Land

[] IEU’S FEATURED TOPICS CONCERNING THE LAND AND REGIONS OF UKRAINE I. The Ukrainian Carpathians: A Natural Treasure of Global Importance II. The Ancient City of Chernihiv and the Chernihiv Region III. The Dnieper (Dnipro), the Dniester, and Other Rivers of Ukraine IV. The Picturesque Transcarpathia: The Westernmost Region of Ukraine I. THE UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS: A NATURAL TREASURE OF GLOBAL IMPORTANCE AND AN ETHNOGRAPHIC REGION RICH IN HISTORY The Ukrainian Carpathians constitute one of the most important and unique ecoregions in Europe. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recognized the Carpathian Mountains as a natural treasure of global importance and included it in its "Global 200" list of the most significant ecosystems on our planet. At the same time, the Ukrainian Carpathians represent an ethnographic region rich in history and cultural heritage and include such subregions as the Hutsul region, Boiko region, Lemko region, as well as parts of Bukovyna and Transcarpathia. Learn more about this natural jewel of Ukraine by visiting the following entries: CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS ( Karpaty ). Folded, young mountains of medium elevation, stretching in an arc about 1,500 km long (with a chord of almost 500 km) from the city of Bratislava in the northwest to the Iron Gate on the Danube River in the southeast and covering an area of about 200,000 sq km. The Carpathians are part of the Alpine mountain system and border on the old Czech, Polish, and Ukrainian massifs and Dobrudja, being separated from them by a band of young depressions-along the Morava River and Vistula River, the Sian Lowland and Dniester Lowland, the Subcarpathian Depression, and the Wallachian Depression. The Pannonian Basin, which cuts north into the mountains along the Tysa River and Bodrog River and their tributaries, occupies the central part of the arc.… Carpathian Mountains BUKOVYNA. The territory between the middle Dniester River and the main range of the Carpathian Mountains, around the source of the Prut River and the upper Seret River, the border area between Ukraine and Romania. Today Bukovyna is divided between Ukraine (incorporating Chernivtsi oblast or most of northern Bukovyna) and Romania (containing most of the Suceava region or southern Bukovyna). The name of this territory is derived from its great beech ( buk ) forests and dates back to the 14th century when it designated the lands on the Moldavian-Polish border… Bukovyna HUTSUL REGION ( Hutsulshchyna ). A region in the southeasternmost part of the Carpathian Mountains of Galicia, Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia (the basins of the upper Prut River, upper Suceava River, upper Bystrytsia Nadvirnianska River, and upper Tysa River valleys), inhabited by Ukrainian highlanders called Hutsuls. Except for eight settlements in Romania, the Hutsul region lies within the present-day borders of the Ukraine. In the southeast the Hutsul region borders on ethnic Romanian lands; in the west, on the region of the Boikos; in the north, on the region of the Subcarpathian Pidhiriany; and in the southwest, on long-cultivated Transcarpathian Ukrainian lands.… Hutsul region LEMKO REGION ( Lemkivshchyna ). The territory traditionally inhabited by the Lemkos forms an ethnographic peninsula 140 km long and 25-50 km wide within Polish and Slovak territory. After the deportation of Lemkos from the northern part in 1946, only the southern part, southwest of the Carpathian Mountains, known as the Prešov region in Slovakia, has remained inhabited by Lemkos. The Lemko region occupies the lowest part of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains-most of the Low Beskyd, the western part of the Middle Beskyd, and the eastern fringe of the Western Beskyd. The landscape is typical of medium-height-mountain terrain, with ridges reaching 1,000 m and sometimes 1,300 m. Only small parts of southern Low Beskyd and the northern Sian region have a low-mountain landscape. A series of mountain passes along the Torysa River and Poprad River—Tylych Pass (688 m), Duklia Pass (502 m), and Lupkiv Pass (657 m)—facilitate communications between Galician and Transcarpathian Lemkos… Lemko region The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries dedicated to the Carpathian Mountains region was made possible by a generous donation from TEOFIL SUDOMLAK of Renown Park, S.A., Australia . II. THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHERNIHIV AND THE CHERNIHIV REGION The Chernihiv region, located in northeastern Ukraine, has always played a prominent role in Ukrainian national life and has often rivaled the Kyiv region as the center of Ukrainian territory and the Ukrainian people. Chernihiv's cultural traditions date back to Kyivan Rus', when the Chernihiv dynasty's multifaceted political activity secured favorable conditions for cultural development and promoted the culture of Chernihiv to an all-Ukrainian level, particularly in the areas of architecture and painting. The city's monumental structures of the 11th–12th century, especially its churches, were remarkable achievements of the age. Chernihiv and the Chernihiv region played an important role in the Cossack Hetman state, when Baturyn and Hlukhiv were capitals of the Left-Bank Ukraine. Chernihiv preserved its importance