The oldest preserved document that mentions the city, at that time calledYuryiv, is theHypatian Codex (1115). Historically, the city has been at the centre of thePorossia (River Ros) region. Founded as a border fortification ofKievan Rus', Bila Tserkva later became property ofPolish nobility and served as a prominent commercial centre. Since the 19th century, industry and tourism have been important elements of the city's economy. UnderSoviet rule, Bila Tserkva became a centre of agricultural education. During theCold War, a majorSoviet Air Force base was located near the city.
As part of independent Ukraine, Bila Tserkva served as a city of regional significance until 2020. In the aftermath of the administrative reform, it became the centre of one ofhromadas (communities) of Kyiv Oblast.
Founded in 1032, the city was originally namedYuriiv [uk] byYaroslav the Wise, whose Christian name was Yuri. The contemporary name of the city, literally translated, is "White Church" and may refer to the white-painted cathedral (no longer extant) of medieval Yuriiv.[4] In its long history, Bila Tserkva spent its first few hundred years privately owned, later, though the owner was typically a citizen of the ruling empire, it was organized as afiefdom, with important trade routes to Kyiv, Hungary, the Middle East and India, passing through it.
From its earliest incarnation, Bila Tserkva was considered to provide important defense against nomadic tribes that included both theCumans and theTatars. However, a 13th century invasion by theMongols devastated the city, and illustrated the fallibility of its defense.[5]
In 1550, the Voivode of Kyiv, Fryderyk Proński, built a castle in Bila Tserkva, which at that time was the easternmost fortress on the steppe. By 1570, it had four towers. Around that time, a town began to develop around the castle, as frequent Tatar raids—due to the nearby so-calledBlack Trail—had previously made permanent settlement impossible.[6]
In 1572 KingSigismund Augustus designated Bila Tserkva as the seat of Jan Badowski, the judge and administrator of Cossack affairs, which were excluded from the regular state administration.[6] At the beginning of the 17th century, the Bila Tserkva starostwo was established, granted as a reward for merit to prominent Crown officials. The first recipient was PrinceJanusz Ostrogski. The townspeople enjoyed numerous privileges, including exemptions from customary taxes, as they were responsible for the defense of the town and its surroundings. By 1616, the town had 600 houses, including 300 Cossack ones. In 1620, KingSigismund III granted the townMagdeburg rights and a coat of arms: a bow with a drawn string and three arrows.[6]
Battle of Biała Cerkiew, 1651
After subduing the rebelliousCossacks in the 1626Battle of Bila Tserkva, the next owner of the estate was Prince Jerzy Dymitr Wiśniowiecki. The castle was successfully taken byBohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648. In 1651, it was also the site of theBattle of Bila Tserkva between the warringZaporozhian Cossack Army (and theirTatar allies) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but Bila Tserkva was also where they made peace, and signed aTreaty.[7][8] It was also where peace was achieved with the signing of theTreaty of Bila Tserkva.[7] In 1666, six-thousand Muscovite troops laid siege to Bila Tserkva. The standoff lasted until the following year when Polish reinforcements led by Jan Stachurski with the aid of allied Cossacks andIwan Brzuchowiecki smashedPetro Doroshenko's stranglehold.[citation needed]
In 1774, Bila Tserkva (Biała Cerkiew), then the seat of the sub-prefecture (Starostwo), came into the possession ofStanisław August Poniatowski who that same year granted the property toFranciszek Ksawery Branicki,Poland's Grand Hetman who then built his urban residence, theWinter Palace [uk] complex and a country residence with the"Oleksandriia" Arboretum (named after his wifeAleksandra Branicka [pl]). He founded the Catholic Church of John the Baptist, and started construction of the Orthodox church, which was completed by his successor, his son CountWładysław Grzegorz Branicki. The latter also built the gymnasium-school complex in Bila Tserkva. Aleksander Branicki, the youngest grandson of the hetman, renovated and finished Mazepa's Orthodox church. Under the rule of count Władysław Michał Branicki, Bila Tserkva developed into a regional commercial and manufacturing centre.[9][10]
Various PolishCrown Army units were stationed in the city at various times, including the 5th and 6th National Cavalry Brigades and 4th Infantry Regiment.[11]
In 1791, Russia'sCatherine the Great, included Bila Tserkva in the region that came to be known as thePale of Settlement, which encompassed parts of seven contemporary nations, including large swaths of modern-day Ukraine.[12] Bila Tserkva was formally annexed into theRussian Empire as a result of theSecond Partition of Poland in 1793.[13] Meanwhile, after 1861, the Czarist authorities converted Roman Catholic churches into Orthodox Churches.[14] By the late 18th century, however, Jews were already living in the region, and within a century they would comprise nearly half the population of the city.[15] An important Jewish city, as a result, by the early 1900s it was a fount of idea about politics, religion, art, and culture, with an activeZionist movement, an active branch of theDecembrist movement and a branch of the Society of United Slavs formulating"plans to assassinate TsarAlexander I bySergei Muravev-Apostol and his co-conspirators."[16] Home to many artists and writers,Sholem Aleichem andShaye Shkarovsky were both writing in Yiddish, withIvan Nechuy-Levytsky writing in Ukrainian. It also was the home of artists likeLuka Dolinski andHalyna Nevinchana; as well as theater and film directorsEugene Deslaw andLes Kurbas.[citation needed].
