IEU'S FEATURED TOPICS CONCERNING THE LAND AND REGIONS OF UKRAINE

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 Dnipro 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 Dnipro 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 Dnipro 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 (2019 pop 288,268) 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 river port and an airport. The center of the tribe of Siverianians, Chernihiv 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. The broad national scope of the Chernihiv dynasty's (the Olhovych house) political activity secured favorable conditions for cultural development and promoted the culture of Chernihiv to an all-Ukrainian level, particularly in the areas of architecture and painting. But in 1239 Chernihiv was devastated by the Mongols. It fell under the control of Briansk principality in the second half of the 13th century and was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the second half of the 14th century. In 1503 Chernihiv, along with the whole Chernihiv-Siversk land, came under Muscovy's rule. In accordance with the Truce of Deulino (1618), Chernihiv was transferred to the Polish Commonwealth and in 1635 became the principal city of Chernihiv voivodeship. In 1623 Chernihiv was granted the Magdeburg law, and in 1648 it became part of the Cossack Hetman state and the capital of Chernihiv regiment. After the abolition of the Cossack Hetman state Chernihiv became the capital of Chernihiv vicegerency (in 1781), of Little Russia gubernia (in 1797), and of Chernihiv gubernia (in 1802). At the time the city had 4,000 inhabitants. Its population increased to 12,000 by 1844, to 27,000 by 1897, and to 35,000 by 1913...

CHERNIHIV REGION. A historical-geographic region 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). In 1239 the Chernihiv region was captured by the Tatars, in 1356 most of the region was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1503 it came under the control of Muscovy. The Truce of Deulino (11 December 1618) transferred the region to Poland, and it became Chernihiv voivodeship. In 1648 the Chernihiv region became part of the Hetman state and encompassed the Chernihiv regiment, Starodub regiment, and Nizhyn regiment as well as parts of the Pereiaslav and Pryluky regiments. After the abolition of Ukraine's autonomy the Chernihiv region was divided into two vicegerencies in 1782--the Chernihiv vicegerency and Novhorod-Siverskyi vicegerency--which survived until 1797 and then became part of the Little Russia gubernia (covering the territory of the Hetman state). In 1802 the gubernia was reorganized into two gubernias--Chernihiv gubernia and Poltava gubernia--which endured until 1917. In 1917-19 the Chernihiv region, including its northern part (now in the Russian Federation), belonged to the Ukrainian National Republic...

NIZHYN or Nizhen. A city (2017 pop 71,078) 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). The chorna rada in Nizhyn in 1663 elected Ivan Briukhovetsky hetman. By the Treaty of Andrusovo in 1667 Nizhyn was handed over to Russia. Situated at the junction of several major trade routes, Nizhyn developed into an important manufacturing and trade center in the 17th and 18th centuries. A large Greek merchant colony sprang up in the second half of the 17th century and received special privileges from Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In 1785 a Greek brotherhood and a Greek municipal council were set up. In 1696 the Greeks organized their own school. When Russia gained a foothold on the Black Sea, the trade routes shifted to the Black Sea and Sea of Azov ports, and the Greek merchants moved to Odesa, Mariupol, and Tahanrih. The town's commercial importance declined, but its cultural influence grew. In 1820 a gymnasium was opened, which in 1832 was reorganized into the Nizhyn Lyceum (now the Nizhyn State University)...

NOVHOROD-SIVERSKYI. A city (2019 pop 13,031) 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). In 1356 Novhorod-Siverskyi was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1503 by Muscovy. In 1620, while under Polish rule (1618-54), it obtained the rights of Magdeburg law. Under the Hetman state it was a company center in Nizhyn regiment (until 1663) and then Starodub regiment (until 1781). Within the Russian Empire it was the capital of Novhorod-Siverskyi vicegerency (1782-96) and then a county center in Little Russia gubernia and Chernihiv gubernia. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Novhorod-Siverskyi Transfiguration Monastery and its printing press and the Novhorod-Siverskyi Gymnasium played an influential role in Ukraine's religious and cultural life. Today the city is a railway junction and a river port. It produces asphalt, construction materials, dairy products, and cotton fabric. Its many architectural monuments include the Dormition Church (1671-1715) and its bell tower (1820), the wooden Saint Nicholas's Church (1760) and the Church of Saint Mary the Protectress (1767), the Transfiguration Monastery complex (11th-17th centuries), and the Transfiguration Cathedral (1791-6), which stands on the ruins of the 12th to 13th-century cathedral...

PRYLUKY or Pryluka. A city (2017 pop 56,270) on the Udai River and a raion center in Chernihiv oblast. It was first mentioned, as a fortress, in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1092. It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1239. Rebuilt by the Hlynsky princes in the 15th century, Pryluky belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and from 1569, to the Polish Commonwealth. After Bohdan Khmelnytsky's uprising (the Cossack-Polish War) it became a regiment center of the Hetman state (1654-1781) (the Pryluky regiment) and then a county center of Chernihiv vicegerency (1781-1802) and Poltava gubernia (1802-1925). It was granted the rights of Magdeburg law in 1783. Before the industrialization drive of the 1930s Pryluky's main occupations were farming and tobacco processing. Today the city is an industrial and communications (railway) center. Its chief industries are machine building, the chemical industry, the building-materials industry, the tobacco industry, the petroleum industry, the woodworking industry, the textile industry, and food processing. Its architectural monuments of the baroque period include the Cathedral of the Transfiguration (1705-16), the regiment treasury (1708) (both built by Colonel Hnat Galagan), Saint Nicholas's Church (1720), and the Church of the Nativity (1806-17). The historic Hustynia Trinity Monastery is located in the vicinity of Pryluky. In 1990 archeologists discovered remnants of a Cherniakhiv culture settlement (2nd to 5th centuries AD) in the city...

BATURYN. Historic center and former Cossack capital, now a town smt (2017 pop 2,571) in Bakhmach raion, Chernihiv oblast. It is located on the south bank of the Seim River. In the 11th century a small fortress was constructed at this site for the protection of the southeastern border of Chernihiv principality. In 1275 this fortified settlement was razed by Mongols invading Kyivan Rus'. It re-emerged as a provincial town in the early 17th century. In 1648 the Ukrainian Cossacks wrested control of Baturyn from the Poles, and it became a local Cossack company center. As its economic significance continued to expand, the town was granted Magdeburg law in 1654. In 1669 it became the capital of the Hetman state, in part because it had been spared the sort of damage inflicted on other major centers in Left-Bank Ukraine during the turmoil of the so-called Ruin. Baturyn went on to serve in succession as the residence of Hetmans Demian Mnohohrishny (1669-72), Ivan Samoilovych (1672-87) and Ivan Mazepa (1687-1708). During Ivan Mazepa's hetmancy, Baturyn reached the pinnacle of its vitality and became one of the large and prosperous towns in early modern Ukraine. After Mazepa and his Cossack troops sided with the Swedish king Charles XII in 1708, the Russian tsar Peter I ordered his field marshal Aleksandr Menshikov to destroy the hetman capital. A Russian force of 10,000 men captured and burned the town and massacred its inhabitants. Baturyn stood in ruins and was deserted for about forty years. The last of Left-Bank Ukraine's hetmans, Kyrylo Rozumovsky (1750-64) rebuilt Baturyn and ushered in a brief renaissance...

