title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: Demand for a remake grew following a PlayStation 3 tech demo at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, showcasing the opening of "Final Fantasy VII" with Square's new Crystal Tools engine. Further demand came during the game's impending tenth anniversary in 2007. On both occasions, Square denied that any remake was in development, for reasons including their focus on new games, the necessity to cut elements to make a remake manageable, the difficulty of developing for modern hardware, and the amount of development time it would require.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: The "Remake" project began when "Final Fantasy" producer Shinji Hashimoto broached the subject to Kitase, Nojima, and Nomura. All three were reaching a stage of life that they defined as "that age": all felt that if they waited much longer, they might not be alive to or would be too old to develop a remake, and passing the project on to a new generation did not feel right. Another reason for developing the remake was that Square Enix was creating a growing library of PlayStation 4 titles, and the team hoped to increase the console's popularity. Nomura was appointed as director much to his own surprise when it was decided to create the remake but he was busy with the making of the video game "Kingdom Hearts III" at that time.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: The game entered full production by late 2015, led by Business Division 1, an internal production team within Square Enix. While Nomura was involved with the project from the start, he only discovered he was the director after seeing himself credited in an internal company presentation video, as he had expected Kitase to fill the role. Nomura filled the role director for both "Final Fantasy VII Remake" and "Kingdom Hearts III" concurrently. Another project leader was Naoki Hamaguchi, who had previously served as a programmer for "" and project lead for "Mobius Final Fantasy". Square Enix approached developing "Remake" at the same level as a main numbered entry in the "Final Fantasy" series.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: While the team had the option of simply remastering "Final Fantasy VII" with better graphics as many fans had requested, they noted that its graphics and many of its mechanics had become dated by modern standards. With this in mind, they decided to do a full remake, rebuilding the game systems to suit contemporary tastes and using current gaming technology to recreate the world. An overarching goal of the project was to make the game feel both "new and nostalgic" for players of the original game while exemplifying the idea of "Final Fantasy VII" for new players. This decision led to the creation of "Remake" action-based battle system, which draws from that action-based style of "Dissidia Final Fantasy". Teruki Endo, who had previously worked on "Monster Hunter World", served as battle director. The team aimed to retain all of the gameplay mechanics popular in the original game, including Active Time Battle, while merging them with the action-based system.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: Rather than using the character models and graphical style of "Advent Children", which by that point had been developed using ten-year-old technology, the team decided to create new designs and models for characters: Nomura wished to balance the realism of "Advent Children" with cartoon stylization. Nomura was in charge of the revamped main character designs, while designer Roberto Ferrari was in charge of designs for secondary characters. Character modeling was supervised by Visual Works, Square Enix's CGI development branch. Cloud Strife's initial redesign for "Final Fantasy VII Remake" departed more dramatically from the original's, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's original concept. Tifa Lockhart's original appearance was changed to make her look more realistic as members from the staff realized her design would not fit fight scenes.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: Instead of creating a new engine, Square Enix licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 to develop the game, with Square Enix and Epic Games Japan working together to optimize the engine for "Remake". The team received technical assistance from the developers of "Kingdom Hearts III", as the latter game was developed using the same engine. The game's lighting is augmented with the lighting engine Enlighten. To help with the action gameplay and video quality, Square Enix originally partnered with video game developer CyberConnect2, with the two companies keeping in close contact due to different development styles.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: In 2017, the game's development focus shifted from being developed with external partners to being a primarily internal project. When the company first started the Remake project, the team had to decide the entire scope of the project. There were two directions possible: expand upon the original with multiple releases or include the entire scope of the original game in a single release. The team starts by investigating what were the essential parts of the original and what parts are what the fans absolutely had to see; they quickly decided that there were so many parts that are essential and the fans would be upset if the team had to cut out anything. A single release with more depth would not be possible without cutting out parts of the original story. In the end, the team decided the best option for the project was to go for the highest level possible (such as within the city of Midgar, which was mostly inaccessible in the original) with an expanded story in multiple releases. Each game is planned to be on a similar scale to "Final Fantasy XIII". The first part focuses on the city of Midgar due to its iconic status among the "Final Fantasy" community.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: Regarding the scope for the first part of the Remake, Nomura mentioned that many were worried about how the company would be able to make a whole game based solely on Midgar, but he didn't think it would be a problem. Nomura said it takes about 7 hours to go through the Midgar section in the original game. Going through the same gameplay in the Remake with 3D map in Midgar and new scenario, plus the time it takes to go from one point to another adds up. So the overall gameplay of the Remake would be well enough to cover a whole game. The story and scenario writer, Nojima, also added that stopping the game at the end of Midgar would also allow for an adequate amount of story scenarios to be put in as well. Nomura further added that level designs would have to change again after the party leaves Midgar. If the developers were to do that, they would also have to split up other scenarios and even if they add new gameplay, it would have to end in an abrupt point of the story. That’s why they felt that if they had everything focused in Midgar, they wouldn’t have to split up any of the story elements that happen there.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: While developing the scenario, the team needed to work carefully, so the game did not appear too nostalgic. They needed to make decisions about what could be carried over from the original and what needed adjustment due to changes in social norms since the original's release. Despite there already being a story in place, which greatly simplified production on some fronts, Nojima was brought back in to create new story material. The scenario for the first part was completed in December 2015, covering the beginning of the game to the escape from Midgar. Kitase observed that despite 23 years passing since the original game was released, the themes of economic inequality, corporate monopoly, and environmentalism were still relevant to the current day. Nomura expressed regret that other areas of Midgar, such as the upper plate, were inaccessible in the original game and wanted to address that in "Remake" in order to give players a better sense of the city and its culture. The roles of previously minor characters were also expanded for this purpose.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: Despite being marketed as a remake, the narrative has multiple changes from the original game, such as Barret being attacked by the antagonist Sephiroth and saved by a Whisper. Sephiroth appears during the Midgar scenario despite not being properly introduced until a flashback Cloud experiences. Vice noted that Cloud sees the future of Aerith in the original 1997 game, leaving her fate unknown to returning fans. Yoshinori Kitase refrained from explaining the reason for the changes from the narrative: "I want to let you know is that all of the lore from the works created after the original game, the ["Compilation of Final Fantasy VII"], that's all very much in the base of the canon for the remake, and going forward it will be too."


