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Founding
Founding of Konotop
city in Ukraine
- 1634
- Europe
Founding
city in Ukraine
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Konotop is a city in northeastern Ukraine located in Sumy Oblast. Konotop serves as the administrative center of Konotop Raion within the oblast. Its population before the Russian invasion of Ukraine was approximately 83,543 (2022 estimate), making it the second-largest city in Sumy Oblast.
Konotop is believed to have been settled in 1634, with the granting of the settlement to a Polish nobleman. A fortress was then built on the site of the settlement, which led to the city being the site of numerous battles in the late 1600s, such as the Battle of Konotop and the Battle of Konotop (1668), after it was seized by the Cossack Hetmanate. The Cossacks then ruled the city for decades until 1764, when the Hetmanate was incorporated into the Little Russia Governorate of the Russian Empire, and later the Chernigov Governorate. The city would then rapidly grow, shifting from agricultural work to relying on railroad work, as multiple important railway lines started running through the city in the late 1800s. After the October Revolution, it was claimed by the Ukrainian SSR after a change of hands in 1919, and was annexed into the Soviet Union in 1922. The city was then devastated by World War II, where it was the site of a prisoner of war camp for captured Soviets, with an estimated 30,000 people dying in the city in total during this time. After gradually recovering, the "Chervonyi Metalist" electromechanical plant took on a greater role in the city's economy, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union the city became part of a newly independent Ukraine. In 2022, as part of the northern front of the Russian invasion, the city briefly came under siege in February 2022, although by April all Russians left the entire raion. Since then, the city has been under full Ukrainian control.
Konotop has historically been an important railway centre in Sumy Oblast, although the industry has since then shifted to aircraft repair and the manufacturing of internal combustion engines. Cultural landmarks include the Shukhov Water Tower and memorials to the Battle of Konotop and Kazimir Malevich. The city is also well known more recently for its association with the witches of Konotop, which started with the novella The Witch of Konotop in 1833 and has since been adapted into multiple plays and films. The main museums of the city are the O. M. Lazarevsky Konotop Regional Studies Museum, the Mikhail Dragomirov Estate Museum, and the Konotop Aviation Museum. The city is home to the association football club FC Shakhtar Konotop, which plays in the Sumy Oblast Football Championships, with their home ground being at Yunist Stadium. The city is also home to multiple institutions of higher education, most of which are branches of Sumy State University.
Konotop itself is not unique and is a very common toponym not just in Ukraine, but in other Slavic countries such as Poland, Belarus, and Russia. Konotop has also occasionally been referenced by Russian-language speakers as a placeholder name for a remote, backwater place. It is also a common hydronym, being used to describe the right tributary of Yezuch (part of the river Desna), a right tributary of the Cerem (part of the river Sluch), and as a left tributary of the river Pripyat. In several dialects of Ukrainian, the konotop (Ukrainian: конотоп) also refers to the herbaceous plant, common knotweed. However, the first use of the settlement name to refer to the present-day city in the oblast was in the Polish language in October 1634. In a document, the then-King of Poland, Władysław IV Vasa, approved the granting of land to a local nobleman known as Mykola Cetysov. The translations on to what exactly the king said when granting the settlement differ: an early translation says that the king said "Конотоп, Городище, Єзуч", referencing Konotop as a hillfort, while a later translation reads it as "Конотоп, (та) городище Язуче", referring to Konotop as a separate settlement that was not a hillfort, and that Yazuche was the hillfort. Unofficial, non-primary sources in Polish even refer to Konotop earlier than this, stating that Mykhailo Voronych, a Polish official from Baturyn, attempted to "colonise" a Konotop in 1629-1631 by offering exemption from levies. However, the land grant by the king from 1634 is considered the earliest primary source.
The exact origin of the word konotop is disputed, with two different accounts. The most widespread version is that the word konotop denotes a place where horses drowned, that is, any swampy, impassable place. This theory is believed to come from scholar V. A. Zhuchkevych, who found that derivations meaning "horse-drowning ford" are commonplace and not a local legend. He also argued for this interpretation because of the nearby village of Hruzke, which is derived from грузнути, meaning "to get stuck or mired", suggesting the area was commonly described as boggy. Eduard Murzaev, another linguist, also says the word itself comes from "horses stomp", which was transformed into a noun with the help of the word-forming method of baseline. Two local legends are said to explain why the name came to be, although neither is thought to be historically accurate. The first legend says that Konotop as a settlement existed even before the Mongol-Tatar invasion. According to legend, during the passage of the Tatar cavalry in the area, many horses and riders died in impassable swamps, leading to the area being called konotop — a swampy place where horses drowned. The second legend says the name came to be during a visit by the Russian Empress, Catherine II, when her horses were said to have drowned while crossing into the settlement.
Another, albeit less widespread theory, is that the word konotop is actually derived from a nearby hydronym, instead of the hydronym being derived from the settlement. The specific river that the city is sometimes said to be named after is the Konotopka River, which is said to have flowed alongside the southern side of the fortress in the city and is a left tributary of the Yezuch River. In this version, the name of the river is said to derive from an Old East Slavic word meaning "a whirlpool in a river".
