Zhytomyr
Encyclopedia
Zhytomyr is a city
in the North of the western half of Ukraine
. It is the administrative center
of the Zhytomyr Oblast
(province
), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion
(district
). Note that the city of Zhytomyr is not a part of the Zhytomyr raion: the city itself is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast; moreover Zhytomyr consists of two so-called "raions in a city": the Bohunskyi raion and the Koroliovskyi raion (named in honour of Sergey Korolyov
). Zhytomyr is located at around 50°16′N 28°40′E, occupying an area of 65 km² (25.1 sq mi).
The current estimated population is 277,900 (as of 2005).
Zhytomyr is a major transportation hub. The city lies on a historic route linking the city of Kiev
with the west through Brest
. Today it links Warsaw
with Kiev, Minsk
with Izmail
, and several major cities of Ukraine. Zhytomyr was also the location of Ozerne
, a key Cold War
strategic aircraft base located 11 km (6.8 mi) southeast of the city.
Important economic activities of Zhytomyr include lumber milling, food processing, granite quarrying, metalworking, and the manufacture of musical instruments.
Zhytomyr Oblast is the main center of the Polish minority in Ukraine
, and in the city itself there is a large Roman-Catholic Polish cemetery, founded in 1800. It is regarded as the third biggest Polish cemetery beyond borders of Poland, behind the Lychakivskiy Cemetery
in Lviv
and Rossa Cemetery in Vilnius
.
s through which flow the Teteriv
, Kamianka, Kroshenka and Putiatynka river
s. The Teteriv river generally forms the southern boundary of Zhytomyr, though there are also some small areas of Zhytomyr city territory below the southern bank of the river. The city is rich in parks and public square
s.
Zhytomyr is set out on a mostly radial type of street
net with the centre at the main public square of the city, named Maidan Sobornyi (or Sobornyi Square, which means Cathedral Square). A building containing court
s and some other institutions is located in the west of the square. Before 1991, this building contained Zhytomyr Oblast Committee of the Communist Party. Just behind the building (that is to the west of Sobornyi Square) a small park is located, containing a monument with an inscription stating that this is a place where Zhytomyr was founded. This historical centre of Zhytomyr is located in the southern part of the city. The main streets connecting Sobornyi Maidan with the outskirts of Zhytomyr are Kyivska Street or Kiev
Street (going to northeast, to the train station
and also to the main bus station
of the city), Velyka Berdychivska Street (going to southeast
), Czerniachowski Street (going southwest, to beach
es and a forest-type park near the river of Teteriv), and Peremohy Street (going north).
The best-known street in the central part of Zhytomyr is Mykhailivska (named after St. Michael's Church located at the northern end of the street). The street is located about 500 metre
s to the east of Sobornyi Maidan and runs approximately from north to south, connecting some points at the above-mentioned Kyivska Street and Velyka Berdychivska. Mykhailivska Street is for pedestrian
traffic: vehicle
s are forbidden, with the exception of some slow-moving ones. The building of the Zhytomyr City Council is located at the southern end of Mykhailivska Street. If one crosses Velyka Berdychivska Street from the southern end of Mykhailivska Street, then one finds oneself at Korolyov
Square containing the building of the Zhytomyr Oblast Council. Crossing Kyivska Street from the northern end of Mykhailivska Street, one can continue to go along Shchors Street, another important long street of Zhytomyr (going north).
The best-known park of Zhytomyr is named after Yuri Gagarin
, located in the south of the city, at the left (northern) bank of the Teteriv river. It was formerly owned by the Baron
de Chaudoir.
shuttling within Zhytomyr are trolleybus
es, bus
es, and minibus
es. There are also electric tram
s, but on one route only. Earlier there were several tram routes in Zhytomyr, but all excepting one were canceled during a period of domination of the opinion that a tram is a bad kind of transport
.
Trams began to shuttle in Zhytomyr in 1899. Thus Zhytomyr became the 5th city with electric trams within the territory of present-day Ukraine
. Trolleybuses appear in Zhytomyr in 1962.
Since 17 March 2011 trolleybus/tram fare
in Zhytomyr is 1.5 hryvnias
for one passenger
(for any distance
).
