Kiev, Ukrainian Kyiv, is the capital of Ukraine, on the Dnieper, with (2019) 2.95 million residents.
Most important cultural center in the country, with 6 universities, theaters, national museums, seat of the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. As a leading economic and transport center, Kiev has a diverse industry, numerous financial institutions, important trading facilities; three airports.
According to abbreviationfinder, Kiev was on 10/11. Century as the center of the Kiev Empire (Russia) one of the largest and richest cities in Europe. Numerous monasteries and churches that are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites date from this period, including: the cave monastery founded in 1051, the oldest monastery in Russia, and the St. Sophia Cathedral.
History
The beginnings of Kiev are dated to the late 5th and early 6th centuries. In the 6th / 7th According to legend (Nestorchronik), Kiev received its name from the alleged founder Ki. Mentioned for the first time in East Slavic chronicles in 860, the city became the center of the Kiev Empire (Russia, history) under the Novgorod prince Oleg. The location on the “route from the Varangians to the Greeks” favored trade with Byzantium, so that Kiev developed into one of the largest and richest cities in Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries and from 988 it was also the ecclesiastical center of the Kiev Empire. When this disintegrated after 1054, Kiev lost its importance; after conquest and destruction by the Mongols (1240) it came to a decline, also due to stagnating trade in the Dnieper. Under the rule of Lithuania (since 1362) and Poland (since 1569), the city slowly recovered (1494/97 Magdeburg city law; 1632 foundation of the Mohyla Academy). After the uprising under B. Khmelnyzky (1648) and the Peace of Andrussowo (1667) came to Russia, Kiev was expanded into a fortress, was the capital of a governorate from 1708, from 1781-97 a governorate, from 1797 again a governorate (1869 annexed to the railway network) and together with Lviv became the center of the Ukrainian national movement. In 1917 national groups formed an independent government here (Zentralna Rada), in 1918 Kiev was the seat of the hetmanate under P. P. Skoropadsky.
Fought over and over again in the civil war, Kiev fell to Soviet Russia in 1920 and became the capital of Ukraine in 1934. During the Second World War, the city was occupied by German troops from September 1941 to November 1943 after the Kessel Battle of Kiev (Babi Yar).
Ukrainian churches
Ukrainian churches, abbreviation for those that arose in Ukraine and v. a. published there Eastern Churches: Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox: closely associated historically with the Russian Orthodox Church Eastern Church, which is fallen as a result of schisms in three Orthodox Ukrainian national churches: the Moscow Patriarchate canonical Community federated autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) as well as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Patriarchate Kiev (UOK – PK) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOK), both not recognized by the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the latest available estimates, about 15% of the Ukrainian population belong to the UOK, about 25% to the UOK-PK and less than 2% to the UAOK. Around 21% of Ukrainians consider themselves to be Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, but do not associate themselves with any of the three churches mentioned. According to a decision of the Orthodox Synod of Constantinople (Ecumenical Patriarch) in October 2018, the three Orthodox Ukrainian churches are to be merged into a single autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. For this purpose, the subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate, against its resistance, was lifted and the excommunication of the patriarchs from UOK – PK and UAOK was reversed.
The beginning of an independent Ukrainian church organization formed the Orthodox Metropolis of Galitsch, established in 1303. In 1458 this merged into the new metropolis of Kiev, which was established for the Ukrainians and Belarusians in the Polish-Lithuanian state, in 1685/86 it was incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church and downgraded to the rank of a mere diocese (eparchy). It was not until 1919, in the course of national and ecclesiastical autonomy efforts, that a Ukrainian Orthodox Church emerged again with the UAOK, independent of the Moscow Patriarchate (led by its own patriarch), which, however, was not recognized within the general orthodoxy. Banned and persecuted as a »refuge of Ukrainian nationalism« in the Soviet Union, it remained since 1930 BC. a. important among Ukrainian emigrants. In exile it was divided into three originally independent metropolises (USA / South America; Canada; Europe / Australia), which formed an association in 1973, while smaller parts of the ecclesiastical emigration remained independent or submitted to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the In the Ukraine, the Orthodox Church was again completely subordinated to the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1944/45, but received the status of an exarchate and in 1990, after the first signs of new Ukrainian national church efforts had become visible in 1989, as a UOK as an independent autonomous organization in matters of internal administration Church raised. Nevertheless, a split in the church could not be prevented: After Ukraine had achieved its state independence, part of the Orthodox clergy turned away from the Moscow Patriarchate and founded the UOK – PK with parts of the UAOK, which had been reconstituted in Ukraine after 1990, the former Russian metropolitan and exarch Filaret (M. A. Denisenko, * 1929; Relieved of office in 1992, excommunicated in 1997) heads as “Patriarch”. In addition, the numerically smallest UAOK continues to exist.
