Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of
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 ...
. It is in north-central Ukraine along the
Dnieper River
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...
. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180,
making Kyiv the
seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyiv is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural center in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
. It is home to many
high-tech
High technology (high tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or the newest te ...
industries, higher education institutions, and historical landmarks. The city has an extensive system of
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
and infrastructure, including the
Kyiv Metro
The Kyiv Metro ( uk, Ки́ївський метрополіте́н, Kyivskyi metropoliten, ) is a rapid transit system in Kyiv that is owned by the Kyiv City Council and operated by the city-owned company Kyivsky Metropoliten''.'' It was initi ...
.
The city's name is said to derive from the name of
Kyi
Kyi (, Kiy; Ukrainian: Кий, Kyi) was the legendary founder of Kyiv and the Kyi dynasty, and the Prince (Knyaz) of the Polans. He was one of four siblings ( brothers Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv, and sister Lybid), who, according to the Primary C ...
, one of its four legendary founders. During
its history, Kyiv, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of prominence and obscurity. The city probably existed as a commercial center as early as the 5th century. A
Slavic settlement on the great trade route between
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
and
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, Kyiv was a tributary of the
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
, until its capture by the
Varangians
The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';[Varangian]
" Online Etymo ...
(
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
, the first
East Slavic state. Completely
destroyed
Destroyed may refer to:
* ''Destroyed'' (Sloppy Seconds album), a 1989 album by Sloppy Seconds
* ''Destroyed'' (Moby album), a 2011 album by Moby
See also
* Destruction (disambiguation)
Destruction may refer to:
Concepts
* Destruktion, a ...
during the
Mongol invasions
The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire ( 1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...
in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
, then
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
and ultimately
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
The city prospered again during the Russian Empire's
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
in the late 19th century. In 1918, after the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
declared independence from
Russian Republic
The Russian Republic,. referred to as the Russian Democratic Federal Republic. in the Decree on the system of government of Russia (1918), 1918 Constitution, was a short-lived state (polity), state which controlled, ''de jure'', the territ ...
, Kyiv became its capital. From 1921 onwards, Kyiv was a city of
Soviet Ukraine
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
, which was proclaimed by 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 ...
, and, from 1934, Kyiv was its capital. The city suffered significant destruction during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
but quickly recovered in the postwar years, remaining the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's third-largest city.
Following
the collapse of the Soviet Union and
Ukrainian independence
Ukraine emerged as the concept of a nation, and the Ukrainians as a nationality, with the Ukrainian National Revival which began in the late 18th and early 19th century. The first wave of national revival is traditionally connected with the publ ...
in 1991, Kyiv remained Ukraine's capital and experienced a steady
influx
Influx may refer to:
* Flux (biology) of ions, molecules or other substances from the extracellular space to the intracellular space
* ''Influx'', a 2014 science-fiction novel by Daniel Suarez
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of ...
of
ethnic Ukrainian migrants from other
regions of the country.
During the country's transformation to a
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
and
electoral democracy
Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a types of democracy, type of democracy where elected people Representation (politics), represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern liberal democr ...
, Kyiv has continued to be Ukraine's largest and wealthiest city. Its armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science and technology, but new sectors of the economy such as services and
finance
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
facilitated Kyiv's growth in salaries and investment, as well as providing continuous funding for the development of
housing
Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...
and urban infrastructure. Kyiv emerged as the most
pro-Western
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. region of Ukraine;
parties
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature fo ...
advocating tighter
integration with the European Union dominate during
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
.
Name
![Polonia Et Ungaria XX Nova Tabula, detail of Kyiv episcopate (“Kyouia epatus”)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Polonia_Et_Ungaria_XX_Nova_Tabula%2C_detail_of_Kyiv_episcopate_%28%E2%80%9CKyouia_epatus%E2%80%9D%29.jpg)
* en, Kyiv ( , ) or Kiev ( )
* uk, Ки́їв, translit=Kyiv,
*russian: Киев, translit=Kiev,
Before standardization of the alphabet in the early 20th century, the name was also spelled , , or with the now-obsolete letter
yat
Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet.
There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a ...
. The Old Ukrainian spelling from the 14th and 15th centuries was nominally , but various attested spellings include (
gen.
The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; Hebrew language, Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its i ...
), , and (
acc.), кїєво or кїєвом (
ins.), києвє, Кіеве, Кїєвѣ, Києвѣ, or Киѣве (
loc.).
The name descends from
Old East Slavic
Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian; be, старажытнаруская мова; russian: древнерусский язык; uk, давньоруська мова) was a language used during the 9th–15th centuries by East ...
(). Old East Slavic chronicles, such as
Laurentian Codex
Laurentian Codex or Laurentian Letopis (russian: Лаврентьевский список, Лаврентьевская летопись) is a collection of chronicles that includes the oldest extant version of the ''Primary Chronicle'' and its c ...
and
Novgorod Chronicle
The Novgorod First Chronicle (russian: Новгородская первая летопись) or The Chronicle of Novgorod, 1016–1471 is the most ancient extant Old Russian chronicle of the Novgorodian Rus'. It reflects a tradition different ...
, used the spellings Києвъ, Къıєвъ, or Кїєвъ. This is most likely derived from the
Proto-Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the Attested language, unattested, linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately ...
name ''*Kyjevŭ gordŭ'' (literally, "Kyi's castle", "Kyi's
gord"), and is associated with
Kyi
Kyi (, Kiy; Ukrainian: Кий, Kyi) was the legendary founder of Kyiv and the Kyi dynasty, and the Prince (Knyaz) of the Polans. He was one of four siblings ( brothers Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv, and sister Lybid), who, according to the Primary C ...
( uk, Кий, russian: Кий), the legendary eponymous founder of the city. However,
Кий derives from
Proto-Slavic
Proto-Slavic (abbreviated PSl., PS.; also called Common Slavic or Common Slavonic) is the Attested language, unattested, linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of all Slavic languages. It represents Slavic speech approximately ...
*kyjь, (''hammer, club''), which derives from
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
*kewh₂-, (''to forge, to strike''), so ''Kiev'' may mean ''
smithy''.
''Kyiv'' is the romanized official Ukrainian name for the city,
[ The entry is the same as the print edition of It includes the note "''Ukrainian name'': Kyiv". For American English, the website also includes the definition from In the 2018 fifth edition, WNWCD changed the main headword to ''Kyiv'', with ''Kiev'' as a see-also entry with the label "Russ. name for Kyiv".] and it is used for legislative and official acts.
''Kiev'' is the traditional English name for the city,
but because of its historical derivation from the Russian name, ''Kiev'' lost favor with many Western media outlets after the outbreak of the
Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatist forces in Donbas, Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since Feb ...
in 2014.
The city was known by various names in history. In the Norse sagas it was or , meaning "city of the Kyivans" (from ),
which survives in modern Icelandic . Perhaps the earliest original manuscript to name the city is the
Kyivan letter
]
The Kievan Letter, or Kyivan letter is an early 10th-century (ca. 930) letter thought to be written by representatives of the Judaism, Jewish community in Kiev. The letter, a Hebrew-language recommendation written on behalf of one member of ...
, written CE by representatives of the city's Jewish community, with the name written as .
The historian
Julius Brutzkus
Julius Davidovich Brutzkus or Judah Loeb Brutzkus or Joselis Bruckus ( he, יהודה ליבּ בֶּן־דָּוִד ברוצקוס, ''Yehuda Loeb ben David Brutzkus''; russian: Юлий Давидович Бруцкус; 1870, Palanga, Courlan ...
in his work ''The Khazar Origin of Ancient Kiev'' hypothesizes that both Sambat and Kyiv are of Khazar origin meaning "hill fortress" and "lower settlement" respectively. Brutzkus claims that Sambat is not Kyiv, but rather
Vyshhorod
Vyshhorod ( uk, Ви́шгород) is a city in Kyiv Oblast (region) in central Ukraine, situated immediately north of Kyiv city, the national capital, and part of the Kyiv metropolitan area. It is on the right (western) bank of the Dnieper r ...
(High City), which is located nearby.
In the Byzantine Greek of Constantine Porphyrogenitus's 10th-century ''
De Administrando Imperio
''De Administrando Imperio'' ("On the Governance of the Empire") is the Latin title of a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is ("To yown son Romanos"). It is a domes ...
'' it was , , and "also called Sambatas", .
In Arabic, it was in
Al-Istakhri's work of 951 AD,
and according to
ibn Rustah
Ahmad ibn Rustah Isfahani ( fa, احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی ''Aḥmad ibn Rusta Iṣfahānī''), more commonly known as Ibn Rustah (, also spelled ''Ibn Rusta'' and ''Ibn Ruste''), was a tenth-century Persian explorer and geographer ...
and other 10th-century authors.
In the medieval Latin of
Thietmar of Merseburg
Thietmar (also Dietmar or Dithmar; 25 July 9751 December 1018), Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death, was an important chronicler recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (Saxon) dynasty. Two ...
's ''Chronicon'' it was mentioned for the year 1015 as .
After it was rebuilt in the 15th century, Kyiv was called by the Turkic (
Crimean Tatar) name or .
As a prominent city with a long history, its English name was subject to gradual evolution. Early English sources spelled this word as ''Kiou'', ''Kiow'', ''Kiew'', ''Kiovia''. On one of the oldest English maps of the region, , published by
Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius (; also Ortels, Orthellius, Wortels; 4 or 14 April 152728 June 1598) was a Brabantian cartographer, geographer, and cosmographer, conventionally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the ''Theatrum Orbis Terrarum ...
