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Lviv / Lvov Ukraine Information
Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів L’viv, Polish: Lwów; German: Lemberg; Russian: Львов, L'vov; Latin: Leopolis; is a major city in western Ukraine.Lviv (Lvov, L'viv, Lwow, Lwiw) is located at the western part of Ukraine, at the border of Euro Union. Lviv is the historical and cultural hart of Ukraine. Over quarter of all Ukrainian memorials in UNESCO are located in Lviv.
The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically also for Ukraine’s neighbour, Poland. The historic centre of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived the Second World War and the Soviet presence largely unscathed. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as the Lviv University and the Lviv Polytechnic. It has a philharmonic orchestra and The Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumičre in the city centre in September 2006.
Lviv was founded in 1256 in Red Ruthenia by King Danylo Halytskyi of the Ruthenian principality of Halych-Volhynia, and named in honour of his son, Lev. Together with the rest of Red Ruthenia, Lviv was captured by Kingdom of Poland in 1349 during the reign of Polish king Casimir III the Great. Lviv belonged to the Kingdom of Poland 1349-1569, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569-1772, the Austrian Empire 1772-1918, the Second Polish Republic 1918-1939. With the outbreak of WWII the city of Lviv with adjacent land were annexed and incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR 1939-1941. Between July 1941- July 1944 Lviv was under German occupation and was located in the General Government. In July 1944 it was captured by the Soviet Red Army and the Polish Home Army. According to the agreements of the Yalta Conference Lviv was integrated into the Ukrainian SSR again.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the city remained a part of the now independent Ukraine, for which it currently serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast, and designated as its own raion (district) within that oblast.
On June 12, 2009 the Ukrainian magazine Focus assessed Lviv as the best Ukrainian city to live in
Geography and Location
Lviv is located on the edge of the Roztochia Upland, approximately 70 km from the Polish border and 160 km (100 miles) from the eastern Carpathian Mountains. The average altitude of Lviv is 296 m above sea level. Its highest point is the Vysokyi Zamok (High Castle), 409 m above sea level. This castle has a commanding view of the historic city centre with its distinctive green-domed churches and intricate architecture.
The old walled city was at the foothills of the High Castle on the banks of the river Poltva. In the 13th century, the river was used to transport goods. In the early 20th century, the Poltva was covered over in areas where it flows through the city. The river flows directly beneath the central street of Lviv, Freedom Avenue (Prospect Svobody) and the renowned Lviv Opera House.
Climate
Lviv's climate is moderate continental. The average temperatures are −4°C (27°F) in January and +20°C (65 °F) in June. Average annual rainfall is 660 mm (26 inches) with the maximum being in summer. Cloud coverage averages 66 days per year.
Early History
Acording to the legend, Lviv was founded by King Daniel of Galicia, in the Ruthenian principality of Halych-Volhynia, and named in honour of his son, Lev. When Daniel died Lev made Lviv the capital of Galicia-Volhynia. The city is first mentioned in the Halych-Volhynian Chronicle, which dates from 1256.By 1272 Lviv had become the capital of the Halych-Volyn Principality. It was captured by the Lithuania in 1340[citation needed] and ruled by Voievoda Dmitri Detko, the favourite of the Lithanian prince Lubart until 1349.
Within Kingdom of Poland 1349-1772
In 1356, Casimir III of Poland brought in German burghers and within 7 years granted the Magdeburg rights which implied that all city matters were to be resolved by a council, elected by the wealthy citizens. The city council seal of the 14th century stated: S(igillum): Civitatis Lembvrgensis. As part of Poland (and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), Lviv became the capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship.Fedorovych's autograph from July 23, 1583In 1572 the first publisher of books in Ukraine, Ivan Fedorovych, a graduate of the University of Krakow settled in Lviv after a brief period wher he was chased out of Moscow. The city becomes a significant centre for the Eastern orthodoxy with the establishment of an orthodox brotherhood and a Greek-Slavonic school and a printery that published the first full versions of the Bible in Church-slavonic in 1580.