. The first records of the town date from 1240, when it was sacked by the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan
.
In 1320 Zhytomyr was captured by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
and received Magdeburg rights
in 1444. After the Union of Lublin
(1569) the city was incorporated into the Crown of the Polish Kingdom
and in 1667, following the Treaty of Andrusovo
, it became the capital of the Kiev Voivodeship. In the Second Partition of Poland
in 1793 it passed to Imperial Russia and became the capital of the government of Volhynia
. During a brief period of Ukrainian independence the city was for a few weeks in 1918 the national capital. From 1920 the city was under Soviet rule.
During World War II
Zhytomyr and the surrounding territory came for three years under Nazi German
occupation and was Heinrich Himmler
's Ukrainian headquarters. The Nazi regime in what they called the "Zhytomyr General District" became what Wendy Lower describes as "a laboratory for… Himmler's resettlement activists… the elimination of the Jews and German colonization of the East—transformed the landscape and devastated the population to an extent that was not experienced in other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe besides Poland. [While]… [u]ltimately, the exigencies of the war effort and mounting partisan warfare behind the lines prevented Nazi leaders from fully developing and realizing their colonial aims in Ukraine… In addition to the immediate destruction of all Jewish communities, Himmler insisted that the Ukrainian civilian population be brought to a 'minimum.'"
From 1991, the city has been part of the independent Ukraine.
(1648), but by the time it became part of Russia
in 1778, it had a large Jewish community, and was a center of the Hasidic
movement. Jews formed nearly one-third of the 1861 population (13,299 in 40,564); thirty years later, they had somewhat outpaced the general growth of the city, with 24,062 Jews in a total population of 69,785. By 1891 there were three large synagogue
s and 46 smaller batte midrash
. The proportion of Jews was much lower in the surrounding district of Zhytomyr than in the city itself; at the turn of the century (circa 1900) there were 22,636 Jews in a total population of 281,378.
In Imperial Russia, Zhytomyr held the same status as the official Jewish center of southern part of the Pale of Settlement
as Vilnius
held in the north. The printing of Hebrew
books was permitted only in these two cities during the monopoly of Hebrew printing from 1845 to 1862, and both were chosen as the seats of the two rabbi
nical schools which were established by the government in 1848 in pursuance of its plans to force secular education on the Jews of Russia
in accordance with the program of the Teutonized Russian Haskalah
movement. The rabbinical school of Zhytomyr was considered the more Jewish, or rather the less Russianized, of the two (Ha-Meliẓ
, 1868, No. 40, cited in Jewish Encyclopedia). Its first head master was Jacob Eichenbaum, who was succeeded by Hayyim Selig Slonimski
in 1862. The latter remained at the head of the school until it was closed (together with the one at Vilnius) in 1873 because of its failure to provide rabbis with a secular education who should be acceptable to the Jewish communities. Suchastover, Gottlober, Lerner
, and Zweifel were among the best-known teachers of the rabbinical school at Zhytomyr, while Abraham Goldfaden
, Salomon Mandelkern
, and Abraham Jacob Paperna
were among the students who later became famous in the Jewish world.
The teachers' institutes which were substituted for the rabbinical schools were, in the words of the Jewish Encyclopedia "scarcely more satisfactory" (The JE refers to the teachers' institute at Zhytomyr as "probably the worst-managed Jewish institution in Russia of which there is any record", citing Prelooker, Under the Czar and Queen Victoria, pp. 8–21, London
, 1895). It was closed in 1885, succeeded by a Talmud Torah
, a "government school" for boys, a girls' school, and several private schools for both sexes that the JE describes as "admirable", with comparable praise for other Jewish institutions of Zhytomyr circa 1900.
While "never a center of rabbinical learning" (JE) Zhytomyr boasted a few rabbis of some note: Rabbi Wolf (died 1800), author of the Or ha-Meïr (Koretz, 1795), a pupil of Bär of Meseritz and one of the leaders of early Hasidism, and Abraham Bär Mavruch, rosh bet din or acting rabbi of Zhytomyr in the first half of the nineteenth century and author of the Bat 'Ayin (Zhytomyr, 1850).
