The administrative center of the oblast is the city ofSumy. Other important cities within the oblast includeKonotop,Okhtyrka,Romny, andShostka. The modern region combines territories of the historicalSeveria (northern part) andSloboda Ukraine (southern part). On territory of the Sumy Oblast important centers of Ukrainian culture are located, such as the city ofHlukhiv which served as a hetman residence during theCossack Hetmanate as well as the cities ofOkhtyrka andSumy which were regional centers of theSloboda Ukraine.
The oblast has a heavy mix of agriculture and industry, with over 600 industrial locations. Among the most notable was the Sovietfilm stock manufacturerSvema inShostka. Importantly, seven rivers pass through the oblast.
The Sumy Oblast is situated in the northeastern part of Ukraine. In Ukraine it bordersChernihiv Oblast to its west,Poltava Oblast – southwest, andKharkiv Oblast – southeast. To its east Sumy Oblast borders theRussian Federation includingBryansk on the northeast,Kursk andBelgorod on the east. The length of thestate borderwith the Russian Federation is 563.8 km (350.3 mi). There are three railway border crossing (Volfine, Pushkarne, Zernove) and five highway border crossings (Bachivsk, Katerynivka, Ryzhivka, Yunakivka, Velyka Pysarivka). In regard to border crossings, since 2006 the city of Sumy hasan airport which has an international checkpoint.
On its territory theDnieper Lowland transitions east to theCentral Russian Upland. The northern part of Sumy Oblast is part of thePolesie Lowland as its eastern region. Elevation is 110–240 m above sea level.[6]Its area (23,800 km2) constitutes 3.95% of the country.
Seven main rivers flow through the oblast, withDesna River being the largest.[6] All of them are transit because crossing the oblast flowing from the territory of the Russian Federation west towardsDnieper. All rivers in Sumy Oblast are part of the Dnieper River basin.
The Sumy Oblast contains 168 objects and territories of natural reserve. The oblast is rich in picturesque banks of numerous rivers, and sources of mineral waters.Major environmental problems are:soil erosion,pesticide pollution, air andwater pollution. The city has a problem of garbage utilization.The only place for pesticide utilization in Ukraine[citation needed] is Shostka, Sumy Oblast.
According to the2001 Ukrainian census,Ukrainian was the native language for over 83% of Sumy Oblast's population: it was the dominant language in the absolute majority of the city, town, and village councils of the oblast.Russian was dominant in several differently-sized zones near the border with Russia. Approximately 40% of the predominantly Russian-speaking local councils had a significant Ukrainian-speaking minority, which accounted for over 20% of the local population.
Due to theRussification of Ukraine during the Soviet era, the share of Ukrainian speakers in the population of Sumy Oblast gradually decreased, while the share of Russian speakers increased.[17] Native language of the population of Sumy Oblast according to the results of population censuses:[18][19][20][21][22][23]
Ukrainian is the only official language on the whole territory of Sumy Oblast.[25]
According to a poll conducted byRating from 16 November to 10 December 2018 as part of the project «Portraits of Regions», 60% of the residents of Sumy Oblast believed that the Ukrainian language should be the only state language on the entire territory of Ukraine. 22% believed that Ukrainian should be the only state language, while Russian should be the second official language in some regions of the country. 10% believed that Russian should become the second state language of the country. 8% found it difficult to answer.[26]
On 26 April 2023, Sumy Oblast Military Administration approved the «Programme for the Development of the Ukrainian Language in All Spheres of Public Life in Sumy Oblast for 2023—2027», the main objective of which is to strengthen the positions of the Ukrainian language in various spheres of public life in the oblast.[27]
According to the research of theContent Analysis Centre, conducted from 15 August to 15 September 2024, the topic of which was the ratio of Ukrainian and Russian languages in the Ukrainian segment ofsocial media, 75.0% of posts from Sumy Oblast were written in Ukrainian (72.5% in 2023, 55.9% in 2022, 19.4% in 2020), while 25.0% were written in Russian (27.5% in 2023, 44.1% in 2022, 80.6% in 2020).[28][29]
After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Sumy Oblast, as well as Ukraine as a whole, experienced a gradualUkrainization of the education system, which had beenRussified[30] during the Soviet era. Dynamics of the ratio of thelanguages of instruction in general secondary education institutions in Sumy Oblast:[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
According to theState Statistics Service of Ukraine, in the 2023—2024 school year, all 91,513 pupils in general secondary education institutions in Sumy Oblast were studying in classes whereUkrainian was the language of instruction.[38]
The local administration of the oblast is controlled by the Sumy Oblast council. The governor of the oblast (chairman of state regional administration) is appointed by thePresident of Ukraine.
The main industrial activities of the oblast are: chemical mechanical engineering, pumping and energy mechanical engineering, agricultural machine-construction, instrument-making industry and radio electronics, technical equipment production for processing fields of agro-industrial complexes, mining and iron ore production industry, polygraph industry and medicine production, oil and gas processing, chemical production, film and photo material production(See:Svema), and chemical fertilizer production. In general, there are 273 large industry enterprises and 327 small industry enterprises.
In 1999, the gross grain yield was about 446,000 tons, sugar beets – 664,000 tons, sunflower seeds – 27,700 tons, potatoes – 343,600 tons. The region also produced 108,700 tons of meat, 517,800 tons of milk and 295,300,000 eggs. At the beginning of 1999, there were 781 registered farms in the oblast.
Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their capital cities, officially referred to as "oblast centers" (Ukrainian:обласний центр,translit.oblasnyi tsentr). The name of each oblast is arelativeadjective, formed by adding a femininesuffix to the name of respective center city:Sumy is the center of theSums’ka oblast (Sumy Oblast). Most oblasts are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna", as is the case with the Sumy Oblast,Sumshchyna.
^ab"ІNVESTMENT PASSPORT of Sumy oblast"(PDF).investukraine.com. State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine. 2013. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 13 August 2014. Retrieved12 August 2014.
^Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934-1980," American Political Science Review 78 (December 1984): 1019-1039.
^«Статистичний щорічник України за 1998 рік» — К., 1999."Джерело".pics.livejournal.com. Retrieved26 December 2024.
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