Severia

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Severia (Russian: , Severshchina; #redirect , Siveria or Сіверщина, Sivershchyna, Polish: ) is a historical region in northern Ukraine and southwestern Russia, centered around the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi (or Novgorod-Seversky), located on the border of Russia and Ukraine.

The region received its name after the Severyans who inhabited it in the 1st millennium A.D. By the time of Yaroslav the Wise, the area along the upper course of the Desna River was controlled from Chernihiv. In 1096, Oleg of Chernigov created for himself a large Severian principality, which stretched as far as the upper reaches of the Oka River. Until the end of the century, the principality served as a buffer state against the Cuman attacks. Its most celebrated ruler was Prince Igor (1150-1202), whose story is told in the medieval Lay of Igor's Campaign. The main towns of Severia were Novhorod-Siverskyi, Putyvl, Hlukhiv, Sevsk, Rylsk, and Bryansk. By the early 13th century, most of these sporadically served as the seats of separate principalities.

After the Mongol invasion of Rus’, Severia fell into oblivion. It is but rarely mentioned in written sources of the 13th and 14th centuries. By the 15th century, it was overrun by the Great Duchy of Lithuania, whose princes, Ruthenian by language and Orthodox by religion, established their seats in Novhorod-Siverskyi, Starodub, and Trubchevsk. After the Lithuanian defeat in the Battle of Vedrosha these principalities passed to Muscovy and remained a part of Imperial Russia for centuries to come, except for a short period between 1618 and 1648, when it was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth following the Treaty of Dywilino. Descendants of the Gedyminid rulers of Severia moved to Moscow, where they started the family of Princes Trubetskoy.

In the 18th century, the hetmans of Ukraine established their residences in Baturyn, Hlukhiv, and Pochep. Hlukhiv, in particular, developed into a veritable capital of the 18th-century Ukraine. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the Severian lands, Ukrainian by architecture, and of mixed Ukrainian and Russian ethnicity and language composition were divided between the Ukrainian and Russian SFSR Soviet republics thus eventually ending up in their respective modern states.

 



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