The Jewish community of Zhytomyr suffered pogrom
s: 1) on May 7–8, 1905, when the section of the city known as "Podol" was devastated, 20 were killed within the city, 10 young Jewish neighbors were killed when they came to defend, and the Christian
student Nicholas Blinov, also attempting to defend, likewise lost his life; on January 7–10, 1919; 3) and beginning on March 22, 1919, when, according to witnesses, the 317 deaths were a lesser number, due to both Christian sheltering efforts and the return of the Bolshevik
troops within a few days.
The Jewish community of the region was largely destroyed in the Holocaust
. In the four months beginning with Himmler's 25 July 1942 orders, "all of Ukraine's shtetl
s and ghettos lay in ruins; tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children were brutally murdered by stationary and mobile SS
-police units and indigenous auxiliaries."
Today, the Zhytomyr Jewish community numbers about 5000. The community is a part of the "Union of Jewish Communities in Ukraine" and the city and district's rabbinate Rabbi Shlomo Vilhelm serves as rabbi, who came to the city as a Chabad emissary in 1994. Other Jewish institutions are also active in the city, such as the Joint
and its humanitarian branch "Chesed" and the Jewish Agency.
The community has an ancient synagogue
in the city center which has a mikveh. Chabad
operates in the city various educational institutions which have residence in a village next to the city.
.
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in the North of the western half of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. It is the administrative center
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of the Zhytomyr Oblast
Zhytomyr Oblast
Zhytomyr Oblast is an oblast of northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Zhytomyr.-History:The oblast was created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on September 22, 1937....
(province
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion
Zhytomyr Raion
Zhytomyr Raion is a raion of Zhytomyr Oblast, northern Ukraine. Its administrative centre is located at Zhytomyr. The raion covers an area of 1441 square kilometres and as of 2011 it had a population of 69,819 people....
(district
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
). Note that the city of Zhytomyr is not a part of the Zhytomyr raion: the city itself is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast; moreover Zhytomyr consists of two so-called "raions in a city": the Bohunskyi raion and the Koroliovskyi raion (named in honour of Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev ; died 14 January 1966 in Moscow, Russia) was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s...
). Zhytomyr is located at around 50°16′N 28°40′E, occupying an area of 65 km² (25.1 sq mi).
The current estimated population is 277,900 (as of 2005).
Zhytomyr is a major transportation hub. The city lies on a historic route linking the city of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
with the west through Brest
Brest, Belarus
Brest , formerly also Brest-on-the-Bug and Brest-Litovsk , is a city in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the city of Terespol, where the Bug River and Mukhavets rivers meet...
. Today it links Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
with Kiev, Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
with Izmail
Izmail
Izmail is a historic town near the Danube river in the Odessa Oblast of south-western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Izmail Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast....
, and several major cities of Ukraine. Zhytomyr was also the location of Ozerne
Ozerne
Ozerne may refer to:*Ozerne , a town in Zhytomyr Oblast of Ukraine*Ozerne , a village in Odessa Oblast of Ukraine*Ozerne , a village in the territory of the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine...
, a key Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
strategic aircraft base located 11 km (6.8 mi) southeast of the city.
Important economic activities of Zhytomyr include lumber milling, food processing, granite quarrying, metalworking, and the manufacture of musical instruments.
Zhytomyr Oblast is the main center of the Polish minority in Ukraine
Polish minority in Ukraine
The Polish minority in Ukraine officially numbers about 144,130 , of whom 21,094 speak Polish as their first language. The history of Polish settlement in current territory of Ukraine dates back to 1030–31...
, and in the city itself there is a large Roman-Catholic Polish cemetery, founded in 1800. It is regarded as the third biggest Polish cemetery beyond borders of Poland, behind the Lychakivskiy Cemetery
Lychakivskiy Cemetery
-History:Since its creation in 1787 as Łyczakowski Cemetery, it has been the main necropolis of the city's inteligentsia, middle and upper classes. Initially the cemetery was located on several hills in the borough of Lychakiv, following the imperial Austro-Hungarian edict ordering that all...
in Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
and Rossa Cemetery in Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
.
