This week in history 

February 16, 1929: The first Week of Ukrainian Literature ends in Moscow. February 16, 1994: Ukraine and Kazakhstan sign a communique in Almaty expanding contacts between their military establishments. February 17, 1664: Polish aristocrats execute Cossack Colonel Ivan Bohun, hero of the Ukrainian Cossack Revolution. February 17, 1944: the Korsun-Shevchenkivsky offensive, one of the largest operations during World War II, ends. February 18, 1969: Soviet dissident poet Joseph Brodsky stands trial in Leningrad, later to immigrate to the US (1972) and be award the Nobel Prize for literature. February 18, 1979: Simferopol University opens. February 19, 1954: The Crimean oblast is transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the "reunification" of Ukraine and Russia. February 19, 1992: the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine affirms the tryzub (trident) as the Small Emblem of Ukraine, to be considered as a key element of the Large National Emblem. February 20, 1919: the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR passes a decree on civil marriage and civil registry. February 21, 1899: the world's first arctic icebreaker, the Yermak, designed by Admiral Makarov, is launched at the shipyard of Newcastle upon Tyne. February 21, 1919: the first issue of the newspaper Kommunar (Communard) is published in Kyiv (later to become Vechirny Kyiv).