Kiev

/kee"ef, -ev/; Russ. /kyee"yif/, n.

a city in and the capital of Ukraine, on the Dnieper River. 2,144,000.

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Ukrainian Kyyiv

City (pop., 2001: 2,611,000), capital of Ukraine.

Located along the Dnieper River, it was founded in the 8th century, and by the late 9th century its princes had expanded their territory to establish the state of Kievan Rus. In 1240 it was destroyed by the Tatars of the Golden Horde; after being rebuilt, it came successively under Lithuanian, Polish, and Cossack rule. It was incorporated into Russia in 1793, and in 1934 it became the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It became Ukraine's national capital after the country achieved its independence in 1991. An important industrial city, it is also an educational and cultural centre; it is the seat of a state university and the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

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Introduction

Ukrainian  Kyyiv , Russian  Kiyev 

 chief city and capital of Ukraine and capital of Kiev oblast (province). A port on the Dnieper River and a large railroad junction, it is a city with an ancient and proud history. As the centre of Kievan Rus, the first eastern Slavic state, 1,000 years ago it acquired the title “Mother of Rus Cities.” It was severely damaged during World War II, but by the mid-1950s it was fully restored, and by the 1970s it had become a thriving, modern city with a well-developed economic and cultural life. The emergence of independent Ukraine in the early 1990s renewed Kiev's status as a major European capital. Pop. (2001) 2,611,327; (2005 est.) 2,660,401.

Physical and human geography

The landscape

Site

      The city stands on the Dnieper River just below its confluence with the Desna and 591 miles (951 km) from its mouth in the Black Sea. The original location was on the high and steep right bank, which rises above the river in an imposing line of bluffs culminating in Batyyeva Hill 330 feet (100 metres) above mean river level. This precipitous and wooded bank, topped by the golden domes and spires of churches and bell towers and by modern high-rise apartment buildings, makes the city an attractive and impressive sight from across the Dnieper. Since World War II, Kiev has extended onto the wide, low, and flat floodplain on the left bank.

Climate

      Kiev has a moderately continental climate. The average January temperature is 21 °F (−6 °C), and winter days with temperatures above freezing are not uncommon; in cold spells with a northerly or northeasterly airstream, temperatures may drop sharply, and an absolute minimum of −27 °F (−33 °C) has been recorded. Snow cover lies usually from mid-November to the end of March; the frost-free period lasts 180 days on average but in some years surpasses 200 days. Summers are warm, with a July average of 68 °F (20 °C) and a recorded maximum of 102 °F (39 °C). The mean annual precipitation is 25 inches (635 mm), with maximum rainfall in June and July.

Layout

      The city limits enclose an area of 300 square miles (780 square km) on both banks of the Dnieper. It is divided into 12 administrative wards. The focus of Kiev is the area of the ancient Upper Town, crowning the high bluffs of the Dnieper. Although largely of postwar construction, this central area retains its old street pattern, and most of the surviving historical and architectural monuments are located there. First among these is the cathedral of St. Sophia, now a museum. It was founded in the 11th century and remains, despite certain Baroque modifications in the 18th century, one of the finest and most beautiful examples of early Russo-Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture. It has a nave and four aisles and is crowned by five domes. The interior is magnificently decorated with frescoes and mosaics; it contains the tomb of Yaroslav, during whose reign the cathedral was built.

      Close by is the Baroque church of St. Andrew, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and built in the mid-18th century; its site on the crest of the steep slope to the river makes it a striking landmark. Other historical relics in the central area include the ruins of the Golden Gate, also built in the 11th century in the reign of Yaroslav; the Zaborovskyy Gate, built in 1746–48; and the remains of the Desyatynna Church, or Church of the Tithes, built in 989–996 by St. Volodymyr (Vladimir).

