Khotyn
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Khotyn (Ukrainian: Хотин, Polish: Chocim, Romanian: Hotin, Turkish: Khotin, Russian: Хотин, translit. Khotin) is a city in the Chernivtsi Oblast of western Ukraine, and is the administrative center of the Khotynsky Raion (district) within that oblast. According to the 2001 census, it has a population of 11,124. In earlier times, the town was part of the Bessarabia region. Due to the fluctuations in control, the official name also changed, and there is a multitude of spellings for the town's name, including Khotyn, Chocim, Chotyn, Hotin, Choczim, or Khotin.
[edit] History
Khotyn, located on cliffs above the Dniester, was first chronicled in 1001,[1] when it was a minor settlement of Kievan Rus.[2][3] Archaeological excavations found the Kievan town that covered the area of some twenty hectares.[4] It later became part of the Principality of Halych and its successor, Halych-Volhynia. The town was an important trading center due to its location by a river crossing. A Genoese trading colony was established there by the 13th century.
Khotyn was first mentioned in 1310, as a residence of a catholic bishop, being held in the first half of the 14th century by the Kingdom of Poland, which intended to impose Catholicism to the local vlach communities, mentioned there in the 10th-13th centuries. The first fortifications date back from this period. In 1351, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania conquered the area, only to give it three years later to the vlachs, which formed their own independent principality in 1359, Moldavia.
The present-day fortress was constructed after 1400 by the Moldavian ruler Alexander the Kind, with the help of Vytautas the Great of Lithuania. After 1433, it was occupied by Poland, due to wars between Alexander's successors, and was conquered again by Stephen the Great of Moldovia in 1359. The fortress, strengthened by Stephen, during the 15th century, became the strongest on the northern border of medieval Moldavia.
As the Moldovan state dwindled into insignificance, the Ottoman Empire sought to gain control of the strategic river crossing. As a result, Khotyn's later history was dominated by wars between the expanding Christian powers (mainly Poland) and the expanding Ottoman Empire. The Turks suffered two decisive defeats at Khotyn in the 17th century, at the hands of the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: in 1621 by hetman Jan Chodkiewicz, and again in 1673 by Jan III Sobieski.
The Ottoman Empire finally seized the fortress in 1713 during the Great Northern War, and held it during the following century. Another power, Russia, came to claim the region in 18th century. The Turks amplified and enlarged the citadel, which was taken by the Russians on three occasions: in 1739 by Burkhard Christoph von Munnich, in 1769 by Prince Alexander Galitzine, in 1788 by Prince Josias of Coburg and Ivan Saltykov, in 1807 by Ivan Michelson.
Along with Eastern Moldavia, it passed to Russia in 1812, as a result of the Russo-Turkish War (1806-1812). During 1812-1918, Khotin was the administrative center of the Hotin County, one of the eight counties of Bessarabia. During 19th century, due to economic reasons, the Ukrainian population of Bessarabia increased significantly, from around 15,000 in 1810 to around 200,000 in 1917 (of which over half in the northern half of the Khotin county), by migration from Podolia (just across the river Dniester). During WWI, the north-eastern corner of the Hotin county was the only area of Bessarabia, occupied by Austria-Hungary.
With the collapse of the Russian Empire, Bessarabia proclaimed independence from Russia in 1917, then union with Romania in April 1918. Romania and Austria signed a Peace treaty in May 1918, which was however not ratified, and Austrians remained in control of Khotin and several villages around until October 1918, when with the collapse of Austria, Romania took control over it. Shortly after that, in January 1919, local Ukrainians desiring to be part of Ukraine, started a revolt[1][2] [3], which was also exploited by some Soviet agitators. After the Khotin Uprising was put down by the Romanian Army, Romania implemented nationalist policies aimed at re-Romanizing the territory.[2]
The city remained under Romanian control until June 1940, when along with Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina it was oocupied by the Soviet Union, following the June 1940 Soviet Ultimatum. In August 1940, Soviets created the Chernivtsi oblast, and included the area around Khotin to it, which became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, not of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, as the rest of Bessarabia. After Operation Barbarossa, where Romania acted as a Germany ally, the area was retaken by Romania in early July 1941. In March 1944, with the defeat of the Axis forces the town was retaken by the Soviets, and reattached to the Soviet Ukraine.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Khotin remained with the independent Ukraine.
[edit] Battles
In the Battle of Khotyn in 1621, an army of 160,000[citation needed] Turkish veterans, led by Osman II, advanced from Adrianople towards the Polish frontier. The Turks, following their victory in the Battle of Cecora, had high hopes of conquering Poland. The Polish commander Jan Karol Chodkiewicz crossed the Dniester in September 1621 with approximately 35,000 soldiers and entrenched the Khotyn Fortress, blocking the path of the Ottoman march. The arrival of 40,000 Ukrainian Cossack forces under their hetman Petro Konashevych was instrumental in that victory. The Commonwealth hetman held the sultan at bay for a whole month, until the first snow of autumn compelled Osman to withdraw his diminished forces. But the victory was dearly purchased by Poland. A few days before the siege was raised, the aged grand hetman died of exhaustion in the fortress on September 24, 1621. The Commonwealth forces held under the command of Stanisław Lubomirski. The battle, described by Wacław Potocki in his most famous work Transakcja wojny chocimskiej, marked the end of the long period of Moldavian Magnate Wars.
In 1673, the Polish hussars again fought a major battle on this site. This time Polish forces under the command of soon-to-be-king Jan Sobieski defeated the Ottomans on 11 November 1673.
In the Russo-Turkish War, the fortress was taken by Russian field marshal Burkhard Christoph von Munnich on August 19, 1739. This victory is remembered primarily through the Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks, composed by the young Mikhail Lomonosov. This ode has a place in the history of Russian literature: its sonorous iambic verse is often taken as a starting point of the modern Russian poetry.
[edit] Famous people
- The Romanian philologist, historian and writer Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu was born near Khotyn on February 16, 1836.
- Azriel Yanover (1875-1938) - Yiddish poet, playwright, and educator; lived in Khotyn since 1895.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Oleksandr Derhachov (editor), "Ukrainian Statehood in the Twentieth Century: Historical and Political Analysis", Chapter: "Ukraine in Romanian concepts of the foreign policy", 1996, Kiev ISBN 966-543-040-8
- ^ a b Ihor Burkut, Khotyn uprising against Greater Romania, "Chas", January 1, 2003
- ^ For the discussion whether the uprising was a Russian Bolshevik coup see article Khotin Uprising
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- History and photos
- Flags of the world
- Lomonosov's ode on the capture of Khotin
- Khotyn photo gallery - by Colin Guard, May 2006
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Administrative divisions of Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine |  |
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Raions: Hertsaivskyi | Hlybotskyi | Kelmenetskyi | Khotynskyi | Kitsmanskyi | Novoselytskyi | Putylskyi | Sokyrianskyi | Storozhynetskyi | Vyzhnytskyi | Zastavnivskyi |
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Cities: Chernivtsi | Hertsa | Khotyn | Kitsman | Novodnistrovsk | Novoselytsia | Sokyriany | Vashkivtsi | Vyzhnytsia | Zastavna |
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Urban-type settlements: Berehomet | Hlyboka | Kelmenetsi | Kostryzhivka | Krasnoilsk | Luzhany | Nepolokivtsi | Putyla | Storozhynets | more... |
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Villages: Bila Krynytsya | Boiany | Chornivka | Voloka | more... |
