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The Country of Ukraine, Kyiv (2026)

10/12/2020

Ukraine Dressing Standards
In general, but for a few places such as churches, public/municipal offices, school, nightclubs and such, Ukrainian dressing standards don’t differ too much from the standards in the United States with no limitations on dress code except for two: current weather conditions and common sense. Ukrainians, especially the women, do tend to dress up. In the religious churches and shrines, the dressing standards there are a little different from the ones in the United States. All operating Orthodox churches require the women to cover up their heads, typically with a scarf is what most choose. Bare arms and legs are inappropriate for both women and men, meaning shorts, mini-skirts, and sports costumes are inappropriate. The best clothing for church would be long sleeves and loose clothes. Nothing too short, tight, open, or bright. In acting churches and important sanctuaries, women are required to wear a skirt, and skirts can be borrowed at the entrance for those without one. Older women attending these churches, called babushkas, who are more traditional, are typically the ones to harass others not behaving or dressing appropriately. Dress codes for churches that operate as museums are more flexible, however. Tourists and locals can dress more “frivolously”-casual dress will be acceptable here. For day to day travel around Kyiv and other large cities in Ukraine. Anything that complies with the current weather conditions and common sense would be fine wearing. There isn’t much judgement for what others wear out in the street as long as it doesn’t look ridiculous for the weather or city environment. Winters are very cold in Ukraine, so warm clothes and other accessories are required. In the hot summers you can wander around the city in shorts and tops with no problem, but do not wear socks with flip-flops anywhere. Local ladies tend to still go out very dressy, even for a short trip to the grocery store, and this is the typical dressing style in Ukraine. When going out to a village or to the countryside, dressing more conservatively is the dress code here. While modern clothes is the typical dressing style in the more urban Ukraine, traditional Ukrainian clothing is still relevant in the culture. These traditional attires have beautiful embroidery that are a key part of their culture, which are incorporated in modern clothing. These outfits are brought out during festivals and holidays in Ukraine.

Source
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g294473-c153425/Ukraine:Dressing.Standards.html

10/12/2020

Religion
Religious beliefs are key to Ukrainian culture. Ukraine has experienced a restoration of many religions when the constitution and the 1991 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religion provided a separation of church and state and the right for people to practice the religion of one’s choice. The biggest religion in Ukraine is Orthodox Christianity, but there are many other religions, such as: Ukrainian Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic, Protestantism, Judaism, and Islam. Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic Churches share a historic, ritual, and national heritage that stems from hundreds of years ago. Popular culture has fused many ancient rituals into a folk version of Christianity. Orthodox priests to this day can still perform exorcisms by the canon of Saint Basil the Great. The Ukrainians believe that the Holy Virgin icon and the spring of the pochaiv Orthodox Monastery have miraculous healing powers. Ukrainians also view death and the afterlife in a traditional point of view and take ancient funeral traditions very faithfully. A collective repast is followed by funeral services and is repeated on the 9th and 40th day, and then again on the 6th and 12th months following. Families gather at ancestral graves to see off the souls of the departed every year on the subsequent Sunday after Easter, called Provody. Its widely observed in modern Ukraine. Its Christain symbolism represents Christs triumph over death and is pre-Christain roots are attuned to the rebirth of nature in the spring and to an ancient ancestors cult.

Sources
https://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Ukraine.html
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2019-04-23/10-things-to-know-about-ukraine