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: The main characters were adjusted in various ways for "Remake". Rather than the "cool and collected" Cloud as seen in other games, "Remake" depicts his apathetic attitude as a façade to mask his insecurities. Nojima wanted to convey that his standoffishness could be seen as lame. Cloud's initial redesign for "Remake" departed more dramatically from the original's, but was later altered to more closely resemble Nomura's design. Tifa's desire for revenge against Shinra is complicated by her reluctance to enact violence. Barret's passion and charisma rallies other characters to follow his lead. Nojima worked hard to make the interactions between these three natural. It was important to Hamaguchi to include a scene wherein Cloud has an intimate conversation with one of his teammates based on the player's choices in homage to the "date" scene from the original game. The development team avoided playing favorites between Tifa and Aerith, treating them both as main heroes. In addition to returning characters, the team decided to expand the role of minor characters and write new characters. Cloud's interactions with AVALANCHE members Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie further his character development and deepen the world of the story. Sephiroth was initially intended to be a looming presence, inspired by the shark in "Jaws", to mirror his role in this section of the original game. However, Kitase reasoned that the original's "Jaws"-like approach would be ineffective because even new players were too familiar with the character. Hamaguchi pitched an alternate ending in which Cloud faces off with Sephiroth, which led to him appearing more and more in the remake.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: The game is fully voiced, with the original plan being for the voice actors from the CGI film "" to reprise their roles. Ultimately, the English characters were recast for "Remake". According to Kitase, choosing a new generation of voices for the characters was part of the game's rebirth as "Remake". The Japanese voice actors remained the same with Takahiro Sakurai being surprised by this younger take on Cloud, having not played Cloud in the original unvoiced PlayStation video game. For the English dub, Cody Christian commented on replacing Steve Burton voicing Cloud, stating, "Steve, you paved the way. You made this character what it is and have contributed in shaping a legacy" and thus wanted to not let Burton down with his take on the character. John Eric Bentley voiced Barret, a character he admired when he played the 1997 game. He felt his familiarity with the original work improved his performance, aided by the translators who explained the context for his scenes. He wanted his portrayal of Barret to be multifaceted and serve as a positive example of Black representation in games. Briana White (Aerith) studied Maaya Sakamoto's acting in order to appeal to fans. Meanwhile, Britt Baron had little knowledge of Tifa when being cast but grew to like her character. Other prominent actors include Erica Lindbeck (Jessie), Gideon Emery (Biggs), and Matt Jones (Wedge). The game employs an algorithm to adjust characters' facial motions while speaking in order to automatically match lip syncing and emotion in every language.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: The game's soundtrack consists primarily of arrangements of pieces Nobuo Uematsu wrote for the original "Final Fantasy VII", with original tracks by several other series veterans, such as Masashi Hamauzu and Mitsuto Suzuki. Uematsu contributed one new track: the theme song for the game, "Hollow". It was the first time Uematsu and Kitase had worked together since "Final Fantasy X" (2001), with Kitase initially believing Uematsu would refuse as he had long since left Square Enix and found success as an independent composer. Nomura intended "Hollow" to reflect Cloud's state of mind; he wanted it to be a rock song with male vocals and an image of "rain". It was performed by Yosh, the vocalist for Survive Said the Prophet. Hamauzu also expressed honor in doing the music alongside Uematsu, as the original game was his first exposure to the series. Suzuki stated that the themes for Wall Market, Honeybee Inn, and Midgar Highway were among his favorite contributions.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: "Remake" employs adaptive music in its gameplay wherein multiple arrangements of a particular track are played simultaneously, which fade in and out with the player's actions, such as entering or exiting a battle. Arrangements also shift within a battle depending on the emotions the developers wanted players to experience from moment to moment. Because cutscenes in "Remake" have voiced dialogue, the sound team needed to rearrange some tracks to accommodate this change but they were careful to preserve the original melodies.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: Following years of rumors and fan requests, "Final Fantasy VII Remake" was announced during Sony's conference at E3 2015. Visual Works created the announcement trailer. Square Enix's stock prices rose to their highest rating since November 2008, and the YouTube release of the reveal trailer garnered over 10 million views in the following two weeks. The game was next showcased at the 2015 PlayStation Experience, demonstrating cutscenes and gameplay from the opening sequence.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: During the "Final Fantasy" 30th anniversary opening ceremony event hosted by Square Enix in Tokyo on January 31, 2017 – the 20th anniversary of "Final Fantasy VII" — the game's first piece of CGI key art was unveiled, along with announcements for a collaboration event with "Mobius Final Fantasy". On February 18, Nomura revealed two screenshots, showing off the updated HUD. Due to its lack of footage since 2015, switch to internal development, and other projects Nomura was involved in, there were concerns about the status of the project. Speaking following E3 2018, Nomura stated that the game was in development, with his full attention shifted to it when "Kingdom Hearts III" was completed.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: After years without substantial footage, a teaser trailer was shown during PlayStation's May 2019 State of Play broadcast. Kitase announced that the team had wanted to "try something new" on the State of Play broadcast by showing the trailer. The release date, March 3, 2020, was revealed the following month in a second teaser trailer during an orchestral concert dedicated to the music of "Final Fantasy VII" in Los Angeles. Further release details were announced at the company's E3 2019 press conference, including different editions of "Remake". Kitase later clarified at the event that Square Enix had yet to determine the number of games in the "Remake" series, adding that they were in the process of planning the second installment.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: An extended gameplay showcase and demo was playable at E3 2019, demonstrating parts of the opening mission, including some of the exploration, combat system, and first boss battle. The playable demo received positive reception in early previews, with praise towards the graphics, gameplay and combat system. At E3 2019, it won three awards at the Game Critics Awards for Best of Show, Best Console Game, and Best Role-Playing Game, as well as the best looking Unreal Engine game at E3 2019. Extended footage of the demo, as well as an additional trailer, was featured at the 2019 Tokyo Game Show. In December 2019, it was announced that the game would be a timed PlayStation 4 exclusive until 2021, with no further details about its release on other platforms. In January 2020, the team decided to push the release date back from March 3 to April 10, 2020. A demo was released on the PlayStation Store on March 2, 2020, covering the first chapter.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: On March 30, 2020, Square Enix announced that Europe and Australia would receive physical copies of "Final Fantasy VII Remake" early, due to growing concerns of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on distribution. This did not apply to downloads, as they were not directly affected by the global supply chain. Artwork of Cloud was used on buildings in Los Angeles to promote the game.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: In June 2020, a scene from "Final Fantasy VII Remake" was reproduced for the 8-bit NEC PC-88 computer by Japanese programmer Soba P.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: On February 25, 2021, as part of Sony's State of Play stream, Square Enix announced an upgraded version of "Remake" for the PlayStation 5 titled "Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade", including improved visuals and shorter load times, to be available at no additional cost to owners of the PS4 version. Also announced was a PS5-exclusive expansion titled "Episode Intermission" featuring the playable character Yuffie Kisaragi, who does not appear in the Midgar segment of the original game. The expansion is included with the purchase of "Intergrade", but must be purchased separately if using the free upgrade from the PS4 version. "Intergrade" adds the ability to use traditional turn-based controls while in the game's normal difficulty mode, a photo mode, and better overall performance in framerate and resolution; it was released on June 10, 2021.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: In May 2021, news outlets reported that Square Enix was in the midst of making a "Final Fantasy VII" anime series in partnership with Netflix. No release date was mentioned in the reports.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: At The Game Awards 2021, Square Enix announced that a port of "Intergrade" would be released for Windows on December 16, 2021, via the Epic Games Store. While anticipation was high, the port was heavily criticised by players and critics alike due to lacklustre setting customisation and severe stuttering, both stemming from a lack of optimisation. It was released on Steam on June 17, 2022.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: In June 2022, Square Enix announced that "Remake" was the first in a planned trilogy of games remaking "Final Fantasy VII"; the second part, "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth", is planned for late 2023 or early 2024. Also announced was "", a remaster of "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII", which was released in December 2022; it is considered a prequel to the larger "Final Fantasy VII Remake" project.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: "Final Fantasy VII Remake" received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic, with critics praising its faithfulness to the original game. Tamoor Hussain of "GameSpot" states that, while "Remake" is only the initial entry in a full reimagining of the original game, "It is rich in details that were previously unexplored, realizes new storytelling ambitions with confidence, and presents fresh perspectives that feel both meaningful and essential." To summarize, he says it "tells a smaller, more personal "Final Fantasy 7" tale and marries it with a smart mashup of action and RPG gameplay to deliver a must-play experience." Tom Marks of "IGN" calls the game a "complete reinvention", praising the combat system. Nahila Bonfiglio of "The Daily Dot" regarded it as one of the best games of 2020 based on multiple aspects that would appeal to the audience. "EGM" claimed the game was captivating like the original. "Eurogamer" also highly regarded the remake, to the point of finding it superior to the original title.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: The narrative was praised for the characters and their arcs. "IGN" called its "story fleshed out with real emotional arcs", praising its nostalgic feel, but criticized the game for having "filler" and sometimes convoluted new plot points and side missions. The reviewer stated that ""Final Fantasy VII Remake"s dull filler and convoluted additions can cause it to stumble, but it still breathes exciting new life into a classic while standing as a great RPG all its own." "Shacknews" stated the story in the remake is one of the strongest ever achieved by the company. Despite noting his antisocial attitudes in the remake, "IGN" and "GameSpot" commented that Cloud has the most notable arc in "Remake", with Cody Christian's performance helping to improve his appeal. His interactions with the cast and the expansion of the minor characters in Avalanche was also well received by Easy Allies. The idea that there are four characters with Sephiroth's name led "VG247" to note the remake still had its own mysteries that even players of the original would not know. "Destructoid" agreed about the cast, most notably Aerith, noting her fun characterization. The handling of the city of Midgar was praised by "Game Informer" due to the presence of the company of Shinra and the poor status of civilians, while expanding on the lore of the original game. "EGMNOW" praised the themes of ecoterrorism and war and the prominent role Midgar played in the storyline, while also exploring Avalanche's minor characters. The reviewer also felt the antagonist, Sephiroth, was more menacing in "Remake", due to his constant threats towards Cloud. "Eurogamer" noted the new narrative elements of the title, but was uncertain whether these changes would be for better or worse.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: Critical response to the combat has been positive, partly due to the strategy needed and the distinctive fighting style of each playable character, such as Cloud wielding a sword, in contrast to Barret's shooting from afar. "Destructoid" also praised the gameplay for using a new system, rather than relying on nostalgia mechanics. "GameSpot" praised the evolution of the gameplay features from the 1997 original by the addition of new elements. "GamesRadar" also praised the combat for the strategy required, due to each enemy having a weakness, and the variety among the characters thanks to their unique traits. RPGamer praised both the return of Materia used to provide magic attacks and the addition of upgradeable weapons in order to let players decide which equipment they want to use. "RPGamer" felt that "Remake" relied on "padding" to expand on the areas of the game, which they considered linear for the genre. "Game Informer" agreed, as although Cloud is initially the only playable character, Tifa can also be controlled and execute her own techniques. They also praised the balance between strategy and style.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: "GamesRadar" criticized some of the sidequests in the game as lackluster. While noting the linearity of Midgar, "Game Informer" praised the fact that the players can interact with citizens. "EGM" claimed that some quests had too much padding, citing an example where the player has to constantly change the playable character to open multiple doors in the Shinra headquarters. "Easy Allies" said that despite the linear gameplay, the reviewers finished the game in 38 hours, and still had plenty of quests left to complete. "Shacknews" said that despite the linear nature of the game, he appreciated the warnings the game gives to the players when they are about to irrevocably move on with the main quest, allowing them to still complete sidequests instead. "The Daily Dot" praised "the exquisite level design with seamless mechanics, addicting gameplay and rousing battles".


