Hlukhiv

Coordinates: 51°40′43″N 33°54′41″E / 51.67861°N 33.91139°E / 51.67861; 33.91139

Hlukhiv
Глухів
Глухов
City

Hlukhiv in 1900

Flag
Seal
Hlukhiv
Coordinates: 51°40′43″N 33°54′41″E / 51.67861°N 33.91139°E / 51.67861; 33.91139
Country Ukraine
Oblast Sumy Oblast
First mentioned 1152
Population (2005)
 • Total 36,100
Website http://hlukhiv.com.ua/

Hlukhiv (Ukrainian: Глухів, Polish: Głuchów) or Glukhov (Russian: Глухов) is a small historic town on Yesman River. Currently it is a city of regional significance in the Sumy region of Ukraine, just south of the Russian border (see map).

It is known for being a capital of the Cossack Hetmanate after deposition of Ivan Mazepa in 1708-1764. As of 2005, the city's population is 36,100. Today near the city located the former Soviet Chervone Pustohorod air base. Beside the city of Hlukhiv, to the Hlukhiv municipality belongs a village Sliporod.

History

St.Trinity Cathedral in Hlukhiv where Metropolitan Ioasaf proclaimed anathema onto Mazepa
Coat of arms of Hlukhiv Regiment in 1663-65, a province of Cossack Hetmanate

First noticed by chroniclers as a Severian town in 1152. Sometime in 1247 Hlukhiv became the seat of a branch of the princely house of Chernigov following the Mongol invasion of Rus. Between 1320 and 1503 it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania before being conquered by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In 1618 it became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (in the Czernihów Voivodeship of the Crown of Poland) and was granted Magdeburg Rights in 1644 by Władysław IV Vasa. In 1648-1764 it was part of the Cossack Hetmanate within the Nizhyn Regiment (province).

In 1654 the Cossack Hetmanate came under military protectorate of the Tsardom of Muscovy in accordance with the Treaty of Pereyaslav and in 1664, during the siege of Hlukhiv, the Russo-Cossack garrison of the town successfully defended against a superiour Polish army which suffered great losses during the following retreat. According to the Truce of Andrusovo along with the rest Left-bank Ukraine it was ceded to the Tsardom of Muscovy in 1667.

In 1708 after realizing that Ivan Mazepa sided with Carl XII, Peter the Great order to destroy Baturyn and transfer capital to Hlukhiv. Here in November 1708 was elected a new Hetman of Zaporizhian Host Ivan Skoropadsky, while the Metropolitan of Kiev, Halych and all Little Russia Ioasaf was forced to proclaim anathema onto Mazepa in the St. Trinity Cathedral (destroyed in 1962). Hlukhiv served as the capital of the Cossack Hetmanate in 1708-64 and until 1773 the administrative center of the Little Russia Governorate. Under the last hetmans of Ukraine, the town was remodeled in the Baroque style. Subsequently, it declined in consequence of frequent fires, so that very few of its architectural gems survived.

Since the first school of singing in the Russian Empire was established there in 1738, the town has a rich musical heritage. Composers Dmytro Bortniansky and Maksym Berezovsky, whose statues grace the Bortniansky Square of Hlukhiv, are believed to have studied there.

In 1874 in Hlukhiv was established a college (today Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University of Oleksandr Dovzhenko). In 1879 Russian millionaires of Ukrainian descent Tereshchenko brothers established a free hospital of St. Euphrosyne and supported it financially. In 1899 on the funds of Tereshchenko family in Hlukhiv was established another college (today Agrarian college of the Sumy Agrarian University).

In 1918 the city became part of Ukraine, however already in January 1918 it was occupied by the Soviet troops for several months. The Soviet regime returned again to the city a year later in 1919.

During World War II, Hlukhiv was occupied by the German Army from 9 September 1941 to 30 August 1943.

In 1994 in the city was established the State Historical and Cultural Heritage Park.

In October 2015 at the local election, the mayor of the city became Michel Tereshchenko, a naturalized Ukrainian from France and great grandson of Mikhail Tereshchenko.

Sights

The oldest building in the town is the church of St. Nicholas (1693), modeled after traditional wooden churches and executed in the Ukrainian Baroque style. The church, repaired and renovated in 1871, has three pear-shaped domes and a two-storey bell tower.

The church of the Savior's Transfiguration (1765) straddles the line between Baroque and Neoclassicism, while the massive Neo-Byzantine cathedral (1884–93) resembles St Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kiev.

Probably the best known landmark of modern Hlukhiv is the conspicuous water tower (1927–29), though more historical interest attaches to the triumphal arch, dated either to 1744 or 1766. It has been suggested that the architect of this rather plain structure was Andrey Kvasov. The arch, the oldest in Ukraine, sustained damage during World War II but was subsequently restored.

Religion

Most dominant religious presentation in the city has the Russian Orthodox Church through the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

Near Hlukhiv in the village of Sosnivka is located a small monastery (Russian Orthodox Church) Glinsk Hermitage.

Agricultural research

Due to the traditional cultivation of industrial hemp in the area, Hlukhiv has become home to the Institute of Bast Crops of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, working on breeding improved hemp and flax cultivars. In the 1970s, the institute developed low-THC hemp varieties for industrial cultivation.[1][2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hemp will help Ukraine to grow wealthy (Russian)
  2. ↑ Interview with Dr. V. G. Virovets, the head of the Hemp Breeding Department at the Institute of Bast Crops (1998)
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