(London, 1570), the name of the city is spelled ''Kiou''. On the 1650 map by
Guillaume de Beauplan, the name of the city is ''Kiiow'', and the region was named ''Kÿowia''. In the book ''Travels'', by Joseph Marshall (London, 1772), the city is called ''Kiovia''.
[ Originally published: London, J. Almon, 1773, .]
In English, ''Kiev'' appeared in print as early as 1804 in
John Cary
John Cary (c. 1754 – 1835) was an English cartographer.
Life
Cary served his apprenticeship as an engraver in London, before setting up his own business in the Strand in 1783. He soon gained a reputation for his maps and globes, his atla ...
's "New map of Europe, from the latest authorities", and in Mary Holderness's 1823 travelogue ''New Russia: Journey from Riga to the Crimea by way of Kiev''.
The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' included ''Kiev'' in a quotation published by 1883, and ''Kyiv'' in 2018.
The Ukrainian version of the name, ''Kyiw'', appears in the Volume 4 of the
Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland
The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Countries ( pl, Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich) is a monumental Polish gazetteer, published 1880–1902 in Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl ...
, published in 1883.
After Ukraine's 1991 independence, the Ukrainian government introduced
the national rules for transliteration of geographic names into the Latin alphabet for legislative and official acts in October 1995,
according to which the Ukrainian name is romanized ''Kyiv''. These rules are applied for place names and addresses, as well as personal names in passports, street signs, and so on.
In 2018, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry launched #CorrectUA, an online campaign to promote the use of official Ukrainian spellings by countries and organizations, in place of "outdated, Soviet-era" place-names. Specifically, for the capital, the campaign
KyivNotKiev
KyivNotKiev is an online campaign started by the Ukrainian government, Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) together with the 15 member centre for strategic communications "StratCom Ukraine" on 2 Oct ...
was developed as part of the broader campaign.
The place name ''Kyiv'' is standardized in the authoritative database of Ukraine's toponyms maintained by Ukraine's mapping agency Derzhheokadastr. It has also been adopted by the
United Nations GEGN Geographical Names Database, the
United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...
, the
International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...
, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
, English-speaking foreign
diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
s and governments, several international organizations, and the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Some English-language news sources have adopted in their style guides, including the
AP,
CP,
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
, and
AFP news services, media organizations in Ukraine, and some media organizations in Canada,
the United Kingdom, and the United States, despite more resistance to the spelling change compared to others, like ''
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
'' and ''
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
''.
Alternative romanizations used in English-language sources include ''Kyïv'' (according to the
ALA–LC romanization used in bibliographic cataloguing), ''Kyjiv'' (
scholarly
The scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars and academics to make their claims about the subject as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public. It is the met ...
transliteration used in linguistics), and ''Kyyiv'' (the 1965
BGN/PCGN transliteration standard).
The US media organization
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
adopted an on-air pronunciation of ''Kyiv'' closer to the Ukrainian, responding to the history and identity of the local population, in January 2022.
History
The first known humans in the region of Kyiv lived there in the late
paleolithic period
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tool ...
(
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
).
[Kyiv]
at Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia'' ( uk, Українська радянська енциклопедія, ''Ukrayinska radyanska entsyklopediya'') was a multi-purpose encyclopedia of Ukraine, issued in the USSR.
First attempt
Following th ...
The population around Kyiv during the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
formed part of the so-called
Trypillian culture, as evidenced by artifacts from that culture found in the area. During the early
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
certain tribes settled around Kyiv that practiced land cultivation, husbandry and trading with the
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved f ...
and ancient states of the northern Black Sea coast.
[ Findings of Roman coins of the 2nd to the 4th centuries suggest trade relations with the eastern provinces of the ]Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
.[ The people of the ]Zarubintsy culture
The Zarubintsy or Zarubinets culture was a culture that, from the 3rd century BC until the 1st century AD, flourished in the area north of the Black Sea along the upper and middle Dnieper and Pripyat Rivers, stretching west towards the Southern B ...
are considered the direct ancestors of the ancient Slavs who later established Kyiv.[ Notable archaeologists of the area around Kyiv include ]Vikentiy Khvoyka
Vikentiy Viacheslavovych Khvoyka ( ua, Вікентій В'ячеславович Хвойка; russian: Викентий Вячеславович Хвойка; cz, Vincenc Častoslav Chvojka; born Čeněk Chvojka; 1850–1914) was a Czech-born Uk ...
.
Scholars continue to debate when the city was founded: the traditional founding date is 482 CE, so the city celebrated its 1,500th anniversary in 1982. Archaeological data indicates a founding in the sixth or seventh centuries,[Kyiv]
", ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 9 March 2020. with some researchers dating the founding as late as the late 9th century,
There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the city. One tells of members of a Slavic tribe ( Eastern Polans), brothers Kyi (the eldest, after whom the city was named) Shchek and Khoryv, and their sister Lybid, who founded the city (See the ''Primary Chronicle
The ''Tale of Bygone Years'' ( orv, Повѣсть времѧньныхъ лѣтъ, translit=Pověstĭ vremęnĭnyxŭ lětŭ; ; ; ; ), often known in English as the ''Rus' Primary Chronicle'', the ''Russian Primary Chronicle'', or simply the ...
'').[ Another legend states that ]Saint Andrew
Andrew the Apostle ( grc-koi, Ἀνδρέᾱς, Andréās ; la, Andrēās ; , syc, ܐܰܢܕ݁ܪܶܐܘܳܣ, ʾAnd’reʾwās), also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Simon Peter ...
passed through the area in the 1st century. Where the city is now he erected a cross, where a church later was built. Since the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
an image of Saint Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
has represented the city as well as the duchy
A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a Middle Ages, medieval country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition.
There once exis ...
.
There is little historical evidence pertaining to the period when the city was founded. Scattered Slavic settlements existed in the area from the 6th century, but it is unclear whether any of them later developed into the city. On the Ptolemy world map
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
there are several settlements indicated along the mid-stream of Borysthenes
Borysthenes (; grc, Βορυσθένης) is a geographical name from classical antiquity. The term usually refers to the Dnieper River and its eponymous river god, but also seems to have been an alternative name for Pontic Olbia, a town situate ...
, among which is Azagarium, which some historians believe to be the predecessor to Kyiv.
However, according to the 1773 ''Dictionary of Ancient Geography'' of Alexander Macbean
Alexander Macbean (died 1784) was a British writer and amanuensis, known as a lexicographer.
Life
Macbean worked as amanuensis for Ephraim Chambers; and then was one of the six amanuenses employed '' Johnson's Dictionary''. About 1758 he obtained ...
, that settlement corresponds to the modern city of Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
. Just south of Azagarium, there is another settlement, Amadoca, which is supposed as the capital of Amadoci people living in area between marshes of Amadoca in the west and Amadoca mountains in the east.
Another name for Kyiv mentioned in history, the origin of which is not completely clear, is Sambat, which apparently has something to do with the Khazar Empire
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
. The ''Primary Chronicle'' says the residents of Kyiv told Askold
Askold and Dir (''Haskuldr'' or ''Hǫskuldr'' and ''Dyr'' or ''Djur'' in Old Norse; died in 882), mentioned in both the Primary Chronicle and the Nikon Chronicle, were the earliest known ''purportedly Norse'' rulers of Kiev.
Primary Chronicle
Th ...
"there were three brothers Kyi, Shchek, and Khoriv. They founded this town and died, and now we are staying and paying taxes to their relatives the Khazars". In ''De Administrando Imperio'', Constantine Porphyrogenitus
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Kar ...
mentions a caravan of small-cargo boats which assembled annually, and writes, "They come down the river Dnieper and assemble at the strong-point of Kyiv (Kioava), also called Sambatas".
At least three Arabic-speaking 10th century geographers who traveled the area mention the city of Zānbat as the chief city of the Russes. Among them are ibn Rustah, Abu Sa'id Gardezi Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd-al-Ḥayy ibn Żaḥḥāk b. Maḥmūd Gardīzī ( fa, ابوسعید عبدالحی بن ضحاک بن محمود گردیزی), better known as Gardizi (), was an 11th-century Persian historian and official, who is notable for ...
, and an author of the Hudud al-'Alam. The texts of those authors were discovered by Russian orientalist Alexander Tumansky
Tumanskiy, Aleksandr Grigorevich (Russian: Туманский, Александр Григорьевич) (1861–1920) was an orientalist, military interpreter, and Major General of the Imperial Russian Army, belonging to an ancient Ukrainian a ...
. The etymology of Sambat has been argued by many historians, including Grigoriy Ilyinsky, Nikolay Karamzin
Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin (russian: Николай Михайлович Карамзин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ kərɐmˈzʲin; ) was a Russian Imperial historian, romantic writer, poet and critic. He is best remembered for ...
, Jan Potocki
Count Jan Potocki (; 8 March 1761 – 23 December 1815) was a Polish nobleman, ethnologist, linguist, traveller and author of the Enlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a celebrated figure in Poland. He is known chiefly for his p ...
, Nikolay Lambin, Joachim Lelewel
Joachim Lelewel (22 March 1786 – 29 May 1861) was a Polish historian, geographer, bibliographer, polyglot and politician.
Life
Born in Warsaw to a Polonized German family, Lelewel was educated at the Imperial University of Vilna, where in 18 ...