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...

CRIMEA. The most southerly part of Ukraine (illegally occupied by the Russian Federation since 2014), the Crimea is a quadrangular peninsula situated between the Black Sea (in the west and south) and the Sea of Azov (in the east). It has a breadth of 200 km north to south, a maximum length of 320 km east to west, and an area of 27,000 sq km. It is connected to the Ukrainian mainland by the narrow, 7 km Perekop Isthmus. In the east it is separated from the Kuban (the Taman Peninsula) by the Kerch Strait. The Crimea consists of two very different parts--the semiarid, treeless steppe of the Crimean Lowland in the north and the Crimean Mountains in the south. The Crimean steppe, with its continental climate and steppe soils and vegetation, is a continuation of the Ukrainian steppe and together with the Kerch Peninsula occupies four-fifths of the Crimea's territory. The Crimean Mountains consist of a narrow range of foothills and a low mountain chain covered with forests and high pastures. Below the mountains in the south is a narrow (2-12 km) coastal lowland--the Crimean southern shore--with a Mediterranean climate and vegetation. Because of its geographical location, the Crimea has the most ancient and richest history of all the regions of Ukraine...

SIMFEROPOL. A city (2022 pop 340,000) on the Salhyr River and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. The vicinity has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Period. The Scythian capital of Neapolis (3rd century BC to 4th century AD) occupied the southeastern part of present-day Simferopol. By the early 16th century the Tatar stronghold of Kermenchyk and settlement of Ak-Mechet had been established at the site. After annexing the Crimea, Catherine II of Russia set up the fortified town of Simferopol as the capital of Tavriia oblast. The opening of the Kharkiv-Sevastopol railway line in 1874 ushered in rapid industrial growth. The city expanded to the other bank of the river, where a residential district was developed. Following the Revolution of 1917 Simferopol was occupied by various armies. On 24 April 1918 the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic took the city, followed by the German military. The German forces, however, installed General Suleiman Sulkevich to lead their preferred Crimean government. After the departure of Germans, the city fell to the right-wing Russian forces under General Anton Denikin. In November 1920 Simferopol was occupied by the Red Army, and in 1921 the city became the capital of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic...

KERCH. City (2021 pop 154,621) and port in the eastern Crimea. It originated in the 6th century BC as the Greek colony of Panticapaeum, which in the succeeding century became the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom. From the middle of the 1st century BC it was under Roman and then Byzantine control. From the 10th to the 12th century the Slavic settlement of Korchev, which belonged to the Kyiv-controlled Tmutorokan principality, was a center of trade between Kyivan Rus' and the Crimea, Caucasia, and the Orient. In the 14th and 15th centuries the Genoese colony of Cerco (Cerchio) was established there, which in the late 15th century passed to the Turks, who built a citadel there. By the Peace Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca in 1774, Kerch and the neighboring fortress of Yenikale (built in 1706) were ceded to the Russian Empire. Kerch is the center of the Kerch Iron-ore Basin, the base of a fishing fleet, and an important fish-processing center for numerous varieties of fish products. Its most impressive architectural monuments are Demeter's Vault with Greek mythological frescoes (1st century AD), the Church of Saint John the Baptist (10th century, with murals from the 13th-14th century), and the Yenikale fortress...

SEVASTOPOL. The largest city in the Crimea (2021 pop 429,922) and port on the Black Sea. The region was inhabited by the Taurians from the early 1st millennium BC. In the 5th century BC the Greek colony of Chersonese Taurica was established at the site. In 1784, after annexing the Crimea, Catherine II ordered the fortress and naval port of Sevastopol to be built at the site of the Tatar village of Akhtiar. In 1804 it became the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The city grew from 30,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the century to 47,400 in 1853. During the Crimean War (1853-6) Sevastopol was almost completely destroyed. In the 1870s its naval facilities were rebuilt and expanded, and a railway connecting it with the grain-growing interior was set up. The population of the city grew rapidly, from 11,000 in 1875 to 53,000 in 1897. From the 1840s, the Kobzar organization spearheaded Ukrainian national enlightenment in the city; after 1905, it gained legal status. It was led by Viacheslav Lyshchenko and its main work was performed by Ukrainian officers of the Black Sea Fleet, including the legendary captain Lev Matsiievych (one of the earliest aviators in the Russian Empire). In March 1917 Kobzar held a meeting of Ukrainian sailors, which began a process of the Ukrainization of the Black Sea Fleet...

YEVPATORIIA. A city (2021 pop 108,000) and Black Sea port on the west coast of the Crimea. In the 6th century BC the Greek colony of Kerkinitis was established at the site. A significant colony, from the 330s BC it became part of the Chersonese Taurica state. In the mid-2nd century BC it was captured and settled by the Scythians. The last written reference to Kerkinitis was in 134 AD. The Khazars re-settled the site and re-named it Guzliev (literally 'beautiful house'), but then it came under control of the Pechenegs (10th century), the Kyivan Rus' merchants (10th-11th centuries), the Cumans (11th century), and the Tatars (13th century), who called it Kezlev. It became part of the Crimean Khanate (1440s), which became dependent (1475) on the Ottoman Empire. Being the Khanate's only city on the coast, it outgrew the capital, Bakhchysarai. Kezlev acquired the Khan's Grand Mosque (built in 1552-64) that was used for enthronement of the Crimean khans. IN the 16th and 17th centuries, as Kezlev developed into a slave trading center, it became the target of frequent raids by the Zaporozhian Cossacks. After Russia's annexation of the Crimea in 1783 the town was renamed Yevpatoriia (1784), although Crimean Tatars continued to call it Kezlev (and still do)...

BAKHCHYSARAI (or Bakhchesarai). A city (2021 pop 28,600) on the northwestern slope of the Crimean Mountains. It is the historic capital of Crimean Tatars, established as capital in 1532. In the mid-17th century Bakhchysarai was a thriving city with a khan's palace, mosques, inns (caravanserais) and 2,000 homes, of which about one-third belonged to the Greeks. By the end of the 17th century it became the second largest city in the Crimea after Caffa (Teodosiia). With a population of about 6,000, it was divided into 30 neighborhoods (quarters) with a mosque in the middle of each quarter. Following the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Russian Empire in 1783, Bakhchysarai became an ordinary town, having lost its administrative significance. However, it retained its oriental heritage: the khan's palace and mosque on the main street, neighborhood mosques and traditional houses on terraced narrow streets, and a clay pipe duct providing water to 70 fountains. By 1897 its population reached 12,960, of whom 11,148 (86 percent) spoke Crimean Tatar. Thus Bakhchysarai remained the cultural center of the Crimean Tatars even in the 19th and early 20th cenuries and was an inspiration for the visiting literati (Russian: Aleksandr Pushkin; Polish: Adam Mickiewicz; and Ukrainian: Lesia Ukrainka, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky)...

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...

