The Russian census identified that there were more than 5,864,000 Ukrainians living in Russia in 2015, representing over 4.01% of the total population of the Russian Federation and comprising the eighth-largest ethnic group. On 2022 February there were roughly 2.8 million Ukrainians who fled to Russia [ru].
In February 2014, there were 2.6 million Ukrainian citizens in the territory of Russia, two-thirds of the labour migrants; however, after Russia annexed Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas, the number was estimated to have risen to 4.5 million.
History
17th and 18th centuries
The Treaty of Pereiaslav of 1654 led to Ukraine becoming a protectorate of the Tsardom of Russia. This resulted in increased Ukrainian immigration to Russia, initially to Sloboda Ukraine but also to the Don lands and the area of the Volga river. There was a significant migration to Moscow, particularly by church activists, priests and monks, scholars and teachers, artists, translators, singers, and merchants. In 1652, twelve singers under the direction of Ternopolsky[who?] moved to Moscow, and thirteen graduates of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium moved to teach the Moscow gentry. Many priests and church administrators migrated from Ukraine; in particular, Ukrainian clergy established the Andreyevsky Monastery,[3] which influenced the Russian Orthodox Church, in particular the reform policies of Patriarch Nikon which led to the Old BelieverRaskol (English: schism). The influence of Ukrainian clergy continued to grow, especially after 1686, when the Metropolia of Kyiv was transferred from the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Patriarch of Moscow.
After the abolishment of the Patriarch's chair by Peter I, Ukrainian Stephen Yavorsky became Metropolitan of Moscow, followed by Feofan Prokopovich. Five Ukrainians were metropolitans, and 70 of 127 bishops in Russia's Orthodox hierarchy were recent emigres from Kyiv.[4] Students of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium began schools and seminaries in many Russian eparchies. By 1750, over 125 such institutions were opened, and their graduates practically controlled the Russian church, obtaining key posts through to the late 18th century. Under Prokopovich, the Russian Academy of Sciences was opened in 1724, which was chaired from 1746 by Ukrainian Kirill Razumovsky.[4]
The Moscow court had a choir established in 1713 with 21 singers from Ukraine. The conductor for a period of time was A. Vedel. In 1741, 44 men, 33 women, and 55 girls were moved to St. Petersburg from Ukraine to sing and entertain. Composer Maksym Berezovsky also worked in St. Petersburg at the time. A significant Ukrainian presence was also seen in the Academy of Arts.
The Ukrainian presence in the Russian Army also grew significantly. The greatest influx happened after the Battle of Poltava in 1709. Large numbers of Ukrainians settled around St. Petersburg and were employed in the building of the city.
A separate category of emigrants were those deported to Moscow by the Russian government for demonstrating anti-Russian sentiment. The deported were brought to Moscow initially for investigation, then exiled to Siberia, Arkhangelsk or the Solovetsky Islands. Among the deported were Ukrainian cossacks including D. Mhohohrishny, Ivan Samoylovych, and Petro Doroshenko. Others include all the family of hetman Ivan Mazepa, A. Vojnarovsky, and those in Mazepa's Cossack forces that returned to Russia.[citation needed] Some were imprisoned in exile for the rest of their lives, such as hetman Pavlo Polubotok, Pavlo Holovaty, P. Hloba and Petro Kalnyshevsky.
Beginning in the 19th century, there was a continuous migration from Belarus, Ukraine and Northern Russia to settle the distant areas of the Russian Empire. The promise of free fertile land was an important factor for many peasants, who until 1861 lived under serfdom. In the colonization of the new lands, a significant contribution was made by ethnic Ukrainians. Initially Ukrainians colonised border territories in the Caucasus. Most of these settlers came from Left-bank Ukraine and Slobozhanshchyna and mainly settled in the Stavropol and Terek areas. Some compact areas of the Don, Volga, and Urals were also settled.
The Ukrainians created large settlements within Russia, becoming the majority in certain centres. They continued fostering their traditions, their language, and their architecture. Their village structure and administration differed somewhat from the Russian population that surrounded them. Where populations were mixed, Russification often took place.[5] The size and geographical area of the Ukrainian settlements were first seen in the course of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, which noted language but not ethnicity. A total of 22,380,551 Ukrainian speakers were recorded, with 1,020,000 Ukrainians in European Russia and 209,000 in Asian Russia.[note 1]
Formation of Ukrainian borders
Ethnographic map of Ukraine, showing ethnographic boundaries of ethnic Ukrainians in the early 20th century as claimed by Ukrainian émigrés Volodymyr Kubijovyč and Oleksander Kulchytsky
The first Russian Empire Census, conducted in 1897, gave statistics regarding language use in the Russian Empire according to the administrative borders. Extensive use of Little Russian (and in some cases dominance) was noted in the nine south-western Governorates and the Kuban Oblast.[6] When the future borders of the Ukrainian state were marked, the results of the census were taken into consideration. As a result, the ethnographic borders of Ukraine in the 20th century were twice as large as the Cossack Hetmanate that had been incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 18th century.[7]
Certain regions had mixed populations made up of both Ukrainian and Russian ethnicities, and various minorities. These included the territory of Sloboda and the Donbas. These territories were between Ukraine and Russia. This left a large community of ethnic Ukrainians on the Russian side of the border. The borders of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic were largely preserved by the Ukrainian SSR.