Geography
Zhytomyr lies in a unique natural setting; all sides of the city are surrounded by ancient forestForest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s through which flow the Teteriv
Teteriv River
The Teteriv River is a right tributary of the Dnieper River in Ukraine. It has a length of 365 km and a drainage basin of 15,100 km²....
, Kamianka, Kroshenka and Putiatynka river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s. The Teteriv river generally forms the southern boundary of Zhytomyr, though there are also some small areas of Zhytomyr city territory below the southern bank of the river. The city is rich in parks and public square
Public Square
Public Square is the central plaza in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It takes up four city blocks; Superior Avenue and Ontario Street cross through it. Cleveland's three tallest buildings, Key Tower, 200 Public Square and the Terminal Tower, face the square...
s.
Zhytomyr is set out on a mostly radial type of street
Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
net with the centre at the main public square of the city, named Maidan Sobornyi (or Sobornyi Square, which means Cathedral Square). A building containing court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
s and some other institutions is located in the west of the square. Before 1991, this building contained Zhytomyr Oblast Committee of the Communist Party. Just behind the building (that is to the west of Sobornyi Square) a small park is located, containing a monument with an inscription stating that this is a place where Zhytomyr was founded. This historical centre of Zhytomyr is located in the southern part of the city. The main streets connecting Sobornyi Maidan with the outskirts of Zhytomyr are Kyivska Street or Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
Street (going to northeast, to the train station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
and also to the main bus station
Bus station
A bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...
of the city), Velyka Berdychivska Street (going to southeast
Cardinal direction
The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate...
), Czerniachowski Street (going southwest, to beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
es and a forest-type park near the river of Teteriv), and Peremohy Street (going north).
The best-known street in the central part of Zhytomyr is Mykhailivska (named after St. Michael's Church located at the northern end of the street). The street is located about 500 metre
Metre
The metre , symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units . Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole , its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology...
s to the east of Sobornyi Maidan and runs approximately from north to south, connecting some points at the above-mentioned Kyivska Street and Velyka Berdychivska. Mykhailivska Street is for pedestrian
Pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...
traffic: vehicle
Vehicle
A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....
s are forbidden, with the exception of some slow-moving ones. The building of the Zhytomyr City Council is located at the southern end of Mykhailivska Street. If one crosses Velyka Berdychivska Street from the southern end of Mykhailivska Street, then one finds oneself at Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev ; died 14 January 1966 in Moscow, Russia) was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s...
Square containing the building of the Zhytomyr Oblast Council. Crossing Kyivska Street from the northern end of Mykhailivska Street, one can continue to go along Shchors Street, another important long street of Zhytomyr (going north).
The best-known park of Zhytomyr is named after Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
, located in the south of the city, at the left (northern) bank of the Teteriv river. It was formerly owned by the Baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
de Chaudoir.
Public city transport
Common kinds of public transportPublic transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
shuttling within Zhytomyr are trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es, bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es, and minibus
Minibus
A minibus or minicoach is a passenger carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is used to describe any full-sized passenger carrying van. Minibuses have a...
es. There are also electric tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s, but on one route only. Earlier there were several tram routes in Zhytomyr, but all excepting one were canceled during a period of domination of the opinion that a tram is a bad kind of transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...
.
Trams began to shuttle in Zhytomyr in 1899. Thus Zhytomyr became the 5th city with electric trams within the territory of present-day Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. Trolleybuses appear in Zhytomyr in 1962.
Since 17 March 2011 trolleybus/tram fare
Fare
A fare is the fee paid by a passenger allowing him or her to make use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used.-Uses:...
in Zhytomyr is 1.5 hryvnias
Ukrainian hryvnia
The hryvnia, sometimes hryvnya or grivna ; sign: ₴, code: , has been the national currency of Ukraine since September 2, 1996. The hryvnia is subdivided into 100 kopiyok. In medieval times, it was a currency of Kievan Rus'....
for one passenger
Passenger
A passenger is a term broadly used to describe any person who travels in a vehicle, but bears little or no responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination....
