This survey course of the main themes in Ukrainian history since the development of the Kyivan Rus offers a multidisciplinary introduction to Ukraine from various historical, cultural, and political perspectives. The course also focuses on the modern nation building process and its impact on Ukrainians and their neighbors.

1. The first session will introduce the overall scope of this course including Ukrainian geography and geopolitics and how the history of Ukraine has shaped the history of Europe. It will cover the origins of the first major Slavonic state and its acceptance of Orthodox Christianity. Also, it will explain how for centuries the Ukrainians had to deal with various foreign dominations (the Mongols, the Poles, the Russians, etc.). 

2. The second session will look at causes and consequences of remarkable events such as the birth of Hetmanate, the impact of Russian and Austrian imperial rule of Ukraine, the growth of Ukrainian nationalism in the 19th century, the first World War, and the quest for independence. 

3-4. These sessions will deal with the Soviet Ukraine from the 1920s until the 1980s. The topics will cover, for example, industrialization, collectivization, the famine (the Holodomor), Stalin's repressions, and the Second World War.

5-6. These final sessions will examine the creation of independent Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, its turbulent political and economic development in the following decades, and its complicated relations toward Russia, the European Union, and the United States. We will also discuss the Russo-Ukrainian War.