It is still unknown when Poltava was founded, although the town was not attested before 1174. However, municipal authorities chose to celebrate the city's 1100th anniversary in 1999. As part of the 800th anniversary of Poltava celebrations, in 1974, the Urozhai Stadium was reopened after a six year of renovations.[6] The settlement is indeed an old one, as archeologists unearthed an ancientPaleolithic dwelling, as well asScythian remains, within the city limits.
The present name of the city is traditionally connected to the settlement Ltava, which is mentioned in theHypatian Chronicle in 1174.[7][8] According to the chronicle, on Saint Peter's Day (12 July) of 1182,Igor Sviatoslavich, chasing hordes of the Cuman khans Konchak and Kobiak, crossed theVorskla River nearLtava and moved towardsPereiaslav), where Igor's army was victorious over the Cumans.[7] During theMongol invasion of Rus' in 1238–39, many cities of the middle Dnipro region were destroyed, possibly including Ltava.[7]
In the mid-14th century the region was part of the Duchy of Kyiv, which was a vassal of theAlgirdas'Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[7] According to the Russian historian Aleksandr Shennikov, the region around modern Poltava was a Cuman Duchy belonging to Mansur, who was a son ofMamai.[9] Shennikov also claims that the Mansur Duchy joined the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as anassociated state rather than avassal state, and that the city of Poltava already existed at that time.[9] In 1399, Mansur's army assisted theGrand Ducal Lithuanian Army in thebattle of the Vorskla River. According to legend, after the battle, theCossack Mamay helpedVytautas to escape death.[9]
The city is mentioned for the first time under the name of Poltava no later than 1430.[7] Supposedly, in 1430 the Lithuanian dukeVytautas gave the city, along with Glinsk (today a village near the city ofRomny) and Glinitsa, toMurza Olexa (Loxada Mansurxanovich), who moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from theGolden Horde.[7] In 1430 Murza Olexa was baptized as Alexander Glinsky, who was a progenitor of theGlinsky family.[7] According to Shenninkov, Alexander Glinsky must have been baptized in 1390 byCyprian, Metropolitan of Kyiv, who had just regained his title of Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Russia (rather than the Metropolitan ofRussia Minor and Lithuania). On 6 March 1390 Cyprian permanently moved toMuscovy.[9]
The Column of Glory commemorates the centenary of theBattle of Poltava (1709)
In 1537 Ografena Vasylivna Glinska (Baibuza) passed Poltava to her son-in-law Mykhailo Ivanovych Hrybunov-Baibuza.[7]
After theUnion of Lublin in 1569, the territory around Poltava became part of theCrown of Poland. In 1630 Poltava was passed to a Polish magnate, Bartholomew Obalkowski.[7] In 1641 it changed ownership again, to Alexander Koniecpolski.[7] In 1646 Poltava became part of Wiśniowiecki Ordynatsia (a large Wiśniowiecki estate in Left-bank Ukraine centered inLubny), governed by the Ruthenian-PolishmagnateJeremi Wiśniowiecki (1612–51).[7]
During the 1654Pereyaslav Council, the Poltava city delegates pledged their allegiance to the Czar of Muscovy, after whichstolnik Andrei Spasitelev arrived in Poltava and recorded 1,335 residents who had pledged their allegiance.[7] In 1658 Poltava became a center of anti-government revolt led byMartyn Pushkar, who contested the legitimacy ofIvan Vyhovsky's election to the post ofHetman of Zaporizhian Host.[7] The uprising was extinguished with the help ofCrimean Tatars.[7]
On the issueboyarVasily Borisovich Sheremetev wrote toAlexei Mikhailovich on 8 June 1658: "... theCherkas [Cossack] city of Poltava is ravaged and burned to the ground and only if the Great Sovereign orders to rebuild on the Tatar Sokma (pathway) ofBakeyev Route and protect many his sovereign cities from Tatar visits. And if the Great Sovereign allows to place avoivode in the city and rebuilt the city until the fall that in PoltavaCherkasy [Cossacks] and residents built their houses and stock-piled their food".[7] With the signing of the 1667truce of Andrusovo, the city was finally subjected to theTsardom of Muscovy, while remaining part of theCossack Hetmanate.