(for any distance
Distance
Distance is a numerical description of how far apart objects are. In physics or everyday discussion, distance may refer to a physical length, or an estimation based on other criteria . In mathematics, a distance function or metric is a generalization of the concept of physical distance...
).
History
Legend holds that Zhytomyr was established about 884 by Zhytomyr, prince of a Slavic tribe of Drevlians. This date, 884, is cut in the large stone of the ice age times, standing on the hill where Zhytomyr was founded. Zhytomyr was one of the prominent cities of Kievan Rus'Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
. The first records of the town date from 1240, when it was sacked by the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan
Batu Khan
Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi , the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde , which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies...
.
In 1320 Zhytomyr was captured by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
and received Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg Rights or Magdeburg Law were a set of German town laws regulating the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages granted by a local ruler. Modelled and named after the laws of the German city of Magdeburg and developed during many centuries of the Holy Roman Empire, it was...
in 1444. After the Union of Lublin
Union of Lublin
The Union of Lublin replaced the personal union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a real union and an elective monarchy, since Sigismund II Augustus, the last of the Jagiellons, remained childless after three marriages. In addition, the autonomy of Royal Prussia was...
(1569) the city was incorporated into the Crown of the Polish Kingdom
Crown of the Polish Kingdom
The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland , or simply the Crown , is the name for the unit of administrative division, the territories under direct administration of Polish nobility from middle-ages to late 18th century...
and in 1667, following the Treaty of Andrusovo
Treaty of Andrusovo
The Truce of Andrusovo was a thirteen and a half year truce, signed in 1667 between Tsardom of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were at war since 1654 over the territories of modern-day Ukraine and Belarus....
, it became the capital of the Kiev Voivodeship. In the Second Partition of Poland
Second Partition of Poland
The 1793 Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the second of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the War in Defense of the Constitution and the Targowica Confederation of 1792...
in 1793 it passed to Imperial Russia and became the capital of the government of Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
. During a brief period of Ukrainian independence the city was for a few weeks in 1918 the national capital. From 1920 the city was under Soviet rule.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Zhytomyr and the surrounding territory came for three years under Nazi German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
occupation and was Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
's Ukrainian headquarters. The Nazi regime in what they called the "Zhytomyr General District" became what Wendy Lower describes as "a laboratory for… Himmler's resettlement activists… the elimination of the Jews and German colonization of the East—transformed the landscape and devastated the population to an extent that was not experienced in other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe besides Poland. [While]… [u]ltimately, the exigencies of the war effort and mounting partisan warfare behind the lines prevented Nazi leaders from fully developing and realizing their colonial aims in Ukraine… In addition to the immediate destruction of all Jewish communities, Himmler insisted that the Ukrainian civilian population be brought to a 'minimum.'"
From 1991, the city has been part of the independent Ukraine.
Population history
| Year | Inhabitants |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 40 564 |
| 1891 | 69 785 |
| 1926 | 76 700 (of whom 10 500 were Russians) |
| 1939 | 95 100 |
| 1941 | 40 100 (of whom 2 500 were Russians and about 7 000 Poles) |
| 2005 | 277 900 |
Jews in Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr apparently had few Jews at the time of the Khmelnytsky UprisingKhmelnytsky Uprising
The Khmelnytsky Uprising, was a Cossack rebellion in the Ukraine between the years 1648–1657 which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland...
(1648), but by the time it became part of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in 1778, it had a large Jewish community, and was a center of the Hasidic
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
movement. Jews formed nearly one-third of the 1861 population (13,299 in 40,564); thirty years later, they had somewhat outpaced the general growth of the city, with 24,062 Jews in a total population of 69,785. By 1891 there were three large synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
s and 46 smaller batte midrash
Beth midrash
Beth Midrash refers to a study hall, whether in a synagogue, yeshiva, kollel, or other building. It is distinct from a synagogue, although many synagogues are also used as batei midrash and vice versa....
. The proportion of Jews was much lower in the surrounding district of Zhytomyr than in the city itself; at the turn of the century (circa 1900) there were 22,636 Jews in a total population of 281,378.
