Chortkiv

Coat of Arms

Ternopil Oblast

Chortkiv (Ukrainian: Чортків, Polish: Czortków) is a city in the Ternopil oblast (province) in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chortkiv Raion (district). Population: 29,057 (2001). Located on the Seret River, in the northern part of Galician Podilia and is situated in the historic region of Galicia.

History and industries

Panoramic view of Chortkiv

The first historical mention of Chortkiv dates to 1522, when Polish king Sigismund I the Old granted ownership order for Jerzy Czortkowski over this town and allowed him to name it Czortków (Chortkiv) after himself. The town was also given Magdeburg Law privileges then. Chortkiv declined in the second half of the 17th century, during the Polish-Turkish Wars when the town was taken over by Ottoman Empire (1673–1683). It was part of the short-lived Turkish Eyalet of Podolia with capital in Kamianets-Podilskyi which existed in years 1672-1699.

After First Partition of Poland Chortkiv came under Austrian rule (1772–1918) and was the center of the Chortkiv Bezirk; later it became a county center. On 8 June 1919 the Ukrainian Galician Army broke for couple months through the Polish front at Chortkiv and began the Chortkiv offensive. Soon afterwards, the town was seized by the Poles and remained part of the Tarnopol Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic until September 1939.

In 1931 the town had 19,000 inhabitants, 22.8 percent of whom were Ukrainians (Greek Catholics), 46.4 percent Poles (Roman Catholics), and 30 percent Jews. Chortkiv was an important garrison of the Polish Border Defence Corps Brigade "Podole", whose commandant, from 1935 to 1938, was General Stefan Rowecki.

Soviet and Nazi invasions

The town was occupied by the Soviet Union from September 17 (see: Polish September Campaign), 1939, until June 1941. Its Polish inhabitants, particularly students of the local high school, organized in early 1940 a failed uprising, which was the first Polish uprising during World War II.

From 1941-1944 it was annexed to Nazi Germany. After the defeat of the Nazis by the Red Army in 1944 it returned to Soviet control until in 1991 it became part of independent Ukraine. Chortkiv is an administrative, commercial, and small-scale manufacturing center. Today it has some industry: food-processing, garment making, and railway maintenance. Among its architectural monuments are a fortress built in the 16th and 17th centuries and wooden churches of the 17th and 18th centuries. There is also a historical museum.

Jewish history and the Holocaust

The Hasidic Synagogue in Chortkov (Chortkiv)

Chortkiv was the home of many Hasidic Jews. It was a notable shtetl and had a significant number of Jews residing there prior to the Holocaust.^{[citation needed]}

The palatial home of the Rebbe of Chortkov (Chortkiv)

Famous people

• Jerzy Czortkowski - founder of Czortków (Chortkiv)
• Leopold Levytskyy (1906–1973) - Ukrainian painter, lived here
• Kateryna Rubchakova (1881–1919) - Ukrainian actress and singer (lyrical soprano), born here
• Karl Emil Franzos (1848–1904) - lived there

St. Stanislav Church in Chortkiv

See also

• Chortkov (Hasidic dynasty)
• Czortków Uprising

External links

• Encyclopedia of Ukraine - Chortkiv
• Images and Map of Chortkiv
• Chortkiv Castle 1610
• Unicom - internet provider in Chortkiv
• History and pictures of Chortkiv
• Pictures of Chortkiv (fotos: old,new,panorams)

Coordinates: 49°01′N 25°48′E / 49.017°N 25.8°E / 49.017; 25.8