, and Guðbrandur Vigfússon
Guðbrandur Vigfússon, known in English as Gudbrand Vigfusson, (13 March 1827 – 31 January 1889Jón þorkelsson, "Nekrolog över Guðbrandur Vigfússon" in ''Arkiv för nordisk filologi'', Sjätte bandet (ny följd: andra bandet), Lund, 18 ...
.
The Primary Chronicles state that at some point during the late 9th or early 10th century Askold and Dir, who may have been of Viking or Varangian descent, ruled in Kyiv. They were murdered by Oleg of Novgorod
Oleg ( orv, Ѡлегъ, Ольгъ; non, Helgi; died 912), also known as Oleg the Wise (russian: Олег Вещий, lit=Oleg the Prophet; uk, Олег Віщий), was a Varangian prince of the Rus' who was ruler of Novgorod. He later con ...
in 882, but some historians, such as Omeljan Pritsak
Omeljan Yosypovych Pritsak ( uk, Омелян Йосипович Пріцак; 7 April 1919, Luka, Sambir County, West Ukrainian People's Republic – 29 May 2006, Boston) was the first Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvar ...
and Constantine Zuckerman Constantin Zuckerman (; born 1957) is a French historian and Professor of Byzantine studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.
Biography
Academic rank: professor. Highest degree: doctorate. Job title: The Deputy Director of the Cen ...
, dispute that, arguing that Khazar rule continued as late as the 920s (among notable historical documents are the Kyivan Letter
]
The Kievan Letter, or Kyivan letter is an early 10th-century (ca. 930) letter thought to be written by representatives of the Judaism, Jewish community in Kiev. The letter, a Hebrew-language recommendation written on behalf of one member of ...
and Schechter Letter
The "Schechter Letter" (also called the "Cambridge Document") was discovered in the Cairo Geniza by Solomon Schechter.
The Letter
The Schechter Letter has been interpreted as a communique from an unnamed Khazar author to an unidentified Jewish d ...
).
Other historians suggest that Magyar tribes ruled the city between 840 and 878, before migrating with some Khazar
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
tribes to the Carpathian Basin
The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only th ...
. The Primary Chronicles also mention movement of Hungarians pass Kyiv. To this day in Kyiv exists a place known as " Uhorske urochyshche" (Hungarian place), which is better known as Askold's Grave
Askold's Grave ( uk, Аскольдова могила, translit=Askoldova Mohyla) is a historical park on the steep right bank of the Dnipro River in Kyiv between Mariinskyi Park and the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex.
Overview
The park was crea ...
.
According to the aforementioned scholars the building of the fortress of Kyiv was finished in 840 under the leadership of Keő (Keve), Csák, and Geréb, three brothers, possibly members of the Tarján tribe Tarján is a Hungarian language name, derived from an old Turkic title Tarkhan, meaning viceroy or prince. It may refer to:
Places
*Tarján, Hungary
People with the surname
*James Tarjan (1952), American chess grandmaster
*Robert Tarjan
Robert E ...
. The three names appear in the Kyiv Chronicle as Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv and may be not of Slavic origin, as Russian historians have always struggled to account for their meanings and origins. According to Hungarian historian Viktor Padányi, their names were inserted into the Kyiv Chronicle in the 12th century, and they were identified as old-Russian mythological heroes.
The city of Kyiv stood on the trade route between the Varangians and the Greeks. In 968 the nomadic Pechenegs
The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პა ...
attacked and then besieged the city. By 1000 CE the city had a population of 45,000.
In March 1169, Grand Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky
Andrew I (died 28 June 1174), his Russian name in full, Andrey Yuryevich Bogolyubsky "Andrew made Vladimir the centre of the grand principality and placed a series of his relatives on the now secondary princely throne of Kiev. Later he also com ...
of Vladimir-Suzdal
Vladimir-Suzdal (russian: Владимирско-Су́здальская, ''Vladimirsko-Suzdal'skaya''), also Vladimir-Suzdalian Rus', formally known as the Grand Duchy of Vladimir (1157–1331) (russian: Владимиро-Су́здальс ...
sacked Kyiv, leaving the old town and the prince's hall in ruins. He took many pieces of religious artwork - including the ''Theotokos of Vladimir
, other_title_1 = Our Lady of Vladimir
, other_language_2 = uk, Вишгородська ікона Божої Матері
, other_title_2 = Vyshgorod Mother of God
, wikidata = Q546241
, image = Virgin of Vladimir.jpg
, image_upright = 1
...
'' icon - from Vyshhorod. In 1203, Prince Rurik Rostislavich Rurik Rostislavich (Russian and Ukrainian: Рюрик Ростиславич) (died 1215), Prince of Novgorod (1170–1171), Belgorod Kievsky (currently Bilohorodka; 1173–1194), Grand Prince of Kiev (Kyiv, 1173, 1180–1181, 1194–1201, 1203–12 ...
and his Kipchak allies captured and burned Kyiv. In the 1230s, the city was besieged and ravaged several times by different Rus princes. The city had not recovered from these attacks when, in 1240, the Mongol invasion of Rus'
The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, destroying numerous southern cities, including the largest cities, Kiev (50,000 inhabitants) and Chernihiv (30,000 inhabitants), with the only major cities escaping destr ...
, led by Batu Khan
Batu Khan ( – 1255),, ''Bat haan'', tt-Cyrl, Бату хан; ; russian: хан Баты́й was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Golden Horde, a constituent of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi, thus a grandson of Genghis Khan. ...
, completed the destruction of Kyiv.
These events had a profound effect on the future of the city and on the East Slavic civilization. Before Bogolyubsky's pillaging, Kyiv had had a reputation as one of the largest cities in the world, with a population exceeding 100,000 in the beginning of the 12th century.
In the early 1320s, a Lithuanian army led by Grand Duke Gediminas
Gediminas ( la, Gedeminne, ; – December 1341) was the king or Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death. He is credited with founding this political entity and expanding its territory which later spanned the area ranging from t ...
defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kyiv
The Battle on the Irpin River is a semi-legendary battle between the armies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Principality of Kiev. According to the story, Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, conquered Volhynia before turning his attention ...
at the Battle on the Irpen' River
The Battle on the Irpin River is a semi-legendary battle between the armies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Principality of Kiev. According to the story, Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, conquered Volhynia before turning his attention ...
and conquered the city. The Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different , who also claimed Kyiv, retaliated in 1324–1325, so while Kyiv was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to pay tribute to the Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fr ...
. Finally, as a result of the Battle of Blue Waters
The Battle of Blue Waters ( lt, Mūšis prie Mėlynųjų Vandenų, be, Бітва на Сініх Водах, uk, Битва на Синіх Водах) was a battle fought at some time in autumn 1362 or 1363 on the banks of the Syniukha river, ...
in 1362, Algirdas
Algirdas ( be, Альгерд, Alhierd, uk, Ольгерд, Ольґерд, Olherd, Olgerd, pl, Olgierd; – May 1377) was the Grand Duke of Lithuania. He ruled the Lithuanians and Ruthenians from 1345 to 1377. With the help of his bro ...
, Grand Duke of Lithuania, incorporated Kyiv and surrounding areas into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
. In 1482, Crimean Tatars
, flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg
, flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars
, image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg
, caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace
...
sacked and burned much of Kyiv.
With the 1569 (Union of Lublin
The Union of Lublin ( pl, Unia lubelska; lt, Liublino unija) was signed on 1 July 1569 in Lublin, Poland, and created a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest countries in Europe at the time. It replaced the pe ...
), when 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 ...
was established, the Lithuanian-controlled lands of the Kyiv region (Podolia
Podolia or Podilia ( uk, Поділля, Podillia, ; russian: Подолье, Podolye; ro, Podolia; pl, Podole; german: Podolien; be, Падолле, Padollie; lt, Podolė), is a historic region in Eastern Europe, located in the west-central ...
, Volhynia
Volhynia (also spelled Volynia) ( ; uk, Воли́нь, Volyn' pl, Wołyń, russian: Волы́нь, Volýnʹ, ), is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between south-eastern Poland, south-western Belarus, and western Ukraine. Th ...
, and Podlachia
Podlachia, or Podlasie, ( pl, Podlasie, , be, Падляшша, translit=Padliašša, uk, Підляшшя, translit=Pidliashshia) is a historical region in the north-eastern part of Poland. Between 1513 and 1795 it was a voivodeship with the c ...
) were transferred from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includ ...
, and Kyiv became the capital of Kyiv Voivodeship
The Kiev Voivodeship ( pl, województwo kijowskie, la, Palatinatus Kioviensis, uk, Київське воєводство, ''Kyjivśke vojevodstvo'') was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
. The 1658 Treaty of Hadiach
The Treaty of Hadiach ( pl, ugoda hadziacka; uk, гадяцький договір) was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach (Hadziacz, Hadiacz, Гадяч) between representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ( representing ...
envisaged Kyiv becoming the capital of the Grand Duchy of Rus' within the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth ( pl, Rzeczpospolita Trojga Narodów, Republic of Three Nations) was a proposed European state in the 17th century that would have replaced the existing Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth although ...
, but this provision of the treaty never went into operation.
Occupied by Russian troops since the 1654 , Kyiv became a part of the Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I i ...
from 1667 on the Truce of Andrusovo
The Truce of Andrusovo ( pl, Rozejm w Andruszowie, russian: Андрусовское перемирие, ''Andrusovskoye Pieriemiriye'', also sometimes known as Treaty of Andrusovo) established a thirteen-and-a-half year truce, signed in 1667 bet ...
and enjoyed a degree of autonomy. None of the Polish-Russian treaties concerning Kyiv have ever been ratified. In the Russian Empire, Kyiv was a primary Christian centre, attracting pilgrims, and the cradle of many of the empire's most important religious figures, but until the 19th century, the city's commercial importance remained marginal.