in the 18th and 19th centuries when it become one of the most vital centers of the Ukrainian national movement... Learn more about the history and culture of the ancient city of Chernihiv and the Chernihiv region by visiting the following entries: CHERNIHIV. City (2001 pop 305,000) in the Dnieper Lowland situated on the high right bank of the Desna River, principal city of the Chernihiv region and capital of Chernihiv oblast, railway and highway junction, with a port on the river and an airport. Traces of settlements from the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age have been found on the site of present-day Chernihiv. In historical times Chernihiv was a center of the Siverianians. The city was incorporated into Kyivan Rus' in the 9th century and became one of the most important and wealthiest cities of the realm. The first mention of Chernihiv in the chronicles occurred in 907. In the 11th–13th century Chernihiv was the capital of Chernihiv principality, whose first ruler was Prince Mstyslav Volodymyrovych, the son of Volodymyr the Great... Chernihiv CHERNIHIV REGION ( Chernihivshchyna ). A historical and geographical territory in northeastern Ukraine on the border with Russia and Belarus. In the west the Chernihiv region borders on the Kyiv region; in the east, on Slobidska Ukraine; in the northwest, on Belarus; and in the north, on Russia (Briansk region). The precise boundaries of the Chernihiv region have changed over the centuries. The territory has an area of about 55,700 sq km. During the Princely era the Chernihiv region formed the nucleus of Chernihiv principality, which also encompassed large territories in the north (Briansk region), the northeast (Kursk region, Murom-Riazan land), and the southeast (Tmutorokan principality)... Chernihiv region NIZHEN or NIZHYN. A city (2001 pop 76,000) on the Oster River and a raion center in Chernihiv oblast. It is first mentioned as Unenezh or Unenizh under the year 1147 in the Hypatian Chronicle. The town was destroyed by the Tatars in 1239, and it recovered slowly. In the mid-14th century it came under Lithuanian rule, and in 1514 it was renamed Nizhen. In 1618 it was taken by Poland, and in 1625 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. In the Hetman state it was a regiment center of Nizhen regiment (1648–1782) and then a county center of Chernihiv vicegerency and Chernihiv gubernia (1802–1917)... Nizhen or Nizhyn NOVHOROD-SIVERSKYI. A city (2001 pop 15,175) on the Desna River and a raion center in Chernihiv oblast. According to archeological evidence it was founded in the 980s. It is first mentioned in the chronicles under the year 1044, and the Laurentian Chronicle lists it as the center of the Siversk principality in Kyivan Rus'. One of its rulers was Ihor Sviatoslavych, the central figure of Slovo o polku Ihorevi (The Tale of Ihor's Campaign)... Novhorod-Siverskyi BATURYN. Town smt (2001 pop 3,078) in Bakhmach raion, Chernihiv oblast, 19km north of the railway station of Bakhmach. The earliest references to Baturyn date back to 1625, when it was granted to the Polish chancellor Jerzy Ossolinski. In 1648 it became a Cossack company center, and in 1669–1708 it was the Left-Bank hetman's capital. Russian troops, commanded by Aleksandr Menshikov, sacked and burned Baturyn at the beginning of November 1708, because it supported Hetman Ivan Mazepa... Baturyn The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries dealing with the history and culture of Chernihiv and the Chernihiv region was made possible by the financial support of the FOUNDATION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UKRAINE (Toronto, ON, Canada) . III. THE DNIEPER (DNIPRO), THE DNIESTER, AND OTHER RIVERS OF UKRAINE From the dawn of history the Dnieper (Dnipro) River has been closely bound up with the life of the Ukrainian people. It is the ‘holy river' of Ukraine. It was known as the Borysthenes to the ancient Greeks and Romans (Herodotus first used the name in the 5th century BC). All the important towns of Kyivan Rus' (except those of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia) were located on the Dnieper or in its vicinity. In the 16th–17th century the Zaporozhian Sich arose on the lower Dnieper and became the nucleus of the second Ukrainian state. The river became the Cossack route to the Black Sea. During the hetmancy of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, it became the principal river of the Cossack state. Today the Dnieper is the main river network of Ukraine. Half of Ukraine's waterways belong to this system. Ukraine's second-largest river, the Dniester, is the main river in Galicia. For this reason Galicia is sometimes called Naddnistrianshchyna (Land by the Dniester). Other large rivers of Ukraine—the Donets in the east, the Boh in the southwest, and the Desna in the north—have had and continue to have a profound influence on the history of Ukraine and the life of its people. Learn more about the rivers of Ukraine by visiting the following entries: DNIEPER RIVER (Dnipro River). The largest river in Ukraine and the third largest in Europe (after the Volga River and the Danube River). Its length is 2,285 km, of which 485 km lie within the Russian Federation, 595 km within Belarus, and 1,095 km within Ukraine. The Dnieper Basin covers 504,000 sq km, of which 289,000 sq km are within Ukraine (48 percent