Surrounded by powerful neighbors greedy for their fertile lands of wheat. the Ukrainians have known what it is to struggle. despite misery and hardship. for freedom. Their indomitable spirit has withstood tortures inconceivable for us to comprehend. yet that spirit burns more brightly now than ever before. Up to the middle of the 17th century the Ukrainians were able to survive the onslaught of the invading Asiatic hordes. but then in 1654 their leaders signed a treaty with the Russian czar designed to unite the two countries. However. the standard of treachery began to enter into the relations between the isolated. small Ukraine and the powerfully large Russia. this treaty in effect ended the independence the Ukrainians had enjoyed up to that time. From this date the Ukrainians were forced to abandon their national ideals of freedom and traditional beliefs.