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: "Final Fantasy VII Remake" sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide within three days. This made it one of the biggest launches for a PlayStation4 game and the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive, surpassing the launch sales of "Marvel's Spider-Man" (3.3million; 2018) and "God of War" (3.1million; 2018). By August 2020, that figure had increased to over on PS4.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: In Japan, "Final Fantasy VII Remake" sold over a million copies during its first week, with the game sold out in many stores.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: In North America, "Remake" was the top-selling game of April 2020 and the third best-selling game of 2020, behind "" (2019) and "" (2020). It became the fastest-selling "Final Fantasy" title in the franchise's history, surpassing the launch record previously set by "Final Fantasy XV" (2016), and was the most downloaded PlayStation 4 game of April 2020 in the United States.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: In the United Kingdom, the game debuted at the top of the weekly sales chart, selling an estimated 60,000 physical copies in its first weekend. German trade association announced that it took "Final Fantasy VII Remake" only a few days to sell more than 100,000 units within Germany, for which it won a Gold Sales Award. It was the fourth most downloaded PlayStation 4 game of April 2020 in Europe.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: "Final Fantasy VII Remake" won the overall "Game of Show award" from E3 2019. After its release, the game also won the Editors’ Choice awards from PlayStation. In the CEDEC Awards, the game won in the "Excellency Award for Sound" category. It was later nominated for six awards at The Game Awards, including Game of the Year. It won in the two categories "Best RPG" and "Best Score/Music". It also won IGN Japan's Game of the Year in 2020. Both "Anime News Network" and "Siliconera" and "RPG Site" also listed it as one of the best games from its year.


title: Final Fantasy VII Remake

text: "Final Fantasy VII Remake" also won the "Soundtrack Album of the Year" award at the 35th Japan Gold Disc Award, and the "Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (, ; ), abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, or UkSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. In the anthem of the Ukrainian SSR, it was referred to simply as "Ukraine". Under the Soviet one-party model, the Ukrainian SSR was governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through its republican branch: the Communist Party of Ukraine.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The first iterations of the Ukrainian SSR were established during the Russian Revolution, particularly after the Bolshevik Revolution. The outbreak of the Soviet–Ukrainian War in the former Russian Empire saw the Bolsheviks defeat the independent Ukrainian People's Republic, after which they founded the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets as a republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in December 1917; it was later succeeded by the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1918, also under the Russian SFSR. Simultaneously with the Russian Civil War, the Ukrainian War of Independence was being fought among the different Ukrainian republics founded by Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, and Ukrainian Bolsheviks—with either help or opposition from neighbouring states. As a Soviet quasi-state, the newly-established Ukrainian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations alongside the Byelorussian SSR, in spite of the fact that they were legally represented by the All-Union in foreign affairs. In 1922, it was one of four Soviet republics (with the Russian SFSR, the Byelorussian SSR, and the Transcaucasian SFSR) that signed the Treaty on the Creation of the Soviet Union. Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ukrainian SSR emerged as the present-day independent state of Ukraine, although the Soviet constitution remained in use throughout the country until the adoption of the Ukrainian constitution in June 1996.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Throughout its 72-year history, the republic's borders changed many times, with a significant portion of what is now western Ukraine having been annexed from eastern Poland in 1939, with significant portions of Romania in 1940, alongside another addition of territory in 1945 from Carpathian Ruthenia in Czechoslovakia. From the 1919 establishment of the Ukrainian SSR until 1934, the city of Kharkov served as its capital; however, the republic's seat of government was subsequently relocated in 1934 to the city of Kiev, the historic Ukrainian capital, and remained at Kiev for the remainder of its existence.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe, to the north of the Black Sea, and was bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia, Byelorussia, and Russia, and the countries of Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The republic's border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Union's westernmost border point. According to the 1989 Soviet census, the republic of Ukraine had a population of 51,706,746, which fell sharply after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Its original name in 1919 was Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic (, abbreviated ). After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second ("socialist") and third ("sovietskaya" in Russian or "radianska" in Ukrainian) words. In accordance, on 5 December 1936, the 8th Extraordinary Congress Soviets in Soviet Union changed the name of the republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was ratified by the 14th Extraordinary Congress of Soviets in Ukrainian SSR on 31 January 1937.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The name "Ukraine" () is a subject of debate. It is often perceived as being derived from the Slavic word "okraina", meaning "border land". It was first used to define part of the territory of Kievan Rus' (Ruthenia) in the 12th century, at which point Kiev was the capital of Rus'. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century. For example, Zaporozhian Cossacks called their hetmanate "Ukraine".


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the name carried unofficial status for larger part of Kiev Voivodeship.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: ""The" Ukraine" used to be the usual form in English, despite Ukrainian not having a definite article. Since the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, this form has become less common in the English-speaking world, and style-guides warn against its use in professional writing. According to U.S. ambassador William Taylor, "The Ukraine" now implies disregard for the country's sovereignty. The Ukrainian position is that the usage of "'The Ukraine' is incorrect both grammatically and politically."


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of civil war from 1917 to 1923 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters and opponents. The two most prominent of them were a government in Kiev called the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) and a government in Kharkov called the Ukrainian Soviet Republic (USR). The Kiev-based UNR was internationally recognized and supported by the Central powers following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, whereas the Kharkov-based USR was solely supported by the Soviet Russian forces, while neither the UNR nor the USR were supported by the White Russian forces that remained.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The conflict between the two competing governments, known as the Ukrainian–Soviet War, was part of the ongoing Russian Civil War, as well as a struggle for national independence, which ended with the territory of pro-independence Ukrainian People's Republic being annexed into a new Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, western Ukraine being annexed into the Second Polish Republic, and the newly stable Ukraine becoming a founding member of the Soviet Union.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The government of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917. In its publications, it named itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies or the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets. The 1917 republic was only recognised by another non-recognised country, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. With the signing of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, it was ultimately defeated by mid-1918 and eventually dissolved. The last session of the government took place in the city of Taganrog.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In July 1918, the former members of the government formed the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine, the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow. With the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, Bolshevik Russia resumed its hostilities towards the Ukrainian People's Republic fighting for Ukrainian independence and organised another Soviet government in Kursk, Russia. On 10 March 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine (conducted 6–10 March 1919) the name of the state was changed to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, alternately cooperating and struggling against each other. Numerous more or less socialist-oriented factions participated in the formation of the Ukrainian People's Republic among which were Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Socialists-Revolutionaries, and many others. The most popular faction was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd, Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik uprising to support the Revolution and secure Kiev. Due to a lack of adequate support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, however, the Kiev Bolshevik group split. Most moved to Kharkov and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities and industrial centers. Later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the People's Commissars (Yevgenia Bosch). They issued an ultimatum to the Central Rada on 17 December to recognise the Soviet government of which the Rada was very critical. The Bolsheviks convened a separate congress and declared the first Soviet Republic of Ukraine on 24 December 1917 claiming the Central Rada and its supporters outlaws that need to be eradicated. Warfare ensued against the Ukrainian People's Republic for the installation of the Soviet regime in the country and with the direct support from Soviet Russia the Ukrainian National forces were practically overrun. The government of Ukraine appealed to foreign capitalists, finding support in the face of the Central Powers as the others refused to recognise it. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Russian SFSR yielded all the captured Ukrainian territory as the Bolsheviks were forced out of Ukraine. The government of Soviet Ukraine was dissolved after its last session on 20 November 1918.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After re-taking Kharkov in February 1919, a second Soviet Ukrainian government was formed. The government enforced Russian policies that did not adhere to local needs. A group of three thousand workers were dispatched from Russia to take grain from local farms to feed Russian cities and were met with resistance. The Ukrainian language was also censured from administrative and educational use. Eventually fighting both White forces in the east and republic forces in the west, Lenin ordered the liquidation of the second Soviet Ukrainian government in August 1919.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Eventually, after the creation of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine in Moscow, a third Ukrainian Soviet government was formed on 21 December 1919 that initiated new hostilities against Ukrainian nationalists as they lost their military support from the defeated Central Powers. Eventually, the Red Army ended up controlling much of the Ukrainian territory after the Polish-Soviet Peace of Riga. On 30 December 1922, along with the Russian, Byelorussian, and Transcaucasian republics, the Ukrainian SSR was one of the founding members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: During the 1920s, a policy of so-called Ukrainization was pursued in the Ukrainian SSR, as part of the general Soviet korenization policy; this involved promoting the use and the social status of the Ukrainian language and the elevation of ethnic Ukrainians to leadership positions (see "Ukrainization - early years of Soviet Ukraine" for more details).