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 Dnipro 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 Dnipro 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 Dnipro at the confluence of important water routes. The capitals of principalities--Chernihiv, Pereiaslav, Turiv, Smolensk--were built on or very near the Dnipro...

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 Dnister 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 Dnister from Mohyliv-Podilskyi to its mouth (about one-third of its length) marked the Ukrainian-Romanian ethnic boundary. The Dnister is the main river in Galicia. The historical and ethnographical significance of the Dnister 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 Dnipro 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 Dnipro-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 Dnipro 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...

LVIV. A city (2015 pop 729,429) and the center of Lviv oblast, the historical capital of Galicia and Western Ukraine, and, after Kyiv, the second cultural, political, and religious center of Ukraine. By population it is the seventh-largest city in Ukraine and the largest in the western oblasts. Standing at the meeting place of three geographical-economic regions--the Roztochia woodlands, the cultivated fields of the Buh Depression, and the fields of Podilia--Lviv has been for centuries a natural exchange center among them. But the main reason for its development was its location at the intersection of natural trade routes--the north-south route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea (Kholm-Halych) and the east-west route (Cracow-Kyiv). Lviv was founded in the mid-13th century by Prince Danylo Romanovych near Zvenyhorod, which had been razed by the Tatars, and named after his son Lev Danylovych. The city is first mentioned in the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle under the year 1256. In the 1260s, during the reign of Prince Lev Danylovych, Lviv became the capital of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia; it remained its capital until the principality's dissolution in the 1340s. Because of its location Lviv became an important commercial and cultural intermediary between Western and Eastern Europe, a role assumed from the declining cities of Zvenyhorod, Halych, and Kholm. Lviv's influence fluctuated between national and regional, according to historical events, particularly the power of Galicia. Its western location, far from the usual invasion routes of the Tatars, assured it a more peaceful development than Kyiv's. As Kyiv declined, Lviv rose to national stature. Nevertheless, for centuries it was the principal arena of Polish-Ukrainian conflict...

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 Dnister 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 Dnister 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...

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 Dnister 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 Dnipro 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 Dnister 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 Dnipro 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...

POLTAVA. A city (2013 pop 296,760) on the right bank of the Vorskla River and the administrative center of Poltava oblast. The archeological evidence shows that the city site was inhabited as early as the 7th century BC. The city is first mentioned, as Ltava, in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1174. In 1240 it was captured by the Mongols, and from the second half of the 14th century it belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the Hetman state set up by Bohdan Khmelnytsky Poltava served as a regimental center (1648-1775) and flourished as a trading town. It obtained the rights of Magdeburg law in the 17th century. During the Russian-Swedish War (1708-9) it withstood a siege by Swedish and Ukrainian forces led by King Charles XII and Hetman Ivan Mazepa and witnessed the allies' defeat by Peter I on 8 July 1709 at the Battle of Poltava. In the 19th century Poltava was completely rebuilt. The old fortifications were leveled, and the new town was designed around Kruhla Square. The founding of Poltava eparchy in 1803 contributed to the town's importance, although the bishop's seat was not transferred to Poltava until 1847...

POLTAVA REGION. At one time the Poltava region and Chernihiv region were the territory of the Siverianians. After the reign of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, the Poltava region became part of Pereiaslav principality, which came under the control of the Golden Horde in 1240. In 1360 Lithuania established its hegemony over the area, and then Poland (after the Union of Lublin). Waves of attacks by Cumans and then by Tatars depopulated the region. Resettlement began in the 15th century and reached the Sula River before it halted again in the 16th century. It resumed during the Cossack period in the early 17th century, at which time it reached the Vorskla and Orel rivers. Under the Cossack Hetman state the territory was divided into Poltava, Pereiaslav, Myrhorod, Lubny, Pryluky, and (partially) Kyiv regiments. Throughout the 19th century and until 1914 the population of the region increased steadily. In 1857 it stood at 2,778,000, and in 1914, it was 3,790,000. Almost 90% of the population was rural and the region had the highest proportion (93 percent) of Ukrainians of all Ukrainian territories...

MYRHOROD. A city (2012 pop 41,267) on the Khorol River and a raion center in Poltava oblast. It was founded in the mid-16th century, and in 1575 was granted town status and selected as a Cossack regimental center. Myrhorod played an important role in the Cossack-Polish War of 1648-57. In 1650 Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky conducted negotiations with Russian envoys there. In 1690-1 the Myrhorod regiment revolted against Hetman Ivan Mazepa. Under Russian rule Myrhorod became a county center in Poltava gubernia in 1802 and a prosperous trade center. Its economic development was strongly affected by the founding of a health resort in 1912-14 and the extraction of oil and natural gas in the 1950s. For centuries Myrhorod has been famous for its handicrafts, particularly its ceramics, embroideries, and folk dress. In 1896 the Gogol Handicrafts School and in 1912 the first Ukrainian ceramics manufacturing association were set up in Myrhorod. Nikolai Gogol (Mykola Hohol) immortalized the town by naming his second volume of Ukrainian stories Mirgorod (Myrhorod, 1835)...

LUBNY. A city (2012 pop 47,827) and raion center in Poltava oblast. It was founded as a fortified frontier town in 988 by Grand Prince Volodymyr the Great of Kyiv. In 1107 the Rus' princes defeated the Cumans in battle there. Lubny was destroyed by the Mongols in 1239. Rebuilt in the latter half of the 16th century, Lubny was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. In May 1596 the Polish army crushed the Cossack-peasant rebellion led by Severyn Nalyvaiko and Hryhorii Loboda in the Battle of Solonytsia near Lubny. In 1637-8 the town was a center of Cossack-peasant unrest. In the Hetman state it was a regimental capital and then a county town in Poltava gubernia in the Russian Empire. A botanical garden with medicinal plants and the first field apothecary in Ukraine were established there in the early 18th century. Today Lubny is an industrial city with machine building and metalworking as its chief industries. Among the city's educational institution is the Lubny Vocational Lyceum. The city has an art gallery and a regional studies museum (est 1897). The Mhar Transfiguration Monastery is located nearby...

HADIACH. City (2011 pop 24,132) on the Psol River and raion center in Poltava oblast. Founded in the 15th century, it was granted a city status in 1634. A castle was built here in the 17th century and later expanded into a fortress. Under the Hetman state Hadiach was a fortified regimental center. There Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky concluded the Treaty of Hadiach with Poland in 1658. In 1663-68 it was a residence of Hetman Ivan Briukhovetsky and the main center of Left-Bank Ukraine. Under Russian rule it was a county town in Poltava gubernia. The scholar and civic leader Mykhailo Drahomanov was born there in 1841. In the early 20th century Drahomanov's sister, Olena Pchilka, published in Hadiach the journal Ridnyi krai. Today Hadiach's industries include petroleum industry, natural gas industry, machine-building, and food-processing. The Petro Prokopovych National Research Centre of Apiculture and the Drahomanov Family Memorial Museum are located there. As a burial place of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad, a branch of Hasidic Judaism, Hadiach is also an important pilgrimage center for Hasidic Jews...

