Rivne

Names

Russian: Ровно, romanized: Rovno, also the former spelling in Ukrainian until 1991

Polish: Równe

Yiddish: ראָוונע

History

Early history

Rivne was first mentioned in 1283 in the Polish annals Rocznik kapituły krakowskiej as one of the inhabited places of Halych-Volhynia near which Leszek II the Black was victorious over a part of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army. Following the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia's partition after Galicia–Volhynia Wars in the late 14th century, it was under the rule of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in 1434 the Grand Duke of Lithuania Švitrigaila awarded the settlement to a Lutsk nobleman Dychko. In 1461 Dychko sold his settlement to Prince Semen Nesvizh. In 1479 Semen Nesvizh died and his settlement was passed to his wife Maria who started to call herself princess of Rivne. She turned the settlement into a princely residence by building in 1481 a castle on one of local river islands and managed to obtain Magdeburg rights for the settlement in 1492 from the King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon. Following her death in 1518, the city was passed on to the princes of Ostrog and declined by losing its status as a princely residency.

In 1566 the town of Rivne became part of newly established Volhynian Voivodeship. Following the Union of Lublin in 1569, it was transferred from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Kingdom of Poland. The city had a status of a private town held by nobles (Ostrogski and Lubomirski families). Following the Second Partition of Poland in 1795 Rivne became a part of the Russian Empire, and in 1797 it was declared to be a county level (uyezd) town of the Volhynian Governorate.

Early 20th century

During World War I and the period of chaos shortly after, it was briefly under German, Ukrainian, Bolshevik, and Polish rule. During April–May 1919 Rivne served as the temporary capital of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In late April 1919 one of the Ukrainian military leaders Volodymyr Oskilko attempted to organize a coup-d'état against the Directorate led by Symon Petliura and the cabinet of Borys Martos and replace them with Yevhen Petrushevych as president of Ukraine. In Rivne, Oskilko managed to arrest most of the cabinet ministers including Martos himself, but Petliura at that time was in neighboring Zdolbuniv and managed to stop Oskilko's efforts. At the conclusion of the conflict, in accordance with the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, it became a part of the Polish Volhynian Voivodeship, a situation which would last until the Second World War. Before World War II, Rivne (Równe) was a mainly Jewish-Polish city (Jews constituted about 50% of the city's population, and Poles 35%).

World War II

In 1939, as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the partition of Poland, Rivne was occupied by the Soviet Union. Starting December of that year Rivne became the center of the newly established Rivne Oblast in the Ukrainian SSR. The Soviets operated a prisoner-of-war camp in the city, in which over 14,500 POWs were held as of July 1940. Over 30 Poles who were either born or lived and worked in Równe, including policemen, school teachers, commanders and doctors of the local military hospital, tax inspectors and corrections officers, as well as several Polish prisoners of war captured near Równe, several Poles who fought in the Battle of Równe in 1920, and many Polish POWs from the local POW camp were murdered by the Russians in the Katyn massacre in 1940.

On 28 June 1941 Rivne was invaded by the 6th Army of Nazi Germany. On 20 August, the Nazis declared it the administrative center of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. A Gestapo prison opened on Belaia Street.

On 6–8 November, 17,500 Jewish adults from Rivne were shot to death or thrown alive into a large pit in a pine grove in Sosenki, a nearby wooded area (sometimes referred to as Sosenki Forest), and 6,000 Jewish children suffered the same fate at a nearby site. From 8–13 November German actor Olaf Bach was flown to the city to perform for the German forces. The city's remaining Jews were sent to Rivne Ghetto. In July 1942, they were sent 70 km (43 mi) north to Kostopil and shot to death.

On 2 February 1944, the city was captured by the Red Army in the Battle of Rivne, and remained under Soviet control until Ukraine regained its independence on the break-up of the USSR in 1991. Poles from Rivne were deported to Poland's new borders after 1945.

Post-war era

In 1958, a TV tower began broadcasting in the city; in 1969, the first trolley ran through the city; in 1969, Rivne airport opened. In 1983, the city celebrated its 700th anniversary.

On 11 June 1991, the Ukrainian parliament officially renamed the city Rivne according to the rules of Ukrainian orthography. It had previously been known as Rovno.

Russo-Ukrainian War

On 14 March 2022, Rivne TV Tower experienced heavy missile attack by Russian troops. The tower was damaged and an administrative room was destroyed. As a result of the attack 20 people were killed and nine injured.

Population

Ethnic groups

Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:

Language

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:

According to a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in April–May 2023, 96% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 3% spoke Russian.

Geography

Climate

Rivne has a moderate continental climate with cold, snowy winters and warm summers. Snow cover usually lasts from November until March. The average annual precipitation is 598 mm (24 in) June and July being the wettest months and January and February the driest.

Industry

During Soviet times the provincial town was transformed into an industrial center of the republic. There were two significant factories built. The first was a machine building and metal processing factory capable of producing high-voltage apparatus, tractor spare parts and others. The other was a chemical factory and synthetic materials fabrication plant. Light industry, including a linen plant and a textile mill, as well as food industries, including milk and meat processing plants and a vegetable preservation plant, have also been built. In addition the city became a production center for furniture and other building materials.