As Lviv prospered, it became religiously and ethnically diverse. The 17th century brought invading armies of Swedes, Hungarians from Transylvania, Russians and Cossacks to its gates. However, Lviv was the only major city in Poland that was not captured by the invaders. In 1672 it was besieged by the Ottomans, who also failed to conquer it. Lviv was captured for the first time by a foreign army in 1704, when Swedish troops under King Charles XII entered the city after a siege.
Within Habsburg Empire 1772-1918
In 1772, following the First Partition of Poland the region was annexed by Austria. Being known in German as Lemberg, the city became the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.In 1773 the first newspaper in Lviv "Gazette de Leopoli" began to be published. In 1784 a German language University was opened which was closed in 1805. In 1817 the University was re-opened.
In the 19th century the Austrian administration attempted to Germanise the city. Many cultural organizations which did not have a pro-German orientation were closed. After the revolution of 1848, the language of instruction at the University shifted from German to also include Ukrainian and Polish.
In 1853 it was the first European city to have street lights due to innovations discovered by Lviv inhabitants Ignacy Łukasiewicz and Jan Zeh. In that year kerosene lamps were introduced as street lights which in 1858 were updated to gas, and in 1900 to electricity.In the early stage of First World War Lviv was briefly captured by the Russian army in September 1914 but retaken by Austria–Hungary in June the following year.
Polish-Ukrainian War
With the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy at the end of World War I Lviv became an arena of conflict between the local Ukrainian and Polish populations, as both nations perceived Lviv as integral part of their new states, forming that time in the former Austrian territories. On the night of October 31-1 November 1918 the Western Ukrainian National Republic was proclaimed with Lviv as its capital. 2,300 Ukrainian soldiers from Sichovi Striltsi (Sich riflemen) units, previously a legion in the Austrian Army, took control over Lviv. City's Polish majority discarded the Ukrainian rule and begun to fight off the Ukrainian troops. During this combat an important role was taken by young Polish city defenders called Lwów Eaglets. The Ukrainian forces withdrew behind Lviv's confines by November 21, 1918, laying siege to the city immediately after the withdrawal. The Sich riflemen reformed into the Ukrainian Galician Army (UHA).
The Polish forces with the aid from central Poland, including general Haller's Blue Army equipped by the French, relieved the besieged city finally in May 1919, forcing the UHA to the east. Despite the Entente's mediation attempts to cease hostilities and reach a compromise between belligerents, the Polish–Ukrainian War continued till July 1919, when the last UHA forces withdrew east of the river Zbruch.In April 1920 Polish government signed an agreement with Symon Petlura where for military support against the Bolsheviks, the Ukrainian People's Republic renounced its claims to the territories of Eastern Galicia.
Polish sovereignty over Lviv was internationally recognized when the Council of Ambassadors ultimately approved it in March 1923.
Within Second Polish Republic 1918-1939
In August 1920 Lviv was attacked by the Red Army under the command of Aleksandr Yegorov and Stalin during Polish-Soviet War, but the city resisted again.For the courage of its inhabitants Lviv was awarded the Virtuti Militari cross by Józef Piłsudski on 22 November 1920.
In the interbellum period Lviv held the rank of Poland's third most populous city (after Warsaw and Łódź) and became the seat of the Lwów Voivodeship. It was then, after capital Warsaw, the second most important cultural and academic centre of Poland (in academical year 1937/38 there were 9,1 thousand students, attending 5 higher education facilities including widely renown university and institute of technology).
In 1928 Professor Rudolf Weigl of the Lviv University discovered the vaccine against typhus.