of its area). The basin occupies 42 percent of the territory of the Ukrainian state and 36 percent of Ukrainian ethnic territory. The Dnieper became an important water route in medieval times, when it became part of the Varangian route between the Baltic Sea and Byzantium across the Black Sea. Kyiv, the Rus' capital, stood on the Dnieper at the confluence of important water routes. The capitals of principalities—Chernihiv, Pereiaslav, Turiv, Smolensk—were built on or very near the Dnieper… Dnieper (Dnipro) River DNIESTER RIVER (Dnister River). The second-largest river in Ukraine. It is 1,360 km long, and its basin covers 72,100 sq km. At one time the Dniester flowed only through Ukrainian territory. But after the ancestors of the Romanians settled the lands east of the Carpathian Mountains (beginning at the end of the 14th century) and after Bessarabia was Romanianized, the Dniester from Mohyliv-Podilskyi to its mouth (about one-third of its length) marked the Ukrainian-Romanian ethnic boundary. The Dniester is the main river in Galicia. The historical and ethnographical significance of the Dniester as the symbol of the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia outlived its economic and political importance. This is the source of the piety towards the river that is found in the romantics of Western Ukraine. This also explains frequent references to the river in the names of Galician institutions and organizations… Dniester (Dnister) River RIVERS OF UKRAINE. There are approx 30,000 rivers crossing Ukrainian ethnographic territory. Of that number about 23,000 are in Ukraine. With a combined length of nearly 180,000 km, most are small; in Ukraine there are 117 rivers the watercourses of which exceed 100 km, but only 13 that are longer than 500 km. The characteristics of rivers, such as the density of the river network as well as the volume and the seasonality of the flow, depend on factors such as climate, geology, relief, vegetation, and human modifications of the landscape. The rivers of Ukraine generally flow southward into the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov. The notable exceptions are in the northwest, where the prevalent flow is northward into the Prypiat River, a tributary of the Dnieper River, or into the Vistula River, which flows through Poland into the Baltic Sea… Rivers of Ukraine DONETS RIVER (also known as Dinets and Donets Siverskyi). The largest tributary of the Don River. The Donets is 1,050 km long and has a basin area of 98,900 sq km. Almost the entire stretch of the river lies within Ukrainian ethnic territory, and 950 km of it lie within Ukraine. The Donets rises in the Kursk region, south of the Central Upland, at an altitude of 215 m. Its upper stretch, above Belgorod, is narrow; farther down, the river attains a width of 100 m and an average depth of 1 m. Below Belgorod the river forms the Pechenihy Reservoir (86 sq km in area), which supplies Kharkiv with water. From there the right bank of the Donets is usually high and frequently dissected (especially the chalk hills called the Holy Hills [Sviati Hory] below Izium). The left bank is flat. About 220 km above its mouth the Donets cuts into the Donets Ridge near Hundorivka… Donets River BOH RIVER (ancient Greek: Hipanis; now called Pivdennyi Buh [Southern Buh]). One of the largest rivers of Ukraine, 857 km in length (792 km to the liman). Its drainage basin covers an area of 63,740 sq km. In its upper section in the Podolian Upland the Boh flows slowly through a wide, muddy valley. Its middle section cuts into a crystalline massif, and the gradient increases as it flows between craggy banks. Rapids appear and are most concentrated in the 70 km stretch between the town of Pervomaiske and the village of Oleksandrivka, where the steep banks reach a height of 90 m (here the Myheiski, Bohdanivski, and other rapids are found). Below the rapids the river flows through the Black Sea Lowland. It spreads out to 800 m (2–3 m deep) and enters the deep Dnieper-Boh Estuary near the town of Nova Odesa… Boh River The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries dedicated to the Dnieper and other rivers of Ukraine was made possible by the financial support of the FOUNDATION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UKRAINE (Toronto, ON, Canada) . IV. THE PICTURESQUE TRANSCARPATHIA: THE WESTERNMOST REGION OF UKRAINE Transcarpathia is the only part of Ukraine situated beyond the Carpathian Mountains. Accessible to the main territory of Ukraine through numerous mountain passes, it joins Ukraine with the core of East-Central Europe. Transcarpathia encompasses two different natural regions, the Tysa Lowland and the picturesque southern watershed of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. In the 10th century, Transcarpathia came under the sphere of influence of Kyivan Rus'. Following its incorporation by Prince Volodymyr the Great into his realm, the name Rus' or Ruthenia became entrenched in Transcarpathia. In the 11th century most of Transcarpathia came under Hungarian rule. Ukrainians constituted the majority of the region's population, but they were a minority element among its aristocracy. Deprived of a political structure and social elite the Transcarpathian Ukrainians preserved their ethnic identity principally through their religious distinction. It was not until the early 