The name Chernihiv/Chernigov is a compound name, which begins with the Slavic root Cherni-/Cherno-, which means 'black'.[6] Scholars vary with interpretations of the second part of the name (-hiv/-gov, -говъ) though scholars such as Dr. Martin Dimnik, Professor of Medieval History at University of Toronto, connect Chernihov with the worship of "the black god" Chernibog.[7]
The city of Chernihiv is also historically known by different names in other languages – Polish: Czernihów; Yiddish: טשערניגאָב.
History
Early history
Chernihiv was first mentioned (as Черниговъ)[citation needed] in the Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (907), but the time of its establishment is unknown.[8] Artifacts from the KhazarKhaganate uncovered by archaeological excavations at a settlement there indicate that it seems to have existed at least as early as the 9th century. Towards the end of the 10th century, the city probably had its own rulers. It was there that the Black Grave, one of the largest and earliest royal mounds in Eastern Europe, was excavated in the 19th century.
The city was the second wealthiest and most important in the southern portion of the Kievan Rus'.[9] From the early 11th century on, it was the seat of the powerful Principality of Chernigov, whose rulers at times vied for power with KievanGrand Princes, and often overthrew them and took the primary seat in Kiev for themselves.
The grand principality was the largest in Kievan Rus and included not only the Severian towns but even such remote regions as Murom, Ryazan and Tmutarakan. The golden age of Chernigov, when the city population peaked at 25,000, lasted until 1239 when the city was sacked by the hordes of Batu Khan, and entered a long period of relative obscurity.
The area's importance increased again in the middle of the 17th century during and after the Khmelnytsky Uprising. In the Hetman State, Chernihiv was the city of deployment for the Chernihiv Cossackregiment (both a military and territorial unit of the state at the time).
According to the census of 1897, the city of Chernihiv had 11,000 Jews out of a total population of 27,006. Their primary occupations were industrial and commercial. Many tobacco plantations and fruit gardens in the neighborhood were owned by Jews. There were 1,321 Jewish artisans in Chernihiv, including 404 tailors and seamstresses, but the demand for artisan labor was limited to the town. There were 69 Jewish day-laborers, almost exclusively teamsters. Few, however, were employed in factories.[10][11]
World War II
During World War II, Chernihiv was occupied by the German Army from 9 September 1941 to 21 September 1943. The Germans operated a Nazi prison[12] and a forced labour battalion for Jews in the city.[13]
Until 18 July 2020, Chernihiv was designated as a city of oblast significance and did not belong to Chernihiv 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 Chernihiv Oblast to five, the city was merged into Chernihiv Raion.[16][17]
In June 2022, Chernihiv signed an agreement with Rzeszów, Poland to become sister cities.[18][19]
Siege of Chernihiv
А Russian Su-34 with bombs shot down over Chernihiv
On 19 August 2023, a Russian missile strike killed seven in the city. On 17 April 2024, another Russian missile strike killed over a dozen people in the city.[25]
Despite considering Ukrainian a native language, not all people were using it in daily life, as Russian remained the primary language for communication in Chernihiv.[28] A 2017 survey that asked what language do participants use at home revealed that Ukrainian was spoken only by 18% of the city's population, both Ukrainian and Russian were at 28%, while Russian was the most at 53%.[29]
However the 2022 Russian invasion has caused a new wave of Ukrainization in Chernihiv, with more and more people switching to Ukrainian in their private lives.[30] According to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute between April and May 2023, 53% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 41% spoke Russian.[31]
Geography
Chernihiv stands on the Desna River 150 km (93 mi) to the north-northeast of Kyiv.
In Ukraine, the river's width ranges from 60 to 250 m (200 to 820 ft), with its average depth being 3 m (9.8 ft). The mean annual discharge at its mouth is 360 m3/s (13,000 cu ft/s). The river freezes over from early December to early April and is navigable from Novhorod-Siverskyi to its mouth, for about 535 km (332 mi).