In the course of the mid-1920s administrative reforms, some territory initially under the Ukrainian SSR was ceded to the Russian SFSR, such as the Taganrog and Shakhty cities in the eastern Donbas. At the same time, the Ukrainian SSR gained several territories that were amalgamated into the Sumy Oblast in Sloboda region.
Late 20th century and early 21st century
Number and share of Ukrainians in the population of the regions of the RSFSR (1979 census)
The Ukrainian cultural renaissance in Russia began at the end of the 1980s, with the formation of the Slavutych Society in Moscow and the Ukrainian Cultural Centre named after T. Shevchenko in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).
In 1991, the Ukraina Society [uk] organized a conference in Kyiv with delegates from the various new Ukrainian community organizations of the Eastern Diaspora. By 1991, over 20 such organizations were in existence. By 1992, 600 organizations were registered in Russia alone. The congress helped to consolidate the efforts of these organizations. From 1992, regional congresses began to take place, organized by the Ukrainian organizations of Prymoria, Tyumen Oblast, Siberia and the Far East. In March 1992, the Union of Ukrainian organizations in Moscow was founded. The Union of Ukrainians in Russia was founded in May 1992.
The term "Eastern Diaspora" has been used since 1992 to describe Ukrainians living in the former USSR, as opposed to the Western Ukrainian Diaspora which was used until then to describe all Ukrainian diaspora outside the Union. The Eastern Diaspora is estimated to number approximately 6.8 million, while the Western Diaspora is estimated to number approximately 5 million.
In February 2009, about 3.5 million Ukrainian citizens were estimated to be working in the Russian Federation, particularly in Moscow and in the construction industry.[8] According to Volodymyr Yelchenko, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, there were no state schools in Russia with a program for teaching school subjects in the Ukrainian language as of August 2010; he considered "the correction of this situation" as one of his top priorities.[9]
As of 2007, the number of Ukrainian illegal immigrants in Russia has been estimated as being between 3 and 11 million.[citation needed]
In a 2011 poll, 49% of Ukrainians said that they had relatives living in Russia.[10]
Russo-Ukrainian War
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Starting from 2014, a number of Ukrainian activists and organisations were prosecuted in Russia based on political grounds. Some notable examples include the case of Oleg Sentsov, which was described by Amnesty International as a "Stalinist era trial",[12] the closure of a Ukrainian library in Moscow and prosecution of the library staff,[13] and a ban of Ukrainian organisations in Russia, such as Ukrainian World Congress.[13]
As of September 2015[update], there were 2.6 million Ukrainians living in Russia, more than half of them classified as "guest workers". A million more had arrived in the previous eighteen months[14] (although critics have accused the FMS and media of circulating exaggerated figures[15][16]). About 400,000 had applied for refugee status and almost 300,000 had asked for temporary residence status, with another 600,000 considered to be in breach of migration rules.[14] By November 2017, there were 427,240 applicant asylum-seekers and refugees from Ukraine registered in Russia,[17] over 185,000 of them having received temporary asylum, and fewer than 590 with refugee status.[18] The refugees were from the territories of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republics taken over by pro-Russian separatists since the Russo-Ukrainian War. Most refugees have headed to rural areas in central Russia. Major destinations for Ukrainian migrants have included Karelia, Vorkuta, Magadan Oblast; oblasts such as Magadan and Yakutia are destinations of a government relocation program since the vast majority avoid big cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg.[19]
On 22 January 2024 Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, has signed a presidential decree "On areas of the Russian Federation historically populated by Ukrainians", urging the Ukrainian government to take measures to "preserve the national identity of Ukrainians in Russia", "counter misinformation regarding the history and present of Ukrainians in Russia" and "develop relations between Ukrainians and other peoples enslaved by Russia".[23]
Ukrainian population centres in Russia
Percentage of Ukrainians in regions of Russia in 2010Areas in Russia where Ukrainians were the largest minority, 2010
The first bandura school in 1913, organised in the Kuban, directed by Vasyl Yemetz (centre)
The original Black Sea Cossacks colonised the Kuban region from 1792. Following the Caucasus War and the subsequent colonisation of the Circaucasus, the Black Sea Cossacks intermixed with other ethnic groups, including the indigenous Circassian population.