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In 1932, the aggressive agricultural policies of Joseph Stalin's regime resulted in one of the largest national catastrophes in the modern history for the Ukrainian nation. A famine known as the Holodomor caused a direct loss of human life estimated between 2.6 million to 10 million. Some scholars and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians assert that this was an act of genocide. The International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–1933 Famine in Ukraine found no evidence that the famine was part of a preconceived plan to starve Ukrainians, and concluded in 1990 that the famine was caused by a combination of factors, including Soviet policies of compulsory grain requisitions, forced collectivization, dekulakization, and Russification. The General Assembly of the UN has stopped shy of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, calling it a "great tragedy" as a compromise between tense positions of United Kingdom, United States, Russia, and Ukraine on the matter, while many nations went on individually to accepted it as such.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland and occupied Galician lands inhabited by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews adding it to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region, lands inhabited by Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Bulgarians and Gagauz, adding them to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR and the newly formed Moldavian SSR. In 1945, these lands were permanently annexed, and the Transcarpathia region was added as well, by treaty with the post-war administration of Czechoslovakia. Following eastward Soviet retreat in 1941, Ufa became the wartime seat of the Soviet Ukrainian government.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: While World War II (called the Great Patriotic War by the Soviet government) did not end before May 1945, the Germans were driven out of Ukraine between February 1943 and October 1944. The first task of the Soviet authorities was to reestablish political control over the republic which had been entirely lost during the war. This was an immense task, considering the widespread human and material losses. During World War II the Soviet Union lost about 8.6 million combatants and around 18 million civilians, of these, 6.8 million were Ukrainian civilians and military personnel. Also, an estimated 3.9 million Ukrainians were evacuated to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic during the war, and 2.2 million Ukrainians were sent to forced labour camps by the Germans.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The material devastation was huge; Adolf Hitler's orders to create "a zone of annihilation" in 1943, coupled with the Soviet military's scorched-earth policy in 1941, meant Ukraine lay in ruins. These two policies led to the destruction of 28 thousand villages and 714 cities and towns. 85 percent of Kiev's city centre was destroyed, as was 70 percent of the city centre of the second-largest city in Ukraine, Kharkov. Because of this, 19 million people were left homeless after the war. The republic's industrial base, as so much else, was destroyed. The Soviet government had managed to evacuate 544 industrial enterprises between July and November 1941, but the rapid German advance led to the destruction or the partial destruction of 16,150 enterprises. 27,910 thousand collective farms, 1,300 machine tractor stations and 872 state farms were destroyed by the Germans.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: While the war brought to Ukraine an enormous physical destruction, victory also led to territorial expansion. As a victor, the Soviet Union gained new prestige and more land. The Ukrainian border was expanded to the Curzon Line. Ukraine was also expanded southwards, near the area Izmail, previously part of Romania. An agreement was signed by the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia whereby Carpathian Ruthenia was handed over to Ukraine. The territory of Ukraine expanded by and increased its population by an estimated 11 million.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: After World War II, amendments to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR were accepted, which allowed it to act as a separate subject of international law in some cases and to a certain extent, remaining a part of the Soviet Union at the same time. In particular, these amendments allowed the Ukrainian SSR to become one of the founding members of the United Nations (UN) together with the Soviet Union and the Byelorussian SSR. This was part of a deal with the United States to ensure a degree of balance in the General Assembly, which, the USSR opined, was unbalanced in favor of the Western Bloc. In its capacity as a member of the UN, the Ukrainian SSR was an elected member of the United Nations Security Council in 1948–1949 and 1984–1985.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: When Stalin died on 5 March 1953 the collective leadership of Khrushchev, Georgy Malenkov, Vyacheslav Molotov and Lavrentiy Beria took power and a period of de-Stalinization began. Change came as early as 1953, when officials were allowed to criticise Stalin's policy of russification. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) openly criticised Stalin's russification policies in a meeting in June 1953. On 4 June 1953, Oleksii Kyrychenko succeeded Leonid Melnikov as First Secretary of the CPU; this was significant since Kyrychenko was the first ethnic Ukrainian to lead the CPU since the 1920s. The policy of de-Stalinization took two main features, that of centralisation and decentralisation from the centre. In February 1954 the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) transferred Crimea to Ukraine from the Russians; even if only 22 percent of the Crimean population were ethnic Ukrainian. 1954 also witnessed the massive state-organised celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Union Russia and Ukraine also known as the Pereyaslav Council (); the treaty which brought Ukraine under Russian rule three centuries before. The event was celebrated to prove the old and brotherly love between Ukrainians and Russians, and proof of the Soviet Union as a "family of nations"; it was also another way of legitimising Marxism–Leninism. On 23 June 1954, the civilian oil tanker "Tuapse" of the Black Sea Shipping Company based in Odessa was hijacked by a fleet of Republic of China Navy in the high sea of "19°35′N, 120°39′E", west of Balintang Channel near Philippines, whereas the 49 Ukrainian, Russian and Moldovan crew were detained by the Kuomintang regime in various terms up to 34 years in captivity with 3 deaths.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The "Thaw"the policy of deliberate liberalisationwas characterised by four points: amnesty for all those convicted of state crime during the war or the immediate post-war years; amnesties for one-third of those convicted of state crime during Stalin's rule; the establishment of the first Ukrainian mission to the United Nations in 1958; and the steady increase of Ukrainians in the rank of the CPU and government of the Ukrainian SSR. Not only were the majority of CPU Central Committee and Politburo members ethnic Ukrainians, three-quarters of the highest ranking party and state officials were ethnic Ukrainians too. The policy of partial Ukrainisation also led to a cultural thaw within Ukraine.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In October 1964, Khrushchev was deposed by a joint Central Committee and Politburo plenum and succeeded by another collective leadership, this time led by Leonid Brezhnev, born in Ukraine, as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Brezhnev's rule would be marked by social and economic stagnation, a period often referred to as the Era of Stagnation. The new regime introduced the policy of "rastsvet", "sblizhenie" and "sliianie" ("flowering", "drawing together" and "merging"/"fusion"), which was the policy of uniting the different Soviet nationalities into one Soviet nationality by merging the best elements of each nationality into the new one. This policy turned out to be, in fact, the reintroduction of the russification policy. The reintroduction of this policy can be explained by Khrushchev's promise of communism in 20 years; the unification of Soviet nationalities would take place, according to Vladimir Lenin, when the Soviet Union reached the final stage of communism, also the final stage of human development. Some all-Union Soviet officials were calling for the abolition of the "pseudosovereign" Soviet republics, and the establishment of one nationality. Instead of introducing the ideologic concept of the "Soviet Nation", Brezhnev at the 24th Party Congress talked about "a new historical community of people – the Soviet people", and introduced the ideological tenant of Developed socialism, which postponed communism. When Brezhnev died in 1982, his position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was succeeded by Yuri Andropov, who died quickly after taking power. Andropov was succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko, who ruled for little more than a year. Chernenko was succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Gorbachev's policies of "perestroika" and "glasnost" (English: "restructuring" and "openness") failed to reach Ukraine as early as other Soviet republics because of Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, a conservative communist appointed by Brezhnev and the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, who resigned from his post in 1989. The Chernobyl disaster of 1986, the russification policies, and the apparent social and economic stagnation led several Ukrainians to oppose Soviet rule. Gorbachev's policy of "perestroika" was also never introduced into practice, 95 percent of industry and agriculture was still owned by the Soviet state in 1990. The talk of reform, but the lack of introducing reform into practice, led to confusion which in turn evolved into opposition to the Soviet state itself. The policy of "glasnost", which ended state censorship, led the Ukrainian diaspora to reconnect with their compatriots in Ukraine, the revitalisation of religious practices by destroying the monopoly of the Russian Orthodox Church and led to the establishment of several opposition pamphlets, journals and newspapers.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Following the failed August Coup in Moscow on 19–21 August 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine declared independence on 24 August 1991, which renamed the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to Ukraine. The result of the 1991 independence referendum held on 1 December 1991 proved to be a surprise. An overwhelming majority, 92.3%, voted for independence. The referendum carried in the majority of all oblasts. Notably, the Crimea, which had originally been a territory of the RSFSR until 1954, supported the referendum by a 54 percent majority. Over 80 percent of the population of Eastern Ukraine voted for independence. Ukraine's independence was almost immediately recognized by the international community. Ukraine's new-found independence was the first time in the 20th century that Ukrainian independence had been attempted without either foreign intervention or civil war. In the 1991 Ukrainian presidential election 62 percent of Ukrainians voted for Leonid Kravchuk, who had been vested with presidential powers since the Supreme Soviet's declaration of independence. The secession of the second most powerful republic in the Soviet Union ended any realistic chance of the Soviet Union staying together even on a limited scale.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: A week after Kravchuk's victory, on 8 December, he and his Russian and Belarusian counterparts signed the Belovezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had effectively ceased to exist and forming the Commonwealth of Independent States as a replacement. They were joined by eight of the remaining 12 republics (all except Georgia) on 21 December in signing the Alma-Ata Protocol, which reiterated that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Soviet Union formally dissolved on 26 December.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Ukrainian SSR's system of government was based on a one-party communist system ruled by the Communist Party of Ukraine, a branch of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (KPSS). The republic was one of 15 constituent republics composing the Soviet Union from its entry into the union in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. All of the political power and authority in the USSR was in the hands of Communist Party authorities, with little real power being concentrated in official government bodies and organs. In such a system, lower-level authorities directly reported to higher level authorities and so on, with the bulk of the power being held at the highest echelons of the Communist Party.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Originally, the legislative authority was vested in the Congress of Soviets of Ukraine, whose Central Executive Committee was for many years headed by Grigoriy Petrovsky. Soon after publishing a Stalinist constitution, the Congress of Soviets was transformed into the Supreme Soviet (and the Central Executive Committee into its Presidium), which consisted of 450 deputies. The Supreme Soviet had the authority to enact legislation, amend the constitution, adopt new administrative and territorial boundaries, adopt the budget, and establish political and economic development plans. In addition, parliament also had to authority to elect the republic's executive branch, the Council of Ministers as well as the power to appoint judges to the Supreme Court. Legislative sessions were short and were conducted for only a few weeks out of the year. In spite of this, the Supreme Soviet elected the Presidium, the Chairman, 3 deputy chairmen, a secretary, and couple of other government members to carry out the official functions and duties in between legislative sessions. Chairman of the Presidium was a powerful position in the republic's higher echelons of power, and could nominally be considered the equivalent of head of state, although most executive authority would be concentrated in the Communist Party's politburo and its First Secretary.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Full universal suffrage was granted for all eligible citizens aged 18 and over, excluding prisoners and those deprived of freedom. Although they could not be considered free and were of a symbolic nature, elections to the Supreme Soviet were contested every five years. Nominees from electoral districts from around the republic, typically consisting of an average of 110,000 inhabitants, were directly chosen by party authorities, providing little opportunity for political change, since all political authority was directly subordinate to the higher level above it.