Settlements existing along the Yezuch riverbanks are thought to have existed during the Neolithic era, including in nearby areas such as modern-day Dukhanivka and Khyzhky, which are directly east, a short distance from Konotop. The excavations there are often classified into their own culture, which was called the Lysohubivka culture by the archaeologist V. Neprina in the 1970s. The area is also mentioned during the Bronze Age, with the numerous kurgans that are documented in the surrounding villages, including a stone axe-hammer from the Bronze Age that was found in Konotop itself. Modern-day Konotop would then be referenced again during the Kievan Rus' period. During this time, the region would become a contested area as part of the Novgorod-Seversk of the Principality of Chernigov, with the struggles between the different branches of the Rurikid dynasty. However, Konotop itself is not directly mentioned within the Primary Chronicle despite most of the surrounding villages being so, which has led some historians such as Ivan Lysyi to theorise that the town of Lypovytsk, which was mentioned in the chronicles, is Konotop. This remained unconfirmed and is merely a local theory. In excavations done on the left bank of the Yezuch in 1997-98, there was evidence found that the area was settled during the Kievan Rus' period, specifically during the late era, with the finding of an ancient settlement that covered 7.5 hectares, although no fortifications were found that would've been typical. A later 2005 excavation, however, did find Old Rus' material such as ceramics and defensive fortifications such as a rampart in the site that may have been "Yazuche", which would be later mentioned in 1634, and is believed to be an ancient settlement on the territory of Konotop.
However, regardless of whether the settlement actually existed during this time, the area would be destroyed by the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'. The area was believed to be resettled during the reign of Vytautas the Great as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Lithuanian–Muscovite War (1500–1503), Konotop was annexed into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which would last until the Truce of Deulino following the Polish–Russian War (1609–1618), when it became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. After gaining the area, the Polish government would then start a wave of Polonisation of the lands, which is thought to have affected Yazuche, with an administrative official known as Mykhailo Voronych undertaking these efforts specifically in the area of Konotop from 1629-1931 by offering settlers a thirty-year exemption on levies.
The first mention of the settlement of Konotop would be made in 1634. A document dated to October 1634 mentions Konotop in the context of the King of Poland, Władysław IV, granting land to a nobleman known as Mykola Cetysov, including the settlement of Konotop. A fortress was then decided to be built in this land, which began construction in 1634 on direct orders of the king, so that it could be used against the Muscovites. The fortress was built on land that theoretically belonged to a landowner from Putyvl, Nykyfor Yatsyn, on the confluence of the Yezuch and Konotopka rivers. Then, in 1635, a Polish nobleman known as Pidkova founded a khutor called the "Novoselytsia estate" near the fortress. In 1640, the fortress was reconstructed to be a regional stronghold, which was ordered by the starosta of Novhorod-Siverskyi, Pyasochynsky. The new, reconstructed fortress was a quadrilateral shape with ramparts, wood-reinforced walls, and three gates that were said to lead to Kyiv, Putyvl, and Romny. The fortress itself then came under the administration of the starosta Sosnovskyi, and then the area of Konotop was given to Pyasochynsky's son-in-law, Jerzy Ossoliński, who was the Chancellor of Poland.
After the start of the Khmelnytsky Uprising, where the Cossacks rebelled against the commonwealth, the area was seized by the Cossack Hetmanate. Konotop then became a sotnia town as part of the Chernigov Regiment, and then the Nizhyn Regiment. The settlement of Konotop was also an important regional place for diplomacy during this time, and on 2 April 1649 was the location (albiet five versts outside the now city) of a diplomatic mission of Russia led by I. Unkovsky who had arrived to meet with the Hetman of the Zaporizihian Host, Bohdan Khmelnytsky. It was confirmed that Konotop existed, at least in Western sources, by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, who published the edition of the General Map of Ukraine referencing Konotop in 1650. Following the signing of the Treaty of Bila Tserkva between the Cossacks and the Commonwealth, former estate owners from the Commonwealth were permitted to return to the Chernihiv Voivodeship and resettle after they had left following the uprising. Thus, the Poles returned to Konotop, although it was reported there were frequent clashes between the Cossacks and Poles. However, soon after, the situation changed with the Cossack victory during the Battle of Batih, and anti-Polish uprisings began across the voivodeship. In the Eyewitness Chronicle, it is said that specifically in Konotop, the residents then killed the family of Stanisław Sosnowski (a nobleman who had held the post of town administrator), throwing their bodies into a well. In the so-called "Konotop miracle", it is then said the bodies resurfaced with no signs of decay on the Feast of the Cross after the water rose for no apparent reason. However, a later 2021 analysis of the chronicle account argues that the killings, in fact, did not take place at Konotop but at a hillfort known as Hermanivske, which was on the opposite bank of the Yezuch.
In September 1658, the Cossacks under Vyhovsky entered negotiations with the Poles, which concluded with the Treaty of Hadiach, in which the Cossacks would join the Commonwealth in equal standing in response to increasing Muscovite control of the Hetmanate. In response, a large Russian army Aleksey Trubetskoy allied with the pro-Russian faction of the Cossacks under Ivan Bezpaly invaded the Hetmanate, and started a siege of the settlement of Konotop in 1659. At the time, the city was being defended by the Cossack Hryhoriy Hulyanytsky, alongside a few regiments. The initial siege of the city lasted ten weeks before Vyhovsky returned to the city after having brokered an alliance with the Crimean Tatars under Mehmed IV Giray alongside the Poles. After arriving, on 29 June 1659 the combined forces ambushed a Russian detachment led by the Princes Semyon Pozharsky (who was killed) and Semyon Lvov (who was taken as a prisoner of war). This led Trubetskoy's forces to retreat and withdraw from Konotop to Putyvl. The battle has since been famous in Ukrainian culture, with numerous songs and poems dedicated to the event. During the Soviet era, the battle was largely dismissed, although since independence, Ukrainian works have largely commemorated it as a significant defeat of the Russian army, with some sources putting the amount of Russian losses as high as 40,000. However, archival research has only put the number killed from about 4,700 to 6,700.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Konotop”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.