According to the 1897 census, 47.3% of the Kuban population (including extensive latter 19th-century non-Cossack migrants from both Ukraine and Russia) referred to their native language as Little Russian (the official term for the Ukrainian language), while 42.6% referred to their native language as Great Russian.[24] Few оf the cultural production in Kuban from the 1890s until 1914, such as plays, stories and music, were written in the Ukrainian language,[25] and one of the first political parties in Kuban was the Ukrainian Revolutionary Party.[25] During the Russian Civil War, the Kuban Cossack Rada formed a military alliance with the Ukrainian People's Republic and declared Ukrainian to be the official language of the Kuban National Republic. This decision was not supported uniformly by the Cossacks themselves, and soon the Rada itself was dissolved by the Russian WhiteDenikin's Volunteer Army.[25]
In the 1920s, a policy of Decossackization was pursued. At the same time, the Bolshevik authorities supported policies that promoted the Ukrainian language and self-identity, opening 700 Ukrainian-language schools and a Ukrainian department in the local university.[26] Russian historians claim that Cossacks were in this way forcibly Ukrainized,[27] while Ukrainian historians claim that Ukrainization in Kuban merely paralleled Ukrainization in Ukraine itself, where people were being taught in their native language. According to the 1926 census, there were nearly a million Ukrainians registered in the Kuban Okrug alone (or 62% of the total population).[28] During this period many Soviet repressions were tested on the Cossack lands, particularly the Black Boards that led to the Soviet famine of 1932–1934 in the Kuban. Yet by the mid-1930s there was an abrupt policy change of Soviet attitude towards Ukrainians in Russia. In the Kuban, the Ukrainization policy was halted and reversed.[29] In 1936 the Kuban Cossack Chorus was re-formed as were individual Cossack regiments in the Red Army. By the end of the 1930s many Cossacks' descendants chose to identify themselves as Russians.[30] From that time onwards, almost all of the self-identified Ukrainians in the Kuban were non-Cossacks; the Soviet Census of 1989 showed that a total of 251,198 people in Krasnodar Kray (including Adyghe Autonomous Oblast) were born in the Ukrainian SSR.[31] In the 2002 census, the number of people who identified as Ukrainians in the Kuban was recorded to be 151,788. Despite the fact that most of the descendants of Kuban Cossacks identify themselves as Russian nationals.[32] Many elements of their culture originate from Ukraine, such as the Kuban Bandurist music, and the Balachka dialect.
Moscow
Moscow has had a significant Ukrainian presence since the 17th century. The original Ukrainian settlement bordered Kitai-gorod. No longer having a Ukrainian character, it is today known as Maroseyka (a corruption of Malorusseyka, or Little Russian). During Soviet times the main street, Maroseyka, was named after the Ukrainian Cossack hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. After Moscow State University was founded in 1755, many students from Ukraine studied there. Many of these students had commenced their studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
In the first years after the revolution of 1905, Moscow was one of the major centres of the Ukrainian movement for self-awareness. The monthly magazine Zoria (Зоря, English: Star) was edited by A. Krymsky, and from 1912 to 1917 the Ukrainian cultural and literary magazine Ukrainskaya zhizn was also published there (edited by Symon Petliura). Books in the Ukrainian language were published in Moscow from 1912 and Ukrainian theatrical troupes of M. Kropovnytsky and M. Sadovsky were constantly performing in Moscow.
Moscow's Ukrainians played an active role in opposing the attempted coup in August 1991.[33]
According to the 2001 census, there are 253,644 Ukrainians living in the city of Moscow,[34] making them the third-largest ethnic group in that city after Russians and Tatars. A further 147,808 Ukrainians live in the Moscow region. The Ukrainian community in Moscow operates a cultural centre on Arbat Street, whose head is appointed by the Ukrainian government.[35] It publishes two Ukrainian-language newspapers and has organized Ukrainian-language Saturday and Sunday schools.
Saint Petersburg
When Saint Petersburg was the capital during the Russian Empire era, it attracted people from many nations including Ukraine. The Ukrainian poets Taras Shevchenko and Dmytro Bortniansky spent most of their lives in Saint Petersburg. Ivan Mazepa, carrying out the orders of Peter I, was responsible for sending many Ukrainians to help build St Petersburg.[36]
According to the 2001 census, there are 87,119 Ukrainians living in the city of St Petersburg, where they constitute the largest non-Russian ethnic group.[37] The former mayor, Valentina Matviyenko (née Tyutina), was born in Khmelnytskyi Oblast of western Ukraine and is of Ukrainian ethnicity.[verification needed]
Green Ukraine is the historical Ukrainian name of the land in the Russian Far East areaNumber and share of Ukrainians in the population of the regions of the RSFSR (1926 census)
Green Ukraine is often referred to as Zeleny Klyn. This is an area of land settled by Ukrainians which is a part of Far Eastern Siberia, located on the Amur River and the Pacific Ocean. It was named by Ukrainian settlers. The territory consists of over 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) and had a population of 3.1 million in 1958.
Ukrainians made up 26% of the population in 1926.[citation needed] In the last Russian census, 94,058 people in Primorsky Krai claimed Ukrainian ethnicity,[38] making Ukrainians the second-largest ethnic group and largest ethnic minority.