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: With the beginning of Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's "perestroika" reforms towards the mid-late 1980s, electoral reform laws were passed in 1989, liberalising the nominating procedures and allowing multiple candidates to stand for election in a district. Accordingly, the first relatively free elections in the Ukrainian SSR were contested in March 1990. 111 deputies from the Democratic Bloc, a loose association of small pro-Ukrainian and pro-sovereignty parties and the instrumental People's Movement of Ukraine (colloquially known as "Rukh" in Ukrainian) were elected to the parliament. Although the Communist Party retained its majority with 331 deputies, large support for the Democratic Bloc demonstrated the people's distrust of the Communist authorities, which would eventually boil down to Ukrainian independence in 1991.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Ukraine is the legal successor of the Ukrainian SSR and it stated to fulfill "those rights and duties pursuant to international agreements of Union SSR which do not contradict the Constitution of Ukraine and interests of the Republic" on 5 October 1991. After Ukrainian independence the Ukrainian SSR's parliament was changed from "Supreme Soviet" to its current name Verkhovna Rada, the Verkhovna Rada is still Ukraine's parliament. Ukraine also has refused to recognize exclusive Russian claims to succession of the Soviet Union and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which was stated in Articles 7 and 8 of On Legal Succession of Ukraine, issued in 1991. Following independence, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against the Russian Federation in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was owned by the Soviet Union. It also retained its seat in the United Nations, held since 1945.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: On the international front, the Ukrainian SSR, along with the rest of the 15 republics, had virtually no say in their own foreign affairs. It is, however, important to note that in 1944 the Ukrainian SSR was permitted to establish bilateral relations with countries and maintain its own standing army. This clause was used to permit the republic's membership in the United Nations, alongside the Belorussian SSR. Accordingly, representatives from the "Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" and 50 other nations founded the UN on 24 October 1945. In effect, this provided the Soviet Union (a permanent Security Council member with veto powers) with another two votes in the General Assembly. The latter aspect of the 1944 clauses, however, was never fulfilled and the republic's defense matters were managed by the Soviet Armed Forces and the Defense Ministry. Another right that was granted but never used until 1991 was the right of the Soviet republics to secede from the union, which was codified in each of the Soviet constitutions. Accordingly, Article 69 of the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR stated: "The Ukrainian SSR retains the right to willfully secede from the USSR." However, a republic's theoretical secession from the union was virtually impossible and unrealistic in many ways until after Gorbachev's perestroika reforms.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The Ukrainian SSR was a member of the UN Economic and Social Council, UNICEF, International Labour Organization, Universal Postal Union, World Health Organization, UNESCO, International Telecommunication Union, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency. It was not separately a member of the Warsaw Pact, Comecon, the World Federation of Trade Unions and the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and since 1949, the International Olympic Committee.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Legally, the Soviet Union and its fifteen union republics constituted a federal system, but the country was functionally a highly centralised state, with all major decision-making taking place in the Kremlin, the capital and seat of government of the country. The constituent republic were essentially unitary states, with lower levels of power being directly subordinate to higher ones. Throughout its 72-year existence, the administrative divisions of the Ukrainian SSR changed numerous times, often incorporating regional reorganisation and annexation on the part of Soviet authorities during World War II.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The most common administrative division was the oblast (province), of which there were 25 upon the republic's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Provinces were further subdivided into raions (districts) which numbered 490. The rest of the administrative division within the provinces consisted of cities, urban-type settlements, and villages. Cities in the Ukrainian SSR were a separate exception, which could either be subordinate to either the provincial authorities themselves or the district authorities of which they were the administrative center. Two cities, the capital Kiev, and Sevastopol in Crimea, treated separately because it housed an underground nuclear submarine base, were designated "cities with special status." This meant that they were directly subordinate to the central Ukrainian SSR authorities and not the provincial authorities surrounding them.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: However, the history of administrative divisions in the republic was not so clear cut. At the end of World War I in 1918, Ukraine was invaded by Soviet Russia as the Russian puppet government of the Ukrainian SSR and without official declaration it ignited the Ukrainian–Soviet War. Government of the Ukrainian SSR from very start was managed by the Communist Party of Ukraine that was created in Moscow and was originally formed out of the Bolshevik organisational centers in Ukraine. Occupying the eastern city of Kharkov, the Soviet forces chose it as the republic's seat of government, colloquially named in the media as "Kharkov – Pervaya Stolitsa (the first capital)" with implication to the era of Soviet regime. Kharkov was also the city where the first Soviet Ukrainian government was created in 1917 with strong support from Russian SFSR authorities. However, in 1934, the capital was moved from Kharkov to Kiev, which remains the capital of Ukraine today.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: During the 1930s, there were significant numbers of ethnic minorities living within the Ukrainian SSR. National Districts were formed as separate territorial-administrative units within higher-level provincial authorities. Districts were established for the republic's three largest minority groups, which were the Jews, Russians, and Poles. Other ethnic groups, however, were allowed to petition the government for their own national autonomy. In 1924 on the territory of Ukrainian SSR was formed the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Upon the 1940 conquest of Bessarabia and Bukovina by Soviet troops the Moldavian ASSR was passed to the newly formed Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, while Budzhak and Bukovina were secured by the Ukrainian SSR. Following the creation of the Ukrainian SSR significant numbers of ethnic Ukrainians found themselves living outside the Ukrainian SSR. In 1920s the Ukrainian SSR was forced to cede several territories to Russia in Severia, Sloboda Ukraine and Azov littoral including such cities like Belgorod, Taganrog and Starodub. In the 1920s the administration of the Ukrainian SSR insisted in vain on reviewing the border between the Ukrainian Soviet Republics and the Russian Soviet Republic based on the 1926 First All-Union Census of the Soviet Union that showed that 4.5 millions of Ukrainians were living on Russian territories bordering Ukraine. A forced end to Ukrainisation in southern Russian Soviet Republic led to a massive decline of reported Ukrainians in these regions in the 1937 Soviet Census.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Upon signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Nazi Germany and Soviet Union partitioned Poland and its Eastern Borderlands were secured by the Soviet buffer republics with Ukraine securing the territory of Eastern Galicia. The Soviet September Polish campaign in Soviet propaganda was portrayed as the Golden September for Ukrainians, given the unification of Ukrainian lands on both banks of Zbruch River, until then the border between the Soviet Union and the Polish communities inhabited by Ukrainian speaking families.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: In 1945, agricultural production stood at only 40 percent of the 1940 level, even though the republic's territorial expansion had "increased the amount of arable land". In contrast to the remarkable growth in the industrial sector, agriculture continued in Ukraine, as in the rest of the Soviet Union, to function as the economy's Achilles heel. Despite the human toll of Collectivisation of agriculture in the Soviet Union, especially in Ukraine, Soviet planners still believed in the effectiveness of collective farming. The old system was reestablished; the numbers of collective farms in Ukraine increased from 28 thousand in 1940 to 33 thousand in 1949, comprising 45 million hectares; the numbers of state farms barely increased, standing at 935 in 1950, comprising 12.1 million hectares. By the end of the Fourth Five-Year Plan (in 1950) and the Fifth Five-Year Plan (in 1955), agricultural output still stood far lower than the 1940 level. The slow changes in agriculture can be explained by the low productivity in collective farms, and by bad weather-conditions, which the Soviet planning system could not effectively respond to. Grain for human consumption in the post-war years decreased, this in turn led to frequent and severe food shortages.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The increase of Soviet agricultural production was tremendous, however, the Soviet-Ukrainians still experienced food shortages due to the inefficiencies of a highly centralised economy. During the peak of Soviet-Ukrainian agriculture output in the 1950s and early-to-mid-1960s, human consumption in Ukraine, and in the rest of the Soviet Union, actually experienced short intervals of decrease. There are many reasons for this inefficiency, but its origins can be traced back to the single-purchaser and -producer market system set up by Joseph Stalin. Khrushchev tried to improve the agricultural situation in the Soviet Union by expanding the total crop size – for instance, in the Ukrainian SSR alone "the amount of land planted with corn grew by 600 percent". At the height of this policy, between 1959 and 1963, one-third of Ukrainian arable land grew this crop. This policy decreased the total production of wheat and rye; Khrushchev had anticipated this, and the production of wheat and rye moved to Soviet Central Asia as part of the Virgin Lands Campaign. Khrushchev's agricultural policy failed, and in 1963 the Soviet Union had to import food from abroad. The total level of agricultural productivity in Ukraine decreased sharply during this period, but recovered in the 1970s and 1980s during Leonid Brezhnev's rule.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: During the post-war years, Ukraine's industrial productivity doubled its pre-war level. In 1945 industrial output totalled only 26 percent of the 1940 level. The Soviet Union introduced the Fourth Five-Year Plan in 1946. The Fourth Five-Year Plan would prove to be a remarkable success, and can be likened to the "wonders of West German and Japanese reconstruction", but without foreign capital; the Soviet reconstruction is historically an impressive achievement. In 1950 industrial gross output had already surpassed 1940-levels. While the Soviet régime still emphasised heavy industry over light industry, the light-industry sector also grew. The increase in capital investment and the expansion of the labour force also benefited Ukraine's economic recovery. In the prewar years, 15.9 percent of the Soviet budget went to Ukraine, in 1950, during the Fourth Five-Year Plan this had increased to 19.3 percent. The workforce had increased from 1.2 million in 1945 to 2.9 million in 1955; an increase of 33.2 percent over the 1940-level. The result of this remarkable growth was that by 1955 Ukraine was producing 2.2 times more than in 1940, and the republic had become one of the leading producers of certain commodities in Europe. Ukraine was the largest per-capita producer in Europe of pig iron and sugar, and the second-largest per-capita producer of steel and of iron ore, and was the third largest per-capita producer of coal in Europe.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: From 1965 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, industrial growth in Ukraine decreased, and by the 1970s it started to stagnate. Significant economic decline did not become apparent before the 1970s. During the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951–1955), industrial development in Ukraine grew by 13.5 percent, while during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (1981–1985) industry grew by a relatively modest 3.5 percent. The double-digit growth seen in all branches of the economy in the post-war years had disappeared by the 1980s, entirely replaced by low growth-figures. An ongoing problem throughout the republic's existence was the planners' emphasis on heavy industry over consumer goods.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: The urbanisation of Ukrainian society in the post-war years led to an increase in energy consumption. Between 1956 and 1972, to meet this increasing demand, the government built five water reservoirs along the Dnieper River. Aside from improving Soviet-Ukrainian water transport, the reservoirs became the sites for new power stations, and hydroelectric energy flourished in Ukraine in consequence. The natural-gas industry flourished as well, and Ukraine became the site of the first post-war production of gas in the Soviet Union; by the 1960s Ukraine's biggest gas field was producing 30 percent of the USSR's total gas production. The government was not able to meet the people's ever-increasing demand for energy consumption, but by the 1970s, the Soviet government had conceived an intensive nuclear power program. According to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, the Soviet government would build 8 nuclear power plants in Ukraine by 1989. As a result of these efforts, Ukraine became highly diversified in energy consumption.


