Kyiv

Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. 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. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions, and historical landmarks. The city has an extensive system of public transport and infrastructure, including the Kyiv Metro.

The city's name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, 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 and Constantinople, Kyiv was a tributary of the Khazars, until its capture by the Varangians (Vikings) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state. Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasions 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, then Poland and ultimately Russia.

The city prospered again during the Russian Empire's Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. In 1918, after the Ukrainian People's Republic declared independence from Russian Republic, Kyiv became its capital. From 1921 onwards, Kyiv was a city of Soviet Ukraine, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, and, from 1934, Kyiv was its capital. The city suffered significant destruction during World War II but quickly recovered in the postwar years, remaining the Soviet Union's third-largest city.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991, Kyiv remained Ukraine's capital and experienced a steady influx of ethnic Ukrainian migrants from other regions of the country. During the country's transformation to a market economy and electoral democracy, 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 facilitated Kyiv's growth in salaries and investment, as well as providing continuous funding for the development of housing and urban infrastructure. Kyiv emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine; parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections.

Name

* 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. The Old Ukrainian spelling from the 14th and 15th centuries was nominally , but various attested spellings include ( gen.), , and ( acc.), кїєво or кїєвом ( ins.), києвє, Кіеве, Кїєвѣ, Києвѣ, or Киѣве ( loc.).

The name descends from Old East Slavic (). Old East Slavic chronicles, such as Laurentian Codex and Novgorod Chronicle, used the spellings Києвъ, Къıєвъ, or Кїєвъ. This is most likely derived from the Proto-Slavic name ''*Kyjevŭ gordŭ'' (literally, "Kyi's castle", "Kyi's gord"), and is associated with Kyi ( uk, Кий, russian: Кий), the legendary eponymous founder of the city. However, Кий derives from Proto-Slavic *kyjь, (''hammer, club''), which derives from Proto-Indo-European *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 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, written CE by representatives of the city's Jewish community, with the name written as .

The historian Julius Brutzkus 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 (High City), which is located nearby.

In the Byzantine Greek of Constantine Porphyrogenitus's 10th-century '' De Administrando Imperio'' it was , , and "also called Sambatas", . In Arabic, it was in Al-Istakhri's work of 951 AD, and according to ibn Rustah and other 10th-century authors. In the medieval Latin of Thietmar of Merseburg'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 (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'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'' 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, 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 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 International Air Transport Association, the European Union, English-speaking foreign diplomatic missions 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, 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'' and ''Mumbai''.

Alternative romanizations used in English-language sources include ''Kyïv'' (according to the ALA–LC romanization used in bibliographic cataloguing), ''Kyjiv'' ( scholarly transliteration used in linguistics), and ''Kyyiv'' (the 1965 BGN/PCGN transliteration standard).

The US media organization NPR 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 ( Stone Age).Kyiv
at Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia The population around Kyiv during the Bronze Age formed part of the so-called Trypillian culture, as evidenced by artifacts from that culture found in the area. During the early Iron Age certain tribes settled around Kyiv that practiced land cultivation, husbandry and trading with the Scythians 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 people of the Zarubintsy culture are considered the direct ancestors of the ancient Slavs who later established Kyiv. Notable archaeologists of the area around Kyiv include Vikentiy Khvoyka.

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''). Another legend states that Saint Andrew 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 an image of Saint Michael has represented the city as well as the duchy.

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 there are several settlements indicated along the mid-stream of Borysthenes, 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, that settlement corresponds to the modern city of Chernobyl. 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 ''Primary Chronicle'' says the residents of Kyiv told Askold "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 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, and an author of the Hudud al-'Alam. The texts of those authors were discovered by Russian orientalist Alexander Tumansky. The etymology of Sambat has been argued by many historians, including Grigoriy Ilyinsky, Nikolay Karamzin, Jan Potocki, Nikolay Lambin, Joachim Lelewel, and Guðbrandur Vigfússon.

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 in 882, but some historians, such as Omeljan Pritsak and Constantine Zuckerman, dispute that, arguing that Khazar rule continued as late as the 920s (among notable historical documents are the Kyivan Letter and Schechter Letter).

Other historians suggest that Magyar tribes ruled the city between 840 and 878, before migrating with some Khazar tribes to the Carpathian Basin. 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.

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. 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 attacked and then besieged the city. By 1000 CE the city had a population of 45,000.

In March 1169, Grand Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal 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'' icon - from Vyshhorod. In 1203, Prince Rurik Rostislavich 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', led by Batu 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 defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kyiv at the Battle on the Irpen' River and conquered the city. The Tatars