Kharkiv Oblast Explained

Kharkiv Oblast
Native Name:Харківська область
Native Name Lang:uk
Official Name:Kharkivska oblast[1]
Nickname:Ukrainian: Харківщина, Ukrainian: Слобожанщина
Settlement Type:Oblast
Flag Alt:Flag of Kharkiv Oblast
Shield Alt:Coat of arms of Kharkiv Oblast
Mapsize:275px
Coordinates:49.59°N 36.43°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Parts Type:Largest cities
Parts Style:para
P1:Kharkiv, Lozova, Izium, Chuhuiv, Pervomaiskyi, Kupiansk
Established Date:27 February 1932
Seat Type:Administrative center
Seat:Kharkiv
Leader Title:Governor
Leader Name:Oleh Synyehubov
Leader Title1:Oblast council
Leader Name1:120 seats
Leader Title2:Chairperson
Leader Name2: (Servant of the People)
Unit Pref:Metric
Area Total Km2:31415
Area Rank:Ranked 4th
Population Total: 2598961
Population Rank:Ranked 3rd
Population As Of:2022
Population Blank1 Title:Annual growth
Population Density Km2:auto
Demographics Type1:GDP
Demographics1 Footnotes:[2]
Demographics1 Title1:Total
Demographics1 Info1:₴ 320 billion
(€8.289 billion)
Demographics1 Title2:Per capita
Demographics1 Info2:₴ 122,227
(€3,167)
Blank Name Sec1:Raions
Blank Info Sec1:7[3]
Blank1 Name Sec1:Cities (total)
Blank1 Info Sec1:17
Blank2 Name Sec1:• Regional cities
Blank2 Info Sec1:7
Blank3 Name Sec1:
Blank3 Info Sec1:61
Blank4 Name Sec1:Villages
Blank4 Info Sec1:1,683
Timezone1:EET
Utc Offset1:+2
Timezone1 Dst:EEST
Utc Offset1 Dst:+3
Postal Code Type:Postal code
Postal Code:61-64
Area Code Type:Area code
Area Code:+380-57
Iso Code:UA-63
Registration Plate Type:Vehicle registration
Registration Plate:AX
Blank Name Sec2:FIPS 10-4
Blank Info Sec2:UP07
Website:www.kharkivoda.gov.ua

Kharkiv Oblast (Ukrainian: Харківська область|Kharkivska oblast), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna (Ukrainian: Харківщина), is an oblast (province) in eastern Ukraine.

Kharkiv borders Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the southeast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the southwest, Poltava Oblast to the west, Sumy Oblast to the northwest and Russia's Belgorod Oblast to the north. Its area is, or 5.2% of the total territory of Ukraine.

The oblast is the third-most populous of Ukraine, with a population of 2,598,961 in 2021, more than half (1.42 million) of whom live in the city of Kharkiv, the oblast's administrative center.[4]

Nomenclature

Most of Ukraine's oblasts are named after their capital cities, officially called "oblast centers" (Ukrainian: обласний центр, translit. oblasnyi tsentr). The name of each oblast is a relative adjective, formed by adding a feminine suffix to the name of respective center city: Kharkiv is the center of the Kharkivs’ka oblast’ (Kharkiv Oblast). Most oblasts are also sometimes referred to in a feminine noun form, following the convention of traditional regional place names, ending with the suffix "-shchyna", as is the case with the Kharkiv Oblast, Kharkivshchyna.

See also: Romanization of Ukrainian.

Geography

The oblast borders Russia (Belgorod Oblast) to the north, Luhansk Oblast to the east, Donetsk Oblast to the southeast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the southwest, Poltava Oblast to the west and Sumy Oblast to the northwest.

The northern and central parts are part of historic Sloboda Ukraine, and the southern part is part of historic Zaporizhzhia.

History

During the Soviet administrative reform of 1923–1929, the Kharkov Governorate was abolished in 1925 leaving its five okruhas: Okhtyrka (originally Bohodukhiv), Izyum, Kupyansk, Sumy, and Kharkiv. Introduced in the Soviet Union in 1923, a similar subdivisions existed in Ukraine back in 1918. In 1930 all okruhas were also abolished with raions becoming the first level of subdivision of Ukraine until 1932.

