Stryi ( uk, Стрий, ; pl, Stryj) is a city located on the left bank of the river

Stryi Stryi ( uk, Стрий, ; pl, Stryj) is a city located on the left bank of the river Stryi in Lviv Oblast (region) of western Ukraine 65 km to the south of Lviv (in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains). It serves as the administrative cen ...

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a wikt:Appendix:Glossary#relational, relational adjective—in Englis ...

(

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

) of western Ukraine 65 km to the south of

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

(in the foothills of the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

). It serves as the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...

of Stryi Raion (

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

). Stryi hosts the administration of Stryi urban hromada, 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. Its population is approximately . Stryi is considered to be the first city in Ukraine to bear the blue-over-yellow Ukrainian national flag when it was hoisted on the flagpole of the Town Hall on March 14, 1990, even before the fall of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

Population

Name

The city takes its name from the name of the river

, one of the tributaries of the

Dniester The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...

. Stryi, as a name of river is a very old name and means "stream". Its etymology stems from an Indo-European root *sreu. Words that have the same root can be found in modern Ukrainian - струм, струя, Polish - ''struga'', ''strumień'', Irish (Celtic) - ''sruami'', German - ''Strom'' (large river), Persian - ''struth'' (river), Sanskrit - ''sravati'' (to flow), Latvian - ''straume'', Lithuanian - ''sriatas'', ''strautas'' (stream, the thing that flows) and several other languages. The word has a possible relation to the word "Styr", which means "big" in Ossetian, as there is also other Styr River in Ukraine. The area was inhabited by the White Croats and it has been established that name Horvat (Croat) is likewise of Iranian (Sarmatian) origin. In different times the name was written differently, and in various old documents we can find such names: Stryg, Stry, Stryj, Stryjn, Stryjia, Strig, Strigenses, Stryi, Strey, Striig, Strya, Sthryensis, Sthrya, Stryei, and Stri. The inhabitants take pride in the fact that the city has managed to keep its original name over time.

History

Stryi was mentioned for the first time in 1385 (see: Red Ruthenia). Already then its territory was incorporated in the Kingdom of Poland after the decline of Ruthenian Kingdom. In 1387 the Polish king Jogaila gave the city as the present to his pro-Tsarist brother

Švitrigaila Švitrigaila (before 1370 – 10 February 1452; sometimes spelled Svidrigiello) was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432. He spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund K� ...

. In 1431 it was given the

Magdeburg Rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; 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 ...

, and it was located in the

Ruthenian Voivodeship The Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: ''Palatinatus russiae'', Polish: ''Województwo ruskie'', Ukrainian: ''Руське воєводство'', romanized: ''Ruske voievodstvo''), also called Rus’ voivodeship, was a voivodeship of the Crown of ...

, which from the 14th century until 1772 was a part of Poland. The city was governed by the local

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

headed by a

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief m ...

. Its geographical location had a positive influence on its development and growth. The city became a flourishing trade center being located on the major trade route between Halych and

and especially during the 15th to 16th century due to support from the Polish king

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobie ...

. It also was destroyed during one of the Tatars raids in 1523. The city was later rebuilt and included a castle for defense purposes which later in the 18th century was demounted by the Austrian authorities. In 1634 the city was destroyed once again by another Tatar raid. In times of the Khmelnytsky Uprising the Cossack Hetmanate army was reinforced here by the Hungarian regiments of prince

Rákóczi The House of Rákóczi (older spelling Rákóczy) was a Hungarian noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary between the 13th century and 18th century. Their name is also spelled ''Rákoci'' (in Slovakia), ''Rakoczi'' and ''Rakoczy'' in some forei ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

. After the partition of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

in 1772 the city became a part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(see:

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

). During the revolutionary times in the empire the Ruthenian Council was created in the city in 1848. During 1872-1875 the city was connected to a railroad network. Its first wooden train station was built in 1875. At this time it started to industrialize. Among the most influencing citizens of the city were Doctor

Yevhen Olesnytsky Yevhen ( uk, Євге́н, Jevhén ), also spelled Evhen, is a common Ukrainian given name. Its Old Church Slavonic form ''Евгении'' came from the Greek ''Eugenios'' (masculine form), names derived from the Greek adjective , literally " ...

, Father Oleksa Bobykevych, and Father O.Nyzhankivsky. In 1886, a large fire burned almost the entire city to the ground. From October 1914 to May 1915 Stryi was occupied by 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. ...