The Ukrainian settlement of Grey Ukraine or Siry Klyn (literally the "grey wedge") developed around the city of Omsk in western Siberia. M. Bondarenko, an emigrant from Poltava province, wrote before World War I: "The city of Omsk looks like a typical Moscovite city, but the bazaar and markets speak Ukrainian". All around the city of Omsk stood Ukrainian villages. The settlement of people beyond the Ural mountains began in the 1860s. There were attempts to form an autonomous Ukrainian region in 1917–1920. Altogether, 1,604,873 emigrants from Ukraine settled the area before 1914. According to the 2010 Russian census, 77,884 people of the Omsk region identified themselves as Ukrainians, making Ukrainians the third-largest ethnic group there after Russians and Kazakhs.[39]
The settlement of Yellow Ukraine, or Zholty Klyn (the Yellow Wedge) was founded soon after the Treaty of Pereyaslav of 1659 as the eastern border of the second Zasechnaya Cherta. Named after the yellow steppes on the middle and lower Volga, the colony co-existed with the Volga Cossacks, and colonists primarily settled around the city of Saratov. In addition to Ukrainians, Volga Germans and Mordovians migrated to Zholty Klyn in large numbers. As of 2014,[update] most of the population is integrated throughout the region, though a few culturally Ukrainian villages remain.[40]
Ukrainians in the Russian Federation represent the third-largest ethnic group after Russians and Tatars. In spite of their relatively high numbers, some Ukrainians in Russia reported[when?] unfair treatment and anti-Ukrainian sentiment in the Russian Federation.[41][42] In November 2010, the High Court of Russia cancelled registration of one of the biggest civic communities of the Ukrainian minority, the "Federal nation-cultural autonomy of the Ukrainians in Russia" (FNCAUR).[43]
A survey, conducted by the independent Russian research centre Levada in February 2019, found that 77% of Ukrainians and 82% of Russians think positively of each other as people.[10]
Population size of Ukrainians in regions of Russia (thsd. ppl.), 2021 census
Statistical information about Ukrainians is included in the census materials of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation which were collected in 1897, 1920, 1923, 1926, 1937, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989, 2002 and 2010. Of these, the 1937 census was discarded and begun again as the 1939 census.
In the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, attention has been focused on the Eastern Ukrainian diaspora by the Society for relations with Ukrainians outside of Ukraine. Numerous attempts have been made to unite them. The society publishes the journal Zoloti Vorota (Золоті Ворота, named for The Golden Gate of Kyiv) and the magazine Ukrainian Diaspora.
The vast majority of Ukrainians in Russia are adherents of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian clergy had an influential role on Russian Orthodoxy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Recently,[when?] the growing economic migrant population from Galicia have had success in establishing a few Ukrainian Catholic churches, and there are several churches belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate), where Patriarch Filaret agreed to accept breakaway groups that had been excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church for breaches of canon law. In 2002, some asserted that Russian bureaucracy imposed on religion has hampered the expansion of these two groups.[46] According to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, their denomination has only one church building in all of Russia.[47]
During the 1990s, the Ukrainian population in Russia noticeably decreased due to a number of factors. The most important one was the general population decline in Russia. At the same time, many economic migrants from Ukraine moved to Russia for better paid jobs and careers. It is estimated that there are as many as 300,000[48] legally registered migrants. There is negative sentiment toward the bulk of migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia, with Ukrainians relatively trusted by the Russian population. Assimilation has also been a factor in the falling number of Ukrainians; many intermarry with Russians, due to cultural similarities, and their children are counted as Russian on the census. Otherwise, the Ukrainian population has mostly remained stable due to immigration from Ukraine.
Vasily Lanovoy, actor who worked in the Vakhtangov Theatre, was also known as the President of Artek Festival of Films for Children
Pavel Sudoplatov, NKVD officer, lieutenant general of the MVD, who became involved in several famous episodes, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940, the Soviet espionage program which obtained information about the atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project, and Operation Scherhorn in 1944
Maxim Shevchenko – an editor, journalist and presenter on television and radio, one of the leading Russian journalists and experts on ethno-cultural and religious policies
Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco – prominent Eastern Orthodox ascetic and hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) who was active in the mid-20th century
Arsenius (Matseyevich) – metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl who protested against the confiscation of the church's land by Empress Catherine II in 1764
Dimitry of Rostov – leading opponent of the Caesaropapist reform of the Russian Orthodox church promoted by Feofan Prokopovich.
Ivan Zaporozhets – Soviet security officer and official of the OGPU-NKVD who was suspected of being involved in the assassination of Sergei Kirov in Leningrad in December 1934
Iona Nikitchenko – judge of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union
Oleksiy Alchevsky – entrepreneur, philanthropist, and industrialist of the Russian Empire. He was a pioneer in establishing the first finance group in Russia.
Mikhail Zvinchuk - milblogger and author of the Russian Telegram channel Rybar (Russian: Рыбарь, lit. 'fisherman'), which has over 1.1 million subscribers
Alexander Oleshko - theater and film actor, TV presenter, singer, parodist, Honored Artist of Russia (2015)
Artur Kirilenko – entrepreneur, between 1994 and 2010 was owner and director of Stroymontazh, one of the largest property development companies in St Petersburg, Russia. Honorary Builder of Russia.
Viktor Pshonka – former Prosecutor General of Ukraine (from 4 November 2010 until 22 February 2014), State Counselor of Justice of Ukraine and member of the High Council of Justice of Ukraine
Yuri Shvets – Major in the KGB between 1980 and 1990
Anatoly Lysenko – Soviet and Russian television figure, journalist, director, producer
Dmitry Gerasimenko – businessman, ex-owner of steel company Krasny Oktyabr Closed Joint-Stock Company and of basketball clubs BC Krasny Oktyabr and Pallacanestro Cantù.