The modern Kharkiv Oblast was established on 27 February 1932. In the summer of 1932, some parts of the oblast were included in the newly created Donetsk Oblast originally centered in Artemivsk (later in Stalino). Then in the fall, some territories of the Kharkiv Oblast were used in the creation of Chernihiv Oblast. More territories became part of Poltava Oblast in fall of 1937 and Sumy Oblast in winter of 1939.

During the Holodomor the population of the Kharkiv Oblast together with Kyiv Oblast suffered the most. During World War II, it was the site or large Soviet massacres of Poles (Piatykhatky) and German massacres of Jews (Drobytsky Yar). The region saw major fighting during World War II in several Battles of Kharkov between 1941 and 1943.

During the 1991 referendum, 86.33% of votes in Kharkiv Oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. A survey conducted in December 2014 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 4.2% of the oblast's population supported their region joining Russia, 71.5% did not support the idea, and the rest were undecided or did not respond.[5]

Following the Euromaidan, there was pro-Russian unrest in the region, and central government buildings were taken over by separatists in a failed attempt to create a separatist 'Kharkov's People's Republic'.[6] The region also became a very popular destination for refugees from the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast regions.[6]

As part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military launched a major military offensive in the region, which resulted in the occupation of parts of the oblast. By late August, about one third of the territory of Kharkiv Oblast was occupied including Izium and Kupiansk. In July 2022, the Donetsk People's Republic signed a memorandum to "liberate Kharkiv from Ukraine".[7]

In early September 2022, the Ukrainian military commenced a counteroffensive in the region. Several settlements in the region were recaptured from Russian control.[8] By 10 September 2022, Ukraine had recaptured Kupiansk and Izium.[8] On 11 September, Russia had retreated from many of the settlements it previously occupied in the oblast [9] and the Russian Ministry of Defense announced a formal withdrawal of Russian forces from most of Kharkiv Oblast stating that an "operation to curtail and transfer troops" was underway."[10] [11] By 12 September 2022, as the Russian front lines in Kharkiv Oblast continued to collapse, Ukrainian forces had managed to push back to the northeastern border with Russia in some areas of the region.[12] [13] By 3 October 2022, Russian forces had almost completely withdrawn from Kharkiv Oblast.[14] [15] As of 2023, fighting continues in the easternmost parts of the oblast in the Battle of the Svatove–Kreminna line.[16] In May 2024, Russia launched a renewed offensive in Kharkiv Oblast.

Demographics

Its population in 2001 was 2,895,800 million (1,328,900 males (45.9%) and 1,566,900 females (54.1%)).

At the 2001 census, the ethnic groups within the Kharkiv Oblast were:

Groups by native language:

Age structure

0–14 years: 12.6% (male 177,464/female 167,321)

15–64 years: 72.2% (male 945,695/female 1,024,841)

65 years and over: 15.2% (male 135,737/female 277,725) (2013 official)

Median age

total: 40.5 years

male: 36.9 years

female: 44.1 years (2013 official)

Religion

In 2007, there were 700 religious associations in the Kharkiv Oblast, including:

Cities and towns

Ranked by population, the oblast's 12 largest municipalities are:

  1. Kharkiv (1,421,125)
  2. Lozova (53,126)
  3. Izium (44,979)
  4. Chuhuiv (31,018)
  5. Pervomaiskyi (28,510)
  6. Kupiansk (26,627)
  7. Balakliia (26,334)
  8. Merefa (21,202)
  9. Liubotyn (20,001)
  10. Krasnohrad (19,674)
  11. Vovchansk (17,459)
  12. Derhachi (17,139)

Administrative divisions

See main article: Administrative divisions of Kharkiv Oblast. Kharkiv Oblast is administratively subdivided into seven raions.[3] Prior to the 2020 administrative reform, there were 25 raions,[3] and also seven cities (municipalities) that were directly subordinate to the oblast government (Chuhuiv, Izium, Kupiansk, Liubotyn, Lozova, Pervomaiskyi, and the administrative center of the oblast, Kharkiv).

