Volodymyr Володимир Володимѣрь | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Church of Sts. Joachim and Anne  Lutheran Church  Dormition Cathedral and Bishop's Palace | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Volodymyr Location of Volodymyr Show map of Volyn Oblast Volodymyr Volodymyr (Ukraine) Show map of Ukraine | |
| Coordinates:50°50′53″N24°19′20″E / 50.84806°N 24.32222°E /50.84806; 24.32222 | |
| Country |  Ukraine |
| Oblast | Volyn Oblast |
| Raion | Volodymyr Raion |
| Hromada | Volodymyr urban hromada |
| First mentioned | 988 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Ihor Palyonka |
| Elevation | 174 m (571 ft) |
| Population (2022)[1] | |
• Total |  37,910 |
• Estimate (2023)[2] | 38,164 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| Postal index | 44700-44709 |
| Area code | +380 3342 |
| Website | volodymyrrada |
Volodymyr (Ukrainian:Володимир,IPA:[woloˈdɪmɪr]ⓘ; Polish:Włodzimierz, originally Włodzimierz Wołyński), previously known asVolodymyr-Volynskyi (Володимир-Волинський) from 1944 to 2021, is a small city inVolyn Oblast, northwesternUkraine. It serves as the administrative centre ofVolodymyr Raion and the center of Volodymyr urbanhromada. It is one of the oldest cities in Ukraine and the historic centre of the region ofVolhynia; it served as the capital of thePrincipality of Volhynia and later as one of the capital cities of theKingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Population:37,910 (2022 estimate).[1]
The medieval Latin name of the town "Lodomeria" became the namesake of the 19th centuryAustro-HungarianKingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, of which the town itself was not a part. Five kilometres (three miles) south from Volodymyr isZymne, where the oldestOrthodox monastery in Volhynia is located.
The city was named afterVladimir the Great (Volodymyr the Great), who was born in the village ofBudiatychi, about 20 km from Volodymyr, and later also abbreviatedLodomeria,Ladimiri. Following thepartitions of Poland and the annexation ofVolhynia by theRussian Empire in 1795, it was calledVolodymyr-Volynskyi (Vladimir-Volynsky) to distinguish it fromVladimir-on-Klyazma.[3] The name was not in use between 1919 and 1939 when the city was again part of Poland. In 1944, the name Volodymyr-Volynskyi was restored.
On 1 October 2021, the city council voted to drop the regional qualifier and change the name of the city to justVolodymyr.[4] The decision had to be ratified by Ukraine's national parliament (Verkhovna Rada) to take effect. On 14 December 2021 parliament approved the name change (it was supported by 348 out of 424 people's deputies).[3] The city of Vladimir in Russia opposed the name change, claiming that there can be only one city called Vladimir.[3]
Over the centuries its residents and rulers have used various names:
The city is one of the oldest towns in Ukraine. The origin of the nameVolodymyr is uncertain. The city is first mentioned in two 12th-century sources: theGesta Hungarorum and thePrimary Chronicle (PVL). TheGesta mentions under the year 884 that theMagyars first arrived in Kiev (modernKyiv), moved westward and stayed in the city ofLodomir for two weeks before finally settling inPannonia (in the region of present-dayHungary). The PVL mentions the city for the first time under the year 988, whenVolodimer I had just conquered Kiev and appointed as prince his son Vsevolod inVolodimer (Old East Slavic:Вьсеволода въ Володимери).[5] This suggests, on the one hand, that the city already existed and, on the other hand, that the city already had this name,[6] not that Volodimer I renamed the already existing city after himself shortly after his takeover. Either way, it became a stronghold of his reign.[7]
In 1160, the building of theSobor of Dormition of the Holy Mother of God was completed.[8] By the 13th century, the city became part ofGalicia–Volhynia as one of the most important trading towns in the region. According to a contemporary chronicle, kingAndrew II of Hungary, who campaigned in the town's vicinity, was impressed by Volodymyr's powerful defences, claiming that he had never seen a city like that even inGerman lands.[9] After being conquered byBatu Khan in 1240, the city was under the rule of theMongol Empire, together with other principalities in Rus'. In 1241, the Mongol army gathered near the town before theFirst Mongol invasion of Poland.[10]
In the early 14th century, theMetropolitan of Kiev and all Rus',Theognostus, resided in the city for several years before moving toMoscow.[11] In 1349, the Polish king,Casimir the Great, captured the city, and subsequently it became part of theKingdom of Poland. The Polish king began building a castle, destroyed by Lithuanians after 1370,[12] and established a Catholic bishopric in the city (known as Włodzimierz), later transferred to nearbyLutsk, which in the 15th century instead of Volodymyr became the leading city and capital ofVolhynia.[13] In 1370, it was taken by theGrand Duchy of Lithuania (after 1386, part of thePolish–Lithuanian Union) and it was not until theUnion of Lublin of 1569 that it returned to theCrown of Poland.[13] In the meantime, the city was givenMagdeburg town rights in 1431. In 1491 and 1500, it was invaded byTatars.[12]
From 1566 to 1795 it was part of theVolhynian Voivodeship. It was aroyal city of Poland. Most of the city's landmarks were built at that time, including theBaroque church of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the Jesuit church, the Dominican monastery and the chapel of St. Josaphat. Włodzimierz was also a garrison town, with the 6th Polish Infantry Regiment stationed there in 1790, and the 2nd Polish National Cavalry Brigade stationed there in 1794.[14]
On 17 July 1792, theBattle of Włodzimierz took place in the vicinity of the town: a numerically inferior Polish force led byTadeusz Kościuszko defeated a Russian army.
