Zhytomyr (Ukrainian: Житомир [ʒeˈtɔmer] ⓘ; see below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr urban hromada (commune) and Zhytomyr Raion (district). Moreover, Zhytomyr consists of two urban districts: Bohunskyi District and Koroliovskyi District (named in honour of Sergey Korolyov). Zhytomyr occupies an area of 65 square kilometers (25 sq mi). Its population is 261,624 (2022 estimate).
Zhytomyr is a major Ukrainian transport hub as the city lies on a historic route linking the city of Kyiv with the west through Brest. Today it links Warsaw with Kyiv, Minsk with Izmail, and several major cities of Ukraine. Zhytomyr was also the location of Ozerne airbase, a key Cold War strategic aircraft base 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) southeast of the city.
Important economic activities of Zhytomyr include lumber milling, food processing, granite quarrying, metalworking, and the manufacture of musical instruments.
Zhytomyr Oblast is the main center of the Polish minority in Ukraine, and in the city itself there is a Latin Catholic cathedral and large Roman Catholic Polish cemetery, founded in 1800. It is regarded as the third biggest Polish cemetery outside Poland, after the Lychakivskiy Cemetery in Lviv and Rasos Cemetery in Vilnius.
Names
The city of Zhytomyr is also historically known by different names in other languages:
History
Early history
Legend holds that Zhytomyr was established about 884 by Zhytomyr, prince of a Slavic tribe of Drevlians. This date, 884, is cut into a large stone of the ice age times, standing on the hill where Zhytomyr was founded. Zhytomyr was one of the prominent cities of Kievan Rus'. The first records of the town date from 1240, when it was sacked by the Mongol hordes of Batu Khan.
In 1320 Zhytomyr was captured by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was granted Magdeburg city rights in 1444 by Casimir IV Jagiellon. As a border outpost, during the 15th century the city was seriously damaged by Tatar raids. After the Union of Lublin (1569) the city was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland and became an important center of local administration, seat of the starosta, and capital of Żytomierz County. Here, sejmiks of Kiev Voivodeship took place. In 1572, the town had 142 buildings, a manor house of the starosta and a castle. Following the privilege of King Sigismund III Vasa, Zhytomyr had the right for two fairs a year. During Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648) Zhytomyr was destroyed by Cossack troops. As a result of the revolt, it was incorporated into the Cossack Hetmanate. In 1667, following the Treaty of Andrusovo, Zhytomyr became the capital of the Kiev Voivodeship. It was a royal city of Poland.
During the 18th century Zhytomyr became an important centre of Polish culture, serving as a centre of a Roman Catholic bishopric. In 1724, a Jesuit school and monastery were opened here. By 1765, Zhytomyr had five churches, including 3 Roman Catholic and 2 Orthodox, and 285 houses. Bernardine monks were also active in the city. After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 it passed to Imperial Russia and became the capital of the Volhynian Governorate. In 1804 Zhytomyr was named capital of the Volhynian Governorate. In 1808, a Polish theater was founded in the city. In 1837 the city was deprived of its self-government according to Magdeburg Law. The Polish January Uprising of 1863 was supported by the townspeople.
Early 20th century
After the February Revolution of 1917, the city duma of Zhytomyr supported the Provisional Government and opposed the Kornilov coup. On 8 November the duma condemned the October coup, and on 28 November recognized Central Rada as the only legal authority in Ukraine.
In January 1918 the Bolsheviks attempted to capture power in Zhytomyr, but were defeated. During a period of Ukrainian independence, between late January and early March 1918, the city served as the national capital of Ukrainian People's Republic. During that period, laws on the introduction of the national currency, hryvnia, on Ukrainian citizenship and on the administrative-territorial divisions of Ukraine were adopted in the city. On 6 March 1918, the city became the seat of Bolokhiv land, a newly established zemlia of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which was disbanded on 29 April 1918 by Hetman of Ukraine Pavlo Skoropadsky, who brought back old governorate divisions of the Russian Empire.
Between December 1918 and 1920 Zhytomyr was contested between Ukrainian and Bolshevik troops, as well as other powers, changing hands over 15 times. In August 1919 a battle between forces of Ukrainian Galician Army and the Bolsheviks took place in the city.
Soviet rule before WWII
On 12 June 1920 Zhytomyr occupied by Red Army troops of Grigory Kotovsky. As a result, for the following 70 years the city was a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was the capital of the Volhynia Governorate.
Due to one of Stalin's 5-year plans, the city suffered from the man-made famine Holodomor of 1932-1933. In 2008, the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide published the National Book of Memory of the Victims of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine. Zhytomyr region – Zhytomyr. The book has 1116 pages and consists of three sections. According to historical records, more than 8015 people died during Holodomor in 1932–1933.
In 1936, part of the Polish population was expelled by the Soviets to Kazakhstan. During the Polish Operation of the NKVD, the local Polish population was persecuted with mass deportations and executions.
During WWII
During World War II Zhytomyr and the surrounding territory was for two and a half years (first from 9 July 1941 to 12 November 1943, and again from 19 November 1943 to 31 December 1943) under Nazi German occupation and was Heinrich Himmler's Ukrainian headquarters. The Nazi regime in what they called the "Zhytomyr General District" became what historian Wendy Lower describes as
a laboratory for… Himmler's resettlement activists… the elimination of the Jews and German colonization of the East—transformed the landscape and devastated the population to an extent that was not experienced in other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe besides Poland. [While]… [u]ltimately, the exigencies of the war effort and mounting partisan warfare behind the lines prevented Nazi leaders from fully developing and realizing their colonial aims in Ukraine… In addition to the immediate destruction of all Jewish communities, Himmler insisted that the Ukrainian civilian population be brought to a 'minimum.'
