Ukrainian nationalism rose under imperial repression

The origins of Ukrainian identity are a matter of historical debate

Scholars disagree on when a distinct Ukrainian identity emerged. Some trace it to Kyivan Rus, a medieval East Slavic state centered in Kyiv, while others argue that Ukrainian nationhood developed much later, shaped by centuries of foreign rule and cultural revival movements.

Ukraine came under Russian imperial rule in the late 18th century

After centuries of division among neighboring powers, most of present-day Ukraine was absorbed into the Russian Empire by the late 1700s, marking the beginning of a long period of imperial control and cultural suppression.

The origins of Putin's 'Nazism' claim in Ukraine

Ukraine has had a varied history, and is home to a rich diversity of ethnicities, religions, and people. In the time leading up to Russia's attacks on the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to Ukraine as a "Nazi nation", owing to Ukrainian nationalists' acceptance of the invading Nazis as liberators from the Soviet Union in WWII. The history is more complex than that. Read this Smithsonian Magazine article to learn more.

Protests in Ukraine from 2013 to 2014 set the stage for the current conflict

Beginning in November 2013, the Euromaidan movement saw hundreds of thousands of protesters gather in Kyiv's Independence Square after the government rejected an EU deal. Months of demonstrations and violent crackdowns culminated in President Yanukovych fleeing to Russia. Note: graphic content.

Prehistoric to present day Ukraine

Recognizing the abundance of information available on the current war between Ukraine and Russia, this video focuses on the history of the region. Encapsulating Ukraine's background, the viewer will gain a better grasp of how the modern state arose from a quilt of different ethnicities, noteworthy conflicts between various groups, and more.

Modern Ukraine—caught between Europe and Russia

"Ukraine" has been translated by some scholars as meaning "borderlands". Indeed the country lies perfectly between Europe and Russia, while hosting a diverse collection of people of differing languages, cultures, and ethnicities, feeling affinity for those on the other sides of the country's borders. This article explores how this affects the actions and reactions of Ukrainians during the current conflict.

Ukraine became independent after the Soviet Union's collapse

Ukraine declared independence on Aug. 24, 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In a national referendum, over 90% of Ukrainians approved independence, establishing a democratic constitution and marking the birth of a modern sovereign state.

Russian forces seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014

Days after Ukraine's 2014 revolution, unmarked Russian troops occupied key sites in Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula with a predominantly Russian-speaking population that had been part of Ukraine since 1954.

Ukraine once had the third-largest nuclear arsenal—and gave them all up by 1996

After the rapid collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was left with over 1,700 nuclear warheads positioned throughout its territory. A massive global effort ensued, led by the United States, to return these and other nuclear weapons in former Soviet allied states to Russia.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine accelerated fractures in the rules-based international order

This piece examines how the Ukraine conflict intensified underlying divisions in the global order—between Western democracies and the Global South, and between rule-of-law norms and great-power politics.

Stalin's policies intentionally caused a devastating famine in Ukraine

The Holodomor of 1932-33 was a human-made famine resulting from Stalin's grain requisition policies, killing an estimated 3 million to 4 million Ukrainians—considered by many to be an act of genocide.

After it was banned from Eurovision, Russia resurrected its Cold War-era version

Russia was barred from the Eurovision Song Contest following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In 2025, President Vladimir Putin announced the revival of Intervision, a similarly structured song contest that the Soviet Union had organized throughout the Cold War.

Dubbed 'stalkers,' some Ukrainian youth illegally explore Chernobyl's exclusion zone

A subculture of thrill-seekers, driven by a desire for rebellion and adventure, is representative of dark tourism in the region. Some stalkers sneak past militia posts to venture into abandoned ruins, risking radiation exposure while scavenging for ruins of the past.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

See which Russian Revolution faction your politics most closely match

This quiz asks about property rights, women’s suffrage, and church–state separation to reveal whether your views align most with the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Anarchists, or the ultra-nationalist Black Hundreds.

White supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan emerged to undermine Reconstruction

Founded in 1865 by former Confederate officers in Tennessee, the Ku Klux Klan used terror, murder, and intimidation to suppress Black political power and restore white Democratic control across the postwar South.

The first time the US federally barred immigration based on nationality

Watch this six-minute video to learn about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was the first federal law to bar immigration explicitly because of nationality.

Native students fought back against forced assimilation at US boarding schools

Despite harsh conditions, Native American students preserved their identities by secretly speaking their languages, maintaining cultural practices, and, in some cases, running away.

Cold War rivalries fueled fierce competition in international sports

From Olympic medal counts to hockey showdowns, the US and USSR used sports to showcase ideological superiority. Athletic victories were framed as proof that each system—capitalist or communist—produced stronger, more disciplined citizens.

The Concert of Europe's collapse contributed to World War I

The 19th-century great power system gradually unraveled due to rising nationalism, imperial rivalry, and shifting alliances—leading to its collapse in 1914 and the outbreak of the deadliest war the world had yet seen.

How the Kingdom of Italy was unified in the 1860s

In 1861, in a process known as the Risorgimento, many of the traditional regions of Italy—like Sardinia, Lombardy, Parma, and Sicily—were unified within the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel II. This movement led to the national Italian identity as we know it today. This unity was opposed by the Pope, and Rome and Venetia remained outside the kingdom for some time.

Authoritarian regimes sometimes used film dubbing to censor ideas

Dubbing rose in popularity in the early 20th century because of relatively low literacy rates, which made subtitles impractical. Totalitarian regimes—including Mussolini's Italy, Franco's Spain, and Hitler's Germany—used dubbing to remove or alter unflattering or countercultural dialogue.

A wave of Latin American independence movements most likely prompted the Monroe Doctrine

Between 1810 and 1822, many Latin American colonies separated from Spanish rule, 10 in the last two years. Concerns that Spain and its European allies might try to regain these republics were a main reason behind Monroe's declaration.

Romanticism challenged neoclassicalism

Neoclassical artists believed in the promise of the Enlightenment—that logic was a cure-all for society’s problems—and sought to apply a similar rationality to their artwork. That meant straightforward, realistic work that portrayed historical scenes as close to real life as possible without any visible evidence of the artist’s handiwork.

The debate over federalism helped produce the novel character of the United States

During ratification, Federalists argued that a strong national government was essential for national survival. Anti-Federalists warned that it could overwhelm states and threaten individual liberty—forcing compromises that shaped early American federalism and led to the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

The Nazi Party was founded in Germany in 1920 and tried a failed coup in 1923

Founded in Germany in February 1920, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) attempted its first major power grab in 1923 with the Beer Hall Putsch—a failed coup in Munich that killed about 16 Nazis and four police officers, led to Hitler’s arrest and treason trial, but ultimately elevated his public profile.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'