List of Ukrainian rulers

Scythian kings

Scythia was a loose state that originated as early as the 8th century BC. Little is known of them and their rulers. Most detailed description came down to us from Herodotus.

Kings of Cimmerian Bosporus

The shores of Crimea were settled by Greeks since the 7th century BC. The kingdom was established around 480 BC. It was ruled by three consecutive dynasties: Archaenactidae (480 BC – 438 BC), Spartocids (438 BC – 108 BC), and Pontids (108 BC – 16 BC). After Pontids the territory became a Roman client kingdom.

Pontids

Migration period (c. 200 – c. 800)

In Eastern Europe the The Great Migration Period kicked off with the descent of the Goths from the Baltic region into the territory of modern Ukraine, about AD 200. They either took over or assimilated with the local Slavic tribes. The Goths were in turn pushed out by aggressively encroaching Huns, about 375. The Goths went on to conquer Southern Europe and the Huns moved to the Balkans and created a Hunnic Empire which lasted for a hundred years. After splitting of the Empire, some of the Huns moved back north in the territories of modern Ukraine and formed Patria Onoguria, now known as Old Great Bulgaria. In the 7th century Onoguria largely defected to Khazaria – an expanding Turkic state centered in the North Caucuses which controlled the Eurasian steppe until the 9th century.

Gothic rulers

In 238, the Goths for the first time passed the Danube, and took to the Black Sea. The division of the Goths (Thervingi-Vesi and Greuthungi-Ostrogothi) is first attested in 291.

Tervingi

The Balti dynasty, Balth(e)s, Baltungs, or Balthings, existed among the Tervingi ("forest people"), called later the Visigothi. The names of the Drevlyans and the Gothic Tervingi in Ukraine have often been adduced as parallels to agac-ari ("forest men" in Turkic).

Greuthungi

The Amali dynasty, Amals, Amaler, or Amalings of the Greuthungi ("steppe dwellers" or "people of the pebbly coasts"), called later the Ostrogothi.

Hunnic rulers

Rulers of Patria Onoguria

According to Zakarius Rhetor and Priscus Rhetor, Patria Onoguria was a vulgar statelet in alliance with Byzantium established in 463 around Azov having been forced west upon the Akatziroi by the Sabirs who in turn were being attacked. Its 7th century period is commonly referred to as Old Great Bulgaria (~600–~690).

Khazar rulers

Khazar Khaganate controlled much of what is today southern and eastern Ukraine until the 10th century.

Rurik Dynasty

The Rurikids were descendants of Rurik (Hrørekr), a Varangian pagan konung or chieftain, who supposedly was of haplogroup N1c1, which is common among Finno-Ugric peoples and not so rare in Baltic region.

All the rulers of Kievan Rus' before the conversion of Vladimir I and all the country to Christianity are Pagan rulers, except Olga of Kiev.

Decline of Kievan Rus'

After the Council of Liubech in 1097 Kievan Rus' entered a feudal period and was divided into principalities ruled by the Rurikid family princes who were in a constant power struggle with each other. Major principalities were: Galicia-Volhynia, Kiev, Chernigiv, and Pereyaslavl. In the period of 1240–1362, the three latter ones were forced to accept the Golden Horde overlordship.

(Note: the adopted numbering for the three principalities follows individually the Kievan Rus'.)

  Principality of Kiev   Principality of Chernigov   Principality of Pereyaslavl

Kings and Princes of Galicia-Volhynia (1199–1349)

Galicia-Volhynia was a Ruthenian (Ukrainian) state in Galicia and Volhynia. Depending on the title of the ruler it was called either principality or kingdom. The first king, Coloman of Galicia-Lodomeria, was crowned in 1215, although the first nominal king of Galicia was Andrew II of Hungary, the son of Béla III of Hungary, who reigned from 1188 to 1190.

In 1349, Liubartas lost all territories, except for eastern Volhynia, to Casimir III of Poland. In 1366, a Polish-Lithuanian treaty was signed: eastern Volhynia with Lutsk retained under Liubartas' rule (the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), while Galicia, western Volhynia, and western Podolia were annexed by the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.

