Zvenyhorodka
Zvenyhorodka (Звенигородка). Map: IV-11. A city (2007 pop 18,824) on the Hnylyi Tikych River and a raion center in Cherkasy oblast. It dates back to the time of Kyivan Rus’ when it was called Zvenyhorod. It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1240 and, subsequently fortified, suffered from Tatar attacks in the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Cossack-Polish War it threw off Polish rule in 1648, but it was restored to Poland under the Treaty of Andrusovo. Haidamakas captured it in 1737, 1743, and 1768 during the haidamaka uprisings. Zvenyhorodka was annexed by Russia in 1793, and it obtained the rights of Magdeburg law (1795) and became a county center of Kyiv gubernia. During the revolutionary period the Mazepa Regiment of the Free Cossacks scored a victory over the Bolshevik forces there on 1 February 1918 and the town became an important center of the Free Cossacks. Today the city has a well-developed food industry, a sanatorium, a regional studies museum, and three historical parks. Bronze Age and Scythian relics and a Cherniakhiv culture settlement (2nd–5th century AD) have been discovered near Zvenyhorodka.
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]