Ivano-Frankivsk


Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in Western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Administratively, it is designated as a city of regional significance within the oblast, and together with a number of rural localities, is incorporated as Ivano-Frankivsk Municipality. Population:.
Built in the mid-17th century as a fortress of the Polish Potocki family, Stanisławów was annexed to the Habsburg Empire during the First Partition of Poland in 1772, after which it became the property of the State within the Austrian Empire. The fortress was slowly transformed into one of the most prominent cities at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. After World War I, for several months, it served as a temporary capital of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. Following Peace of Riga, Stanisławów became part of the Second Polish Republic. After the Soviet invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II, the city was annexed by the Soviet Union, only to be occupied by Nazi Germany two years later. With the liberation of Soviet Ukraine in 1944 and the shifting of borders, the Communist regime ran the city for the next four-and-a-half decades. A few years before the fall of the Soviet Union, the blue-yellow flag was raised in the city as the symbol of an independent Ukraine.
A city visitor may find elements of various cultures intertwined within Ivano-Frankivsk, the Polish city hall, the Austro-Hungarian city's business center, the Soviet prefabricated apartment blocks at the city's rural–urban fringe, and others. Ivano-Frankivsk is also one of the principal cities of the Carpathian Euroregion.

Name

Stanisławów was founded as a fortress and was named after the Polish hetman Stanisław "Rewera" Potocki. Some sources claim it was named after his grandson Stanisław. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the name was transliterated as Stanislau in German, as the city became part of the Austrian Empire ; however, after the revolution of 1848, the city carried three different linguistic renderings of its name: German, Polish, and Ruthenian. Other spellings used in the local press media included Станиславов and סטאַניסלאוו.
After World War II it was changed by the Soviet authorities into a simplified version Stanislav. In 1962, on the city's 300th anniversary, it was renamed to honor the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. Due to the city's wordy name, unofficially it is sometimes called simply Franyk by its residents. Even though Ivano-Frankivsk is the officially accepted name, the city's original name has never been fully abandoned and/or forgotten and can be found throughout the city in all kinds of variations.
The name of the city was altered several times through the centuries. It was founded as Stanisławów; but in 1772 transliteration changed to Stanislau, in 1919 to Stanislaviv and again to Stanisławów. In 1939 transliteration changed to Stanislav, in 1941 to Stanislau, in 1944 again to Stanislav. And finally, on November 9, 1962, the name was officially changed by the First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, reportedly as an honour to poet Ivan Franko.

History

The town of Stanisławów was founded as a fortress in order to protect the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from Tatar invasions and to defend the multi-ethnic population of the region in case of armed conflicts such as the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648. The fort was originally built next to Zabolotiv village, and Knyahynyn. The village of Zabolotiv and the land around it were purchased by Andrzej Potocki from another Polish nobleman, Rzeczkowski. Stanisławów was issued by Potocki and his declaration establishing the city with Magdeburg rights on May 7, 1662; but the city and its rights, however, were not recognized by the Polish Crown until August 14, 1663, when John Casimir had finally approved it. By 1672, the fortress had been rebuilt from wood to stone, brick, and mortar. Also a new large fortified Potocki palace was erected in the place of an older wood structure. Today this building serves as the military hospital. In the same year Jews were granted the right to become permanent residents, who could work, conduct commerce and travel in and out of the city as they pleased.
Originally the city was divided into two districts: Tysmenytsia and Halych. Sometime in 1817–1819 the neighbouring village of Zabolottya, that had a special status, was incorporated into the city as a new district, while Tysmenytsia district was divided into Tysmenytsia and Lysets districts. Each district had its main street corresponded with its name: Halych Street, Tysmenytsia Street which today is Independence Street, Zabolotiv Street – Mykhailo Hrushevsky Street and Street of Vasylyanok, and Lysets Street – Hetman Mazepa Street. Later the city was split into six small districts: midtown where the rich Catholic population and patricians lived, pidzamche, and four suburbs – Zabolotiv, Tysmenytsia, Halych and Lysets where the plebeians lived.
In October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed. In the early months of 1919 the city became a temporary capital of the West Ukrainian National Republic, while still recovering from World War I. All state affairs took place in the building of Dnister Hotel where the Act Zluky was composed and signed on January 22, 1919 by the Ukrainian People's Republic. The same year it was subjected to the Polish–Ukrainian and the Romanian-Ukrainian skirmishes eventually being annexed by Poland as part of the Second Polish Republic as the centre of the Stanisławów Voivodeship. It was occupied by the Romanian army for the summer months from May 25 through August 21, 1919. During the Polish–Soviet War in 1920, the Red Army took over the city for a brief period. After the Soviet retreat, Ukrainian troops loyal to Symon Petlura occupied the city for a few days. At this period of history the city was in complete disorder.
In the 1939 invasion of Poland by German and Soviet forces, the territory was captured by the Soviets in September 1939 and included into the Ukrainian SSR. Between September 1939 and June 1941, the Soviet regime ordered thousands of inhabitants of the city to leave their houses and move to Siberia, where most of them perished. Numerous people were taken out of the city prison and simply shot outside of the city when Soviet forces were leaving it in 1941. Ivano-Frankivsk was occupied by German forces from July 2, 1941 to July 27, 1944. There were more than 40,000 Jews in Stanisławów when it was occupied by the Nazi Germany on July 26, 1941. During the occupation, more than 600 educated Poles and most of the city's Jewish population were murdered.
In early 1944, the city became part of the Soviet Union and was renamed 'Stanislav'. The Soviets forced most of the Polish population to leave the city, most of them settled in the Recovered Territories. During the post-war period the city was part of the Carpathian Military District housing the 38th Army that participated in the Operation Dunai.

