August 24: National Day of Ukraine

Today is the National Day of Ukraine, so here are some things you might not know about Ukraine.

1. The geographical centre of Europe is located in Ukraine. It is a small town called Rahiv.
2. Ukraine is the largest country to be situated entirely in Europe.
3. The capital and largest city is Kiev, which is home to the deepest metro station in the world, Arsenalnaya Metro Station at 105 meters, and the shortest main city street, Khreshchatyk Street, 1.2km.
4. The oldest map, dating back about 15 thousand years, was found in Ukraine. It was carved out of mammoth bone.
5. Ukraine also has the oldest constitution, dating back to 1710. It was introduced by Pylyp Orlyk and was entitled “Pacts and Constitutions of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host”.
6. George Gershwin's song Summertime was inspired by a Ukrainian lullaby called Sleep Is Tiptoeing About.
7. Ukraine has a national soup - Borscht, which is made with Beetroot, Potatoes and Cabbage.
8. In 1934, the Ukrainian language was voted one of the world’s three most beautiful languages in a competition in Paris. The other two were French (hardly surprising given the location of the contest) and Persian.
9. The national anthem is short - just six lines. There were other verses, but they are no longer used because they are deemed to be politically incorrect, for example, one verse implies a claim on territories belonging to Russia and Poland.
10. In a Ukrainian museum there is a shoed flea. A craftsman called Myrola Syadristy took up a challenge to shoe a flea using half a poppy seed and human hair. You can see his work at the Kyiv museum of micro-miniature.

My Books

As well as this blog, I also write fiction and have published two novels (Death and Faxes and Glastonbury Swan) and a collection of short stories (Jigsaw). If you like ghost stories, crime stories, a bit of romance and anything slightly bizarre you might enjoy them. 

Further details on my books page