TERRITORY AND POPULATION OF UKRAINE" (1918) AS A FUNDAMENTAL GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF DR. MYRON KORDUBA
Authors: Rudenko Valeriy , Grek Kateryna 
Published: July 2021

The creative work of Dr. Myron Korduba (1876 - 1947) is revealed in his fundamental geographical research "Territory and population of Ukraine" (1918). The article covers the well-grounded and clearly defined by scientists the boundaries of the ethnographic territory of Ukraine as a whole, as a foundation for establishing the political boundaries of the future Ukrainian state.

 Only those counties (which are the primary territorial unit of assessment) where the proportion of Ukrainians exceeds 50% of the total population, or when the Ukryayans in these counties are quantitatively dominant, are the first among other nationalities, are referred to the "continuous Ukrainian ethnographic territory" by Dr. Myron Korduba.

The basis for determining the boundaries of "ethnographic Ukraine" by Dr. Myron Korduba was the materials of the all-Russian 1897 population census and a similar population census in Austria-Hungary in 1900.

In the ethnographic borders of Ukraine defined by scholars, almost 9/10 of the total territory accounted for "Russian Ukraine", about 8% - for "Austrian", less than 2% - for "Hungarian Ukraine".

The population of Ukraine within its ethnographic borders, according to Myron Korduba, in January 1914 amounted to more than 46 million souls, of which 86% lived within Tsarist Russia, about 13% - in "Austrian Ukraine", more than 1% - in "Hungarian Ukraine. ". The ethnic composition of the population of "ethnographic Ukraine": 71.0% - Ukrainians, 11.7% - Great Russians, 8.2% - Jews, 4.5% - Poles, 1.9% - Germans, 0.9% - Volokhs, 1.8% - other nationalities.

The most important result of Dr. Myron Korduba's geographical study is the definition of the northern, eastern, southern and western borders of the "continuous Ukrainian territory", the so-called "ethnographic borders of Ukraine".

In the north-west, scientists outline them as follows: Brest, Kobrin, Bielsk counties of Grodno province; in the north - Pinsk and the southern part of Mozyr district of Minsk province, then - northeast of Ovruch - the northern border of Kiev province to the Dnieper - then along the Dnieper to the north of its tributary Sozh and the basin of the river Snov.

The Great Russian-Ukrainian border stretched: from the upper Snov to the mouth of the Sudota River, which flows into the Desna, then - east along the administrative border between Chernihiv and Orel provinces, then - Ukrainian were Grayvoronsky, Novo-Oskolsky, Putivelsky and the southern part of Sudzhansky district of Kursk. province.

In the southern part of the Voronezh province - in Biryuchensky, Bogucharsky, Valuysky, Ostrogodsky and in the south of Pavlovsky counties Ukrainians "live in continuous masses…". Then the border ran along the watershed of the Potudan and Saena rivers to the Don, and in the Don Army Region Ukrainians predominated only in Rostov and Taganrog counties. Myron Korduba referred to the Kuban region, Blagodarensky and Svyatokhrestovsky districts of Stavropol as "continuous Ukrainian territory".

"Ethnographic Ukraine" in the south included Berdyansk, Melitopol and Dnieper counties of the Tavriya province, all counties of the Kherson province (except Odessa).

In Austria-Hungary, the Ukrainian-Wallachian border ran west from Novoselytsia near Chernivtsi to the Suceava-Zolota Bystritsa River.

In Hungary, the Ukrainian ethnographic territory included separate parts of the Maramarosky, Ugotsky, Berezky, Uzhsky, Zemplinsky, Sharyshsky, and Spysky counties.

The south-western and western wedges of the Ukrainian ethnic territory were located on the right bank of the Poprad - Hrybiv - Horlytsia - Zhmyhorod - Yasolky - Ivanych - Rymaniv - north of Sanok - upper Xiang - Dinov - stream Rokytnytsia - Sinyava - mouth of Zolota - north to the Russian-Galician .

Finally, in the northwest, in the newly formed Kholm province, Ukrainians constituted an absolute majority in Bielsko, Volodavsk, Hrubieszów, and Konstantinów, with an overwhelming majority in Kholm and Zamość counties.

Key words: Myron Korduba, ethnographic borders and population of Ukraine.