Chernivtsi (, ; ; see also other names) is a city in southwestern Ukraine on the upper course of the Prut River. Formerly the capital of the historic region of Bukovina, which is now divided between Romania and Ukraine, Chernivtsi serves as the administrative center for the Chernivtsi urban hromada, the Chernivtsi Raion, and the oblast itself. The Chernivtsi population is and the latest census in 2001 was 240,600.
The first document that refers to this city dates back to 1408, when Chernivtsi was a town in the region of Moldavia. Initially a defensive fortification, it became the center of Bukovina in 1488. In 1538, the Principality of Moldavia came under Polish suzerainty. Later it came under the rule of Ottoman Empire, formally remaining under Moldavian control until 1774, when Austria took control of Bukovina in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War. Until 1848 Chernivtsi (known at that time as ) was the center of Galicia's Bukovina District, and afterwards served as the capital of the Duchy of Bukovina. In the aftermath of World War I, Romania united with Bukovina in 1918, which led to the city regaining its Romanian name of ; this lasted until the Soviets occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Chernivtsi was under the control of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, after which Romania recovered the city, and then again from 1944 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, after which it became part of independent Ukraine.
Chernivtsi is viewed as one of Western Ukraine's main cultural centers. The city is also considered one of Ukraine's important educational and architectural sites. Historically a cosmopolitan community, Chernivtsi was once dubbed "Little Vienna" and "Jerusalem upon the Prut". The city is a major regional rail and road transportation hub, also housing an international airport.
Names and etymology
Late medieval accounts refer to what was then a Galicia–Volhynian fortress-city as Chern, or "the black city"; it is said to owe its name to the black color of the city walls, built from dark oak layered with local black-colored soil.
In "Documents of Western Russia" () published in Saint Petersburg in 1846 (Volume 1, page 32, document #21), the city is mentioned as Chernovtsi ().
Aside from its modern Ukrainian name of Chernivtsi, the city has also been known by several different names in various languages, which still are used by the respective population groups much as they used to be throughout the city's history, either in connection with the rule by one country or another or independently from it: (); (); (); ; , romanized: Tshernovits; , (in ); , (in );
In English, the city was usually referred to as Czernowitz before 1918 (under Austrian rule), Cernăuți from 1918 to 1944 (Romanian rule) and Chernovtsy from 1944 to 1991 (Soviet rule).
History
Prehistory Archaeological evidence discovered in the area surrounding Chernivtsi indicates that a population inhabited it since the Neolithic era. Later settlements included those of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, the Corded Ware culture; artifacts from the Bronze and Iron Ages were also found in the city. In the Middle Ages there lived East Slavic tribes White Croats and Tivertsi.
Under Principality of Halych A fortified settlement located on the left (north-eastern) shore of the Prut in a modern-day Chernivtsi dates back to the time of the Principality of Halych and is thought to have been built by Grand Prince Yaroslav Osmomysl. This early stronghold was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Europe by Boroldai in 1259. However, the remaining ramparts of the fortress were still used for defense purposes; in the 17th century they were augmented with several bastions, one of which is still extant.
Following the destruction of the fortress, later settlements in the area centered on the right (south-western) shore of the Prut River, at a more strategically advantageous, elevated location. In 1325, when the Kingdom of Poland seized control of Galicia, and came into contact with the early Vlach (Romanian) feudal formations, a fort was mentioned under the name Țețina; it was defending the ford and crossing point on the Prut River. It was part of a group of three fortifications; the other two being the fortress of Hotin on the Dniester to the east, and a fort on the Kolachin River, an upriver tributary of Prut.
Under the Principality of Moldavia
Between 1359 and 1775, the city and its surroundings were part of the Principality of Moldavia, one of the historic provinces of Romania; the city being the administrative center of the homonymous ținut (county). The name Cernăuți is first attested in a document by Alexandru cel Bun (Alexander the Good) on 8 October 1408. In Ottoman sources, the city was mentioned as "Çernovi".
Under Austro-Hungarian rule
In 1775, the northwestern part of the territory of Moldavia was annexed by the Habsburg Empire; this region became known as Bukovina. The city became the region's capital, organized as the Bukovina District part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, which in 1849 was raised in status and became known as the Duchy of Bukovina, a crownland of the Austrian Empire. The city received Magdeburg rights. The city began to flourish in 1778 when Knight Karl von Enzenberg was appointed the chief of the Military Administration. He invited many merchants, craftsmen and entrepreneurs to help develop trade and other businesses. Saint Peter's Fairs (1–15 July) had given a new vibrant impulse to the market development from 1786. In the late 19th century the German language—due to the Habsburg and the very important Jewish influence—became the lingua franca and more and more newspapers were edited in German, also a remarkable literary production in German began in this period, featuring most prominently Karl Emil Franzos.Ion Lihaciu, Czernowitz 1848–1948. Das kulturelle Leben einer Provinzmetropole, Parthenon Verlag, Kaiserslautern und Mehlingen 2012,
During the Moldavian Revolution of 1848, while meeting in Czernowitz, Moldavian liberals formed Comitetul Revoluţionar Moldovean (the Moldavian Revolutionary Committee) and commissioned Mihail Kogălniceanu to draw up a new statement of principles, Dorinţele partidei naţionale din Moldova ("The Wishes of the National Party in Moldavia"), published in August. More liberal than the 9 April petition, it called for an elected assembly with extensive powers, including the right to initiate legislation, and expanded the local autonomy of judeţe, cities and rural communes. Kogălniceanu also drafted a constitution, Proiectul de Constituţie, which rendered the legislature the dominant branch of government, allowing it to vote taxes, draw up the annual state budget, stimulate agriculture, industry and commerce, reform laws, elect the prince, and choose the metropolitan and bishops of the Orthodox Church. Kogălniceanu, a future Prime Minister of Romania, proposed that all orders of society be represented in the assembly, without calling for universal suffrage. Instead he proposed the creation of electoral college, giving the upper classes predominant power. Like most of his colleagues, he felt obliged to remain mindful of his era's social and political realities by recognizing the boyars continued leading role and limiting the participation of peasants due to their lack of education and experience. Among the Moldavian exiles in Czernowitz were also Vasile Alecsandri, Gheorghe Sion and Alexandru Ioan Cuza.