      Within and immediately adjacent to the area of the former Old Town are many of the city's museums, theatres, and public buildings as well as the principal shops, including the central department store and the covered market. The axis of the centre is the street known as Khreshchatyk, which runs along the bottom of a small valley the sides of which have in part been landscaped with terraced gardens interspersed with tall, modern office and apartment buildings. The greenery of the gardens, the trees lining the street, the squares that it intersects—all combine with the variegated colours of brick, red and gray granites and the decorative ceramic tiles to give Khreshchatyk an attractive and colourful aspect much admired by Kiev's inhabitants. Among important buildings on the street is that of the city council, where the 800 elected deputies hold their meetings.

      Intersecting Khreshchatyk at right angles is the wide, poplar-lined Boulevard of Taras Shevchenko, on which stands the university with its eye-catching red-washed walls. There, too, is the cathedral of St. Volodymyr (still in use as a church), built in 1850–96 in Byzantine style and containing impressive paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov and other Russian artists. Notable among the many statues in central Kiev are those that commemorate the Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Khmelnytsky, Bohdan) and the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (Shevchenko, Taras Hryhorovych).

      North of the old centre is the former trading and Jewish quarter, Podil, with a rectangular pattern of streets and the old merchants' trading exchange, the House of Contracts, built in 1817. Also north of the old centre is the river port. South of the centre is the Pecherskyy district, along the top of the riverbank. This district contains many of the principal buildings of the Ukrainian government, including the glass-domed palace, built in 1936–39, that houses the Supreme Council and the 10-story block that houses the Cabinet of Ministers. Nearby is the attractive Mariinskyy Palace, built in 1752–55 for the tsaritsa Elizabeth, reconstructed in 1870, and now used for government receptions.

      At the southern end of this district is the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), founded in the mid-11th century, one of the most famous and important monasteries in the history of the region. It was at the lavra that the monk Nestor helped compile the earliest surviving chronicle of the East Slavic state of Rus. Although the Cathedral of the Assumption (inside the walls of the monastery) was blown up in 1941, Trinity Church, of the same period, survives. Also within the walls are the 17th-century Church of All Saints and an impressive 18th-century bell tower rising 315 feet (96 metres). A major feature of the monastery is the system of catacombs (catacomb) beneath it in which the mummified bodies of early monks and saints, including Nestor, are entombed. Although it is a museum open to the public, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is still in use as a monastery. South from the lavra is yet another monastery, the Vydubytskyy, dating from the 11th century; it, too, was severely damaged in World War II.

      All along the steep riverbank, fronting the Upper Town and Pecherskyy district, an attractively landscaped park has been laid out overlooking the Dnieper. With the views it affords, the park forms one of the most striking features of the city. It contains an open-air theatre, sports stadium, and restaurant, and a funicular railway climbs the 300-foot slope. Also within the park are many memorials. Dominating the northern end is the statue of Prince Volodymyr (Vladimir I), who brought Christianity to Rus. The statue marks the place where in 988 the people of Kiev were baptized en masse. The southern end, called the Park of Glory, has an 85-foot granite obelisk rising above the grave of the Unknown Soldier and a memorial garden. Also located in the park are the grave of General Nikolay Vatutin, commander of the Soviet forces that liberated Kiev in 1943, and a rotunda marking the supposed grave of the early Varangian chief Askold.

      Around these central districts of Kiev stretch extensive suburbs of factories and residential neighbourhoods. As low priority was given to housing during the Stalin period, the greater part of these suburbs was built after his death. The neighbourhood units, known as microregions, consist of groupings of apartment buildings housing 2,500 to 5,000 people, together with basic services, local shops, a health centre, cinema, and primary school. Since the late 1960s the apartment buildings have usually been of 12 to 20 stories and of prefabricated construction. Most apartments have only two or three rooms, and population densities are therefore high, in the new residential developments as much as in the older central areas. The growing ownership of private cars poses problems in the provision of garage space in these new districts. A feature of development since World War II has been the rapid spread of the city on the low left bank of the Dnieper, previously almost devoid of settlement. The left bank is linked to the main part of Kiev by a railway bridge and by the imposing Ye.O. Paton road bridge, which is 4,920 feet (1,500 metres) long and named for its designer.

      Between the neighbourhood units are substantial areas of parks and green space. These include the large botanical gardens of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the smaller university botanical gardens (established in the mid-19th century), and in the southwestern suburbs the extensive permanent exhibition of the Ukrainian economy. On the city outskirts are several areas of forest, which are much used for recreation. In the south is the Holosiivskyy Forest Park, dominated by deciduous trees, and to the north are nearly 10,000 acres (4,450 hectares) of the Pushcha-Vodytsya Forest Park, mainly covered by coniferous species. A number of factors combine to make Kiev an attractive urban centre—the site, with its sharply contrasted relief and wide views across the Dnieper, the abundance of greenery in and around the city, and the many buildings of historical interest and beauty.

The economy

Industry

      Kiev, as the capital of Ukraine, has major administrative functions, with considerable employment in the offices of ministries responsible for the economy. The city is also an important industrial centre, possessing a wide range of manufactures. Factories are found in all quarters of the city, with major concentrations to the west of the city centre and on the left bank of the Dnieper.

      Engineering industries, based on metal from the iron and steel plants of the Dnieper Bend region and the Donets Basin (Donbas) coalfield, take pride of place and include the production of complex machinery and precision tools and instruments. Plants in Kiev make equipment for chemical works, such as conveyor lines for vulcanized rubber, linoleum, and fertilizer factories, and also produce metal-cutting machines. Other engineering products are aircraft, hydraulic elevators, electrical instruments, armatures, river- and seacraft, motorcycles, and cinematography apparatus.

      Another important sector is the chemical industry, making resin products, fertilizers, plastics, and chemical fibres, the last at the Darnytsya viscose rayon plant on the left bank. Lumber milling and the making of bricks and reinforced concrete items also are well developed. Consumer goods manufactured include cameras, thermos flasks, knitwear, footwear, a range of foodstuffs, and watches. Kiev is also a large publishing centre.

      Power for the many enterprises is supplied by natural gas, piped from Dashava in western Ukraine, and by electricity from the Kiev hydroelectric station on the Dnieper. This station, completed in 1968, is at Vyshhorod, just upstream of the city. Twenty-five miles southeast of Kiev is the still more powerful Trypillya thermal electric station.

Transportation

      Transportation for the industries and for the city as a whole is provided by a good network. Trunk railways and all-weather roads link Kiev to Moscow, to Kharkiv and the Donets Basin, to southern Ukraine and the port of Odessa, and to western Ukraine and Poland. The navigability of the Dnieper has been improved by a series of barrages and reservoirs. Boryspil airport operates direct flights to many Ukrainian towns and international service to major cities throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Within Kiev itself there is efficient subway and rail, bus, streetcar, and trolleybus service.

Social and cultural life

      Kiev's ancient tradition as a cultural centre is still vigorously alive. The Kiev T.H. Shevchenko State University heads an array of some 20 institutions of higher education, notable among which are the Polytechnic (founded in 1898), the Agricultural Academy, and the medical, art, and architectural institutes.

      There is a large number of general secondary schools, evening schools for adults, and specialist technical schools. A range of research establishments is headed by an Academy of Sciences, which also maintains the largest of the city's many libraries. Kiev is noted for medical and cybernetic research. The emphasis on applied research is illustrated by the academy's Ye.O. Paton Institute of Electrical Welding.

      There are several theatres, notably the Shevchenko Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Plays are presented at the Lesya Ukrainka and Ivan Franko theatres, which specialize in Russian and Ukrainian drama, respectively; drama is also frequently staged in the 4,000-seat auditorium of the Palace of Culture and in the Palace of Sport, which can seat 12,000 people. In addition there are youth, open-air, and musical comedy theatres. Kiev has a circus and more than 130 cinemas; films are also produced in a local studio. Concerts are regularly given at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. The most important of the city's many museums are the Kiev State Historical Museum, the Kiev State Museum of Russian Art, and the Kiev State Museum of Ukrainian Art.

