24th August - Independence Day of Ukraine
19 years ago on the 24 th of August, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) signed the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine declaring the nation free from Soviet rule. The second largest country of Europe after Russia, Ukraine is located in Eastern Europe and shares its borders with Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Moldova, and Romania. In 1917, after the invasion of Bolsheviks – a radical Marxist group founded by Lenin – Ukraine declared itself independent. But, Ukraine has divided again between Poland and Bolshevik-occupied Russia. The latter territory became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic – a puppet state of the Bolsheviks. At the beginning of WWII, after Germany (ruled then by the Nazis) was excluded from the League of Nations, the USSR – present-day Russia – was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Ukraine, on the other hand, battled against both the Nazis and the Soviets. In 1954, Crimea, previously a part of Russia, was handed over to Ukraine. The Soviet Union