Name Ukrainian name Area
(km2)
Population
(2022)[17]
Admin. center
Богодухівський район 4508 122,287 Bohodukhiv
Чугуївський район 4804 194,177 Chuhuiv
Ізюмський район 5906 172,130 Izium
Харківський район 3222 1,727,573 Kharkiv
Красноградський район 4335 103,856 Krasnohrad
Куп’янський район 4612 130,111 Kupiansk
Лозівський район 4027 147,361 Lozova

Economy

The Kharkiv oblast has a primarily industrial economy, including engineering, metallurgy, manufacturing, production of chemicals and food processing. It also has an important agricultural sector with 19,000 square kilometres of arable land (comprising 5.9% of the total arable lands of Ukraine). Agricultural production grew substantially in 2015.[18]

Also in Kharkiv is the airplane plant for space controlling systems. It is a major center for all branches of engineering, from large-scale manufacture to microelectronics. Also situated in Kharkiv Oblast is a gas field, which is one of the biggest in Ukraine.

Transport

The Kharkiv Oblast has an undeveloped transport network, 60% of the total transportation falls on the part of the rail transport. At the end of 2020, the operational life of the salivary lines of the gas station on the territory of the Kharkiv region was 1520 km.[19]

Kharkiv Salvage University serves 10 million passengers on the river, road transport, sedation, buses - about 12 million. The largest salvage stations are Izium, Kupiansk, Liubotyn, Lozova.

In the Kharkiv Oblast, in 2019, 31.4878 million passengers traveled through travel transport services, or 96.5% of the total in 2018.[20]

The most important highways that pass through the region: Kharkiv-Moscow, Kharkiv-Simferopol, Kharkiv-Rostov-on-Don, Kharkiv-Poltava. The total length of highways in the past is more than 9.7 thousand km, of which 97.5% are on hard surfaces.[21] The length of the autoshlyakh of the sovereign venue in the Kharkiv Oblast is 2343.9 km, including 617.4 km - the MITERNINI, 108.2 km - National Monalni, 639.1 km - regions, 979.2 km - Teritorialne. On highways of national importance in the region there are 242 bridges with a total length of 1316.3 linear meters. m.[22]

Kharkiv airport serves domestic and international airlines, mainly engaged in passenger transportation.[23]

Points of interest

The following sites were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.

Sport

It has a regional federation within the Ukrainian Bandy and Rink bandy Federation.[24]

Education

See main article: List of universities in Ukraine. In 2020, 104,900 people aged 15-70 worked in the education sector of the Kharkiv region, or 8.7% of the total number of people employed in the region's economy.[25]

At the end of 2020, there were 753 preschool education institutions in the region (11 more institutions compared to 2019), designed for 79.7 thousand places. The number of their pupils was 74,100 children (3,400 less than in 2019).[26]

At the beginning of the 2020/21 academic year, there were 734 institutions of general secondary education in Kharkiv region, 258,800 students studied in them and 22,700 teachers (including part-time teachers) worked in them. In 2020, 14,300 graduates received a certificate of complete general secondary education.[27]

At the end of 2020, there were 39 institutions of professional (vocational and technical) education in the region, in which 13,700 people studied.

At the beginning of the 2020/21 academic year, there were 55 institutions of higher education in the region, and 124,200 people studied in them. In 2020, higher education institutions of the region accepted 29,800 people to study, and graduated 44,000 specialists. Postgraduate students were trained by 55 institutions of higher education and scientific institutions, in which 3,400 postgraduate students received their education. 5.6 thousand people obtained professional preliminary education in 8 educational institutions. More than 19,000 scientific, scientific-pedagogical and pedagogical workers worked in institutions of higher and professional pre-higher education.[28]