      Kiev has good facilities for sports; the largest of its 15 stadiums, the Central Stadium, can accommodate 100,000 people. Aquatic sports take place on the reservoir of the Kiev dam at Vyshhorod and also on Trukhaniv Island in the Dnieper opposite the city centre, where there is a fine beach and water sports centre. The city is well provided with health facilities, including general and specialized hospitals and local polyclinics, the latter serving residential neighbourhoods. Since the majority of women are employed, a number of nursery schools and day-care centres care for children below school age. Around the outskirts of Kiev are health resorts, sanatoriums, and children's holiday camps.

History

The early period

Origins and foundation

      Kiev has a long, rich, and often stormy history. Its beginnings are lost in antiquity. Archaeological findings of stone and bone implements, the remains of primitive dwellings built of wood and skins, and large accumulations of mammoths' bones indicate that the first settlements in the vicinity date from the Upper Paleolithic Period (some 15,000 to 40,000 years ago). As early as 3000 BC in the Neolithic Period and subsequently at the time of the Cucuteni-Trypillya culture (Trypillya culture) at the end of the Neolithic, tribes engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry lived on the site of modern Kiev. Excavations continue to uncover many artifacts from settlements dating from the Copper, Bronze, and Iron ages. The tribes of the area traded with the nomadic peoples of the steppes to the south, Scythians, Sarmatians, and later Khazars, and also with the ancient Greek colonies that were located on the Black Sea coast.

      According to the 12th-century chronicle Povest vremennykh let (“Tale of Bygone Years,” also known as the The Russian Primary Chronicle (Russian Primary Chronicle, The)), Kiev was founded by three brothers, Kiy, Shchek, and Khoriv, leaders of the Polyane tribe of the East Slavs (Slav). Each established his own settlement on a hill, and these became the town of Kiev, named for the eldest brother, Kiy; a small stream nearby was named for their sister Lybed. Although the chronicle account is legendary, there are contemporary references to Kiev in the writings of Byzantine, German, and Arab historians and geographers. Archaeological evidence suggests that Kiev was founded in the 6th or 7th century AD.

The first Rus capital

      Less legendary is the chronicle account of the Varangians (Viking), who seized Kiev in the mid-9th century. As in Novgorod to the north, a Slavo-Varangian ruling elite developed. Kiev, with its good defensive site on the high river bluffs and as the centre of a rich agricultural area and a group of early Slavic towns, began to gain importance. About 882 Oleg (Oleh), the ruler of Novgorod, captured Kiev and made it his capital, the centre of the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus. The town flourished, chiefly through trade along the Dnieper going south to Byzantium and north over portages to the rivers flowing to the Baltic, the so-called “road from the Varangians to the Greeks,” or “water road.” Trade also went to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.

      In 988 the introduction of Christianity to Kiev enhanced its significance as the spiritual centre of Rus. By the 12th century, according to the chronicles, the city's wealth and religious importance was attested to by its more than 400 churches. The Cathedral of St. Sophia, parts of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves), and the ruins of the Golden Gate remain today as witnesses to Kiev at the height of its splendour. The town was famed for its art, the mosaics and frescoes of its churches, its craftsmanship in silver, and the quality of many of its manufactures. One of Europe's major cities, Kiev established diplomatic relations with Byzantium, England, France, Sweden, and other countries. Travelers wrote of its population as numbering tens of thousands.

      Throughout the period of Kievan Rus, however, the city was engaged in a succession of wars against the nomadic warrior peoples who inhabited the steppes to the south, in turn the Khazars (Khazar), Pechenegs, and Polovtsy (Kipchaks (Kipchak)). These conflicts weakened the city, but even greater harm was done by the endless, complex internecine struggles of the princedoms into which Rus was divided. In 1169 Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky (Andrew I) of Rostov-Suzdal captured and sacked Kiev. Thus by the late 12th century the power of the city had declined, and in the following century it was unable to resist the rising and formidable power of the Mongols (Golden Horde). In 1238 a Mongol army under Batu, grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded Rus and, having sacked the towns of central Rus, in 1240 besieged and stormed Kiev. Much of the city was destroyed and most of its population killed. The Franciscan friar and traveler Giovanni Da Pian Del Carpini six years later reported only 200 houses surviving in Kiev.