KREMENCHUK. City (2013 pop 225,865), raion center, and river port in Poltava oblast, situated on both banks of the Kremenchuk Reservoir on the Dnipro River. Kremenchuk was founded in 1571. A Polish castle was built there in 1596. In the Hetman state the town was a Cossack company center in Chyhyryn and Myrhorod regiments, and briefly the capital of a separate Kremenchuk regiment (1661-3). Under Russian rule it was the capital of New Russia gubernia in 1765-83. In the second half of the 19th century, Kremenchuk became an important manufacturing and trade center. In 1913 it had a population of 88,400 and 95 enterprises, which employed almost half (6,000) of the industrial workers in Poltava gubernia. After the Revolution of 1917 its economy declined, and in 1926 its population was only 58,800 (40.6 percent Ukrainian, 49.2 percent Jewish, and 8.4 percent Russian). During the Second World War the city was devastated, and much of its Jewish population perished in the Nazi Holocaust. After the war the city was extensively reconstructed. Today Kremenchuk is an important center of heavy industry...

DONETSK OBLAST. An administrative region in southeastern Ukraine, it is bounded to the south by the Sea of Azov and to the southeast by Rostov oblast of the Russian Federation. Donetsk oblast consists of an undulating plain dissected by river valleys, ravines, and gullies. Established on 2 July 1932, it was called Stalino oblast until 1961. Its area is 26,500 sq km. The estimated population in 2019 was 4,165,900, of which 90.8 percent or 3,783,400 was urban. The oblast is divided into 18 raions, 52 cities, 131 towns (smt) and 1,115 rural settlements. Donetsk oblast is one of the most developed industrial regions of Ukraine. It contains the principal mining and metallurgical complex of Ukraine. Its industrial development has been based on the huge deposits of high-quality hard coal (anthracite and coking coals) in the Donets Basin. Reserves are estimated at 40 billion tonnes. The best seams, however, have already been exhausted; the remaining thin, steeply sloping and deep deposits are costly to extract, resulting in declining output. Donetsk was the oblast's capital until 2014. After the Euromaidan Revolution, the Russia-curated rebellion in the Donets Basin, and the establishment with Russian assistance of the self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR) with its capital in Donetsk, the administration of Ukraine-controlled Donetsk oblast relocated initially to Mariupol and then to Kramatorsk. The Russian support of the separatists and the orchestrated hostilities following the Battle of Debaltseve (16-18 January 2015), the Minsk II Agreement (12 February 2015), and Russian-aided separatist capture of Debaltseve (12-20 February 2015), resulted in the entrenchment of the DPR with its capital in Donetsk...

DONETSK. City (2020 pop 908,500), called Yuzivka until 1924, then Staline or Stalino until 1961. It was established in 1869 as a settlement for the workers of a company owned by the Welsh industrialist John Hughes and named Yuzivka after him. It was located 5 km south of the village of Oleksandrivka (est 1779) and its first mechanized coal mine in the Russian Empire (est 1841). Rapid industrial growth was promoted by the availability of large anthracite-coal deposits and water and by the construction of the extension from the Donbas-Kryvyi Rih railway line. By 1876 Yuzivka's metallurgical plant was the largest in the Russian Empire. In 1889 a French- and German-owned machine-building plant was constructed that produced equipment for mines (nine by 1899) owned by English, French, Russian, and Ukrainian industrialists. Located on the upper reaches of the Kalmiius River in the steppe region, this industrial settlement (city since 1920) grew to become the largest center of coal mining and metallurgy and the fifth-largest city in Ukraine. The overwhelming majority of the newcomers were migrant Russian workers, as the Ukrainians in the surrounding areas were unwilling to abandon their agricultural pursuits in favor of a grimy urban, industrial lifestyle. Donetsk was the administrative center of Donetsk oblast until April 2014, when it was captured by the Russia-supported separatists to become the capital of their self-proclaimed 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR). A focus of railways and highways, Donetsk was severed in 2014 from the rest of Ukraine by war with an active front to the north and west of the city. It also had a modern airport on its northeastern outskirts, destroyed in a fierce 242-day battle (September 2014 to January 2015) for its control...

KRAMATORSK. City (2020 pop 152,100) in the northern part of Donetsk oblast, situated on the Kazennyi Torets River. It is one of the largest centers of the heavy machine-building industry in Ukraine and an important transportation node, on a major railway trunk line. It arose in the second half of the 19th century, when a station of the Kursk-Azov railway was established next to the village of Petrivka (the station was called Kram-na-Tore in 1868, later conflated into Kramatorsk) and the town grew up around it. Over time, other settlements of Ukrainian peasantry established in the late 18th century on the lands of the Cossack Oril palanka of the liquidated (in 1775) Zaporozhian Sich were incorporated into the new town. The discovery of chalk, sand, sandstone, valuable clays and mineral dyes nearby led to the construction of a building materials factory in 1885. The town grew as the Donets Basin developed. By 1914 the town had 4,000 inhabitants. Kramatorsk gained city status in 1932. Its population continued to grow until 1993 when it peaked at 204,000, and began to decline thereafter. According to the 2001 population census, the ethnic make-up of Kramatorsk was 70.2 percent Ukrainians, 26.9 percent Russians, 0.7 percent Belarusians, 0.6 percent Armenians, 0.2 percent Azeri, and 0.1 percent Jews. With the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014, from May 12 until July 5 the city was occupied by the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR). Following the city's liberation but the loss of Donetsk to the DPR, Kramatorsk became the provisional administrative center of Donetsk oblast (October 2014) and of the Donetsk Appeals Court (November 2014)...

MARIUPOL. A port city (2020 pop 437,000) on the Sea of Azov at the mouth of the Kalmiius River in Donetsk oblast. A major industrial center, it is the tenth-largest city in Ukraine. From 1948 to 1989 it was called Zhdanov. Mariupol's origins date back to the beginning of the 16th century, when the Cossack fortress of Domakha, on the site of the former Venetian-Genoese colony, Adomakha, was built. By 1611 Domakha was the center of the Zaporozhian Cossack Kalmiius palanka. In 1734 the fortress spawned Kalmiius, a larger adjoining settlement where the Church of Saint Nicholas was built. In their campaign in 1768, the Crimean Tatars took the fort and settlement. When Russia annexed the territory in 1775, making it part of Azov gubernia, the fortress and settlement with its church were re-built by the Zaporozhian Cossacks and renamed Pavlovsk. In place of the Cossacks (who were removed to the Vovcha River in 1778), Orthodox Greeks from the Crimea were resettled there and in its vicinity. In 1780, Pavlovsk was renamed Mariupol. In the late 19th century Mariupol was developed as a shipping port for the Donets Basin. Fishing, fish processing, and trade grew in importance. In 1882 it was linked with Donetsk by railway, and in 1886-9 the commercial port was built. The main exports were coal and grain. By 1900 the port was handling 1 million t of freight, and the tonnage doubled in the next decade. At the turn of the century a tube-rolling and two metallurgical plants were built. From that time the town's heavy industry grew rapidly...

