In the spring of 1919, it also served as a provisional seat of the Ukrainian government throughout the ongoing war withSoviet Russia. BetweenWorld War I andWorld War II, the city was located inPoland as a district-level (county) seat inWolyn Voivodeship. At the start of World War II in 1939, Rivne was occupied by the Soviet Red Army and received its current status by becoming a seat of regional government of theRivne Oblast which was created out of the eastern portion of the voivodeship. During the German occupation of 1941–44 the city was designated as acapital of German Ukraine (Reichskommissariat Ukraine).
Rivne was first mentioned in 1283 in the Polish annalsRocznik kapituły krakowskiej[5][6] as one of the inhabited places ofHalych-Volhynia near whichLeszek II the Black was victorious over a part of theGrand Ducal Lithuanian Army. Following theKingdom of Galicia–Volhynia's partition afterGalicia–Volhynia Wars in the late14th century, it was under the rule ofGrand Duchy of Lithuania and in 1434 theGrand Duke of LithuaniaŠvitrigaila awarded the settlement to aLutsk nobleman Dychko.[5] In 1461 Dychko sold his settlement to Prince Semen Nesvizh.[5][6] In 1479 Semen Nesvizh died and his settlement was passed to his wife Maria who started to call herself princess of Rivne.[6] She turned the settlement into a princely residence by building in 1481[5] a castle on one of local river islands and managed to obtainMagdeburg rights for the settlement in 1492 from the King of PolandCasimir IV Jagiellon.[6] Following her death in 1518, the city was passed on to the princes of Ostrog and declined by losing its status as a princely residency.[5]
DuringWorld War I and the period of chaos shortly after, it was briefly under German, Ukrainian, Bolshevik, and Polish rule. During April–May 1919 Rivne served as the temporary capital[citation needed] of theUkrainian People's Republic. In late April 1919 one of the Ukrainian military leadersVolodymyr Oskilko attempted to organize acoup-d'état against theDirectorate led bySymon Petliura and the cabinet ofBorys Martos and replace them withYevhen Petrushevych as president of Ukraine. In Rivne, Oskilko managed to arrest most of the cabinet ministers including Martos himself, but Petliura at that time was in neighboringZdolbuniv and managed to stop Oskilko's efforts. At the conclusion of the conflict, in accordance with theRiga Peace Treaty of 1921, it became a part ofPolishVolhynian Voivodeship, a situation which would last until the Second World War. Before World War II, Rivne (Równe) was a mainly Jewish-Polish city (Jews constituted about 50% of the city's population, and Poles 35%).
In 1939, as a result of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the partition of Poland, Rivne was occupied by the Soviet Union. Starting December of that year Rivne became the center of the newly established Rivne Oblast in theUkrainian SSR.
On 6–8 November, 17,500 Jewish adults from Rivne were shot to death or thrown alive into a large pit in a pine grove in Sosenki, a nearby wooded area (sometimes referred to as Sosenki Forest), and 6,000 Jewish children suffered the same fate at a nearby site.[8] From 8-13 November German actorOlaf Bach was flown to the city to perform for the German forces.[citation needed] The city's remaining Jews were sent toRivne Ghetto. In July 1942, they were sent 70 km (43 mi) north toKostopil and shot to death.
On 2 February 1944, the city was captured by theRed Army in theBattle of Rivne, and remained under Soviet control until Ukraine regained its independence on the break-up of the USSR in 1991. Poles from Rivne were deported to Poland's new borders after 1945.
In 1958, a TV tower began broadcasting in the city; in 1969, the firsttrolley ran through the city; in 1969,Rivne airport opened. In 1983, the city celebrated its 700th anniversary.
On 14 March 2022,Rivne TV Tower has experienced heavy missile attack byRussian troops. The tower was damaged and an administrative room was destroyed. As a result of attack 20 people were killed and nine injured.[9][10][11]
According to a survey conducted by theInternational Republican Institute in April–May 2023, 96% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 3% spoke Russian.[15]
Rivne has a moderatecontinental climate with cold, snowy winters and warm summers. Snow cover usually lasts from November until March.[16] The average annual precipitation is 598 mm (24 in) June and July being the wettest months and January and February the driest.
Climate data for Rivne, Ukraine (1991–2020, extremes 1951–present)
DuringSoviet times the provincial town was transformed into an industrial center of the republic. There were two significant factories built. The first was a machine building and metal processing factory capable of producing high-voltage apparatus, tractor spare parts and others. The other was a chemical factory and synthetic materials fabrication plant. Light industry, including a linen plant and a textile mill, as well as food industries, including milk and meat processing plants and a vegetable preservation plant, have also been built. In addition the city became a production center for furniture and other building materials.[citation needed]
As an important cultural center, Rivne hosts a humanities and a hydro-engineering university, as well as a faculty of the Kyiv State Institute of Culture,[citation needed] and medical and musical as well as automobile-construction, commercial, textile, agricultural and cooperative polytechnic colleges. The city has a historical museum.