Kiev under Lithuania and Poland

      In the 14th century what was left of Kiev and its surrounding area came under the control of the powerful and expanding grand duchy of Lithuania (Lithuania, grand duchy of), which captured it in 1362. For a long time thereafter Kiev had little function except as a fortress and minor market on the vaguely defined frontier between Lithuania and the steppe Tatars (Tatar), based in the Crimea. It frequently came under attack from the Tatars; in 1482 the Crimean khan, Mengli Giray, took and sacked the town. Almost the only survival of Kiev's former greatness was its role as the seat of an Orthodox metropolitan. A step forward came in 1516, when the grand duke Sigismund I granted Kiev a charter of autonomy, thereby much stimulating trade.

      In 1569 the Union of Lublin (Lublin, Union of) between Lithuania and Poland gave Kiev and the Ukrainian lands to Poland. Kiev became one of the centres of Orthodox (Eastern Orthodoxy) opposition to the expansion of Polish Roman Catholic influence, spearheaded by vigorous proselytization by the Jesuits. In the 17th century a religious Ukrainian brotherhood was established in Kiev, as in other Ukrainian towns, to further this opposition and encourage Ukrainian nationalism. Peter Mogila (Mogila, Peter) (Petro Mohyla), a major theologian and metropolitan of Kiev from 1633 to 1646, founded there the Collegium (later the Academy of Kiev), which became a major focus of the struggle with Roman Catholicism.

      In the 17th century there was also increasing unrest among the Zaporozhian Cossacks of the Dnieper downstream of Kiev and an ever-growing struggle between them and the Polish crown. This eventually culminated in the revolt of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Khmelnytsky, Bohdan), who, assisted by the Crimean Tatars, entered Kiev with his insurgent Cossacks in 1648. He came under heavy pressure from the Polish forces, and in 1654 Khmelnytsky and the Cossacks signed the Pereyaslav Agreement, in essence submitting Ukraine to Moscow (Moscow, Grand Principality of); this was followed by a prolonged and confused period of strife and destruction leading in 1667 to the Treaty of Andrusovo (Andrusovo, Truce of), by which Kiev and the Dnieper left-bank part of Ukraine became an autonomous Cossack state under the suzerainty and protection of Moscow. Thereafter further struggle ensued against the Turks, with the Cossacks constantly changing sides and engaging in internecine disputes. In 1686 Kiev was finally yielded to Muscovy by Poland and stood as the sole Muscovite outpost on the right bank of the Dnieper.

Evolution of the modern city

Kiev under the tsars

      In 1793 the Second Partition of Poland, under Catherine the Great (Catherine II), brought right-bank Ukraine into the Russian Empire, and Kiev, assisted by the abolition in 1754 of the tariff barriers between Russia and the Ukrainian lands, began to grow in commercial importance. Catherine's reign was marked by the abolition of the old administrative system and of the post of Cossack hetman and the division of Ukraine into new administrative provinces, for one of which Kiev became the centre. Subsequently it became the centre of a governor-generalship covering three provinces.

      In the first half of the 19th century, Kiev developed as a major focus of Ukrainian nationalism, although severe persecution from the tsarist government forced the movement to shift the brunt of its activities to Lviv in the Austrian-ruled Ukrainian regions. In Kiev, as in Russian cities, there was clandestine revolutionary activity (beginning with the Decembrists in the early 19th century) that culminated in a series of strikes and demonstrations leading to the Russian Revolution of 1905. An important role in this revolutionary movement was taken by students of the University of Kiev (now Kiev T.H. Shevchenko State University), which had been established in 1834.

