Chernigov

Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is

The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine by the Ukrainian government during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Names and etymology

The name ''Chernihiv''/''Chernigov'' is a compound name, which begins with the Slavic root ''Cherni-''/''Cherno-'', which means 'black'. Scholars vary with interpretations of the second part of the name (''-hiv''/''-gov'', ) though scholars such as Dr. Martin Dimnik, Professor of Medieval History at University of Toronto, connect Chernihov with the worship of "the black god" Chernibog.

The city of Chernihiv is also historically known by different names in other languages – ; .

History

Early history

Chernihiv was first mentioned (as ) in the Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (907), but the time of its establishment is unknown. Artifacts from the Khazar Khaganate uncovered by archaeological excavations at a settlement there indicate that it seems to have existed at least as early as the 9th century. Towards the end of the 10th century, the city probably had its own rulers. It was there that the Black Grave, one of the largest and earliest royal mounds in Eastern Europe, was excavated in the 19th century.

The city was the second wealthiest and most important in the southern portion of the Kievan Rus'. From the early 11th century on, it was the seat of the powerful Principality of Chernigov, whose rulers at times vied for power with Kievan Grand Princes, and often overthrew them and took the primary seat in Kiev for themselves.

The grand principality was the largest in Kievan Rus and included not only the Severian towns but even such remote regions as Murom, Ryazan and 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 Batu Khan, and entered a long period of relative obscurity.

The area fell under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1353. The city was burned again by Crimean khan Meñli I Giray in 1482 and 1497 and in the 15th to 17th centuries 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 Chernihiv Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province.

The area's importance increased again in the middle of the 17th century during and after the Khmelnytsky Uprising. In the Hetman State, Chernihiv was the city of deployment for the Chernihiv Cossack regiment (both a military and territorial unit of the state at the time).

Imperial Russia

Under the 1667 Treaty of Andrusovo the legal suzerainty of the area was ceded to the Tsardom of Russia, with Chernihiv remaining an important center of the 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 Chernihiv was the capital of local namestnichestvo (province) (from 1782), Malorosiyskaya or Little Russian (from 1797) and Chernigov Governorate (from 1808).

According to the census of 1897, the city of Chernihiv had 11,000 Jews out of a total population of 27,006. Their primary occupations were industrial and commercial. Many tobacco plantations and fruit gardens in the neighborhood were owned by Jews. There were 1,321 Jewish artisans in Chernihiv, including 404 tailors and seamstresses, but the demand for artisan labor was limited to the town. There were 69 Jewish day-laborers, almost exclusively teamsters. Few, however, were employed in factories.

World War II

During World War II, Chernihiv was occupied by the German Army from 9 September 1941 to 21 September 1943. The Germans operated a Nazi prison and a forced labour battalion for Jews in the city.

Independent Ukraine

The Statue of Lenin on Myru Avenue was toppled on February 21, 2014, as part of the demolitions of the statues of Lenin in Ukraine.

Until 18 July 2020, Chernihiv was designated as a city of oblast significance and did not belong to Chernihiv Raion even though it was the center of the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Chernihiv Oblast to five, the city was merged into Chernihiv Raion.

In June 2022, Chernihiv signed an agreement with Rzeszów, Poland to become sister cities.

Siege of Chernihiv

On 24 February 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city was under siege by the Russian Armed Forces according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, in its first battle since the Second World War. On 10 March 2022, Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko announced that the city had been completely encircled by Russian forces.

On 5 April 2022, Governor of Chernihiv Oblast Vyacheslav Chaus stated that the Russian military had left Chernihiv Oblast, but that it had planted mines in many areas.

On 19 August 2023, a Russian missile strike killed seven in the city. On 17 April 2024, another Russian missile strike killed around 18 people in the city.

Demographics

Ethnic groups

Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 census:

Language

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:

Despite considering Ukrainian a native language, many still didn't use it in daily life, as Russian remained the primary language for communication in Chernihiv. A 2017 survey that asked what language do participants use at home revealed that only Ukrainian was spoken only by 18% of the city's population, both Ukrainian and Russian were at 28%, while Russian was the most at 53%.

