Poltava

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Poltava (Ukrainian and ) is a city in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Poltavsky Raion (district) within the oblast. The city itself is also designated as its own separate raion within the oblast.

The current estimated population is 313,400 (as of 2004).

History

Alexandar Square (1850)

It is still unknown when the city was founded. Within the city limits the archeologists unearthed a Paleolithic dwelling as well as the Scythian remains. The present name of the city is traditionally connected to the settlement Ltava which is mentioned in the Hypatian Chronicle.

The city belonged to Lithuania from the 14th century. Polish administration took over in 1569. In the 16-17th cc. it belonged to Pereyaslav Kniazhestvo (Principality). In 1648 Poltava was captured by the Polish magnate (of ruthenian descent) Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (1612-51). Poltava was the base of a distinguished Polk (Regiment) of the Ukrainian Cossacks. In 1667 Poltava became a part of the Russian Empire.

In the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709 (Old Style), or 8 July (New Style), tsar Peter the Great, commanding 45,000 troops, defeated at Poltava a Swedish army of 29,000 troops led by Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld (who had received the command of the army after the wounding of the Swedish king Charles XII on June 17). "Like a Swede at Poltava" remains a simile for "totally helpless" in Russian and Ukrainian idiom. The battle marked the end of Sweden as a great power and the rise of Russia as one.

The city played host to the Mir Yeshiva during World War I and until 1921.

Additional information about Poltava can be found at: [link]

Famous people from Poltava

Alexander Gavrilovitch Gurvitch, Russian physician and biologist
Nikolai Yaroshenko, Russian painter
Ivan Kotlyarevsky, Ukrainian writer, poet and playwright
Anatoliy Vasilievich Lunacharsky, Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissar of Enlightenment responsible for culture and education
Ivan Paskevich, Ukrainian military leader in the Russian service
Symon Petlura, Ukrainian socialist politician and statesman
Zhanna Prokhorenko, Ukrainian actress

External links

Poltava area (1650)

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	Ukraine
	Subdivisions of Ukraine: Cherkasy Oblast \| Chernihiv Oblast \| Chernivtsi Oblast \| Autonomous Republic of Crimea \| Dnipropetrovsk Oblast \| Donetsk Oblast \| Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast \| Kharkiv Oblast \| Kherson Oblast \| Khmelnytskyi Oblast \| Kiev City \| Kiev Oblast \| Kirovohrad Oblast \| Luhansk Oblast \| Lviv Oblast \| Mykolaiv Oblast \| Odessa Oblast \| Poltava Oblast \| Rivne Oblast \| Sevastopol City \| Sumy Oblast \| Ternopil Oblast \| Vinnytsia Oblast \| Volyn Oblast \| Zakarpattia Oblast \| Zaporizhia Oblast \| Zhytomyr Oblast
	Administrative centers of subdivision units: Cherkasy \| Chernihiv \| Chernivtsi \| Dnipropetrovsk \| Donetsk \| Ivano-Frankivsk \| Kharkiv \| Kherson \| Khmelnytskyi \| Kiev \| Kirovohrad \| Luhansk \| Lutsk \| Lviv \| Mykolaiv \| Odessa \| Poltava \| Rivne \| Sevastopol \| Simferopol \| Sumy \| Ternopil \| Uzhhorod \| Vinnytsia \| Zaporizhia \| Zhytomyr