In 1834, the Russian government established Saint Vladimir University, now called the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv after the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861). (Shevchenko worked as a field researcher and editor for the geography department). The medical faculty of Saint Vladimir University, separated into an independent institution in 1919–1921 during the Soviet period, became the Bogomolets National Medical University in 1995.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Russian military and ecclesiastical authorities dominated city life; the Russian Orthodox Church had involvement in a significant part of Kyiv's infrastructure and commercial activity. In the late 1840s the historian, Nikolay Kostomarov, Mykola Kostomarov ''(russian: link=no, Nikolay Kostomarov)'', founded a secret political society, the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Cyril and Methodius, whose members put forward the idea of a federation of free Slavic peoples with Ukrainians as a distinct and separate group rather than a subordinate part of the Russian nation; the Russian authorities quickly suppressed the society.
Following the gradual loss of Ukraine's autonomy, Kyiv experienced growing Russification in the 19th century by means of Russian migration, administrative actions and social modernization. At the beginning of the 20th century the Russian speaking part of the population dominated the city centre, while the Social class, lower classes living on the outskirts retained Ukrainian folk culture to a significant extent. However, enthusiasts among ethnic Ukrainian nobles, military and merchants made recurrent attempts to preserve native culture in Kyiv, by clandestine book-printing, amateur theatre, folk studies, etc.
During the Industrialization in the Russian Empire, Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century, Kyiv became an important trade and transportation centre of the Russian Empire, specialising in sugar and grain export by railway and on the Dnieper river. By 1900, the city had also become a significant industrial centre, having a population of 250,000. Landmarks of that period include the railway infrastructure, the foundation of numerous educational and cultural facilities, and notable architectural monuments (mostly merchant-oriented). In 1892, the Trams in Kyiv, first electric tram line of the Russian Empire started running in Kyiv (the third in the world).
Kyiv prospered during the late 19th century Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
in the Russian Empire, when it became the third most important city of the Empire and the major centre of commerce of its southwest. In the Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, turbulent period following the Russian Revolution (1917), 1917 Russian Revolution, Kyiv became the capital of several Ukrainian People's Republic, successive Ukrainian states and was caught in the middle of several conflicts: World War I, during which German soldiers occupied it from 2 March 1918 to November 1918, the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922, and the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921. During the last three months of 1919, Kyiv was intermittently controlled by the White Army. Kyiv changed hands sixteen times from the end of 1918 to August 1920.
From 1921 to 1991, the city formed part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a founding republic of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1922. The major events that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the interwar period all affected Kyiv: the 1920s Ukrainization as well as the migration of the rural Ukrainophone population made the Russophone city Ukrainian-speaking and bolstered the development of Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian cultural life in the city; the History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), Soviet Industrialization that started in the late 1920s turned the city, a former centre of commerce and religion, into a major industrial, technological and scientific centre; the Holodomor, 1932–1933 Great Famine devastated the part of the migrant population not registered for ration cards; and Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of 1937–1938 almost eliminated the city's intelligentsia[Orlando Figes ''The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia'', 2007, , pages 227–315.][Robert Gellately, ''Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe'' (Knopf, 2007: ), 720 pages.]
In 1934, Kyiv became the capital of Soviet Ukraine. The city boomed again during the years of Soviet industrialization as its population grew rapidly and many industrial giants were established, some of which exist today.
In World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the city again suffered significant damage, and Nazi Germany occupied it from 19 September 1941 to Battle of Kiev (1943), 6 November 1943. Axis forces killed or captured more than 600,000 Soviet soldiers in the great encirclement Battle of Kyiv (1941), Battle of Kyiv in 1941. Most of those captured never returned alive. Shortly after the Wehrmacht occupied the city, a team of NKVD officers who had remained hidden dynamited most of the buildings on the Khreshchatyk, the main street of the city, where German military and civil authorities had occupied most of the buildings; the buildings burned for days and 25,000 people were left homeless.
Allegedly in response to the actions of the NKVD, the Germans rounded up all the local The Holocaust in Ukraine, Jews they could find, nearly 34,000, and massacred them at Babi Yar in Kyiv on 29 and 30 September 1941. In the months that followed, thousands more were taken to Babi Yar where they were shot. It is estimated that the Germans murdered List of victims of the Babi Yar massacre, more than 100,000 people of various ethnic groups, mostly civilians, at Babi Yar during World War II.
Kyiv recovered economically in the post-war years, becoming once again the third-most important city of the Soviet Union. The Chernobyl disaster, catastrophic accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 occurred only north of the city. However, the prevailing south wind blew most of the radioactive debris away from Kyiv.
In the course of the History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991), collapse of the Soviet Union the Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainian parliament proclaimed the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in the city on 24 August 1991. In 2004–2005, the city played host to the largest post-Soviet public demonstrations up to that time, in support of the Orange Revolution. From November 2013 until February 2014, central Kyiv became the primary location of Euromaidan.
Environment
Geography
Geographically, Kyiv is located on the border of the Polesia woodland ecological zone, a part of the European mixed woods area, and the East European forest steppe biome. However, the city's unique landscape distinguishes it from the surrounding region. Kyiv is completely surrounded by Kyiv Oblast.
Originally on the west bank, today Kyiv is located on both sides of the Dnieper, which flows southwards through the city towards the Black Sea. The older and higher western part of the city sits on numerous wooded hills (Kyiv Mountains, Kyiv Hills), with ravines and small rivers. Kyiv's geographical relief contributed to its toponyms, such as ''Podil'' ("lower"), ''Pechersk'' ("caves"), and ''uzviz'' (a steep street, "descent"). Kyiv is a part of the larger Dnieper Upland adjoining the western bank of the Dnieper in its mid-flow, and which contributes to the city's elevation change.
The northern outskirts of the city border the Polesian Lowland. Kyiv expanded into the Dnieper Lowland on the left bank (''to the east'') as late as the 20th century. The whole portion of Kyiv on the left bank of the Dnieper is generally referred to as the ''Left Bank'' (, ''Livyi bereh''). Significant areas of the left bank Dnieper valley were artificially sand-deposited, and are protected by dams.
Within the city the Dnieper River forms a branching system of tributary, tributaries, isles, and harbors within the city limits. The city is close to the mouth of the Desna River and the Kyiv Reservoir in the north, and the Kaniv Reservoir in the south. Both the Dnieper and Desna rivers are navigation, navigable at Kyiv, although regulated by the reservoir shipping locks and limited by winter freeze-over.
In total, there are 448 bodies of open water within the boundaries of Kyiv, which include the Dnieper itself, its reservoirs, and several small rivers, dozens of lakes and artificially created ponds. They occupy 7949 hectares. Additionally, the city has 16 developed beaches (totalling 140 hectares) and 35 near-water recreational areas (covering more than 1,000 hectares). Many are used for pleasure and recreation, although some of the bodies of water are not suitable for swimming.
According to the UN 2011 evaluation, there were no risks of natural disasters in Kyiv and Kyiv metropolitan area, its metropolitan area.
Climate
Kyiv has a warm-summer continental climate, humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification, Köppen ''Dfb''). The warmest months are June, July, and August, with mean temperatures of . The coldest are December, January, and February, with mean temperatures of . The highest ever temperature recorded in the city was on 30 July 1936.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the city was on 11 January 1951.[ Snow cover usually lies from mid-November to the end of March, with the frost-free period lasting 180 days on average, but surpassing 200 days in some years.]
Legal status, local government and politics
Legal status and local government
The municipality of the city of Kyiv has a Cities with special status, special legal status within Ukraine compared to the other Administrative divisions of Ukraine, administrative subdivisions of the country. The most significant difference is that the city is considered as a region of Ukraine (see Regions of Ukraine). It is the only city that has double jurisdiction. The Head of Chief of Local State Administration (Ukraine), City State Administration – the city's governor – is appointed by the president of Ukraine, while the Head of the City Council – the mayor of Kyiv – is elected by local popular vote.
The mayor of Kyiv is Vitali Klitschko, who was sworn in on 5 June 2014,[Vitali Klitschko sworn in as mayor of Kyiv]
, Interfax-Ukraine (5 June 2014) after he had won the 2014 Kyiv local election, 25 May 2014 Kyiv mayoral elections with almost 57% of the votes.[Klitschko officially announced as winner of Kyiv mayor election](_blank)
, Interfax-Ukraine (4 June 2014) Since 25 June 2014, Klitschko is also Kyiv City State Administration, Head of Kyiv City Administration.[Poroshenko appoints Klitschko head of Kyiv city administration – decree](_blank)
, Interfax-Ukraine (25 June 2014)
Poroshenko orders Klitschko to bring title of best European capital back to Kyiv
, Interfax-Ukraine (25 June 2014) Klitschko was last reelected in the 2020 Kyiv local election with 50.52% of the votes, in the first round of the election.[Vitali Klitschko wins in first round of Kyiv mayor election](_blank)
, Ukrinform (6 November 2020)
Most key buildings of the national government are located along Hrushevskoho Street (''vulytsia Mykhaila Hrushevskoho'') and Institute Street (''vulytsia Instytutska''). Hrushevskoho Street is named after the Ukrainian academician, politician, historian, and statesman Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, who wrote an academic book titled: "Bar Starostvo: Historical Notes: XV-XVIII" about the history of Bar, Ukraine. That portion of the city is also unofficially known as the government quarter ().