Yuriy Kutsenko – actor, producer, singer, poet, and screenwriter
Vladimir Ivanenko – founder of the first nongovernmental cable and essential television network in the USSR (1988); initiator and organizer of the first direct satellite broadcast from the territory of the former USSR (1994)
Illia Kyva – Ukrainian politician, effectively defected to Russia by asking Russian president Vladimir Putin for a Russian passport (Russian citizenship) and political asylum
Oleksandr Muzychko – Ukrainian political activist, a member of UNA-UNSO and coordinator of Right Sector in Western Ukraine.Was born near the Ural Mountains
Ivan Savenko – Soviet painter, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, lived and worked in Leningrad, regarded as one of representatives of the Leningrad school of painting, most famous for his landscape paintings.
Anton Losenko – neoclassical painter and academician
Vladimir Kramnik – chess grandmaster, the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007. He has won three team gold medals and three individual medals at Chess Olympiads.
Alexander Grischuk – chess grandmaster, Russian champion (2009), three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015).
Alexandra Kosteniuk – chess grandmaster who was Women's World Chess Champion from 2008 to 2010. She was European women's champion in 2004 and a two-time Russian Women's Chess Champion (in 2005 and 2016)
Lyudmila Rudenko – Soviet chess player and the second women's world chess champion, from 1950 until 1953; was awarded the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman International Master (WIM) in 1950, and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1976. She was the first woman awarded the International Master title.
Natalia Titorenko – chess player who hold the FIDE title of Woman International Master (1982)
Ekaterina Lagno – Russian (since 2014) chess grandmaster, Women's Vice World Champion in 2018, Women's World Rapid Champion in 2014 and Women's World Blitz Champion in 2010, 2018 and 2019.
Andrey Esipenko – chess grandmaster, who won the European U10 Chess Championship in 2012, and both the European U16 and World U16 Chess Championship in 2017
Dmitry Jakovenko - chess player, who was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001
Pavel Datsyuk – professional ice hockey player who is currently an unrestricted free agent
Alexei Zhitnik – ice hockey defenceman; has played more games in the National Hockey League (NHL) (1,085) than any other Soviet-born defenceman.
Daniil Sobchenko – ice hockey player; was the member of the Russian national team that competed in the IIHF World Championship's under 18 and under 20 levels; winning gold for the country in 2011.
Alexey Marchenko – professional ice hockey defenceman who currently plays for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)
Alexei Tereshchenko – professional ice hockey forward, who is currently an unrestricted free agent, he most recently played for Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
Vladimir Tarasenko – professional ice hockey right winger and alternate captain for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL)
Ignat Zemchenko – professional ice hockey player currently playing with HC Yugra in the Supreme Hockey League (VHL)
Vitaly Vishnevskiy – former professional ice hockey defenceman. He previously played in the National Hockey League for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Atlanta Thrashers, Nashville Predators, and New Jersey Devils, as well as for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, SKA St. Petersburg and Severstal Cherepovets in the KHL.
Alexander Komaristy – ice hockey centre who plays for HC Dinamo Saint Petersburg in the Supreme Hockey League (VHL)
Anatoliy Byshovets – Soviet and Russian football manager and former Soviet international striker
Sergei Semak – football manager and a former international midfielder who is currently the manager of Zenit St. Petersburg
Alexey Oleynik – mixed martial artist and combat sambo fighter currently signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, competing in their heavyweight division.
Sergey Kovalenko – Soviet basketball player who won the gold medal with the Soviet basketball team in the 1972 Olympics. He played for CSKA Moscow (1976–1980)
Igor Gamula – professional football coach and a former player. He works as a scout for FC Rostov. He made his debut in the Soviet Top League in 1978 for FC Zaria Voroshilovgrad.
Sergei Yuran – professional football manager and a former player. He is the manager of SKA-Khabarovsk.
Vasil Yakusha – Soviet rower who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1980 Summer Olympics and in the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Oleksandr Marchenko – Soviet rower. He and his partner, who won the bronze medal for the Soviet Union in the double sculls competition at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Ivan Edeshko – professional basketball player and coach.
Sergey Kovalenko – Soviet basketball player who won the gold medal with the Soviet basketball team in the 1972 Olympics, played for CSKA Moscow (1976–1980)
Vadim Yaroshchuk – former butterfly and medley swimmer from the Soviet Union, who won two bronze medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Oleksiy Demyanyuk – high jumper, who set the world's best year performance in 1981 with a leap of 2.33 metres at a meet in Leningrad
Semyon Poltavskiy – volleyball player, who was a member of the men's national team that won the silver medal in both the 2005 and 2007 European Championships, was named Most Valuable Player in the latter tournament
Viktor Miroshnichenko – boxer, represented the USSR at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union
Rostislav Plechko - professional boxer who currently holds the Russian and WBA Asia heavyweight titles
Oleg Goncharenko – Distinguished Master of Sports of the USSR, was the first male Soviet speed skater to become World Allround Champion.
Konstantin Yeryomenko – Russian futsal player who was named the greatest futsal player of the 20th century
Dmitri Shkidchenko – figure skating coach and former pair skater who competed internationally for the Soviet Union.
Olena Zubko – rower who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1976 Summer Olympics. In 1976 she was a crew member of the Soviet boat which won the silver medal in the eights event
Viktor Budyansky – retired association footballer who played as a midfielder
Oleh Leschynskyi – former Soviet professional football midfielder and Ukrainian (until 2014) and Russian (since 2014) coach
Darya Tkachenko – Russian (since 2016), draughts player holding the FMJD titles of FMJD Master (MF) and Women's International Grandmaster (GMIF). She is four-time women's world champion (2005, 2006, 2008, 2011) and twice women's European champion (2004, 2006) in international draughts.
