Kolomyia

For the Ukrainian folk dance named after the city of Kolomyia, see Kolomyjka.

Kolomyya Коломия Kołomyja Colomeea
City of regional significance
City Hall in Kolomyia City Hall in Kolomyia
Flag of Kolomyya Flag Coat of arms
Kolomyya Location of Kolomyia
Kolomyya
Coordinates:
Country Oblast Raion	Ukraine Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Kolomyia Raion / Municipality
Area
• Total	41 km2 (16 sq mi)
Population (2015)
• Total	61,236
• Density	1,494/km2 (3,870/sq mi)
Website	www.ko.if.ua City's administrative statistics at Verkhovna Rada web-site

File:Kolomyia Main Square.JPG

Market Square in Kolomyja

File:Kolomyia Main Square 1.JPG

Central part of Kolomyja

File:Kolomyia Old 3.JPG

Old Town in Kolomyja

Kolomyia or Kolomyya, formerly known as Kolomea (Ukrainian: Коломия, Polish: Kołomyja, Russian: Коломыя, German: Kolomea, Romanian: Colomeea, Yiddish: קאלאמיי‎), is a city located on the Prut River in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (province), in western Ukraine. It is administratively incorporated as a town of oblast significance and serves as the administrative centre of the surrounding Kolomyia Raion (district), which it is administratively not a part of.. The city rests approximately halfway between Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi, in the center of the historical region of Pokuttya, with which it shares much of its history. Population: 61,236 (2015 est.).

The city is a notable railroad hub, as well as an industrial center (textiles, shoes, metallurgical plant, machine works, wood and paper industry). It is a center of Hutsul culture. At the turn of the 20th century the city was the most populous city in Stanislawow voivodeship.

History

Early history

Under Kievan Rus' and the principality of Halych-Volhynia (1241–1340)

The settlement of Kolomyia was first mentioned by the Hypatian Chronicle in 1240 and the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle in 1241 a time of the Mongol invasion of Rus. Initially part of Kievan Rus', it later belonged to one of its successor states, the principality of Halych-Volhynia. On the order of Boroldai, the city fortress was burnt down in 1259.

Under Poland (1340–1498)

In 1340 it was annexed to Poland by King Casimir III, together with the rest of the region of Red Ruthenia. Sometime in the 1340s another fortress was erected here. In a short time the settlement became one of the most notable centres of commerce in the area. Because of that, the population rose rapidly.

Prior to 1353 there were two parishes in the settlement, one for Catholics and the other for Orthodox. In 1412 King Władysław Jagiełło erected a Dominican order monastery and a stone-built church there. About the same time, the king was forced by the war with the Teutonic Order to pawn the area of Pokucie to the hospodar of Moldavia, Alexander. Although the city remained under Polish sovereignty, the income of the customs offices in the area was given to the Moldavians, after which time the debt was repaid.

Development

In 1405 the town's city rights were confirmed and it was granted with the Magdeburg Law, which allowed the burghers limited self-governance. This move made the development of the area faster and Kołomyja, as it was called then, attracted many settlers from many parts of Europe. Apart from the local Ukrainians and Poles, many Armenians, Jews, and Hungarians settled there. In 1411 the fortress-city was given away for 25 years to the Vlach Hospodar Olexander as a gift for his support in the war against Hungary. In 1443, a year before his death, King Wladislaus II of Poland granted the city yet another privilege which allowed the burghers to trade salt, one of the most precious minerals of the Middle Ages.

Since the castle gradually fell into disarray, in 1448 King Casimir IV of Poland gave the castle on the hill above the town to Maria, widow of Eliah, voivode of Moldavia as a dowry. In exchange, she refurbished the castle and reinforced it. In 1456 the town was granted yet another privilege. This time the king allowed the town authorities to stop all merchants passing by the town, and force them to sell their goods at the local market. This gave the town an additional boost, especially as the region was one of three salt-producing areas in Poland (the other two being Wieliczka and Bochnia), both not far from Kraków.

The area was relatively peaceful for the next century. However, the vacuum after the decline of the Golden Horde started to be filled by yet another power in the area: the Ottoman Empire. In 1485 Sultan Beyazid II captured Belgorod and Kilia, two ports on the northern shores of the Black Sea. This became a direct threat to Moldavia. In search of allies, its ruler Ştefan cel Mare came to Kołomyja and paid homage to the Polish king, thus becoming a vassal of the Polish Crown. For the ceremony, both monarchs came with roughly 20,000 knights, which was probably the biggest festivity ever held in the town. After the festivity most knights returned home, apart from 3,000 under Jan Karnkowski, who were given to the Moldavian prince as support in his battles, which he won in the end. In 1490 the city was sacked by the riot of Ivan Mukha.

