This week in history

October 16: 1917. The All-Ukrainian Congress of Free Cossacks opened in Chyhyryn, electing its General Rada headed by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky.

1941. Soviet troops abandoned Odesa.

October 17: 1961. The XXII CPSU Congress opened, reelecting Nikita Khrushchev First Secretary of CPSU Central Committee, authorizing the removal of Stalin’s body from Mausoleum, and approving a new Party Platform.

October 18: 1660. Hetman of Ukraine Yury Khmelnytsky signed the Slobodyshchyn Treaty with Poland giving Ukraine to the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1918. The West Ukrainian People’s Republic was proclaimed and Ukrainian National Council founded in Lviv.

October 19: 1653. The Muscovite Tsar’s embassy headed by Buturlin left for Pereyaslav to administer to the Zaporozhzhian Host the oath of loyalty to the Tsar.

1989. The founding meeting of the Ukrainian Republic’s Association of Ukrainian Studies was held.

October 20: 1923. The first issue of the Barykady teatru [Barricades of the Theater] literary and arts journal was published in Kyiv.

1989. The first Interteatr [Inter-theater] International Festival began in Uzhhorod.

October 21: 1897. The Black Sea Shipbuilding Yard began work in Mykolayiv.

1 989. The Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society renewed its activities in Ukraine with a founding conference in Lviv.

October 22: 1918. Kamyanets Ukrainian State University was opened in Kamyanets-Podilsky.

1991. The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine registered the Union of Officers of Ukraine.