This week in history

February 15: 1574. Ivan Fedorov published in Lviv The Apostle , the first printed book in Ukraine. 1989. The USSR completed withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.

February 16: 1571. Muscovite Tsar Ivan the Terrible approved Russia’s first military manual. 1994. Ukraine and Kazakhstan signed in Almaty a communique on expanding contacts between the two countries’ military agencies.

February 17: 1919. The Directory adopted a declaration to the Allied governments, requesting assistance in combating the Bolsheviks. 1944. A large Nazi German army grouping was completely routed near Korsun-Shevchenkivsky.

February 18: 1918. Ukrainian, German, and Austro-Hungarian troops launched an offensive against the Bolsheviks then occupying most of Ukraine. 1966. The 17-volume first Ukrayinska radianska entsykolpediya (Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia) was completed.

February 19: 1954. The Crimean oblast was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR by decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. 1992. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the trident as Ukraine’s small emblem, considering it the chief component of the Official Great Seal of Ukraine.

February 20: 1907. Russia’s Second State Duma including a Ukrainian parliamentary fraction was convened. 1919. The Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR passed a decree on civil marriage and the introduction of civil state record books.

February 21: 1919. The first issue of the newspaper Kommunar (Communard, now Vechirny Kyiv) was published in Kyiv. 1996. Ukraine and the US signed an agreement on the commercial launching of satellites.