HORLIVKA. City (2020 pop 242,000) formerly under oblast jurisdiction in Donetsk oblast 40 km northeast of Donetsk, one of the most important anthracite-mining and industrial centers in the Donets Basin, on the Donets-Donbas Canal, and a major railway and minor highway junction. Founded among the mid-18th century villages of Hosudariv Bairak, Korsun, Mykytivka, Zaitseve, and Zalizna Balka, Horlivka is named after a Russian mining engineer, Petr Gorlov, who built the first coal mine there in 1867. By the early 20th century the mining settlement had developed into an important industrial center. From 10,000 inhabitants in 1898, its population grew to 30,000 in 1916, 23,100 in 1926, and after becoming raion center in 1925 gained city status in 1932, and attained the population of 181,500 in 1939. Horlivka was devastated during the Second World War, but re-built, its water supply enhanced by the Donets-Donbas Canal (1954-8). Its population peaked at 338,000 in 1989. Since Ukraine's independence, the ethnic make-up of the city shifted in favor of Ukrainians. According to the 2001 census, the city's population was comprised of 51.4 percent Ukrainians, 44.8 percent Russians, 1.3 percent Belarusians, and others. Privatization and foreign direct investment revived the economy. But in 2014 the city was taken by the pro-Russian forces and became part of the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic.' This had a severely negative impact on the socio-political life and the economy of the city...

SLOVIANSK. A city (2020 pop 108,400) on the Kazennyi Torets River, a raion center in the northern part of Donetsk oblast, a major industrial and resort center, and an important railway and highway junction. The city's site was first mentioned as a temporary fortified outpost at a Crimean Tatar ford on the Tor River (1645). It gained permanency only after Ukrainian settlers established a fort at Maiak Lake in 1663 (now Maiaky, 10 km north of Sloviansk) and then under its protection began salt extraction from saline lakes at Tor (1664), which gave rise to fort Tor (1676) and its settlement of Soliane (now Sloviansk). Tor developed into a salt manufacturing and trading center. In 1685-1764 it was a company center of the Cossack Izium regiment in Slobidska Ukraine. In 1784 it was reclassified as a town and renamed Slovenske. A decade later it was renamed Sloviansk and became part of Slobidska Ukraine gubernia. With the construction of a railway line (1869), the town grew rapidly. The Sloviansk salt deposits were mined by underground leaching (1876-1961). In 2014 Sloviansk was struck by the Russo-Ukrainian war in the Donbas. On May 11, Russian Federation's Special Forces with pro-Russian separatists took the city, terrorizing Ukrainian speakers and political non-conformists. On July 5, the city was liberated from the Russian and pro-Russian forces. Mass graves were uncovered and reconstruction of damaged buildings and infrastructure in Sloviansk began. With de-Communization (2016), the historic names of many streets were restored...

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 Dnister 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 Dnister 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 Dnipro 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...

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, incorporating the southern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains and a portion of the adjoining Tysa Lowland. 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') or Carpatho-Ukraine. A small part of Transcarpathia, located south of the Tysa River became part of Romania (Maramures region); in Transcarpathia's western reaches, the Presov region was allocated to Slovakia. A narrow strip of Hungarian ethnographic territory was added to Carpatho-Ukraine. Within Czechoslovakia Transcarpathia played an important geopolitical role as the bridge linking Czechoslovakia with Romania. At the same time it separated Hungary from its traditional ally, Poland. Later, Transcarpathia provided the USSR with a foothold in the Pannonian Plain. Beginning in 1938 the borders of Carpatho-Ukraine underwent a number of changes. After the Vienna Arbitration, Carpatho-Ukraine was transferred as a dependency to Hungary. Within the borders of Ukraine Transcarpathia occupies almost the same territory as it did within prewar Czechoslovakia, with a slight increase in the southwest around Chop. It constitutes a separate administrative unit, Transcarpathia oblast, with a territory of 12,800 sq km and a population of 1,258,155 (2018)...

UZHHOROD. A city (2019 pop 114,897) 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. Uzhhorod was sacked by the Tatars in 1242, and its fortress was destroyed. Its economy was initially based on wine-making industry, 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. The Austrian Habsburg dynasty won control of Uzhhorod in 1691, and the city became involved in Hungarian attempts to throw off Austrian rule--in the Rakoczi uprising of 1703-11 and the Revolution of 1848-9. With the defeat of the revolution the Ukrainian cultural movement in Uzhhorod gained strength for a time. The Society of Saint Basil the Great, the Uniia publishing society, and Ukrainian schools were established. In 1848 the city was granted self-government, and began the process of modernization. With Transcarpathia's incorporation into Czechoslovakia after the First World War, Uzhhorod became the capital of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the seat of the governor and the administration, and a center of Ukrainian life...

MUKACHEVO. A city (2019 pop 85,881) on the Liatorytsia River and a raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. The site has been settled since prehistoric times. Archeologists have discovered settlements in the vicinity from the Neolithic Period, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Slavic period (8th-9th century AD). In the 10th century Mukachevo 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 Prince Fedir Koriiatovych, who also built Mukachevo Saint Nicholas's Monastery. By the end of the 14th century Mukachevo 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 Mukachevo eparchy. Owing to its strategic location Mukachevo was contested frequently by the Habsburg dynasty and Transylvanian dynasty in the 16th and 17th centuries. At the end of the 17th century the town was annexed by Austria. It flourished in the 18th century and became the chief trade center in Transcarpathia. Mukachevo played an important role in the revolutionary movement of 1848-9. After the First World War the city belonged to Czechoslovakia. Its importance diminished whereas that of Uzhhorod grew. In 1938 Mukachevo came under Hungarian rule. By a Soviet-Czechoslovak treaty of June 1945 Transcarpathia became part of Soviet Ukraine...

KHUST. City (2017 pop 28,473) and raion center in Transcarpathia oblast, situated on the Khustets River in the Maramures Basin. It arose in the 10th century at the foot of a mountain of volcanic origin, on which a Hungarian castle was built from 1090 to 1191 to control access to salt mines 50 km away near the future town of Solotvyna. It was razed by the Mongols in 1242 but was soon rebuilt. 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. It was besieged by the Crimean Tatars in 1594, 1659, and 1717, the Poles in 1657, and the Turks in 1661-2. Prince Ferenc II Rakoczi took the town in 1703 and convened a Transylvanian diet there in 1709. The castle burned down after lightning hit its gunpowder tower in 1766. A Ukrainian People's Council was founded there in November 1918. On 21 January 1919 the 425 delegates of the All-People's Congress of Hungarian Ruthenians in Khust created the Central Ruthenian People's Council and voted to unite Transcarpathia with Ukraine. From 1919 to 1938 the city belonged to Czechoslovakia, from 1928 as a county center. Branches of the Prosvita society and Dukhnovych Society were established there. 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 (2019 pop 23,732, 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 Czechoslovak 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. Vineyards are located nearby. A 15th-century Gothic Roman Catholic church is located in the city. Berehove is a centre of cultural life of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. A Hungarian pedagogical institute, the Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute--the only institution of this kind in Ukraine--is located in Berehove...