Timeline

As is the case with most of Ukraine, the climate is moderate continental with warm summers, and fairly cold winters. The following climate data provided is for the past 62 years. The average number of days with precipitation is 170 spread almost equally throughout a year. Most precipitation takes place during the winter months and least – early fall. Thunderstorms occur mostly in summer months averaging around 25 annually. Ivano-Frankivsk averages about 296 days of fog or misty days with about 24 per month.
The city is situated in the Carpathian region northeast of the mountain range, sitting approximately above mean sea level. One of the several main geographical features is the Vovchynets Hill also known as the Vovchynets Mountains. The hill reaches 300- above the sea level and is part of the Pokuttya Highland. Around the hill Bystrytsia River branches into Bystrytsia of Nadvirna, Bystrytsia of Solotvyn, and Vorona. The last two rivers serve as a natural border between the Pokuttya Highland and Stanislav Basin. The Vovchynets Hill is located just outside and northeast of Ivano-Frankivsk. Located southeast from the Stanislav Basin in the direction of the Prut Valley is the Khorosnen Highland. The highest point of that highland is Mount Hostra,.
The closest neighboring city is Tysmenytsia, less than to the east. Other cities that lie in the radius of are Tlumach, Nadvirna, Kalush, and Halych. The city also administers five adjacent villages that surround it: Mykytyntsi, Krykhivtsi, Vovchynets, Uhornyky, and Khryplyn.

Population and demographics

Note: Historical population record is taken out of Ivano-Frankivsk portal, more recent – the Regional Directorate of Statistics. There is also other information on a population growth such as the JewishGen. With asterisk there are identified years of approximate data. In the 18th century, differentiation among Poles and Ukrainians was by religious background rather than ethnic.

Administration

Both city and oblast administrations as well as the regional council are all located in a massive white building on Hrushevsky Street locally known as Bily Dim or Bily Budynok. In front of the building, there is a big open space bordered by Shpytalna Street on the north-east, Hrushevsky Street on the south-east, and Melnychuk Street on the south-west. Next to the building, there is a memorial to the Unification of the Western Ukraine with the rest of Ukraine. The main feature of the memorial is a tall marble stele, the both sides of which are adorned with statues: kamenyar and kobzar.

City Council

The city council currently consists of 60 deputies. The political representation of the V convocation by political blocs was elected as such: Our Ukraine 22, BYuT 17, Ukrainian People's Party 14, Party of Regions 4, PORA 3.

