Okhtyrka

Okhtyrka City Council building after the battle of 2022

Clashes have been ongoing in Okhtyrka between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the invading Russian Armed Forces since 24 February 2022.[5] On the morning of February 25, the city of Оkhtyrka was shelled. According to Amnesty International, Russian troops used cluster munitions, including dropping them on a kindergarten. As a result, three people died, including a child.[6] On this day, in the area of Оkhtyrka, a Russian Grad fired multiple rockets on a bus for the evacuation of residents.[7] The Chairman of the Sumy Regional State Administration Dmytro Zhyvytskyi said that five more civilians were killed in the city.[8] On the morning of February 26, other explosions were heard.[9] Later it became known that Russian Armed Forces bombed a military unit and also fired at the Dachny residential area.[10] According to Zhyvytskyi, more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers died as a result of shelling by Russian troops of a military unit in Оkhtyrka.[11] On February 27, the chairman of the Sumy Regional State Administration reported that Russian tanks had shot a bus with civilians.[12] On February 28, Russian forces used a vacuum bomb on the city.[13] On March 1, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Russian troops were holding the city surrounded.[14] On March 3, Russian aircraft bombarded the local thermal power plant and fired at residential areas of Оkhtyrka.[15] On March 5, the head of the Sumy Regional State Administration announced that the Оkhtyrka Combined Heat and Power Plant was completely destroyed after an air bombardment by Russian aircraft, resulting in the death of 5 workers.[16] On March 8, Оkhtyrka was subjected to another artillery shelling from Russia; residential areas were damaged.[17] On the night of March 10, a Russian aircraft bombed Оkhtyrka twice; a bombing attack was carried out on the Kachanovsky GPP of PJSC Ukrnafta.[18] At noon on March 13, as a result of Russian shelling, along Kyiv street No. 2, the gas station BVS No. 22 was on fire. On the night of March 13–14, Russian aircraft bombed the city again. On March 16, the Russian military began to retreat. On March 20, active hostilities continued in the Оkhtyrka region.

On March 24, 2022, in order to celebrate the accomplishments, mass heroism and resilience of citizens identified in the defense of their city during the repulse of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, by Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 164/2022, the city of Оkhtyrka was awarded the honorary distinction "Hero City of Ukraine".

Russians, using prohibited means of warfare, carried out an air bombardment of the most densely populated residential area of Оkhtyrka, Dachny district.[19] As a result of the bombing, at least 15 residential high-rise and private houses, civil infrastructure facilities, and power lines were destroyed or damaged. According to the Emergency Situations Ministry of Ukraine in Оkhtyrka, rescuers were able to free an injured woman from the rubble of damaged houses and also found the body of one deceased person. According to preliminary data, one person died. On March 25, Russian aircraft bombed Оkhtyrka again.[20] On March 30, public utilities in Оkhtyrka began repairing damaged houses.[21]

Distribution of the population by native language according to the 2001 census:[23]

Okhtyrka, like all of Sloboda Ukraine, had an disorderly city layout. The central core of the city was represented by the fortress, which occupied an elevated place; the buildings fitting into the terrain without any order.

Okhtyrka's fort sat on the shore of the small Okhtyrka river where it makes a loop, forming a natural protection. The fortress was surrounded by numerous lakes, complicating any potential approaches to it.

The fortress had the shape of an irregular quadrilateral, and occupied the area of the present city center, from the river to the location of today's "Intercession Cathedral" outside the castle. It was surrounded by a wooden fence with five stone and fifteen wooden towers, as well as two bastions. The fortress gates had drawbridges. Around the castle a moat was dug and earth mound built with caponier at the corners. The moat was filled with water.

In the early 18th century, Cossacks of the Okhtyrka regiment took an active part in the Great Northern War, recapturing the Swedish and Russian lands bordering the Baltic Sea. On December 26, 1707, Peter the First came to the city to personally verify the readiness of the garrison and hold a council of war.