1920s that Transcarpathia was established as a separate administrative region. The Ukrainians' struggle for self-rule resulted in the creation of the autonomous Carpatho-Ukraine on 11 October 1938. On 12 February 1939, elections to the first parliament of Carpatho-Ukraine took place in which the Ukrainian National Alliance won a resounding victory. However, on 14 March 1939, Adolf Hitler entrusted Hungary with the occupation of Transcarpathia which marked the actual beginning of the Second World War... Learn more about Transcarpathia, its history, cities, inhabitants, and natural resources by visiting the following entries: TRANSCARPATHIA. A historical-geographic region in southwestern Ukraine. Until 1919 Transcarpathia denoted that part of Hungary where Ukrainians lived, and the synonymous terms Hungarian Ruthenia (Uhorska Rus') and Hungarian Ukraine (Uhorska Ukraina) were widely used. Bounded by the ethnographic boundary with Romanians and Hungarians in the south and Slovaks in the west, the region encompassed 15,600 sq km. After the First World War Transcarpathia was separated from Hungary, and the bulk of its territory was formed into an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia called Subcarpathian Ruthenia (Pidkarpatska Rus'). A small part, located south of the Tysa River, became part of Romania, while in its western reaches, the Presov region was allocated to Slovakia. Joined with the Ukrainian SSR in June 1945, Transcarpathia constitutes a separate administrative unit, Transcarpathia oblast, within the borders of Ukraine, with a territory of 12,800 sq km and a population of 1,258,300 (2001)... Transcarpathia UZHHOROD. A city (2001 pop 117,600) on the Uzh River and the capital of Transcarpathia oblast. According to the archeological evidence the site was inhabited as early as the Stone Age. A Slavic tribe of White Croatians founded a fortified settlement there in the 8th or 9th century. Early in the 10th century it was controlled by the Hungarians and then by Kyivan Rus'. Hungary regained control of the town in the 11th century and remained the dominant influence there until the 20th century. Its economy was initially based on wine-making, agriculture, and animal husbandry. Trade and manufacturing, stimulated by the town's military and administrative needs, developed through the 15th to 18th centuries. The religious struggle of the 17th century culminated in the Uzhhorod Union of 1646. In the late 1770s Bishop Andrii Bachynsky transferred the seat of Mukachiv eparchy to Uzhhorod... Uzhhorod MUKACHIV or MUKACHEVO. A city (2001 pop 82,200) on the Liatorytsia River and a raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. The site has been settled since prehistoric times. In the 10th century Mukachiv belonged to Kyivan Rus', and in the 11th century, to Hungary. The fortress, rising high above the town, was destroyed by the Cumans in 1086 and by the Tatars in 1241. It was rebuilt by Fedir Koriiatovych, who also built Mukachiv Saint Nicholas's Monastery. By the end of the 14th century Mukachiv was an important manufacturing and trading center on a trade route between Hungary and Galicia. In 1445 it was granted the rights of Magdeburg law. Because of the monastery the town became a cultural and religious center in the 15th century, and until the end of the 18th century it was the seat of the Mukachiv eparchy... Mukachiv or Mukachevo KHUST. City (2001 pop 29,100) and raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. It arose in the 10th century at the foot of a mountain of volcanic origin, on which a Hungarian castle was built ca. 1090 to control access to salt mines located nearby. Khust belonged to the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia from 1281. In 1321 Hungarian rule was restored. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Habsburg dynasty and the Transylvanian princes fought each other for control of the town and its castle. On 21 January 1919 the Central Ruthenian People's Council in Khust voted to unite Transcarpathia with Ukraine. From 1919 to 1938 the city belonged to Czechoslovakia. After Hungary occupied southwestern Transcarpathia, in November 1938, the autonomous Carpatho-Ukrainian government headed by Avhustyn Voloshyn was evacuated from Uzhhorod to Khust, which became the capital of Carpatho-Ukraine... Khust BEREHOVE or BEREHOVO. A city (2001 pop 26,700, with a substantial Hungarian population), located in the Tysa Lowland; raion center in Transcarpathia oblast. Founded as a Saxon colony in the 11th century AD, Berehove is situated in Hungarian ethnic territory (before the Second World War Ukrainians constituted 10 percent of the population in Bereg komitat [Berehove county]). Under Czechoslovakian rule it was a center of Ukrainian cultural life in southern Transcarpathia. A Ukrainian gymnasium was situated here. Berehove has furniture, clothing, brick-and-tile, and ceramics plants and a wine and food industry. A 15th-century Gothic Roman Catholic church is located in the city... Berehove or Berehovo The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries dealing with the history, cities, and natural resources of Transcarpathia was made possible by the financial support of the FOUNDATION OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UKRAINE (Toronto, ON, Canada) . 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