Notable people from Kharkiv Oblast

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Syvak. Nina. Ponomarenko. Valerii. Khodzinska. Olha. Lakeichuk. Iryna. 2011. Veklych. Lesia. scientific consultant Iryna Rudenko; reviewed by Nataliia Kizilowa; translated by Olha Khodzinska. Toponymic Guidelines for Map and Other Editors for International Use. 20. 2020-10-06. United Nations Statistics Division. DerzhHeoKadastr and Kartographia. Kyiv. 978-966-475-839-7.
  2. Web site: Валовии регіональнии продукт.
  3. Local elections. Kharkiv region: new block and "big change of shoes", The Ukrainian Week (7 September 2020)
  4. Web site: Чисельність наявного населення України на 1 січня 2021 / The current population of Ukraine on 1 January 2021 . . uk, en . 7 September 2022 . 6 April 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220406120543/http://database.ukrcensus.gov.ua/PXWEB2007/ukr/publ_new1/2021/zb_chuselnist%202021.pdf . dead .
  5. News: http://dt.ua/UKRAINE/lishe-3-ukrayinciv-hochut-priyednannya-yih-oblasti-do-rosiyi-160641_.html . uk:Лише 3% українців хочуть приєднання їх області до Росії . uk . Only 3% of Ukrainians want their region to become part of Russia . . 3 January 2015 .
  6. Web site: Piechal . Tomasz . 2015-06-09 . The Kharkiv oblast: a fragile stability . 2023-08-10 . OSW Centre for Eastern Studies . en.
  7. Web site: Donetsk People's Republic signs first memorandum to "liberate Kharkiv from Ukraine". July 2022. Joshua Manning. Euronews.
  8. Web site: 2022-09-10 . Ukraine-Russia war: Russian forces 'taken by surprise' as Ukrainian counter-offensive advances 50km, says UK – live . 2022-09-10 . the Guardian . en.
  9. Web site: Анисимова . Ольга . 2022-09-11 . Минобороны РФ опубликовало карту фронта в Харьковской области . 2022-09-11 . RB Новости . ru-RU.
  10. News: Russian defense ministry shows retreat from most of Kharkiv region . Meduza . 11 September 2022 . 11 September 2022 .
  11. https://charter97.org/en/news/2022/9/11/515204/ Russian Defence Ministry Showed Map Of New Frontline In Kharkiv Region
  12. Web site: Ukraine reclaims more territory, reports capturing many POWs . 2022-09-12 . ABC News . en.
  13. Web site: Kaonga . Gerrard . 2022-09-12 . Ukraine soldiers reach Russian border after driving enemy back, video shows . 2022-09-12 . Newsweek . en.
  14. News: Five Russian-controlled settlements around Kharkiv reportedly liberated by Ukraine . Euro Weekly News . 3 October 2022 . Roscoe . Matthew .
  15. Web site: Ukrainian Armed Forces liberate village of Borova in Kharkiv Oblast . 3 October 2022 .
  16. News: 2023-02-28 . Ukraine's northeastern front could decide new battle lines . en . 2023-08-10. Samya. Kullab.
  17. Web site: Population Quantity. UkrStat. uk. 7 January 2016.
  18. Agriculture in 2015: results SQ News (13 February 2016)
  19. Web site: День залізничника . Головне управління статистики у Харківській області.
  20. Web site: Підсумки роботи транспорту Харківської області у 2019 році . Головне управління статистики у Харківській області .
  21. Web site: Головне управління статистики у Харківській області .
  22. Web site: Перелік державних автомобільних доріг Харківської області . 2021-01-26 . kh.ukravtodor.gov.ua . uk.
  23. http://www.kharkov.ua/region/region.htm Харківська область
  24. https://web.archive.org/web/20140223045433/http://www.ukrbandy.org.ua/about_en.html
  25. Web site: До Дня працівників освіти, Дня Вчителя . Головне управління статистики Харківської області.
  26. Web site: Заклади дошкільної освіти Харківської області у 2020 році . Головне управління статистики у Харківській області.
  27. Web site: Заклади загальної середньої та професійної (професійно-технічної) освіти Харківської області у 2020 р. . Головне управління статистики у Харківській області.
  28. Web site: Заклади вищої та фахової передвищої освіти Харківської області у 2020 р. . Головне управління статистики у Харківській області.