CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS. Folded, young mountains of medium elevation, stretching in an arc about 1,500 km long (with a chord of almost 500 km) from the city of Bratislava in the northwest to the Iron Gate on the Danube River in the southeast and covering an area of 200,000 sq km. The Carpathians are part of the Alpine mountain system and border on the old Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian massifs and Dobrudja, being separated from them by a band of depressions--along the Morava and Vistula rivers, the Sian and Dniester lowlands, the Subcarpathian Depression, and the Wallachian Depression. The Pannonian Basin, which cuts north into the mountains along the Tysa and Bodrog rivers and their tributaries, occupies the central part of the arc. Despite a certain generally perceived uniformity of landscape, the Ukrainian Carpathians can be divided into a number of regions, based on different geological structure and altitude. These tend to form longitudinal belts stretching from the northwest to the southeast as is typical of all the Carpathians...

BUKOVYNA. The territory between the middle Dniester River and the main range of the Carpathian Mountains, around the source of the Prut River and the upper Seret River, the border area between Ukraine and Romania. Today Bukovyna is divided between Ukraine (incorporating Chernivtsi oblast or most of northern Bukovyna) and Romania (containing most of the Suceava region or southern Bukovyna). The name of this territory is derived from its great beech (buk) forests and dates back to the 14th century when it designated the lands on the Moldavian-Polish border. From a historical perspective, Bukovyna is a strategically important border area between Galicia and Moldavia. The region's transitional location influenced its history; it belonged to the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, then to Moldavia. Polish and Hungarian influences intersected here in the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1919-40 and 1941-4 all of Bukovyna belonged to Romania. It was only in 1940 that Bukovyna was divided, along ethnic lines, between Ukraine and Romania...

HUTSUL REGION (Hutsulshchyna). A region in the southeasternmost part of the Carpathian Mountains of Galicia, Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia (the basins of the upper Prut, upper Suceava, upper Bystrytsia Nadvirnianska, and upper Tysa valleys), inhabited by Ukrainian highlanders called Hutsuls. Except for eight settlements in Romania, the Hutsul region lies within the present-day borders of the Ukraine. In the southeast the Hutsul region borders on ethnic Romanian lands; in the west, on the region of the Boikos; in the north, on the region of the Subcarpathian Pidhiriany; and in the southwest, on long-cultivated Transcarpathian Ukrainian lands. The region is located in the most elevated and picturesque part of the Ukrainian Carpathians. The gently sloping mountains are densely populated, and the land there is cultivated to a considerable height owing to the moderating climatic influence of the Black Sea and the massiveness of the ranges, which make summers in the region warmer than in other parts of the Carpathians...

LEMKO REGION (Lemkivshchyna). The territory traditionally inhabited by the Lemkos forms an ethnographic peninsula 140 km long and 25-50 km wide within Polish and Slovak territory. After the deportation of Lemkos from the northern part in 1946, only the southern part, southwest of the Carpathian Mountains, known as the Pre?ov region in Slovakia, has remained inhabited by Lemkos. The Lemko region occupies the lowest part of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains-most of the Low Beskyd, the western part of the Middle Beskyd, and the eastern fringe of the Western Beskyd. The landscape is typical of medium-height-mountain terrain, with ridges reaching 1,000 m and sometimes 1,300 m. Only small parts of southern Low Beskyd and the northern Sian region have a low-mountain landscape. A series of mountain passes along the Torysa River and Poprad River facilitate communications between Galician and Transcarpathian Lemkos...

CARPATHIAN PROTECTED AREAS. The first Carpathian protected areas were established in the early 20th century. Several forest reserves were set up in Transcarpathia: the Stuzhytsia beech-forest reserve (est 1908), the Tykhyi fir-forest reserve (est 1908), and the Pip Ivan spruce-forest reserve (est 1912). In 1913, in accordance with Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky?s decree, the Kniazh-Dvir yew-forest reserve was established on the territory of today?s Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. The current network of Carpathian protected areas consists of several types of parks and reserves: the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve; the Gorgany Nature Reserve; the Carpathian National Park, Synevyr National Nature Park, Uzhanskyi National Nature Park, Vyzhnytsia National Park, Skole Beskyd National Park, and Hutsulshchyna National Park; and the Sian Regional Landscape Park, Zacharovanyi Krai Landscape Park. The largest and most interesting among them from the nature-conservation point of view is the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve...

CARPATHIAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE. One of the Carpathian protected areas established in 1992 with the aim of preserving the unique mountain landscapes, fauna, and flora of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathian Biosphere Reserve covers 53,630 ha and consists of six detached complexes: the Chornohora, Svydivets, Maramures, Kuzii, Uhlia-Shyrokyi Luh, and the Narcissus Valley complexes; as well as two partial reserves: Chorna Hora and Yulivska Hora. Since 1992 the reserve has been a part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In 1998, the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve become the first Ukrainian protected area to be awarded a European Diploma by the Council of Europe. More than 1,000 species of vascular plants, 64 species of mammals, 173 species of birds, 9 species of reptiles, 13 species of amphibians, 23 species of fish, and more than 10,000 species of invertebrates are protected in the reserve. Among them there are 64 plant and 72 animal species included in the IUNC Red List of endangered species...

GORGANY NATURE RESERVE. A nature reserve established in 1996 in the Gorgany Mountains on the territory of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast with the aim of protecting the unique local mountain landscapes, flora, and fauna. The reserve, covering the total area of 5,344 ha, is located in the central part of the Ukrainian Carpathians and its highest peak is Mount Dovbushanka (1,755 m). The distinguishing features of the local landscape are steep stony slopes and numerous inaccessible mountain peaks. Over eighty percent of the reserve?s territory is covered with mixed forests, such as beech-fir-spruce, fir-spruce, and relict pine-spruce forests. Rare Swiss stone pine forest stands are located at altitudes of 1,000-1,400 m. A vast zone of mountain-pine krummholz growth is located above the forest belt. The reserve?s flora and fauna features a number of rare and endemic species, including twenty plant and twenty two animal species listed in Ukraine?s Red Data Book of endangered species and three animals listed in the IUCN Red Data Book...

CARPATHIAN NATIONAL PARK. Ukraine?s first national park, established in 1980 on an area of 50,303 ha with the aim of preserving the ecosystem as well as historical, architectural, and ethnographical monuments in the Chornohora and Gorgany Mountains. The park stretches along the eastern slopes of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains at altitudes ranging from 500 to 2,061 m and is located in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. It borders on the Carpathian Bioshepre Reserve with which it shares Ukraine?s highest peak, Hoverlia (2,061 m). Chornohora?s largest lakes--Nesamovyte and Maricheika--as well as numerous glacial peat bogs are located on the park?s territory in the upper reaches of the Prut River and Chornyi Cheremosh River. One of the distinctive features of the Carpathian National Park are relict patches of Scots pine, Swiss stone pine, and European white birch--the largest in the Ukrainian Carpathians. More than 1,100 vascular plant species, 35 of which are endemic to the region, have been registered in the park...

SYNEVYR NATIONAL NATURE PARK. The third national park to be created in Ukraine, after the Carpathian National Park and the Shatsk National Park. Established in 1989, the park covers 40,400 ha in the central part of the Ukrainian Carpathians, in the upper reaches of the Tereblia and the Rika rivers in Transcarpathia oblast. The park is located in the Gorgany Mountains. The highest peak on the park?s territory is Mt. Nehrovets (1,712 m). The park?s unique feature is the Synevyr Lake, the largest lake in the Ukrainian Carpathians, that has recently been added to the list of Ramsar wetlands of international importance. A widely popular site associated with many local legends, the lake is one of the best-recognized symbols of the Ukrainian Carpathians. The park also has sources of mineral water, and valued historical and cultural structures, particularly wooden churches. The Synevyr National Nature Park houses eastern Europe?s only wood-rafting museum built on the Ozerianka River...

UZHANSKYI NATIONAL NATURE PARK. A national park in the Carpathians established in 1999 in Transcarpathia oblast and extending over the total area of 39,159 ha. The park is located in the upper reaches of the Uzh River and its tributaries in the Low Beskyd, along the Ukrainian border with Slovakia and Poland, and on the western slopes of the Polonynian Beskyd. It's highest peak is Velyka Ravka (1,304 m). The Uzhanskyi National Nature Park was created on the basis of the Stuzhytsia Regional Landscape Park and other nature preserves some of which had existed in this area since the early 20th century. For example, the Stuzhytsia and Tykhyi nature preserves, established in 1908 as the first protected areas in the Ukrainian Carpathians, served to protect the unique local beech and fir forests. Today the Uzhanskyi Park constitutes an integral part of the Eastern Carpathians Biosphere Reserve which was designated in 1998 as a first trilateral biosphere reserve in the world, uniting the Polish-Slovak reserve with the Ukrainian one...

CHERKASY. A city (2011 pop 287,583) on the right bank of the Kremenchuk Reservoir, the capital of Cherkasy oblast, and a river port on the Dnieper River. Founded, most probably, in the 13th century, Cherkasy was first mentioned in documents in 1394 as a fortified city in the appanage Kyiv principality of the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state. From the end of the 15th century Cherkasy was an important defense outpost against surprise attacks by the Tatars. In the early 16th century Cherkasy was the center of the Cherkasy starostvo. Among its administrators were Ostafii Dashkevych and Prince Dmytro Vyshnevetsky who organized Cossack forces to defend the frontier region against Tatar incursions. After the Union of Lublin in 1569 Cherkasy became part of Poland. Most of its population was Cossack, and the city played an important role in the Cossack insurrections against Poland. From 1648 Cherkasy was one of the principal cities in the Hetman state of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky; it was a regimental city and the seat of the Cherkasy regiment until 1686...

KANIV. City (2011 pop 25,748) and raion center in Cherkasy oblast, situated on the right bank of the Dnieper River. One of the most important cities in Kyivan Rus’, it was mentioned in the Kyivan Cave Patericon as existing in the last half of the 11th century. Kaniv arose on the site of, or near, the fortified city of Roden. From the middle of the 12th century it was an important trade center on the Varangian route along the Dnieper to Constantinople and a fortress defending the frontier of Rus’ and traders from Cuman invaders. Under Lithuanian rule (1362–1596) it was governed by starostas. In 1556 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. In the Cossack period it was a regimental center of the Kaniv regiment (1637-78). Saint George's (Dormition) Cathedral, built in 1144 by Vsevolod Olhovych, has been preserved there to this day. The Shevchenko National Preserve, where Taras Shevchenko is buried, the Kaniv State Nature Reserve, and the archeological sites of Kniazha Hora and the Kaniv settlement are located nearby...

