Kharkiv
Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine.
History
Amid the Khmelnytsky Uprising, Cossacks founded this city on the Lopan and Kharkiv Rivers as a fortress. They soon became a Russian protectorate.
In 1917 when the Central Rada declared the Ukrainian People's Republic to be independent, Bolsheviks withrew from the body and formed a rival rada here. They were forced to briefly abandon the city the next year as the Ukrainian State advanced. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukraine SSR) was declared here in 1919.