Nizhyn

Town|name = Nizhyn|name_local = Ніжин|country = Ukraine|image_coat_of_arms = Nizhyn-COA.jpg|region_type = Oblast|region_type_local = Raion|region_name = Chernihiv|region_link = Chernihiv Oblast|region_name_local = Nizhynsky Raion|population = 75,600|population_as_of = January 1, 2005|area = 43.2|founded = 1625|founded_type = Magdeburg rights|elevation = |lat_deg = 51| lat_min = 03|lat_hem = N|lon_deg = 32|lon_min = 53|lon_hem = E|website = http://nizhyn.osp-ua.info/index.php| image_location = Nizhyn-Ukraine-Map.PNG}}

John the Apostle Church in Nizhyn.

Nizhyn (; ; 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 Hassidic master Rabbi Dovber Schneuri of 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 Khmelnitsky.

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.

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 Nezhin 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
* 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.

External references

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