This week in history

December 2. 1864. The first performance of Symon Hulak- Artemovsky’s opera, Zaporozhzhian Cossack Beyond the Danube took place in St. Petersburg.

1960. The biggest blast furnace in the world, the Kryvorizka-Komsomolska, was put into operation in Kryvy Rih.

December 3. 1918. The Provisional Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of Ukraine approved a decree On Creating the All-Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission to Fight Counter-Revolution, Sabotage, and Malfeasance — later known as the KGB.

1932. By a decision of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR trading meat and livestock was forbidden in all Ukraine’s regions evading execution of the state meat procurements plan.

December 4. 1638. The Cossack Starshyna [senior officers] Council ratified the Ordinations of the Zaporozhzhian Register.

1925. The first issue of the Komsomolets Ukrayiny republican newspaper (from 1943 Molod Ukrayiny) was published in Kharkiv.

December 5. 1917. The Ukrainian Academy of the Arts (now the National Academy of Pictorial Arts and Architecture) was created in Kyiv.

1994. A memorandum was signed in Budapest On Giving Ukraine Security Guarantees from the Nuclear Countries of the US, Great Britain, and Russia.

December 6. Day of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

1932. The Council of People’s Commissars of Ukrainian SSR and the CP(b)U Central Committee passed a decision on blacklisting the villages, ‘maliciously’ failing to fulfill their grain quotas, thus putting them under a blockade.

December 7. 1921. A temporary agreement was signed in Vienna between Russian and Ukrainian Soviet Republics on one side and Austria on the other.

1934. The Council of People’s Commissars of USSR passed a decision On Canceling the Rationing Card System for Bread, Flour, and Cereals.