Hlukhiv (, ; ) is a small historic

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

on the Esman River. It belongs to Shostka Raion of

Sumy Oblast Sumy Oblast (), also known as Sumshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in northeast Ukraine. The oblast was created in its modern-day form, from the merging of raions from Kharkiv Oblast, Chernihiv Oblast, and Poltava Oblast in 1939 by the Presid ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Population: It is known for being a capital of the

Cossack Hetmanate The Cossack Hetmanate (; Cossack Hetmanate#Name, see other names), officially the Zaporozhian Host (; ), was a Ukrainian Cossacks, Cossack state. Its territory was located mostly in central Ukraine, as well as in parts of Belarus and southwest ...

after the deposition of

Ivan Mazepa Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa (; ; ) was the Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host and the Left-bank Ukraine in 1687–1708. The historical events of Mazepa's life have inspired Cultural legacy of Mazeppa, many literary, artistic and musical works. He was ...

in 1708–1764.

History

Hlukhiv was first noticed by chroniclers as a

Severia Severia (, ; ) or Siveria ( / , ''Siveria'' / ''Sivershchyna'') is a historical region in present-day southwest Russia, northern Ukraine, and eastern Belarus. The largest part lies in modern Russia, while the central part of the region is the c ...

n town in 1152. Around 1247 it became the seat of a branch of the princely house of

Chernihiv 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 ...

following the Mongol invasion of Rus. Between 1320 and 1503 it was part of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

before being conquered by the

Grand Duchy of Moscow The Grand Principality of Moscow, or Muscovy, known as the Principality of Moscow until 1389, was a late medieval Russian monarchy. Its capital was the city of Moscow. Originally established as a minor principality in the 13th century, the gra ...

. In 1618 it became part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

(in the Czernihów Voivodeship of the Crown of Poland) and was granted

Magdeburg Rights Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

in 1644 by

Władysław IV Vasa Władysław IV Vasa or Ladislaus IV (9 June 1595 – 20 May 1648) was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and claimant of the thrones of Monarchy of Sweden, Sweden and List of Russian monarchs, Russia. Born into the House of Vasa as a prince ...

. In 1648–1764 it was part of the

within the

Nizhyn Regiment The Nizhyn Regiment () was one of ten territorial-administrative subdivisions of the Cossack Hetmanate. The regiment's capital was the city of Nizhyn, now in Chernihiv Oblast of central Ukraine. Other major cities of the regiment were Hlukhiv and ...

(province). In 1654 the Cossack Hetmanate came under military protectorate of the Tsardom of Muscovy in accordance with the Treaty of Pereiaslav and in 1664, during the siege of Hlukhiv, the Russo-Cossack garrison of the town successfully defended against a superiour Polish army which suffered great losses during the following retreat. According to the Truce of Andrusovo along with the rest

Left-bank Ukraine The Left-bank Ukraine is a historic name of the part of Ukraine on the left (east) bank of the Dnieper River, comprising the modern-day oblasts of Chernihiv, Poltava and Sumy as well as the eastern parts of Kyiv and Cherkasy. Left-bank Ukrain ...

it was ceded to the Tsardom of Muscovy in 1667. In 1708, after realizing that

sided with Carl XII,

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

ordered the destruction of

Baturyn Baturyn (, ) is a historic city in Chernihiv Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. It is located in Nizhyn Raion (district) on the banks of the Seym River. It hosts the administration of Baturyn urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. P ...

and the transfer of the capital to Hlukhiv. Here in November 1708, Ivan Skoropadsky, a new Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, was elected, while the Metropolitan of Kyiv, Halych and all Little Russia Ioasaf was forced to proclaim

anathema The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a Christian denomination, church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where a ...

onto Mazepa in the St. Trinity Cathedral (destroyed in 1962). Hlukhiv served as the capital of the

in 1708-64 and until 1773 the administrative center of the Little Russia Governorate. Under the last hetmans of Ukraine, the town was remodeled in the Baroque style. Subsequently, it declined in consequence of frequent fires, so that very few of its architectural gems survived. Since the first school of singing in the Russian Empire was established there in 1738, the town has a rich musical heritage.

Composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

s Dmytro Bortniansky and

Maksym Berezovsky Maxim Sozontovich Berezovsky ( ; ; ) was a composer of secular and liturgical music, and a conductor and opera singer, who worked at the Saint Petersburg Court Chapel in the Russian Empire, but who also spent much of his career in Italy. He m ...

, whose statues grace the Bortniansky Square of Hlukhiv, are believed to have studied there. In 1874, in a college was established in Hlukhiv (today Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University of Oleksandr Dovzhenko). In 1879, the Tereshchenko brothers, who were Russian millionaires of Ukrainian descent, established a free hospital of St. Euphrosyne and supported it financially. In 1899 on the funds of Tereshchenko family in Hlukhiv was established another college (today Agrarian college of the Sumy Agrarian University). In 1918, the city became part of Ukraine; however, already in January 1918 it was occupied by the Soviet troops for several months. Soviet control returned again to the city a year later in 1919. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Hlukhiv was occupied by the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

from 9 September 1941 to 30 August 1943. While the region was a part of the Soviet Union, an airfield was built near Hlukhiv at Chervone-Pustohorod. In 1994 in the city was established the State Historical and Cultural Heritage Park. In October 2015 at the

local election In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct var ...

, the mayor of the city became Michel Tereshchenko, a naturalized Ukrainian from

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and great grandson of Mikhail Tereshchenko. Tereshchenko stepped down as mayor in October 2018 with the intention to become a candidate in the

2019 Ukrainian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 March 2019. As none of the 39 candidates on the ballot received an absolute majority of the initial vote, a runoff was held on 21 April between the top two vote-getters: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a t ...

. Yet, during the November–December 30 days martial law in Ukraine he resumed his position as mayor and on 3 January 2019 he declared his support for (another) presidential candidate

Andriy Sadovyi Andriy Ivanovych Sadovyi (; born 19 August 1968) is a Ukrainian politician and businessman who has served as the mayor of Lviv, the administrative centre of the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine, since 2006. He is the former leader of the Self Re ...

during a congress of Sadovyi's party Self Reliance. In October 2020 was again Ukrainian local elections, where was chosen new City Mayor Nadiia Vailo - candidate from political party "Our Land".

2022 Russian invasion

Clashes occurred in Hlukhiv between the

Ukrainian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

and the invading

Russian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military of Russia. They are organized into three service branches—the Russian Ground Forces, Ground Forces, Russian Navy, Navy, and Russi ...

in the city and its surrounding areas during the night of 24–25 February 2022. The city was occupied by Russian forces until April 2022.

Demographics

Sights

The oldest building in the town is the church of St. Nicholas (1693), modeled after traditional wooden churches and executed in the

Ukrainian Baroque Ukrainian Baroque (), also known as Cossack Baroque () or Mazepa Baroque, is an style (visual arts), artistic style that was widespread in Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the result of a combination of local traditions and Europea ...

style. The church, repaired and renovated in 1871, has three pear-shaped domes and a two-storey

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

. The church of the Savior's Transfiguration (1765) straddles the line between Baroque and Neoclassicism, while the massive

Neo-Byzantine Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a Revivalism (architecture), revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine architecture, ...

cathedral (1884–93) resembles

St Volodymyr's Cathedral St Volodymyr's Cathedral ( ) is a cathedral in the centre of Kyiv, and one of the city's major landmarks. Since the unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine in December 2018, it has been under the ecclesiastical jurisdictio ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. Probably the best known landmark of modern Hlukhiv is the conspicuous water tower (1927–29), though more historical interest attaches to the

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...

, dated either to 1744 or 1766. It has been suggested that the architect of this rather plain structure was Andrey Kvasov. The arch, the oldest in Ukraine, sustained damage during

but was subsequently restored. Many of Hlukhiv's historic and architectural monuments are part of National State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Hlukhiv".

