Regionen in der Ukraine

Abstract

Since December 1991, the Republic of Ukraine has been a new independent state. Only after the renunciation of the Russian dominated Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) the declaration of independence of June 1990 was fully recognized by international law. The analysis of the conditions of its development includes geographical studies and a knowledge of Ukrainian research and its regional terminology. Therefore a study of the regional differentiation of the Ukraine is useful and necessary. For the study of names of regions it is useful to differentiate the terms by groups of origin: names related to natural phenomena, names related to administration and ethnical names. The term "Ukraine" that gained special significance in the past 150 years as name for the whole country belongs to the second group. This name, which means "on the border" or "borderland" was used for the Dnepr area between Kiew, Vinnitsa and Poltava until the end of the last century. Its origin dates back to the function of this area in the relationship of the Russian-Polish and Tatarian- Turkish dynasties. Since the beginning of the twentieth century -especially since 1917- the name has gained more and more regional and political significance. Regions with names related to natural phenomena are Polesye, Podolia, Pridneprovi and Donbass. Their definition is therefore not very exact (river basins etc.). "Donbass" is a constructed term, in spite of this classificaton. It has its origin in geology and mining. The regions of Wolin,Tawria and Krim, Sakarpatie, Saporoshie, Bessarabia, Bukovina and Galicia have administrative names. They are derived from the names of principalities and provinces although some of them also refer to peculiarities in the physical geography ("Saporoshie" means "beyond the rapids"). The Sloboshanshchina, the Boikovshchina and the Guzulshchina can be regarded as regions with ethnic names. They correspond with the settlement areas of free peasents and craftsmen as well as with those of the Boijks and Huzuls. The manyfold societal changes in the twentieth century led of course to new national and social conditions. Since the Ukrainian language offers the possibility to assign the surrounding area of a (larger) city an own name with the help of the syllable "-schtschina", the researcher will find further regional names.