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

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

(

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

) of western Ukraine 65 km to the south of

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

(in the foothills of the

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

). It serves as the

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

Stryi Raion Stryi Raion ( uk, Стрийський район) is a raion in Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Stryi. Population: . On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Lviv Obl ...

(

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

). Stryi hosts the administration of

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

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

Population

Name

The city takes its name from the name of the river Stryi, one of the tributaries of the

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

. Stryi, as a name of river is a very old name and means "stream". Its etymology stems from an Indo-European root *sreu. Words that have the same root can be found in modern Ukrainian - струм, струя, Polish - ''struga'', ''strumień'', Irish (Celtic) - ''sruami'', German - ''Strom'' (large river), Persian - ''struth'' (river), Sanskrit - ''sravati'' (to flow), Latvian - ''straume'', Lithuanian - ''sriatas'', ''strautas'' (stream, the thing that flows) and several other languages. The word has a possible relation to the word "Styr", which means "big" in Ossetian, as there is also other

Styr River The Styr (; ; ) is a right tributary of the Pripyat, with a length of 494 km. Its basin area is 13,100 km2 located in historical region of Volhynia. The Styr begins near Brody, in the Ukrainian Oblast of Lviv, then flows into Rivne Ob ...

in Ukraine. The area was inhabited by the

White Croats White Croats ( hr, Bijeli Hrvati; pl, Biali Chorwaci; cz, Bílí Chorvati; uk, Білі хорвати, Bili khorvaty), or simply known as Croats, were a group of Early Slavic tribes who lived among other West and East Slavic tribes in the ar ...

and it has been established that name Horvat (Croat) is likewise of Iranian (Sarmatian) origin. In different times the name was written differently, and in various old documents we can find such names: Stryg, Stry, Stryj, Stryjn, Stryjia, Strig, Strigenses, Stryi, Strey, Striig, Strya, Sthryensis, Sthrya, Stryei, and Stri. The inhabitants take pride in the fact that the city has managed to keep its original name over time.

History

Stryi was mentioned for the first time in 1385 (see:

Red Ruthenia Red Ruthenia or Red Rus' ( la, Ruthenia Rubra; '; uk, Червона Русь, Chervona Rus'; pl, Ruś Czerwona, Ruś Halicka; russian: Червонная Русь, Chervonnaya Rus'; ro, Rutenia Roșie), is a term used since the Middle Ages fo ...

). Already then its territory was incorporated in the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...

after the decline of Ruthenian Kingdom. In 1387 the Polish king Jogaila gave the city as the present to his pro-Tsarist brother

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

. In 1431 it was given the

Magdeburg Rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...

, and it was located in the

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

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

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

headed by a

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

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

Halych Halych ( uk, Га́лич ; ro, Halici; pl, Halicz; russian: Га́лич, Galich; german: Halytsch, ''Halitsch'' or ''Galitsch''; yi, העליטש) is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The city gave its name to the P ...

and

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

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

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

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

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

. After the partition of the

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

in 1772 the city became a part of the

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

(see:

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

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

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

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

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

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

, around the peak of Zwinin (992 metres

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

), a few kilometres south of Stryi in which some 33,000 Russian soldiers perished. On November 1, 1918, an armed uprising took place in the city, after which it became a part of the

West Ukrainian People's Republic The West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) or West Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR), known for part of its existence as the Western Oblast of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was a short-lived polity that controlled most of Eastern Gali ...

. Stryi was passed to Poland in May 1919, and became part of Poland first by the Warsaw treaty of 1920 and then the

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

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

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

. (see:

Polish September Campaign 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 af ...

). In interbellum Poland, it was the capital of the Stryj County (area , pop. 152,600) of the

Stanisławów Voivodeship Stanisławów Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo stanisławowskie) was an administrative district of the interwar Poland (1920–1939). It was established in December 1920 with an administrative center in Stanisławów. The voivodeship had an area o ...

. According to the

Polish census of 1931 The Polish census of 1931 or Second General Census in Poland ( pl, Drugi Powszechny Spis Ludności) was the second census taken in sovereign Poland during the interwar period, performed on December 9, 1931 by the Main Bureau of Statistics. It e ...

, its population consisted of 35.6% Jews, 34.5% Poles, 28% Ukrainians and 1.6% Germans. In July 1941 the Nazis conquered Stryi. In a short time, Ukrainians and local Poles conducted a pogrom in the Jews of the settlement, killing about 300 people. Between then and August, 1943, the Nazis, with the assistance of the Ukrainian police, murdered most of the town's 11,000 Jews in a nearby forest or rounded them up to be sent to

Belzec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution" which in total ...

