Ukrainian culture has rich historical traditions. Its roots go back to the time of Kievan Rus, which is the common foundation of the Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian culture.  The most famous Slavic epic, the Igor song was created during this time. The first elements of the Ukrainian cultural and linguistic characteristics are reflected in the western areas since the 13th century. Until the 17th century, mainly Chronicles or religious texts were written. The same processes can be seen in the architecture, music and painting.

The 18th century marked an important stage in the development of Ukrainian culture. Numerous castles and churches were built during this time, the portrait painting developed itself and many philosophical (the garden of the divine songs of Skovoroda) and literary (Aeneid of Kotlyarevsky) works were created. After Ukraine went to the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian culture came under Russian influence. Several artists now preferred the Russian language to reach a larger audience. So, the Ukrainian Gogol wrote his works in Russian and is therefore one of the Russian writers. However some poets such as Taras Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka, and Ivan Franko remained faithful to the Ukrainian language and contributed to their further development.

The period after the accession of Ukraine to the USSR was characterized by a strong politicization of the arts. In each city there have been monuments erected by Lenin, decorated the apartment buildings with reliefs, which glorified the workers and peasant world… Patriotic and Communist themes, dominated in the literature such as the works of Tytschyna, Sosjura, Dowschenko etc.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine went through a brief period of polarization of a stand-alone Ukrainian culture in all areas.