This week in history

June 12 1920: The First State Children’s Theater opens in Kharkiv. Today it is the First Ukrainian Theater for Children and Youth in Lviv.

1964: The Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR institutes prizes named for distinguished Ukrainian scientists: M. Krylov (Mathematics); Ye. Paton (Technology), L. Pysarzhevsky (Chemistry), V. Yuriev (Biology).

June 13 1983: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR resolves to award Sevastopil the Order of the October Revolution in commemoration of the city’s 200th anniversary.

2001: The official visit of Ukraine’s President Leonid Kuchma to the Slovak Republic begins.

June 14 1994: Ukraine and the EU sign a partnership and cooperation treaty in Luxembourg.

1997: A new all-Ukraine trade union organization is founded: the Association of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine.

June 15 1775: Russian troops destroy the Zaporozhian (Pidpilnenska) Sich on orders from Catherine II.

1918: The first issue of the weekly newspaper Komunist comes off the presses. Today it is called Demokratychna Ukraina (Democratic Ukraine).

June 16 1934: The Union of Writers of Ukraine is founded at the I Congress of Ukrainian Writers.

1982: The 2,000,000th tractor comes off the assembly line at the Kharkiv Tractor Works.

June 17 1990: The congress of the All-Union Chornobyl Association ends in Kyiv.

1993: Ukraine and Russia sign an agreement and joint communiquО evenly dividing the Black Sea Fleet between the two countries.

June 18 1651: During the national liberation war in Ukraine and Belarus Berestechko is the site of the biggest battle between Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s peasant rebel troops and the army of the Polish Crown.

1996: Ukraine is accepted as a member of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.