Chernihiv

Chernihiv (Template:Lang-ua), often called by the Russian name Chernigov (Чернигов) is an ancient city in northern Ukraine, the capital of Chernihiv Oblast (province). The city population is 295,500 (2004).

Chernihiv was first mentioned in chronicles in 907, but is considered to have existed at least in the 9th century, as uncovered by archeological excavations of settlement which included the artifacts from the Khazar Khaganate. The city was an important center in Kievan Rus', from the early 11th century, the seat of powerful Grand Principality Chernigov (Великое Княжество Черниговское), whose rulers at times rivaled for power with Kiev Grand Princes and often overthrew them and took the primary seat in Kiev for themselves. Other well-known subjects of this grand principality included such prominent centers of Kievan Rus' as Lyubech, Nezhin and even a remote Tmutarakan. The golden age of Chernigov, when the city population peaked at 25,000, lasted until 1239 when the city was sacked by the hordes of Mengu Khan, which started a long period of relative obscurity.

The area fell under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1353. The city was burned again by Crimean Tatar khan Mengli Giray in 1482 and 1497 and in the 15th-17th century it changed hands several times between Lithuania, Muscovy (1408 - 1420 and from 1503), and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1618 - 1648, where it was granted Magdeburg rights in 1623 and in 1635 became a seat of Czernihów Voivodship. The area's importance increased again in the middle of the 17th century during and after the Khmelnytsky Uprising. In the Hetman State Chernigov was the city of deployment of Chernigov Cossack regiment (which was both a military and territorial unit of the time).

In the 1667 Treaty of Andrusovo the legal suzerainty of the area was ceded to Muscovy, later Imperial Russia, with Chernigov remaining an important center of semi-autonomous Cossack Hetmanate. With the abolishment of the Hetmanate, the city became an ordinary administrative center of the Russian Empire and a capital of local administrative units. The area in general was ruled by the Governor-General appointed from Saint Petersburg, the imperial capital, and Chernigov was the capital of local namestnichestvo (from 1782), Malorosiyskaya or Little Russian (from 1797) and Chernigovskaya (from 1808) guberniyas.

External link

• Chernihiv - the Princely City of Ukraine