Ukraine has always been multi-cultural and multi-ethnic

As the following document vividly illustrates, Ukraine has always been multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. At the turn of the century (1900) Ukraine was split between the Russian Empire in the east, and the Austrian and Hungarian empires in the west. In 1917 and 1918 Ukraine declared itself an independent country, but was soon caught up in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian revolution. Between the wars, the country was split between Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland and the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. During World War II, Ukraine was a strategically important battleground, caught between Nazi Germany one one side, and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the other. Download illustrated 116-page Ukraine Postal History 1900-1945 by Andrew Oleksiuk here