During the first two decades of the 20th century, the city's Jewish residents were subject to multiple pogroms. In 1919 and 1920 alone, pogroms were responsible for the deaths of 850 Jews.[17] In 1932–1933, as many as 22,000 of greater Bila Tserkva's residents died in theHolodomor.[18]
Until 18 July 2020, Bila Tserkva was incorporated as acity of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of Bila Tserkva 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 Kyiv Oblast to seven, the city of Bila Tserkva was merged into Bila Tserkva Raion.[25][26]
In Jewish folklore the city came to be referred to as the "Black Contamination" (Yid.Shvartse Tume), a play on its name in Russian ("White Church").[30] The earliest Jewish inhabitants have been traced to 1648.[31][17] The population, however, has risen and fallen due to outbreaks of violence and, later,pogroms.[30] By the end of the 19th century, Jews made up a slight majority of the population at 52.9% of the city's total population, or 18,720 total inhabitants.[15] According to the Jewish Virtual Library, in 1904, Jews owned 250 workshops and 25 factories engaged in light industry employing 300 Jewish workers."[30]Cossack-led attacks,Stalin's purges, pogroms and theHolocaust, including the horrors of theBila Tserkva massacre, caused a major demographic shift. By 2001, it was mostly inhabited by ethnicUkrainians, with a meager Jewish population of less than 0.3%.[32]
Bila Tserkva is located at 49°47'58.6" North, 30°06'32.9" East and is 178 metres (584 ft) above sea level. The city has a total area of 67.8 square kilometres (26.2 sq mi).
An important regional center during Lithuanian and, later, Polish rule, Bila Tserkva remained prominent due to its close proximity to Kyiv, and its place at the center of Europe's "breadbasket," with some of the continent's most fertile land.[16][36] The city economy first began diversifying in the late 1700s, when Alexandra Branicki, the wife of the PolishHetmanFranciszek Ksawery Branicki had a 400-hectare landscaped park designed.[36] In 1809–14, Market Stalls were created to provide space for 85 merchants at a time when thegrain trade and sugar industry also began to contribute to the growth of the city.[37] By 1850, Bila Tserkva had built its first major factory. Later, it "began to specialize in building machines for the production of feed for livestock, electrical capacitors, tires, rubber-asbestos products, shoes, clothing, furniture, and reinforced-concrete products."[36] In 1929, theBila Tserkva National Agrarian University was founded in as a scientific research center, which now specializes in academic research focusing on environmental protection, veterinary welfare and biosafety.[38] The OleksandriiaDendrological Park is now a part ofUkraine's National Academy of Sciences, and currently cultivates more than 1,800 endemic and exotic plant species, with more than 600 species of exotic trees and shrubs alone, in addition to publishing academic research.[36][37] Modern-day industry in the city includesRailwayBrake product manufacturers "Tribo Rail",Tribo plant and a majorautomobiletiremanufacturer"Rosava".[citation needed]
Architecturally, Bila Tserkva is known for a variety of late 18th and early 19th-century buildings, courtesy of the Branickis, who ruled there during this era. Highlights include:
The Winter Palace on the bank of the Ros River, the Summer Palace, an ensemble of postal station buildings, the Church of Saint John the Baptist (1789–1812), the Transfiguration Cathedral (1833–9), and the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene (1843). The Church of Saint Nicholas, whose construction was initiated by Hetman Ivan Mazepa and Colonel Kostiantyn Maziievsky in 1706, and was finally completed in 1852.[16]
By the late 19th century, Jews would comprise nearly half the population of the city.[15][39] An important Jewish center, it also evolved into an active center for the exchange of influential ideas about politics, religion, art, and culture, with an activeZionist movement, an active branch of theDecembrist movement and a branch of the Society ofUnited Slavs formulating "plans to assassinate TsarAlexander I."[16] A center of Hassidim, it also hosted vigorous factions arguing for assimilation.[citation needed] Home to many artists and writers,Sholem Aleichem andShaye Shkarovsky spend periods writing there in Yiddish, andIvan Nechuy-Levytsky was also writing in Ukrainian during this era.
Education in Bila Tserkva is provided by many private and public institutions. Its best known is theBila Tserkva National Agrarian University was founded in 1929 as a scientific research center publishing academic studies on modern agrobiotechnology, nature and environmental protection; the latest technologies for processing livestock products; biosafety, the veterinary welfare of livestock; regulation of bioresources and sustainable nature management; rationalization of social development of rural areas; economics of agro-industrial complex, legal sciences, linguistics and translation.[38] They partner with institutions of higher learning worldwide, and participate in programs with Erasmus+, the British Council, NATO and Fulbright, among several others.[38]
Notable secular buildings include theMerchant Court (1809–1814) and thePost Yard (1825–31),Palladian wooden buildings of theBranicki "Winter Palace" and, once, the District Nobility Assembly, prior to a fire. TheShukhov Water Tower, a tower that supports a water tank was built according to a project ofVladimir Shukhov, a Russian engineer-polymath, scientist and architect.
The state-ownedUkrzaliznytsia provides railway links to the region and the rest of Ukraine. There are two railway stations in Bila Tserkva, Bila Tserkva railway station and Rotok railway station
Mikhail Eisenstein (1867-1920, born as Moisey Eisenstein) - civil engineer, designer many of the best-known Art Nouveau buildings ofRiga,Latvia, and the father of Soviet film directorSergei Eisenstein
David Goodman, father ofBenny Goodman – American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing"
Axel Firsoff (1910–1981) – British astronomer, born in Bila Tserkva
Boris Samoilovich Iampol'skii (1912–1972) – Russian-language writer
Andrzej Klimowicz (1918–1996) – operative forZegota, the government-supported resistance group, organized to help Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. They are said to have saved tens of thousands from 1942 to 1945.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko (1916–1974) – World War IISoviet sniper. Credited with 309 kills, she is regarded as one of the top military snipers of all time and the most successful female sniper in history.
Yaakov Steinberg (1887–1947) – Yiddish and Hebrew short-story writer, essayist, critic, and translator[43]
Mikhael Sukernik (1902–1981) – Soviet Russian-Ukrainian chemist who contributed to the development and publication of a Russian-Yiddish dictionary published in 1984
^abc"Białacerkiew".Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich. Retrieved1 May 2025.
^abPERNAL, A. B. "The Expenditures of the Crown Treasury for the Financing of Diplomacy between Poland and the Ukraine during the Reign of Jan Kazimierz."Harvard Ukrainian Studies 5, no. 1 (1981): 102–20.[2].
^Paul Robert Magocsi,A history of Ukraine, University of Toronto Press, 1996, p. 205
^E. A. Chernecki, L. P. Mordatenko,Bila Tserkva. Branicki family. Alexandria, Ogrody rezydencji magnackich XVIII-XIX wieku w Europie Środkowej i Wschodniej oraz problemy ich ochrony, Ośrodek Ochrony Zabytkowego Krajobrazu—Narodowa Instytucja Kultury, 2001, p. 114
^Marek Ruszczyc,Dzieje rodu i fortuny Branickich, Delikon, 1991, p. 148
^Gembarzewski, Bronisław (1925).Rodowody pułków polskich i oddziałów równorzędnych od r. 1717 do r. 1831 (in Polish). Warszawa: Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej. pp. 8–9, 27.
^Lucjan Blit, The origins of Polish socialism: the history and ideas of the first Polish Socialist Party 1878–1886, Cambridge University Press, 1971, p. 21
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