Shostka

Shostka [Шостка; Šostka]. Map: II-14. A city (2011 pop 79,791) on the Shostka River and a raion center in Sumy oblast. It originated as a workers' settlement that sprang up around a gunpowder factory built in 1739. From 1782 it belonged to Novhorod-Siverskyi vicegerency, from 1796, to Little Russia gubernia, and from 1802 to 1925, to Chernihiv gubernia. A railway built in 1893 linked Shostka with other industrial centers and stimulated its growth. In 1924 it attained city status. It has several large chemical plants, including the Svema Manufacturing Consortium, a number of building-materials factories, and a large food industry.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]