WWII and Soviet occupation 1939-1941
Following the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Subsequently the Soviets invaded on September 17. The Soviet Union annexed eastern part of prewar Poland including the city of Lviv which capitulated to the Red Army on September 22, 1939.Lviv became the capital of the newly formed Lviv Oblast. Immediately Soviets started to repress local Poles and Ukrainians, deporting many of the citizens.
Nazi occupation 1941-1944
On July 22, 1941 the Germans attacked the USSR. In the initial stage of Operation Barbarossa (late June 1941), Lviv was taken by the Germans. The evacuating Soviets killed most of the prison population. Wehrmacht forces arriving in the city discovered evidence of the mass murders committed by the NKVD and NKGB and later by Ukrainian Nationalists. This included the mass killing of Poles, Ukrainians and Jews. The Germans during the occupation of the city committed numerous other atrocities.
On 30 June 1941, Yaroslav Stetsko proclaimed in Lviv the Government of an independent Ukraine. This was done without pre-approval from the Germans and within 3 days the organizers were arrested. Eastern Galicia was subsequently incorporated into the General Government as Distrikt Galizien.Germany viewed Galicia, former Austrian crown land, as already aryanized and civilized, and as a result the Ukrainian Galicians escaped the full extent of German intentions in comparison to Ukrainians who lived in Eastern and Central Ukraine. German policy towards Polish population was more harsh and comparable to the situation in the rest of the General Government. According to the Third Reich's racial policies Galician Jews became the main target of German repressions. Almost all of the Jewish Galicians were deported to concentration camps or killed. In 1941 there were approximately 200,000 Jews in Lviv. By the end of the war the Jewish population was virtually wiped out with only 200 - 300 Jews left alive.
Soviet re-occupation 1944-1945
The Soviet 3rd Tank Army entered Lviv again after the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive of July 22-24, 1944. After the city was taken by Soviet forces with the help of Armia Krajowa, the local commanders of the Polish AK were invited to a meeting with the commanders of the Red Army, where they were arrested by the NKVD.
In January 1945 the local NKVD arrested many Poles in Lviv (where, according to Soviet sources, on 1 October 1944 Poles still made a clear majority - 66.7% of population) to encourage their emigration from their city. Those arrested were released after they signed papers agreeing to emigrate to Poland, which postwar borders were shifted westwards leaving the city in the Soviet Union. It is estimated that from 100,000 to 140,000 Poles were resettled in the Recovered Territories. Little remains of Polish culture in Lviv except for the Italian-influenced architecture. The Polish history of Lviv is still well remembered in Poland, and those Poles who stayed in Lviv, have formed their own organization, the Association of Polish Culture of the Lviv Land.Lviv and its population suffered greatly during the two world wars as many of the offensives were fought across the local geography causing significant collateral damage and disruption.
On August 16, 1945 a border agreement between Soviet puppet-government of Poland and the government of the USSR was signed in Moscow, in which now-communist Poland formally ceded its prewar eastern part to the Soviet Union, agreeing to the Polish-Soviet border drawn according to the so called Curzon Line. Consequently, the agreement had been ratified by February 5th, 1946. Thus since February 1946 Lviv legally became a part of the Soviet Union.
Soviet Union 1946-1991
Expulsion of the Polish population, together with migration from Ukrainian-speaking rural areas around the city, as well as from other parts of the Soviet Union, altered the traditional ethnic composition of the city, which became mostly Ukrainian.In the 1950s and 1960s, the city significantly expanded both in population and size, mostly due to the city's rapidly growing industry. In the period of liberalization of the Soviet system in the 1980s the city became the centre of political movement advocating Ukrainian independence from the USSR.
Independent Ukraine
Citizens of Lviv strongly supported Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election and played a key role in the Orange Revolution. Hundred of thousands of people would gather in freezing temperature to demonstrate for the Orange camp. Acts of civil disobedience forced the head of the local police to resign and the local assembly issued a resolution refusing to accept the fraudulent first official results.
Lviv remains today one of the main centres of Ukrainian culture, and the origin of much of the nation's political class.
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