Rudky ( uk, Ру́дки, pl, Rudki) is a city in Sambir Raion,

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

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 hosts the administration of Rudky urban hromada, one of the

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

s of Ukraine. The population was 4,942 at the

2001 Ukrainian census The Ukrainian Census of 2001 is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989.

. Current population: .

Geography

Rudky is located along the Highway Ukraine () –

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

–

Sambir Sambir ( uk, Самбір, pl, Sambor, yi, סאמבאָר, Sambor) is a city in Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Sambir Raion (district) and is located close to the border with Poland. Sambir hosts t ...

– Uzhhorod at a distance from the regional center

, from the district center

, and from Uzhhorod.
This is placed on the main European watershed, above the river Vyshnya (right tributary of the river San).

History

Rudky Holocaust memorial, Holon cemetery, Israel

The town is the resting place of the Polish poet Aleksander Fredro, who was buried in a local Roman Catholic church in 1876. Rudky is on the Vishnya river and is the home of the Vyshnia College of the Lviv National Agricultural University. Rudky Arboretum is on the southern edge of the town. Rudky, which for centuries belonged to the Kingdom of Poland, and was known as Rudki, was founded in the late 14th century, after Red Ruthenia was annexed by Poland. Its Roman Catholic parish was created in the early 15th century, and during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, the church was in 1550 turned into a Calvinist prayer house. In 1655, construction of a new church was initiated by the owner of the town, Andrzej Stano ( Gozdawa coat of arms). Soon afterwards, the

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

brought widespread destruction to Rudki and its area, and the church was not completed until 1728. In 1742, Rudki was purchased by the Fredro family ( Boncza coat of arms). Until the

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

) Rudki belonged to

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

. In 1772, it was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, as part of Austrian Galicia. After the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, Count Aleksander Fredro settled here. In 1880, the population of the town was 2582, with 1352 Jews and 945 Poles. In 1891, Polish scientist Mieczyslawa Ruxerowna was born here. In 1918, Rudki returned to Poland. In the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

, it was the seat of a county in Lwow Voivodeship, and until 1939, belonged to the Fredro family. At that time, the town had the population of 3,500, divided into Jewish, Polish and Ukrainian communities. Following the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

. Rudki was occupied by 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 ...

, and its name was changed to Rudky. In June 1941, the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

murdered approximately 200 prisoners here (see

NKVD prisoner massacres The NKVD prisoner massacres were a series of mass executions of political prisoners carried out by the NKVD, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, across Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, a ...

). On June 27, 1941, the Germans occupied Rudki. In July, the

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the im ...

murdered 39 leaders of the Jewish community in the Berezina forest. On April 9, 1943, during the liquidation of the ghetto, Ukrainian policemen assisted German police and SD in executing about 1,700 Jews near the Brzezina forest and deporting about 300 Jews to the Janowska camp in Lviv.

Cult constructions and religion

In the city various religions and cultures have co-existed. However, almost the entire Jewish community of around two thousand were murdered here during World War II with the help of some of the local population. A few other local farmers rescued and hid a few Jews at the risk of their own lives. The few survivors did not return to the community. At present there are

Greek Catholic The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...

, the

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

and the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

parishes. The city has a Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Church of the Holy Eucharist and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC Church for the Christians.
Architectural monument of Sambir Raion is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC Church (1407/ 1).

Alexander Fredro Aleksander Fredro (20 June 1793 – 15 July 1876) was a Polish poet, playwright and author active during Polish Romanticism in the period of partitions by neighboring empires. His works including plays written in the octosyllabic verse (''Zemsta' ...

was buried in the family grave in the Catholic Church of the Assumption of city Rudky. Aleksander Fredro – biografia

Gallery

File:Church of the Holy Eucharist. Rudky.JPG, Church of the Holy Eucharist File:Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC Church. Rudky.JPG, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary RC Church File:Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Rudky.JPG, Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. File:Memorial plaque to Alexander Fredro in Rudky.jpg, Memorial plaque to Alexander Fredro (1793-1876) at the Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption in the Rudky.

References

External links

city Rudky

weather.in.ua/Rudky

Rudky town: street map, photos

Україна Інкогніта, Рудки
{{Authority control Cities in Lviv Oblast Lwów Voivodeship Cities of district significance in Ukraine Holocaust locations in Ukraine