Decline

However, with the death of Stefan of Moldova, the neighbouring state started to experience both internal and external pressure from the Turks. In the effect of border skirmishes, as well as natural disasters, the town was struck by fires in 1502, 1505, 1513, and 1520.

Under Moldavia (1498–1531)

Władysław II Jagiełło, needing financial support in his battles against the Teutonic Knights, used the region as a guarantee in a loan which he obtained from Petru I of Moldavia, who thus gained control of Pokuttya in 1388. Therefore, it became the feudal property of the princes of Moldavia, but remained within the Kingdom of Poland..

After the Battle of the Cosmin Forest, in 1498, Pokuttia was conquered by Stephen the Great, annexed and retained by Moldavia until the Battle of Obertyn in 1531, when it was recaptured by Poland's hetman Jan Tarnowski, who defeated Stephen's son Petru Rareş. Minor Polish-Moldavian clashes for Pokuttia continued for the next 15 years, until Petru Rareş's death.

Polish – Ottoman wars

The following year hetman Jan Tarnowski recaptured the town, and defeated the Moldavians in the Battle of Obertyn. This victory secured the city's existence for the following years, but the Ottoman power grew and Poland's southern border remained insecure.

In 1589, the Turks crossed the border and seized Kołomyja almost immediately. All the burghers taking part in the defence were slaughtered, while the rest were forced to pay high indemnities.

The town was returned to Poland soon afterwards, but the city's growth lost its momentum.

In 1620, another Polono-Turkish war broke out. After the Polish defeat at Ţuţora, Kołomyja was yet again seized by the Turks – in 1626 the town was burned to the ground, while all of residents were enslaved in a jasyr.

After the war the area yet again returned to Poland. With the town in ruins, the starosta of Kamieniec Podolski fortress financed its reconstruction – slightly further away from the Prut River. The town was rebuilt, but never regained its power and remained one of many similar-scaled centres in the area.

Semen Vysochan (Khmelnytsky Uprising) and Oleksa Dovbush

During the Khmelnytskyi Uprising in 1648–54, the Kolomyia county became a center of a peasant unrest (Pokuttya Uprising) led by Semen Vysochan. The rebels' center was a town of Otynia. With the help of the oncoming Cossack forces, Vysochan managed to overtake the important local fortress of Pniv (today – a village of Nadvirna Raion) and eventually managed to take under its control most of cities and villages in the region providing great support for the advancing Cossack forces of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. Soon however with advancing Polish troops, Vysochan was forced to retreat to the eastern Podillya where he continued to fight under commands of Ivan Bohun and Ivan Sirko.

In the 17th century the city's outskirts saw another peasant rebellion led by Oleksa Dovbush. The rebels were known as opryshky.

Partition of Poland – Jews history

As a result of the first of Partitions of Poland (Treaty of St-Petersburg dated 5 July 1772), Kołomyja was attributed to the Habsburg Monarchy. More details about the history of Galicia can be read in the article Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.

However, as it provided very little profit, Kołomyja was sold to the castellan of Bełz, Ewaryst Kuropatnicki, who became the town's owner. The magnate financed a new Our Lady's Church, but he lacked finance for speeding-up the city's growth.

File:Kolomyja 1871 Kolomyia.jpg

Austrian stamp cancelled in 1871 (Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria)

Prosperity returned to the town in the mid-19th century, when it was linked to the world through the Lemberg-Czernowitz railroad. By 1882 the city had almost 24.000 inhabitants, including roughly 12,000 Jews, 6,000 Ruthenians, and 4,000 Poles. Until the end of that century, the commerce attracted even more inhabitants from all over Galicia. Moreover, a new Jesuit Catholic church was built in Kolomyja, as it was called by German authorities, along with a Lutheran church built in 1874. By 1901 the number of inhabitants grew to 34,188, approximately half of them Jews.

20th century

In 1900 the Jewish population was 16,568, again nearly 50% of the town’s population. The Jewish community had a Great Synagogue, and about 30 other synagogues. In 1910 Jews were prohibited from selling alcoholic beverages. In 1911 they were prohibited from salt and wine occupations.

