Chortkiv

History

The first historical mention of Chortkiv dates to 1522, when Polish King Sigismund I the Old granted an ownership order for Jerzy Czortkowski over the town and allowed him to name it after himself—Czortków. The small community, numbering at 50 families, were almost all massacred during the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648–9. Jewish leadership opposed the resettlement of Jews in Chortkiv until 1705. During that time, the town was also granted Magdeburg rights. However, Chortkiv would later decline in the second half of the 17th century during Ottoman Expansion of central Europe. The town was taken over by Ottoman Empire, whose rule lasted 27 years. It was part of the short-lived Turkish Podolia Eyalet, which lasted from 1672 to 1699. During this period, it was nahiya centre in Yazlofça sanjak as Çortkuv (Spelled as Chortkoov in Turkish). After First Partition of Poland Chortkiv came under Austro-Hungarian rule which lasted from 1772 to 1918, during the time of which it was the center of the Chortkiv Bezirk except brief Russian rule between 1809 and 1815 as part of Tarnopol Governorate. On June 8, 1919, the Ukrainian Galician Army broke for couple months through the Polish front at Chortkiv and began the Chortkiv offensive. Soon afterwards, the town was seized by the Poles. It was ceded to sovereign Poland in the Peace Treaty of Riga between Poland, Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine, and remained part of the Tarnopol Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic until the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939.

In 1931, the town had 19,000 inhabitants, 46.4 percent of whom were Polish Roman Catholics, 30 percent of whom were Ukrainian and Polish Jews, and 22.8 percent of whom were Ukrainian Greek Catholics.

Chortkiv was an important garrison of the Polish Border Defence Corps Brigade "Podole", whose commandant from 1935 to 1938 was General Stefan Rowecki. Furthermore, it was home to the 36th Reserve Infantry Division.

The town was annexed by the Soviet Union from September 17, 1939, until June 1941. Its Polish inhabitants, particularly students of the local high school, organized a failed uprising in January 1940, which would serve as the first Polish uprising of World War II. In the last days of June 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, the Soviets executed an estimated 100 to 200 prisoners held in the local prison. The remaining prisoners were evacuated further east, either by train or on foot, while hundreds died due to the inhumane conditions of transport or at the hands of guards.

Religion

Existings

Church of the Dormition (1584; wooden; restored in the 1990s);

Church of the Ascension (UGCC; 1630; wooden; rebuilt in 1717; restored in 1997);

Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (UGCC; 1854; brick);

Church of the Intercession (OCU, 1905; brick);

Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (OCU; brick);

Saint Volodymyr the Great church (under construction since 1993; OCU);

Church of the Transfiguration (UGCC; 2007; brick);

Saint Michael church (UGCC, 2008; stone);

Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul (Buchach Diocese of the UGCC, 2001);

one men's monastery (the Convent of the Holy Family) and two women's monasteries (the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family and the Congregation of the Myrrh-Bearing Sisters) of the UGCC;

Saint Stanislaus church (1610; rebuilt in the early 20th century; restored in 1989);

two Jewish synagogues – the main one (1680s) and the new one (1909; architect Hans Geldkremer);

the chapels of Our Lady of Lourdes (1908) and Our Lady of the Cross (2013).

No longer existing

Church of the Holy Trinity (UGCC; 1607–?)

Saint Nicholas Church (UGCC; 1714–1801)

Basil of Caesarea Monastery (UGCC; 1607–1792)

Geography

Notable people

Anna Blazhenko (born 1955), Ukrainian journalist

Sasza Blonder (1909–1949), Polish painter

Karl Emil Franzos (1848–1904), Austrian novelist

Bernard Hausner (1874–1938), rabbi, politician and diplomat

Oleksii Hunovskyi (1882–1961), Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest, composer, public figure, educator, political prisoner and head of the Chortkiv District National Council of the ZUNR

Pinchas Horowitz (1731–1805), rabbi and Talmudist

Halyna Hrytskiv (1937–2016), Ukrainian public and cultural figure, poet, publicist, and Easter egg maker

Jerzy Janicki (1928–2007), Polish writer and reporter

Vasyl Makhno (born 1964), Ukrainian poet, essayist, and translator

Vasyl Marmus (1992–2022), Ukrainian musician, actor, soldier

Shmelke of Nikolsburg (1746–1778), one of the great early Chasidic Rebbes

Ludwik Noss (1848–1913), Austrian government official, philanthropist, public and educational figure; burgomaster of Chortkiv

Volodymyr Petrashyk (born 1985), Ukrainian art historian, art critic, participant in the Russo-Ukrainian War

Olha Pidvysotska (1899–?), Ukrainian soldier, teacher

Roxolana Roslak (born 1940), Ukrainian soprano singer

Twin towns

Chortkiv is twinned with: