Kursk

Kursk. Map: II-17. City (2000 pop 443,500) and oblast capital in the Russian Federation. It was first mentioned in the chronicles in 1032 as a fortified town in Chernihiv principality and a defense outpost against the Cumans. Later the capital of an appanage principality, it was razed in 1240 by the Mongols. Rebuilt in 1582 as a fortified town on Muscovy's frontier with the Crimean Khanate, from 1708 to 1727 it belonged to Kyiv gubernia. From 1780 to 1797 it was a vicegerency capital, and from 1797 to 1917, a gubernia capital. Today Kursk is an important transport, industrial, and cultural center. Of its 98,800 inhabitants in 1926, 2,400 were Ukrainian.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1989).]