VYNOHRADIV. A city (2018 pop 25,462) on the Tysa River and a raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. Until 1946 it was known as Sevliush or Sevlus. The settlement originated in the 9th century around the Slavic fortress of Kanko. At the end of the 11th century it came under Hungarian rule and was renamed Sevliush. At the end of the 17th century it was annexed by Austria, and in 1919 it was awarded to Czechoslovakia. Officially part of Ukraine since 1945, it was granted city status in 1946. Today the city is an industrial and communications center. It is the home of the Elektron Manufacturing Consortium, a plastic sanitary-products plant, and sewing, footwear, canning, and cheese factories. Its architectural monuments include the remains of the medieval castle, the Perenyi palace (15th century), a Franciscan church (14th-15th century), and a 16th-century Church of the Elevation of the Cross...

VOLHYNIA. A historical region of northwestern Ukraine, located north of Podilia, south of Polisia, east of the Buh River, and west of the upper parts of the Teteriv River and the Uzh River. Its area is approximately 70,000 sq km, and its population exceeds 4 million. Volhynia's borders have changed considerably over the centuries, shifting consistently from west to east. In the 12th century the Volhynia principality was larger than the present region. It extended to the Wieprz River in the west and to the Narev River and the Yaselda River in the northwest and thus encompassed the present Kholm region and Podlachia. Until 1170 it also encompassed the Belz land in the south. Under Poland the smaller Volhynia voivodeship (1569-1793) did not reach west beyond the Buh River, but included new territory to the east and southeast. Within the Russian Empire Volhynia gubernia consisted approximately of the same territory, except for the Zbarazh region, but expanded east to the upper Teteriv and the Uzh rivers. Even its capital, Zhytomyr, belonged once to Kyiv principality, not Volhynia principality. Today Volhynia encompasses most of Volhynia oblast, Rivne oblast, and Zhytomyr oblast, and parts of the former Volhynia gubernia belong to other oblasts--the Kremianets region, to Ternopil oblast, and the Iziaslav (Zaslav) and the Starokostiantyniv regions, to Khmelnytskyi oblast...

LUTSK. A city (2013 pop 215,624) on the Styr River and the center of Volhynia oblast. It is first mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1085, but it was probably a tribal center of the Luchanians as early as the 10th century. There is evidence that the area was settled in the Neolithic Period. Lutsk was the capital of an independent principality from 1154. In 1225 it belonged to Volodymyr principality and later to Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. In 1340 it was annexed by Liubartas, who built a castle there and established Lutsk as the capital of an appanage principality within the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the city came under Polish rule and served as a center of Volhynia voivodeship. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was one of the main trade centers in Ukraine because of its location at the crossroads of major trade routes. The city was also an important Ukrainian religious and cultural center. In 1617 the Lutsk Brotherhood of the Elevation of the Cross was founded, and in 1621 it set up a school. Later in the 17th century Lutsk declined. It was annexed by Russia in 1795, and became a county center. Today the city's most important historic monument is Liubartas's castle, the baroque Roman Catholic church built in 1619-20, the Church of the Holy Protectress, reconstructed from its 15th-century ruins, and the Church of the Elevation of the Cross, rebuilt in 1890 from the remains of the brotherhood's church (1619-20)...

RIVNE. A city (2013 pop 250,333) on the Ustia River and the administrative center of Rivne oblast. The town developed out of a settlement around a fortress in the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. It is first mentioned in historical documents in 1282. In the second half of the 14th century it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and by the end of the century it had been granted the rights of Magdeburg law. Because of its convenient location on the Kyiv--Volodymyr-Volynskyi trade route the town prospered as a commercial center. In 1518-1621 it was owned by the Ostrozky princes. With the Union of Lublin (1569) Rivne became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. With the partitioning of Poland in 1793 it was annexed by Russia. Toward the end of the 19th century Rivne developed from a small administrative and trading town into a major railway junction. Its population jumped from 6,300 in 1870 to 24,600 in 1897 and 33,700 in 1911. From the 1890s over half the population was Jewish. In 1941 the city was captured by the Germans and turned into the administrative center for Reichskommissariat Ukraine. In 1941 and 1942 the Germans killed the majority of local Jews. Soviet troops reoccupied Rivne in 1944. Since the 1950s Rivne has developed rapidly as an industrial center and the city remains an important railway junction. Its chief architectural monuments are the Dormition Church and belfry (1756), the gymnasium building (1839), and the Resurrection Cathedral (1890)...

VOLODYMYR-VOLYNSKYI. A city (2013 pop 38,894) on the Luha River and a raion center in Volhynia oblast. One of Ukraine's oldest cities, it is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 988, as the fortified trading town of Volodymyr and the seat of an eparchy. In the 12th century it was the center of Volodymyr principality, and in 1199 it became part of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. Frequent Tatar attacks (1240, 1260, 1491, and 1500) brought about its decline. In the late 14th century it came under Lithuanian rule, and in 1431 it obtained the rights of Magdeburg law. From 1569 the town belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky set up a school there in 1577, and a Basilian college operated there in the 18th century. In 1795 the town was annexed by the Russian Empire. It was renamed Volodymyr-Volynskyi, and served as a county center in Volhynia gubernia. During the First World War the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen opened the first Ukrainian school there, in 1916. In the interwar period Volodymyr-Volynskyi was a county center under Polish rule. Today the city is an industrial and communications center. Its chief architectural monuments are the remains of the 12th- to 13th-century fortifications, the foundations of 10th- to 14th-century residential buildings, the Dormition Cathedral in Volodymyr-Volynskyi (1160), Saint Basil's Church (13th-14th century), and the Renaissance bishops' palace (16th century)...

OSTROH or OSTRIH. A city (2013 pop 16,658) at the junction of the Viliia River and the Horyn River and a raion center in Rivne oblast. It is first mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle under the year 1100. In the second half of the 14th century it came under Lithuanian rule. From 1386 Ostroh belonged to the Ostrozky family, who built a castle and the Church of the Epiphany and established Ostroh as an important cultural, religious, and economic center. Until 1630 the town was a leading center of Ukrainian Orthodoxy: in the 1570s an academy and a printing press were set up, and in 1581 an improved translation of the Bible was published there. As the Roman Catholic movement and the state's policy of Polonization increased in strength, Ostroh lost its cultural and religious role. It was captured by Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648, and the castle and church were destroyed in the process. In the second half of the 17th century Ostroh became the property of the Zaslawski family, the Wisniowiecki family (in 1673), and finally the Sanguszko family (in 1700). In 1793, with the partition of Poland, it was transferred to Russia, and became a county center in Volhynia gubernia. Today the town's architectural monuments include the remains of the castle (14th-16th century), the 15th-century Church of the Epiphany, a 17th-century synagogue, and a 19th-century academy complex. In 1994, the Ostroh Academy was reestablished and in 2000 it was renamed the Ostroh Academy National University...