In Imperial Russia, Zhytomyr held the same status as the official Jewish center of southern part of the Pale of Settlement
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...
as Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
held in the north. The printing of Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
books was permitted only in these two cities during the monopoly of Hebrew printing from 1845 to 1862, and both were chosen as the seats of the two rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
nical schools which were established by the government in 1848 in pursuance of its plans to force secular education on the Jews of Russia
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union
The vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest populations of Jews in the diaspora. Within these territories the Jewish community flourished and developed many of modern Judaism's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of...
in accordance with the program of the Teutonized Russian Haskalah
Haskalah
Haskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history...
movement. The rabbinical school of Zhytomyr was considered the more Jewish, or rather the less Russianized, of the two (Ha-Meliẓ
Ha-Meliz
Ha-Meliẓ was the first Hebrew newspaper in Russia. It was founded by Alexander Zederbaum, in Odessa, in 1860, as a weekly, and was transferred to St. Petersburg in 1871....
, 1868, No. 40, cited in Jewish Encyclopedia). Its first head master was Jacob Eichenbaum, who was succeeded by Hayyim Selig Slonimski
Hayyim Selig Slonimski
Hayyim Selig Slonimski was a Hebrew publisher, astronomer, inventor, and science author.-Biography:Hayyim Selig Slonimski was born in Byelostok, Russian Empire March 31, 1810....
in 1862. The latter remained at the head of the school until it was closed (together with the one at Vilnius) in 1873 because of its failure to provide rabbis with a secular education who should be acceptable to the Jewish communities. Suchastover, Gottlober, Lerner
Lerner
Lerner is a common German family name. Its literal meaning can be either "student" or "scholar". It may refer to:- Organizations :* Lerner Enterprises, a real estate company.* Lerner Newspapers...
, and Zweifel were among the best-known teachers of the rabbinical school at Zhytomyr, while Abraham Goldfaden
Abraham Goldfaden
Abraham Goldfaden ; was an Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays.Goldfaden is considered the father of the Jewish modern theatre.In 1876 he founded in...
, Salomon Mandelkern
Salomon Mandelkern
Salomon Mandelkern was a Ukrainian Jewish poet and author.He was educated as a Talmudist. After his father's death he went to Dubno , where he continued his Talmudical studies...
, and Abraham Jacob Paperna
Abraham Jacob Paperna
Abraham Jacob Paperna was a Russian Jewish educator and author.He received a fair education, including the study of the Bible with Moses Mendelssohn's translation, Hebrew grammar, Talmud, and secular literature...
were among the students who later became famous in the Jewish world.
The teachers' institutes which were substituted for the rabbinical schools were, in the words of the Jewish Encyclopedia "scarcely more satisfactory" (The JE refers to the teachers' institute at Zhytomyr as "probably the worst-managed Jewish institution in Russia of which there is any record", citing Prelooker, Under the Czar and Queen Victoria, pp. 8–21, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, 1895). It was closed in 1885, succeeded by a Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah
Talmud Torah schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of public primary school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew, the Scriptures , and the Talmud...
, a "government school" for boys, a girls' school, and several private schools for both sexes that the JE describes as "admirable", with comparable praise for other Jewish institutions of Zhytomyr circa 1900.
While "never a center of rabbinical learning" (JE) Zhytomyr boasted a few rabbis of some note: Rabbi Wolf (died 1800), author of the Or ha-Meïr (Koretz, 1795), a pupil of Bär of Meseritz and one of the leaders of early Hasidism, and Abraham Bär Mavruch, rosh bet din or acting rabbi of Zhytomyr in the first half of the nineteenth century and author of the Bat 'Ayin (Zhytomyr, 1850).
The Jewish community of Zhytomyr suffered pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s: 1) on May 7–8, 1905, when the section of the city known as "Podol" was devastated, 20 were killed within the city, 10 young Jewish neighbors were killed when they came to defend, and the Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
student Nicholas Blinov, also attempting to defend, likewise lost his life; on January 7–10, 1919; 3) and beginning on March 22, 1919, when, according to witnesses, the 317 deaths were a lesser number, due to both Christian sheltering efforts and the return of the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
troops within a few days.
