Nizhyn, Rus. Nezhin, city (1989 pop. 81,000), N Ukraine, on the Oster River. It is a rail terminus on the main Moscow-Kiev line and an agricultural trade center. Industries include engineering, food processing, and the manufacture of machinery and railroad cars. Known in the 11th cent., the city was the center of the Nizhyn Ukrainian Cossack regiment from 1649 to 1782. It became an important trading center in the 17th and 18th cent. after Greek merchants received permission to settle there in 1657.

Nizhyn (Ніжин; Нежин; Nezhin) is a city located in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine, along the Oster River, 150 km north-east of the nation's capital, Kiev. It is the administrative center of the Nizhynsky Raion, though the city itself is also designated as a district in the oblast. Its estimated population is 76,625 (as of the 2001 census).

History

The earliest known references to the location go back to 1147, when it was briefly mentioned as Unenezh. In the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Nizhyn was granted Magdeburg rights (1625) as a self-governing town. Nizhyn was once a major center of Hasidic Judaism and is the site of the Ohel (tomb) of the Hasidic master, Rabbi Dovber Schneuri of Chabad-Lubavitch. It was also the seat of a major Cossack regiment (until 1782) and of the thriving Greek community, which enjoyed a number of privileges granted by Bogdan Khmelnytsky.

In the nineteenth century Nizhyn became an uyezd capital of Chernigov Guberniya and, before 1808, of Malorosiyskaya (or Little Russian) gubernia. In 1805, the Bezborodko Lyceum was established there; its graduates include Nikolai Gogol, whose statue graces one of city streets. Nizhyn has also long been noted for its famous cucumbers.

In July 1969 two Tupolev Tu-22 aircraft from the nearby air base collided in mid-air. The crew ejected and the plane flew on unpiloted for 52 minutes, threatening the city of Nezhin before crashing 0.5 km from the city's railway station.

Sights

Architecturally Nezhin was shaped in the 18th century. Foremost among its buildings must be mentioned its seven Baroque churches: Annunciation Cathedral (1702-16, modernised 1814), Presentation Cathedral (1788), St. Michael's Church of the Greek community (1719-29), St John's Church (1752, illustrated, to the right), Saviour's Transfiguration Church (1757), Intercession Church (1765), and the so-called Cossack Cathedral of St. Nicholas (1658, restored 1980s), a rare survival from the days of Nezhin's Cossack glory, noted for its octagonal vaults and drums crowned by archetypal pear-shaped domes (picture). Other notable buildings include the Trinity Church (1733, rebuilt a century later), the Greek magistrate (1785), and the Neoclassical complex of the Nizhyn Lyceum (designed by Luigi Rusca, built in 1805-17, expanded in 1876-79).

People

• Semyon Desnitsky, a disciple of Adam Smith who introduced his ideas to the Russian public.
• Sergey Korolyov, the father of the Soviet space program
• Olga Khokhlova, Pablo Picasso's wife
• Jacob Pavlovitch Adler, Jewish actor
• Israel Rosenberg, founded the first Yiddish theater troupe in Imperial Russia.
• Sonya Adler, one of the first women to perform in Yiddish theater in Imperial Russia.
• Mark Bernes, a Soviet actor and singer of Jewish ancestry
• Nestor Kukolnik, a Russian playwright and prose writer.
• Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, a sprinter who has competed in the Olympic Games.

References

External references

• / "A city, glorious and tender, loved by all", in Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), July, 2005. in Russian, in Ukrainian
• Nizhen/Nizhyn in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• History of Nezhin