DUBNO. City (2013 pop 38,035) on the Ikva River in western Volhynia; raion center in Rivne oblast. It was first mentioned in 1100 as the village of Duben. In 1498 Dubno received Magdeburg law and came under the control of the Ostrozky princes. In the 15th century a fortress was built there that played an important role during the Cossack-Polish War in mid 17th century and survived until the First World War. The Dubno Monastery was founded by Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky in the late 16th century. Yov Zalizo was the monastery's first hegumen (from 1584 to 1597). Originally an Orthodox monastery, it was taken over by the Catholic church in 1700, but reverted to Orthodox control in the 19th century. Because of its fairs Dubno was a trade center, particularly from 1774 to 1797 when the famous Lviv contract fair was transferred to Dubno. Under Polish and Russian rule the town was a county center known for its trade in hops and cultural activities. Today it has some small industry: a food industry, a woolen-cloth industry, a furniture factory, and a foundry-machinery plant. It has a regional studies museum. Among its architectural monuments are the castle of the Ostrozky princes (16th century), the Lutsk Gate (15th and 16th centuries), the Transfiguration Church (16th century), Saint Nicholas's Church (17th century), Saint George's Church (1700), Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos (17th century)...

POLISIA. A physical-geographical region of lowlands and mixed forests lying between the Belarusian Upland to the north, the Volhynia-Kholm Upland and the Dnipro Upland to the south, the Buh River and Podlachia to the west, and the Dnipro Lowland to the east. Under the broad definition Polisia covers a territory of over 200,000 sq km. Under the narrow definition, which excludes Chernihiv Polisia, Little Polisia, and Volodava Polisia, Polisia proper occupies about 160,000 sq km. The Ukrainian-Belarusian ethnic border crosses Polisia from west to east approximately along the line Pruzhany-Bereza Kartuzka-Vyhonivske Lake, down the Bobryk River and along the Prypiat River to Mozyr, south to the Slovechna River and east along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border to the Dnipro River, and then north along the Dnipro. In the west the political-administrative border between Ukraine and Belarus does not correspond to the ethnic border, because the Soviet regime ceded the northwestern portion of Ukrainian ethnic territory (approximately 27,000 sq km) to the Belorussian SSR. Unlike its northern boundary, Polisia's southern boundary is sharply defined. Today Ukrainian Polisia is defined as Ukraine's forest belt. It encompasses most of Volhynia oblast and Rivne oblast, about two-thirds of Zhytomyr oblast, the northern third of Kyiv oblast, and the Ukrainian-settled parts of Brest oblast (over one-half) and Homel oblast (about one-sixth) in Belarus...

ZHYTOMYR. A city (2013 pop 271,172) on the Teteriv River and an oblast and raion center. It was founded, according to local legend, by a favorite of Askold and Dyr, Zhytomyr, in 884. It is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 1240, when the town was destroyed by the Mongols. In 1320 Gediminas annexed it to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and fortified it against the Tatars, who besieged it in 1399, 1469, 1482, and 1606. In 1444 Zhytomyr was granted the rights of Magdeburg law, and in 1471 it became a county center of Kyiv voivodeship. After the Union of Lublin of 1569 it became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its inhabitants revolted against their Polish overlords in 1594-6, 1618, and at the beginning of the Cossack-Polish War in 1648. Under Bohdan Khmelnytsky's rule the town served briefly as a company center of Kyiv regiment. In 1667 it was restored to Poland by the Treaty of Andrusovo, and in the following century it developed into an important Polish cultural center. It was the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese and the home of a Jesuit college (1720) and monastery (1724), a Bernardine monastery (1761), and a convent of the Sisters of Saint Vincent (1766). Its inhabitants joined the haidamaka uprisings in 1750 and 1768. After the partition of Poland in 1793, the town was annexed by Russia, and in 1804 it was made into the administrative center of Volhynia gubernia and the see of Volhynia eparchy. In the 19th century Zhytomyr developed into a regional manufacturing and trading center...

BERDYCHIV. A city (2012 pop 78,547) on the Hnylopiat River, a tributary of the Teteriv River, in the northwest part of the Dnipro Upland; a raion center in Zhytomyr oblast. Berdychiv was first mentioned in a historical document of 1545. In 1569 the city changed from Lithuanian to Polish rule, and in 1593 a fortress was erected around it. In 1630 the Kyiv voivode J. Tyszkiewicz built a church and fortified monastery in Berdychiv for the Polish Carmelite monks. The city thus became an important Polish religious center, attracting pilgrimages to the icon of the Virgin Mary, as well as a cultural center, with a school and, from 1760, a publishing center. These institutions and facilities were suppressed by the Russian government in 1866. Berdychiv grew in importance in the first half of the 19th century, when it became a center for wholesale and market trade (grain, cattle) and for light industry (dry goods, footwear). Berdychiv's population grew in response to commercial and industrial development (2,000 in 1789, 19,000 in 1838, and 51,500 in 1860), and it became Ukraine's fourth largest city after Odesa, Kyiv, and Lviv (but before Kharkiv). Berdychiv had a large Jewish population (80-90 percent) and was an important Hasidic center. With the decline of the market trade and with the construction of railroads, Berdychiv's growth ceased temporarily, coming to life again at the beginning of the 20th century. From 1917 to 1920 Berdychiv was, for the most part, under Ukrainian rule, but in the summer of 1920 the Soviets took control of the city...

KOROSTEN. Industrial city (2012 pop 65,592) and raion center in Zhytomyr oblast on the Uzh River. It was first mentioned in 945 as Iskorosten, the capital of the Derevlianians, ruled by their Prince Mal. Following the death of Prince Ihor at the hands of the Derevlianians, the city was destroyed by Princess Olha. In the 14th century the town became part of the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state, but under the Union of Krevo in 1385 came under Polish influence. In 1585 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. After the partition of Poland in 1793, Korosten was annexed by Russia. Since the late 19th century it has been an important railway and highway junction. Because of its strategic importance, the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic and the Red Army fought for its control in 1918, in February and the summer of 1919, and during the Second Winter Campaign in November 1921. Today its plants manufacture road-construction and chemical-industry machinery, reinforced-concrete railway ties, porcelain products, silos, household chemicals, lumber, granite, clothing, cotton thread, meat and dairy products, and wine. Four Kyivan Rus' settlements have been excavated there...

OVRUCH. A city (2014 pop 16,515) on the high left bank of the Noryn River and a raion center in Zhytomyr oblast. It is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 946 as Vruchyi, a Derevlianian settlement. In 977 the princes Oleh Sviatoslavych and Yaropolk I Sviatoslavych fought there; Oleh is purportedly buried in a large grave nearby. In the second half of the 12th century Ovruch was part of Riuryk (Vasylii) Rostyslavych's principality. In 1362 it came under Lithuanian rule as part of the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state, and after the Union of Lublin in 1569 it was transferred to Poland and made a center of Ovruch starostvo. In 1641 Ovruch was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. After the partition of Poland in 1793, it was annexed by Russia and became a county town in Volhynia gubernia. Today the town has a dairy, a canning factory, and a winery, as well as railway enterprises. Its architectural monuments include Saint Basil's Church (12th-13th century, restored 1908-12) and monastery buildings (1907-9)...

