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Resources includes MCHENRY COUNTY, Its History and Its People, 1885-1985, North Dakota Place Names by Douglas Wick, Origins of North Dakota Place Names by Mary Ann Barnes Williams and research by Mike Peterson.
 Kief was founded in 1906, incorporated in 1908, a village in 1916 and then in 1967 a city. It initially was a Soo Line Railroad station located in the northwest quarter of section 34 of Land Township (Township 151, Range 77). The city was named by the Ukrainian settlers after the capital city of Kyiv in Ukraine. Kief was the transliteration and the common spelling for Kiev at the time. 
The post office was established 13 March 1909 with Herman H. Hohenstein as Postmaster. Kief had more than three hundred residents in 1918. It included five churches, Mennonite, Lutheran, Adventist, and German and Russian Baptist, four general stores, four
elevators, a bowling alley and many other businesses. The school, built in 1910 and operated until 1959, once boasted 128 youngsters in grade school and in 1921 there were 44 high school students. Sam Parpenko [Karpanko], who operated a store there from 1929 until it burned in January 1981, recalled his parents homesteaded in 1889 and his father, Mike, walked to Balfour for groceries. In 2018 there were 14 residents.
The article below is from "Voice of Russian-Speaking America" published on 16 November 2019:
Half a century ago, the grandmother of Devine Henrikson lived here. The man recalls how he spent his summer holidays with her: “It was a small town where everyone knew each other and helped. They didn’t speak English here, and I was always trying to understand what it was about. ”
Kief was founded in 1908 as a station along the railway line. Although the town was named after the Ukrainian capital, at that time, the traditional spelling of its name was just that. And only in the 1967 year, after North Dakota passed a law abolishing the previous names and statuses of this settlement, it became the city of Kiev. According to Devine, at the source of its foundation were Anton and Khristina Bokovy, who immigrated from the Ukrainian capital. Husband and wife professed Protestantism, and at the beginning of the twentieth century, Kiev was part of the Russian Empire, where the Russian Orthodox Church dominated. Supporters of other religions were persecuted.
Having fled from Qivea in the 1889 year, Anton and his associates were looking for a place where they can freely pray and cultivate the land. The United States turned out to be a suitable country. At that time, North Dakota was handing out land to anyone who was ready to settle and create a community. Thus, several families from Ukrainian Kiev were able to create their own Kiev in the USA. There they prayed in Ukrainian and became free farmers.
Kiev is now an American well-groomed, but sparsely populated town.
One of the residents, Audrey Voloshenko, remembers little of his story. “My mother is German, and my father is Russian or Ukrainian. In fact, what's the difference,” the woman laughed. She listed the names of neighbors whose houses are now empty.
Previously, the population of the town was 300 people. Now it’s just 7.
Annie and Richard Helme consider themselves Germans, although Richard's father immigrated to the United States from the Russian Empire. He admits that his great-grandfathers might have been German missionaries who promoted Protestantism in the Russian Empire. “My father came here from Odessa in 1902, receiving land in North Dakota. They lived here for 5 years and got the right to own the property,” Richard recalls. Both Annie and Richard do not adhere to the traditions that existed here. “I don't remember anything about traditions. We are now celebrating Easter. We go to church, set a big table,” says the man.
But all the remaining residents remember well when Kiev was a thriving city. They were engaged in farming, business, there were several churches and two schools. “There was a grocery store, a bank, a furniture store, a dairy processing plant, a gas station, household goods, a post office. Everything we needed was there, ”Annie recalls.
Despite the fact that the city is located far from settlements, its activities were supported by the railway. Steam trains stopped here for refueling. Everything changed when steam trains were replaced by diesel and electric trains. Then the need to refuel with water disappeared.
An alarming signal was the closure of a school in Kiev, where in addition to English, Russian and German were taught.
“When the school closed in 1959, the population has since started to decline,” explains Annie. Young people moved to big cities, and business gradually faded. Only the Baptist church remains. Local now lacks a grocery store. They have to travel about 80 km for groceries.
Now this settlement is called a ghost town, but its inhabitants do not agree with this.
The only reminder of the Ukrainian founders is an old church, which opens its doors to parishioners once a week.
Kief, North Dakota: 100 Years of History, 1908 - 2008
By Todd Spichke
Can be Purchased Varrious Places on the Internet
Liberty Baptist Church
Cemeteries
Kief Cemetery 1967 Transcriptions
Liberty Baptist Cemetery 1967 Transcriptions
Postmasters 1909-1954
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**The picture was downloaded from:
Digital Horizons, Life on the Northern Plains
Visit them for images and articles of North Dakota history
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