The 2022 Russian invasion caused a new wave of Ukrainization in Chernihiv, with more and more people switching to Ukrainian in their private lives. According to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute between April and May 2023, 53% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 41% spoke Russian.

Geography

Chernihiv stands on the Desna River to the north-northeast of Kyiv.

The area was served by Chernihiv Shestovytsia Airport prior to 2002, and during the Cold War it was the site of Chernihiv air base.

Rivers

Desna River

The city of Chernihiv is crossed by Desna River, a major left tributary of the Dnieper River. "Desna" means "right hand" in the Old East Slavic language. It is long, and has a drainage basin that covers .

In Ukraine, the river's width ranges from , with its average depth being . The mean annual discharge at its mouth is . The river freezes over from early December to early April and is navigable from Novhorod-Siverskyi to its mouth, for about .

Stryzhen River

Right trubutary of the Desna river. long with a basin. This river flows into the Desna river just behind the historical center of Chernihiv.

Snov River

The Snov River, right tributary of the Desna River ( Dnieper basin) has its mouth 12 km to the east of Chernihiv. The length of the river is . The area of its drainage basin is . The Snov freezes in November – late January and stays icebound until March – early April. Part of the river forms the Russia–Ukraine border.

According to Ruthenian chronicles, in 1068 a battle took place at the Snov River between Duke of Chernihiv Sviatoslav Yaroslavich and Cumans led by Duke Sharukan.

Climate

Chernihiv has a humid continental climate (Köppen ''Dfb'') with cold, cloudy and snowy winters, and warm, sunny summers. The average annual temperature for Chernihiv is , ranging from a low of in January to a high of in July. Precipitation is well distributed throughout the year though precipitation is higher during the summer months and lower during the winter months. The record high was and the record low was .

Architecture

Chernihiv's architectural monuments chronicle the two most flourishing periods in the city's history – those of Kievan Rus' (11th and 12th centuries) and of the Cossack Hetmanate (late 17th and early 18th centuries).

The oldest church in the city and one of the oldest churches in Ukraine is the 5-domed Transfiguration Cathedral, commissioned in the early 1030s by Mstislav the Bold and completed several decades later by his brother, Yaroslav the Wise. The Cathedral of Sts Boris and Gleb, dating from the mid-12th century, was much rebuilt in succeeding periods, before being restored to its original shape in the 20th century. Likewise built in brick, it has a single dome and six pillars.

The crowning achievement of Chernihiv masters was the exquisite Piatnytska Church, constructed at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. This graceful building was seriously damaged in the Second World War; its original medieval outlook was reconstructed to a design by Pyotr Baranovsky.

The historic center of Chernihiv has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List since 1989, but currently the creation of a renewed nomination is underway.

File:Regimental Chancellery building. Chernihiv.jpg, Regimental Chancellery building
File:Чернігів. Єлецький монастир. Успенський собор..JPG, Yeletsky monastery cathedral was modeled after that of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Note the contrast between its austere 12th-century walls and baroque 17th-century domes.
File:Панорама Филармония 01.jpg, Chernihiv Philharmony
File:2014 Готель Десна Чернігів.jpg, Hotel Desna
File:Музей українських старожитностей Тарновського.jpg, Tarnovsky Museum of Antiquities

The earliest residential buildings in the downtown date from the late 17th century, a period when a Cossack regiment was deployed there. Two most representative residences are those of Polkovnyk Lyzohub (1690s) and Polkovnyk Polubotok (18th century). The former mansion, popularly known as the Mazepa House, used to contain the regiment's chancellery. One of the most profusely decorated Cossack structures is undoubtedly the ecclesiastical collegium, surmounted by a bell-tower (1702). The archbishop's residence was constructed nearby in the 1780s. St. Catherine Church (1715), with its 5 gilded pear domes, traditional for Ukrainian architecture, is thought to have been intended as a memorial to the regiment's exploits during the storm of Azov in 1696.

Monasteries

All through the most trying periods of its history, Chernihiv retained its ecclesiastical