ABSTRACT
Ukraine is inhabited mostly by ethnic Ukrainians. According to the January 12, 1989, Soviet census, of the 51.7 million inhabitants of Ukraine, 37.4 million were ethnically Ukrainian; the others comprised a large variety of minorities. Russians were by far the largest minority group. Minorities settled in Ukraine mostly as a result of a long history of various empires implementing policies of colonization. Under the Russian Empire, the southern steppes of Ukraine were colonized in part by Russian peasantry and military, as well as by invited German colonists and Bulgarian, Moldavian and Greek immigrants. Western Ukraine, when part of inter-war Poland, had acquired a large influx of Polish colonists, most of whom were “patriated” after World War II to Poland. Ukraine’s struggle for independence gained momentum with the emergence of a new identity among Cossacks in the steppe frontier. The greatest natural limitation to agriculture in Ukraine is the dry climate of the steppe.