10/12/2020

People
While the laws and such state that everyone is equal, the traditional culture of Ukraine doesn’t follow those rules. The labor laws guarantee gender equality in the workforce, but the implementation is unsatisfactory. Among those working at higher levels of government and management, few of them are women, and those that are generally work in subordinate positions. There is traditional labor division by gender: teachers and nurses are typically women, while school administrators and physicians are mostly male. The women in these typically female jobs are also paid less and promoted more slowly and less frequently than men. They are not seen as colleagues or competitors, but as secretaries or subordinates as they are perceived as the weaker s*x. While there is discrimination in the workplace, Ukrainian customs and laws of property inheritance never discriminated by gender. The traditional domestic unit in Ukraine is a single family, in which young couples live with their parents in close housings. Elderly parents usually move in with their children who inherited their property. Society in Ukraine pressures young people to marry early, usually from the ages of 17 through 25. This typically leads to a high number of divorces, which the Ukrainian Catholic Church prohibits, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church discourages it. The civil courts grant divorce, but divorce is frowned upon. Children, regardless of gender, attend school from the age of 6 and are obligated to continue through nine grades. Students may then graduate after they attend their 9th grade at the age of 16 and may attend technical or vocational schools or work with permission. But since there aren’t as many specializations in these schools as there has been, most students complete the full 11 grades instead. While Ukrainians live up to their seventies, the gender-gap between their lifespans is high. While women can reach 77 years on average, men reach 68 years on average. This staggering 9 year age disparity can be explained by the fact that men consume 3 times as much alcohol as women do and are over 4 times more likely to pick up smoking.

sources
https://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Ukraine.html

09/12/2020

Culture
Ukraine is surrounded by diverse nations and cultures and is home to them as well. About ¾, or 75%, of the Ukrainian population is ethnic Ukrainian, with the largest minority group being Russians at 20%. Belarussians, Bulgarians, Poles, Hungarians and Romanians make up the other majority minority groups. Historically, ethnic conflicts arose in Ukraine on social and religious grounds, but in the contemporary Ukraine, efforts have been made to make every ethnic group feel welcome. Although Ukraine has struggled to preserve its independence in the past, the people of Ukraine managed to retain their cultural possessions and are quite proud of the cultural legacy they have kept alive throughout history. The culture has experienced a rebirth since the independence, and is believed to be formed as a descendant of Kyivan Rus. Traditional peasant folk art, embroidery and vernacular architecture are critical to Ukrainian culture, with its strong tradition of folk art and embroidery continuing to this day, Ukrainian embroidery often considered an art form itself. Hopak, an energetic folk dance where “hop” is exclaimed during the dance, is popular among dancers. People usually wear Ukrainian folk costumes as they run and jump high and wide with flapping feet. For Easter, they design intricate ornamental Easter eggs, bearing Christian or pre-Christian symbols called pysanky. The Eastern Orthodox Church and traditions from Slavic mythology heavily influenced Ukrainian customs. The culture has had to overcome obstacle over obstacle to survive and not fray from its originality over the course of multiple empires and powers dominating the country. These foreign powers would aim to assimilate the Ukrainian population with their own, as well as try to erase their culture. An example being the policy of Russification, which was a body of laws, decrees, and other actions made by Imperial Russia and later Soviet leaders to strengthen Russian influence and positions in Ukraine. While progressing in the modern world, Ukraine remains a highly traditional country, where many significant Ukrainian holidays and events are based on the old Julian Calendar. Christmas and New Year’s Eve are two holidays that are extremely important in their culture.

sources:
https://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Ukraine.html
https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/Cultural-life
https://www.commisceo-global.com/resources/country-guides/ukraine-guide

