This day in history

1768: Koliivshchina, a Cossack and peasant rebellion against Poland, begins in Ukraine, led by Maksym Zalizniak and Ivan Honta.

1852: Kyiv Central Archives are established at St. Volodymyr University [currently Taras Shevchenko National University].

1920: The Ukrainian Peat Committee is formed.

1930: The first screening of Earth, one of Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s best films.

1940: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopts a decree on civil registration in the western regions, banning and confiscating vestry books.

1943: The State Defense Committee of the USSR resolves to form the Chief Counterintelligence Directorate (SMERSH — or “Death to Spies”) at the People’s Commissariat [Ministry] of Defense.

1944: Troops of the First Ukrainian Front liberate Ternopil in the course of the Proskuriv-Chernivtsi offensive.