UMAN. A city (2011 pop 87,424) on the Umanka River and a raion center in Cherkasy oblast. It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1616, when it was under Polish rule. In 1648 it was liberated from the Poles by Ivan Hanzha, a colonel of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and became the administrative center of Uman regiment. After being returned to Poland in 1667, the town was abandoned by many residents, who moved to Left-Bank Ukraine. Under the ownership of the Potocki family of Polish magnates (1726–1832) the town grew in economic and cultural importance. The Uman region was the site of the haidamaka uprisings in 1734, 1750, and 1768, when the town was captured by Maksym Zalizniak and Ivan Gonta and most of its Polish, Jewish, and Uniate residents were killed. After the partition of Poland in 1793, Uman was annexed by Russia. At the beginning of the 19th century Uman became an important center of Hasidic Judaism. At the end of the 19th century Uman was linked by railway to Kyiv and Odesa, and its manufacturing industries began to develop rapidly...

KORSUN-SHEVCHENKIVSKYI. City (2007 pop 18,266) and raion center in Cherkasy oblast, situated on the Ros River. Founded as a fortress by Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise in 1032, until 1944 it was called Korsun. The town was first mentioned in a historical document in 1169. From 1195 to its destruction by the Mongols in 1240, Korsun was the centre of an appanage principality ruled by the descendants of Prince Volodymyr Monomakh and an important defensive fortress. In 1320 it became part of the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state, and after the Union of Lublin of 1569 it came under Polish rule. In 1585 a Polish fortress was built there, the town received the right of Magdeburg law, and it became the centre of the Korsun starosta district. During the Cossack-Polish War the Battle of Korsun took place there in 1648, and the town was the center of Korsun regiment from 1648 to 1712. In 1702–4 the Korsun colonel Zakhar Iskra was one of the leaders of a popular rebellion. In 1768, during the Koliivshchyna rebellion, the Polish garrison was destroyed by the forces of Maksym Zalizniak...

ZOLOTONOSHA. A city (2011 pop 28,464) on the Zolotonoshka River and a raion center in Cherkasy oblast. It was first mentioned in a document in 1576, as a fortified town. In 1640 it was acquired by Jeremi Wisniowiecki. After throwing off Polish rule in 1648 during the Cossack-Polish War, Zolotonosha became a company center in Cherkasy regiment and, in the 1660s, in Pereiaslav regiment. In 1781 it was given city status and made a county center of Kyiv vicegerency. In the 19th century it was part of Poltava gubernia. By 1885 there were 30 manufacturing enterprises in the city. The Bakhmach–Krasne railway (1897) ran through Zolotonosha and gave it access to agricultural markets. Today its main industry is food processing. It also has a large building-materials factory, a perfume factory, and a sewing plant. Its chief architectural monument is the Church of the Dormition (1760–7), built by Ivan Hryhorovych-Barsky...

CHYHYRYN. City (2007 pop 10,600) and raion center in Cherkasy oblast, located on the Tiasmyn River. Chyhyryn was a fortified winter station of the Cossacks in the first half of the 16th century. In 1592 the town was granted Magdeburg law and began to grow. In 1638-47 the head of Chyhyryn county was Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In 1648 Chyhyryn became the residence of Hetman Khmelnytsky, the center of the Chyhyryn regiment, and the capital of the Hetman state. After the capital was moved to Baturyn in 1663 and Chyhyryn was sacked by the Turks in 1678, the town declined. Khmelnytsky's palace, the town hall, and the Church of the Savior, which were built in the second quarter of the 17th century, have not survived. The Chyhyryn Historic and Cultural Preserve (which includes also the village of Subotiv) was established in 1989 and was granted national status in 1995. The process of reconstructing Chyhyryn’s several historic monuments, including Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s residence and the Church of SS Peter and Paul was completed in 2009...

CHERNIHIV. City (2001 pop 305,000) in the Dnieper Lowland situated on the high right bank of the Desna River, principal city of the Chernihiv region and capital of Chernihiv oblast, railway and highway junction, with a port on the river and an airport. Traces of settlements from the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age have been found on the site of present-day Chernihiv. In historical times Chernihiv was a center of the Siverianians. The city was incorporated into Kyivan Rus' in the 9th century and became one of the most important and wealthiest cities of the realm. The first mention of Chernihiv in the chronicles occurred in 907. In the 11th-13th century Chernihiv was the capital of Chernihiv principality, whose first ruler was Prince Mstyslav Volodymyrovych, the son of Volodymyr the Great...

CHERNIHIV REGION (Chernihivshchyna). A historical and geographical territory in northeastern Ukraine on the border with Russia and Belarus. In the west the Chernihiv region borders on the Kyiv region; in the east, on Slobidska Ukraine; in the northwest, on Belarus; and in the north, on Russia (Briansk region). The precise boundaries of the Chernihiv region have changed over the centuries. The territory has an area of about 55,700 sq km. During the Princely era the Chernihiv region formed the nucleus of Chernihiv principality, which also encompassed large territories in the north (Briansk region), the northeast (Kursk region, Murom-Riazan land), and the southeast (Tmutorokan principality)...

NIZHYN or Nizhen. A city (2001 pop 76,000) on the Oster River and a raion center in Chernihiv oblast. It is first mentioned as Unenezh or Unenizh under the year 1147 in the Hypatian Chronicle. The town was destroyed by the Tatars in 1239, and it recovered slowly. In the mid-14th century it came under Lithuanian rule, and in 1514 it was renamed Nizhen. In 1618 it was taken by Poland, and in 1625 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. In the Hetman state it was a regiment center of Nizhyn regiment (1648-1782) and then a county center of Chernihiv vicegerency and Chernihiv gubernia (1802-1917)...

NOVHOROD-SIVERSKYI. A city (2001 pop 15,175) on the Desna River and a raion center in Chernihiv oblast. According to archeological evidence it was founded in the 980s. It is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 1044, and the Laurentian Chronicle lists it as the center of the Siversk principality in Kyivan Rus'. One of its rulers was Ihor Sviatoslavych, the central figure of Slovo o polku Ihorevi (The Tale of Ihor's Campaign)...

BATURYN. Historic center and former Cossack capital, now a town smt (2005 pop 2,975) in Bakhmach raion, Chernihiv oblast. It is located on the south bank of the Seim River, a tributary of the Desna River. In the 11th century a small fortress was constructed at this site for the protection of the southeastern border of Chernihiv principality. In 1239 this fortified settlement, the predecessor of modern Baturyn, was razed by Mongols invading Kyivan Rus’. In 1625 the Polish government commissioned a castle on the site of the Kyivan Rus’ stronghold. In 1648 the Ukrainian Cossacks wrested control of Baturyn from the Poles. In 1669 it became the capital of the Hetman state and it served in succession as the residence of Hetmans Demian Mnohohrishny (1669-72), Ivan Samoilovych (1672-87) and Ivan Mazepa (1687-1708)...

BUKOVYNA. In early times Bukovyna was inhabited by the Thracian tribes of the Getae and Dacians. In the 10th century the region became part of the Kyivan Rus’ state. When this state was divided at the end of the 11th century, Bukovyna was eventually incorporated into the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. With the Mongol invasion in 1241 Bukovyna fell under Tatar domination. When the Hungarian king Louis I defeated the Tatars in 1342, southern Bukovyna came under Hungarian rule. During this period Romanians from Transylvania and the Maramures region began to settle in Bukovyna. Voevode Bogdan I, the founder of the Moldavian state, freed Bukovyna from Hungary. From then to 1774 Bukovyna belonged to Moldavia and shared its fate. In 1774, taking advantage of the Russo-Turkish War, Austria annexed the part of northern Moldavia that included Chernivtsi, Seret, Radauti, and Suceava. The new administrative entity was given the name of Bukovyna (first used in a document in 1412)...

CHERNIVTSI. The historical capital and political, cultural, and religious center of Bukovyna. The city (2005 pop 243,500) lies on the border of Subcarpathia and on the boundary separating Ukrainian and Romanian ethnic territories. Situated on both banks of the Prut River, it covers the valley and surrounding hills. Chernivtsi is a highway and railway junction and has an airport. Human settlements at the site of Chernivtsi date back to the Paleolithic Period. Relics of Trypilian culture and Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have been discovered in the suburbs of the city. In the period of Kyivan Rus’ the area was inhabited by White Croatians and Tivertsians (9th–11th century). The defensive fortifications of Chernivtsi were erected on the left bank of the Prut River in the second half of the 12th century by Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl of the Halych principality. The fortress endured until the middle of the 13th century, when it was destroyed by the Mongols. The new town was built on the high right bank of the Prut...

CHERNIVTSI UNIVERSITY. The university was founded in 1875, succeeding the Chernivtsi Higher Theological School, which had existed since 1827. Until 1918 it was known as Franz-Josefs Universitat, with German as the language of instruction and separate departments of Ukrainian and Romanian language and literature. From 1919 to 1940 it was the Universitatea Regele Carol i din Cernauti, with instruction in Romanian, and in 1940 it became the Chernivtsi State University, with instruction in Ukrainian. Public efforts to rename the university in honor of Yurii Fedkovych, led by the literary scholar Yevhen Kyryliuk, for many years did not gain the consent of the Soviet authorities, but in 1989 Fedkovych finally became the university’s patron. In 2000 the university was granted a national university status and its name was changed to Chernivtsi National University. Today it has 16 faculties and an enrollment of close to 16,000 students...

STOROZHYNETS. A city (2001 pop 14,693) on the Seret (Siret) River and a raion center in Chernivtsi oblast in Bukovyna. The town was first mentioned in historical documents in 1448, when it was part of the Moldavian principality. In the 16th century it was under Turkish rule, and from 1774, under Austria. In 1854 the town was granted city status. By the end of the 19th century it had developed into a small manufacturing and trading center with a population of 7,000. In 1904 it became a county center. After the First World War the city was occupied by Romania, and in 1940 it was annexed by the Ukrainian SSR. Today it has a lumber-manufacturing complex. It's forestry tekhnikum, located partly in the Orenstein family palace (1912), includes a large dendrological park...

