The name Kiev is said to derive from the name of Kyi, one of four legendary founders of the city (brothers Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv, and sister Lybid). During its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. The city may have been founded in the 5th century as a trading post, perhaps part of the land of the early Slavs. It gradually acquired eminence as the centre of the East Slavic civilization, becoming in the tenth to twelfth centuries 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 neighbours; first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by Poland and Russia.

The city prospered again during the Russian Empire's industrial revolution in the late 19th century. After the turbulent period following the Russian Revolution of 1917, from 1921 onwards Kiev was an important city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and, from 1934, its capital. During World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, but quickly recovered in the post-war years remaining the third largest city of the Soviet Union. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian independence of 1991, Kiev remained the capital of Ukraine.

The focus of the contemporary Kiev remains its ancient Upper Town, crowning the high bluff above the Dnieper River. Its central area, although for the most part of postwar construction, contains most of Kiev's surviving historical and architectural monuments.

The 11th-century Cathedral of St. Sophia, one of the most beautiful examples of Russo-Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture, and the striking 18th-century Baroque Church of St. Andrew are both now state museums. Other surviving relics include the ruins of the 11th-century Golden Gate, the 18th-century Zaborovskyy Gate, and the 19th-century five-domed Desyatynna Church, built on the site of a church founded by St. Vladimir in the 10th century.