Snov River
The Snov River, right tributary of the Desna River (Dnieper basin), also goes through Chernihiv. The length of the river is 253 km (157 mi). The area of its drainage basin is 8,700 km2 (3,400 sq mi). The Snov freezes in November – late January and stays icebound until March – early April. Part of the river forms the Russia–Ukraine border.
According to Ruthenian chronicles, in 1068 a battle took place at the Snov River between Duke of Chernihiv Sviatoslav Yaroslavich and Cumans led by Duke Sharukan.
Climate
Chernihiv has a humid continental climate (KöppenDfb) with cold, cloudy and snowy winters, and warm, sunny summers. The average annual temperature for Chernihiv is 7.0 °C (44.6 °F), ranging from a low of −5.6 °C (21.9 °F) in January to a high of 19.5 °C (67.1 °F) in July. Precipitation is well distributed throughout the year though precipitation is higher during the summer months and lower during the winter months. The record high was 41.1 °C (106.0 °F) and the record low was −36.0 °C (−32.8 °F).
Climate data for Chernihiv (1991–2020, extremes 1948–present)
Chernihiv's architectural monuments chronicle the two most flourishing periods in the city's history – those of Kievan Rus' (11th and 12th centuries) and of the Cossack Hetmanate (late 17th and early 18th centuries).
The oldest church in the city and one of the oldest churches in Ukraine is the 5-domed Transfiguration Cathedral, commissioned in the early 1030s by Mstislav the Bold and completed several decades later by his brother, Yaroslav the Wise. The Cathedral of Sts Boris and Gleb, dating from the mid-12th century, was much rebuilt in succeeding periods, before being restored to its original shape in the 20th century. Likewise built in brick, it has a single dome and six pillars.
The crowning achievement of Chernihiv masters was the exquisite Piatnytska Church, constructed at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. This graceful building was seriously damaged in the Second World War; its original medieval outlook was reconstructed to a design by Pyotr Baranovsky.
The historic center of Chernihiv has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List since 1989,[36] but currently the creation of a renewed nomination is underway.[37][38]
Yeletsky monastery cathedral was modeled after that of Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. Note the contrast between its austere 12th-century walls and baroque 17th-century domes.
The earliest residential buildings in the downtown date from the late 17th century, a period when a Cossack regiment was deployed there. Two most representative residences are those of Polkovnyk Lyzohub (1690s) and Polkovnyk Polubotok (18th century). The former mansion, popularly known as the Mazepa House, used to contain the regiment's chancellery. One of the most profusely decorated Cossack structures is undoubtedly the ecclesiastical collegium, surmounted by a bell-tower (1702). The archbishop's residence was constructed nearby in the 1780s. St. Catherine Church (1715), with its 5 gilded pear domes, traditional for Ukrainian architecture, is thought to have been intended as a memorial to the regiment's exploits during the storm of Azov in 1696.
Monasteries
All through the most trying periods of its history, Chernihiv retained its ecclesiastical importance as the seat of either a bishopric or an archbishopric. At the outskirts of the modern city lie two ancient cave monasteries formerly used as the bishops' residences.
The caves of the Yeletskyi Monastery are said to predate those of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (Kyiv Monastery of the Caves). Its magnificent six-pillared cathedral was erected at the turn of the 11th to 12th centuries; some traces of its 750-year-old murals may still be seen in the interior. After the domes collapsed in 1611, they were augmented and reconstructed in the Ukrainian baroque style. The wall, monastic cells, and bell-tower all date from the 17th century.
The nearby mother superior's house is thought to be the oldest residential building in the Left-Bank Ukraine. The cloister's holiest icon used to be that of Theotokos, who made her epiphany to Sviatoslav of Chernigov on 6 February 1060. The icon, called Yeletskaya after the fir wood it was painted upon, was taken to Moscow by Svyatoslav's descendants, the Baryatinsky family, in 1579.
