Zhydachiv

Zhydachiv [Жидачів; Žydačiv]. Map: IV-5. A town (2017 pop 10,962) on the Stryi River and a raion center in Lviv oblast. One of the oldest towns in Ukraine, it is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 1164, as Udech. At different times it has also been known as Sudachiv, Zidachiv, and Zudechiv. The town was an important trading center on the trade routes between the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia, Kyivan Rus’, Western Europe, and the Black Sea. In 1241 it was sacked by the Tatars, and 10 years later it was restored by Danylo Romanovych. From the mid-14th century it was under Polish rule, and in 1393 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. The townsmen rebelled against the Polish overlords in 1648, during the Cossack-Polish War, but were soon subjugated. An Orthodox brotherhood arose to resist union with the Roman Catholic church (see Church Union of Berestia). A cholera epidemic in 1676 reduced the population by half. By the end of the century the town had declined to a village. After the partition of Poland in 1772 Zhydachiv was annexed by Austria, and in 1867 it became a county center in Galicia. In the interwar period Zhydachiv was under Polish rule, and after the Second World War it became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Today it is a transportation and industrial center. It has a cellulose and carton, a brick, and a cheese factory.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]