. In 1915 a bloody World War I battle took place in the

, around the peak of Zwinin (992 metres

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

), a few kilometres south of Stryi in which some 33,000 Russian soldiers perished. On November 1, 1918, an armed uprising took place in the city, after which it became a part of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Stryi was passed to Poland in May 1919, and became part of Poland first by the Warsaw treaty of 1920 and then the

Riga Peace treaty The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga ( pl, Traktat Ryski), was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, among Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish–Soviet War. ...

of 1921. In 1939, following the Soviet Union's invasion of eastern Poland, Stryi became part of the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

. (see: Polish September Campaign). In interbellum Poland, it was the capital of the Stryj County (area , pop. 152,600) of the Stanisławów Voivodeship. According to the Polish census of 1931, its population consisted of 35.6% Jews, 34.5% Poles, 28% Ukrainians and 1.6% Germans. In July 1941 the Nazis conquered Stryi. In a short time, Ukrainians and local Poles conducted a pogrom in the Jews of the settlement, killing about 300 people. Between then and August, 1943, the Nazis, with the assistance of the Ukrainian police, murdered most of the town's 11,000 Jews in a nearby forest or rounded them up to be sent to Belzec extermination camp. Of a prewar population of 11,000, only a few Jews survived. During the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

the town was home to Stryy air base.

Recent history

On April 9, 2009, the Lviv Oblast council decided to remove a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

-era statue to the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

soldier that was installed by the local Communist regime in the city of Stryi and move it to a museum of the Soviet totalitarianism, saying that the statue carries no historical or cultural value to the city. Until 18 July 2020, Stryi was incorporated as a city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Stryi Raion even though it did not belong to the raion. In July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Lviv Oblast to seven, the city of Stryi was merged into Stryi Raion.

Notable people

Notable people born in Stryi include the following: *

Anna Muzychuk Anna Olehivna Muzychuk ( uk, Анн́а Оле́гівна Музичу́к; sl, Ana Muzičuk; born 28 February 1990) is a Ukrainian chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (GM). She is the fourth woman in chess history to attain a F ...

(born 1990), Ukrainian chess player * Mariya Muzychuk (born 1992), Ukrainian chess player *

Sviatoslav Shevchuk Sviatoslav Shevchuk ( uk, Святосла́в Шевчу́к; born 5 May 1970 in Stryi, Ukrainian SSR) has been the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) since 25 March 2011, serving as the Eastern Catholic church's le ...

(born 1970), Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church *

Vitaliy Antonov Vitaliy Borysovyvch Antonov (born 12 December 1962 in Stryi, Lviv Oblast) is an entrepreneur from Western Ukraine the founder of OKKO Group. Education Antonov studied at Stryi School Number 4 from 1970 to 1978. In 1988 he graduated from Ternopil ...

(born 1962), Ukrainian businessman * Louis Begley (born 1933), Polish-American novelist * Solomon J. Buchsbaum (1929–1993), Polish-American physicist *

Włodzimierz Godłowski â Włodzimierz Józef Godłowski (7 October 1900 – April/May 1940) was a Polish neurologist and psychologist. A professor of the Stefan Batory University in Wilno (Vilnius), he was also an officer in the Polish Army during the German and Sovie ...

(1900–1940), Polish neurologist * Benedykt Halicz (1903–1997), Polish biologist *

Artem Hromov Artem Ihorovych Hromov ( uk, Артем Ігорович Громов; born 14 January 1990) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football)#Centre-forward, centre-forward for SC Dnipro-1 ...

(born 1990), Ukrainian footballer *

Antoni (Illiashewicz) Antoni is a Catalan, Polish, and Slovene given name and a surname used in the eastern part of Spain, Poland and Slovenia. As a Catalan given name it is a variant of the male names Anton and Antonio. As a Polish given name it is a variant of the fem ...

(born n.1700-1775), orth. bishop of Vjatka and Velikoperm, Russia *

Julia Keilowa Julia Keilowa (Ringel) (born 1902 in Stryj, died 1943 in Warsaw) was a Polish artist industrial designer. Early life She came from an assimilated Jewish family. She attended schools in Lviv and Vienna. She studied model manufacture at Lviv N ...

(1902–1943), Polish designer * Michael Kmit (1910–1981), Australian painter *

Jan Kociniak Jan Kociniak (8 November 1937 – 20 April 2007) was a Polish film and theatre actor. Jan Kociniak was born in Stryj, Poland (now Ukraine). He graduated from The Warsaw Higher Theatrical School in 1961 and for most of his professional career he ...

(1937–2007), Polish actor * Józef Koffler (1896–1941), Polish composer * Józef Kustroń (1892–1939), general of the Polish Army *

Kornel Makuszyński Kornel Makuszyński (; 8 January 1884 – 31 July 1953) was a Polish writer of children's and youth literature. Dorota Piasecka. ''Proza Kornela Makuszyńskiego dla młodego odbiorcy: zarys problematyki''. PWN. 1984. pp. 11, 34. He was an elected ...

