KIEV, Ukraine - When Pope John Paul II arrives in Ukraine on Saturday on his 94th foreign visit, he will find a nation still lurching through the transition from communism to economic and religious freedoms, and one eager to show it has more to offer than corruption and the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
The country will not be completely alien to the pope, who was born in a little town between Poland's Krakow and the current border with Ukraine. Yet while Polish language and culture is kin to Ukrainian, Poland abandoned communism much more swiftly and smoothly than its neighbor.
Visitors to Ukraine may be pleasantly surprised by the new European look acquired by the capital Kiev and some other major cities since independence a decade ago. But it conceals a country still strongly gripped by its Soviet past.
Although dependent on outside energy sources, Ukraine has everything else a nation could want for prosperity: Across a territory larger than France, it boasts rich black soil, numerous rivers, mineral resources, the picturesque Carpathian mountains, long coasts along the Black and Azov Seas, and a population of 49 million.
Ukraine - which means ``borderland'' - spent centuries under Russian domination, and most of the 20th century under Soviet control.
The communist regime brought extensive industrialization to a largely rural society. Millions of Ukrainians died in dictator Josef Stalin's purges and during the forced famine of the 1930s, while Stalin expanded Ukrainian territory by seizing western lands once under Polish and Hungarian control.
The Soviet leadership cared little about the environment, and today Ukrainians are paying with their health.
Industrial giants have polluted large areas. The 1986 explosion at Chernobyl - history's worst nuclear accident - echoes even now, with mounting cases of thyroid cancer and other accident-related illnesses, not to mention the loss of swathes of contaminated land.
The 1991 Soviet collapse brought independence - as well as economic and population decline and a deep identity crisis.
While Ukraine's eastern European neighbors turned to the West, launched swift economic reforms and today are attracting major investment, Ukraine remains caught between what its leaders call a ``European choice'' and ethnic and trade ties to Moscow.
Ukraine's image has suffered from international corruption and money-laundering cases, including charges against former premier Pavlo Lazarenko, who is now in a U.S. prison.
The re-election of President Leonid Kuchma, a former missile plant director, to a second term in 1999 brought no political tranquility. In the past few months, the Communist-dominated parliament brought down a Cabinet that had ushered in Ukraine's first economic growth in years, and opposition groups brought thousands of people to the streets.
The opposition charged that Kuchma rigged the elections, was incompetent and corrupt, and was involved in the death of a critical journalist. Kuchma dismissed the charges and in a series of political steps has effectively silenced his foes, who lacked popular support.
The gloomy political picture is partly offset by last year's 6-percent economic growth. But it remains to be seen whether Ukraine's new government will be able to continue with effective reforms.
And while Kiev reminds a friendly modern city with fancy shops and entertainment spots, many Ukrainians can hardly afford such luxuries and life outside the capital largely remains a struggle for survival.
Unlike many other former Soviet states, Ukraine experienced no violent ethnic strife after independence, despite tensions with the large Russian-speaking minority. But its society is split among different religious confessions, highlighted by the pope's visit.
Ukraine's Catholics - 5 million Eastern rite Catholics and 1 million Roman Catholics - suffered persecution under the czars and Soviets and have seen property seized by the Orthodox Church led from Moscow. The Orthodox church has strongly protested the papal visit.
Even among Orthodox believers rifts are severe. The Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church and a splinter Kiev Patriarchate are feuding over property and believers.