Lebedyn

Lebedyn [Лебедин]. Map: III-15. A city (2011 pop 26,903) and raion center in Sumy oblast. It was founded in 1654, and in 1658 it became a company center of Sumy regiment and was renamed Lebiazhyi Horod. During the war of 1708–9 the command of the Russian army was stationed in Lebedyn, and later Hetman Ivan Mazepa's supporters were interrogated and punished there. In the 19th century Lebedyn was a county center in Kharkiv gubernia. Today the city has a machine-tool and a metalworking plant, a furniture factory, a fruit-canning and a meat-packing plant, a mixed-feed factory, a building-materials plant, and a textile factory. Its art museum contains portraits from Pavlo Polubotok's private collection (early 18th century). There is a memorial museum dedicated to the famous singer Borys Hmyria. The most important architectural monument is the wooden Church of the Resurrection, built in 1748. A settlement of the Cherniakhiv culture (2nd–4th century) has been excavated near Lebedyn.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]