The nearby Chernihiv Glory Memorial we can find Saint Anthony Caves of Saint Elijah and the Holy Trinity features a small eponymous church, built 800 years ago. The roomy Trinity cathedral, one of the most imposing monuments of Cossack baroque, was erected between 1679 and 1689. Its refectory, with the adjoining church of Presentation to the Temple, was finished by 1679. There are also the 17th-century towered walls, monastic cells, and the five-tiered belfry from the 1780s.
Other historic abbeys in the vicinity of Chernihiv include those in Kozelets and Hustynia, which feature superb examples of Ukrainian Baroque.
Economy
Industry
Cheksil, one of the largest enterprises in the Ukrainian textile industry, is based in Chernihiv. The first stage of the plant was put into operation in 1963.[39] The city also has the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory established in 1933. In 1995 a manufacturer of goods for animals, called COLLAR Company, was established by Yuri Sinitsa.[40][41][42]
Chernihiv has a train station with bus station called Chernihiv Ovruch railway. Narrow gauge railway of 76 versts was laid from the Kruty station of the Moscow Kyiv-Voronezh railway towards Chernihiv. In 1893, on the left bank of the Desna River, in the area of a modern automobile bridge, a railway station was built along the Kyiv highway. Passengers were delivered here from the city and back by horse transport.
In 1925, traffic was opened on the Nizhyn to Chernigiv section of the Southwest Railway. But rail transport in Chernihiv was postponed until 1928. The bridge over the Desna River was not ready and trains still arrived on the left bank, where the old narrow-gauge railway station was located, and passengers got to Chernihiv by road bridge. According to 2006 data, the volume of freight traffic is 84,737 wagons per year. Over 4.5 million passengers are transported each year.
However, the condition of the rolling stock and the quality of the services provided do not meet modern requirements. Since the introduction of the new high-speed train timetable, the trailed wagons of the 93/94 Chernihiv – Odesa train were canceled. As of 2015, regular trains from Minsk to Odesa, and from St. Petersburg to Kyiv to Kharkiv run through Chernihiv, and there are direct connections with Moscow. Trains to Crimea (Simferopol, Feodosia) were canceled on 27 December 2014 due to Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Public transport includes buses and trolleybuses. There is no direct connection between railway station and Chernihiv-1 bus station to the most central sights on the Val. Trolleybus 1 and bus 38 are going to the Drama Theater stop near Piatnytska Church. Different routes come to Hotel Ukraine from different sides.
The main Football club of Chernihiv is called FC Desna Chernihiv, the original name of the club was "Avanhard Chernihiv" during its first year of existence. Between 1961 and 1970 the club was called Desna. In 1972 it was replaced with SC Chernihiv (team of the SKA Kyiv) that played in Chernihiv for the next couple of years. In 1977 Desna was revived now in place of the amateur club "Khimik Cherhihiv" that won regional competitions. On 27 May 2018, the team got promoted to the Ukrainian Premier League for the first time in their history.
The original team colours were blue shirts, blue shorts, blue socks. The team got into the Quarterfinals of the Ukrainian Cup in the season 2017–18 against Dynamo Kyiv. The club and during the season 2019–20 got again into the Quarterfinals of the Ukrainian Cup for the second time of the history of the club. In Premier League in the season 2019–20, Desna got into the play-offs for the Championship round table and qualified mathematically at least for the Europa League third qualifying round, for the first time in the history of the Club since 1960.[43]
The Club of FC Desna Chernihiv played at the Olympic sports training center "Chernihiv" (formerly Stadion Yuriya Gagarina). The Chernihiv Stadium was built in 1936 for 3,000 spectators in eastern portion of a city park (garden) that exists since 1804 and where previously was located residence of the Chernihiv Archbishops.
^Погода и Климат – Климат Чернигов [Weather and Climate – The Climate of Chernihiv] (in Russian). Weather and Climate (Погода и климат). Retrieved 29 October 2021.
Karnabida, A. Chernihiv. Istorychno-arkhitekturnyi narys (Kyiv 1969)
(1972) Історіа міст і сіл Української CCP – Чернігівська область (History of Towns and Villages of the Ukrainian SSR – Chernihiv Oblast), Kyiv. (in Ukrainian)
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