The city suffered from theGreat Turkish War when in 1695 Petro Ivanenko led an anti-Muscovite uprising with the help ofCrimean Tatars, who ravaged the local monastery.[7] The same year thePoltava Regiment actively participated in theAzov campaigns which resulted in the taking of the Turkish fortress of Kyzy-Kermen (today the city ofBeryslav,Kherson Oblast).[7]
On 8 July (New Style) or 27 June (Old Style) 1709 theBattle of Poltava took place near the city during theGreat Northern War. The battle ended in a decisive victory ofPeter I of Russia over theSwedish forces.[7] As a result, theSwedish Empire lost its status as a European great power and the Russian Empire began an era of supremacy ineastern Europe.[10] In 1710 there was a plague in the city and its surrounding area.[7] In the mid-18th century the Kolomak Woods near Poltava became a base ofhaidamaks (Cossack paramilitary bands).[7]
By 1770, Poltava had several brick factories, a regimental doctor, and a pharmacy; that same year the city conducted four fairs.[7] In 1775 it became a city ofNovorossiysk Governorate, guarded by the 8th Company of the Dnieper Pike Regiment headquartered inKobeliaky.[7] In 1775 Poltava's Holy Cross Exaltation Monastery became the seat of bishops of the newly createdEparchy (Diocese) of Slaviansk and Kherson. This large new diocese included the lands of theNovorossiya Governorate and theAzov Governorate north of theBlack Sea.[11][12]
Since much of that area had only recently been seized from theOttoman Empire by Russia, and a large number of Orthodox Greek settlers had been invited to settle in the region, theimperial government selected a renowned Greek scholar,Eugenios Voulgaris, to preside over the new diocese. After his retirement in 1779, he was replaced by another Greek theologian,Nikephoros Theotokis.[11][12]
Alexander Square in 1850
In 1779 the city established the Poltava county school, which became its first secular educational institution.[7] In 1787Catherine the Great stopped in Poltava on the way fromCrimea, escorted byGrigori Potemkin,Alexander Suvorov andMikhail Kutuzov.[7] In Poltava, on 7 June 1787, before anotherRusso-Turkish War, Potemkin received his title "Prince of Taurida", while Suvorov received asnuffbox with monogram.[7] In 1802 the city became the seat of the newly establishedPoltava Governorate.[7] The city's population in 1802 consisted of some 8,000 residents.[7] That same year Poltava opened a government-funded hospital of 20 beds.[7]
Map of Poltava 1857The 200th Anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Poltava in June 1909
On 2 February 1808, the Poltava Male Gymnasium was established.[7] On 20 June 1808 some 54 families of craftsmen were invited to the city from German principalities and settled in the newly established German Sloboda neighborhood with about 50 clay-made houses.[7] In 1810 there were 8,328 people living in Poltava;[7] that same year, the city's first theater was built.[7] In August 1812, on orders of Little Russia Governor GeneralLobanov-Rostovsky, the famed Ukrainian writer and statesmanIvan Kotlyarevsky formed the 5th Poltava Cavalry Cossack Regiment.[7]
By 1860, Poltava had around 30,000 inhabitants, a district school, a gymnasium, anInstitute for Noble Maidens, a spiritual academy, acadet corps, a library and a number of schools. In 1870,Poltava railway station was opened, leading to rapid economic growth in the region. However, by 1914 the Population of Poltava (around 60,000) was mostly working in small enterprises. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Poltava became an important cultural centre, where many representatives ofUkrainian national revival were active.
InWorld War II, theNaziWehrmachtoccupied Poltava from 18 September 1941 until 23 September 1943, when it was retaken during the Chernigov-Poltava Strategic Offensive of theBattle of the Dnieper. During the Nazi occupation the Jewish population (9.9% of the total population in 1939) was imprisoned in aghetto before being murdered during mass executions perpetrated by anEinsatzgruppe and buried in mass graves in the area.[13]
The post-war restoration of Poltava continued in the 1950s and 1960s. The city became an important centre of military education in theSoviet Union, where missile and communications officers were prepared, and was also home to aSoviet Air Force division of heavy bombers.[citation needed]
Until 18 July 2020, Poltava was designated as acity of oblast significance and did not belong to Poltava Raion even though it was the center of the raion. As part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Poltava Oblast to four, the city was merged into Poltava Raion.[14][15]
According to a survey conducted by theInternational Republican Institute in April-May 2023, 75 % of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 12 % spoke Russian.[19]
Poltava has a warm-summerhumid continental climate (Köppen:Dfb), with four distinct seasons, it is one of the coldest cities inUkraine. The annual precipitation is fairly evenly distributed, with the highest concentration in summer, and which falls as snow in winter.[20][21][22]
Climate data for Poltava (1991–2020, extremes 1948–present)
Poltava is theadministrative center of thePoltava Oblast (province) as well as of the Poltava Raion housed within the city. However, Poltava is acity of oblast subordinance, thus being subject directly to the oblast authorities rather to the raion administration housed in the city itself.
