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The Ukrainian languageUkrainian is an East Slavic language, one of three members of this language group, the other two being Russian and Belarusian. Written Ukrainian bears resemblances to these two languages, but with many notable differences. Historically, Belarusian and Ukr, although classified among Eastern Slavic languagesThe Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages are the languages of the Slavic peoples. They form a distinct group of Indo-European languages, with speakers in most of Eastern Europe, much of the Balkans, parts of Central Europe, and the northern pa, has borrowed a lot of words from PolishPolish polski jezyk polski is the official language of Poland. History Polish has been influenced by contact with foreign languages (foremost Latin, Czech, French, German, Italian, Russian and recently it has been virtually bombarded by English, especiall, a West Slavic language.  In Tsarist RussiaThe Russian Empire ( Russian: also Imperial Russia covers the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great into the Russian Empire stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposition of Nicholas II of Russia, the Ukrainian language was persecuted; however, as most people were illiterate, persecutions had little effect.  During the Soviet eraSoviet era is the period of Russian history comprising the years 1917 1991, when the power was held by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Nominally, however, the power belonged to the soviets ("councils"), hence the name Soviet era''. Note that the, on the other hand, the Ukrainian language was encouraged; still the universal education, combined with the advent of radioFor other uses see: radio (disambiguation Radio is a technology that allows the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light. Radio waves Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, and are and television, has led to it being almost completely replaced, especially in urban centers, by Russian, the official language of the Soviet State.  Great efforts are made nowadays to use the Ukrainian throughout the country, something which seems very difficult for the time being.

From an anthropological point of view, Ukrainians are a mixture of the Alpic , Dinaric, Baltic and Nordic races.  This seems very natural, if one considers the identity of peoples like Norsemen, Slavs, Celts, Goths and Scythians, who inhabited the area from time to time.  Evidence of Asian (namely Mongoloid) traits are also found among Ukrainians, although this fact must be considered to be insignificant in comparison to the extended Turkic and Mongolian invasions in Ukraine.

Ukraine originally formed part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, later of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, finally gaining its independence only in the 1990s.

See also: Ruthenes