Rivne, Ukraine

🇺🇦 Rivne is a historic city in western Ukraine. Known prior to June 1991 as Rovno, the city is the administrative centre of Rivne Oblast, as well as the surrounding Rivne Raion within the oblast. Administratively, Rivne is incorporated as a city of oblast significance and does not belong to the raion.

Between World War I and World War II, the city was located in Poland as a district-level (county) seat in Wolyn Voivodeship. At the start of World War II in 1939, Rivne was occupied by the Soviet Red Army and received its current status by becoming a seat of regional government of the Rivne Oblast which was created out of the eastern portion of the voivodeship. During the German occupation of 1941–44 the city was designated as a capital of German Ukraine (Reichskommissariat Ukraine). In the spring of 1919, it also served as a provisional seat of the Ukrainian government throughout the ongoing war with Soviet Russia.

Rivne is an important transportation hub, with the international Rivne Airport, and rail links to Zdolbuniv, Sarny, and Kovel, as well as highways linking it with Brest, Kyiv and Lviv. Among other leading companies there is a chemical factory of Rivne-Azot (part of Ostchem Holding).

History: Middle Ages Rivne was first mentioned in 1283 in the Polish annals "Rocznik kapituły krakowskiej" as one of the inhabited places of Halych-Volhynia near which Leszek II the Black was victorious over a part of the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army. Following the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia's partition after Galicia–Volhynia Wars in the late 14th century, it was under the rule of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in 1434 the Grand Duke of Lithuania Švitrigaila awarded the settlement to a Lutsk nobleman Dychko. In 1461 Dychko sold his settlement to Prince Semen Nesvizh. In 1479 Semen Nesvizh died and his settlement was passed to his wife Maria who started to call herself princess of Rivne. She turned the settlement into a princely residence by building in 1481 a castle on one of local river islands and managed to obtain Magdeburg rights for the settlement in 1492 from the King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon. Following her death in 1518, the city was passed on to the princes of Ostrog and declined by losing its status as a princely residency.

In 1566 the town of Rivne became part of newly established Volhynian Voivodeship. Following the Union of Lublin in 1569, it was transferred from the realm of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Crown of Poland. The city had a status of privately held by nobles (Ostrogski and Lubomirski families). Following the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 Rivne became a part of the Russian Empire, and in 1797 it was declared to be a county level (uyezd) town of the Volhynian Governorate.

World War I During World War I and the period of chaos shortly after, it was briefly under German, Ukrainian, Bolshevik and Polish rule. During April–May 1919 Rivne served as the temporary capital of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In late April 1919 one of the Ukrainian military leaders Volodymyr Oskilko attempted to organize a coup-d'état against the Directorate led by Symon Petliura and the cabinet of Borys Martos and replace them with Yevhen Petrushevych as president of Ukraine. In Rivne, Oskilko managed to arrest most of the cabinet ministers including Martos himself, but Petliura at that time was in neighboring Zdolbuniv and managed to stop Oskilko's efforts. At the conclusion of the conflict, in accordance with the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921 it became a part of Polish Volhynian Voivodeship, a situation which would last until the Second World War. Before World War II, Rivne (Równe) was a mainly Jewish-Polish city (Jews constituted about 50% of the city's population, and Poles 35%). When Jews died during the Holocaust, Poles from Rivne were deported to Poland's new borders after 1945.

History: World War II In 1939, as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the partition of Poland, Rivne was occupied by the Soviet Union. From December of the same year Rivne became the centre of the newly established Rivne Oblast, within the Ukrainian SSR.

On 28 June 1941 Rivne was invaded by the 6th army of Nazi Germany. On August 20, the Nazis declared it the administrative centre of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. A prison for the Gestapo was opened on Belaia Street. In November 8-13, German actor Olaf Bach was flown to the city to perform for the German forces. Roughly half of Rivne's inhabitants were Jewish. On November 6-8, 17,500 Jewish adults from Rivne were shot to death or thrown alive into a large pit in a pine grove in Sosenki. 6,000 Jewish children suffered the same fate at a nearby site. The city's remaining Jews were sent to the Rivne Ghetto. In July 1942, they were sent 70 km (43 mi) north to Kostopil and shot to death. The ghetto was subsequently liquidated.

