Baturin

Localización en el mapa de Ucrania

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Baturin (en ucraniano: Батурин), es una pequeña ciudad del Óblast de Chernihiv, en el norte de Ucrania. Pertenece al rayón Bajmatski del óblast, a orillas del río Seim. La población en 2009 ascendía a 3.078 habitantes.

Historia

La evidencia de asentamientos en el área de la actual Baturin se remonta a la Era Neolítica, habiéndose desenterrado también restos de la Edad del Bronce y escitas. De acuerdo a algunos escritores modernos, la fortaleza más antigua de Baturin

Evidence of settlement in the area of present-day Baturyn dates back to the Neolithic era, with Bronze Age and Scythian remains also having been unearthed. According to some modern writers, the earliest fortress at Baturyn would have been created by the Grand Principality of Chernihiv in the 11th century. The contemporary name for the settlement, however, was first mentioned in the 1625, likely referring to the fortress of Stefan Batory, King of Poland, Prince of Transylvania, and Grand Duke of Lithuania, which was built and named in his honor. The area had been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (in the Kijów Voivodeship of the Crown of Poland) since before the Union of Lublin. Control of the town was wrested from the Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, after which natives of Ruthenia gained some degree of autonomy under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and his Cossack state. In 1648, Baturyn was transformed into a Cossack regional center (sotnia), first hosting the Starodub Cossack Regiment, and then the Nizhyn Regiment.

By 1654, Baturyn, home to 486 cossacks and 274 villagers, was granted Magdeburg Rights. As the settlement grew, more merchants flocked to it, and great fairs were held quarterly. The capital of the Cossack Hetmanate, an autonomous Cossack republic in Left-bank Ukraine, was located in Baturyn from 1669–1708, and from 1750-1764. It was in Baturyn that Hetman Ivan Briukhovetsky signed the Baturyn Statutes in 1663, which further elaborated the treaty with the Tsardom of Russia which Khmelnytsky had initiated with the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654.

The area prospered under the rule of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1687–1708), increasing in size and population (with upwards of 20,000 residents). Baturyn boasted 40 churches and chapels, two monasteries and a college for government officials and diplomats (the Kantseliarsky Kurin). In 1708, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were caught in the midst of the Great Northern War, in which Hetman Mazepa supported Sweden and its war with the Russian Empire and for Ukraine’s independence. On Nov.13 1708 Baturyn was sacked and razed by the Russian army of Alexander Menshikov, and all of its inhabitants were slaughtered. Dmytro Chechel, the commanding officer of the Baturin garrison, was broken at the wheel. Historian Serhiy Pavlenko estimates that 6-7.5 thousand civilians and 5-6.5 thousand military personnel were murdered.^[1]. The population of the city in 1708 was 20,000. By 1726 the city was a ghost town.

The town was rebuilt in the 1750s, and served as the capital for Hetman Count Kirill Razumovsky, whose palace was designed by Andrey Kvasov in the Baroque style (later rebuilt in the Neoclassical style by Charles Cameron in 1799-1803). The home of the famous cossack Vasily Kochubey, which was constructed some 50 years earlier, is surrounded today by a park in his name (although this building was devastated during World War II, it was restored during Soviet times).

Following Hetman Razumovsky's death, the town lost most of its political stature. In 1756, a textile plant was founded with 12 weaving machines, but quickly grew to include 76 machines. When Russian empress Catherine II abolished the Ukrainian Cossack state and incorporated its territories into the Russian Empire, Baturyn continued manufacturing textiles, feeding a growing demand for carpets. In 1843, Taras Shevchenko stayed in the town, marking his time by painting many of the architectural sights.

In June, 1993, the Ukrainian government declared Baturyn the center of a national site of Ukrainian history and culture. In August, 2002, at the prodding of President Viktor Yushchenko, a government program was approved to restore Baturyn to its former glory.

On January 22, 2009, Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko officially opened the "Hetmans' Capital" Monumental complex with the newly renovated Razumovsky Palace.^[2]