It’s all about Ukraine these days. While I know you have been inundated with information, here are some facts that may have been overlooked and I have found interesting.
First, many of us are just learning the geography of Ukraine. For example, I have seen this map several times showing the relative size of Ukraine compared to the US. The only problem with this map for me is the latitude is wrong, Ukraine is much farther north, in fact a better illustration would be something like this. While its continental weather is controlled by different airflows and distance from water than other similar regions, this higher latitude determines the length of days.
Ukraine like Canada has only recently become a corn and soy export competitor but was the breadbasket of Europe for centuries because of their enormous grain production, mostly wheat. Ukraine has about 2/3 of the richest soils in continental Europe. It’s called chernozem. It’s black, thick, and high in phosphorus and organic matter. The gradual change in cropping from small grains to corn is a response to changing climate, just like here in the northern Great Plains and the Grand Prairies of Canada. But as the weather has been warming significantly for the last few decades, precipitation has decreased, making drought more likely in any given year.
Ukrainian productivity made it a target for Josef Stalin in 1929, when he ordered collectivization of the millions of small farms, and then as output dropped confiscation of grain from farms by the Soviet military. The Holodomor or Great Famine was the worst manmade disaster at the time, causing as many as 7 million deaths directly from starvation in 1932-33. Stalin was determined to end private land ownership and break the power of independent peasants. Late in the 20th Century the collectives were abandoned, and land redistributed in small patches to descendants. Village residents usually band together and rent the acres from former collective farms to larger operators, boosting ag efficiency even with this splintered ownership.
Finally, during its Golden Age from about 800 to 1100 AD, Ukraine and Kyiv specifically became one of the most powerful states in Europe. Many of their elite ruling class were descendant of Scandinavians Vikings who traded all the way down to Odessa in the Middle Ages. This remarkable past is reflected in the character of Ukrainians today.
