Tableof contents
Table of contents
I. Generalinformation about Ukraine
II. Industryand agriculture
III. Economy of Ukraine
IV. TheInteresting places in Kyiv
The utillized literature
I. The nation's historybegan with that of the East Slavs. From at least the 9th century, the territoryof Ukraine was a center of the medieval East Slavic civilization forming thestate of Kievan Rus ', which disintegrated in the 12th century. From the 14thcentury on, the territory of Ukraine was divided among a number of regionalpowers and by the 19th century the largest part of Ukraine was integrated intothe Russian Empire with the rest under Austro-Hungarian control. After achaotic period of incessant warfare and several attempts at independence(1917-1921) following the Russian Revolution and the Great War, Ukraine emergedin 1922 as one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The UkrainianSoviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward shortly before andafter the Second World War, and again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the UnitedNations. Ukraine became independent again after the dissolution of the SovietUnion in 1991. This began a transition period to a market economy, in whichUkraine was stricken with eight straight years of economic decline. But sinceabout the turn of the century, the economy has been experiencing a stableincrease, with real GDP growth averaging about seven percent annually.
Ukraine is aunitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomous republic(Crimea), and two cities with special status: Kiev, its capital, andSevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement.Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separatelegislative, executive, and judicial branches. At the end of 2004, the countryunderwent an extensive constitutional reform that has changed the balance ofpower among the parliament, the prime minister, and the cabinet, as well astheir relationship with the president.
At 603,700km ВІ (233,074 sq mi) and with a coastline of 2,782 km (1,729 sq mi), Ukraine is the world's 44th-largest country (after the Central AfricanRepublic, before Madagascar). It is the second largest country in Europe (afterthe European part of Russia, before metropolitan France).
The Ukrainianlandscape consists mostly of fertile plains (or steppes) and plateaus, crossedby rivers such as the Dnieper (Dnipro), Seversky Donets, Dniester and theSouthern Buh as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of ​​Azov.To the southwest, the delta of the Danube forms the border with Romania. Thecountry's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which thehighest is the Hora Hoverla at 2,061 m (6,762 ft), and those on the Crimean peninsula, in the extreme south along the coast.
Ukraine has amostly temperate continental climate, although a more Mediterranean climate isfound on the southern Crimean coast. Precipitation is disproportionately distributed;it is highest in the west and north and lesser in the east and southeast.Western Ukraine, receives around 1,200 mm of precipitation, annually. While Crimea, receives around 400 mm of precipitation. Winters vary from cool along theBlack Sea to cold farther inland. Average annual temperatures range from 5.5-7В° C in the north, to 11-13 В° C in the south.
According to 1887estimates by Austro-Hungarian geographers, the Ukrainian city of Rakhiv (48 В° 45'N,18 В° 55'E) is the site of the geographical centre of Europe. However, thisis disputed by other European cities and the question has not yet beenanswered.
II. By the mid-80s amulti-branch, developed industry was created in Ukraine covering about 20 majorindustries, namely power generating, fuel, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy,chemical and petrochemical and gas, machine-building and metal-working, forest,wood-working and wood pulp and paper, construction materials, light, food andothers. In 1990, for instance, approximately 300 billion kWh of energy,approximately 40 million tons of ferrous metals rolled stock, and 6.5 milliontons of steel pipes were produced; more than 100 million tons of iron ore weremined; 37 thousand metal cutting machine-tools, and more than 100 thousandtractors were manufactured in Ukraine.
Ukraine has fivenuclear power stations with fifteen reactors with a total power output of 13.6thousand MW (13 reactors of WWR type and 2 reactors of RBMK type in theChernobyl NPS). In addition there are 47 thermal power stations with a totalpower output of 32.4 thousand MW, 6 large hydraulic power stations on theDnieper and 55 small stations on other rivers.
In thecoal-mining industry, more than 300 mines are operated in three coal-miningregions. Ukraine produces only 5.5 million tons of its own oil, but theramified network of oil pipelines supports the operation of 10 petroleumplants. The Ukrainian gas pipelines transport the Russian gas to Central andWestern Europe.
Approximately 200large enterprises are operating in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, pipe androlling industry. These include the world largest complexes for the productionof cast iron, steel, rolled stock and pipes in Dniepropetrovsk, Zaporozhje,Donetsk, Makeevka, Mariupol and other cities.
The mechanicalengineering sector is represented by enterprises producing metallurgical, oil,chemical, mining, power generating, railway (locomotives, carriages, tank-cars,etc.), road construction and transportation (ships, aircraft, cars, citytransport) equipment, machinery for agriculture, light and food industry,metal-cutting machine tools, instrumentation.
The Zaporozhje'Motor-Sich' plant manufactures aircraft engines for all the CIS countries. Oneof the world largest aerospace concerns - 'Pivdenny' - is functioning inDniepropet-rovsk; Kharkov turbines are known in many countries. A high-capacitychemical production complex is located in the city of Kaloush.
Altogether, theindustry of Ukraine includes more than 10000 state and joint stock enterprises,and hundreds of private and collectively owned small and medium-sizedbusinesses have been established over the last years, which operate in variousindustries.
HistoricallyUkraine was an agro-industrial country. Black-earth soil, which occupies 60% ofUkrainian land, is natural wealth of Ukraine. More, than 40% of allagricultural production of Ukraine is grown without using of any pesticidesand, as a result, Ukrainian food is the most natural and safely in Europe.Among all the European countries Ukraine is a leader of growing of sugar beet,buckwheat and carrot; second place of growing of wheat (after Russia) and oftomato (after Poland). Ukraine is also famous because of corn, watermelon, tomato,apple and pear. 28% of all population of Ukraine works in agriculture sector.After destruction of USSR in Ukraine appear farms (average 350 hectares) and family households (0.3 - 5 hectares). Every year quantity of farms increases and,as a result, increases productivity. Farms are able to buy modern techniquesand enough pesticides, but the food, which they produce, is not as natural asthe food of family households.
There are manyproblems in agriculture in my country, but 4 - 5 of them are global, and theirsolution is very difficult. There are problems of land degradation,technological problem, pollution of environment and irrational using of lands.
Highpercentage of humus (more than 7%) helped farmers to gather high harvestwithout using of any fertilizers. But about 60 years ago fertility of earthsuddenly declined because of process of industrialization, which took place inUkraine. As a result, now we have only 3,5% of humus and the process of landdegradation is very a...