09/12/2020

Symbolism
The traditional Ukrainian symbols-the trident and blue-and-yellow flag- were officially adopted during the first Ukrainian independence in 1917-1920 and again after their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The official coat of arms, a gold trident on an azure background, dates back to the Kyivan Rus as a pre-heraldic symbol of Volodymyr the Great (Grand prince of Kiev 958-July 15, 1015). There are various theories about its origins and meanings, but what we do know is that the trident was the symbol of Poseidon, the sea god of Greek mythology. The country’s flag is believed to represent the blue skies over the yellow wheat fields. In 1863, a patriotic song “Ukraine Has Not Perished” became the Ukrainian national anthem in 1917 and reaffirmed in 1991. These symbols were prohibited because they were seen as rebellious against the Soviets but were cherished still by all Ukrainian patriots. The popular symbol of “Mother Ukraine” started first in a piece of poetry during the 17th century as a typical allegory representing the homelands as women. When Ukraine was divided between the Russian and Austrian empires, the image of Mother Ukraine changed into the image of an abused woman abandoned by her children. Mother Ukraine became a byword, like the also popular Uncle Sam, but much more emotionally charged. But after 1991, new generations of Ukrainian writers began to free this byword from its victimization history. Sunflowers, the national flower of Ukraine, also has some profound symbolism and history behind it. Representing warmth and the power of the sun, in Ukraine it stands for fertility and unity. By the early 19th century, sunflowers have been planted everywhere because of the versatility of these marvelous plants. They were used for their oil, seeds, looks, and even their effectivity for extracting toxins, like lead, arsenic, and uranium from the soil. They were used to help remove toxins after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 1986. They came in handy once again in Japan 2011, where Japan planted millions of these bright yellow flowers after a tsunami destroyed reactors in their Fukushima nuclear power plant. A didukh, a Ukrainian Christmas decoration, is made from a sheaf of wheat as a symbolic sacrifice taken from the autumn harvest for an abundance of nature and bountiful harvest for the upcoming year. Wheat is very important to Ukraine as it is one of their most famous goods that Ukraine has been exporting for centuries, having been known as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union for its wealth of wheat.

sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didukh
https://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Ukraine.html
https://blog.russianflora.com/blogs/the-sunflower-national-flower-of-ukraine/ #:~:text=But%20one%20flower%20seems%20to,%2C%20life%20and%20well%2Dbeing.

09/12/2020

Orientation/Geography
The nationhood of Ukraine first begins with Kyivan Rus, flourishing from the 9th to the 13th centuries on the territory of now Ukraine, with Kyiv as its capital. It was a powerful nation during the Middle Ages but collapsed in the 12th century. After the 14th century, it came under the rule of three external powers (the Golden Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, and the Crimean Khanate). There was a Treaty of Pereyaslav between Cossak Hetmanate (Cossack state in central Ukraine during the time) and Russia after the Cossacks rebelled against the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, but the agreement just precipitated the Russo-Polish war, which is also known as The War for Ukraine. The Eternal Peace treaty was signed after this, the eastern portion of Ukraine was put under Russian rule. The Russian Empire and Habsburg Austria were in control of all present-day Ukraine for hundreds of years. Ukraine was able to be internationally recognized as Ukrainian Peoples Republic after emerging from its own civil war of 1917-1921, but the Ukrainian-Soviet War followed soon after. In 1932-1933, millions of people in Ukraine starved to death due to the Holodomor famine, estimating 6 to 8 million people dying from hunger, 4 to 5 million being Ukrainians. During WWII, the Ukrainian insurgent army fought for Ukrianian independence against both N**i Germany and the Soviet Union. In 1945, Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations. The parliament of Ukraine proclaimed its independence on August 24th, 1991 when the Soviet Union was dissolving, changing its name from Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic to its simpler name Ukraine. At roughly 232,200 square miles, Ukraine holds the second spot as Europe’s largest country, only coming second after Russia. Its main geographical features are the Polissya and Volyn northern forests, its central forest steppes, the Donetsk eastern uplands (up to 1,600 feat above sea level), and the coastal lowlands and steppes along the Black and Azov Seas. The climate there is relatively moderate, with yearly average temperatures ranging from 40 to 49 degrees Fahrenheit, except for the southern steppes and Crimea, where the yearly average temperatures go from 50 to 56 degrees Fahrenheit.

sources:
https://www.everyculture.com/To-Z/Ukraine.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine

09/12/2020

Welcome to the Country of Ukraine page, where you can find information about the different features of Ukraine, from its captivating culture to its relatively short history as an independent country.

The Country of Ukraine

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