Explore the real-world places that appear in Ukraine: A History by Orest Subtelny. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), Chersonesus (Chersonesos), Crimea, Khotyn Fortress, Zaporizhian Sich (Khortytsia Island) and 9 more.
Volodymyrska Street, Kyiv — Seat of Kievan Rus civilization
Subtelny highlights Saint Sophia Cathedral as one of the supreme monuments of Kievan Rus, the medieval state he identifies as the foundational polity of Ukrainian history. Built by Yaroslav the Wise in the 11th century, it represented the apogee of Rus civilization — its frescoes, mosaics, and grand architecture signaling a Christian empire rivaling Byzantium. Subtelny uses the cathedral to anchor his argument that Kyiv, not Moscow, was the original center of Eastern Slavic civilization and culture.
Commissioned by Yaroslav the Wise around 1037 CE, Saint Sophia was modeled on the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. It served as the metropolitan cathedral of Kievan Rus and contains the only surviving original Byzantine mosaics in Ukraine. It miraculously avoided destruction during the Mongol sack of Kyiv in 1240.
Saint Sophia Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Ukraine's most visited monuments. It functions as a national museum and historic preserve rather than an active church. The complex draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Visit: Saint Sophia Cathedral National Reserve (historic site)
Lavrska Street, Kyiv — Spiritual heart of medieval Ukraine
Subtelny describes the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra as the most sacred religious site in all of Kievan Rus and a center of monastic learning and chronicle writing. Founded in the 11th century, it was the institution where many of the earliest chronicles documenting Rus history were compiled. Subtelny emphasizes that the Lavra's cultural output — including the Kyiv-Pechersk Patericon — helped define Ukrainian religious and cultural identity across centuries of foreign domination.
The monastery was founded in 1051 by monks Anthony and Theodosius on the banks of the Dnieper. Its network of underground caves contains the mummified remains of saints and monks venerated for nearly a millennium. It became one of the wealthiest and most influential monasteries in Eastern Europe.
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and remains an active Orthodox monastery in the upper section, while the lower section operates as a national museum. The cave complexes with mummified monks are open to visitors. It is a central site for Ukrainian religious and cultural pilgrimage.
Visit: Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Historic-Cultural Preserve (historic site)
Near Sevastopol, Crimea — Ancient Greek and Byzantine outpost
Subtelny opens his historical survey by discussing the ancient Greek colonies along the Black Sea coast, with Chersonesus near Sevastopol serving as the most prominent. He explains that these colonies brought Mediterranean civilization — including literacy, urban planning, and trade networks — into the territory of modern Ukraine millennia before Slavic settlement. The site is also where, according to legend, Prince Volodymyr the Great was baptized into Christianity around 988, an event Subtelny identifies as the most transformative moment in early Ukrainian history.
Founded by Greek colonists from Heraclea Pontica around 422 BCE, Chersonesus flourished as a democratic polis and later a Byzantine outpost. It was a major center of Black Sea trade and early Christian missions. The city gradually declined after Mongol incursions and was abandoned by the 15th century.
The ruins of Chersonesus are preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and archaeological museum. The site contains the remains of streets, temples, a basilica, and an ancient theater still used for performances. It is located within city limits of Sevastopol.
Visit: Chersonesus Taurica National Preserve (historic site)
Khotyn, Chernivtsi Oblast — Site of pivotal Cossack-Ottoman battles
Subtelny discusses Khotyn as the site of two epochal battles — in 1621 and 1673 — that defined the relationship between the Cossack Hetmanate, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Ottoman Empire. In 1621, a combined Polish-Cossack force under Hetman Petro Sahaidachny repelled a massive Ottoman army, with Subtelny emphasizing that the Cossack contribution was decisive. He uses Khotyn to illustrate the Cossacks' military power and their complex role as defenders of a commonwealth that simultaneously oppressed Ukrainian peasants.
The fortress at Khotyn dates to the 10th century, though its current stone walls were built in the 13th–15th centuries under various rulers including Moldavian princes and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its strategic position above the Dniester River made it a contested stronghold for centuries. The 1621 Battle of Khotyn became legendary in Ukrainian, Polish, and Turkish historical memory.
