Principal Street in Kiev, Ukraine, photographed circa 1920. The Ukrainian nation has historically been linked to Russia since the days of the earliest Slavic kingdoms (or principalities). The first "Russians" were the Kievan Rus (a mixture of Slavs and Varangians, or Vikings). Under the Soviet Union, Ukraine was one of the fifteen republics.
The original caption reads: "The shop signs are in the Russian language. Kief is one of the oldest cities in Europe, but the street car tracks and poles carrying electric wires show that it is far from being unprogressive. The city is on the navigable Dnieper River, and is a railway and trade center. In the wars of 1918 to 1920 it was taken and retaken many times by contending armies." Click here to enlarge this image. |