The city state administration and council is located in the Kyiv City council building on Khreshchatyk Street. The oblast state administration and council is located in the oblast council building on ''ploshcha Lesi Ukrayinky'' ("Lesya Ukrayinka Square"). The Kyiv-Sviatoshyn Raion state administration is located near ''Kiltseva doroha'' ("Ring Road") on ''prospekt Peremohy'' ("Victory Parkway"), while the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn Raion local council is located on ''vulytsia Yantarna'' ("Yantarnaya Street").
Politics
The growing political and economic role of the city, combined with its international relations, as well as extensive Internet in Ukraine, internet and social network penetration, have made Kyiv the most pro-Western and pro-democracy region of Ukraine; (so called) National democratic, National Democratic parties
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature fo ...
advocating tighter integration with the European Union receive most votes during elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
in Kyiv.[Interactive parliamentary election 2012 result maps]
by Ukrayinska Pravda
Election results in Ukraine since 1998
, Central Election Commission of Ukraine
Nations and Nationalism: A Global Historical Overview
, ABC-CLIO, 2008, (page 1629)
Ukraine on its Meandering Path Between East and West
by Andrej Lushnycky and Mykola Riabchuk, Peter Lang (publishing company), Peter Lang, 2009, (page 122)
After the parliamentary elections in Ukraine: a tough victory for the Party of Regions
, Centre for Eastern Studies (7 November 2012)
Communist and Post-Communist Parties in Europe
by Uwe Backes and Patrick Moreau, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, (page 396)
Party of Regions gets 185 seats in Ukrainian parliament, Batkivschyna 101 – CEC
, Interfax-Ukraine (12 November 2012)
UDAR submits to Rada resolution on Ukraine's integration with EU
Interfax-Ukraine (8 January 2013)
Electronic Bulletin "Your Choice – 2012". Issue 4: Batkivshchyna
, Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research (24 October 2012)
Ukraine's Party System in Transition? The Rise of the Radically Right-Wing All-Ukrainian Association "Svoboda"
by Andreas Umland, Centre for Geopolitical Studies (1 May 2011)
In a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in the first half of February 2014, 5.3% of those polled in Kyiv believed "Ukraine and Russia must unite into a single state", nationwide this percentage was 12.5.
Subdivisions
Traditional subdivision
The Dnieper River naturally divides Kyiv into the Right Bank and the Left Bank areas. Historically located on the western right bank of the river, the city expanded into the left bank only in the 20th century. Most of Kyiv's attractions as well as the majority of business and governmental institutions are located on the right bank. The eastern "Left Bank" is predominantly residential. There are large industrial and green areas in both the Right Bank and the Left Bank.
Kyiv is further informally divided into historical or territorial neighbourhoods, each housing from about 5,000 to 100,000 inhabitants.
Formal subdivision
The first known formal subdivision of Kyiv dates to 1810 when the city was subdivided into 4 parts: Pechersk, Kyiv, Pechersk, Starokyiv, and the first and the second parts of Podil. In 1833–1834 according to Russian tsar, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas I's decree, Kyiv was subdivided into 6 police raions (districts); later being increased to 10. In 1917, there were 8 Raion Councils (''Duma''), which were reorganised by bolsheviks into 6 Party-Territory Raions.
During the Soviet era, as the city was expanding, the number of raions also gradually increased. These newer districts of the city, along with some older areas were then named in honour of prominent communists and socialist-revolutionary figures; however, due to the way in which many communist party members eventually, after a certain period of time, fell out of favour and so were replaced with new, fresher minds, so too did the names of Kyiv's districts change accordingly.
The last raion reform took place in 2001 when the number of raions was decreased from 14 to 10.
Under Oleksandr Omelchenko (mayor from 1999 to 2006), there were further plans for the merger of some raions and revision of their boundaries, and the total number of raions had been planned to be decreased from 10 to 7. With the election of the new mayor-elect (Leonid Chernovetskyi) in 2006, these plans were shelved.
Each raion has its own local government, locally elected council with jurisdiction over a limited scope of affairs.[Elections to Kyiv district councils will take place on October 30 [2022] - the decision of the Kyiv City Council]
, Interfax-Ukraine (3 February 2022)
Demographics
According to the official Resident registration, registration statistics, there were 2,847,200 residents within the city limits of Kyiv in July 2013.
Historical population
According to the Ukrainian Census (2001), All-Ukrainian Census, the population of Kyiv in 2001 was 2,611,300.[The most recent Ukrainian Census (2001), Ukrainian census, conducted on 5 December 2001, gave the population of Kyiv as 2 611 300]
Ukrcensus.gov.ua – Kyiv city
Web address accessed on 4 August 2007). Estimates based on the amount of bakery products sold in the city (thus including temporary visitors and commuters) suggest a minimum of 3.5 million.
There are up to 1.5 mln undercounted residents in Kiev
", ''Korrespondent'', 15 June 2005 The historic changes in population are shown in the side table. According to the census, some 1,393,000 (53.3%) were female and 1,219,000 (46.7%) were male. Comparing the results with the previous census (1989) shows the trend of population ageing which, while prevalent throughout the country, is partly offset in Kyiv by the inflow of working age migrants. Some 1,069,700 people had higher or completed secondary education, a significant increase of 21.7% since 1989.
The June 2007 unofficial population estimate based on amount of bakery products sold in the city (thus including temporary visitors and commuters) gave a number of at least 3.5 million people.
Ethnic composition
According to the 2001 census data, more than 130 nationalities and ethnic groups reside within the territory of Kyiv. Ukrainians constitute the largest ethnic group in Kyiv, accounting for 2,110,800 people, or 82.2% of the population. Russians comprise 337,300 (13.1%), Jews 17,900 (0.7%), Belarusians 16,500 (0.6%), Poles 6,900 (0.3%), Armenians 4,900 (0.2%), Azerbaijani people, Azerbaijanis 2,600 (0.1%), Tatars 2,500 (0.1%), Georgians 2,400 (0.1%), Moldovans 1,900 (0.1%).
A 2015 study by the International Republican Institute found that 94% of Kyiv was ethnic Ukrainian, and 5% ethnic Russian. Most of the city's non-Slav population comprises Tatars, Peoples of the Caucasus, Caucasians, and other people from the former Soviet Union.
Language statistics
Both Ukrainian and Russian are commonly spoken in the city; approximately 75% of Kyiv's population responded "Ukrainian" to the 2001 census question on their native language, roughly 25% responded "Russian".[According to the official Ukrainian Census (2001), 2001 census data:
] According to a 2006 survey, Ukrainian is used at home by 23% of Kyivans, 52% use Russian, and 24% switch between both.["Kiev: the city, its residents, problems of today, wishes for tomorrow", ''Zerkalo Nedeli'', 29 April – 12 May 2006]
in Russian
in Ukrainian
In the 2003 sociological survey, when the question "What language do you use in everyday life?" was asked, 52% said "mostly Russian", 32% "both Russian and Ukrainian in equal measure", 14% "mostly Ukrainian", and 4.3% "exclusively Ukrainian".
According to the census of 1897, of Kyiv's approximately 240,000 people approximately 56% of the population spoke the Russian language, 23% spoke the Ukrainian language, 13% spoke Yiddish, 7% spoke Polish and 1% spoke the Belarusian language.
A 2015 study by the International Republican Institute found that the languages spoken at home in Kyiv were Ukrainian (27%), Russian (32%), and an equal combination of Ukrainian and Russian (40%).
Jews
The Jews of Kyiv are first mentioned in a 10th-century letter. The Jewish population remained relatively small until the nineteenth century. A series of pogroms was carried out in 1882, and another in 1905. On the eve of World War I, the city's Jewish population was over 81,000. In 1939 there were approximately 224,000 Jews in Kyiv, some of whom fled the city ahead of the Operation Barbarossa, German invasion of the Soviet Union that began in June 1941. On 29 and 30 September 1941, nearly 34,000 Kyivan Jews were massacred at Babi Yar by the Wehrmacht, SS, Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, and local collaborators.
Jews began returning to Kyiv at the end of the war, but experienced another pogrom in September 1945. In the 21st century, Kyiv's Jewish community numbers about 20,000. There are two major synagogues in the city: the Great Choral Synagogue (Kyiv), Great Choral Synagogue and the Brodsky Choral Synagogue.
Cityscape
Modern Kyiv is a mix of the old (Kyiv preserved about 70 percent of more than 1,000 buildings built during 1907–1914)[Forgotten Soviet Plans For Kyiv](_blank)
, Kyiv Post (28 July 2011) and the new, seen in everything from the architecture to the stores and to the people themselves. When the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv many new buildings were commissioned to give the city "the gloss and polish of a capital". In the discussions that centered on how to create a showcase city center, the current city center of Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) were not the obvious choices. Some of the early, ultimately not materialised, ideas included a part of Pechersk, Lypky, European Square, Kyiv, European Square, and Mykhailivska Square.
The plans of building massive monuments (of Vladimir Lenin and Stalin) were also abandoned, due to lack of money (in the 1930s–1950s) and because of Kyiv's hilly landscape. Experiencing rapid population growth between the 1970s and the mid-1990s, the city has continued its consistent growth after the turn of the millennium. As a result, Kyiv's central districts provide a dotted contrast of new, modern buildings among the pale yellows, blues, and greys of older apartments. Urban sprawl has gradually reduced, while population densities of suburbs has increased. The most expensive properties are located in the Pechersk, and Khreshchatyk areas. It is also prestigious to own a property in newly constructed buildings in the Kharkivskyi Masyv, Kharkivskyi Raion or Obolon Raion, Obolon along the Dnieper.