title: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

text: Urbanisation in post-Stalin Ukraine grew quickly; in 1959 only 25 cities in Ukraine had populations over one hundred thousand, by 1979 the number had grown to 49. During the same period, the growth of cities with a population over one million increased from one to five; Kiev alone nearly doubled its population, from 1.1 million in 1959 to 2.1 million in 1979. This proved a turning point in Ukrainian society: for the first time in Ukraine's history, the majority of ethnic Ukrainians lived in urban areas; 53 percent of the ethnic Ukrainian population did so in 1979. The majority worked in the non-agricultural sector, in 1970 31 percent of Ukrainians engaged in agriculture, in contrast, 63 percent of Ukrainians were industrial workers and white-collar staff. In 1959, 37 percent of Ukrainians lived in urban areas, in 1989 the proportion had increased to 60 percent.


title: Frog

text: A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally "without tail" in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" "Triadobatrachus" is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their split from other amphibians may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest. Frogs account for around 88% of extant amphibian species. They are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. Warty frog species tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal, not from taxonomy or evolutionary history.


title: Frog

text: An adult frog has a stout body, protruding eyes, anteriorly-attached tongue, limbs folded underneath, and no tail (the tail of tailed frogs is an extension of the male cloaca). Frogs have glandular skin, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic. Their skin varies in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to show toxicity and ward off predators. Adult frogs live in fresh water and on dry land; some species are adapted for living underground or in trees.


title: Frog

text: Frogs typically lay their eggs in water. The eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialized rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets. The life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage. Adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on plant matter. Frog skin has a rich microbiome which is important to their health. Frogs are extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass. They are an important food source for predators and part of the food web dynamics of many of the world's ecosystems. The skin is semi-permeable, making them susceptible to dehydration, so they either live in moist places or have special adaptations to deal with dry habitats. Frogs produce a wide range of vocalizations, particularly in their breeding season, and exhibit many different kinds of complex behaviors to attract mates, to fend off predators and to generally survive.


title: Frog

text: Frogs are valued as food by humans and also have many cultural roles in literature, symbolism and religion. They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, with declines in frog populations often viewed as early warning signs of environmental damage. Frog populations have declined significantly since the 1950s. More than one third of species are considered to be threatened with extinction and over 120 are believed to have become extinct since the 1980s. The number of malformations among frogs is on the rise and an emerging fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, has spread around the world. Conservation biologists are working to understand the causes of these problems and to resolve them.


title: Frog

text: The use of the common names "frog" and "toad" has no taxonomic justification. From a classification perspective, all members of the order Anura are frogs, but only members of the family Bufonidae are considered "true toads". The use of the term "frog" in common names usually refers to species that are aquatic or semi-aquatic and have smooth, moist skins; the term "toad" generally refers to species that are terrestrial with dry, warty skins. There are numerous exceptions to this rule. The European fire-bellied toad ("Bombina bombina") has a slightly warty skin and prefers a watery habitat whereas the Panamanian golden frog ("Atelopus zeteki") is in the toad family Bufonidae and has a smooth skin.


title: Frog

text: The origin of the order name "Anura"—and its original spelling "Anoures"—is the Ancient Greek "alpha privative" prefix ( from before a vowel) 'without', and () 'animal tail'. meaning "tailless". It refers to the tailless character of these amphibians.


title: Frog

text: The origins of the word "frog" are uncertain and debated. The word is first attested in Old English as , but the usual Old English word for the frog was (with variants such as and ), and it is agreed that the word "frog" is somehow related to this. Old English remained in dialectal use in English as "frosh" and "frosk" into the nineteenth century, and is paralleled widely in other Germanic languages, with examples in the modern languages including German , Norwegian , Icelandic , and Dutch "". These words allow reconstruction of a Common Germanic ancestor . The third edition of the "Oxford English Dictionary" finds that the etymology of is uncertain, but agrees with arguments that it could plausibly derive from a Proto-Indo-European base along the lines of , meaning 'jump'.


title: Frog

text: How Old English gave rise to is, however, uncertain, as the development does not involve a regular sound-change. Instead, it seems that there was a trend in Old English to coin nicknames for animals ending in -"g", with examples—themselves all of uncertain etymology—including "dog", "hog", "pig, stag", and "". "Frog" appears to have been adapted from as part of this trend.


title: Frog

text: Meanwhile, the word "toad", first attested as Old English , is unique to English and is likewise of uncertain etymology. It is the basis for the word "tadpole", first attested as Middle English , apparently meaning 'toad-head'.


title: Frog

text: About 88% of amphibian species are classified in the order Anura. These include over 7,500 species in 55 families, of which the Craugastoridae (850 spp.), Hylidae (724 spp.), Microhylidae (688 spp.), and Bufonidae (621 spp.) are the richest in species.


title: Frog

text: The Anura include all modern frogs and any fossil species that fit within the anuran definition. The characteristics of anuran adults include: 9 or fewer presacral vertebrae, the presence of a urostyle formed of fused vertebrae, no tail, a long and forward-sloping ilium, shorter fore limbs than hind limbs, radius and ulna fused, tibia and fibula fused, elongated ankle bones, absence of a prefrontal bone, presence of a hyoid plate, a lower jaw without teeth (with the exception of "Gastrotheca guentheri") consisting of three pairs of bones (angulosplenial, dentary, and mentomeckelian, with the last pair being absent in Pipoidea), an unsupported tongue, lymph spaces underneath the skin, and a muscle, the protractor lentis, attached to the lens of the eye. The anuran larva or tadpole has a single central respiratory spiracle and mouthparts consisting of keratinous beaks and denticles.


title: Frog

text: Frogs and toads are broadly classified into three suborders: Archaeobatrachia, which includes four families of primitive frogs; Mesobatrachia, which includes five families of more evolutionary intermediate frogs; and Neobatrachia, by far the largest group, which contains the remaining families of modern frogs, including most common species throughout the world. The suborder Neobatrachia is further divided into the two superfamilies Hyloidea and Ranoidea. This classification is based on such morphological features as the number of vertebrae, the structure of the pectoral girdle, and the morphology of tadpoles. While this classification is largely accepted, relationships among families of frogs are still debated.