NOVOHRAD-VOLYNSKYI. A city (2012 pop 56,066) on the Sluch River and a raion center in Zhytomyr oblast. It is first mentioned in the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle under the year 1256 as the town of Zviahel (Vzviahl, Vozviahl). On year later, as punishment for the disloyalty of its population, the town was burned down by King Danylo Romanovych. The new town of Vzviahl emerged more than a century later under the rule of the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state. In 1499 it was granted to Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky who built the castle there (1507-95) and rebuilt the town. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the town was transferred to Poland and renamed Zviahel. During the Cosack-Polish War Zviahel was briefly a Cossack regimental center (1648-9). In 1793 it was taken by Russia, and in 1795 it was given its present name. Today the city produces agricultural machinery, building materials, beer, and furniture. Lesia Ukrainka was born and spent her childhood in Novhorad-Volynskyi. A memorial museum has been established there in her honor. Of the castle built by Kostiantyn Ostrozky, only remnants of the walls and one tower are left...

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 Dnister 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...

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. The need for establishing a system of nature preserves and national parks in Ukraine emerged as a result of the widespread and increasingly intensive use of land for agriculture, the growth of large-scale exploitation of forests and minerals, and rapid industrialization and urbanization. In 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. Preserves were established primarily to function as scientific research facilities and to promote biosphere conservation activities. They also preserve representative portions of a particular type of landscape or biome, such as steppe, estuary, or forest ecosystems, and are sometimes called 'standards of nature' (etalony). Some nature preserves, such as the Ukrainian Steppe Nature Reserve, are made up of several discontinuous sections so that isolated remnant enclaves of biotic importance will be preserved. The nature preserves are not intended to have any significant tourist function; that role is assigned to the national parks...

CARPATHIAN NATIONAL NATURE 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. One of the Carpathian protected areas, 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 Nature 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, 75 of which are listed in Ukraine's Red Data Book of endangered plants and 35 of which are endemic to the region, have been registered in the park. The local fauna includes 48 mammals, 110 birds, 11 fish, 10 amphibians, and 6 reptile species. 32 of these species, including brown bear, wolf, otter, and Eurasian lynx, are listed in the IUCN and Ukraine's Red Data Books of endangered species...

SHATSK NATIONAL NATURE PARK. The second national park to be created in Ukraine, after the Carpathian National Nature Park. It was proposed in the 1970s and set up in 1983. The park covers 48,977 ha in the northwestern part of Volhynia oblast, near the borders with Belarus and Poland. Its vegetation consists mainly of mixed forests and peat marshes on the upper watershed of the Prypiat River. More than 25 lakes dot the area, the largest of which is Svytiaz Lake. The intermittent forests are predominantly pine and hornbeam. Numerous organizations have established recreational bases in the area, particularly around Svytiaz Lake. Besides providing camping and hiking facilities the park conserves the natural landscape and its forest and wetland ecosystems, and supports scientific research. The local flora and fauna are very diverse. Over 780 vascular plant species, more than 30 of which are included in Ukraine's Red Data Book, are found there. The park has 333 registered animal species, of which 44 are mammals, 241 are birds, 19 are amphibians or reptiles, and 29 are various species of fish. 33 animal species are included in Ukraine's Red Data Book...

ASKANIIA-NOVA BIOSPHERE RESERVE. A state nature preserve in the steppe near the town of Askaniia-Nova, Chaplynka raion, Kherson oblast. A zoo was established there in 1875 by a Prussian colonist, Friedrich Falz-Fein, on the lands of his father, a wealthy landowner. He acclimatized wild animals from Asia, Africa, America, and Australia that were related to extinct species of steppe fauna. In 1910 Professor I. Ivanov worked at the reserve and conducted experiments in acclimatizing the wild Przewalski horse, the European bison, zebra, and other species. During the revolutionary period a local peasant, Klym Siianko, who was a self-taught zoologist and Falz-Fein's assistant, saved the reserve from complete ruin. In 1921 Askaniia-Nova was declared a national nature preserve under government supervision. An experimental station, zoo, botanical garden, zootechnical station, and breeding farm were set up at the enlarged reserve in 1921-5 under Mikhail Ivanov. In 1985, UNESCO designated the Askaniia-Nova Nature Reserve a biosphere reserve under the United Nations' Man and the Biosphere program. Today the Askaniia-Nova Biosphere Reserve has a total area of 33,307.6 ha and consists of a 11,200 ha section of virgin fescue-feather grass steppe, a large research farm, an acclimatization zoo, a dendrological park, and a botanical garden...

BLACK SEA BIOSPHERE RESERVE. A state nature preserve located on the sandy banks of the lower Dnipro River and the coast and the islands of the Tendriv Bay and Yahorlyk Bay of the Black Sea. The preserve was established in 1927 as part of a larger Black Sea preserve and it became a separate Black Sea Nature Reserve in 1933. In 1998 UNESCO designated the preserve as a biosphere reserve under the United Nations' Man and the Biosphere program and its name was changed to the Black Sea Biosphere Reserve. The preserve covers 14,158 ha of dry land and 74,971 ha of water (in 2007, total 89,129 ha) and constitutes the largest nature preserve in Ukraine. It was created to protect nesting, wintering, and migratory 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 bobak marmot. In the forest-steppe sections are found the remains of island forests and small groves of oak, birch, and willow trees. The pheasant and the sika deer, which was brought in 1957 from the Askaniia-Nova Reserve, are acclimatized here. Numerous sea gulls, swallows, snipe, ducks, and grouse nest here. The only nesting ground in the former USSR of the Mediterranean black-headed sea gull is located here...

UKRAINIAN STEPPE NATURE RESERVE. A state nature preserve established in 1961 as an amalgamation of three nature reserves, Khomutivskyi Steppe, Kamiani Mohyly Nature Reserve, and Mykhailivka Virgin Soil Preserve. The preserve is dedicated to preserving a portion of the original steppe environment. It has a total area of 1,634 ha. The largest (1,030 ha) of the components, Khomutivskyi Steppe, is situated in Novoozivsk raion, Donetsk oblast, in the Black Sea Depression. It provides sanctuary for animals such as the European hare, the mole rat, the tiger weasel, the steppe viper, the black-headed bunting, marmots, and the like, some of which faced almost total extinction at the turn of the century. It also features approximately 560 varieties of flora. The Kamiani Mohyly component of the preserve consists of two parallel granite ridges separated by a valley. With an area of 404 ha, it stretches across the border between Donetsk oblast and Zaporizhia oblast in Volodarsk and Kuibysheve raions. A variety of vegetation can be found in the reserve. The Mykhailivka Virgin Soil component (202 ha) is situated farther to the north, in Lebedyn raion of Sumy oblast. Although in the forest-steppe zone, the Mykhailivka Reserve is primarily a steppe-type reserve. Among its 960 varieties of flora are approximately 40 rare plants, including several vetches, carnations, wedge larkspurs, and irises. The reserve also shelters 26 species of mammals, 115 of birds, and 10 of fish...

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 refuge (zakaznyk). Wildlife refuges were established on the basis of decisions made by the Council of National Ministers of Ukraine or by local (oblast or even raion) councils. Activities on their sites are regulated by the national government, the organs responsible for the protection of nature, and the executive committees of local councils. Hunting, fishing, logging, grazing, hay cutting, and mining are usually prohibited on the refugees. In 2007 Ukraine had 2,709 zakaznyky of various kinds, occupying a total area of over 900,000 ha...