SERET (SIRET). A town (2002 pop 9,329) on the Seret (Siret) River in southern Bukovyna, Romania, just south of the Ukrainian-Romanian border. According to archeological evidence the site has been inhabited since the Neolithic Period. It is first mentioned in historical documents in 1334. In 1365-88 it was the capital of Moldavia, and in 1370-1435, the seat of a Catholic diocese. Under Austrian rule (1774-1918) Seret was a county administrative center of Bukovyna crown land (1868-1918). At the beginning of the 20th century branches of the Ruska Besida in Bukovyna and the Ukrainska Shkola society were active in Seret. In 1910 Ukrainians accounted for 41.8 percent of the population of Seret county. In 1918 all Bukovyna, including Seret, was occupied by Romania. In 1940 Seret county was divided between Romania and the Ukrainian SSR, and Seret, along with some 14 Ukrainian villages, remained in Romania...

CRIMEAN MOUNTAINS. Young, folded mountains of the Alpine mountain system located in the southern part of the Crimea. Including the foothills, they cover one-fifth of the peninsula's area. They extend for about 150 km from Sevastopil to Teodosiia and are 40?50 km in width. The Crimean Mountains consist of three long, parallel ranges, separated by valleys. They descend gradually towards the north and fall sharply towards the south. The first two ranges starting from the north constitute the foothills; the third range, called the Yaila (the name is sometimes applied to the Crimean Mountains as a whole), constitutes the mountains proper. Between the steep southern slope of the mountains and the Black Sea lies a hilly coastal strip, the Crimean southern shore...

CRIMEAN SOUTHERN SHORE (also known as the Crimean Riviera). Narrow (2?12 km) strip of land in the southern Crimea lying between the slope of the Crimean Mountains and the Black Sea. It stretches for about 150 km from Foros eastward to Kara-Dag, covering an area of about 600 sq km. Sheltered from north winds, the shore has a Mediterranean climate and flora. Its agriculture is subtropical. Because of its natural beauty and healthy climate, this area is heavily populated and famous for its health resorts and tourism. Visitors greatly outnumber residents: at the beginning of the 1880s about 8,000 people visited Yalta each year; in 1910, 50,000 came to Yalta; and today over 500,000 visit the shore. Yalta is the main resort area...

YALTA. A city (2001 pop 81,654) on the southern shore of the Crimea. The earliest recorded reference to settlement on the site is a reference to a Greek colony named Yalita (Halita) in the 1st century BC. Control of the area later passed to Byzantium. By the 12th century Yalta (called Dzhalita) had become an established port and fishing village. Genoese traders had control of the town (known as Etalita) in the 13th to 15th centuries, until they were succeeded by the Turks in 1475. Yalta fell under Russian control in 1783 with the annexation of the Crimea. At that time the region around it began to be colonized by estate owners. In 1823 the governor-general of the region, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, decided to cultivate Yalta as the major settlement on the Crimean southern shore. Yalta is nestled in a scenic location between the Black Sea and the Crimean Mountains. It is particularly noted for its Mediterranean climate...

SUDAK. A city (2001 pop 15,500) on the Black Sea coast and a raion center in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. A fortress called Sugdei was built there in 212. At the end of the 8th century it became an important seaport, which maintained economic ties with Byzantium. In the Kyivan Rus? documents it was called Surozh. In the 13th century it became part of the Crimean Khanate, and in 1365, a Genoese trading colony called Soldaia. The Genoese built a fortress with 16 turrets and a church, remnants of which have been preserved. In 1475 Sudak was annexed by Turkey, and in 1783, by Russia. Since 1954 Sudak has been located within the Ukrainian borders. It was granted city status in 1982. Most of the inhabitants are employed in the city's health resorts...

LIVADIIA. A town smt (2001 pop 1,620) on the Crimean southern shore 3 km southwest of Yalta and under the administration of the Yalta city council. In the 18th century there was a Greek settlement at the site, which in the second half of the 19th century became an estate of the Russian royal family. After the Revolution of 1917 it was transformed into a health resort. Some sessions of the Yalta Conference in 1945 were held in Livadiia. Today the town has a vineyard and a winery, several sanatoriums, and resorts for victims of heart, lung, and nerve diseases. Livadiia's most important architectural monument is the Grand Palace, designed by M. Krasnov in 1910?11 and surrounded by a park designed by I. Peter in 1834. Traces of Copper Age and Taurian settlements and a burial place from the 1st century have been found near the town. The ruins of a 10th- to 12th-century castle are nearby...

DNIEPER RIVER (Dnipro River). The largest river in Ukraine and the third largest in Europe (after the Volga River and the Danube River). Its length is 2,285 km, of which 485 km lie within the Russian Federation, 595 km within Belarus, and 1,095 km within Ukraine. The Dnieper Basin covers 504,000 sq km, of which 289,000 sq km are within Ukraine (48 percent of its area). The basin occupies 42 percent of the territory of the Ukrainian state and 36 percent of Ukrainian ethnic territory. The Dnieper became an important water route in medieval times, when it became part of the Varangian route between the Baltic Sea and Byzantium across the Black Sea. Kyiv, the Rus' capital, stood on the Dnieper at the confluence of important water routes. The capitals of principalities?Chernihiv, Pereiaslav, Turiv, Smolensk?were built on or very near the Dnieper?

DNIESTER RIVER (Dnister River). The second-largest river in Ukraine. It is 1,360 km long, and its basin covers 72,100 sq km. At one time the Dniester flowed only through Ukrainian territory. But after the ancestors of the Romanians settled the lands east of the Carpathian Mountains (beginning at the end of the 14th century) and after Bessarabia was Romanianized, the Dniester from Mohyliv-Podilskyi to its mouth (about one-third of its length) marked the Ukrainian-Romanian ethnic boundary. The Dniester is the main river in Galicia. The historical and ethnographical significance of the Dniester as the symbol of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia outlived its economic and political importance. This is the source of the piety towards the river that is found in the romantics of Western Ukraine. This also explains frequent references to the river in the names of Galician institutions and organizations?

RIVERS OF UKRAINE. There are approx 30,000 rivers crossing Ukrainian ethnographic territory. Of that number about 23,000 are in Ukraine. With a combined length of nearly 180,000 km, most are small; in Ukraine there are 117 rivers the watercourses of which exceed 100 km, but only 13 that are longer than 500 km. The characteristics of rivers, such as the density of the river network as well as the volume and the seasonality of the flow, depend on factors such as climate, geology, relief, vegetation, and human modifications of the landscape. The rivers of Ukraine generally flow southward into the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov. The notable exceptions are in the northwest, where the prevalent flow is northward into the Prypiat River, a tributary of the Dnieper River, or into the Vistula River, which flows through Poland into the Baltic Sea?

DONETS RIVER (also known as Dinets and Donets Siverskyi). The largest tributary of the Don River. The Donets is 1,050 km long and has a basin area of 98,900 sq km. Almost the entire stretch of the river lies within Ukrainian ethnic territory, and 950 km of it lie within Ukraine. The Donets rises in the Kursk region, south of the Central Upland, at an altitude of 215 m. Its upper stretch, above Belgorod, is narrow; farther down, the river attains a width of 100 m and an average depth of 1 m. Below Belgorod the river forms the Pechenihy Reservoir (86 sq km in area), which supplies Kharkiv with water. From there the right bank of the Donets is usually high and frequently dissected (especially the chalk hills called the Holy Hills [Sviati Hory] below Izium). The left bank is flat. About 220 km above its mouth the Donets cuts into the Donets Ridge near Hundorivka?

BOH RIVER (ancient Greek: Hipanis; now called Pivdennyi Buh [Southern Buh]). One of the largest rivers of Ukraine, 857 km in length (792 km to the liman). Its drainage basin covers an area of 63,740 sq km. In its upper section in the Podolian Upland the Boh flows slowly through a wide, muddy valley. Its middle section cuts into a crystalline massif, and the gradient increases as it flows between craggy banks. Rapids appear and are most concentrated in the 70 km stretch between the town of Pervomaiske and the village of Oleksandrivka, where the steep banks reach a height of 90 m (here the Myheiski, Bohdanivski, and other rapids are found). Below the rapids the river flows through the Black Sea Lowland. It spreads out to 800 m (2?3 m deep) and enters the deep Dnieper-Boh Estuary near the town of Nova Odesa?

FAUNA. The present fauna of Ukraine began to develop in the late Eocene epoch, if not earlier. Among the mammals at the end of the Paleocene was the hornless rhinoceros; among the birds were the cormorant, sea gull, stork, wild duck, and owl. The rivers were inhabited by crocodiles and the seas by whales and many forms of mollusk and fish. During the several ice ages in the Pleistocene epoch much of Ukraine's territory was covered with glaciers. In the tundra bordering them lived species adapted to the cold climate. In the Middle Holocene the climate became similar to what it is today. Many species of the earlier period gradually perished (mammoth, rhinoceros); some species moved farther north (musk-ox). Human activities--hunting, herding, agriculture--contributed to the impoverishment of the mammoth fauna. The cultivation of the steppes, destruction of the forests, and draining of the marshes contracted the habitat of many species and contributed to their migration from Ukraine or to their extinction...

NATURE PRESERVES. Territories recognized as having intrinsic value that are designated for protection from commercial exploitation so that their natural characteristics will be maintained. In Ukraine a system of different kinds of nature preserves has evolved. The preserves differ in the scope of their protection activities, the jurisdiction under which they serve, the size of the territory they control, and the extent to which they are open to the public for popular education and outdoor recreation. As of 2007, the total area of all types of protected areas, nature preserves, and parks in Ukraine was approximately 2.8 million ha which represents about 4.7 percent of the total land area of Ukraine. Nature preserves represent the principal focus of Ukraine's nature preservation effort. The system was initiated in the former USSR shortly after the Revolution of 1917, and by 1988 it encompassed more than 150 nature preserves, of which 12 were in Ukraine...

WILDLIFE REFUGE. An area of land or a body of water designated for the purpose of protecting some specific plants or animal species. Such areas do not constitute fully rounded natural complexes, as in nature preserves. The most common wildlife refuges were established to protect valuable wild animals and birds by means of the prohibition of hunting on their territory for 10 years or more. Fishing refuges protect spawning grounds or young fish. A landscape refuge may protect a picturesque river valley or lake so that its esthetic qualities will be maintained for the benefit of outdoor recreation and tourism. Small plots of forest, steppe, or wetlands may be designated as plant refuges for the purpose of protecting their unique flora. Geological features such as caves or sites rich in fossils may also be protected. Even a site of historical significance may be designated as a wildlife reguge. In 2007 Ukraine had 2,709 wildlife refuges of various kinds, occupying a total area of over 900,000 ha...