(1884–1953), Polish writer *

Zbigniew Messner Zbigniew Stefan Messner (; 13 March 1929 – 10 January 2014) was a Communist economist and politician in Poland. His ancestors were of German Polish descent who had assimilated into Polish society. In 1972, he became Professor of Karol Adamiecki ...

(1929–2014), Prime Minister of Poland 1985–88 *

Kazimierz Nowak Kazimierz Nowak (11 January 1897 in Stryj – 13 October 1937 in Poznań) was a Polish traveler, correspondent, reporter and photographer. Life Born in Stryj, Nowak lived in Poznań following World War I. From 1931 to 1936, he traveled alone, by ...

(1897–1937), Polish traveller * Taras Petrivskyi (born 1984), Ukrainian footballer * Pola Stout (1902–1984), American interior and textile designer *

Julian Stryjkowski Julian Stryjkowski (born Pesach Stark; April 27, 1905 – August 8, 1996) was a Polish journalist and writer, known for his social prose and radical leftist leanings. He was considered one of the best Polish-Jewish writers of the communist era. S ...

(1905–1996), Polish writer *

Zygmunt Szendzielarz Zygmunt Szendzielarz (12 March 1910 – 8 February 1951) was the commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Brigade of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), nom de guerre "Łupaszka". He fought against the Red Army after the end of the Second World War. Followi ...

(1910–1951), commandant of the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

Ihor Tenyukh Ihor Yosypovych Tenyukh ( uk, Ігор Йосипович Тенюх; born 23 May 1958) is a former Ukrainian admiral and member of the nationalist Svoboda political party. He was the commander of the Ukrainian Navy from 2006 until 2010 when di ...

(born 1958), Ukrainian admiral *

Andriy Tlumak Andriy Tlumak (born 1979) is a retired professional Ukrainian football player and former manager of FC Volyn Lutsk. Career Andriy Tlumak started his football career in Lviv, Ukraine, playing in the local football academy. He made his professi ...

(born 1979), Ukrainian footballer *

Kazimierz Wierzyński Kazimierz Wierzyński (Drohobycz, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, 27 August 1894 – 13 February 1969, London) was a Polish poet and journalist; an elected member of the prestigious Polish Academy of Literature in the Second Polish Republic. ...

(1894–1969), Polish writer, poet *

Zygmunt Wojciechowski Zygmunt Wojciechowski (27 April 1900 – 14 October 1955) was a Polish historian and nationalist politician. Born in 1900 in then-Austria, he obtained a doctorate from medieval history at Lviv University. In 1925 he moved to Poznań, where ...

(1900–1955), Polish historian

Twin towns – sister cities

Stryi is twinned with: * Bălți, Moldova (1980) *

Düren Düren (; ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur. History Roman era The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the territory of the Eburones, a people ...

, Germany (2001) * Gradačac, Bosnia and Herzegovina * Lwówek Śląski County, Poland (2005) *

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

, England, United Kingdom *

Nowy Sącz Nowy Sącz (; hu, Újszandec; yi, Tzanz, צאַנז; sk, Nový Sonč; german: Neu-Sandez) is a city in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of southern Poland. It is the district capital of Nowy Sącz County as a separate administrative unit. It has ...

, Poland *

Vegreville Vegreville ( uk, Веґревіль) is a town in central Alberta, Canada. It is on Highway 16A approximately east of Edmonton, Alberta's capital city. It was incorporated as a town in 1906, and that year also saw the founding of the ''Vegrev ...

, Canada (2009) *

Zakopane Zakopane ( Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been par ...

, Poland (2004)

Other forms of cooperation

Daugavpils Daugavpils (; russian: Двинск; ltg, Daugpiļs ; german: Dünaburg, ; pl, Dyneburg; see other names) is a state city in south-eastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. The parts of the c ...

, Latvia *

Kiskunhalas Kiskunhalas (; german: Hallasch) is a city in the county of Bács-Kiskun, Hungary. Railroad The city is an important railway junction. It crosses the Budapest-Subotica-Belgrade railway line. The Kiskunfélegyháza railway ends in Kiskunhalas. ...

, Hungary * Les Herbiers, France *

Leszno Leszno (german: Lissa, 1800–1918 ''Lissa in Posen'') is a historic city in western Poland, within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Previously, it ...

, Poland

References

;Notes

External links

Stryi City Council official web-siteStryi Unofficial web-siteShtetLinks page - Stryy

Stryj
(Stryi) in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland (1890) {{Authority control Cities in Lviv Oblast Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Stanisławów Voivodeship Ruthenian Voivodeship Shtetls Cities of regional significance in Ukraine Holocaust locations in Ukraine