Landmarks

As an important cultural center, Rivne hosts a humanities and a hydro-engineering university, as well as a faculty of the Kyiv State Institute of Culture, and medical and musical as well as automobile-construction, commercial, textile, agricultural and cooperative polytechnic colleges. The city has a historical museum.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the monument for the Soviet hero Dmitry Medvedev was removed, and the Nikolai Kuznetsov monument was moved to another location within the city. Instead, in order to reflect the controversial history of the region the monuments for "People who died in the honor of Ukraine", and "Soldiers who died in local military battles" were installed.

Buildings

Church of the Assumption (1756)

Cathedral of the Intercession (2001)

Cathedral of the Ascension (1890)

A classicism-style gymnasium building (1839)

During Soviet times the center of the city from Lenin street to Peace Avenue (1963 architects R.D. Vais and O.I. Filipchuk) was completely rebuilt with Administrative and Public buildings in neo-classical, Stalinist style.

Memorials

The following memorials are found in Rivne:

Monument to the 25th Anniversary of the Liberation of Rivne from the Fascists, Mlynivs'ke Highway

Monument to the Victims of Fascism, Bila Street Square (1968, by A.I. Pirozhenko and B.V. Rychkov, architect-V.M.Gerasimenko)

Bust on the Tomb of Partisan M. Strutyns'ka and Relief on the Tomb of Citizens S. Yelentsia and S. Kotiyevs'koho, Kniazia Volodymyra Street, Hrabnyk Cemetery

Monument to the Perished of Ukraine, Magdeburz'koho Prava Plaza

Communal Grave of Warriors, Soborna Street

Monument of Eternal Glory, Kyivs'ka Street

Monument to Taras Shevchenko, T.G. Shevchenko Park; Statue on Nezalezhnosti Plaza

Memorial to Warriors' Glory, Dubens'ka Street, Rivne Military Cemetery (1975, by M.L. Farina, architect-N.A. Dolgansky)

Monument to the Warrior and the Partisan, Peremohy Plaza (1948 by I.Ya. Matveenko)

Monument to Colonel Klym Savura, Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army, Soborna Street

Monument to Symon Petliura, Symon Petliura Street

Monument to N.I. Kuznetsov (bronze and granite, 1961 by V.P Vinaikin)

In 1992, a 20,000-square-metre (4.9-acre) memorial complex was established at the site of the World War II massacre to commemorate the 17,500 Jews murdered there in November 1941 during the Holocaust, marking the mass grave with an obelisk inscribed in Yiddish, Hebrew and Ukrainian. On 6 June 2012, the World War II Jewish burial site was vandalised, as part of an antisemitic attack.

Popular culture references

In his memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness, Israeli author Amos Oz describes Rivne through the memories of his mother and her family, who grew up in the city before emigrating to Israel in the 1930s.

Rivne was mentioned several times in The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors, a 1992 episode of the Canadian-American TV show Are You Afraid of the Dark?, being referred to by a variation of its pre-1991 name (either Ravno or Rovno).

In Leonard Bernstein's operetta Candide, the character of The Old Lady sings an aria "I am easily assimilated", in which she refers to her father having been born in Rovno Gubernya

Sport

Rugby

RC Rivne (1999)

Speedway

The Rivne Speedway Stadium hosts the speedway club Rivne Speedway.

The stadium opened on 24 May 1959. The venue has hosted significant speedway events including a qualifying round of the Speedway World Championship in 1962. and 1991.

Notable people

Anna Belfer-Cohen (born 1949), Israeli archaeologist and paleoanthropologist

Dahn Ben-Amotz (1924–1989), Israeli radio broadcaster, journalist, playwright and author

Ancestors of Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), the American composer include his father, Samuel, who was born in Berezdiv and his mother, Jennie, born in Sheptevoka in the Rovno region. In Bernstein's operetta Candide, the character of The Old Lady sings an aria, "I am easily assimilated", in which she refers to her father as having been born in Rovno Gubernya

Zuzanna Ginczanka,(1917–1945), Polish poet of the interwar period.

Erast Huculak (1930–2013), Canadian businessman, public figure and philanthropist

Artem Kachanovskyi (born 1992), 2-dan professional Go player, three-time European Champion, Editor-in-chief of the European Go Journal.

Jan Kobylański (1923–2019), Polish-Paraguayan businessman, founder of the Union of Polish Associations and Organizations in Latin America

Olga Kulchynska (born 1990), Ukrainian soprano opera singer

Sophie Irene Loeb (1876–1929), American journalist and social welfare advocate

Yuriy Lutsenko (born 1964), politician and Prosecutor General of Ukraine, 2016 to 2019

Oksana Markarova (born 1976), Minister of Finance, 2018 to 2020 and diplomat

Nazar Nebozhynskyi (1999–2022), Ukrainian athlete, soldier, Hero of Ukraine

Sport

Serhiy Honchar (born 1970), professional road racing cyclist

Serhiy Lishchuk (born 1982), basketball player, Valencia BC legend, nicknamed "the Ukraine Train"

Mykhailo Romanchuk (born 1996), swimmer, silver & bronze medallst at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Viktor Trofimov (1938–2013), former Soviet international speedway rider

Alla Tsuper (born 1979), Ukrainian and Belarusian aerial skier and gold medallist at the 2014 Winter Olympics

Ancestors of Demian Maia (born 1977), UFC Fighter, BJJ Champion and ADCC Champion. His grandfather Stefan Szwec came from Rovno, village of Shpaniv to Brazil in 1926. Demian Maia’s grandmother, Eugenia Kirilchuk, also came from Rovno region.

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Rivne is twinned with: