Zhytomyr, Ukraine

Welcome to Zhytomyr, a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. With a population of 261,624 (2022 est.), Zhytomyr is the administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion (district). The city of Zhytomyr is not a part of Zhytomyr Raion: the city itself is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast; moreover Zhytomyr consists of two so-called raions in a city: Bohunskyi Raion and Koroliovskyi Raion (named in honour of Sergey Korolyov). Zhytomyr occupies an area of 65 square kilometres (25 square miles). Zhytomyr is a major transport hub. The city lies on a historic route linking the city of Kyiv with the west through Brest. Today it links Warsaw with Kyiv, Minsk with Izmail, and several major cities of Ukraine. Zhytomyr was also the location of Ozerne airbase, a key Cold War strategic aircraft base 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) southeast of the city.

Zhytomyr has a rich history dating back to the 9th century when it was established by Zhytomyr, prince of a Slavic tribe of Drevlians. The city was one of the prominent cities of Kievan Rus and was captured by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1320. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the city was incorporated into the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and in 1667, following the Treaty of Andrusovo, it became the capital of the Kiev Voivodeship. In the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, it passed to Imperial Russia and became the capital of the Volhynian Governorate. During a brief period of Ukrainian independence (1917-1920) in 1918, the city was for a few weeks the national capital of Ukrainian Peoples Republic. Ultimately Ukrainian fight for independence failed and Ukrainian Peoples Republic became occupied by Soviet Union. From 1920, Zhytomyr was a part of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. During World War II, Zhytomyr and the surrounding territory were, for two and a half years, under Nazi German occupation and was Heinrich Himmler’s Ukrainian headquarters. The Nazi regime in what they called the Zhytomyr General District became what historian Wendy Lower describes as a laboratory for… Himmler’s resettlement activists… the elimination of the Jews and German colonization of the East—transformed the landscape and devastated the population to an extent that was not experienced in other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe besides Poland. Today, the city has 74 historical monuments,