HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CHORTORIYSK IN VOLYN (FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY)

Abstract

Small cities of Ukraine create a separate spatial, administrative and territorial layer of social life. They have a special urban content that is present only in them, where the features of the city and the countryside are combined into a single whole with all their positive manifestations. The problems related to the history of the city of Chortoriysk within the specified chronological boundaries have repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers. It is determined that this process has intensified especially in recent decades. This is due to the actualization of historical and local lore research and problems of regional history of Ukraine. This article focuses special attention on the stages of the formation and development of the city in different historical periods, from the most ancient times to the end of the 19th century. It is noted that the city of Chortoriysk belongs to the ancient settlements of Volyn. It is shown that in the second half of the 12th–13th centuries Chortoriysk was the capital of a small appanage principality or volost. The large number of mentions of Chortoriysk in the russian chronicles, namely, in connection with various political events, the city is mentioned six times, indicates its prominent role in the life of the Volyn land on the northeastern borders in the 13th century. The city was even compared with Volodymyr, the capital of the Volyn region. It had a powerful defense system, which included a princely castle with earthen ramparts, wooden, and later brick walls. The peculiarities of Chortoriysk being owned by the most famous representatives of princely families, which played an important role in the life of the city, in particular, and Ukraine in general, are highlighted. It reached a high level of development, became the residence and ancestral domain of the Czartoryski princes of Ukrainian-Polish origin. The question regarding the name of the city was considered. However, according to a number of researchers, unfortunately, the issue of the historical topography of the ancient city has not yet been sufficiently studied.