This week in history

July 11: 1925. The Ukrainian National Democratic Association was founded in Lviv.

1996. Ukrainian coal miners began mass protest actions and strikes, demanding to be paid back wages.

July 12: 1941. The USSR and Great Britain signed an agreement on a joint war effort against Germany.

1996. People’s Deputies of Ukraine took the oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people under the new Constitution of Ukraine.

July 13: 1920. The Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR resolved to set up the Ukrainian Red Cross Society.

1944. Soviet troops took Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

July 14: 1918. Ukrainian railroad men went on a general strike in which about 200,000 people took part.

1927. The Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR resolved to establish Black and Azov Coastal Preserves.

July 15: 1920. The Kyiv Higher Institute of Public Education (now Mykhailo Drahomanov National Pedagogical University) was founded.

1944. OUN/UPA formed the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR).

July 16: 1798. A sea navigators school was opened in Mykolayiv.

1990. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Declaration of Ukraine’s State Sovereignty.

July 17: 1942. The Battle of Stalingrad began.

1958. The Ukrainian SSR Council of Ministers decided to close 8 out of 40 existing Ukrainian monasteries and convents, including the Kyiv Pecherska Lavra Monastery of the Caves.