The Jewish community of the region was largely destroyed in the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. In the four months beginning with Himmler's 25 July 1942 orders, "all of Ukraine's shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
s and ghettos lay in ruins; tens of thousands of Jewish men, women, and children were brutally murdered by stationary and mobile SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-police units and indigenous auxiliaries."
Today, the Zhytomyr Jewish community numbers about 5000. The community is a part of the "Union of Jewish Communities in Ukraine" and the city and district's rabbinate Rabbi Shlomo Vilhelm serves as rabbi, who came to the city as a Chabad emissary in 1994. Other Jewish institutions are also active in the city, such as the Joint
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is a worldwide Jewish relief organization headquartered in New York. It was established in 1914 and is active in more than 70 countries....
and its humanitarian branch "Chesed" and the Jewish Agency.
The community has an ancient synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
in the city center which has a mikveh. Chabad
Chabad
Chabad or Chabad-Lubavitch is a major branch of Hasidic Judaism.Chabad may also refer to:*Chabad-Strashelye, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism*Chabad-Kapust or Kapust, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism...
operates in the city various educational institutions which have residence in a village next to the city.
Famous people from Zhytomyr
- Ossip BernsteinOssip BernsteinOssip Samoilovich Bernstein was a Russian chess grandmaster and a financial lawyer.-Biography:...
, French chessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player - Hayyim Nahman BialikHayyim Nahman BialikHayim Nahman Bialik , also Chaim or Haim, was a Jewish poet who wrote in Hebrew. Bialik was one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poets and came to be recognized as Israel's national poet.-Biography:...
, Hebrew poetHebrew literatureHebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...
, born in Radi, Volhynia, educated in Zhytomyr - Adolpho Bloch, Ukrainian naturalised BraziBraziBrazi is a commune in Prahova County, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Băteşti, Brazii de Jos, Brazii de Sus , Negoieşti, Popeşti and Stejaru.In 1948 it had a population of 1,530....
lian, founder of Bloch Editores, Manchete magazine and Rede MancheteRede MancheteRede Manchete was a television network from Brazil. It first aired on June 5, 1983 in Rio de Janeiro and simultaneously in other 5 Brazilian cities, like São Paulo on Rede Exclesior's old channel 9 frequency... - Tadeusz BorowskiTadeusz BorowskiTadeusz Borowski was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature and had much influence in Central European society.- Early life :...
, Polish writer - Anastasiya ChernenkoAnastasiya ChernenkoAnastasiya Chernenko, Ukrainian Анастасія Михайлівна Черненко, born 11 October 1990 in Zhytomir, is a professional Ukrainian triathlete, winner of the Ukrainian Triathlon Cup 2010, and reserve member of the National Team....
, a professional triathlete - Jarosław Dąbrowski, Polish-French Paris CommuneParis CommuneThe Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
revolutionary - Luis Filcer, Ukrainian/Mexican painter
- Samuel FreedmanSamuel FreedmanSamuel Freedman, OC, QC , was a lawyer, judge, and Chief Justice of the Province of Manitoba .-Early life:Born on April 16, 1908, to Nathan and Ada Freedman in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire , Freedman moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada when he was three years old...
,Canadian judge, Manitoba Chief Justice - Yakov GamarnikYakov GamarnikJankel Borysovych Pukhdykovych , better known as Jan Gamarnik or Yakov Gamarnik was a Soviet politician of Jewish ethnicity.-Biography:...
, Soviet Communist militant and military commander - Alexander Godin, (1909-?), author of "My Dead Brother Comes to America"
- Aharon David GordonA. D. GordonAaron David Gordon , more commonly known as A. D. Gordon, was a Zionist ideologue and the spiritual force behind practical Zionism and Labor Zionism. He founded Hapoel Hatzair, a movement that set the tone for the Zionist movement for many years to come. Influenced by Leo Tolstoy and others, it is...