The Germans operated a Jewish forced labour battalion in the city.
Before the invasion, roughly 30,000 Jews lived in Zhytomyr, accounting for about one-third of the city's residents. More than 5,000 Jews were murdered between July and September 1941. In August 1941, the Nazis established a Jewish ghetto in Zhitomir by enclosing several streets within a small, overcrowded area. A census conducted on September 5, 1941, recorded 4,820 Jews living in the ghetto.
During July and August 1941, German security forces and police units carried out systematic mass murders of Jews in Zhitomir. By the end of August 1941, approximately 2,000 Jews had been murdered in Zhitomir.
After the September 1941 massacre, the remaining Jews in Zhitomir were confined to a forced labor camp, where doctors, craftsmen, and skilled workers were kept alive temporarily for labor, including construction projects for the German military. Throughout 1942, German forces and Ukrainian police carried out successive executions of the camp's prisoners, including 237 Jewish laborers on August 19 and additional mass shootings in October and November. By 1943, the remaining Jewish artisans were also murdered.
At the same time, Jewish Soviet prisoners of war held at POW Camp No. 358 were systematically separated from other prisoners and executed by SD forces in nearby woods. An estimated 1,200–1,400 Jewish POWs were killed during the camp's early months.
Of the approximately 7,000 Jews who were in Zhitomir when the Germans occupied the city in July 1941, only about 20 are known to have survived until the city's liberation. On November 12, 1943, Soviet forces captured Zhytomyr.
After WWII
During 1942-1949 Zhytomyr region was a territory of mild activity of UPA North branch of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose members fought for the independence of Ukraine against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. After USSR defeated the Germans, Zhytomyr fell under Soviet rule and once again became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Between 1960s and 1980s Zhytomyr was one of the centres of dissident movement, with notable Ukrainian activists including Viacheslav Chornovil, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Ivan and Nadia Svitlychna, Alla Horska and Anatoliy Shevchuk, being active in the city. Many of them were put under KGB supervision, imprisoned and put into labour camps. In order to suppress dissent, Soviet authorities organized provocations aimed at souring the relations between local Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish communities.
Starting from 1989, pro-democracy demonstrations under Ukrainian national flags were taking place in the city, despite pressure from KGB. On 21 January 1990 many local inhabitants took place in the celebration of Unity Day. On 13 June 1990 Zhytomyr became Soviet Ukraine's fourth city after Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv to hoist the national flag of Ukraine over its city council. On 24 August 1991 Ukrainian parliament announced Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. From 1991, Zhytomyr has been part of the independent and sovereign Ukraine.
2022 Russian invasion
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zhytomyr and the surrounding area were subjected to several Russian air and missile strikes, such as the 2 March airstrike which damaged residential buildings, a thermal electricity plant, and two hospitals, killing at least two and injuring more than a dozen.
Administrative division
The city is divided into two urban districts:
Microdistrict
The city of Zhytomyr contains the following areas (microdistricts):
- Bohunia
- Hydropark
- Hinchanka the Second
- Zavokzalny district
- Railway station area
- Korbutivka
- Kroshnia
- Maliovanka
- Marianivka
- Pavlykivka
- Putiatynka
- Rudnia
- Smokivka
- Smolianka
- Sokolova Hora
- Old Town
- Eastern microdistrict (folk name Poliova)
- Khmilnyki (folk name Malikova)
- Center
Population
Ethnic groups
Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 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, 82% of the city's population spoke Ukrainian at home, and 14% spoke Russian.
Roman Catholics
Zhytomyr had been a Latin Catholic bishopric since 1321, until The See was suppressed in 1789 in favor of the Diocese of Lutsk and Zytomierz, until that was split up again in 1925, when it was restored as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Zhytomyr; that was formally suppressed in 1998 to establish the Diocese of Kyïv–Žytomyr, but actually the city retains the episcopal see in its Cathedral of the Holy Wisdom, while Kyiv (although first in the title and the national capital) only has a co-cathedral.
The Zhytomyr cemetery was opened in 1800. At first, it served Polish nobility from Volhynia, such as the Czeczel and the Woronicz families. Later, other Catholics were buried here, including Germans, Ukrainians and Russians.
In 1840, the Chapel of St. Stanislaus was built (now in ruins), and the cemetery was divided into nine districts, named after different saints. In the Soviet Union, the complex was devastated, now it is under the process of renovation.
Among most famous people buried here are:
- Bronislaw Matyjewicz-Maciejewicz, one of the first Polish air pilots
- Karol Niedzialkowski – bishop of Lutsk and Zhytomir in the late 19th century
- Apolinary Wnukowski – Roman Catholic archbishop and scholar
- Juliusz Zarębski – Polish composer
- parents of Ignacy Jan Paderewski
- the family of Stanisław Moniuszko
Jews in Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr apparently had few Jews at the time of the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648), but by the time it became part of Russia in 1778, it had a large Jewish community, and was a center of the Hasidic movement. Jews formed nearly one-third of the 1861 population (13,299 of 40,564); thirty years later, they had somewhat outpaced the general growth of the city, with 24,062 Jews in a total population of 69,785. By 1891 there were three large synagogues and 46 smaller batei midrash. The proportion of Jews was much lower in the surrounding district of Zhytomyr than in the city itself; at the turn of the century (circa 1900) there were 22,636 Jews in a total population of 281,378.