. Of a prewar population of 11,000, only a few Jews survived. During the

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

the town was home to Stryy air base.

Recent history

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

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

-era statue to the

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

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

Notable people

Notable people born in Stryi include the following: *

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

(born 1990), Ukrainian chess player *

Mariya Muzychuk Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk ( uk, Марі́я Оле́гівна Музичу́к; born 21 September 1992) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster and Women's World Chess Champion from April 2015 to March 2016. She is also a twice women's champion of Uk ...

(born 1992), Ukrainian chess player * Sviatoslav Shevchuk (born 1970), Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church * Vitaliy Antonov (born 1962), Ukrainian businessman *

Louis Begley Louis Begley (born Ludwik Begleiter; October 6, 1933) is a Polish-born Jewish American novelist. He is best known for writing the semi-autobiographical Holocaust novel ''Wartime Lies'' (1991) and the ''Schmidt'' trilogy: ''About Schmidt'' (1996 ...

(born 1933), Polish-American novelist * Solomon J. Buchsbaum (1929–1993), Polish-American physicist * Włodzimierz Godłowski (1900–1940), Polish neurologist * Benedykt Halicz (1903–1997), Polish biologist *

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

(born 1990), Ukrainian footballer *

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

(born n.1700-1775), orth. bishop of Vjatka and Velikoperm, Russia * Julia Keilowa (1902–1943), Polish designer *

Michael Kmit Michael Kmit ( uk, Михайло Кміт) (25 July 1910 in Stryi, Lviv – 22 May 1981 in Sydney, Australia) was a Ukrainian painter who spent twenty-five years in Australia. He is notable for introducing a neo-Byzantine style of painting ...

(1910–1981), Australian painter * Jan Kociniak (1937–2007), Polish actor * Józef Koffler (1896–1941), Polish composer *

Józef Kustroń Józef Rudolf Kustroń (16 October 1892 in Stryj – 16 September 1939 in the village of Ulazow, during the Polish September Campaign) was a brigadier general of the Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic, commandant of the 21st Mountain Inf ...

(1892–1939), general of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

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

(1884–1953), Polish writer *

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

(1929–2014), Prime Minister of Poland 1985–88 * Kazimierz Nowak (1897–1937), Polish traveller * Taras Petrivskyi (born 1984), Ukrainian footballer *

Pola Stout Josefine Pola Stout (née Weinbach, January 8, 1902 – October 12, 1984) was an American designer best known for creating fine woolen fabrics. Born in Stryj, she studied with Josef Hoffmann at the Kunstgewerbe Schule in Vienna, and designed fo ...

(1902–1984), American interior and textile designer * Julian Stryjkowski (1905–1996), Polish writer *

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

(1910–1951), commandant of the

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

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

(born 1958), Ukrainian admiral *

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

(born 1979), Ukrainian footballer *

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

(1894–1969), Polish writer, poet *

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

(1900–1955), Polish historian

Twin towns – sister cities

Stryi is twinned with: *

Bălți Bălți (; russian: Бельцы, , uk, Бєльці, , yi, בעלץ ) is a city in Moldova. It is the second largest city in terms of population, area and economic importance, after Chișinău. The city is one of the five Moldovan municipalit ...

, Moldova (1980) * Düren, Germany (2001) *

Gradačac Gradačac ( sr-cyrl, Градачац, ) is a city located in the Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the northeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, roughly south of ...

, Bosnia and Herzegovina *

Lwówek Śląski County Lwówek (german: Neustadt bei Pinne or ''Kirschneustadt'' from 1943-1945) is a town in Nowy Tomyśl County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided i ...

, Poland (2005) * Mansfield, England, United Kingdom *

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

, Poland *

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

, Canada (2009) *

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

, Poland (2004)

Other forms of cooperation

* Daugavpils, Latvia *

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

, Hungary *

Les Herbiers Les Herbiers () is a commune in the Vendée department in the Pays de la Loire region, western France. Population Sport Les Herbiers is host to the Chrono des Nations, an annual one-day individual time trial bicycle race, held in October. Le ...

, France *

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

, Poland

References

;Notes

External links

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

Stryj
(Stryi) in the

Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland 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 ( p ...

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