Recent city mayors

All street names reflecting the city's Soviet or Russian past have been returned to their former names, or given new names of national historic importance, or other non-controversial names. For example, Gagarin Street became Vovchynets Street, Suvorov Street is now Harbar Street, and Soviet Street is Independence Street.
Around 100 other streets were renamed.
; Important transportation arteries

City squares

The city has seven main city squares, four of them located in the "old town" part of the city.
Like a lot of regional centers in Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, Ivano-Frankivsk is well known for its rural-urban fringe panel building residential districts, too.
; Public transportation
The city of Ivano-Frankivsk has an extensive network of public transport including buses, trolleybuses, and taxis. There are nine trolleybus routes and about 52 for regular buses. Some of the routes run beyond the city into nearby villages.
; Railway transportation
There is one railway terminal that serves the Ivano-Frankivsk train station. There are also smaller railway stations in adjacent villages, including Uhryniv and Khryplyn. All of them are part of Lviv Railways.
; Bus transportation
Until 2008, the railway terminal also housed a bus terminal which provided several inter-city bus routes, including some to international destinations. In 2000, construction began on a new bus terminal next to the railway terminus on Zaliznychna Street. Inauguration of the new bus terminal took place on 22 May 2010. At the opening ceremony the Mayor of the city, Viktor Anushkevychus, noted that the new bus terminal was only partially completed, and for a period it would be necessary to offload passengers at the Pryvokzalna Square, which is already saturated with traffic. He also emphasised the need for another bus station on the outskirts of the city.
; Airways transportation
The city is served by Ivano-Frankivsk International Airport, which was granted international status in 1992. The airport shares its facilities with the 114 Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force. Since 2002, the airport has been leased to the private enterprise company Yavson, and from 2005 the Public limited company Naftokhimik Prykarpattia, a. The contract with Naftokhimik Prykarpattia expired in 2013.
; Lodging
There are many lodging options in Ivano-Frankivsk. Ivano-Frankivsk has one four-star hotel and three three-star hotels.

Routes

The city of Ivano-Frankivsk is located on the intersection of three major national routes: ', ', and '. There also is one important regional route T09-06. All the H-routes eventually connect to '.

Education

The city has over 25 public schools of general education for grades 1 through 11. There are also some privately owned schools and lyceums. In addition, the city has several professional public institutes.
There also numerous sports schools: Fitness Sport Association "Ukraine" – 5 schools, MVK – 3 schools, Fitness Sport Association "Spartak" – 2 schools, Fitness Sport Association "Kolos" – 1 school, and the others.

Universities

The city has six universities, the Ivano-Frankivsk Institute of Management that is a local campus of Ternopil National Economic University, and the Ivano-Frankivsk Institute of Management and Economics "Halytska Akademia". All of those universities are state funded.
  1. Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University
  2. Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas
  3. Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University
  4. King Daniel of Galicia Ivano-Frankivsk University of Law
  5. Ivano-Frankivsk Theological Academy of Greek-Catholic Church
  6. West Ukrainian University of Economics and Law

    Culture and sports

National landmarks

Theaters and Cinemas

; Former

Festivals

Ivano-Frankivsk is home to a number of sports teams. Most notably, it was home to the football club FC Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk that participated on the national level since the 1950s. Since 2007, the club only fields its youth team Spartak-93 and competes in the Children-Youth Football League of Ukraine. The former president of Spartak Anatoliy Revutskiy reorganized the local university team in 2007 into the new "FSK Prykarpattia" with support of the city mayor Anushkevychus making it the main football club in the region and replacing Spartak. Previously during the interbellum period, the city was home to another football club based on the local Polish garrison and called Rewera Stanisławów. That club competed at a regional level that had evolved at that period. With the start of World War II, that club was disbanded. During the Soviet period among several others there was another club "Elektron" that successfully participated at a regional level around the 1970s.
The city also is the home to a futsal team, PFC Uragan Ivano-Frankivsk, that competes in the Ukrainian Futsal Championship. They were the Ukrainian champions having won the 2010/11 season playoffs and therefore took part in the 2011–12 UEFA Futsal Cup for the first time.
The city had an ice hockey team, HC Vatra Ivano-Frankivsk, which previously played in the Ukrainian Hockey Championship.
Ivano-Frankivsk is also the hometown of Ukrainian gymnasts; one of them is Dariya Zgoba who won gold on the uneven bars in the 2007 European Championships and became a finalist on the Beijing Olympics; the other one is Yana Demyanchuk, who won gold on the balance beam at the 2009 European Championships.
Other clubs include:
; Main Stadiums and Sport Complexes
; Press
; Radio
; Television
Ivano-Frankivsk is twinned with:
In February 2016 Ivano-Frankivsk City Council terminated its twinned relations with the Russian cities Surgut, Serpukhov and Veliky Novgorod due to the Ukrainian crisis.

Partner cities

Ivano-Frankivsk cooperates with:
; Local orientation
; Regional orientation