Nizhyn

The earliest known references to the location go back to 1147, when it was briefly mentioned as Unenezh.[3]

In the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Nizhyn was granted Magdeburg rights (1625) as a self-governing town. In 1663 Nizhyn was the place of the Black Council of Ukrainian Cossacks, which elected Bryukhovetsky as the new Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host thus conditionally dividing Ukraine (Cossack Hetmanate) into left-bank Ukraine and right-bank Ukraine. It was also the seat of a major Cossack regiment (until 1782).

Nizhyn was once a major center of Hasidic Judaism and is the site of the Ohel (tomb) of the Hasidic master, Rabbi Dovber Schneuri of Chabad-Lubavitch. The city also housed the thriving Greek community, which enjoyed a number of privileges granted by Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

In the 19th century Nizhyn became an uyezd capital of the Chernihiv Governorate and the biggest city in the guberniya. In 1805, the Bezborodko Lyceum was established there (today — Nizhyn Gogol State University); its graduates include Nikolai Gogol whose statue graces one of city streets as well as Yevhen Hrebinka among other graduates. Nizhyn has also long been noted for its famous cucumbers.[4][5]

During World War II, Nizhyn was occupied by the German Army from 13 September 1941 to 15 September 1943.

John the Apostle Church in Nizhyn.

Architecturally Nizhyn 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 Nizhyn's Cossack glory, noted for its octagonal vaults and drums crowned by archetypal pear-shaped domes.[11] Other notable buildings include the Trinity Church (1733, rebuilt a century later), the Greek magistrate (1785), and the Neoclassical complex of the Nizhyn Lyceum (designed by Luigi Rusca, built in 1805–17, expanded in 1876–79).

Modern Nizhyn is a major industrial center. The city has 16 companies and firms from eight industries:

• Engineering:
  • NEC "Progress" – the production of photographic supplies, hunting scopes, medical equipment, household goods;
  • JSC "Mechanical Plant" – manufacture of machinery for agriculture;
  • Plant "Nezhinselmash" – poultry equipment, motorcycles, bicycles, spare parts, fittings for gas and vodogonov;
  • Nezhinskoye Training and Production Enterprise "UTOS" – covers of metal for home canning, switches, electric sockets, nails, clips, extension cords.
• Food:
  • Nezhinskii cannery – the leading state-owned enterprise for the production of canned vegetables;
  • JSC "Nizhyn bread" – the production of bakery, confectionery and pasta;
  • JSC "Nizhyn brewery" (stopped in the summer of 2008) – the production of beer;
  • JSC "Nizhyn zhirkombinat" – manufacture and sale of varnishes, lacquers, oils, makukha.
• Medicine:
  • LLC "Lab scanning devices" – the production of medical equipment, optical and electronic devices, rubber means;
  • LLC RDC "Metecol" – the production of medical products using and training simulators.
• Light:
  • JSC "DiSi Nezhinka" – design and manufacture of clothing;
• Dry:
  • JSC "Nifar" – the production and supply of paints, detergents, toothpastes, plant protection products;
• Timber:
  • Of "Furniture Factory"

PVKF ** "Courier";

• Building:
  • JSC "Plant management of construction materials";
• "Printing":
  • LLC "Aspect".

• 
  All Saints' Church
• 
  St. Nicholas Cathedral
• 
  Pokrova Church
• 
  Epiphany Church
• 
  St. Basil Church
• 
  Ascension Church
• 
  Nizhyn Railway Station
• 
  Bank building on Zankovetska Street
• 
  Nizhyn shopping street
• 
  Old power station
• 
  Former Jewish hotel building
• 
  Merchant Assembly building
• 
  Nikolai Gogol monument
• 
  Old drugstore in Nizhyn
• 
  Old buildings in Hohol Street
• 
  Soviet architecture in Nizhyn's main square
• 
  House of youth and children (former telegraph station)
• 
  Monument to Nizhyn cucumber
• 
  Grave of Rabbi Dovber Schneuri in Nizhyn

• Jacob Pavlovitch Adler, Jewish actor.
• Sonya Adler, one of the first women to perform in Yiddish theater in Imperial Russia.
• Antoni Andrzejowski, Polish botanist, teacher of the Nizhyn Lyceum (1839–1856), author of the diary Wspomnienia starego detiuka.
• Abraham Berline, artist.
• Mark Bernes, a Soviet actor and singer of Jewish ancestry.
• Elina Bystritskaya, a Soviet film actress, People's Artist of the USSR.
• Semyon Desnitsky, a disciple of Adam Smith who introduced his ideas to the Russian public.
• Timofei Dokshizer, principal trumpeter and trumpet soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, of Jewish ancestry.[14]
• Olga Khokhlova, Pablo Picasso's wife.
• Sergey Korolyov, the father of the Soviet space program.
• Nestor Kukolnik, a Russian playwright and prose writer.
• Yuri Lisyansky, headed the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe.
• Kateryna Pavlenko, lead singer of the Ukrainian electro-folk band Go_A.
• Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, a world champion sprinter.
• Israel Rosenberg, founded the first Yiddish theater troupe in Imperial Russia.
• Ihor Sholin, former professional Ukrainian football player.
• Maria Zankovetska, a Ukrainian theater actress, the very first recipient of People's Artist of Ukraine.

• Media related to Nizhyn at Wikimedia Commons
• (in Russian and Ukrainian) "A city, glorious and tender, loved by all", in Zerkalo Nedeli (the Mirror Weekly), July 2005. in Russian, in Ukrainian
• (in English) Nizhen/Nizhyn in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• (in Russian) History of Nizhyn
• History of Jewish Community in Nezhin
• The Official Site of Radomysl Castle Archived 14 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• The murder of the Jews of Nizhyn during World War II, at Yad Vashem website.