Kalush

Kalush [Калуш; Kaluš]. Map: IV-5. 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 (see 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.

[This article was updated in 2010.]