Chortkiv

Chortkiv
Чортків
City of regional significance

View of Chortkiv and the surrounding Podolian landscape.

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Chortkiv

Location of Chortkiv in Ukraine

Chortkiv
Coordinates: UA 49°00′27″N 25°47′26″E / 49.00750°N 25.79056°E / 49.00750; 25.79056Coordinates: UA 49°00′27″N 25°47′26″E / 49.00750°N 25.79056°E / 49.00750; 25.79056
Country  Ukraine
Province  Ternopil Oblast
Magdeburg rights 1533
City status 1939[1]
Government
 • City Mayor Mykhailo Verbitskyi
Area
 • Total 30 km2 (10 sq mi)
Elevation[2] 218 m (715 ft)
Population (2001)
 • Total 28,855
 • Density 960/km2 (2,500/sq mi)
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Postal code 48500—48509
Area code +380 3552
Website http://rada.gov.ua/

Chortkiv (Ukrainian: Чортків; Polish: Czortków; Yiddish: טשאָרטקאָוו‎ Chortkov) is a city in Ternopil Oblast (province) in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chortkiv Raion (district), housing the district's local administration buildings. Chortkiv is located in the northern part of the historic region of Galician Podolia on the banks of the Seret River.[3] Its population was 28,855 as of the 2001 Ukrainian Census.[1] Due to heavy destruction of Ternopil, in 1944 Chortkiv served as a regional seat.[4]

In the past Chortkiv was the home of many Hasidic Jews; it was a notable shtetl and had a significant number of Jews residing there prior to the Holocaust. Today, Chortkiv is a regional commercial and small-scale manufacturing center.[3] Among its architectural monuments is a fortress built in the 16th and 17th centuries[5] as well as historic wooden churches of the 17th and 18th centuries.[6]

History

Chortkiv Castle

The first historical mention of Chortkiv dates to 1522, when Polish King Sigismund I the Old granted an ownership order for Jerzy Czortkowski over the town and allowed him to name it after himself—Czortków.[6] During that time, the town was also granted Magdeburg rights.[3] However, Chortkiv would later decline in the second half of the 17th century during Ottoman Expansion of central Europe the town was taken over by Ottoman Empire,[3] whose rule lasted 27 years. It was part of the short-lived Turkish Podolia Eyalet, which lasted from 1672 to 1699.

After First Partition of Poland Chortkiv came under Austro-Hungarian rule which lasted from 1772 to 1918, during the time of which it was the center of the Chortkiv Bezirk. On June 8, 1919 the Ukrainian Galician Army broke for couple months through the Polish front at Chortkiv and began the Chortkiv offensive.[3] Soon afterwards, the town was seized by the Poles. It was ceded to sovereign Poland in the Peace Treaty of Riga between Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine, and remained part of the Tarnopol Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic until the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939.

In 1931, the town had 19,000 inhabitants, 22.8 percent of whom were Ukrainians (Greek Catholics), 46.4 percent of whom were Poles (Roman Catholics), and 30 percent of whom were Jews. Chortkiv was an important garrison of the Polish Border Defence Corps Brigade "Podole", whose commandant from 1935 to 1938 was General Stefan Rowecki. Furthermore, it was home to the 36th Reserve Infantry Division.

The town was annexed to the Soviet Union from September 17, 1939 until June 1941. Its Polish inhabitants, particularly students of the local high school, organized a failed uprising in January 1940,[7] which would serve as the first Polish uprising of World War II. From 1941-1944 it was annexed to Nazi Germany. After the defeat of the Nazis by the Red Army in 1944, the town returned to Soviet control until in 1991 it became part of independent Ukraine. Polish residents of the town were transferred to the Recovered Territories in the immediate postwar period (see Polish population transfers (1944–1946)).

People from Chortkiv

Gallery

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Chortkiv, Ternopil Oblast, Chortkiv Raion". Regions of Ukraine and their Structure (in Ukrainian). Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  2. ↑ "Chortkiv (Ternopil Oblast, Chortkiv Raion)". weather.in.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Chortkiv". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  4. ↑ Snitovsky, O. Five centuries of Ternopil. The city of Hetman Jan and mason Leontiy. Ukrinform. 28 August 2015
  5. ↑ "CHORTKIV CASTLE, 1610". Halychyna! - Homeland Page. Central European University Personal Pages. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  6. 1 2 "Foundations of history". chortkiv.com.ua (in Ukrainian). Unicom ISP. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  7. ↑ Gross, Jan Tomasz (2002). Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia. Princeton University Press. p. 172. ISBN 0-691-09603-1.
  8. ↑ Laurence Weinbaum "'Shaking the Dust Off". The Story of the Warsaw Ghetto’s Forgotten Chronicler, Ruben Feldschu (Ben Shem)" Jewish Political Studies Review 22:3-4 (Fall 2010)

8. Czortków KehilaLinks Site - JewishGen http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Suchostaw/sl_czortkow.htm

External links

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