Following thefall of the Soviet Union, the monument for the Soviet heroDmitry Medvedev was removed, and theNikolai Kuznetsov monument was moved to another location within the city. Instead, in order to reflect the controversial history of the region the monuments for "People who died in the honor of Ukraine", and "Soldiers who died in local military battles" were installed.
During Soviet times the center of the city from Lenin street to Peace Avenue (1963 architects R.D. Vais and O.I. Filipchuk) was completely rebuilt with Administrative and Public buildings in neo-classical,Stalinist style.
Monument to the 25th Anniversary of the Liberation of Rivne from the Fascists, Mlynivs'ke Highway
Monument to the Victims of Fascism, Bila Street Square (1968, by A.I. Pirozhenko and B.V. Rychkov, architect-V.M.Gerasimenko)
Bust on the Tomb of Partisan M. Strutyns'ka and Relief on the Tomb of Citizens S. Yelentsia and S. Kotiyevs'koho, Kniazia Volodymyra Street, Hrabnyk Cemetery
Monument to the Perished of Ukraine, Magdeburz'koho Prava Plaza
Communal Grave of Warriors, Soborna StreetMemorial to Warriors' Glory, Dubenska Street, Rivne Military Cemetery
Monument of Eternal Glory, Kyivs'ka Street
Monument toTaras Shevchenko, T.G. Shevchenko Park; Statue on Nezalezhnosti Plaza
Memorial to Warriors' Glory, Dubens'ka Street, Rivne Military Cemetery (1975, by M.L. Farina, architect-N.A. Dolgansky)
Monument to the Warrior and the Partisan, Peremohy Plaza (1948 by I.Ya. Matveenko)
Monument toN.I. Kuznetsov (bronze and granite, 1961 by V.P Vinaikin)
In 1992, a 20,000-square-metre (4.9-acre) memorial complex was established at the site of the World War II massacre to commemorate the 17,500 Jews murdered there in November 1941 duringthe Holocaust, marking the mass grave with an obelisk inscribed inYiddish,Hebrew andUkrainian.[20] On 6 June 2012, the World War II Jewish burial site was vandalised, as part of anantisemitic attack.[21]
In his memoirA Tale of Love and Darkness, Israeli authorAmos Oz describes Rivne through the memories of his mother and her family, who grew up in the city before emigrating to Israel in the 1930s.[22]
Rivne was mentioned several times inThe Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, a 1992 episode of the Canadian-American TV showAre You Afraid of the Dark?, being referred to by a variation of its pre-1991 name (either Ravno or Rovno).
InLeonard Bernstein's operettaCandide, the character of The Old Lady sings an aria "I am easily assimilated", in which she refers to her father having been born in Rovno Gubernya
Dahn Ben-Amotz (1924–1989), Israeli radio broadcaster, journalist, playwright and author
Ancestors ofLeonard Bernstein (1918–1990), the American composer include his father, Samuel, who was born inBerezdiv and his mother, Jennie, born in Sheptevoka in the Rovno region. In Bernstein's operettaCandide, the character ofThe Old Lady sings an aria,"I am easily assimilated", in which she refers to her father as having been born inRovno Gubernya
Vsevolod Zaderatsky (1891–1953), Russian Imperial and Ukrainian Soviet composer, pianist and teacher
Yana Zinkevych (born 1995), Ukrainian member of parliament and military veteran
Moishe Zilberfarb (1876-1934), Ukrainian politician, diplomat, and public activist
Maksym Kryvtsov (1990–2024), Ukrainian poet, public figure, volunteer, soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and participant in the Russian-Ukrainian war
Grygorii Tsekhmistrenko (1994–2023), Canadian civic activist, volunteer medic of Ukrainian origin, soldier of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, participant of the Russian-Ukrainian war
Ancestors ofDemian Maia (born 1977),UFC Fighter,BJJ Champion andADCC Champion. His grandfather Stefan Szwec came from Rovno, village of Shpaniv to Brazil in 1926. Demian Maia’s grandmother, Eugenia Kirilchuk, also came from Rovno region.
^Погода и Климат – Климат Ровно [Weather and Climate – The Climate of Rivne] (in Russian). Weather and Climate (Погода и климат).Archived from the original on 3 March 2021. Retrieved8 November 2021.
^(in Ukrainian) Рівне, план міста, 1:12000. Міста України. Картографія.
^"Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Rivne".Information Portal to European Sites of Remembrance. Berlin, Germany: Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas.Archived from the original on 6 February 2020. Retrieved5 February 2020.
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