West Ukrainian People's Republic
During the 19th and early 20th century, Chernivtsi became a center of both Ukrainian and Romanian national movements. In 1908, it was the site of the first Yiddish language conference, the Czernowitz Conference, coordinated by Nathan Birnbaum. In 1910, Romanians and Ukrainians were almost in equal numbers with the Romanians concentrated mainly in the south and the Ukrainians mainly in the north. When Austria-Hungary dissolved in 1918 after its defeat in World War I, two years of political uncertainty followed. During the short period of time, West Ukrainian People's Republic, was proclaimed in Lviv on 1 November 1918. Prior to that, on 14/27 October 1918 Ukrainian Bukovina executive committee was created, a constituent assembly to whom the Austrian governor of the province subsequently handed power."Bukovyna". Entry Display Web Page. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021. In November, committee took power and controlled the Ukrainian part of Bukovina, consisting of Northern Bukovina, and including the city of Chernivtsi, Zastavna, Vashkivtsi, Vyzhnytsia.Katchanovski, Ivan; Kohut, Zenon E.; Nebesio, Bohdan Y.; Yurkevich, Myroslav (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ukraine. Scarecrow Press. pp. 64–66. ISBN 9780810878471.
On 3 November 1918, a large Ukrainian Bukovina Viche was held in Chernivtsi, at which the majority voted for reunification with the West Ukrainian People's Republic proclaimed in Lviv. It has further unanimously expressed a strong protest against the annexation of Bukovina to the Kingdom of Romania, and elected Omelian Popovych as a chairman of the Ukrainian Regional Committee.Литвин М., Науменко К. Історія ЗУНР… — С. 68—69. On 6 November 1918, Ukrainians took over power in Chernivtsi, Yosyp Bezpalko was appointed as a mayor of the city.Volodymyr Kubiĭovych, Ukrainian National Association, 1963, Ukraine, a Concise Encyclopedia, Volume 1, p. 787 At that time, a 2.5 thousand corps of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen were stationed in the city.М. Литвин, К. Науменко. Історія ЗУНР. — Львів: Інститут українознавства НАНУ; видавнича фірма «Олір», 1995. — іл. — С. 34. — ISBN 5-7707-7867-9
Chernivtsi under Romanian rule From 11 November to 19 December 1918, the Romanian army takes over Chernivtsi (Cernăuți) and formalizes Bukovina's annexation.Robert A. Kann, Zdenek David, University of Washington Press, 2017, Peoples of the Eastern Habsburg Lands, 1526–1918, p. 446 As the aftermath of World War I, Bukovina together with Chernivtsi was recognised and became a part of the Kingdom of Romania, which gained worldwide diplomatic recognition by the end of 1920 as an aftermath of unsuccessful Ukrainian War of Independence, as West Ukrainian People's Republic was crushed down together with Ukrainian People's Republic by its neighbors.Zhukovsky, Arkadii. "Struggle for Independence (1917–20)". Internet Encyclopaedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 25 September 2023. During those two years, even most city residents did not know of which country they were citizens, with most assuming Czernowitz still belonged to Austria-Hungary. German remained the lingua franca of the city and its suburbs for another decade. In 1930, the city reached a population of 112,400. While Romanians formed the majority of Bukovina's diverse population in 1930, the ethnic composition of Chernivtsi City had a Jewish majority (hence the nickname "Jerusalem on the Pruth"). Jews made up 44.5% of the population, followed by Romanians at 25.5%, Ukrainians at 16.7%, Germans at 6.4%, and Poles at 4.9%. The remaining population consisted of Russians, Romani, Hungarians, and other smaller ethnic groups.UNGUREANU, Constantin. Populaţia Bucovinei în 1910 şi 1930. Evoluţii etno-demografice. In: In honorem Alexandru Moşanu: Studii de istorie medievală, modernă şi contemporană a românilor, 22 septembrie 2012, Cluj-Napoca. Cluj -Napoca, România: Academia Română. Centrul de Studii Transilvane: P resa Universitară Clujeană, 2012, pp. 449. ISBN 978-973-595-418-5.
Soviet occupation and World War 2