A Trek through Time in Ukraine #2 Quiz

Kotliarevsky wrote the "Eneida", as it was titled, in the 1790s. The first three parts were published before the turn of the century without him being aware of the publication, while the complete text was published four decades later. Being the first work entirely written in modern Ukrainian and helping sustain the memory of the independent days of the Cossack Hetmanate, Kotliarevsky's opus had the result of helping maintain a Ukrainian identity and national aspirations.

Shevchenko's arrest and exile occurred during the 1840s. Shevchenko's vivid and masterfully crafted poetry re-awoke latent patriotic feelings among many Ukrainians, which has led into him becoming an icon of his country. At that era, dissident writers were persecuted by Tsarist authorities. Even Fyodor Dostoyevsky didn't escape incarceration.

Back to Shevchenko, not only he didn't stop promoting his cause while in exile, but he became even more admired because of the discomfort he was in. A second arrest was ordered in 1859, ostensibly for blasphemy, but he was soon released.

Volodymyr Vynnychenko assumed his duties in late 1918. As the Russian Empire was crumbling, the Ukrainians felt the time was ripe to fight for independence. The Directorate was a committee formed by the Ukrainian People's Republic. The Republic was faced both with combatting Russian efforts to re-annex Ukraine and getting the Entente powers to aid their efforts.

Unfortunately, due to both being outnumbered and internally divided, the movement failed and the Soviet Union occupied Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was formed in 1942. Although many Ukrainians, due to hostility for Stalin's oppressive regime, welcomed the Wehrmacht as potential liberators, soon the evils of Nazism became widely known. The Insurgent Army aimed to combat both tyrannical regimes and contributed to the defeat of the Nazis.

However, since the Yalta agreement gave Stalin free reign almost all over Eastern Europe, no assistance could come to the insurgents against renewed Soviet aggression. After 1949, only localized units remained fighting and, by the mid-1950s, most fighters had surrendered and were sent to a grueling fate in the gulags.

Kravchuk assumed his duties on December 5, 1991. Ukrainian independence had been already decided overwhelmingly in favour of independence, with over 90% of the voters pushing for that option. For all his initial popularity, Kravchuk had to deal with the sorry economic legacy that the Soviet era had left in Ukraine, ultimately failing in his bid for reelection.

The Orange Revolution commenced from late 2004 to early 2005. It was a series of demonstrations against corruption and oligarch-like figures, especially President Kuchma. The ultimate result was a free election resulting in victory for Viktor Yushchenko.

The arrest of Yulia Tymoschenko occurred in 2010 and her indictment in 2011. The reason for her incarceration was her unrelenting insistence that the 2010 elections were rigged by Viktor Yanukovych and his party. For all the pretexts for her arrest, the whole affair was deemed a violation of free speech rights by many. Tymoshenko was released after the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

The Revolution of Dignity occurred in 2014. The President of Ukraine before the Revolution, Viktor Yanukovych, for all his promises of pro-Western policies, actually began leaning towards Russia, which alienated huge chunks of the population. In the beginning of 2014, the situation got out of control and riot turned to revolution.

In the aftermath of the revolution, Petro Poroshenko was elected as president, but the crisis gave Vladimir Putin a pretext to invade Ukraine and occupy the Crimea, an annexation deemed a violation of international law.

"Servant of the People" was formed in 2017 and its participation in the 2019 elections was its first candidacy. The name of the party derives from the TV show "Servant of the People", starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who became President of Ukraine in 2019. The party is thought of as belonging to the centre, championing elimination of corruption and a pro-European stance.

The 2022 Eurovision was hosted in Turin, Italy. Ukraine was represented by the Kalush Orchestra. The song they sang, "Stefania", is a song about human attraction and love, but it ended up symbolizing the resistance of the Ukrainians to the Russian invasion, which began on February 2022. Analysts have said that the Ukrainian victory in the contest shows that the country wields "soft power", i.e. an ability to persuade and arouse sympathy, in sharp contrast to other countries, which base their policies on intimidation and coercion.