The city remained a part of Poland until theThird Partition of Poland of 1795 when theRussian Empire annexed it. That year the Russian authorities changed the name of several cities inVolhynia, includingZviahel, which became Novohrad-Volynskyi. Volodymyr-Volynskyi stayed within theRussian Partition until 1917. In the 19th century, as part of anti-Polish repressions, the Russians demolished theDominican church andCapuchin monastery, and the formerJesuit and thenBasilian church was converted into an Orthodox church.
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In the 18th and 19th centuries the town started to grow rapidly, mostly thanks to large numbers ofJews settling there as part of thePale of Settlement. By the second half of the 19th century, they made up the majority of the population. According to theGeographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland,[12] in the late 19th century, the city had 8,336 inhabitants, 6,122 of them Jews. In 1908, the railway station was opened.
Immediately afterWorld War I, the area became disputed by the newly formedSecond Polish Republic,Bolshevist Russia, and theUkrainian People's Republic, with the Polish 17th Infantry Regiment capturing it overnight on 23 January 1919. In theinterbellum, the city was a seat of apowiat within theVolhynian Voivodeship of Poland and an importantgarrison was located there. According to the 1921 census, the population was 48.2%Jewish, 32.0%Polish, 16.8%Ukrainian, 2.6%Russian.[15] In 1926, the Volyn Artillery Reserve Cadet School (Wołyńska Szkoła Podchorążych Rezerwy Artylerii) was established in Włodzimierz.
Following theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact betweenNazi Germany and theSoviet Union, and the start ofWorld War II, the city wasoccupied by Soviet forces on 19 September 1939. The commander, adjutant, 15 instructors and two other staff members of the Volyn Artillery Reserve Cadet School were murdered by the Russians in theKatyn massacre in 1940.[16][17]
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On 23 June 1941, at the start of theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union, the city was occupied by Germany and attached to theReichskommissariat Ukraine, and immediately the Jewish community of 11,554 began to be persecuted. Between 1–3 September 1942, 25,000 Jews from the local area were shot atPiatydni. On 13 November 1942, the Germans killed another 3,000 Jews from the town near Piatydni. During World War II, a Germanconcentration camp was located near the city. About 140 Jews returned to the city after the war but most later emigrated. By 1999, only 30 remained.[19]
From September 1941, the Germans operated the Oflag XI-Aprisoner-of-war camp in the town, which was reorganized asStalag 365 in April 1942.[20] In September 1943, Stalag 365 was relocated toNovara, Italy.[21]
In 1943, the city became a shelter for Poles escapingmassacres carried out by Ukrainian nationalists of theUkrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).[22] Attacks by the UPA took place mainly in the suburbs. Poles were defended both by the Polish police established with the consent of the Germans and an illegal self-defense unit. In the city, Poles suffered from overpopulation, hunger and diseases.[22] According to later research byWładysław Siemaszko andEwa Siemaszko, a total of 111 Poles were killed in a dozen UPA attacks.[22] The city was liberated by theRed Army on 20 July 1944 and annexed to theUkrainian SSR. After the war, the vast majority of Polish residents was displaced to the post-war Polish territories, as the city was annexed from Poland by the Soviets.[22]
ACold War air base was located north-east of the town atZhovtnevy.