Khotyn Fortress is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Ukraine and a major tourist attraction. The site hosts the annual International Festival of Medieval Knights. Visitors can explore the towers, walls, and a small museum inside the castle complex.
Visit: Khotyn Fortress State Historical and Architectural Reserve (historic site)
Khortytsia Island, Zaporizhzhia — Capital of the Cossack world
Subtelny devotes extensive analysis to the Zaporizhian Sich as the institutional heart of the Cossack polity, describing it as 'a state within a state' — a military brotherhood that elected its own leadership (the hetman and officers), maintained its own laws, and represented something genuinely novel in Eastern European history. The Sich on Khortytsia Island was the legendary base from which Cossacks launched raids against the Ottomans and Tatars, and where the famous Cossack reply to the Sultan was allegedly composed. Subtelny argues the Sich created a unique egalitarian social order that left a permanent imprint on Ukrainian political culture.
The first recorded Sich was established on Mala Khortytsia island by Dmytro Vyshnevetsky around 1556. Khortytsia — the largest river island in Europe — became the most famous location of the Sich. The institution was destroyed by Russian imperial forces under Catherine II in 1775, ending Cossack autonomy.
Khortytsia Island is preserved as the National Reserve of Khortytsia and is one of Ukraine's most important historical and natural sites. The island contains a museum of Cossack history, reconstructed Sich buildings, and archaeological sites spanning thousands of years. It is a UNESCO tentative list site.
Visit: National Reserve of Khortytsia (historic site)
Baturyn, Chernihiv Oblast — Capital of the Cossack Hetmanate
Subtelny details Baturyn as the capital of the Cossack Hetmanate — the quasi-state established after Bohdan Khmelnytsky's 1648 uprising — and the site of one of Ukrainian history's greatest tragedies. In 1708, after Hetman Ivan Mazepa allied with Swedish King Charles XII against Peter the Great, Russian forces under Menshikov sacked Baturyn and massacred its entire population of several thousand. Subtelny uses this event to illustrate the brutal destruction of Ukrainian autonomy and Mazepa's place as both a tragic patriot and a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to Russian imperialism.
Baturyn served as the capital of the Cossack Hetmanate from the 1660s to 1708. Under Hetmans Demian Mnohohrishny, Ivan Samoilovych, and Ivan Mazepa, it developed into a sophisticated administrative and cultural center. After the 1708 massacre, it never fully recovered its former significance.
Baturyn has been partially restored as a historical complex since the 2000s, with the reconstruction of Mazepa's palace, the Cossack fortress, and several churches. The Baturyn National Historical and Cultural Reserve is open to visitors. The town remains a site of Ukrainian national memory and identity.
Visit: Baturyn National Historical and Cultural Reserve (historic site)
Near Poltava, Poltava Oblast — Battle of Poltava, 1709
Subtelny presents the Battle of Poltava (June 1709) as one of the most decisive moments in Ukrainian history — the catastrophic defeat of Charles XII and Mazepa's Cossack forces by Peter the Great that permanently ended Ukrainian autonomy within the Russian Empire. He traces how Mazepa's gamble — betting on Swedish victory to secure Ukrainian independence — ended in total failure, with Mazepa fleeing to Moldavia where he died weeks later. Subtelny argues that Poltava locked Ukraine into Russian imperial orbit for the next two centuries and set the template for Russian policies aimed at suppressing Ukrainian identity.
The Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709 was a turning point in the Great Northern War. Peter the Great's modernized Russian army decisively defeated the combined Swedish-Cossack force. The victory established Russia as the dominant power in Eastern Europe and effectively ended Swedish imperial ambitions.
The Poltava Battle Field Museum and the National Monument to the Battle of Poltava commemorate the engagement. The site includes earthwork fortifications, a rotunda monument, and a detailed museum. It is one of the most visited historical sites in eastern Ukraine.
Visit: Poltava Battle Field National Reserve (historic site)
Rynok Square, Lviv — Capital of Galicia and western Ukrainian culture
Subtelny gives Lviv a central role in his chapters on the Ukrainian national revival of the 19th century, describing it as the city where Ukrainian nationalism first developed under Austro-Hungarian rather than Russian rule. He discusses the Ruthenian Triad literary movement of the 1830s, the Shevchenko Scientific Society (Naukove Tovarystvo imeni Shevchenka), and the explosion of Ukrainian cultural and political activity in Galicia that made Lviv the 'Piedmont of Ukraine' — the model from which national consciousness would eventually spread eastward. Subtelny contrasts the relative freedoms of Galician Ukrainians under Austria with the brutal repression faced by Ukrainians under the Tsar.
