UKRAINE. meaning literally "the frontier region," including a large part of southern Russia, eastern Galicia, northwestern Bukovina and northeastern Hungary. The portion included in south ern Russia is also known as Little Russia. The people are quite distinct in character and in their speech from the Big Rus sians of Moscow and Petrograd, this dif ference being noticable even in their literature, of which the writings of the famous Gogol are the most representa tive. The inhabitants of those parts of the Ukraine included formerly under Austria-Hungary are known as Ruthe nians, of which many have emigrated to the United States.
The Russian Ukraine declared its sep aration from Russia in the fall of 1917, and in January, 1918, during the Ger man-Russian peace negotiations at Brest Litovsk, was represented by a special delegation which the Germans favored against the Bolsheviki. By the terms of
the Brest-Litovsk Treaty the Ukraine was recognized by both the Bolsheviki and the Central Empires as a separate state, under German suzerainty, and under the dictatorship of Skoropadski, a pro-German. After the collapse of the Balkan front of the Central Empires, in the fall of 1918, the Germans were com pelled to withdraw their forces in the Ukraine, Skoropadski fled, and a pro Ally government was established. Begin ning at that time, however, the Soviet Government of Moscow initiated a cam paign against the Ukraine and gradually overran the territory until, in 1920, after the final defeat of the anti-Bolshevist leader, Denikin, the Ukraine was again completely reunited to Russia, save for a brief period during the summer of 1920, when Kiev was temporarily occupied by the Polish army of invasion.