Grey Ukraine (also: Grey Klyn - ''Siryi Klyn''; Ukrainian: Сірий Клин, also: Сіра Україна - "Grey Ukraine";

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Серый Клин) is an unofficial name for a region in Southern

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

and Northern

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, where mass settlement of

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

took place from the middle of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. Around 1917-1920 there was a movement for Ukrainian autonomy in the region.

History

The Ukrainian settlement of Siryi Klyn (literally: the "grey wedge") developed around the city of Omsk in western Siberia. M. Bondarenko, an emigrant from Poltava province, wrote before World War I: "The city of Omsk looks like a typical Moscovite city, but the bazaar and markets speak Ukrainian". Altogether, before 1914, 1,604,873 emigrants from Ukraine settled in the area. Historical Grey Ukraine exists roughly within the present-day northern

and southern

. It is not contiguous with other territories inhabited by

Ukrainian diaspora The Ukrainian diaspora comprises Ukrainians and their descendants who live outside Ukraine around the world, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Uk ...

, in a similar situation of territorial isolation as with Green Ukraine. Most of the Ukrainian migrations to Siberia happened between the mid-18th century and early 20th century. After conquering it in the early 18th century, the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

decided to resettle the region by handing 40% of newly created settlements there to Ukrainian settlers and 30% to Russian and Belarusian settlers. By 1897, Ukrainians made up 7.5% of the population in Akmolinsk Oblast, which contained Omsk and surrounding regions. Although the

had tolerated expressions of Ukrainian identity, and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

had initially adopted a Ukrainization policy in the region, by the end of 1932 the Ukrainization policy was reversed and the Ukrainian identity strongly declined. Migration to the region continued throughout the Soviet period, and Nikita Khrushchev's virgin lands campaign during the 1950s encouraged further migration from across the Soviet Union.

Demographics

In the Russian census of 1897, 51,103 people identified themselves as

Little Russians Little Russia (russian: Малороссия/Малая Россия, Malaya Rossiya/Malorossiya; uk, Малоросія/Мала Росія, Malorosiia/Mala Rosiia), also known in English as Malorussia, Little Rus' (russian: Малая Ру� ...

(Ukrainians) in Akmolinsk (Omsk) Oblast, making up 7.5% of the population and forming the third-largest ethnic group after Kazakhs (62.6%) and

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

(25.5%). According to the

2010 Russian census The Russian Census of 2010 (russian: Всеросси́йская пе́репись населе́ния 2010 го́да) was the second census of the Russian Federation population after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Preparations for the ...

, 77,884 people (2.7%) of the Omsk Oblast identified themselves as Ukrainians, making Ukrainians the third-largest ethnic group there, after Russians and Kazakhs.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Map showing location of Grey Ukraine
Ukrainian diaspora in Russia Ukrainian diaspora in Siberia Ukrainian diaspora in Kazakhstan Cultural regions Ukrainian historical regions outside of Ukraine

History

Demographics

See also

References

External links