Ustyluh, also known as Ustilug, is a small city in

Volodymyr Raion Volodymyr Raion () is a raion (district) in Volyn Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Volodymyr. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Volyn Oblast w ...

Volyn Oblast Volyn Oblast () or simply Volyn (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in northwestern Ukraine. It borders Rivne Oblast to the east, Lviv Oblast to the south, Poland to the west and Belarus to the north. Its Capital city ...

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 ...

. It is situated on the east side of the border with Poland, and west of the city of

Volodymyr Volodymyr (, ; ) is a Ukrainian given name of Old East Slavic origin. The related Ancient Slavic, such as Czech, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, etc. form of the name is Володимѣръ ''Volodiměr'', which in other Slavic languages became Vladimi ...

. Population:

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

had an estate in Ustyluh and visited it frequently between 1890 and 1914. His mansion is now a museum.

History

The oldest settlement in the territory of Ustyluh existed back in the

Copper Age The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in dif ...

. During the times of

Kievan Rus Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

(9th to 12th centuries CE), there was a fortified settlement in the same location, with a necropolis nearby consisting of 29 burial mounds. In 1897, archaeologist M. F. Bilyashevsky excavated three of these mounds. Ustyluh was among the fortified towns taken by

Volodymyr the Great Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych (; Christian name: ''Basil''; 15 July 1015), given the epithet "the Great", was Prince of Novgorod from 970 and Grand Prince of Kiev from 978 until his death in 1015. The Eastern Orthodo ...

. To this day, a pentagonal fortress remains, surrounded by earthen ramparts made of beaten clay, which in height are not inferior to the ramparts of Volodymyr's capital, and it is pierced from the east by the city gate. Until the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

of 1917, it was a settlement in

Vladimir-Volynsky Uyezd Vladimir-Volynsky Uyezd () was an administrative subdivision (an uyezd) of Volhynian Governorate in the Russian Empire. It was created in 1795 as Vladimirsky Uyezd within Volhynian Viceroyalty soon after the annexation of eastern Poland by Russia. ...

Volhynian Governorate Volhynia Governorate, also known as Volyn Governorate, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire. It consisted of an area of and a population of 2,989,482 inhabitants. The governorate ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

; from 1921 to 1939 it was part of Wołyń Voivodeship of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, within which it had ''miasteczko'' (small town) status. According to the 1921 census, the population was 67.1%

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, 23.3%

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

, and 9.6% Ukrainian. Following the German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, which started

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 ...

in September 1939, Uściług was occupied by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

until 1941. It has been a town since 1940. The Germans bombarded the town heavily on the morning of 22 June 1941, the day of the outbreak of war between the Soviet Union and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. 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 ...

conquered the town toward evening. The Germans established a Jewish

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

, a ''

Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, ) was an administrative body, established in any zone of German-occupied Europe during World War II, purporting to represent its Jewish community in dealings with the Nazi authorities. The Germans required Jews to form ''J ...

'', and a ghetto police force, and used the town's Jews for

slave labor Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. From time to time the Germans took groups of Jewish youth to a valley next to the

Jewish cemetery A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Halakha, Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of s ...

and shot them. In October 1941 alone, the Germans killed 900 Jews from the town

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

. The Germans transferred the remaining Jews of Ustyluh to the

ghetto between September 1 and 15, 1942, and murdered them there along with the local Jews in pits prepared for the killings in the village of Piatydnie. In January 1989 the population was 2,404 people.Устилуг // Большой энциклопедический словарь (в 2-х тт.). / редколл., гл. ред. А. М. Прохоров. том 2. М., "Советская энциклопедия", 1991. стр.533 With the opening of the Ustyluh- Zosin international border crossing, the city's role has grown especially important. After Ukraine gained its independence, the Ustyluh-Zosin international border crossing with Poland was opened in the city. In August 2015, the city became the center of the newly created Ustyluh urban hromada.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Cities in Volyn Oblast Cities of district significance in Ukraine