This week in history

December 21: 1988. The world’s largest cargo plane, the An-225 Mriya (Dream), made its maiden test flight in Kyiv.

1991. A declaration was signed in Almaty on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

December 22: 1892. An imperial decree was issued in Russia on the construction of the Trans- Siberian Railroad.

1920. The Eighth All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened and approved the Governmental Plan of the Electrification of the RSFSR.

December 12: 1873. The Taras Shevchenko Literary Society was founded in Lviv.

1917. The first Ukrainian banknotes were put in circulation.

December 24: 1653. Troops commanded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky won a victory over the Polish noblemen’s army near Zhvanets.

1924. The Communist International ordered the Ukrainian Communist Party (known as the Ukapisty) dissolved.

December 25: 1917. The first Soviet government of Ukraine was proclaimed in Kharkiv.

1951. The USSR’s and Continental Europe’s first computing machine was commissioned in Kyiv.

December 26: 1921. A Ukrainian-Italian tentative agreement was signed in Rome, whereby the Ukrainian SSR and Italy pledged to refrain from hostile actions against each other.

1963. Ukraine’s first gasoline refinery was commissioned in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.