Ukrainian independence at the turn of the millennium has heralded other changes. Western-style residential complexes, modern nightclubs, classy restaurants and prestigious hotels opened in the centre. And most importantly, with the easing of the visa rules in 2005, Ukraine is positioning itself as a prime tourist attraction, with Kyiv, among the other large cities, looking to profit from new opportunities. The centre of Kyiv has been cleaned up and buildings have been restored and redecorated, especially Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Many historic areas of Kyiv, such as Andriyivskyy Descent, have become popular street vendor locations, where one can find traditional Art of Ukraine, Ukrainian art, religious items, books, game sets (most commonly chess) as well as jewellery for sale.
At the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009, Kyiv was the only Commonwealth of Independent States city to have been inscribed into the TOP30 European Green City Index (placed 30th).
Kyiv's most famous historical architecture complexes are the Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kyiv, St. Sophia Cathedral and the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), which are recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Noteworthy historical architectural landmarks also include the Mariinskyi Palace (designed and constructed from 1745 to 1752, then reconstructed in 1870), several Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches such as St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, St. Michael's Cathedral, St Andrew's Church, Kyiv, St. Andrew's, St Volodymyr's Cathedral, St. Vladimir's, the reconstructed Golden Gate, Kyiv, Golden Gate and others.
One of Kyiv's widely recognized modern landmarks is the highly visible giant Mother Motherland, Kyiv, Mother Motherland statue made of titanium standing at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War on the Right bank of the Dnieper. Other notable sites is the cylindrical Salut hotel, located across from Glory Square and the eternal flame at the World War Two memorial Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Kyiv), Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the House with Chimaeras.
Among Kyiv's best-known monuments are Mikhail Mikeshin's statue of Bohdan Khmelnytsky astride his horse located near Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev, St. Sophia Cathedral, the venerated Vladimir I of Kiev, Vladimir the Great (St. Vladimir), the Christianization of Kievan Rus', baptizer of Rus', overlooking the river above Podil from Saint Vladimir Hill, the monument to Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv and Lybid, the legendary founders of the city located at the Dnieper embankment. On Independence Square in the city centre, two monuments elevate two of the city protectors; the historic protector of Kyiv Michael Archangel atop a reconstruction of one of the old city's gates and a modern invention, the goddess-protector Berehynia atop a tall column.
File:Golden Gate Kiev 2018 G1.jpg, Golden Gate
File:Київ, Собор Успенський, Лаврська вул. 9.jpg, Holy Dormition Cathedral
File:St. Sophia's.jpg, St. Sophia Cathedral
File:St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kiev.jpg, St. Volodymyr's Cathedral
File:80-391-9007 Kyiv St.Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery RB 18.jpg, St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery
File:Pokrova Nunnery Kyiv.JPG, Intercession Convent (Kyiv), Intercession Convent
File:St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral, Kyiv 8.jpg, St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral, Kyiv, St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral
File:Kyiv, St Andrew church (2).jpg, Saint Andrew's Church
File:Маріїнський палац в Києві.jpg, Mariinskyi Palace
File:National Bank of Ukraine new.jpg, National Bank of Ukraine
File:Будинок із химерами 4.jpg, "House with Chimaeras"
File:Brodsky_Synagogue.jpg, Brodsky Synagogue (Kyiv), Brodsky Choral Synagogue - Moorish Revival architecture
Culture
Kyiv was the historic cultural centre of the East Slavic civilization and a major cradle for the Christianization of Kyivan Rus. Kyiv retained through centuries its cultural importance and even at times of relative decay, it remained the centre of primary importance of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Its sacred sites, which include the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (the Monastery of the Caves) and the Saint Sophia Cathedral are probably the most famous, attracted pilgrims for centuries and now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site remain the primary religious centres as well as the major tourist attraction. The above-mentioned sites are also part of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine collection.
Kyiv's theatres include, the National Opera House of Ukraine, Kyiv Opera House, Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater, Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theater of Russian Drama, the Kyiv Puppet, Puppet Theater, October Palace, Kyiv, October Palace and National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine, National Philharmonic of Ukraine and others. In 1946 Kyiv had four theatres, one opera house and one concert hall,[The Ukraine]
, Life (magazine), Life, 28 October 1946 but most tickets then were allocated to "privileged groups".[
Other significant cultural centres include the Dovzhenko Film Studios, and the Kyiv Circus. The most important of the :Museums in Kyiv, city's many museums are the Kyiv State Historical Museum, National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, National Art Museum, the Museum of Western and Oriental Art, the PinchukArtCentre, Pinchuk Art Centre and the National Museum of Russian culture, Russian art.
In 2005, Kyiv hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, 50th annual Eurovision Song Contest and in 2017 the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, 62nd annual Eurovision Song Contest
Numerous songs and paintings were dedicated to the city. Some songs became part of Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish folklore. The most popular songs are "How not to love you, Kyiv of mine?" and "Kyiv Waltz". Renowned Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Bilash wrote an operetta called "Legend of Kyiv".
]
Attractions
It is said that one can walk from one end of Kyiv to the other in the summertime without leaving the shade of its many trees. Most characteristic are the Aesculus hippocastanum, horse-chestnuts (, ).
Kyiv is known as a green city with M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden, two botanical gardens and numerous large and small parks. The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War is located here, which offers both indoor and outdoor displays of military history and equipment surrounded by verdant hills overlooking the Dnieper river.
Among the numerous islands, Venetsianskyi (or Hydropark in Kyiv, Hydropark) is the most developed. It is accessible by metro or by car, and includes an amusement park, swimming beaches, boat rentals, and night clubs. The Victory Park (''Park Peremohy'') located near Darnytsia subway station is a popular destination for strollers, joggers, and cyclists. Boating, fishing, and water sports are popular pastimes in Kyiv. The area lakes and rivers freeze over in the winter and ice fishermen are a frequent sight, as are children with their ice skates. However, the peak of summer draws out a greater mass of people to the shores for swimming or sunbathing, with daytime high temperatures sometimes reaching .
The centre of Kyiv (Independence Square and Khreschatyk Street) becomes a large outdoor party place at night during summer months, with thousands of people having a good time in nearby restaurants, clubs and outdoor cafes. The central streets are closed for auto traffic on weekends and holidays. Andriyivskyy Descent is one of the best known historic streets and a major tourist attraction in Kyiv. The hill is the site of the Castle of Richard the Lionheart; the baroque-style St Andrew's Church; the home of Kyiv born Russian literature, writer, Andriyivskyy Descent#Mikhail Bulgakov's house, Mikhail Bulgakov; the ''monument to Yaroslav I the Wise, Yaroslav the Wise'', the Grand Prince of Kyiv and of Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod; and numerous other monuments.
A wide variety of farm produce is available in many of Kyiv's farmer markets with the Besarabsky Market located in the very centre of the city being most famous. Each residential region has its own market, or ''rynok''. Here one will find table after table of individuals hawking everything imaginable: vegetables, fresh and smoked meats, fish, cheese, honey, dairy products such as milk and home-made ''smetana'' (sour cream), caviar, cut flowers, housewares, tools and hardware, and clothing. Each of the markets has its own unique mix of products with some markets devoted solely to specific wares such as automobiles, car parts, pets, clothing, flowers, and other things.
At the city's southern outskirts, near the historic Pyrohiv village, there is an Open-air museum, outdoor museum, officially called the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine It has an area of . This territory houses several "mini-villages" that represent by region the traditional rural architecture of Ukraine.
Kyiv also has numerous recreational attractions like bowling alleys, go-cart tracks, paintball venues, billiard halls and even shooting ranges. The 100-year-old Kyiv Zoo is located on 40 hectares and according to CBC "the zoo has 2,600 animals from 328 species".
Museums and galleries
Kyiv is home to some 40 different museums. In 2009 they recorded a total of 4.3 million visits.
The National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War is a memorial complex commemorating the Eastern Front of World War II located in the hills on the Subdivisions of Kyiv#Historical neighborhoods, right-bank of the Dnieper in Pechersk Raion, Pechersk. Kyiv fortress is the 19th-century fortification buildings situated in Ukraine, Ukrainian capital Kyiv, that once belonged to western Russian fortresses. These structures (once a united complex) were built in the Pechersk and neighbourhoods by the Russian army.
Some of the buildings are restored and turned into a museum called the ''Kyiv Fortress'', while others are in use in various military and commercial installations. The National Art Museum of Ukraine is a museum dedicated to Ukrainian art. The Golden Gate is a historic gateway in the ancient city's walls. The name ''Zoloti Vorota'' is also used for a nearby theatre and a station of the Kyiv Metro
The Kyiv Metro ( uk, Ки́ївський метрополіте́н, Kyivskyi metropoliten, ) is a rapid transit system in Kyiv that is owned by the Kyiv City Council and operated by the city-owned company Kyivsky Metropoliten''.'' It was initi ...
. The small Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum acts as both a memorial and historical center devoted to the events surrounding the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and its effect on the Ukrainian people, the environment, and subsequent attitudes toward the safety of nuclear power as a whole.