Anzhelika Shevchenko – Russian (since 2017) runner who specializes in the middle-distance running events
Serhiy Krasyuk – Soviet former swimmer, who won a gold and silver medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics in the 4 × 100 m medley and 4 × 200 m freestyle relays, respectively
Yuriy Panchenko - Ukrainian-born Russian coach and former volleyball player who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1980 Summer Olympics and in the 1988 Summer Olympics
Yuri Denisyuk – Soviet physicist, one of the founders of optical holography. He is known for his great contribution to holography, in particular for the so-called "Denisyuk hologram"
Sergei Rudenko – prominent Soviet anthropologist and archaeologist who discovered and excavated the most celebrated of Scythian burials, Pazyryk in Siberia.
Vladimir Martynenko – sociologist, economist, and political scientist; Doctor of political sciences, Professor, Chief Scientific Officer, Institute of Socio-Political Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISPI RAN).
Boris Evgenyevich Votchal – Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (since 1969), Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (1966), one of the founders of the clinical pharmacology in Russia
Boris Struminsky – physicist known for his contribution to theoretical elementary particle physics
Vadym Slyusar – founder of tensor-matrix theory of digital antenna arrays (DAAs), N-OFDM and other theories in fields of radar systems, smart antennas for wireless communications and digital beamforming
Boris Grabovsky – one of the pioneers of television, invented the first fully electronic TV set (video transmitting tube and video receiver), which was demonstrated in 1928
Alexandra Kollontai – revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist theoretician. Serving as the People's Commissar for Welfare in 1917–1918, she was the first woman in history to become an official member of a governing cabinet.
Nikolai Podvoisky – Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman, one of the leaders of the October Revolution
Dmitry Kursky – Prosecutor General of the Russian SFSR (1922–1928)
Gleb Bokii – Bolshevik revolutionary, headed the "special department" of the Soviet secret police apparatus, believed to have been in charge of the Soviet Union's concentration camp system.
Vsevolod Balitsky – Soviet official, Commissar of State Security 1st Class (equivalent to Four-star General) of the NKVD and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Yakov Malik – Soviet diplomat, Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom, known for giving the USSR justifications for the occupation of Czechoslovakia at the Security Council in August 1968
Vasily Shakhrai – political activist and Bolshevik revolutionary during the Russian Revolution, founder of what came to be called National Communism
Dmitry Polyansky – Soviet-Russian statesman who was First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union from 1965 to 1973. From 1958 to 1962 he was Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR, equivalent to a Premier in of one of the 15 Soviet Socialist Republics that comprised the Soviet Union.
Alexei Kirichenko – Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (17 December 1957 – 5 April 1960)
Vladimir Ivashko – Soviet politician, briefly acting as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Deputy General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1990–1991)
Nikolai Demchenko – the first deputy commissar of agriculture of the USSR, People's Commissar of Grain and Livestock Farms of the USSR
Ivan Demchenko - deputy of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th State Dumas
Viktor Polyanichko – Soviet and Russian diplomat and politician, a people's deputy of the USSR, a people's deputy of the Azerbaijan SSR, a deputy of the Chelyabinsk Regional Council of Workers' Deputies, and a delegate of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Vlas Chubar – finance minister of the Soviet Union (1937–1938)
Viktor Khristenko – politician who was chairman of the board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (2012–2016); First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (1999–2000); Minister of Industry (2004–2012)
Sergei Aleksashenko – economist and former government official. He was the deputy finance minister and first deputy chairman of the board of the Central Bank of Russia from 1995 to 1998.
Andrey Andreychenko – member of the State Duma of the VII convocation between 31 May 2017 and 12 October 2021, and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai of the VI convocation from 18 September 2016 to 24 May 2017.
Nikolai Kondratenko – politician, long time Governor of Krasnodar Krai, runner-up candidate of the Communist Party (CPRF) in 2003
Igor Belchuk – politician and businessman who had served as the acting Governor of Primorsky Krai in spring 2001.
Konstantin Chuychenko – politician, businessman, and lawyer who served as the Minister of Justice since 21 January 2020
Dmitry Grigorenko – a Russian politician serving as Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Chief of the Government Staff assumed office in January 2020
Vitaly Mutko – politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 2016 to 2020
Mikhail Murashko – physician and a politician, serving as the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation since 21 January 2020
Gennadiy Onishchenko – government official who was the Chief Sanitary Inspector of Russia from 1996 to 2013
Dmitry Chernyshenko – businessman and politician serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for Tourism, Sport, Culture and Communications since 2020
Alexander Prokopchuk – employee of the internal affairs agencies, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation National Central Bureau of Interpol from 14 June 2011, and vice-president of Interpol from 10 November 2016
Alexey Overchuk – politician serving as Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation from 21 January 2020
Alexander Grushko – diplomat, and is currently Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, since 22 January 2018. Previously, he was the Permanent Representative of Russia to NATO, serving from 2012 to 2018.