MIGRATORY BIRDS. Migration is a part of the life cycle of some birds. It is an annual phenomenon involving whole populations of birds in long-range displacements from their breeding grounds to wintering sites and back. Migration depends on a complex internal rhythm affecting the whole organism, particularly the endocrine glands. The geographical position of Ukraine and its climatic variations support several patterns of migratory behavior among the more than 150 species of migrating birds found there: seasonal translocation, overflights, mixed sedentary/migratory movements, and vertical movements. Most birds fly south or southwest for the winter, but some prefer eastern directions (finch, willow warbler). Massive seasonal translocation is typical for swallows, storks, geese, glareolas, sandpipers, nightingales, and other birds. The birds arrive in April or May and depart in September or October. Many water birds remain in their breeding areas as long as the lakes and rivers stay ice-free...

LIZARDS. A family representing a large group of scaly reptiles found throughout the world in tropical and temperate zones; its genus Lacerta includes most of the species of European lizards. Lizards are multicolored and blend with their surroundings. Most feed on insects and small invertebrates, some eat snails and crabs, and others are vegetarians. Lizard eggs, enclosed in a soft, leathery shell, are laid under rocks, in crevices, or in the sand. In Ukraine the green lizard lives in the steppe on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The fast lizard is found all over Ukraine. The viviparous lizard inhabits areas of Polisia, the northwestern forest-steppe, and the Carpathian Mountains. The Crimean lizard lives along the shores of the Black Sea. The cliff lizard is also a Crimean native. The sand lizard inhabits semidesert, arid steppe, and forest-steppe areas. Other species include the Crimean gecko, the multicolored chameleon, the steppe lizard, and the short-tail lizard...

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS AND PARKS. Cultural and educational establishments in which wild and sometimes domesticated animals are kept for display, scientific research, and reproduction. The only difference between gardens and parks is in their size and the extent of their collections. In recent times zoological gardens have become responsible for the preservation and even breeding of rare or endangered species of animals; others have undertaken the task of acclimatizating animals to new geographic environments, research on various diseases and their prevention, and so on. In Ukraine the first zoological park was organized in 1875 in what is now the Askaniia-Nova Biosphere Reserve. Others followed in Kharkiv (1896), Mykolaiv (1901), Kyiv (1908), Odesa (1936), the town of Mena in Chernihiv oblast (1977), and Cherkasy (1979). The largest of these is the zoological park in Kyiv, covering an area of 40 ha, where over 1,600 animals representing more than 240 species are kept...

FLORA. The vegetation of Ukraine evolved through long geologic epochs and through many developmental phases before it attained its present form. In the Paleocene and Eocene, Ukraine had a tropical and subtropical flora. Palms, cinnamon trees, figs, laurels, eucalyptus, sequoias, and other trees grew in Ukraine. In the mid-Oligocene Mediterranean plants began to spread gradually to Ukraine, including oleander, pomegranate, beech, maple, and poplar. In the Miocene the vegetation generally assumed a temperate broad-leaved or broad-leaved-coniferous character, with a preponderance of deciduous forms such as beech, oak, and walnut. Gradually the flora changed to temperate warm-climate vegetation. In the Pliocene most of Ukraine was covered with forest vegetation. Among the evergreens were species of pine, with an admixture of hemlock, spruce, fir, and others; and among deciduous trees were birch, oak, hornbeam, maple, chestnut, walnut, and magnolia. The southern region was covered with steppe grasses...

FOREST. One of the basic types of vegetation groupings, consisting of trees and shrubs and covering an extensive area. Forests have an effect on climate; the hydrological regime of the soil and the environment; the retention of surface soils, particularly on steep slopes and sands; and the composition of flora and fauna. Forests also have an enormous economic and esthetic importance. The degree of forestation and the variety of forest species in Ukraine are determined by Ukraine's geographical position between the humid region of Western Europe and the dry steppes of Asia. The forests in the western part of Ukraine have a Western European character; in the southern part small woods rather than forests are found. As Ukraine's climate, relief, soils, and water regime change from the west and north towards the east and south, large differences arise in the extent of forestation and the composition of the forests. The eastern and part of the southern limits of dispersal for such tree species as the fir, spruce, beech, hornbeam, and ash dissect Ukraine...

FOREST-STEPPE. A natural belt characterized by the alternation of forests--mostly deciduous--with steppe vegetation and fauna. In Ukraine the forest-steppe is the central belt stretching between the forest belt in the north and the steppe belt in the south. It is part of the Eastern European forest-steppe and covers about 30 percent of Ukraine's territory. The boundary with the forest belt (Polisia) runs along the line Lviv-Kremianets-Zhytomyr-Kyiv-Nizhyn-Hlukhiv and is distinct. Northwest of the main forest-steppe belt lies a large forest-steppe island called the Volhynia?Kholm forest-steppe. In the west the forest-steppe borders on a belt of forests of the Central European variety, covering Roztochia, the Sian Lowland, Subcarpathia, and the Opilia Upland. The southern border of the forest-steppe is not as distinct and is defined in different ways. The Ukrainian forest-steppe is a gently undulating plain, covered for the most part by a thick, loess stratum that overlies various geological layers dissected by gullies and ravines...

STEPPE. A term, originally applied to the natural grasslands of Southern Ukraine, which has been generalized to designate any natural grassland plain with a temperate, semiarid climate and chernozem or chestnut soils. The Ukrainian steppe encompasses most of the western segment of the Eurasian steppe that is known as the Black Sea (or Pontic) steppe province. The province forms a wedge, delimited by the forested foothills of the Crimean Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains in the south, the forest-steppe zone to the northwest, and the drier, more continental steppes east of the Volga River. The steppe thus occupies about 240,000 sq km (40 percent) of Ukraine, nearly 300,000 sq km (40 percent) of the compact Ukrainian ethnographic territory, and 460,000 sq km (48 percent) of both compact and mixed Ukrainian national territory. The steppe, endowed with the greatest heat resources in Ukraine, has the longest growing season, but receives the least precipitation and often suffers from drought...

PARK. A tract of wild or cultivated ground set aside for recreation. Larger parks, such as nature preserves, wildlife refuges, and national parks, are set aside by the state for the purpose of conservation and scientific research. Smaller parks or gardens are maintained by municipalities for decorative and recreational purposes. Specialized botanical gardens and zoological gardens and parks usually belong to scientific institutions and serve scientific ends. The earliest parks in Ukraine, dating back to the Princely era, were either royal hunting preserves or gardens cultivated by monasteries and princes. Private parks appeared only in the first half of the 18th century. They were designed in the Italian baroque or the French style, with a symmetrical composition and a clearly defined center. A large number of parks were established in the second half of the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century. Almost all of them were of the landscape or English type, based on the principle of free planning with the fullest utilization of natural conditions...

MEDICINAL PLANTS. Using plants for scientific medicine or folk medicine is known as phytotherapy. The roots, tubers, bulbs, leaves, flowers, seeds, and bark of medicinal plants are selectively used in making teas, infusions, tonics, juices, tinctures, powders, and poultices. About 80 percent of the ingredients in drugs for heart disease, gastrointestinal or nervous disorders, and other grave illnesses are taken from medicinal plants. A great number of plants have been used in Ukraine from time immemorial for the prevention or cure of sickness in humans and animals alike. Since the Second World War over 20 research institutions connected with medical and pharmaceutical institutes and universities have conducted research on medicinal plants in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Pharmaceutical Institute plays a leading role in this field. The gathering of wild plants and the cultivation of medicinal plants have expanded, and the research on new plants has led to the introduction of many foreign species and the adoption of many plants by official medicine...

KHARKIV. Ukraine's second-largest city (2005 pop 1,465,000), situated at the confluence of the Lopan River, the Udy River, and the Kharkiv River; the historic capital of Slobidska Ukraine, it is an important industrial, commercial, communications, scientific, and cultural center. Kharkiv's proximity to the Donets Basin and its location at the intersection of the trade routes between Russia and the Black Sea and central Ukraine and Caucasia have facilitated its economic growth. The city is over 300 sq km in area. Kharkiv is the most important machine-building industrial center in Ukraine. With over 450 industrial enterprises, it has some of the largest factories in Ukraine. Kharkiv is also a major cultural and scientific center in Ukraine, second only to Kyiv...

SLOBIDSKA UKRAINE. A historical-geographic region in northeastern Ukraine that corresponds closely to the area of the following Cossack regiments: Ostrohozke, Izium, Kharkiv, Okhtyrka, and Sumy regiments. Its name, derived from the sloboda settlements founded there, came into use in the early 17th century and continued until the early 19th century. In the 1630s and 1640s hundreds of slobody were created in the border region between the Cossack Hetman state and Muscovy and they attracted peasants from Left-Bank and Right-Bank Ukraine. Slobidska Ukraine bordered on the Hetman state to the west, the borderlands of the Crimean Khanate and the Zaporizhia to the south, the Don River to the east, and Muscovy to the north...

KHARKIV OBLAST. An administrative region in northeastern Ukraine, formed on 27 February 1932. Its area is 31,400 sq km; its population peaked at 3,196,600 in 1990; by 2005 it declined to 2,848,000. The oblast is one of the most industrialized in Ukraine. In 2000, with its population accounting for 5.9 percent of the population of Ukraine, the oblast produced 6.8 percent of Ukraine's industrial output by value. Kharkiv oblast is also a major agricultural producer. Occupying 5.2 percent of the land area of Ukraine, it accounts for 6.2 percent of Ukraine's area sown to crops and 5.6 percent of Ukraine's total agricultural output (in 2003) by value...

IZIUM. City (2005 pop 54,600) and raion center in Kharkiv oblast, situated in a picturesque setting at the foot of Kremianets Mountain on the right bank of the Donets River. A settlement was established there in the second quarter of the 17th century; in 1681 it was fortified by Kharkiv regiment's Col H. Donets, and the fortress served as an important defense outpost against Tatar incursions. From 1685 to 1765 Izium was a regimental town in Slobidska Ukraine. Because of its importance as an industrial and commercial center between Kharkiv and the Donets Basin, it has expanded rapidly (1926 pop 12,000; 1959 pop 38,000; 1970 pop 52,000)...