, Hebrew writer and thinker, founder of the spiritual ZionismZionismZionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
, born at Troyaniv, near Zhytomyr, settled in PalestinePalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.... - Alex Gottlieb, Hollywood film director and screenwriter
- Moisei Kasyanik, weightlifter
- Alexander KipnisAlexander KipnisAlexander Kipnis , was a Ukrainian-born operatic bass of great artistry and vocal endowment.Having initially established his artistic reputation in Europe, Kipnis became an American citizen in 1931, following his marriage to an American...
, German then US opera singer (bass) - Volodymyr Korolenko, UkrainianUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
writer - Sergey KorolyovSergey KorolyovSergei Pavlovich Korolev ; died 14 January 1966 in Moscow, Russia) was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s...
, prominent rocket engineer and designer, the head of the SovietSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
space program - Boris Abramovich Kruhliak, Ukrainian historian
- Borys Latoszyński, Ukrainian composer
- Inessa Lee, singer known as Singing Doll
- Keni LiptzinKeni LiptzinKeni Liptzin , surname sometimes spelled Lipzin, was a star in the early years of Yiddish theater, probably the greatest female dramatic star of the first great era of Yiddish theater in New York City....
, Jewish actress in Yiddish theatreYiddish theatreYiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Central European Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; naturalist drama; expressionist and... - Julian MovchanJulian MovchanJulian Gregorovich Movchan was a Ukrainian-American journalist, writer and doctor.-Biography:Born in the village of Zorokiv to a family of well-to-do peasants, in the Cherniakhiv region of what is now the Zhytomyr Oblast, his works first appeared in the local oblast newspaper Radianska Volyn when...
, Ukrainian writer/journalist - Leah Nickel, Israeli painter
- Franciszek NiepokolczyckiFranciszek NiepokólczyckiFranciszek Niepokólczycki - colonel and a sapper in the Polish Army, soldier of the Polish Home Army and the anti-communist organization Freedom and Independence and a political prisoner during the Stalinist period in Poland.From November 1918 on he was a member of Polish...
, Polish soldier - Oleh Olzhych, Ukrainian writer and nationalist militant
- Mieczyslaw Pawlikowski, Polish actor
- Sviatoslav RichterSviatoslav RichterSviatoslav Teofilovich Richter was a Soviet pianist well known for the depth of his interpretations, virtuoso technique, and vast repertoire. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Childhood:...
, Soviet pianist - Mikhail RostovtzeffMichael RostovtzeffMikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev was one of the 20th century's foremost authorities on ancient Greek, Iranian, and Roman history....
, Russian Archaeologist - Maryna Shulga, volunteer and AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
activist - David Borisovich Sterenberg, Russian painter
- Mykola Stsiborskyi, prominent leader of the Organization of Ukrainian NationalistsOrganization of Ukrainian NationalistsThe Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
and close ally of Andrii Melnyk - Vladimir VekslerVladimir VekslerVladimir Iosifovich Veksler was a prominent Soviet experimental physicist....
, a Soviet physicist, pioneer of particle acceleratorParticle acceleratorA particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.In...
technology - Yuliya Yelistratova, a professional triathlete
- Kazimierz Zagórski, (1883 Żytomierz – 1944 Leopoldville, Kongo)- Polish photographer active in central Africa 1924-44, author of the "L'Afrique qui disparait", former Colonel of the tsar Air Force
- Juliusz ZarębskiJuliusz ZarebskiJuliusz Zarębski was a Polish composer and pianist, pupil of Franz Liszt.In his works, Zarębski referred to Franz Liszt and Fryderyk Chopin...
, PolishPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
composer
Popular culture
Zhytomyr (spelled Zhitomir) is mentioned as the site of a particularly violent battle between Ukrainian government forces and infected civilians in Max Brooks' horror novel World War ZWorld War Z
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a 2006 post-apocalyptic horror novel by Max Brooks. It is a follow-up to his 2003 book The Zombie Survival Guide. Rather than a grand overview or narrative, World War Z is a collection of individual accounts in the form of first-person anecdote...
.
External links
- Zhytomyr Journal - news, photo, map and other
- hotels of Zhytomyr
- Trindelka - portal of Zhytomyr
- interesniy.zhitomir.ua - a blog about history of Zhytomyr
- Zhytomyr map - cafes, bars, restaurants, everything about the city