Yury Lyashko - statesman, who had served as the 5th governor of the Amur Oblast from 1996 to 1997. He also served as the 1st mayor of Blagoveshchensk from 1991 to 1996
Pyotr Marchenko- politician, who was the deputy of the Stavropol Krai Duma, a chairman of the Stavropol Krai Duma committee on security, inter-parliamentary relations, veteran organizations and the Cossacks in 2011–2021
Sergey Smetanyuk - politician who lasted served as the acting Governor of Tyumen Oblast in November 2005, and the head of the Tyumen administration from 2005 to 2007
Dmitry Belik – politician who is currently a member of parliament in the State Duma of the VII convocation, a member of the United Russia party, and a member of the State Duma committee on control and regulations and a member since 5 October 2016
Nikolai Linevich – career military officer, General of Infantry (1903) and Adjutant general in the Imperial Russian Army in the Far East during the latter part of the Russo-Japanese War.
Yuri Lysianskyi – officer in the Imperial Russian Navy and explorer
Vasily Zavoyko – an admiral in the Russian Imperial navy. In 1854, during the Crimean War, he led the successful defence against the Siege of Petropavlovsk by the allied British-French troops.
Pavel Mishchenko – Imperial Russian career military officer and statesman of the Imperial Russian Army
Ivan Grigorovich served as Imperial Russia's last Naval Minister from 1911 until the onset of the 1917 revolution.
Dmitry Lelyushenko, Soviet military commander, his final actions in 1945 involved directing forces during the Red Army's attacks on both Berlin and Prague.
Kuzma Derevyanko – general of the Red Army. He was the representative of the Soviet Union at the ceremonial signing of the written agreement that established the armistice ending the Pacific War, and with it World War II
Pavel Batitsky – Soviet military leader awarded the highest honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965 and promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1968
Ivan Pavlovsky - Soviet military leader, Commander-in-Chief Ground Forces - Deputy Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union (1967—1980), and a General of the Army (1967)
Anatoly Petrakovsky - Soviet Army major general and Hero of the Soviet Union
Ivan Moshlyak – Soviet major general who received the highest honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1938 for his heroism during the Battle of Lake Khasan
Pyotr Gnido – Soviet fighter pilot during World War II who was credited with 34 solo and 6 shared aerial victories, and recipient of the title of Hero of Soviet Union
Nikolay Dyatlenko – Soviet officer, interrogator and translator who was part of a team that attempted to deliver a message of truce (sometimes referred to as an "ultimatum") to the German Sixth Army at the Battle of Stalingrad in January 1943
Grigory Kravchenko – test pilot who became a flying ace and twice Hero of the Soviet Union in Asia before the start of Operation Barbarossa
Mikhail Grigoryevich Bondarenko - captain-lieutenant in Soviet Navy during World War II who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions in the Kerch-Eltigen operation
Nikita Lebedenko - Soviet Army lieutenant general and a Hero of the Soviet Union
Oleg Koshevoy – Soviet partisan and one of the founders of the clandestine organization Young Guard, which fought the Nazi forces in Krasnodon during World War II between 1941 and 1945
Mikhail Tsiselsky – Soviet naval pilot during World War II who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Ivan Turkenich – Soviet partisan, one of the leaders of the underground anti-Nazi organization Young Guard, which operated in Krasnodon district during World War II between 1941 and 1944
Dmitry Glinka (aviator) – Soviet flying ace during World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his achievements, having scored 50 individual aerial victories by the end of the war.
Boris Glinka – Soviet flying ace during World War II with over 20 solo shootdowns.
Vasily Mykhlik – Ilyushin Il-2 pilot and squadron commander in the 566th Assault Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces during the Second World War who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Alexey Perelet - Soviet pilot who was the principal test pilot for military aircraft prototypes produced by Tupolev during World War II.
Leonid Beda – ground-attack squadron commander in the Soviet Air Forces during the Second World War who went on to become a Lieutenant-General of Aviation.
Pavel Dubinda – sergeant in the Red Army during World War II and one of only four people that was both a full bearer of the Order of Glory and Hero of the Soviet Union
Nikolai Simoniak – General in the Soviet Army during World War II
Boris Dumenko – Red Army commander during the Russian Civil War
Alexander Kravchenko (revolutionary) – revolutionary, agronomist and partisan who fought against Admiral Kolchak's White forces in Siberia in 1919 during the Russian Civil War
Andrey Baklan - Soviet flying ace during World War II
Mikhail Badyuk - Soviet aviator in the 9th Guards Mine Torpedo Aviation Regiment of the 5th Mine-Torpedo Air Division in the Northern Fleet’s aviation division during the Second World War
Ivan Afanasenko - Red Army Sergeant and a Hero of the Soviet Union
Zakhar Slyusarenko – WWII tank officer and brigade commander, twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Bogdan Stashinsky – KGB officer and spy who assassinated the Ukrainian nationalist leaders in the late 1950s
Ivan Stepanenko – Soviet WWII flying ace with over 30 solo victories
Vladimir Sudets – Soviet WWII air commander, later marshal of aviation
Timofei Strokach – prominent military figure of the Soviet NKVD and KGB
Ilya Amvrosievich Strokach – prominent military figure of the Soviet NKVD and KGB
Oleg Ostapenko – the former director of Roscosmos, the federal space agency, retired Colonel General in the Russian Military, former Deputy Minister of Defence, and former commander of the Aerospace Defence Forces
Fyodor Ostashenko - Soviet Army lieutenant general and a Hero of the Soviet Union
Stepan Artyomenko – the commander of a battalion of the 447th Rifle Regiment in the Red Army during the Second World War, who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Ivan Boyko – the commander of the 69th Guards Tank Regiment and later the 64th Guards Tank Brigade during World War II; he was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his successful combat leadership
Ivan Zaporozhets – Soviet security officer and official of the OGPU-NKVD
Nikolai Zhugan - Air Force major general, a pilot during World War II, and Hero of the Soviet Union (1944)
Irina Levchenko – medic turned tank officer in the Red Army during World War II who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965; she was also the first Soviet woman awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal
Aleksandra Samusenko – Soviet T-34 tank commander and a liaison officer during World War II
Fedor Zinchenko – Soviet officer who commanded the regiment that placed the Victory Banner during the Storming of the Reichstag.