KUPIANSK. City (2005 pop 31,200) and raion center under Kharkiv oblast jurisdiction, situated on the Oskil River. It was founded in 1655 as a sloboda (self-governing settlement) and was a company town in Kharkiv regiment and Izium regiment of Slobidska Ukraine (1685?1765). It became a county town in Voronezh vicegerency in 1780, in Slobidska Ukraine gubernia (1797), and in Kharkiv gubernia (1835). Since the late 19th century Kupiansk has been an important railway junction: five lines intersect there and at the adjacent town of Kupiansk Vuzlovyi. The city has an agricultural-machinery factory and food-processing industry. There is a historical-regional museum and an automobile-transportation tekhnikum....

PODILIA. A historical-geographical upland region of southwestern Ukraine, consisting of the western part of the forest-steppe belt. Podilia is bounded in the southwest by the Dniester River, beyond which lie the Pokutian-Bessarabian Upland and Subcarpathia. To the north it overlaps with the historical region of Volhynia, where the Podolian Upland descends to Little Polisia and Polisia. In the west it is bounded by the Vereshchytsia River, beyond which lies the Sian Lowland. To the east Podilia passes imperceptibly into the Dnieper Upland, with the Boh River serving as part of the demarcation line, and in the southeast it descends gradually toward the Black Sea Lowland and is delimited by the Yahorlyk River and the Kodyma River. The Podilia region thus coincides with the Podolian Upland, which occupies an area of approx 60,000 sq km. The name Podilia has been known since the mid-14th century. Today western Podilia encompasses Ternopil oblast (although the Kremianets area historically belonged to Volhynia) and small parts of Lviv oblast and Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, while middle and eastern Podilia includes almost the whole of Khmelnytskyi oblast and Vinnytsia oblast...

VINNYTSIA. A city (2010 pop 369,195) on the Boh River and an oblast center since 1932. It is first mentioned in historical documents in 1363, as a Lithuanian fortress. The settlement gradually developed from a farming village into a manufacturing and trade center. By the 16th century it held regular fairs, had several guilds, and traded with cities on the Black Sea coast. As a frontier town Vinnytsia was exposed to Tatar attack: between 1400 and 1569 it was raided more than 30 times. In 1558 a new fortress was built on a river island, and then a new town sprang up on the right bank. From 1569 Vinnytsia was under Polish rule. In 1598 it was made the administrative center of Bratslav voivodeship, and in 1640 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. An Orthodox brotherhood was set up by the burghers in the 1570s. It sponsored a brotherhood school, which operated for almost two centuries. In 1632 a college was set up at the brotherhood Monastery of the Elevation of the Cross. After being liberated from the Poles by Maksym Kryvonis in 1648, Vinnytsia became a regimental center (1653–67) in the Cossack Hetman state. Under Ivan Bohun's command it withstood a major Polish siege in 1651...

KHMELNYTSKYI. City (2010 pop 261,654), the capital of Khmelnytskyi oblast. Until 1954 it was called Proskuriv, when it was renamed to honor Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. First mentioned as the Polish royal outpost of Ploskyriv in 1493, it was fortified in the 16th century. Its inhabitants took part in the Cossack-Polish War and in the haidamaka uprisings. In 1780 the town was renamed Proskuriv. In 1793 it came under Russian rule and became a county center (from 1797 in Podilia gubernia). From 1917 to November 1920 Proskuriv was controlled much of the time by the Ukrainian National Republic. Under Soviet rule from 1920, it became an okruha center (1923-30, 1935-7) and then an oblast capital (in 1941 and 1944-54 of Kamianets-Podilskyi oblast). The Second World War brought about radical changes in the national composition of its population: the Ukrainians rose from 39 percent in 1926 to 53 in 1959, and Russians from 7 to 21 percent, while Jews fell from 42 to 10 percent, and Poles from 10 to 7 percent. Until the Soviet period the city's economy was based on sugar refining, grain markets, and cottage industries. Today Khmelnytskyi is a rail junction and an important industrial center...

KAMIANETS-PODILSKYI. City (2009 pop 101,185) and raion center of Khmelnytskyi oblast. First mentioned in an Armenian chronicle of the 11th century, when it belonged to Halych principality, the town was destroyed by the Mongols in 1240. In the 1360s it fell under the rule of the Lithuanian Koriiatovych princes. In 1430 Poland gained control of the town; in 1432 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law; and in 1463 it became the capital of Podilia voivodeship. Under the Poles it grew into a center of international trade and artisanry, second only to Lviv. Its wooden Kyivan Rus’ fortress was replaced in the 15th and 16th centuries by a large stone citadel, and the city was well fortified with walls and towers. It protected the frontier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Tatars and Turks. The city's old town lies picturesquely on a high plateau within a loop formed by the Smotrych River. Located there are centuries-old narrow, winding streets and buildings, the citadel, which was separated from the rest of the town by a deep ravine. The city’s abundance of architectural monuments (the third most numerous in Ukraine after Kyiv and Lviv) and striking geographic locale have made it a popular tourist destination...

MOHYLIV-PODILSKYI. A city (2010 pop 32,562) on the Dniester River and a raion center in Vinnytsia oblast. In 1595 Stanislaw Rewera Potocki founded a town at the site of Ivankivtsi village and named it after his father-in-law, Yarema Mohyla (Movila), a prince of Moldavia. A few years later a castle was built. Located on the trade route from Ukraine to Moldavia, Mohyliv grew rapidly into an important trading center and the largest town in Podilia. Its inhabitants took part in a number of popular uprisings--that of Severyn Nalyvaiko in 1595 and others in 1614 and 1637–8. In 1648 it became a regiment center in Bohdan Khmelnytsky's Cossack Hetman state. It was destroyed during the Cossack-Polish War in 1649 and 1654. After participating in Ivan Sirko's uprisings in 1664 and 1671, Mohyliv was captured by the Turks (1672-99). The town gained the rights of Magdeburg law in 1743 and developed into a flourishing economic and cultural center. In 1616 its Orthodox brotherhood set up a printing press, and in the 18th century printed books in Ukrainian, Russian, Greek, and Moldavian. In 1795 Mohyliv came under Russian rule...

STAROKOSTIANTYNIV. A city (2001 pop 35,206) on the Sluch River and a raion center in Khmelnytskyi oblast. It was founded in the 1560s by Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky, who fortified Kolyshchentsi village and raised it to the status of a city with the rights of Magdeburg law. Until the beginning of the 17th century the town was known as Kostiantyniv or Kostiantynivka. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was a major center of Socinianism in Volhynia. Many battles between Cossack and Polish armies, especially during Bohdan Khmelnytsky's rule, were fought in the vicinity of Starokostiantyniv. After the partition of Poland in 1793, the town was annexed by Russia. In the 19th century it was a county center of Volhynia gubernia and a manufacturer of tobacco products, oil, soap, beer, bricks, and potash. By 1911 its population was about 20,000, including 11,800 Jews, 7,200 Ukrainians, and 1,200 Poles. During the Ukrainian-Soviet War, 1917–21, the Ukrainian Galician Army fought the Red Army near the town, and later that year the UNR Army broke through the Bolshevik front there to launch its First Winter Campaign...

TERNOPIL. A city (2012 pop 217,055) on the left bank of the Seret River and the capital of Ternopil oblast. In 1540 the Polish magnate Jan Tarnowski built a fortress there against Tatar attacks, and in 1548 the town was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. In 1570 it became the property of Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky, who set up a hospital foundation and an Orthodox church brotherhood. Subsequently it was owned by other magnates. In spite of frequent Tatar attacks (1544, 1575, 1589, 1618, 1672, 1694) Ternopil developed as a manufacturing and trading center. During the Cossack-Polish War, in 1648 and 1655 it was captured by Bohdan Khmelnytsky's army. In 1675 the Turks dismantled its fortifications. By 1672 Ternopil had a population of 2,400, composed of Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles (mostly soldiers of the garrison). In the 17th century there were three Orthodox churches, a Catholic church, and several synagogues in Ternopil...

TEREBOVLIA. A town (2011 pop 13,769) on the Hnizna River and a raion center in Ternopil oblast. It is first mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1097, when it was the center of a separate Terebovlia principality under Prince Vasylko Rostyslavych. Then it became part of Halych principality and the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. The town was annexed by Poland in 1349, fortified with a new castle in 1366, and granted the rights of Magdeburg law in 1389. As a frontier town Terebovlia was subject to frequent attack and destruction by the Tatars (1453, 1498, 1508, 1516) and Turks (1675, 1688). In 1772 it was annexed by Austria. At that time its population was only 2,100. It grew slowly as a manufacturing and trading center. Today the town's architectural monuments include the remains of the fortress, which was destroyed and rebuilt several times between the 14th and 17th centuries, the 16th-century Saint Nicholas's Church , and the Carmelite monastery and church (1635)...

BEREZHANY. City (2011 pop 18,116) in Podilia on the Zolota Lypa River, a raion center in Ternopil oblast. The first written mention of Berezhany occurs in 1375; in 1530 it was granted Magdeburg law by the Polish king Sigismund I the Old. For 200 years it belonged to a noble Polish family, the Sieniawski family, and later to the Lubomirski and Potocki families. In 1574 M. Sieniawski built a fortified castle there, which withstood the Turkish siege of 1675-6. As a result of its location on the trade route from west to east Berezhany developed commercially during the 17th and 18th centuries. Under Austrian (from 1772) and Polish (from 1919) rule it was a county town and seat of the regional court. In 1789 a gymnasium was established, where the language of instruction was at first German and later Polish; in 1905 teaching in Ukrainian was introduced. Before the Second World War Ukrainians constituted 22.3 percent of the 12,700 inhabitants (86 percent in 1959); Poles, 42.2 percent; and Jews, 35.5 percent...

BUCHACH. City (2011 pop 12,514) on the Strypa River, a raion center in Ternopil oblast. Buchach was first mentioned in historical documents from 1397. In 1515 the fortified city was granted Magdeburg law. In the 16th and 17th centuries Buchach protected Galicia from the Tatars and Turks. In 1672 the Buchach Peace Treaty was signed. A Basilian monastery was established in 1712 and a well-known school functioned at the monastery until 1893. From the mid-19th century to 1939 Buchach was a county center. The city developed slowly: in 1880 it had 9,000 inhabitants; in 1939 it had 11,100 inhabitants, of whom 46.4 percent were Jews, 31.9 percent were Poles, and 21.6 percent were Ukrainians. In 1959 Ukrainians constituted 96 percent of the population. Today among the town's architectural monuments are the ruins of the Potocki family's castle; Saint Nicholas's Church (1610); the Basilian monastery (1712) with the baroque Church of the Elevation of the Cross; and the town hall, built in the rococo style by Bernard Meretyn and decorated by the sculptor Johann Pinzel (1751)...

