ABSTRACT
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a federation of 15 nominally independent member republics, even though Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan held UN seats from 1945 onwards. Its Soviet version was larger than imperial Russian Ukraine. Both included a subdivision called 'Novorossiya' that contemporary separatists want re-annexed to Russia. Ukraine's secession initiative from the Soviet Union which began in March 1990 was spearheaded by west Ukrainians. The Ukrainian and Soviet economic systems before 1990 were one and the same thing. The means of production in the Ukrainian SSR belonged to the Soviet people. Markets and entrepreneurship were criminalized. Russia's and Ukraine's economic transformation goals seemed more compatible. Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kravchuk both claimed to reject communist authoritarianism in favor of democracy. International trade flourished and speculative foreign direct investment (FDI) increased across the planet, pulling Ukrainian economic activity along with it. Foreign direct investment may have been especially important for Ukraine.
