Five days and 600km of the Dnieper River after leaving Odessa, we arrive in Kiev (or Kyiv to give the city its Ukrainian or is it its Russian name.....not sure if there’s a difference?). Counting the time we spend in port in Odessa and Kiev itself, by the time we disembark for the last time, the Viking Sineus was our floating hotel for 10 days. What we’ve seen is mostly “Russian Ukraine” - the more easterly part of the country, although even Odessa which seems to be every Ukrainian’s favourite city is predominantly Russian. Western Ukraine is apparently less Russian, although we’ll have to take “their word” for that. 

So Kiev comes as a bit of a surprise. The city started to come into its own in the 9th-11th Centuries - a trading centre with Constantinople for Vikings who had swept down from the north. The empire known as Kyvian Rus covered much of Eastern Europe and Kyiv itself was built up by its rulers using Constantinople as a model. Even today more than 1000 years later, evidence of Constantinople’s influence can still be seen in the form of St Sophia’s Cathedral (now a museum) which was built in the 11th Century to copy its eastern namesake. At one time, there was a dream to turn Kyiv into the third great Christian religious and political centre after Rome and Constantinople.

Descendants of one of the Viking clans which established Kyiv Rus split off in the 12th century and headed north eventually creating new centres in what are now Moscow & St Petersburg. The Mongols sacked Kyiv, the city shrank and went into a centuries-long decline. The country that is now Ukraine became a battle ground for Poles, Lithuanians, Swedes, Cossacks, Turk’s and Russians among others. The Russians finally won out and from the 18th Century onwards, Ukraine became part of the Russian and later Soviet Empires. By the start of the 20th Century, Kyiv was booming again and after Moscow & St Petersburg was the third city of the Empire. The city suffered badly under German occupation during WWII with hundreds of thousands killed including at the notorious Babi Yar ravine outside Kyiv where the Nazis murdered 100,000 people. After the war, the Soviets rebuilt the city creating many buildings in a style that locals call “Stalinka” or Stalin Baroque! Many of these buildings dominate the city centre today, the best examples being the monumental structure that is now Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the former headquarters of the KGB, now home to cabinet ministers’ offices.

It’s rumoured that Ukraine’s new president wants to convert the former Lenin Museum close to Maidan Square into his new office complex. The historical emotional attachment that Russia has to “where it all began” has never really faded which perhaps goes some way to explaining the pervasive Russian-ness of both Ukraine and its capital as well as Russia’s fondness for grabbing bits of Ukrainian territory....

During the Soviet era just about all of Kiev’s churches were destroyed, closed down or repurposed, the exception being Lavra, the Cave Monastery where some religious activity continued. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, religion has made quite a comeback in Kiev and the city’s impressive collection of churches have been or are still in the process of being restored. Kiev is very hilly and the skyline of the central area of the city is dominated by glittering gold domes and spires - hence one of the descriptors of Kiev being “Golden Dome City”. 

Coming back though to Kiev’s love/hate relationship with Russia, the skyline of the city centre is also dominated by the huge “Motherland” (Mother Russia) Statue, deliberately built by the Soviets to be taller than the Statue of Liberty. The only post-Soviet alteration to the statue was the chopping off of the tip of the statue’s sword to ensure that this would no longer be the tallest point in the city instead of one of the spires of the churches that make up the Cave Monastery complex!

The remnants of the Soviet era aside, the centre of Kiev is very attractive and appealing and many of the pre-Soviet buildings have been restored to their former glory (unlike for instance in Odessa). This is particularly so in the upper part of the city which locals like to compare to Montmartre. The area is full of boutiques, trendy bars and restaurants and high-end apartments. 

It’s Freedom Square - Maidan - in the lower section of Kiev that is the real centre of life in the city. The square is mostly bounded by Soviet-era buildings, one of which is now a very grand looking McDonalds, but this is where Ukraine’s recent revolutions have all started, been fought and mostly won - the early ‘90’s, 2004 (Orange Revolution) and 2013-14 (Maidan Revolution during which Ukraine’s pro-Russian president fled to the “motherland” and the country somewhat turned to the West). The Square is always crowded with hawkers, tourists and locals just hanging out. But undoubtedly if the new president doesn’t deliver or the Russians try once again to become too “friendly”, Maidan will once again become the centre of demonstrations and rebellion