Sports
Kyiv has many professional and amateur football clubs, including FC Dynamo Kyiv, Dynamo Kyiv, FC Arsenal Kyiv, Arsenal Kyiv and FC Obolon Kyiv but only Dynamo Kyiv play in the Ukrainian Premier League. Of these three, Dynamo Kyiv has had the most success over the course of its history. For example, up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the club won 13 Soviet Top League, USSR Championships, 9 USSR Cups, and 3 USSR Super Cups, thus making Dynamo the most successful club in the history of the Soviet Top League.[Trophies of Dynamo]
– Official website of Dynamo Kyiv
Other prominent non-football sport clubs in the city include: the Sokil Kyiv ice hockey club and BC Budivelnyk basketball club. Both of these teams play in the highest Ukrainian leagues for their respective sports. Budivelnyk was founded in 1945, Sokil was founded in 1963, during the existence of the Soviet Union. Both these teams play their home games at the Palace of Sports (Kyiv), Kyiv Palace of Sports.
During the 1980 Summer Olympics held in the Soviet Union, Kyiv held the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament at its Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, Olympic Stadium, which was reconstructed specially for the event. From 1 December 2008, the stadium underwent a full-scale reconstruction in order to satisfy standards put in place by UEFA for hosting the UEFA Euro 2012, Euro 2012 football tournament; the opening ceremony took place in the presence of president Viktor Yanukovich on 8 October 2011, with the first major event being a Shakira concert which was specially planned to coincide with the stadium's re-opening during Euro 2012. Other notable sport stadiums/sport complexes in Kyiv include the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium, the Palace of Sports, Kyiv, Palace of Sports, among many others.
Most Ukrainian national teams play their home international matches in Kyiv. The Ukraine national football team, for example, will play matches at the re-constructed Olympic Stadium from 2011.
Tourism
Since introducing a visa-free regime for EU-member states and Switzerland in 2005, Ukraine has seen a steady increase in the number of foreign tourists visiting the country. Before the 2008–2009 Ukrainian financial crisis, 2008–09 recession, the average annual growth in the number of foreign visits in Kyiv was 23% over a three-year period. In 2009, a total of 1.6 million tourists stayed in Kyiv hotels, of whom almost 259,000 ( 16%) were foreigners.
After UEFA Euro 2012, the city became the most popular destination for European tourists. A record number of 1.8 million foreign tourists was registered then along with about 2.5 million domestic tourists. More than 850,000 foreign tourists visited Kyiv in the first half of 2018, as compared to 660,000 tourists over the same period in 2013. As of 2018, the hotel occupancy rate from May to September averages 45–50%. Hostels and three-star hotels are approximately 90% full, four-star hotels 65–70%. Six five-star hotels average 50–55% occupancy. Ordinary tourists generally come from May to October, and business tourists from September to May.
City anthem
In 2014, the Kyiv city's council established the city's anthem.[The Kyiv council approved the Kyiv city anthem (Київрада затвердила гімн Києва)]
. Ukrayinska Pravda. 13 November 2014 It became a 1962 song, "Yak tebe ne liubyty, Kyieve mii!"[ (, roughly "How can I not love you, Kyiv of mine!").
]
City symbols
The horse chestnut tree is one of the symbols of Kyiv.["Thujoy Khreshchatyk". Why Kyivans miss chestnuts and how they became a symbol of the capital](_blank)
, Ukrayinska Pravda (29 May 2019) It was heavily present on the Coat of arms of Kyiv, city's coat of arms used from 1969 to 1995.
Economy
As with most Capital city, capital cities, Kyiv is a major administrative, cultural, and scientific centre of the country. It is the largest city in Ukraine in terms of both population and area and enjoys the highest levels of business activity. On 1 January 2010, there were around 238,000 list of company registers#Ukraine, business entities registered in Kyiv.
Official figures show that between 2004 and 2008 Kyiv's economy outstripped the rest of the country's, growing by an annual average of 11.5%. Following the Financial crisis of 2007–2010, global financial crisis that began in 2007, Kyiv's economy suffered a severe setback in 2009 with gross regional product contracting by 13.5% in real terms. Although a record high, the decline in activity was 1.6 percentage points smaller than that for the country as a whole. The economy in Kyiv, as in the rest of Ukraine, recovered somewhat in 2010 and 2011. Kyiv is a middle-income city, with prices comparable to many mid-size American cities (i.e., considerably lower than Western Europe).
Because the city has a large and diverse economic base and is not dependent on any single industry and/or company, its unemployment rate has historically been relatively low – only 3.75% over 2005–2008. Indeed, even as the rate of joblessness jumped to 7.1% in 2009, it remained far below the national average of 9.6%.
As of January 2022, the average monthly gross salary in Kyiv reached 21,347 Ukrainian hryvnia, UAH (€550).
Kyiv is the undisputed center of business and commerce of Ukraine and home to the country's largest companies, such as Naftogaz Ukrainy, Energorynok and Kyivstar. In 2010, the city accounted for 18% of national retail sales and 24% of all construction activity. Real estate is one of the major forces in Kyiv's economy. Average prices of apartments are the highest in the country and among the highest in eastern Europe. Kyiv also ranks high in terms of commercial real estate and has Ukraine's tallest office buildings (such as Gulliver (building), Gulliver and Parus Business Centre, Parus) and some of Ukraine's biggest shopping malls (such as Dream Town and Ocean Plaza) are located.
In May 2011, Kyiv authorities presented a 15-year development strategy which calls for attracting as much as EUR82 billion of foreign direct investment, foreign investment by 2025 to modernize the city's transport and utilities infrastructure and make it more attractive for tourists.
* – data not available;
** – calculated at annual average official exchange rate;
*** – International Labour Organization, ILO methodology (% of workforce).
Industry
Primary Industry (economics), industries in Kyiv include public utility, utilities – i.e., electricity, gas and water supply (26% of total Output (economics), industrial output), manufacture of food, beverages and tobacco products (22%), chemical industry, chemical (17%), mechanical engineering (13%) and manufacture of paper and paper products, including publishing, printing and reproduction of recorded media (11%). The Institute of Oil Transportation is headquartered here.
Manufacture
* Kuznya na Rybalskomu, naval production
* Antonov Serial Production Plant (former Aviant), airplanes manufacturing
* Aeros, small aircraft production
* Kyiv Roshen Factory, confectionery
* Kyiv Arsenal (former arms manufacturer), specializes in production of optic-precision instruments
* Obolon (company), Obolon, brewery
* Kyiv Aircraft Repair Plant 410, repair factory located at Zhulyany Airport
Education and science
Scientific research
Scientific research is conducted in many institutes of higher education and, additionally, in many research institutes affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Kyiv is home to Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Ukraine's ministry of education and science, and is also noted for its contributions to medical and computer science research.
In 2016, UNIT Factory (Ukrainian National IT Factory) opened. It offers a completely new format of IT education. The education is completely free for all trainees subject to compliance with the terms of the program. Within this project are the Technology Companies' Development Center (TCDC), BIONIC University open inter-corporate IT-university, as well as two hi-tech laboratories—VR Lab (Crytek) and Smart City lab.
University education
Kyiv hosts many universities, the major ones being Kyiv University, Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, National Technical University "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute", National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics. Of these, the Mohyla Academy is the oldest, founded as a theological school in 1632, but Shevchenko University, founded in 1834, is the oldest in continuous operation. The total number of institutions of higher education in Kyiv approaches 200, allowing young people to pursue almost any line of study. While education traditionally remains largely in the hands of the state there are several accredited private institutions in the city.
Secondary education
There are about 530 general secondary schools and about 680 nursery schools and kindergartens in Kyiv. Additionally, there are evening schools for adults, specialist technical schools, and the Evangel Theological Seminary.
Public libraries
There are many libraries in the city, with the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Vernadsky National Library, which is Ukraine's main academic library and scientific information centre, as well as one of the world's largest national library, national libraries, being the largest and most important one. The National Library is affiliated with the Academy of Sciences in so far as it is a deposit library and thus serves as the academy's archives' store. The national library is the world's foremost repository of Jewish music, Jewish folk music recorded on Phonograph cylinder, Edison wax cylinders. Their Collection of Jewish Musical Folklore (1912–1947) was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005.
Transportation
Local public transport
Local public transportation in Kyiv includes the Metro, buses and marshrutka, minibuses, trolleybuses, trams, Taxicab, taxi and Kyiv Funicular, funicular. There is also an Kyiv Urban Electric Train, intra-city ring railway service.
The publicly owned and operated Kyiv Metro is the fastest, the most convenient and affordable network that covers most, but not all, of the city. The Metro is expanding towards the city limits to meet growing demand, having three lines with a total length of and 51 stations (some of which are renowned architectural landmarks). The Metro carries around 1.422 million passengers daily accounting for 38% of the Kyiv's public transport load. In 2011, the total number of trips exceeded 519 million.
The historic tram system was the first electric tramway in the former Russian Empire and the third one in Europe after the Trams in Berlin, Berlin Straßembahn and the Budapest tramway. The tram system consists of of track, including two Kyiv Light Rail, Rapid Tram lines, served by 21 routes with the use of 523 tram cars. Once a well maintained and widely used method of transport, the system is now gradually being phased out in favor of buses and trolleybuses.
The Kyiv Funicular was constructed during 1902–1905. It connects the historic Old Kyiv, Uppertown, and the lower commercial neighborhood of Podil through the steep Saint Vladimir Hill overseeing the Dnieper River. The line consists of two stations.
All public road transport (except for some minibuses) is operated by the united Kyivpastrans municipal company. It is heavily subsidized by the city.
The Kyiv public transport system, except for taxi, uses a simple flat rate tariff system regardless of distance traveled: tickets or tokens must be purchased each time a vehicle is boarded. Digital ticket system is already established in Kyiv Metro, with plans for other transport modes. Discount passes are available for grade school and higher education students. Pensioners use public transportation free. There are monthly passes in all combinations of public transportation. Ticket prices are regulated by the city government, and the cost of one ride is far lower than in Western Europe.
