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 Maidan Nezalezhnosti
During its history Kiev, one of the oldest cities in the Eastern Europe passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. Considered founded in the fifth century a trading post in the land of Early East Slavs the city gradually acquired eminence as the center of the East Slavic civilization, in the tenth to twelveth century, a political and cultural capital of Rus', a medieval East Slavic state. Completely destroyed during the Mongol Invasion in 1240 the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbors: first Lithuania, later Poland and, finally, Russia. The city prospered again during the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century. After the turbulent period following the Russian Revolution of 1917, from 1921 Kiev was an important city of the Soviet Ukraine and, since 1934 its capital. During World War II, the city was destroyed again, almost completely, but quickly recovered in the post-war years becoming the third most important city of the USSR. It now remains the capital of Ukraine, independent since 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union
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