Poltava's government consists of the 50-member Poltava City Council (Ukrainian:Полтавська Міська рада) which is headed by the Secretary (currently Oleksandr Kozub). The city's current mayor is Oleksandr Mamay, who was sworn in on 4 November 2010 after being elected with more than 61 percent of the vote.[26] In 2015 he was re-elected as a candidate ofConscience of Ukraine with 62.9% in a second round of Mayoral election.[27]
Shevchenkivskyi District,[29][30] to the south-west with an area of 2077 hectares and a population of 147,600 in 2005. It is a largely residential area and includes the city centre.
Kyivskyi District,[31] is the largest by area, comprising 5437 hectares, or 52.8% of the city total situated in the north and north-west. Its census in 2005 was 111,900. This district has a large industrial zone.
Podilskyi District,[32] to the east and south-east, in the valley of the Vorskla river, with an area of 2988 hectares and a population of 53,700 in 2005.
The centre of the old city is a semicircular Neoclassical square with theTuscan column of cast iron (1805–11), commemorating the centenary of theBattle of Poltava and featuring 18 Swedish cannons captured in that battle. AsPeter the Great celebrated his victory in the Saviour church, this 17th-century wooden shrine was carefully preserved to this day. The five-domed city cathedral, dedicated to theExaltation of the Cross, is a superb monument ofCossack Baroque, built between 1699 and 1709. As a whole, the cathedral presents a unity which even the Neoclassical belltower has failed to mar. Another frothy Baroque church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos, was destroyed in 1934 and rebuilt in the 1990s.
Matvei Muranov (1873–1959) a Ukrainian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician and statesman.
Panas Myrny (1849–1920) a Ukrainian prose writer and playwright
Jensen Noen (born 1987) a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, cinematographer and writer.
Oleksiy Onyschenko (born 1933) a philosopher, academic and culture theorist
Mikhail Ostrogradsky (1801–1862), a Ukrainian mathematician, mechanic and physicist
Olena Pchilka (1849–1930), a Ukrainian publisher, writer, ethnographer and civil activist.
Ivan Paskevich (1782–1856), Ukrainian military leader in Imperial Russian service.[37]
Symon Petliura (1879–1926) a Ukrainian politician, journalist and military leader of Ukraine's struggle for independence following the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
Vladimir Picheta (1878–1947), a Belarusian historian, first rector of the Belarusian State University
Poltava's transportation infrastructure consists of two major train stations:Poltava-Pivdenna andPoltava-Kyivska, with railway links toKyiv,Kharkiv, andKremenchuk. Poltava-Kyiv line is electrified and is used by the Poltava Express. The electrification of the Poltava-Kharkiv line was completed in August 2008.[38]
The Avtovokzal serves as the city's intercity bus station. Buses for local municipal routes depart from "AC-2" (autostation No. 2 – alongShevchenko Street) and "AC-3" (Zinkivska Street). Local municipal routes are parked along theTaras Shevchenko Street.Marshrutka minibuses serve areas where regular bus access is unavailable; however, they are privately owned and cost more per ride. In addition, a 10-routetrolleybus network of 72.6 kilometres (45.1 mi) runs throughout the city. On the routes of the city go more than 50 units of trolleybuses.
Poltava is also served by an International Airport, situated outside the city limits near the village of Ivashky. The international highwayM03, linking Poltava with Kyiv and Kharkiv, passes through the southern outskirts of the city. There is also a regional highway P-17 crossing Poltava and linking it with Kremenchuk andSumy.[39]
Poltava has always been one of the most important science and education centres in Ukraine. Major universities and institutions of higher education include the following:
Theological seminary, which duringWorld War I was converted into a military school quartering the Vilno Cadet School
Poltava gravimetric observatory (PGO) is situated a bit north from city centre (27–29 Miasoyedov St.). Its main work directions are measurements of Earth rotation, latitude variations (applying zenith stars observations, lunar occultation observations and other)
Observational station of PGO in rural area, some 20 km east along the M03-E40 highway. Radiotelescope URAN-2 (Ukrainian:УРАН-2) is situated there too.
^Погода и Климат – Климат Полтава [Weather and Climate – The Climate of Poltava] (in Russian). Weather and Climate (Погода и климат). Retrieved29 October 2021.
^"Official resource" (in Ukrainian). Oktiabrskyi Raion Council of Poltava. 2008. Archived fromthe original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved3 January 2009.
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