Since 1991, the city has been part of independent Ukraine.
A series of mass graves were discovered in 1997, with exhumations completed by 2013. Originally thought to be an example ofNKVDmass murder, similar to theKatyn massacre and theVinnytsia massacre,[23] the Volodymyr-Volynskyi murders were shown in 2012 to have been carried out by German forces, most likely theEinsatzgruppen C.[24] The primary archeological evidence for German culpability was that most of the bullet shell casings were dated 1941 and were from a German factory. Testimony by a Jewish survivor of the city, Ann Kazimirski (née Ressels),[25][26] who lived on Kovelska Street, recorded by theUSC Shoah Foundation corroborated the view that the perpetrators were German and that the victims were primarily Jewish.[27] Anthropological analysis of the remains led to the conclusion that three quarters of the victims were women and children. The 747 victims were reinterred in local city cemeteries.[28]
| Climate data for Volodymyr-Volynskyi (1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 0.0 (32.0) | 1.2 (34.2) | 6.3 (43.3) | 14.0 (57.2) | 20.1 (68.2) | 22.5 (72.5) | 24.6 (76.3) | 24.1 (75.4) | 18.7 (65.7) | 13.0 (55.4) | 5.9 (42.6) | 1.1 (34.0) | 12.6 (54.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −2.9 (26.8) | −2.1 (28.2) | 2.0 (35.6) | 8.4 (47.1) | 14.1 (57.4) | 16.9 (62.4) | 18.8 (65.8) | 18.0 (64.4) | 13.2 (55.8) | 8.2 (46.8) | 2.7 (36.9) | −1.5 (29.3) | 8.0 (46.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −5.7 (21.7) | −5.4 (22.3) | −1.7 (28.9) | 3.1 (37.6) | 8.1 (46.6) | 11.1 (52.0) | 13.1 (55.6) | 12.1 (53.8) | 8.2 (46.8) | 4.1 (39.4) | −0.2 (31.6) | −4.2 (24.4) | 3.6 (38.5) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 33.8 (1.33) | 35.3 (1.39) | 36.5 (1.44) | 42.9 (1.69) | 66.8 (2.63) | 81.4 (3.20) | 92.9 (3.66) | 66.8 (2.63) | 61.2 (2.41) | 42.7 (1.68) | 43.5 (1.71) | 39.2 (1.54) | 643.0 (25.31) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 9.2 | 9.8 | 9.2 | 8.1 | 9.0 | 9.8 | 10.1 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 7.4 | 9.6 | 10.1 | 109.3 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 85.5 | 83.9 | 79.0 | 70.6 | 70.4 | 73.5 | 74.3 | 75.1 | 80.0 | 81.6 | 85.9 | 87.2 | 78.9 |
| Source:World Meteorological Organization[29] | |||||||||||||
The oldest place of worship in the town is the Temple of Volodymyr, erected several kilometres from the modern town's centre and first mentioned in a chronicle (letopis) of 1044. The oldest existing church is theDormition of the Mother of God built by Mstyslav Izyaslavovych in 1160. By the late 18th century it fell into disuse and finally collapsed in 1829, but was restored between 1896 and 1900. The third of the old Orthodox churches is theEastern OrthodoxBasil the Great's cathedral, which was erected in the 14th or 15th century, though local legends attribute its construction toVolodymyr the Great, who supposedly built it some time after 992.
In 1497, DukeAlexander Jagiellon erected a Catholic church of Holy Trinity and aDominican monastery. In 1554, another wooden Catholic church was founded by PrincessAnna Zbaraska, which was later replaced by a new St. Joachim and Anna's church in 1836. In 1755, aJesuit church was erected there by thestarost ofSłonimIgnacy Sadowski and, in 1780, theGreek Catholic Josaphat's church was added to the list. Following theRussian Empire's takeover of the town, in the effect of thePartitions of Poland, both shrines were confiscated and donated to the authorities of the Orthodox Church, which converted them to an Orthodox monastery and church, respectively, while the Dominican monastery was converted to an administrative building.
There also existsVolodymyr Historical Museum, an architectural monument of the 19th century.
Volodymyr istwinned with:
Dubno,UkraineKorosten, Ukraine
Hrubieszów,PolandKętrzyn, PolandŁęczyca, PolandMalbork, Poland[30]
Zwickau,Germany
Raseiniai,Lithuania
Official Web site of the Volodymyr-Vohlynsky historical museum
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