      During the 19th century the expanding economic importance of Ukraine, and especially the growing export of grain, brought further commercial development to Kiev. Modern factory industry appeared; to the Arsenal, which had been set up as early as the 18th century, were added lumber milling and the building of rivercraft. The town developed significant industries processing agricultural products—leather, tobacco, distilling, brewing, and textiles. In the late 1860s Kiev was connected by rail to both Moscow and the Black Sea port of Odessa, further enhancing its role as a centre of industry, commerce, and administration. By the outbreak of World War I, the city had a population of some 350,000.

The revolutionary period

      With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917, a revolutionary soviet, the Central Rada (rada, “council”), was elected by the city workers, consisting primarily of Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary members, with strong support from Ukrainian nationalist groups. In January 1918 the Rada proclaimed an independent Ukrainian state with Kiev as its capital. Minor uprisings by Bolshevik workers, who were mostly concentrated in the Arsenal works, were suppressed, but Red Army troops came to their aid and on Feb. 8, 1918, entered Kiev.

      By the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Brest-Litovsk, treaties of) (March 3) between the Bolshevik government and the Germans, however, the new Soviet government recognized the independence of Ukraine, which was promptly occupied by German troops. A puppet Ukrainian government was set up in Kiev by the Germans, but it collapsed with the German surrender to the Allies in November 1918 and the subsequent withdrawal of German troops. Once more an independent Ukraine was declared in Kiev, under the leadership of Simon Petlyura (Petlyura, Symon), but its brief and stormy history was a series of struggles between Ukrainian nationalist, White, and Red forces. In November 1919 Kiev was briefly taken by the White armies under General A.I. Denikin (Denikin, Anton Ivanovich) before being finally occupied by the Red Army. Peace was still denied the city, with the outbreak of the Russo-Polish War. In May 1920 the Poles captured Kiev but were driven out in a counterattack.

The Soviet period

      Kiev's role as the centre for Ukrainian nationalists caused the Soviet government (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) to transfer the capital of the new Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to Kharkiv, and it was not until 1934 that Kiev resumed its capital status. Meanwhile, restoration of the city's shattered economy was undertaken. During the first five-year plans, between 1928 and 1940, new machine tool, electrical, and chemical industries were established. By 1939 the population had reached 846,724. The German invasion (World War II) in 1941 again brought severe suffering and destruction to the city. After a fierce 80-day battle, German forces entered it on Sept. 19, 1941. More than 30,000 Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, and partisans who had remained in the city were massacred within days in a nearby ravine known as Baby Yar; tens of thousands more were killed there over the next two years. Many of Kiev's other inhabitants were deported for forced labour and to concentration camps, including almost all the large prewar Jewish population. In 1943 the advancing Soviet troops forded the Dnieper and, after bitter fighting, liberated Kiev on November 6. The city itself had suffered great destruction, including more than 40 percent of its buildings and some 800 of its industrial enterprises. For its role in the war, Kiev was later honoured by the Soviet government with the Order of Lenin, the title of Hero-City, and the Gold Star medal. In the first postwar five-year plan, rapid reconstruction was undertaken.

      Kiev continued to grow and to strengthen its industrial base during the mid- and late 20th century. Whereas during the Soviet period Kiev as an international political entity fell largely under the shadow of Moscow, the establishment of an independent Ukraine in the early 1990s returned Kiev to the world political stage.

Additional Reading

O.K. Kasymenko (ed.), Istoriia Kieva, 2 vol. (1963–64), is a thorough historical study based on archaeological evidence as well as documentary sources. Michael F. Hamm, Kiev: A Portrait, 1800–1917 (1993), includes an extensive bibliography. A.V. Kudryts'kyi (ed.), Kiev: entsiklopedicheskiĭ spravochnik, 3rd ed., enlarged (1986), is an encyclopaedic handbook. Leonid Daen, Pavel Poznyak, and Mark Cherp, Kiev: Travel Guide, trans. from Ukrainian (1971); and H. Levitsky, Kiev: A Short Guide, trans. from Russian (1980), are useful descriptive works.Richard Antony French Ed.

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