title: Frog

text: Some species of anurans hybridize readily. For instance, the edible frog ("Pelophylax esculentus") is a hybrid between the pool frog ("P. lessonae") and the marsh frog ("P. ridibundus"). The fire-bellied toads "Bombina bombina" and "B. variegata" are similar in forming hybrids. These are less fertile than their parents, giving rise to a hybrid zone where the hybrids are prevalent.


title: Frog

text: The origins and evolutionary relationships between the three main groups of amphibians are hotly debated. A molecular phylogeny based on rDNA analysis dating from 2005 suggests that salamanders and caecilians are more closely related to each other than they are to frogs and the divergence of the three groups took place in the Paleozoic or early Mesozoic before the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea and soon after their divergence from the lobe-finned fishes. This would help account for the relative scarcity of amphibian fossils from the period before the groups split. Another molecular phylogenetic analysis conducted about the same time concluded that lissamphibians first appeared about 330 million years ago and that the temnospondyl-origin hypothesis is more credible than other theories. The neobatrachians seemed to have originated in Africa/India, the salamanders in East Asia and the caecilians in tropical Pangaea. Other researchers, while agreeing with the main thrust of this study, questioned the choice of calibration points used to synchronise the data. They proposed that the date of lissamphibian diversification should be placed in the Permian, rather less than 300 million years ago, a date in better agreement with the palaeontological data. A further study in 2011 using both extinct and living taxa sampled for morphological, as well as molecular data, came to the conclusion that Lissamphibia is monophyletic and that it should be nested within Lepospondyli rather than within Temnospondyli. The study postulated that Lissamphibia originated no earlier than the late Carboniferous, some 290 to 305 million years ago. The split between Anura and Caudata was estimated as taking place 292 million years ago, rather later than most molecular studies suggest, with the caecilians splitting off 239 million years ago.


title: Frog

text: In 2008, "Gerobatrachus hottoni", a temnospondyl with many frog- and salamander-like characteristics, was discovered in Texas. It dated back 290 million years and was hailed as a missing link, a stem batrachian close to the common ancestor of frogs and salamanders, consistent with the widely accepted hypothesis that frogs and salamanders are more closely related to each other (forming a clade called Batrachia) than they are to caecilians. However, others have suggested that "Gerobatrachus hottoni" was only a dissorophoid temnospondyl unrelated to extant amphibians.


title: Frog

text: Salientia (Latin "salire" ("salio"), "to jump") is the name of the total group that includes modern frogs in the order Anura as well as their close fossil relatives, the "proto-frogs" or "stem-frogs". The common features possessed by these proto-frogs include 14 presacral vertebrae (modern frogs have eight or 9), a long and forward-sloping ilium in the pelvis, the presence of a frontoparietal bone, and a lower jaw without teeth. The earliest known amphibians that were more closely related to frogs than to salamanders are "Triadobatrachus massinoti", from the early Triassic period of Madagascar (about 250 million years ago), and "Czatkobatrachus polonicus", from the Early Triassic of Poland (about the same age as "Triadobatrachus"). The skull of "Triadobatrachus" is frog-like, being broad with large eye sockets, but the fossil has features diverging from modern frogs. These include a longer body with more vertebrae. The tail has separate vertebrae unlike the fused urostyle or coccyx in modern frogs. The tibia and fibula bones are also separate, making it probable that "Triadobatrachus" was not an efficient leaper.


title: Frog

text: The earliest known "true frogs" that fall into the anuran lineage proper all lived in the early Jurassic period. One such early frog species, "Prosalirus bitis", was discovered in 1995 in the Kayenta Formation of Arizona and dates back to the Early Jurassic epoch (199.6 to 175 million years ago), making "Prosalirus" somewhat more recent than "Triadobatrachus". Like the latter, "Prosalirus" did not have greatly enlarged legs, but had the typical three-pronged pelvic structure of modern frogs. Unlike "Triadobatrachus", "Prosalirus" had already lost nearly all of its tail and was well adapted for jumping. Another Early Jurassic frog is "Vieraella herbsti", which is known only from dorsal and ventral impressions of a single animal and was estimated to be from snout to vent. "Notobatrachus degiustoi" from the middle Jurassic is slightly younger, about 155–170 million years old. The main evolutionary changes in this species involved the shortening of the body and the loss of the tail. The evolution of modern Anura likely was complete by the Jurassic period. Since then, evolutionary changes in chromosome numbers have taken place about 20 times faster in mammals than in frogs, which means speciation is occurring more rapidly in mammals.


title: Frog

text: According to genetic studies, the families Hyloidea, Microhylidae, and the clade Natatanura (comprising about 88% of living frogs) diversified simultaneously some 66 million years ago, soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event associated with the Chicxulub impactor. All origins of arboreality (e.g. in Hyloidea and Natatanura) follow from that time and the resurgence of forest that occurred afterwards.


title: Frog

text: Frog fossils have been found on all of the earth's continents. In 2020, it was announced that 40 million year old helmeted frog fossils had been discovered by a team of vertebrate paleontologists in Seymour Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, indicating that this region was once home to frogs related to those now living in South American "Nothofagus" forest.


title: Frog

text: A cladogram showing the relationships of the different families of frogs in the clade Anura can be seen in the table below. This diagram, in the form of a tree, shows how each frog family is related to other families, with each node representing a point of common ancestry. It is based on Frost "et al." (2006), Heinicke "et al." (2009) and Pyron and Wiens (2011).


title: Frog

text: Frogs have no tail, except as larvae, and most have long hind legs, elongated ankle bones, webbed toes, no claws, large eyes, and a smooth or warty skin. They have short vertebral columns, with no more than 10 free vertebrae and fused tailbones (urostyle or coccyx). Frogs range in size from "Paedophryne amauensis" of Papua New Guinea that is in snout–to–vent length to the up to and goliath frog ("Conraua goliath") of central Africa. There are prehistoric, extinct species that reached even larger sizes.


title: Frog

text: The structure of the feet and legs varies greatly among frog species, depending in part on whether they live primarily on the ground, in water, in trees, or in burrows. Frogs must be able to move quickly through their environment to catch prey and escape predators, and numerous adaptations help them to do so. Most frogs are either proficient at jumping or are descended from ancestors that were, with much of the musculoskeletal morphology modified for this purpose. The tibia, fibula, and tarsals have been fused into a single, strong bone, as have the radius and ulna in the fore limbs (which must absorb the impact on landing). The metatarsals have become elongated to add to the leg length and allow frogs to push against the ground for a longer period on take-off. The ilium has elongated and formed a mobile joint with the sacrum which, in specialist jumpers such as ranids and hylids, functions as an additional limb joint to further power the leaps. The tail vertebrae have fused into a urostyle which is retracted inside the pelvis. This enables the force to be transferred from the legs to the body during a leap.


title: Frog

text: The muscular system has been similarly modified. The hind limbs of ancestral frogs presumably contained pairs of muscles which would act in opposition (one muscle to flex the knee, a different muscle to extend it), as is seen in most other limbed animals. However, in modern frogs, almost all muscles have been modified to contribute to the action of jumping, with only a few small muscles remaining to bring the limb back to the starting position and maintain posture. The muscles have also been greatly enlarged, with the main leg muscles accounting for over 17% of the total mass of frogs.


title: Frog

text: Many frogs have webbed feet and the degree of webbing is directly proportional to the amount of time the species spends in the water. The completely aquatic African dwarf frog ("Hymenochirus" sp.) has fully webbed toes, whereas those of White's tree frog ("Litoria caerulea"), an arboreal species, are only a quarter or half webbed. Exceptions include flying frogs in the Hylidae and Rhacophoridae, which also have fully webbed toes used in gliding.


title: Frog

text: Arboreal frogs have pads located on the ends of their toes to help grip vertical surfaces. These are not suction pads, the surface consisting instead of columnar cells with flat tops with small gaps between them lubricated by mucous glands. When the frog applies pressure, the cells adhere to irregularities on the surface and the grip is maintained through surface tension. This allows the frog to climb on smooth surfaces, but the system does not function efficiently when the pads are excessively wet.


title: Frog

text: In many arboreal frogs, a small "intercalary structure" on each toe increases the surface area touching the substrate. Furthermore, many arboreal frogs have hip joints that allow both hopping and walking. Some frogs that live high in trees even possess an elaborate degree of webbing between their toes. This allows the frogs to "parachute" or make a controlled glide from one position in the canopy to another.


title: Frog

text: Ground-dwelling frogs generally lack the adaptations of aquatic and arboreal frogs. Most have smaller toe pads, if any, and little webbing. Some burrowing frogs such as Couch's spadefoot ("Scaphiopus couchii") have a flap-like toe extension on the hind feet, a keratinised tubercle often referred to as a spade, that helps them to burrow.