Anatoly Nedbaylo – Il-2 pilot in the 75th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces during the Second World War who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Vasily Mykhlik – Ilyushin Il-2 pilot and squadron commander in the 566th Assault Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces during the Second World War who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Alexander Molodchy – Soviet long-range pilot who flew over 300 missions on the B-25, Il-4, and Yer-2 during World War II, WHO was the first person twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union during the war while alive
Ivan Mikhailichenko – Il-2 pilot in the Soviet Air Forces during the Second World War who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Aleksey Mazurenko – commander of the 7th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment in the Black Sea Fleet during World War II, who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union during the war and remained in the military afterwards, reaching the rank of General-major
Grigory Kravchenko – a test pilot who became a flying ace and twice Hero of the Soviet Union
Andrey Kravchenko (general) – commander of multiple tank units of the Red Army throughout World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Alexander Mironenko - Soviet airborne senior sergeant and posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union
Dmitry Onuprienko - Soviet Army lieutenant general and Hero of the Soviet Union
Nikolai Onoprienko - Red Army colonel and World War II Hero of the Soviet Union
Yevdokiya Nosal - junior lieutenant and deputy squadron commander in the 588th Night Bomber Regiment (nicknamed the "Night Witches" by the Germans) during World War II
Semyon Kozak – Soviet Army lieutenant general who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his command of a division during World War II
Mikhail Bondarenko (pilot) – navigator and squadron commander in the 198th Assault Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Air Forces during the Second World War who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his ground-attack sorties on the Il-2 during the war
Ivan Boyko – commander of the 69th Guards Tank Regiment and later the 64th Guards Tank Brigade during World War II; he was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his successful combat leadership
Ivan Sidorenko - Red Army officer and a Hero of the Soviet Union, who served during World War II.
Vladimir Aleksenko – ground-attack aviation squadron and regimental commander during World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Stepan Suprun – Soviet test pilot who tested over 140 aircraft types during his career, who was also a fighter pilot and twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Vasily Senko – Soviet Air Force colonel and the only navigator who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union
Vasili Yanchenko – World War I flying ace credited with 16 aerial victories
Ivan Loiko – World War I flying ace credited with six confirmed aerial victories
Pavel Taran – Il-4 pilot who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II
Yevgraf Kruten – World War I flying ace credited with seven aerial victories
Business
Oleksiy Alchevsky – industrialist, established the first finance group in Russia.
Serhiy Kurchenko – businessman and founder/owner of the group of companies "Gas Ukraine 2009" specializing in trading of liquefied natural gas. Kurchenko is also the former owner and president of FC Metalist Kharkiv and the Ukrainian Media Holding group.Since 2014 lives in Russia.
^ abcThe politics of identity in a Russian borderland province: the Kuban neo-Cossack movement, 1989–1996, by Georgi M. Derluguian and Serge Cipko; Europe-Asia Studies; December 1997 URL
^Ukraine and Ukrainians Throughout the World, edited by A.L. Pawliczko, University of Toronto Press, 1994. ISBN0-8020-0595-0
^Zakharchenko, Viktor (1997). Народные песни Кубани [Folk songs of the Kuban]. geocities.com (in Russian). Archived from the original on 11 February 2002. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
^Kaiser, Robert (1994). The Geography of Nationalism in Russia and the USSR. Princeton University Press, New Jersey. ISBN0-691-03254-8.
^Demoscope.ru Soviet Census of 1989, population distribution in region by region of birth.Retrieved 13 November 2007
^Гарантуйте нам в Росії життя та здоров'я! [Guarantee us life and health in Russia!] (in Ukrainian). Ukrainians of Russia – Kobza. 31 December 2006. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2007: Letter to President Putin from the Union of Ukrainians in Bashkiria.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Zaremba, S. (1993). From the national-cultural life of Ukrainians in the Kuban (1920 and 1930s). Kyivska starovyna. pp. 94–104.
Lanovyk, B.; et al. (1999). Ukrainian Emigration: from the past to the present. Ternopil.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Petrenko, Y. (1993). Ukrainian cossackdom. Kyivska starovyna. pp. 114–119.
Польовий Р. Кубанська Україна К. Дiокор 2003.
Ratuliak, V. (1996). Notes from the history of Kuban from historic times until 1920. Krasnodar.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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