| Velyki Sorochyntsi Великі Сорочинці |
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| Place of Sorochinskiy Fair | |||
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Velyki Sorochyntsi
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country Oblast Raion |
Ukraine Poltava Oblast Myrhorodskyi_Raion |
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| Founded | 1620s | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | |||
| Population | |||
| • Total | 4 037 | ||
| Postal code | 37645 | ||
| Area code(s) | +380 5355 | ||
Velyki Sorochyntsi (Ukrainian: Великі Сорочинці, Russian: Вели́кие Соро́чинцы or Больши́е Соро́чинцы, tranlit. Velikiye Sorochintsy or Bol'shiye Sorochintsy; formerly referred to simply as Sorochyntsi) is a village in the Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. It can be translated as the Grand Sorochyntsi. The village is located in the Myrhorodsky Raion (district) of the oblast, at around , and is famous as both the birthplace of the great writer Nikolai Gogol (April 1 [O.S. March 20] 1809) and the location of the Sorochyntsi Fair.
The current estimated population is around 4,037 (as of 2006 [1]).
The name of the village came either from the slavic word Soroka (magpie) or Sorochka (shirt). There are many legends explaining the name of the village as the location of the Magpie's kingdom or of some magical shirt.
The earliest recorded mention of the settlement is in the 1620s. In 1646, the village became the domain of a Polish Prince from the Wiśniowiecki family. By the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries, the village was the location of a Cossack regimental government headed by the future hetman, Danylo Apostol, who in 1670 founded the Sorochynski Mikhailovsky Monastery. He went on to build the Ukrainian baroque Church of the Transfiguration (Ukrainian: Преображенська церква, translit. Preobrazhens'ka tsekrva) in 1732, also in Sorochyntsi, where he was buried two years later. (Nikolai Gogol was later baptized in this same church. [2])
Since the middle of the 18th century, the large Sorochyntsi Fair (Ukrainian: Національний Сорочинський ярмарок, translit. Natsiolnal'nyi Sorochyns'kyi yarmarok, Russian: Сорочинcкaя яpмaркa, translit. Sorochinskaya yarmarka) has been held in Velyki Sorochyntsi. Recurring five times a year in the time of the Russian Empire, the fair is now held annually since its revival after a 40-year moratorium during Soviet rule. Since the Presidential Decree of August 18, 1999 [3], the fair bears the status of the National trade fair [4]. The fair is a large showcase for traditional handicrafts made by skilled craftsmen, including Reshetilivka embroidery, rugs, Opishnya ceramics, as well theatrical performers who re-enact scenes of village life from famous Ukrainian stories.
From 1925 to 1931 the city was called Neronovychi after the Ukrainian People's Secretary of Military Affairs, Yevhen Neronovych.
On April 1 [O.S. March 20] 1809, famous writer Nikolai Gogol was born in Velyki Sorochyntsi. His short story The Fair at Sorochintsï made the small village, and its fair, world-famous.
On August 23, 1911, a monument to Nikolai Gogol (by the famous Russian sculptor Ilya Ginzburg) was installed in the village. There is also the Gogol Memorial Museum in the village. In 1983 Soviet Union issued a postal stamp showing the monument and the museum.
In 1845, the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko visited the village for the archeologial commission, compiling the history and architecture of Poltavshchyna. There has been a street named in his honor in this village for over a half a century.
Once being categorized as a town the village is also a birthplace of other notable Ukrainians such as Hetman Danylo Apostol, writer Volodymyr Samiylenko, and many others.
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