Dykanka

Dykanka [Диканька; Dykan’ka]. Map: IV-15. Town smt (2010 pop 8,468), a raion center in Poltava oblast. In 1658 the town witnessed the battle between Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and the Zaporozhian Cossacks under Yakiv Barabash. From 1689 to this century it belonged to the Kochubei family. For centuries the Dykanka region has been renowned for its bedspreads, blankets, and kilims. Today co-operative artels produce woven coverlets, kilims, and embroidered articles. The Holy Trinity Church (built in 1780), Saint Nicholas's Church (built in 1794 by N. Lvov), and the remnants of the Kochubei palace (1810), including the triumphal arch, are its architectural monuments. The town was immortalized by Nikolai Gogol, who called his first collection of stories Vechera na khutore bliz Dikan’ki (Evenings on a Homestead near Dykanka, 1831–2). Dykanka has a gas compressing station, a building ceramics plant, and a food industry.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]