Founded by Danylo of Halych in the 13th century and named after his son Lev, Lviv has been ruled by Poland, Austria-Hungary, briefly the West Ukrainian People's Republic (1918), interwar Poland, the USSR, and since 1991 independent Ukraine. Its medieval core with Renaissance facades reflects centuries of Central European influence. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
Lviv's historic center is one of the best-preserved in Eastern Europe and attracts millions of tourists annually. Rynok Square and the surrounding streets are lined with museums, cafes, churches, and cultural institutions. The city has served as a major hub for Ukrainian cultural and humanitarian activity during the ongoing war with Russia.
Visit: Lviv Historic City Centre (UNESCO World Heritage Site) (landmark)
Pereiaslav, Kyiv Oblast — Site of the 1654 Pereiaslav Council
Subtelny dedicates careful analysis to the 1654 Pereiaslav Council and the Pereiaslav Agreement, in which Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky accepted the Tsar's suzerainty in exchange for military aid against Poland. He presents this as one of the most debated events in Ukrainian historiography — variously interpreted as a voluntary union, a military alliance, or the beginning of subjugation. Subtelny argues convincingly that Khmelnytsky sought a temporary tactical arrangement, not a permanent merger with Russia, and that subsequent Russian interpretations of Pereiaslav as a 'reunification' were deliberate distortions used to justify imperial domination.
Pereiaslav was one of the oldest cities of Kievan Rus and a major ecclesiastical center. The 1654 council held there became one of the most politically contested events in East Slavic history, with Ukrainian, Russian, and Soviet historians interpreting it radically differently. The city was renamed Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi in 1943 to honor the agreement's 290th anniversary.
The city, now simply called Pereiaslav, contains the Pereiaslav Historical Museum — one of Ukraine's largest open-air museum complexes with over 30 reconstructed historic structures. The museum addresses Cossack-era history extensively. The city's name was shortened back to Pereiaslav after independence.
Visit: National Historical-Ethnographic Reserve Pereiaslav (museum)
Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast — Capital of Soviet Ukraine, 1919–1934
Subtelny discusses Kharkiv's pivotal role as the first capital of Soviet Ukraine from 1919 to 1934 and the center of the Ukrainization (korenizatsiia) policy of the 1920s, when Soviet authorities briefly encouraged Ukrainian language and culture. He also portrays it as the scene of devastating suffering during the Holodomor (1932–33), the man-made famine that Subtelny argues killed between 3.5 and 7.5 million Ukrainians and which he treats as a deliberate act of Soviet policy — genocide — against the Ukrainian nation. The city also became a center of Stalin's purges of Ukrainian cultural intelligentsia known as the 'Executed Renaissance.'
Founded as a Cossack fortress in 1654, Kharkiv grew rapidly during the Russian Empire and became Ukraine's largest industrial and educational center by the 20th century. As Soviet Ukraine's first capital, it hosted major governmental and cultural institutions. It was severely damaged during World War II and later reconstructed in the Soviet monumental style.
Kharkiv is Ukraine's second-largest city and a major industrial, educational, and cultural center. It suffered significant damage from Russian missile attacks and ground combat beginning in 2022. The city's Freedom Square — one of Europe's largest public squares — remains a symbol of Kharkiv's civic life.
Visit: Kharkiv History Museum (museum)
Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, Kyiv Oblast — The 1986 catastrophe
In his later chapters on Soviet Ukraine, Subtelny examines the Chornobyl disaster of April 26, 1986 as a defining moment that accelerated Ukrainian national consciousness and the push for independence. He argues that Soviet authorities' initial cover-up, their slow evacuation of Prypiat, and the health consequences borne disproportionately by Ukrainians and Belarusians crystallized popular resentment of Moscow. Chornobyl, for Subtelny, was not merely an environmental catastrophe but a political one — demonstrating the USSR's fundamental inability to protect its own people and igniting the environmental and national movements that led to the declaration of independence in 1991.
