for gas imports.
Source:
Ukraine... was too weak to stand alone, and in 1654 Chmielnicki recognized the suzerainty of Moscow in the Treaty of Pereyaslavl. By the terms of the treaty, Ukraine was to be largely independent; but Russia soon began to encroach upon its rights (the czars contemptuously referred to the Ukrainians as “Little Russians,†as contrasted with the “Great Russians†of the Muscovite realm). Through a treaty with Poland in 1658, Ukraine attempted to throw off Russian protection. The ensuing Russo-Polish war ended in 1667 with the Treaty of Andrusov, which partitioned Ukraine.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Russian Revolution