Okhtyrka Hussars played an important role in the fight against Napoleon during the War of 1812. They participated in the battles of Smolensk, Vyazma, and Borodino. For services in battle the regiment was honored to open the parade of victors at the entry of Allied troops in Paris. In this regiment, the Russian poet Dimitry Davydov served as one of the leaders of the partisan movement during the War in 1812, as well as the Russian composer Alexander Alyabyev. In 1823, the regiment was commanded by a future Decembrist, A. Muravyev, and Mikhail Lermontov, a Russian poet.

Many people fought and died in WWI and even more in WWII. The fighting around Okhtyrka was fearsome and resulted in a prominent common grave of Soviet soldiers in the area.

During World War II, Okhtyrka was occupied by the German Army from 15 October 1941 to 23 February 1943 and again from 11 March to 25 August 1943. The Germans operated a Dulag transit camp for prisoners of war in 1941–1942.[24] Okhtyrka was near the southern flank of the Kursk Bulge, and fighting in the city in the summer of 1943 was fierce. Afterwards, the city and its surroundings built monuments to those who fought in the war: the eternal flame of remembrance in the city park, Valley of Heroes, T-34 tank on a pedestal in one of the city's entrances, the Mound of Glory, etc. After the war, a large army garrison was established in the area of Okhtyrka. Military parades in the city, arranged on the occasion of Soviet holidays, were comparable with the Ukrainian capital city due to the number of participating vehicles and machinery of all kinds.

In the last decade of the Soviet period, Okhtyrka was militarized, housing several army regiments. The Dachny precinct became a home to officers' families from the former USSR. Many of them served in Eastern Bloc countries (East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc.), took part in Vietnam and Afghanistan wars, and served as consultants in Cuba. As the USSR started to fall apart, the machinery and ballistic rockets were transported to Russian territory, however it took much longer for the regiments to move or to transform. Many military personnel or their families stayed in Okhtyrka or still have connections to the city.

The Cathedral of the Theotokos (1753–1768)

The Cathedral of the Holy Virgin (1753–1762) was formerly attributed to Bartolomeo Rastrelli and now to Dmitry Ukhtomsky with managing architect S. Dudinsky. Its architecture is traditional Sloboda Ukrainian Baroque with elements derived from the imperial capital. The interior is decorated with Ionic pilasters and paintings on sails. It suffered during the Great Patriotic War. Restorations began in 1970–1972 but were completed only after the collapse of the USSR. The construction is unique in its three-dimensional solution and has no analogy in Ukrainian Baroque architecture.

Nearby stands the Nativity Church (1825), which resembles a palace rather than a church. The cathedral belltower was built in three tiers and adorned with statuary in 1783.

Iconography of Оkhtyrka originates in Italo-Greek art. Usually pictured is a half-length image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with folded hands in supplication, with to her left Jesus Christ, crucified on the cross.[26]

The Okhtyrka miraculous icon, July 2, 1739, is kept in the church. Its story is as follows.

The image, which was said to emanate radiance, was uncovered by priest Vasily (Basil) Danilov in the grassland of Protection Church while he was mowing and took it home. After three years later, the priest entered the room on the day of the feast of the Protection and was struck by the extraordinary light of the icon. He prayed devoutly near the icon but said nothing to anyone else. Later, the priest saw the Virgin in a dream, and heard her command him to remove dust from it and to clean it with water. On his awakening he executed the command. He left the water that he used to clean the icon in a vessel, planning to take it to the river the next morning to empty and to wash the vessel. Again, he fell asleep and dreamed he was going to the river the next morning. He heard the voice of Mother of God tell him to return home and keep the water, and that it would heal any who suffered from fever. He had a daughter who had long experienced fevers so when he awoke, he gave her the water to drink, and his daughter soon recovered.