Reactor No. 4 of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded on April 26, 1986, releasing 400 times more radiation than the Hiroshima bomb. The Soviet government initially suppressed information and delayed evacuation. The disaster contaminated vast areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of Europe and is considered the worst nuclear accident in history.
The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is open to organized tours and has become one of Ukraine's most popular — and controversial — tourist destinations. The New Safe Confinement structure encases Reactor No. 4. The ghost city of Prypiat nearby is a haunting testament to the disaster.
Visit: Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (Official Tours) (tour)
Tarasa Shevchenka Boulevard, Kyiv — Ukraine's national poet
Subtelny gives Taras Shevchenko a towering place in his narrative of Ukrainian national identity, describing him as the single most important figure in the crystallization of modern Ukrainian consciousness. Through his poetry collection Kobzar (1840) and his political writings, Shevchenko articulated a vision of Ukraine as a distinct nation with its own language, history, and destiny — directly challenging Russian imperial narratives. Subtelny traces how Shevchenko's arrest, exile to Central Asia, and suffering at the hands of the Tsar transformed him into the preeminent martyr-symbol of Ukrainian nationhood.
Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861) was born a serf and became Ukraine's greatest poet, painter, and national symbol. He was arrested in 1847 for membership in the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius and exiled as a common soldier to Kazakhstan with a personal decree from the Tsar forbidding him from writing or painting. The museum dedicated to his life was established in Kyiv in 1949.
The Taras Shevchenko National Museum in Kyiv houses the largest collection of materials related to Shevchenko's life and art, including original manuscripts, paintings, and personal belongings. The adjacent Taras Shevchenko Park contains one of Kyiv's most iconic monuments to the poet. The museum is one of Ukraine's most visited cultural institutions.
Visit: Taras Shevchenko National Museum (museum)
Hrushevskoho Street, Kyiv — Declaration of Independence, 1991
Subtelny concludes his history with the dramatic events of 1991, describing how the Ukrainian parliament — the Verkhovna Rada — voted to declare independence on August 24, 1991, following the failed coup against Gorbachev. He presents this moment as the culmination of centuries of Ukrainian struggle for statehood — from Khmelnytsky's uprising through the short-lived 1918 republic to the Soviet decades. The subsequent December 1 referendum, in which over 90 percent of Ukrainians voted for independence, confirmed for Subtelny that a genuine national will for statehood existed across all regions of Ukraine.
The Verkhovna Rada building was constructed in 1936–1939 in a late Constructivist style. The parliament has sat at the center of every major Ukrainian political crisis, from the independence declaration to the Orange Revolution (2004) and the Revolution of Dignity (2014). It has been the formal seat of Ukrainian legislative authority since independence.
The Verkhovna Rada is Ukraine's functioning unicameral parliament and the supreme legislative body of the state. The building is not generally open to public tours. It remains the symbolic center of Ukrainian democratic governance during the ongoing war with Russia.
Central Kyiv — Heart of Ukrainian independence and revolution
While Subtelny's history ends before the 2004 Orange Revolution and 2014 Euromaidan, he sets the stage for these events by tracing the deep roots of Ukrainian civic identity and the recurring popular resistance to authoritarian rule. The square, renamed Independence Square after 1991, embodies the culmination of the national consciousness narrative Subtelny constructs across a millennium — from Kievan Rus princes to Cossack councils to underground national movements under both Russian and Soviet rule. His final chapters on the independence movement describe the mass gatherings and civic energy that prefigured what the Maidan would become.
The square has been Kyiv's central public space for centuries, known under various names depending on the ruling power. It was the site of mass gatherings during the 1990 student hunger strike that pressured Soviet authorities, and central to the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013–2014 Euromaidan revolution. The Independence Monument was erected at its center in 2001.
Maidan Nezalezhnosti is the symbolic heart of Ukrainian civic and national life. The square was heavily damaged during the 2014 revolution and serves as a memorial to the 'Heavenly Hundred' killed there. It remains a major public gathering space and is lined with memorials, including a growing monument to soldiers killed in the war against Russia.
Visit: Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) (monument)
More by Orest Subtelny: All Orest Subtelny books