The Country history
During the 10th and 11th centuries, the territory of Ukraine became the center of a European state, the Kievan Rus'. It laid the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries. This nation's capital was Kiev, which later became the capital of modern Ukraine, wrested from Khazars by Askold and Dir in about 860 AD. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of Varangians from Scandinavia. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local Slavic population and became part of the Rus' first dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty
By 1569 the Union of Lublin formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural and political pressure of Polonization much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to Catholicism and became indistinguishable from the Polish nobility
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