On 2 February 1944, the city was captured by the Red Army in the Battle of Rivne, and remained under Soviet control until Ukraine regained its independence on the break-up of the USSR in 1991.

Post-war era In 1958, a TV tower began broadcasting in the city; in 1969, the first trolley ran through the city; in 1969, Rivne airport was opened. In 1983, the city celebrated its 700th anniversary.

On 11 June 1991, the Ukrainian parliament officially renamed the city Rivne according to the rules of Ukrainian orthography, whereas it had previously been known as Rovno.

In 1992, a 20,000-square-metre (4.9-acre) memorial complex was established at the site of the World War II massacre to commemorate the 17,500 Jews murdered there in November 1941 during the Holocaust, marking the mass grave with an obelisk inscribed in Yiddish, Hebrew and Ukrainian.

On 6 June 2012, the World War II Jewish burial site was vandalised, allegedly as part of an antisemitic act.

Russo-Ukrainian War On March 14, 2022, Rivne TV Tower has experienced heavy missile attack by Russian troops. The tower was damaged and an administrative room was destroyed. As a result of attack 20 people were killed and nine injured.

Economy: Industry During Soviet times the provincial town was transformed into an industrial centre of the republic. There were two significant factories built. The first was a machine building and metal processing factory capable of producing high-voltage apparatus, tractor spare parts and others. The other was a chemical factory and synthetic materials fabrication plant. Light industry, including a linen plant and a textile mill, as well as food industries, including milk and meat processing plants and a vegetable preservation plant, have also been built. In addition the city became a production centre for furniture and other building materials.

Landmarks As an important cultural centre, Rivne hosts a humanities and a hydro-engineering university, as well as a faculty of the Kyiv State Institute of Culture, and medical and musical as well as automobile-construction, commercial, textile, agricultural and cooperative polytechnic colleges. The city has a historical museum.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the monument for the Soviet hero Dmitry Medvedev was removed, and the Nikolai Kuznetsov monument was moved to another location within the city. Instead, in order to reflect the controversial history of the region the monuments for "People who died in the honor of Ukraine", and "Soldiers who died in local military battles" were installed.

Buildings • Church of the Assumption (1756) • Cathedral of the Intercession (2001) • Cathedral of the Ascension (1890) • A classicism-style gymnasium building (1839) • During Soviet times the centre of the city from Lenin street to Peace Avenue (1963 architects R.D. Vais and O.I. Filipchuk) was completely rebuilt with Administrative and Public buildings in neo-classical, Stalinist style.

Memorials The following memorials are found in Rivne: • Monument to the 25th Anniversary of the Liberation of Rivne from the Fascists, Mlynivs'ke Highway • Monument to the Victims of Fascism, Bila Street Square (1968, by A.I. Pirozhenko and B.V. Rychkov, architect-V.M.Gerasimenko) • Bust on the Tomb of Partisan M. Strutyns'ka and Relief on the Tomb of Citizens S. Yelentsia and S. Kotiyevs'koho, Kniazia Volodymyra Street, Hrabnyk Cemetery • Monument to the Perished of Ukraine, Magdeburz'koho Prava Plaza • Communal Grave of Warriors, Soborna Street • Monument of Eternal Glory, Kyivs'ka Street • Monument to Taras Shevchenko, T.G. Shevchenko Park; Statue on Nezalezhnosti Plaza • Memorial to Warriors' Glory, Dubens'ka Street, Rivne Military Cemetery (1975, by M.L. Farina, architect-N.A. Dolgansky) • Monument to the Warrior and the Partisan, Peremohy Plaza (1948 by I.Ya. Matveenko) • Monument to Colonel Klym Savura, Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army, Soborna Street • Monument to Symon Petliura, Symon Petliura Street • Monument to N.I. Kuznetsov (bronze and granite, 1961 by V.P Vinaikin) • Monument to the Jewish Victims of the Holocaust - mass grave site (ca. 1991)

The memorial was desecrated on June 8, 2012 by breaking parts of it and spraying swastikas. The teenagers in charge of the antisemitic action were caught and trialed. • Monument to the victims of the Chernobyl disaster, Simon Petliura Street • Statue and Plaza dedicated to Maria Rivnens'ka, Soborna Street