title: Frog

text: Sometimes during the tadpole stage, one of the developing rear legs is eaten by a predator such as a dragonfly nymph. In some cases, the full leg still grows, but in others it does not, although the frog may still live out its normal lifespan with only three limbs. Occasionally, a parasitic flatworm ("Ribeiroia ondatrae") digs into the rear of a tadpole, causing a rearrangement of the limb bud cells and the frog develops one or more extra legs.


title: Frog

text: A frog's skin is protective, has a respiratory function, can absorb water, and helps control body temperature. It has many glands, particularly on the head and back, which often exude distasteful and toxic substances (granular glands). The secretion is often sticky and helps keep the skin moist, protects against the entry of moulds and bacteria, and make the animal slippery and more able to escape from predators. The skin is shed every few weeks. It usually splits down the middle of the back and across the belly, and the frog pulls its arms and legs free. The sloughed skin is then worked towards the head where it is quickly eaten.


title: Frog

text: Being cold-blooded, frogs have to adopt suitable behaviour patterns to regulate their temperature. To warm up, they can move into the sun or onto a warm surface; if they overheat, they can move into the shade or adopt a stance that exposes the minimum area of skin to the air. This posture is also used to prevent water loss and involves the frog squatting close to the substrate with its hands and feet tucked under its chin and body. The colour of a frog's skin is used for thermoregulation. In cool damp conditions, the colour will be darker than on a hot dry day. The grey foam-nest tree frog ("Chiromantis xerampelina") is even able to turn white to minimize the chance of overheating.


title: Frog

text: Many frogs are able to absorb water and oxygen directly through the skin, especially around the pelvic area, but the permeability of a frog's skin can also result in water loss. Glands located all over the body exude mucus which helps keep the skin moist and reduces evaporation. Some glands on the hands and chest of males are specialized to produce sticky secretions to aid in amplexus. Similar glands in tree frogs produce a glue-like substance on the adhesive discs of the feet. Some arboreal frogs reduce water loss by having a waterproof layer of skin, and several South American species coat their skin with a waxy secretion. Other frogs have adopted behaviours to conserve water, including becoming nocturnal and resting in a water-conserving position. Some frogs may also rest in large groups with each frog pressed against its neighbours. This reduces the amount of skin exposed to the air or a dry surface, and thus reduces water loss. Woodhouse's toad ("Bufo woodhousii"), if given access to water after confinement in a dry location, sits in the shallows to rehydrate. The male hairy frog ("Trichobatrachus robustus") has dermal papillae projecting from its lower back and thighs, giving it a bristly appearance. They contain blood vessels and are thought to increase the area of the skin available for respiration.


title: Frog

text: Some species have bony plates embedded in their skin, a trait that appears to have evolved independently several times. In certain other species, the skin at the top of the head is compacted and the connective tissue of the dermis is co-ossified with the bones of the skull (exostosis).


title: Frog

text: Camouflage is a common defensive mechanism in frogs. Features such as warts and skin folds are usually on ground-dwelling frogs, for whom smooth skin would not provide such effective camouflage. Certain frogs change colour between night and day, as light and moisture stimulate the pigment cells and cause them to expand or contract. Some are even able to control their skin texture. The Pacific tree frog ("Pseudacris regilla") has green and brown morphs, plain or spotted, and changes colour depending on the time of year and general background colour.


title: Frog

text: Like other amphibians, oxygen can pass through their highly permeable skins. This unique feature allows them to remain in places without access to the air, respiring through their skins. Ribs are generally absent, so the lungs are filled by buccal pumping and a frog deprived of its lungs can maintain its body functions without them. The fully aquatic Bornean flat-headed frog ("Barbourula kalimantanensis") is the first frog known to lack lungs entirely.


title: Frog

text: Frogs have three-chambered hearts, a feature they share with lizards. Oxygenated blood from the lungs and de-oxygenated blood from the respiring tissues enter the heart through separate atria. When these chambers contract, the two blood streams pass into a common ventricle before being pumped via a spiral valve to the appropriate vessel, the aorta for oxygenated blood and pulmonary artery for deoxygenated blood.


title: Frog

text: Some species of frog have adaptations that allow them to survive in oxygen deficient water. The Titicaca water frog ("Telmatobius culeus") is one such species and has wrinkly skin that increases its surface area to enhance gas exchange. It normally makes no use of its rudimentary lungs but will sometimes raise and lower its body rhythmically while on the lake bed to increase the flow of water around it.


title: Frog

text: Frogs have maxillary teeth along their upper jaw which are used to hold food before it is swallowed. These teeth are very weak, and cannot be used to chew or catch and harm agile prey. Instead, the frog uses its sticky, cleft tongue to catch flies and other small moving prey. The tongue normally lies coiled in the mouth, free at the back and attached to the mandible at the front. It can be shot out and retracted at great speed. Some frogs have no tongue and just stuff food into their mouths with their hands. The African bullfrog ("Pyxicephalus"), which preys on relatively large animals such as mice and other frogs, has cone shaped bony projections called odontoid processes at the front of the lower jaw which function like teeth. The eyes assist in the swallowing of food as they can be retracted through holes in the skull and help push food down the throat.


title: Frog

text: The food then moves through the oesophagus into the stomach where digestive enzymes are added and it is churned up. It then proceeds to the small intestine (duodenum and ileum) where most digestion occurs. Pancreatic juice from the pancreas, and bile, produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, are secreted into the small intestine, where the fluids digest the food and the nutrients are absorbed. The food residue passes into the large intestine where excess water is removed and the wastes are passed out through the cloaca.


title: Frog

text: Although adapted to terrestrial life, frogs resemble freshwater fish in their inability to conserve body water effectively. When they are on land, much water is lost by evaporation from the skin. The excretory system is similar to that of mammals and there are two kidneys that remove nitrogenous products from the blood. Frogs produce large quantities of dilute urine in order to flush out toxic products from the kidney tubules. The nitrogen is excreted as ammonia by tadpoles and aquatic frogs but mainly as urea, a less toxic product, by most terrestrial adults. A few species of tree frog with little access to water excrete the even less toxic uric acid. The urine passes along paired ureters to the urinary bladder from which it is vented periodically into the cloaca. All bodily wastes exit the body through the cloaca which terminates in a cloacal vent.


title: Frog

text: In the male frog, the two testes are attached to the kidneys and semen passes into the kidneys through fine tubes called efferent ducts. It then travels on through the ureters, which are consequently known as urinogenital ducts. There is no penis, and sperm is ejected from the cloaca directly onto the eggs as the female lays them. The ovaries of the female frog are beside the kidneys and the eggs pass down a pair of oviducts and through the cloaca to the exterior.


title: Frog

text: When frogs mate, the male climbs on the back of the female and wraps his fore limbs round her body, either behind the front legs or just in front of the hind legs. This position is called amplexus and may be held for several days. The male frog has certain hormone-dependent secondary sexual characteristics. These include the development of special pads on his thumbs in the breeding season, to give him a firm hold. The grip of the male frog during amplexus stimulates the female to release eggs, usually wrapped in jelly, as spawn. In many species the male is smaller and slimmer than the female. Males have vocal cords and make a range of croaks, particularly in the breeding season, and in some species they also have vocal sacs to amplify the sound.


title: Frog

text: Frogs have a highly developed nervous system that consists of a brain, spinal cord and nerves. Many parts of frog brains correspond with those of humans. It consists of two olfactory lobes, two cerebral hemispheres, a pineal body, two optic lobes, a cerebellum and a medulla oblongata. Muscular coordination and posture are controlled by the cerebellum, and the medulla oblongata regulates respiration, digestion and other automatic functions. The relative size of the cerebrum in frogs is much smaller than it is in humans. Frogs have ten pairs of cranial nerves which pass information from the outside directly to the brain, and ten pairs of spinal nerves which pass information from the extremities to the brain through the spinal cord. By contrast, all amniotes (mammals, birds and reptiles) have twelve pairs of cranial nerves.


title: Frog

text: The eyes of most frogs are located on either side of the head near the top and project outwards as hemispherical bulges. They provide binocular vision over a field of 100° to the front and a total visual field of almost 360°. They may be the only part of an otherwise submerged frog to protrude from the water. Each eye has closable upper and lower lids and a nictitating membrane which provides further protection, especially when the frog is swimming. Members of the aquatic family Pipidae have the eyes located at the top of the head, a position better suited for detecting prey in the water above. The irises come in a range of colours and the pupils in a range of shapes. The common toad ("Bufo bufo") has golden irises and horizontal slit-like pupils, the red-eyed tree frog ("Agalychnis callidryas") has vertical slit pupils, the poison dart frog has dark irises, the fire-bellied toad ("Bombina spp.") has triangular pupils and the tomato frog ("Dyscophus spp.") has circular ones. The irises of the southern toad ("Anaxyrus terrestris") are patterned so as to blend in with the surrounding camouflaged skin.


title: Frog

text: The distant vision of a frog is better than its near vision. Calling frogs will quickly become silent when they see an intruder or even a moving shadow but the closer an object is, the less well it is seen. When a frog shoots out its tongue to catch an insect it is reacting to a small moving object that it cannot see well and must line it up precisely beforehand because it shuts its eyes as the tongue is extended. Although it was formerly debated, more recent research has shown that frogs can see in colour, even in very low light.