All articles
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The Cossack Songs of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Which Cannot Be Sung Without a Starter and a High Voice
One person starts the song, another leads the melody in a high voice, and the rest support it in the middle and low voices. The Cossack songs sung by village choirs in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast were inscribed on UNESCO's Urgent Safeguarding List in 2016. This article draws on the nomination file and the committee's decision to look at the age of the bearers, the roles of each voice, the reasons the songs were judged urgent, and the contents of the 2020 report.
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From the Founding of Heian-kyō to the Ōnin War: What Was Happening in Kyiv
From the move of the capital to Heian-kyō in 794 to the end of the Ōnin War in 1477, this article lines up what was happening in and around Kyiv during the same years. The year 882, taken as the beginning of Kyivan Rus', comes from a chronicle compiled more than two hundred years after the events it describes. The periodization of Japanese history also varies by source in when each era is said to begin.
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Kateryna Bilokur, the Painter Who Made Her Own Brushes and Paints
Kateryna Bilokur (1900–1961), who spent her whole life in the village of Bohdanivka in Kyiv Oblast, never went to school and began painting flowers with brushes and paints she made herself. This article covers her works depicting more than 100 kinds of flowers, the letter to a singer that brought her to public attention, the 1954 exhibition in Paris, and the origin of the often-quoted “words of Picasso.”
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220 Years from the Founding to the Destruction of the Sich: Japan from Sengoku to Edo
This article lines up the roughly 220 years from around 1552, when a Sich was founded on the Dnipro River, to 1775, when the last Sich was destroyed, against Japan during the same period. The Sich was not a single site; there were eight of them. No original document of the Pereiaslav agreement survives. The Battle of Poltava has two dates.
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The Man Who Designed Ukraine’s First Banknotes and Stamps ── Heorhii Narbut
9 March 2026 marked 140 years since the birth of the graphic designer Heorhii Narbut (1886–1920), who designed the first banknotes and postage stamps of the Ukrainian People's Republic, taught at the Academy of Arts founded in Kyiv in 1917, and later served as its rector. This article covers his work on banknotes, the coat of arms, lettering and books, and his 34 years of life.
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The Year After Ukrainian-Language Publishing Was Banned in the Russian Empire, the University of Tokyo Opened in Japan
The Ems Ukase of 1876 banned the printing of Ukrainian-language books within the Russian Empire. The following April, in 1877, the University of Tokyo opened in Japan. Starting from Eneida (1798) and Kobzar (1840), published before the ban, this article lines up events from Perry's arrival to 1919, taking care over the difference between the two countries' calendars.
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Jugs, Pitchers and Clay Animals ── The Pottery of Opishnia, Poltava Oblast
Blessed with good-quality local clay, the town of Opishnia in Poltava Oblast has made pottery for centuries. This article covers what was designated as intangible cultural heritage in 2012, a family of potters, the factory that began as a cooperative in 1929 and stopped operating in 2002, and the national ceramics museum-reserve founded in 1986. As of September 2026, it is not on UNESCO's list.
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Seventy Years as a Soviet Republic, and Japan During Those Years
This article lines up the period when Ukraine was a Soviet republic — from the 1932 famine to independence in 1991 — against Japan during the same years. It notes who counted the figures of 3.9 million, 33,771, and about 200,000, and how.
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Patterns Made by Weaving, Not Embroidery ── The Rushnyky of Krolevets
In the town of Krolevets in Sumy Oblast, northeastern Ukraine, the red patterns on the ceremonial cloth called rushnyk have been produced not with a needle but on the loom. This article covers the “pick-up weaving” technique and its patterns, how rushnyky are used at weddings and funerals, the differing start dates given by different encyclopedias, and the town's listing on the national register of intangible cultural heritage since 2012 and its geographical-indication registration in 2020.
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Ukrainian Personal Names — Latin-Alphabet Spelling, Patronymics, and Forms of Address
The first stumbling block when working or reporting alongside people from Ukraine is the name itself. The Latin-alphabet spelling is fixed by the transliteration table of Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 55, but a person may use a different spelling of their own. This article works through giving priority to the person's own spelling, the patronymic, the forms a name takes when used to address someone, and what happens in input forms — a procedure for not getting a name wrong.