This essay traces the development of Ukrainian liberalism from the 19th century to modern times, beginning with intellectuals such as Mykhailo Drahomanov, Ivan Franko, Bohdan Kistyakivsky, and Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky who opposed imperialism, rejected Marxism, and promulgated ideas of freedom and democracy grounded in the western system of beliefs. It describes how and why liberalism as a social arrangement has driven recent democratization and market-oriented reforms in Ukraine.