History is a science that studies the life of people in the past. Interest in the past never fades away, a person needs to know his story and, of course, draw conclusions. History studies all kinds of sources, establishes a chain of events, the historical process, systematizes. A historical map is one such source. Consider what kind of source it is, and what information we can get from it.
Historical map as a source of information
The main goal of the historical map is to convey to the descendants a fixed and saved display of historical events on a particular area, i.e. to show that historical process, then time and those events in space clearly. A historical map is an image of a planet or a certain part of it, territory at different times of human history. Thus, historical events are not just dry facts in the textbook, they come to life in front of our eyes and become more understandable and visual. We can see the emergence of entire civilizations, the economic development of a state, trade routes, the course of hostilities, the conquest of one state by another, the formation and decline of entire empires - a whole era on just a few historical maps. Historical maps are divided into ethnographic, archaeological, historical-economic, historical-political, military-historical and historical-cultural. For these industries, maps are general, which show the processes as a whole, and particular, characterizing certain aspects of events or phenomena and facts. Thanks to these cards, we can get more information about the native land, about the history of the native country.
Ukraine and Russia: a common history
Ukraine and Russia have a common history, and this cannot be disputed. Historical maps of Russia will always tell about this close relationship, because for many centuries they depicted the territory of modern Ukraine. The borders between Russia and Ukraine were artificially created, although national, cultural differences between peoples who find themselves in neighboring states on opposite sides of the border are minimal. This happened after the First World War. Under pressure from German occupation at the Paris Peace Conference , Ukraine appeared on the world political map.
How the historical map of Ukraine was formed
The location of Ukraine in the central part of Eastern Europe, in addition to favorable trade routes, led to the fact that the country has repeatedly become a participant in hostilities. It all started with Kievan Rus, with the decline of which the Galicia-Volyn principality emerged, most of which was later captured by neighboring countries. In 1569, these neighboring countries - Poland and Lithuania - merged into one state - the Commonwealth, it included almost all the lands of present-day Ukraine. At the beginning of the XVII century there was a division already between Poland and Russia territories, thanks to which more and more land was part of Russia. This was the beginning of the uprising in 1648 of the Zaporozhye Cossacks due to increased pressure from the Polish magnates. The uprising was led by Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and in 1654 at a meeting called Pereyaslavskaya Rada, it was announced that the rebellious territories were withdrawing along the protectorate Of Russia. During the Russian-Turkish wars, the development of the so-called Wild Field lands took place. Thanks to the conquests of Russia, the largest modern cities of the south and south coast of the Black Sea were founded: Kirovograd, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk. Then came the accession of Bessarabia. Austria-Hungary still included the territories of Transcarpathia, Bukovina and Galicia.
Ukraine as part of the USSR: continued formation of modern borders
The USSR liberates the current territories of Western Ukraine in 1939, which were previously captured by Poland in 1918 and 1920. In 1940, in response to the demand of the USSR, Romania returned the territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina captured in 1918. Transcarpathia was liberated in 1945 and also became part of the USSR. Thus, thanks to tsarist Russia and the redistribution of the borders of the USSR after the First and Second World Wars, a new historical map of Ukraine was formed in its current borders.