After the outbreak of the Great War, the town saw fierce battles between the forces of the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary. Jews were abused for supposedly supporting the Austrians, and many Jewish homes were ransacked and destroyed.

The Russian advance occupied the town in September 1914.

In 1915 the Austrians retook the town.

As a result of the collapse of Austria-Hungary, both the town itself and the surrounding region became disputed between renascent Poland and the West Ukrainian People's Republic.

Second Polish Republic

However, during the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1919, it was seized without a fight by forces of Romania, and handed over to Polish authorities. According to the Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia, it was taken over by the Polish bourgeoisie and land owners. During the Polish-Bolshevik 1919 war in Ukraine, a Polish division under General Zeligowski tore through Bessarabia and Bukovina and stopped in Kolomea during its winter march to Poland. Kolomea was then temporarily occupied by the Romanians and the border was near the town (shtetl) Otynia between Stanislav and Kolomea.

After the Polish-Soviet War it remained in Poland as a capital of a powiat within the Stanisławów Voivodship. By 1931 the number of inhabitants grew to over 41,000. The ethnic mixture was composed of Jews, Poles, Ukrainians (including Hutsuls), Germans, Armenians, and Hungarians, as well as of descendants of Valachians and other nationalities of former Austria-Hungary. With the development of infrastructure, the town became a major railroad hub, as well as the garrison city of the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment. In the interbellum period, every Thursday a market took place at the main square of the town. The town had a monument of Polish poet Franciszek Karpinski, a monument of Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, and an obelisk near the town, located in a spot where in 1485 hospodar Stephen III of Moldavia paid tribute to king Kazimierz IV Jagiellon. In 1920-30s workers' strikes took place in the city, possibly organized by the Communist Party of Western Ukraine that was established in Kolomyia in 1923.

After the outbreak of World War II with the Invasion of Poland of 1939, the town was thought of as one of the centers of Polish defense of the so-called Romanian Bridgehead.

Part of Soviet Union and World War II

However, the Soviet invasion from the east made these plans obsolete, and the town was occupied by the Red Army.

As a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the occupied town became a part of the Soviet Union as a region of the Ukrainian SSR. The accession of the Western Ukraine to the Soviet Union (Reunion of Western Ukraine and USSR) – the adoption of the Soviet Union in Western Ukraine with the adoption of an Extraordinary Session V of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Law "On the inclusion of the Western Ukraine in the Soviet Union to the reunification of the Ukrainian SSR" (November 1, 1939) at the request of the Commission of the Plenipotentiary of the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine. The decision to file motions stipulated in the Declaration "On joining of Western Ukraine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic" was adopted by the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine in Lviv, October 27, 1939.

On November 14, 1939 the Third Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Soviet of USSR decided: "Accept Western Ukraine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and thus reunite the great Ukrainian people in a unified Ukrainian state."

In 1940 part of the local population were arrested by the NKVD, and sent to the Gulag system or to various Soviet prisons among which were Polish, Ukrainians, Hungarians, and many others.

In 1941, the town was seized by Nazi Germany. During the German occupation most of the city's Jews were murdered by the German occupation authorities. Initial street executions of September and October 1941 took the lives of approximately 500 people. The following year the remaining Jews were massed in a local ghetto, and then murdered in various concentration camps, mostly in Bełżec. Several hundred Jews were kept as slave workers in a labor camp, and then murdered in 1943 in a forest near Sheparivtsi.

The Red Army liberated Kolomya from the German invaders on March 28, 1944. Soon after that many construction workers, teachers, doctors, engineers and other skilled professionals began to arrive to restore the ruined city. They arrived from the eastern part of Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union

During the Cold War the town was the headquarters of the 44th Rocket Division of the Strategic Rocket Forces, which had previously been the 73rd Engineer Brigade RVGK at Kamyshin. The division was disbanded on 31 March 1990.

Under independent Ukraine (1991–present)

File:Kolomyia Old 1.JPG

Old building in Kolomyja

File:Kolomyia Old 2.JPG

A street in Kolomyja Old town

It now remains a part of Ukraine, independent since 1991.