In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1362–1569) and Kingdom of Poland (1569–1667/1793)

Princes of Kiev

In early 1320s, a Lithuanian army led by Gediminas defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kiev at the Battle on the Irpen' River, and conquered the city. The Tatars, who also claimed Kiev, retaliated in 1324–1325, so while Kiev was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to pay a tribute to the Golden Horde. Finally, as a result of the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, Kiev and surrounding areas were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

Voivodes of Kiev

When the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the Union of Lublin in 1569, Kiev and surrounding areas, Podolia, Volhynia, and Podlaskie, as the Kiev Voivodeship, Bratslav Voivodeship, Volhynian Voivodeship, and Podlaskie Voivodeship, were transferred from Lithuania to Poland.

Crimean khans (1441–1783)

Crimean Tatars were not of the Ukrainian ethnos. Their Crimean Khanate ruled a large part of modern Ukraine, with a capital at Bakhchisaray.

Hetmans of Ukrainian Cossacks (1506–1775)

A Hetman was a military and civil leader, democratically elected by the Cossacks.

Hetmans and commanders of Ukrainian Cossacks

Several Cossack regiments were operating in Ukraine at this time that were largely independent of each other, so some of the Hetmans' tenures overlap.

Hetmans of the Cossack state

Following the Khmelnytsky uprising a new Cossack republic, the Hetmanate, was formed.

Hetmans during the Ruin

The Ruin (1660–1687) was a time in Ukrainian history when the country fell into disarray and chaos. Afterwards, the Cossack state emerged as a vassal of the Russian Empire. During this period a number of hetmans stayed in power for short periods of time and often controlled only parts of the country. Moreover, the Treaty of Andrusovo (1667) split the Cossack Hetmanate along the Dnieper River into Left-bank Ukraine, which enjoyed a degree of autonomy within the Tsardom of Russia; and Right-bank Ukraine which remained part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at times (1672–1699) occupied by the Ottoman Empire.

In the Russian Empire (1667/1793–1917) and Austria-Hungary (1526/1772–1918)

After the dissolution of the Cossack Hetmanate, a new Malorossiyan collegium was established in 1764, and the Zaporozhian Host was disbanded in 1775. As a result of the second and third Partitions of Poland in 1793 and 1795, eastern and central parts of Ukraine were incorporated directly into the Russian Empire. Western Ukraine was annexed into the Habsburg Monarchy earlier, in the following order: Carpathian Ruthenia (1526), Galicia (1772), and Bukovina (1775).

The Russian Empire existed until 1917, and the Dual Monarchy, Austria–Hungary, existed until 1918.

Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1921)

The Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR, 1917–1921) was formed after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and lasted until the Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Russia in March 1921. The leadership title varied and, despite a rather widespread misconception, none of them had the official title of president.

Chairmen of the Central Council

The Central Council (Tsentral’na rada) was the representative body governing the UNR.

  Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party

Hetman of the Ukrainian State

A very short lived Hetmanate was established by Pavlo Skoropadskyi in 1918.

Chairmen of the Directory

The Directorate of Ukraine was a provisional council of the UNR formed after Skoropadskyi's Hetmanate fell apart. On 22 January 1919, the Act of Unification of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic was passed. The text of the universal was made by the members of the Directory.

  Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party

West Ukrainian People's Republic (1918–1919)

The government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR) was proclaimed on 19 October 1918. WUNR was united with the Ukrainian People's Republic on 22 January 1919, although it was mostly a symbolic act while the western Ukrainians retained their own Ukrainian Galician Army and government structure. After the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919), Poland took over most of territory of the West Ukrainian People's Republic by July 1919. Since November 1919, the government of the WUNR was in exile.

President of the Ukrainian National Republic

  Ukrainian People's Labor Party

President of the Carpatho-Ukraine

  Christian People's Party

Prime Minister of the Ukrainian State

  Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1918/1919–1991)

Ukraine was incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on 30 December 1922.

Secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine

First Secretary of the Central Committee

Executive Secretary of the Central Committee

First Secretaries of the Communist Party

General Secretaries of the Central Committee

First Secretaries of the Central Committee

Ukraine (1991 – present)

On 5 July 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR passed a law establishing the post of the President of the Ukrainian SSR. The title was changed to the President of Ukraine upon the proclamation of independence (24 August 1991). The first election of the President of Ukraine was held on 1 December 1991.

Presidents

  Independent / Non-partisan   Our Ukraine   Party of Regions   Batkivshchyna   Petro Poroshenko Bloc / UDAR