Later, the priest asked Ioan (John) the iconographer, to repair damaged paint on the icon. Knowing of its miraculous healing qualities, Ioan washed it with water and gave the water to his son, who suffered from fever, who also recovered. While preparing for the restoration that night he heard the icon say: "Get up! Now is the time to return the icon to where you took it. Fix it you cannot." The painter prayed before the icon until morning, and took it back to Basil, who, convinced of its miraculous power, put it in the protection of the Church. Fever sufferers began to pray to the icon and were miraculously healed in great numbers.

The news of the miracles of the icon spread to the Imperial Court. The Mother of God appeared in a vivid dream to the widow Baroness von Veydel, who visited Okhtyrka in 1748. The Lady told her that her days were numbered and ordered her to give away her estate, distributing it to the needy, and promised protection to her two young daughters. The baroness rushed to distribute the property and died five days later. The news about this reached the Empress, and Elizabeth took the orphans to the court, raised them and married one to Count Panin, and the other to Count Chernyshov. Both of them made generous contributions to the cathedral, where the icon remained until the day they died.

In 1751 the Holy Synod honored the icon of Okhtyrka as miraculous. In 1753 Empress Elizabeth donated funds and a stone Cathedral of the Holy Virgin was erected where the icon was found. The icon was kept in the Cathedral until its theft in 1903 during its voyage to St. Petersburg for restoration.

The icon found its way to Harbin, and was acquired by S A Stepanov. According to the Harbin Archpriest Nikolai Trufanova, who repeatedly visited the Okhtyrka icon in Okhtyrka, it was the icon that had gone missing. He confirmed that Stepanov acquired the icon of Okhtyrka. In the 1950s, the son of Stepanov brought it to Brazil and then to San Francisco, where he gave it to the Committee of the Russian Orthodox youth as a blessing. Then Okhtyrka icon was placed under the jurisdiction of Sydney Archbishop Hilarion (Kapral).

Blessed copies of Okhtyrka icon

The icon of Okhtyrka, which is revered as a healer of many diseases, has been copied with the blessing of the church in small numbers that were distributed mainly in the south of Russia, in Kharkiv diocese. One such icon from the 18th or 19th century is kept in Moscow, in the main aisle of the church of Resurrection in the Arbat (ap. Philip) Jerusalem monastery. The Okhtyrka icon is called "Samara" – the main shrine of Samara Nicholas male monastery.

In 1975, the information that the lost Okhtyrka icon was in San Francisco reached the Soviet Union. In 1995 the Metropolitan Nicodemus of Kharkiv (Rusnak) brought a copy of the icon, and handed it to Okhtyrka St. Basil's Cathedral. In connection with this event, a procession on the third day after the Holy Trinity with other icons placed the Okhtyrka icon into the Holy Trinity Monastery. These processions occurred yearly from 1844 on the Saturday of Pentecost, and later the icons were transferred back on the feast of All Saints. On June 15, 1999 Okhtyrka held celebrations to mark the 260th anniversary of the phenomenon of the Okhtyrka icon.

List of temples in honor of Okhtyrka icons

Temples in the village Chernetove Bryansk region, Russia; Akhtyrsky nunnery in the village Gusevka Volgograd region, Russia; Church in the village of Akhtyrka Sergiev Posad, Moscow Region, Russia; Chapel at the Republican Hospital in Petrozavodsk; Akhtyrsky Cathedral in City Orel, Russia.

In 1718, the first Russian tobacco manufacture began, which was attributed to several villages (944 peasant households), but proved unprofitable. In 1727 the company sold its treasury to private individuals. The tobacco factory was served by an isolated plantation (50 acres), from which were collected seven thousand pounds of tobacco.

Since the discovery of oil and gas in 1961, Okhtyrka has become an "oil capital of Ukraine". The Okhtyrka region produces the most oil in Ukraine.

In the early 20th century there were manufacturers of light woollen stuffs and a trade in corn, cattle and the produce of domestic industries. The area is fertile, and the orchards produced excellent fruit.[27]

The city mayor is Igor Alekseev.