By the time of independence the vast majority of industrial enterprises of Kolomyia in fact ceased to exist or had been eliminated: Plant "Kolomyiasilmash", "Zahotzerno", plant "Elektroosnastka", factory "September 17", shoe factory, wood working factory, plant KRP (complete switchgears), printing house on Valova str., factory of brushes, weaving factory and many others. Also eliminated were movie theaters, there were 4: Irchan movie theater, Kirov movie theater, movie theater "Yunist" (Youth), a summer theater in the present Trylovskoho park (formerly named Kirov park). Also in Kolomyia a film store of regional importance ceased to exist. As a result, many people found themselves without work. For economic reasons many citizens of Kolomyia were forced to emigrate abroad. Those companies that have remained from the Soviet era, barely glow. These include curtain factory, paper mill, Metalozavod, Plant PRUT (programmable electronic educational terminals), cheese factory, remains "Kolomyiasilmash", Kolomyia Plant management of building materials, Kolomyia Motor Company, paper mill, clothes factory on Valova str., printing house on Mazepa str., canned fruit plant.

Most of these companies were widely known in the former Soviet Union and abroad, they were highly advanced in terms of equipment, qualified personnel working and engineering staff. These enterprises produced many products, employees worked in several changes, the City budget received significant income in taxes. Now it's all in the past.

It is a twin town of Nysa in Poland, to where many of its former inhabitants had to move after the war.

Since late 2015, Kolomyia has been the headquarters of the Ukrainian 10th Mountain Brigade.

Economy

• Kolomyiasilmash
• Factory of the 17 September
• Factory of construction materials
• Factory combine of household services

Culture

File:Pysanka Museum.JPG

Pysanka Museum in Kolomyia, Ukraine

Kolomyia is famous for its Pysanka Museum, that was built in 2000.

The museum was opened on 23 September 2000, during the 10th International Hutsul festival. Director Yaroslava Tkachuk first came up with the idea of a museum in the shape of a pysanka, local artists Vasyl Andrushko and Myroslav Yasinskyi brought the idea to life. The museum is not only shaped like an egg (14 m in height and 10 m in diameter), but parts of the exterior and interior of the dome are painted to resemble a pysanka.

Location

Local orientation

Regional orientation

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Ukraine

Twin towns — Sister cities

Kolomyia is twinned with:

• Andrychów, Poland
• Nysa, Poland
• Rădăuți, Romania
• Sighetu Marmației, Romania
• Drochia, Moldova
• Mukachevo, Ukraine
• Mariupol, Ukraine
• Bakhmut, Ukraine
• Kremenchuk, Ukraine
• Illichivsk, Ukraine

Notable people

• Emanuel Feuermann (1902–1942), American cellist
• Chaim Gross (1904–1991), American sculptor
• Roman Hryhorchuk (born 1965), Ukrainian football player and manager
• Olena Iurkovska (born 1983), Ukrainian athlete, five time Paralympic Champion and Hero of Ukraine
• Mieczyslaw Jagielski (1924–1997), Polish politician and economist
• Franciszek Karpinski (1741–1825), Polish 17th century poet
• Dov Noy (born 1920), Israeli folklorist, recipient of the Israel Prize in 2004
• Stanislaw Ruziewicz (1889–1941), Polish mathematician
• Olesya Stefanko (born 1988), Ukrainian pageant, finished 1st runner-up at the 2011 Miss Universe pageant (Ukraine's highest placement to date)
• Andrzej Zalucki (born 1941), Polish diplomat

See also

• Kolomyjka, a dance in Ukrainian and Jewish klezmer music, which originated in Kolomyia.
• Pokuttya

Further reading

• "Der Don Juan von Kolomea" (The Don Juan of Kolomyia), by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

External links

• http://ww2.gov.if.ua/kolomiyskiy/ua(in Ukrainian)
• http://nad.at.ua/news/istorija_mista_kolomiji(in Ukrainian)
• http://leksika.com.ua/19200421/ure/kolomiya (in Ukrainian)
• ntktv.ua, the city's television
• Історія Коломиї (in Ukrainian)
• kolomyya.org (in Ukrainian)
• pysanka.museum Pysanka Museum
• hutsul.museum Hutsul and Pokuttya National Folk Art Museum
• Kolomyya Tourist Directory (PDF)
• Heraldry and old pictures
• Picture gallery
• Kolomyia's Museum of Hutsul Folk Art
• New York-based Jewish organizations of exiles from Kolomyia
• JewishGen – The Kolomea Administrative District
• Memorial Book
• Photographs of Jewish sites in Kolomyia in the Jewish History in Galicia and Bukovina