Religion

The most dominant religious presentation in the city has the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

through the

Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), commonly referred to by the exonym Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), is an Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was officially formed in 1990 in pla ...

. Near Hlukhiv in the village of Sosnivka is located a small monastery (

) Glinsk Hermitage.

Agricultural research

Due to the traditional cultivation of industrial hemp in the area, Hlukhiv has become home to the Institute of Bast Crops of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, working on breeding improved hemp and

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. In 2022, France produced 75% of t ...

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s. In the 1970s, the institute developed low- THC hemp varieties for industrial cultivation.Interview with Dr. V. G. Virovets, the head of the Hemp Breeding Department at the Institute of Bast Crops
(1998)

Notable people

Born in Hlukhiv

* Ada Rohovtseva (born 1937) - Ukrainian actress * Alexander Bezborodko (1747-1799) -

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

of the Russian Empire * Andrey Razumovsky (1752-1836) - Russian diplomat of Ukrainian origin * Anton Losenko (1737-1773) - Russian painter * Dmytro Bortniansky (1751-1825) - Ukrainian composer active in the Russian Empire *

Iosif Shklovsky Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky (sometimes transliterated ''Josif, Josif, Shklovskii, Shklovskij''; ; 1 July 1916 – 3 March 1985) was a Soviet astronomer and astrophysicist. He is remembered for his work in theoretical astrophysics and other topi ...

(1916-1985) - Soviet Jewish-Ukrainian astronomer * Kostiantyn Tyshchenko (1941-2023) - Ukrainian linguist *

(1745-1777) - Ukrainian composer * Mykola Murashko (1944-1909) - Ukrainian painter * Nikola Tereshchenko (1819-1903) - Ukrainian businessmen, philanthropist and politician, Mayor of Hlukhiv (1861-1875) * Roman Lutsenko (born 1985) - Ukrainian footballer * Varvara Khanenko (1852-1922) - Ukrainian art collector and patron of arts * (1894-1979) - Ukrainian scientist, member of the Central Rada * Yuri Shaporin (1887-1966) - Soviet composer

Lived in Hlukhiv

* Alexander Dovzhenko (1894-1956) - Ukrainian film director * Demetrius of Rostov (1651-1709) -

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

bishop and saint * Heorhiy Narbut (1886-1920) - Ukrainian artist * Fedir Ernst (1891-1942) - Ukrainian

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

* Georgy Vysotsky (1865-1940) - Ukrainian soil scientist * Melkhisedek (Znachko-Yavorsky) (died 1809) - Ukrainian religious figure of the 18th century * Mykola Vasylenko (1866-1935) - Ukrainian historian and politician * Vladimir Narbut (1888-1938) -

Russian language Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is ...

poet

Gallery

File:В’їзна брама міста Глухова.jpg, Kyiv Gate in Hlukhiv File:Глухівський національний педагогічний університет 02.jpg, Natiolal Pedagogical University File:Вознесенська церква, Глухів.JPG, Hlukhiv skyline File:Будинок Глухівської мерії.jpg, City Hall File:Glukhov church.jpg, St. Nicholas Cathedral File:Будинок А.Терещенка, Глухів.JPG, Tereshchenko mansion File:Духовно-просвітницький центр Глинської пустині у Глухові.jpg, Hlukhiv seminary File:Краєзнавчий музей.jpg, City museum File:Федорівське ремісниче училище, Глухів.JPG, Former school of crafts File:Повітове земство та міська дума, Глухів.JPG, Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University File:Вежа Глухів 02.jpg, Water tower File:Спасо-Преображенська церква у Глухові на Сумщині.jpg, Church of Transfiguration File:Трьох-Анастасіївська церква і водонапірна башта у Глухові на Сумщині.jpg, St. Anasatasia Church File:Каплиця біля Спасо-Преображенської церкви.jpg, A chapel in Hlukhiv

References

External links

* *
"Glukhivtower" - About Glukhiv businesses and community.
*
Unofficial information site about Hlukhiv
{{Authority control Cities in Sumy Oblast Cities of regional significance in Ukraine Capitals of former nations