CHORTKIV. City (2011 pop 24,649) on the Seret River, raion center in Ternopil oblast, situated in the northern part of western Podilia. Chortkiv was first mentioned as the village of Chortkovytsi in 1427. The town with the right of Magdeburg law was established in 1522 by Jerzy Czortkowski who built a wooden castle in Chortkiv, replaced in the early 17th century with a stone castle. The town declined in the second half of the 17th century, during the Polish-Turkish wars. Under Austrian rule it was the center of the Chortkiv district; later it became a county center. On 8 June 1919 the Ukrainian Galician Army broke through the Polish front at Chortkiv and began the Chortkiv offensive. In 1931 the town had 19,000 inhabitants, 22.8 percent of whom were Ukrainians, 46.4 percent Poles, and 30 percent Jews. Today among Chortkiv's architectural monuments are a fortress (16th-17th cent.), two wooden churches of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Stanislaus (1619; rebuilt in the 20th century)...

KREMENETS (or Kremianets). City (2011 pop 21,624) and raion center in Ternopil oblast. It is located on the site of Ostra Hora, one of the oldest known settlements in Ukraine, which dates from the Paleolithic Period. Unearthed Greek and Roman coins indicate that inhabitants in the area had trade relations with the Dnieper River region in ancient times. Kremenets was first mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1226. It was one of the strongholds of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia and withstood several sieges, by Hungarians, Poles, Mongols, and Tatars, before being destroyed in 1261. In 1366 it came under Lithuanian rule. In 1438 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. The town flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1793 Kremenets came under Russian rule. With the establishment of the Kremenets Lyceum, the town became an important cultural center in the first half of the 19th century and was known as the 'Volhynian Athens.' In 1895 it had 13,300 inhabitants, 5,300 of whom were Jews...

SOUTHERN UKRAINE. The largest (250,000 sq km) historical-geographic region of Ukraine, stretching from the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in the south to the forest-steppe in the north. Also known as Steppe Ukraine, it was permanently and conclusively settled by Ukrainians only in the second half of the 18th century. From the end of the 18th century until 1917 Southern Ukraine, as part of the Russian Empire, was known as New Russia. The northern boundaries of Southern Ukraine are not precise. From the geographical standpoint they consist of a transition zone between the steppe and the forest-steppe. From the historical standpoint they correspond to the southern frontiers of the states of Kyivan Rus', Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Poland, which together with the Ukrainian farming settlement fluctuated southward deep into the steppe. From the end of the 18th century the northern boundary of Southern Ukraine corresponded to the northern limit of the new possessions of the Russian Empire. The other boundaries of Southern Ukraine included the southern part of Bessarabia in the west and the western part of the Don region in the east, both of which were peopled by Ukrainians...

ODESA. The fourth-largest city (2012 pop 1,007,419) in Ukraine and the capital of Odesa oblast. It is a major port on the Black Sea, a commercial, industrial, cultural, and administrative center, and a transportation terminal. In prehistoric and early historical times the site of present-day Odesa was settled by various peoples and tribes, among them the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, and Greeks. During the time of Kyivan Rus’ the territory was inhabited by the Slavic tribes of Ulychians and Tivertsians. In the 14th century Kachybei settlement and harbor arose. They were fortified at the beginning of the 15th century by the Lithuanian grand duke Vytautas the Great. In 1480 the fortress was captured by the Turks and renamed Hadzhybei or Khadzhybei. In 1789, during the Russo-Turkish War, the Russian army and the Zaporozhian Cossacks led by Antin Holovaty and Zakhar Chepiha took the fortress and settlement, and in 1792 the territory was transferred to the Russian Empire. In 1795 the town was renamed Odesa under the mistaken assumption that the Greek colony of Odess had occupied the site from the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD...

BILHOROD-DNISTROVSKYI. City (2011 pop 50,296) in southern Bessarabia on the right bank of the Dniester Liman, 18 km from the Black Sea. In 600 BC this was the site of the Greek colony of Tyras. In the 9th century AD it was a city of the tribes of Tivertsians and Ulychians named Bilhorod; in the 13th century it became part of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. In the 14th century it was ruled by the Genoese (and renamed Moncastro), and for a time in the 15th century was part of the Moldavian principality. In 1484 the city was captured by the Turks and in 1503 renamed Akkerman (White Rock). In 1812 it came under Russian rule; from 1918 to 1940 it belonged to Romania and was called Cetatea Alba. In 1940 it became part of the USSR; in 1944 it was renamed Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi. Between the two world wars the city was the center of Ukrainian cultural life in southern Bessarabia. Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi's architectural monuments include the well-preserved castle fortress (built in 1438–54 by Master Fedorko), with 26 turrets, 4 gates, and a citadel whose walls are almost 2 km long...

BESSARABIA. Region bounded by the middle and lower Dniester River in the north and east, the Prut River in the west, and the mouth of the Danube River and the Black Sea in the south. Until the beginning of the 19th century the name Bessarabia referred only to the southern part of Bessarabia; later it was used for the entire region. Today Bessarabia is a part of Moldova, except for the northern part (the Khotyn region) and the southern part (the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi region), which are settled by Ukrainians and comprise 14,400 sq km of the territory of Ukraine. Because of its location between Ukraine and Romania and between Poland and the Balkans, Bessarabia has always served as a route between the west and the east. This fact has influenced its history and the composition of its population. Southern Bessarabia is strategically important, as it controls the mouth of the Danube River and access to the Black Sea. Today this region is located in Odesa oblast at the southwestern tip of Ukraine...

KILIIA. City (2011 pop 20,829), fluvial port in southern Bessarabia, and raion center in Odesa oblast situated on the left bank of the Danube River 40 km from the Black Sea. It was first mentioned in the late 7th century BC as the Greek polis of Licostomo. Kiliia belonged to Kyivan Rus' from the 10th century AD and the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia from the early 13th century. Because of its commercial importance and strategic location on the delta it was an object of conquest, and from the 14th century on it was besieged and changed hands numerous times, until it fell into Turkish hands in 1484. As a Turkish port, Kiliia was plundered by Cossacks led by Hryhorii Loboda and Severyn Nalyvaiko (1594-5), Ivan Sulyma (1635), and Semen Palii (1693). Formally ceded to the Russian Empire in 1812, it was restored to Turkey after the Crimean War (in 1856), but was again ceded to Russia in 1878. In 1897 its population of 11,600 consisted of 4,500 Ukrainians, 2,500 Moldavians, 2,200 Russians, and 2,150 Jews...

VYLKOVE. A city (2011 pop 8,570) in southern Bessarabia in the Danube River delta within Kiliia raion, Odesa oblast. Because of its numerous streams and canals it is known as the 'Ukrainian Venice' or 'Venice on the Danube.' It was founded in 1746 as the settlement of Lypovanske in territory that was under Turkish rule, and in 1762 was granted city status. At that time, the Old Believers, called lipovany, who moved from Muscovy to Southern Ukraine and Bessarabia, constituted the majority of the city's population. In 1812 the city was awarded to the Russian Empire and was renamed. In the interwar period (1918-40) it was occupied by Romania. The city's main industry is fishing. It has a branch of the Antarktyka fishing consortium, a boat repair yard, and a research base of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Nearby is a state preserve called the Danube Biosphere Reserve...

BLACK SEA. An interior sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean by several straits and the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. It lies between the East European massif in the north and Asia Minor in the south, between Caucasia in the east and the Balkan Peninsula in the west. Today the Black Sea coast is divided among Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania. The Black Sea was known under various names in the past. The ancient Greeks called it at one time Pontos Axeinos (the Hostile Sea), because of its storminess and lack of islands. After colonizing its coast, the Greeks renamed it Pontos Euxeinos (the Hospitable Sea). Arab travelers and writers called it the Rus' Sea. The Kyiv Chronicle referred to it as the Pontic or Ponetian Sea. Eventually, various nations adopted the name Black Sea...

BLACK SEA NATURE RESERVE. A state preserve located on the sandy banks of the lower Dnieper River and the coast and the islands of the Tendriv Bay and Yahorlyk Bay of the Black Sea. The preserve was established in 1927. It covers 9,421 ha of dry land and 24,700 ha of water (in 1976, 64,806 ha). It was created to protect nesting, wintering, and migrating birds and to preserve the natural environment. The steppe section of the preserve?the Yahorlyk Kut Peninsula and Potiivka?consists of the remains of the Black Sea steppes and is inhabited by such rare birds as the great bustard, the little bustard, and the white-tailed eagle and smaller animals such as the acclimatized bobac. In the forest-steppe sections are found the remains of island forests and small groves of oak, birch, and willow trees...

SEA OF AZOV. A shallow branch of the Black Sea, connected to it by the Kerch Strait. It covers a part of the Black Sea Depression lying between the Donets Ridge and the Azov Upland in the north and the foothills of the Crimean Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains in the south. It is located between mainland Ukraine in the north, the Crimea in the west, and the Kuban region in the east. The Sea of Azov was important in ancient times when Greek colonies were founded on its shores. These city-states belonged to the Bosporan Kingdom, which eventually gained control of the entire Azov coast. The ancient city-states on the Azov coast fell to the invading Huns in the 4th century. The Antes were the first Slavic people to settle in the Azov area (4th?7th century). Later a Slavic tribe, the Siverianians, occupied this land...

AZOV-SYVASH GAME PRESERVE. Located in the area of the Sea of Azov and Syvash Lake, the preserve covers an area of 6,850 ha including sandy Byriuchyi Island and the loess islands of Kuiuk-Tuk and Churiuk. The preserve was formed in 1957 out of a reservation established in 1927. The steppe vegetation includes about 240 species. The red deer and the pheasant have been acclimatized on Byriuchyi Island, and the buck and the wild goat have been reacclimatized. The purpose of the preserve is to protect the steppe and coastal flora, particularly waterfowl during their southward migration and wintering...

TAHANRIH BAY. The largest bay in the Sea of Azov. Situated in the sea's northeast corner with an entrance marked by Dovhyi Island and the Bilosarai Spit, the bay is approx 150 km long, 31 km wide (at its entrance), and 5 m deep. Its shore is generally quite high and is marked by a number of spits (such as Kryva Spit and Yeia Spit), shallow inlets, and coastal islands. The Don River, the Kalmiius River, the Miius River, and the Yeia River empty into the bay and add several estuaries to its geographical features. The bay freezes from December to March. The largest ports on it include Tahanrih, Mariiupil, and Yeisk...

