Our country has been developing its own specific culture since very early times of its history. There were different periods in the history of Ukraine when Ukrainian culture underwent considerable influences of other cultures, notably those of Byzantium and of the Vikings (in the medieval times of Kyivan Rus), but generally it kept its general original quality. The Old Ukrainian language was used as Latin of Eastern Europe for some period of time.

In spite of pretty dramatic history, Ukraine has kept a cultural constant from the early times of its existence. Book printing started in Ukraine in the 16th century and the first establishment of higher studying - the first not only in Ukraine but in the whole of Eastern Europe - Kyiv-Mohylyanska Academy, sprang up in the late 17th century.

Though oral literature existed in the very early periods of Ukraine's history, written elite literature started to be developed from the end of the 11th century, after the adoption of Christianity which brought a significant boost for the development of the Ukrainian culture in general. The churches of Kyiv - and their quantity - brought admiration of foreign travelers visiting the city in the 11th and 12th centuries. The eleventh-century Grand Duke Yarsolav the Wise founded a library that became one of the largest in Europe, and promoted the institution of schools. In later centuries, literacy was widely spread in our country.

Ukraine had a long spectrum of art and literature which entered a phase of stepped-up development in the 17th century. Poetic and prose works written by Taras Shevchenko, the most revered cultural person of our country, Lesya Ukrayinka, Ivan Franko, Mykhaylo Kotsyubynsky and other authors of the 19th and 20th centuries, were a worthy contribution to the international literature.