Merefa () is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Kharkiv Raion Kharkiv Raion ( uk, Харківський район) is a raion (district) of Kharkiv Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Kharkiv. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, ...

Kharkiv Oblast Kharkiv Oblast ( uk, Харківська́ о́бласть, translit=Kharkivska oblast), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna ( uk, Ха́рківщина), is an oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhans ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Merefa hosts the administration of

Merefa urban hromada Merefa () is a city in eastern Ukraine. It is located in Kharkiv Raion (district) of Kharkiv Oblast (province). Merefa hosts the administration of Merefa urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: History It was a village in ...

, one of the

hromada A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territorial community, translit=terytorialna hromada) is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukra ...

s of Ukraine. Population:

History

It was a village in

Kharkovsky Uyezd Kharkovsky Uyezd (russian: Харьковский уезд) was an uyezd (district) in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire. History This uyezd was created on April 25, 1780 by order of the Empress Catherine the Great. The administra ...

Kharkov Governorate The Kharkov Governorate ( pre-reform Russian: , tr. ''Khárkovskaya gubérniya'', IPA: �xarʲkəfskəjə ɡʊˈbʲernʲɪjə ) was a governorate of the Russian Empire founded in 1835. It embraced the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine. From ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. City since 1938.Мерефа // Большой энциклопедический словарь (в 2-х тт.). / редколл., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. том 1. М., "Советская энциклопедия", 1991. стр.794 In January 1989 the population was 28,952 people. In 1992-1996, the Avangard football club of Merefa played in the national championship of Ukraine (third and second league in 1996/97) as a team that won the Kharkiv Oblast Football Championship (4 times in a row) and won prizes in transitional tournaments. In January 2013 the population was 22,280 people. On March 17, 2022, at about 3:30 am, Russian servicemen shelled the town of Merefa, Kharkiv district, destroying a secondary school and a house of culture. 15 people were killed. 25 people were injured, 10 of them in serious condition.

Name

Etymologists have not reached a final conclusion, but it is believed that the name originated from the Old Slavic "mьrRs" (Ukrainian: "to fade"), which is derived from the Ukrainian merekhtyty ("to flicker; barely visible"). Another version is a hydronymic from "merecha" (Ukrainian for forest thicket; dense shrubbery in a swampy lowland), which is based on the Proto-Slavic "merRja" (Ukrainian for swampy place). Among the analogies is also merechytysya ("to be seen"), which is related to the root mereka ("delusion, ghost") derived from the Proto-Slavic morkъ (Ukrainian: морок).Лучик В. В.. Етимологічний словник топонімів України / В. В. Лучик; відп. ред. В. Г. Скляренко. — К. : ВЦ «Академія», 2014. — 544 с. (325 с.) — ISBN 978-966-580-454-3

Transport

* a railway station

Gallery

File:Мерефа школа фасад.JPG, A school in Merefa File:Мерефа стадион Авангард.JPG, Entrance to Avanhard Stadium, Merefa

References

{{Authority control Cities in Kharkiv Oblast Kharkovsky Uezd Cities of district significance in Ukraine Cities and towns built in the Sloboda Ukraine