SUBCARPATHIA. A physical-geographic region located between the Carpathian Mountains to the southwest, the Pokutian-Bessarabian Upland to the east, the Podolian Upland with its subregion, the Opilia Upland, to the northeast, and the Roztochia plateau to the north. To the northwest Subcarpathia passes into the Sian Lowland. The length of Subcarpathia (excluding the Sian Lowland) is 250 km; the width varies from 30 km in the southeast to 60 km in the northwest, for an approximate area of 10,000 sq km. Subcarpathia occupies approximately one-fifth of the historical regions of Galicia and Bukovyna and has a population of about 1.4 million. The towns in the Carpathian foothills are generally small. The larger cities are located at some distance from the Carpathians: Sambir, Drohobych, Stryi, Kalush, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kolomyia, and Chernivtsi. All the larger cities have possessed administrative, trade, and industrial functions for a long time. The historical influence of some of the cities as Ukrainian cultural-educational centers extended well beyond their immediate areas...

IVANO-FRANKIVSK. City (2010 pop 240,458), raion center and capital of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, an important railway and highway junction, and now the second-largest city in Galicia. Called Stanyslaviv until 1939 and Stanislav until 1962, it is situated in Subcarpathia near the confluence of the Bystrytsia Nadvirnianska River and Bystrytsia Solotvynska River. Stanyslaviv was founded in 1662 on the site of the former village of Zabolotiv by the Polish magnate A. Potocki, who named it after his son, Stanislaw. In 1663 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. The town was well protected by walls and a citadel (restored in the mid-18th century) and was densely built up. Potocki's palace was completed there in 1672 and the town hall in 1695. After the Turks captured Kamianets-Podilskyi in 1672, Stanyslaviv protected the southeastern borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Turks and Tatars. Stanyslaviv was also a flourishing cultural center. A branch of the Cracow Academy was established there in 1669; in 1722 it was converted into a Jesuit college...

KALUSH. City (2010 pop 67,887) and raion center, in and under the jurisdiction of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, situated in the Kalush Depression on the Syvka River. First mentioned in the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle under the year 1241, in 1549 it received the rights of Magdeburg law. Under Austrian and Polish rule Kalush was a county town. Its rapid growth in the early 19th century was conditioned by rock-salt mining in its vicinity. As salt production fell the town declined, and in the latter half of the 19th century the population grew very little (1857 pop 8,000; 1914 pop 9,000). Its fortunes improved with the development of potassium-salt extraction and processing based on the rich Kalush-Holyn potassium deposits, and its population grew to 40,700 by 1970. Today the city's major industries are the Oriana chemical-metallurgical conglomerate, a reinforced-concrete complex, and a metalworking complex. The Kalush Polytechnical College is located there...

HALYCH. City (2001 pop 6,495) at the confluence of the Lukva River and Dniester River, raion center of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. It arose in the 14th century, some time after the Mongols destroyed the city of princely Halych, on the site of the city's river port 5 km north of the city center. Princely Halych, dating back to the turn of the 9th century, was an important trade and cultural center of medieval Kyivan Rus'. It reached the height of its power in the second half of the 12th century. From 1144 it was the capital of Yaroslav Osmomysl's Halych Principality, and from 1199 the capital of Roman Mstyslavych's Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. In 1238 Danylo Romanovych established his residence at Halych. Three years later the city was razed by the Mongols. By the middle of the 14th century the town and the surrounding territory were annexed by Poland. In 1367 Halych was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. From the 14th century it was the see of the Halych metropoly. By the 16th century the town was one of the larger trade centers in eastern Galicia...

POKUTIA. A historical-geographic upland region bounded by the Dniester River and the Podolian Upland to the north, the Prut River and Subcarpathia to the south, the Stanyslaviv Depression to the west, and the Sovytsia River to the east. Extending up to 100 km from east to west and 25–40 km from north to south, Pokutia covers about 3,000 sq km and has a population of about 400,000. Users of the Pokutian dialects also inhabit a portion of Subcarpathia. Because of their presence there, the term Pokutia has been used to refer to the entire southeastern corner of Galicia. Greek and Roman accounts of widespread Slavic settlement have been confirmed by archeological finds in Pokutia. In the 4th and 5th centuries the Slavs of Pokutia were members of the Antes tribal alliance. In the 10th century Pokutia was part of Kyivan Rus’, and after the Liubech congress of princes it became part of the Halych principality. In the second half of the 14th century Poland annexed Galicia, including Pokutia, which was claimed by the emerging principality of Moldavia...

KOLOMYIA. City (2010 pop 70,000) on the Prut River in southeastern Galicia and a raion center in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. The principal city of Pokutia, it is an important transport junction. First mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1240, it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law in 1405. Salt was mined in the vicinity from the Middle Ages, and Kolomyia became an important salt-trading center. Because of its proximity to the Moldavian border, the town suffered frequent attacks by the Moldavians, Tatars, and Turks. Under Austrian rule it was a county center (1815-1918). Owing to its importance as a commercial and administrative center it grew rapidly, reaching a population of 23,100 in 1880 and 42,700 in 1910, of which Jews constituted a large part. Until 1914 (and to a lesser extent even until 1939), Kolomyia was a major center of Ukrainian culture in Galicia. Until the early 20th century its role in publishing in Galicia was second only to Lviv's. Of all of Galicia's provincial cities Kolomyia had the most (over 30) newspapers and journals...

SUMY. A city (2011 pop 270,039) at the confluence of the Psol River and the Sumka River and an oblast center. It was founded in 1652 by peasants and Cossacks from Bila Tserkva regiment in Right-Bank Ukraine led by Colonel Herasym Kondratiev. The new settlement was soon fortified to protect the territory from the Tatars. Located on the Putyvl-Moscow trade route, the town prospered. In 1660-1732 its population grew from 2,700 to 7,700. It was the center of Sumy regiment (1658-1765) and the seat of administration for all the regiments of Slobidska Ukraine (1732-43). Then it became the center of Sumy province of Slobidska Ukraine gubernia (1765-80) and a county center in Kharkiv vicegerency (1780-96), Slobidska Ukraine gubernia (1796-1835), and Kharkiv gubernia (1835-1923). By the mid-19th century Sumy was a well-established industrial and trading town: it had a glass factory (est 1710), three tanneries, a coach works, four brick factories, four candle works, a soap factory, and four major fairs a year. In 1732 it had five schools...

HLUKHIV. City (2001 pop 35,800) on the Yesman River and a raion center in Sumy oblast. Mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1152 as a city in Chernihiv principality, in the 13th and 14th centuries it was the capital of an appanage principality. In the mid 13th century Hlukhiv was captured by the Mongols. In the 1350s the region came under Lithuanian rule; it was annexed by Muscovy in 1503 and by Poland in 1618 at which time the city was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. Part of the Hetman state from 1648 on, Hlukhiv was an important trade center and a company town in the Nizhyn regiment. The Hlukhiv Articles were signed here in 1669. After the destruction of Baturyn, Hlukhiv was (during the years 1708-22 and 1727-64) the capital of the Left-Bank hetmans. The city underwent periods of particularly rapid growth under the rule of Hetman Danylo Apostol (1727-34) and Hetman Kyrylo Rozumovsky (1750-64), elected at the Hlukhiv Council of 1750. The renown Hlukhiv Singing School was established there in 1738...

PUTYVL (or PUTYVEL). A town (2011 pop 16,329) on the Seim River and a raion center in Sumy oblast. It was first mentioned, as a fortress, in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1146. Putyvl was established in 988 at the crossroads of several trade routes. From the 12th century until 1523 Putyvl was the center of an appanage principality, which was part of Kyivan Rus’, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1356–1503), and Muscovy. The town, which is described in Slovo o polku Ihorevi, withstood a Cuman siege in 1186. In 1239 it was destroyed by Batu Khan's horde. In 1618 it was captured by Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny. As Slobidska Ukraine became colonized in the 17th century, Putyvl lost its strategic importance. In the 19th century it was a county center of Kursk gubernia. In 1926 it became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Today Putyvl’s main industries are food processing and tourism. In 1988 Putyvl, with its numerous architectural monuments, was declared a historical and cultural reserve...

KONOTOP (or KONOTIP). City (2011 pop 93,377) and raion center in Sumy oblast under oblast jurisdiction, situated on the Yezuch River. Konotop was first mentioned in a historical document in 1634. From 1654 to 1781 it was a fortified company town in Nizhyn regiment. In the summer of 1659 during the Ukrainian-Muscovite War, it was besieged for three months by Prince A. Trubetskoi's army and defended by Colonel Hryhorii Hulianytsky. On 8 July 1659 Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky, who came to the town's aid, scored his first great victory known as the Battle of Konotop, killing or scattering 30,000 Russians and capturing 5,000. In 1664 Konotop was destroyed by the Poles. From 1782 to the early 1920s it was a county town, from 1802 in Chernihiv gubernia. From 1923 to 1932 it was an okruha center, and from 1932 to 1939 a raion center, in Chernihiv oblast. Its development began only after it became a junction on the Kyiv-Voronezh railway in the mid 19th century. Its major industries are machine building industry and metalworking industry...

ROMNY (or ROMEN). A city (2011 pop 43,937) at the junction of the Romen River and the Sula River and a raion center in Sumy oblast. It was first mentioned, as a border fortress of Kyivan Rus', in the Laurentian Chronicle under the year 1096. From the mid-14th century it belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and from the beginning of the 17th century, to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After Bohdan Khmelnytsky's uprising and the Cossack-Polish War it became a company center of Myrhorod regiment (1648-58) and later Lubny regiment (1658-1782). With the abolition of the Hetman state the town became part of Chernihiv vicegerency, and in 1783 it obtained the rights of Magdeburg law. In 1802 it became county center in Poltava gubernia. In the 19th century Romny was a prosperous trading town, and until 1852 the home of one of Ukraine's largest annual fairs. Today the city is an industrial center with machine building, a building-materials industry, and a food-processing industry...