The taxi market in Kyiv is expansive but not regulated. In particular, the taxi fare per kilometer is not regulated. There is a fierce competition between private taxi companies.
Roads and bridges
Kyiv represents the focal point of Ukraine's "national roads" system, thus linked by road to all cities of the country. international E-road network, European routes
,
and
intersect in Kyiv.
There are eight Dnieper bridges and dozens of grade separation, grade-separated intersections in the city. Several new intersections are under construction. There are plans to build a full-size, fully grade-separated ring road around Kyiv.
In 2009, Kyiv's roads were in poor technical condition and maintained inadequately.
Traffic congestion, Traffic jams and lack of parking space are growing problems for all road transport services in Kyiv.
Air transport
Kyiv is served by two international passenger airports: the Boryspil International Airport, Boryspil Airport located away, and the smaller, municipally owned Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany), Zhulyany Airport on the southern outskirts of the city. There are also the Gostomel Airport, Gostomel cargo airport and additional three operating airfields facilitating the Antonov, Antonov aircraft manufacturing company and general aviation.
Railways
Railways are Kyiv's main mode of intracity- and suburban transportation. The city has a developed railroad infrastructure including a long-distance passenger station, 6 cargo stations, depots, and repairing facilities. However, this system still fails to meet the demand for passenger service. Particularly, the Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi Railway Station is the city's only long-distance passenger terminal (''vokzal'').
Construction is underway for turning the large Darnytsia railway station on the left-bank part of Kyiv into a long-distance passenger hub, which may ease traffic at the central station. Bridges in Kyiv, Bridges over the Dnieper River are another problem restricting the development of city's railway system. Presently, only one rail bridge out of two is available for intense train traffic. A new combined rail-auto bridge is under construction, as a part of Darnytsia project.
In 2011, the Kyiv city administration established the new Urban Train for Kyiv. This service runs at standard 4- to 10-minute intervals throughout the day and follows a circular route around the city centre, which allows it to serve many of Kyiv's inner suburbs. Interchanges between the Kyiv Metro and Fast Tram exist at many of the urban train's station stops.
Suburban 'Elektrichka' trains are serviced by the publicly owned Ukrainian Railways. The suburban train service is fast, and unbeatably safe in terms of traffic accidents. But the trains are not reliable, as they may fall significantly behind schedule, may not be safe in terms of crime, and the ''elektrichka'' cars are poorly maintained and are overcrowded in rush hours.
There are five ''elektrichka'' directions from Kyiv:
*Nizhyn (north-eastern)
*Hrebinka (south-eastern)
*Myronivka (southern)
*Fastiv (south-western)
*Korosten (western)
More than a dozen of ''elektrichka'' stops are located within the city allowing residents of different neighborhoods to use the suburban trains.
Twin towns – sister cities
Kyiv is Sister city, twinned with:
* Ankara, Turkey (1993)
* Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (2001)
* Astana, Kazakhstan (1998)
* Athens, Greece (1996)
* Baku, Azerbaijan (1997)
* Beijing, China (1993)
* Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (1997)
* Brasília, Brazil (2000)
* Bratislava, Slovakia (1969)
* Brussels, Belgium (1997)
* Buenos Aires, Argentina (2000)
* Chicago, United States (1991)
* Chișinău, Moldova (1993)
* Edinburgh, United Kingdom (1989)
* Florence, Italy (1967)
* Havana, Cuba (1994)
* Jakarta, Indonesia (2005)
* Kraków, Poland (1993)
* Kyoto, Japan (1971)
* Leipzig, Germany (1956)
* Lima, Peru (2005)
* Mexico City, Mexico (1997)
* Munich, Germany (1989)
* Odense Municipality, Odense, Denmark (1989)
* Osh Region, Kyrgyzstan (2002)
* Pretoria, South Africa (1993)
* Riga, Latvia (1998)
* Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2000)
* Santiago, Chile (1998)
* Sofia, Bulgaria (1997)
* Suzhou, China (2005)
* Tallinn, Estonia (1994)
* Tampere, Finland (1954)
* Tashkent, Uzbekistan (1998)
* Tbilisi, Georgia (1999)
* Toulouse, France (1975)
* Vilnius, Lithuania (1991)
* Warsaw, Poland (1994)
* Wuhan, China (1990)
Other cooperation agreements
* Belgrade, Serbia (2002)
* Helsinki, Finland
* Jerusalem, Israel (2000)
* Lisbon, Portugal
* Paris, France
* Rome, Italy
* Stockholm, Sweden
* Toronto, Canada (1991)
* Tripoli, Libya (2001)
* Vienna, Austria
* Yerevan, Armenia (1995)
Notable people
Arts, literature, and entertainment
* Leonid Bronevoy (1928–2017), Soviet and Russian actor
* Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940), Soviet writer, medical doctor and playwright
* Eugenia Chuprina (born 1971), poet, novelist, writer, playwright
* Daniel the Traveller, 12th-century travel writer from the Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
.
* Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967), Soviet writer, journalist, translator, and cultural figure
* André Grabar (1896–1990), historian of Romanesque art and the art of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Bulgarian Empire
* Dmytro Hnatyuk (1925–2016), Soviet and Ukrainian opera singer
* Milton Horn (1906–1995), Russian-American sculptor
* Vladimir Horowitz (1903–1989), American classical pianist
* Milla Jovovich (born 1975), American actress
* Sonya Koshkina (born 1985), Ukrainian journalist, editor-in-chief
* Kateryna Kukhar (born 1982), prima ballerina
* Ana Layevska, (born 1982), Ukrainian-Mexican actress
* Serge Lifar (1905–1986), French ballet dancer
* Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935), pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the avant-garde Suprematism, Suprematist movement
* Natalya Marchenkova (born 1948), animator and animation director, born in Kyiv.
* Natalia Matsak (born 1982), ballet dancer
* Galyna Moskvitina (born 1963), painter
* Ivan Putrov (born 1980), dancer, former Principal with The Royal Ballet in London
* Natalya Semenchenko (born 1976), professor, writer, and publicist
* Lev Shestov (1866–1938), Russian Existentialism, existentialist philosopher
* Oksana Shvets (1955–2022), Ukrainian actress
* Alexander Vertinsky (1889—1957), singer, composer, poet, cabaret artist, and actor
* Ludmila Anatolievna Yaroshevskaya (1906–1975), composer
* Artemy Vedel (1767–1808), composer
Science and technology
* Nikolai Amosov (1913–2002), Soviet and Ukrainian heart surgeon and inventor
* Davidoff#Name, Zino Davidoff (1906–1994), Swiss premium tobacco manufacturer; known as ''"King of Cigars"''
* Jan Koum (born 1976), American computer programmer, CEO, and co-founder of WhatsApp
* Viktor Kaspruk, (born 1955), political scientist
* Alexander Ostrowski (1893–1986), mathematician
* Borys Paton (1918–2020), scientist, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
* Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972), Russian-American aviation pioneer
Politics
* Golda Meir (1898–1978), Israeli politician, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel
Religion
* Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948), Russian Orthodox religious and political philosopher
* Jonathan Markovitch (born 1967), Chief Rabbi of Kyiv
* Petro Mohyla (1596–1647), Metropolitan bishop of Kyiv from 1633
* Mikhail Morgulis (1941–2021), Russian-language writer, editor, and theologian
* Moses of Kiev, 12th century Talmudist
* Theophan Prokopovich (1681–1736), theologian, poet, mathematician, and philosopher
Military conflicts
* Eugeniusz Horbaczewski (1917–1944), Polish fighter pilot
* Yuliia Paievska, Yuliia "Taira" Paievska (born 1968), founder of "Taira's Angels"
Sport
* Oleg Blokhin (born 1952), Ukrainian football player
* Valeriy Lobanovskyi (1939–2002), Soviet and Ukrainian football coach
* Andriy Shevchenko (born 1976), Ukrainian footballer
* Oleg Ladik (born 1971), Ukrainian-born Canadian Olympic wrestler
Other
* Oleg of Novgorod
Oleg ( orv, Ѡлегъ, Ольгъ; non, Helgi; died 912), also known as Oleg the Wise (russian: Олег Вещий, lit=Oleg the Prophet; uk, Олег Віщий), was a Varangian prince of the Rus' who was ruler of Novgorod. He later con ...
(), Rurik dynasty, Rurikid prince who ruled 882–912
* Olga of Kiev (), a regent of Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
for her son Sviatoslav I, Sviatoslav from 945 until 960
* Nicholas Pritzker, scion of the Pritzker Family
* Vladimir the Great (), Grand Prince of Kiev & ruler of Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
from 980 to 1015.
Honour
* Kyiv Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica is named after the city of Kyiv.Kyiv Peninsula.
SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica.
See also
* List of national landmarks of cultural heritage in Kyiv
* List of crossings of the Dnieper River
* List of universities, colleges, and research institutions in Kyiv
* Outline of Ukraine
* Yehupetz
References
Further reading
* Julius Brutzkus, Brutzkus, J. "The Khazar Origin of Ancient Kiev". Slavonic and East European Review. American Series, vol. 3, no. 1, 1944, pp. 108–124
JSTOR
Accessed 16 June 2020.
*
*
External links
Київська міська державна адміністрація
– official web portal of the Kyiv City State Administration
*
Kyiv—Official Tourist Guide
{{Authority control
Kyiv,
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Populated places on the Dnieper in Ukraine
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