OKHTYRKA. A city (2011 pop 49,323) at the junction of the Okhtyrka River and the Vorskla River and a raion center in Sumy oblast. The city was founded in 1641 and was an administrative center of Okhtyrka regiment in 1655-1765. The territory of this regiment suffered extensive damage during the Russo-Swedish conflict of 1708-9 and the Russo-Turkish war of 1735-9. Following the abolition of the Hetman state and the Cossack order, the Okhtyrka Cossack regiment was transformed into a hussar regiment and the territory became part of Slobidska Ukraine gubernia. In 1835, after the dissolution of this gubernia, Okhtyrka became part of Kharkiv gubernia. Starting from the early 18th century Okhtyrka became a regional center of crafts and industry. In 1718 the first tobacco manufacture in Ukraine (and the Russian Empire) was established there. Today it has a machine building industry, a petroleum industry, a light industry, and a food industry. Its architectural monuments include the Cathedral of the Holy Protectress (1753)...

TRANSCARPATHIA. A historical-geographic region in southwestern Ukraine. Until 1919 Transcarpathia denoted that part of Hungary where Ukrainians lived, and the synonymous terms Hungarian Ruthenia (Uhorska Rus') and Hungarian Ukraine (Uhorska Ukraina) were widely used. Bounded by the ethnographic boundary with Romanians and Hungarians in the south and Slovaks in the west, the region encompassed 15,600 sq km. After the First World War Transcarpathia was separated from Hungary, and the bulk of its territory was formed into an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia called Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Pidkarpatska Rus'). A small part, located south of the Tysa River, became part of Romania, while in its western reaches, the Presov region was allocated to Slovakia. Joined with the Ukrainian SSR in June 1945, Transcarpathia constitutes a separate administrative unit, Transcarpathia oblast, within the borders of Ukraine, with a territory of 12,800 sq km and a population of 1,258,300 (2001)...

UZHHOROD. A city (2001 pop 117,600) on the Uzh River and the capital of Transcarpathia oblast. According to the archeological evidence the site was inhabited as early as the Stone Age. A Slavic tribe of White Croatians founded a fortified settlement there in the 8th or 9th century. Early in the 10th century it was controlled by the Hungarians and then by Kyivan Rus'. Hungary regained control of the town in the 11th century and remained the dominant influence there until the 20th century. Its economy was initially based on wine-making, agriculture, and animal husbandry. Trade and manufacturing, stimulated by the town's military and administrative needs, developed through the 15th to 18th centuries. The religious struggle of the 17th century culminated in the Uzhhorod Union of 1646. In the late 1770s Bishop Andrii Bachynsky transferred the seat of Mukachiv eparchy to Uzhhorod...

MUKACHIV or MUKACHEVO. A city (2001 pop 82,200) on the Liatorytsia River and a raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. The site has been settled since prehistoric times. In the 10th century Mukachiv belonged to Kyivan Rus', and in the 11th century, to Hungary. The fortress, rising high above the town, was destroyed by the Cumans in 1086 and by the Tatars in 1241. It was rebuilt by Fedir Koriiatovych, who also built Mukachiv Saint Nicholas's Monastery. By the end of the 14th century Mukachiv was an important manufacturing and trading center on a trade route between Hungary and Galicia. In 1445 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. Because of the monastery the town became a cultural and religious center in the 15th century, and until the end of the 18th century it was the seat of the Mukachiv eparchy...

KHUST. City (2001 pop 29,100) and raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. It arose in the 10th century at the foot of a mountain of volcanic origin, on which a Hungarian castle was built ca. 1090 to control access to salt mines located nearby. Khust belonged to the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia from 1281. In 1321 Hungarian rule was restored. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Habsburg dynasty and the Transylvanian princes fought each other for control of the town and its castle. On 21 January 1919 the Central Ruthenian People's Council in Khust voted to unite Transcarpathia with Ukraine. From 1919 to 1938 the city belonged to Czechoslovakia. After Hungary occupied southwestern Transcarpathia, in November 1938, the autonomous Carpatho-Ukrainian government headed by Avhustyn Voloshyn was evacuated from Uzhhorod to Khust, which became the capital of Carpatho-Ukraine...

BEREHOVE or BEREHOVO. A city (2001 pop 26,700, with a substantial Hungarian population), located in the Tysa Lowland; raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. Founded as a Saxon colony in the 11th century AD, Berehove is situated in Hungarian ethnic territory (before the Second World War Ukrainians constituted 10 percent of the population in Bereg komitat [Berehove county]). Under Czechoslovakian rule it was a center of Ukrainian cultural life in southern Transcarpathia. A Ukrainian gymnasium was situated here. Berehove has furniture, clothing, brick-and-tile, and ceramics plants and a wine and food industry. A 15th-century Gothic Roman Catholic church is located in the city...

CASTLES. Fortified residences of rulers. In Ukraine castles were built in inaccessible places--on steep hills (eg, Kremianets, Kyiv, Lviv, Halych, and Chyhyryn), at river bends (eg, Dubno, Lutsk, and Berezhany), on islands, or in marshes. Building materials consisted of wood (castles in Vinnytsia, Chornobyl, Zhytomyr, Bratslav, or Cherkasy) and sometimes stone (Kremianets, Lviv, and Kholm). Wooden castles were surrounded by a thick stockade covered with mud to protect it from fire. Towers built of beams stood at the corners of the stockade. Sometimes a water-filled moat surrounded the castle, and a drawbridge provided access to the gate. Cossack castles were also usually built of wood with an emphasis on a more solid stronghold but weaker fortifications. The largest number of such castles appeared during the hetmancy of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Stone castles consisted of exterior walls, towers, and inner buildings. The old castles had a large number of towers which were used as arsenals and warehouses...

KAMIANETS-PODILSKYI. City (2001 pop 100,000) under oblast jurisdiction and raion center of Khmelnytskyi oblast, situated picturesquely on the Smotrych River in eastern Podilia. First mentioned in an Armenian chronicle of the 11th century, when it belonged to Halych principality, the town was destroyed by the Mongols in 1240. In 1430 Poland gained control of the town; in 1432 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. The city's first inhabitants were Ukrainians and Armenians; eventually many Poles and Jews settled there. In 1672 the city was captured by Hetman Petro Doroshenko and his Turkish allies; it remained in Turkish hands until 1699, when it was restored, with the rest of Podilia, to Poland. The city's old town lies on a high plateau within a loop formed by the Smotrych River. Located there are centuries-old narrow, winding streets and buildings, and the citadel, which was separated from the rest of the town by a deep ravine and controlled access to it...

BILHOROD-DNISTROVSKYI. City (2001 pop 52,000) in southern Bessarabia on the right bank of the Dniester Liman, 18 km from the Black Sea; a raion center in Odesa oblast. In 600 BC this was the site of the Greek colony of Tyras. In the 9th century AD it was a city of the tribes of Tivertsians and Ulychians named Bilhorod; in the 13th century it became part of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. In the 14th century it was ruled by the Genoese (and renamed Moncastro). In 1484 the city was captured by the Turks and in 1503 renamed Akkerman (White Rock); during the 17th and 18th centuries it was the seat of the Bilhorod Horde. In 1812 it came under Russian rule; from 1918 to 1940 it belonged to Romania. In 1940 it became part of the USSR. The city's architectural monuments include the well-preserved castle fortress (built in 1438?54 by Master Fedorko), with 26 turrets, 4 gates, and a citadel whose walls are almost 2 km long, and a restored church built during the 14th and 15th centuries...

OLESKO. A town smt (2001 pop 1,793) in Busk raion, Lviv oblast. Traces of settlements dating from the Bronze Age and the 12th and 13th centuries have been uncovered at the site. Olesko is first mentioned in historical documents in the mid-14th century, when it was under Polish rule. In 1370-7 it belonged to the Lithuanian prince Liubartas. The Poles occupied the castle in 1432 and granted the town the rights of Magdeburg law in 1441. The Cossacks took control of the town during Bohdan Khmelnytsky's uprising in 1648. In the 1680s the Polish king Jan III Sobieski, who had been born in Olesko, rebuilt the castle and tried unsuccessfully to revive the town's economy. The town's architectural monuments include a Roman Catholic church from the 15th century, a castle from the 14th to 17th centuries, and a baroque Capucines monastery from the 18th century. In 1975 the castle was restored and turned into a historical preserve. It houses a fine collection of Ukrainian art...

PALACE. An elaborate residence built by a monarch or noble. Palaces of the Kyivan Rus? period have not survived. During the 13th to 16th centuries many castles but few palaces were built. It was only in the 17th century that members of the Cossack starshyna, particularly hetmans, began commissioning them. Most of the palaces built during the Hetmanate era have not survived. All that remains of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky's palaces in Chyhyryn and Subotiv are written descriptions and drawings of the ruins. All traces of Hetman Ivan Mazepa's imposing baroque palace in Baturyn were destroyed on the orders of Peter I in 1708. The palaces built by Polish nobles in Right-Bank Ukraine fared much better, including the Renaissance-baroque one in Pidhirtsi (1654) and others in Zbarazh, Berezhany, and Bar. Most of the surviving palaces in Ukraine date from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were constructed in the classical style then popular in the Russian Empire...

SOKYRYNTSI. A village (2001 pop 1,386) in Sribne raion, Chernihiv oblast. It is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 1092. As the estate of the Galagan family the locality was developed into a cultural center. A dendrological park was set up in 1763 and redesigned as a landscape park in 1825?35, a vertep puppet theater was established in 1781, and a palace was built by the architect P. Dubrovsky in 1829. The kobzar Ostap Veresai lived in Sokyryntsi in the 19th century. One of the first co-operatives in Ukraine, an agricultural credit union, was organized in Sokyryntsi by Hryhorii Galagan in 1871. Today the Galagan palace and park are used by an agricultural tekhnikum...

PIDHIRTSI. A village (2001 pop 1,076) in Brody raion, Lviv oblast. It is first mentioned, as Plisnesk or Plisnysk, in chronicles in 1188 and 1233. The town's ruins--a complex of ramparts and moats covering nearly 160 ha--are the largest and finest of old Rus? fortifications to survive. In the 12th and 13th centuries Plisnesk was one of the largest cities of the Halych pricipality and the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia and an important trade center. It was destroyed in 1241 by the Mongols, and had disappeared by the mid-15th century. The village of Pidhirtsi was founded close by. It is first mentioned in historical documents in 1432. The Polish grand hetman Stanislaw Koniecpolski built a fortified Renaissance palace there in 1635?40. Besides the palace a number of architectural monuments, including a Basilian monastery from 1659, a Roman Catholic church (1752-66), and an Orthodox church from 1726, have been preserved...