Ltava, Oltava, Poltava…

Poltava colonels:

Martin Pushkar (1648-58)

Fedir Bohun (1658)

Khvylon Harkusha (1658, 1669-70)

Kyryk Pushkar (1658, 1659)

Marko Pushkar (1658-59)

Fedir Zhuchenko (1659-61, 1670 –72, 1676, 1679-80, 1683, 1687-89, 1689-91)

Demyan Hudzhol (1661-63, 1668-69, 1672-74)

Sava Omelnytskyi (1663-65, 1667)

Hryhoriy Vytyazenko (1665-67, 1667-68)

Kostyantyn Kublytskyi (1668, 1669)

Prokip Lenevets (1674-75, 1677-79)

Pavlo Hertsek (1675-76, 1676-77, 1683-87, 1691-96)

Demyan Yakovenko (1677)

Leontiy Chernyak (1680-83, 1689)

Ivan Iskra (1696–1700)

Ivan Levenets (1700-29 with interruptions)

Ivan Chernyak (1709-24 with interruptions)

Vasyl Kochubey (1723-33)

Andriy Horlenko (1744-65)

At paleolith times on territory of modern Poltava region tools were made from stone, people were engaged in field-crop cultivation and cattle breeding. The name of the city located on the Vorskla River (in aryan this word-combination means “swamped river”) originates from its right tributary Ltava or Oltava, on the banks of which a Slavonic settlement appeared at the end of ІХ century. When Kiev Rus had firmly established, Poltava lands were the constituent of Pereyaslivska land which later became principality. Ancestors of present habitants of Poltava – polyanys and siveryanys - supported the state-creative acts of Volodymyr the Great and sweated on building of fortresses of the Posulska defensive line. It was destroyed by Polovets khan Konchak after unsuccessful campaign of Igor Svyatoslavych – a main hero of the poem “Word about Igor’s regiment”. Prince Volodymyr Hlibovych defended the city. Reporting about his death because of wounds in 1187, it was marked: “Ukraine grieved for him a lot”. It is considered that it is the first immortalization of Ukraine as a country in chronicles.

The city on the Vorskla River is mentioned earlier: in 1174 in the Ipatiyivskyi chronicle it was named Ltava, then – Oltava, and actually it was called Poltava only in 1430. After the Mongol-Tatar invasion it revived, and having bloomed, it found itself first under power of Lithuanian, consequently Polish rulers. On a map made in 1641 by the French engineer Boplan over three hundred settlements – cities, villages and colonies -  were marked within the limits of present Poltava region. Their habitants fled from a foreign captivity to the Dnipro thresholds, where they became glorious warriors; they formed whole revolted detachments for the fight against gentry.

In 1430 Lithuanian prince Vitovit passed the right to possession of Poltava to Leksa (Leksad Mansurksanovych), a native of the Gold Horde, a Tatar, who accepted orthodoxy and took the name Oleksandr, and from the presented small town Hlynska he got the last name – Hlynskyi. Making himself a Ukrainian the ruler got the title of prince and became the founder of dynasty of glorious Hlynski. Later one of his heirs made a match with Vasyliy III, a great prince of Moscow and became the mother of the tsar Ivan the Terrible. Poltava was in the possession of Hlynski till 1537, and then it was passed to the hands of their descendants – Hrybunovych-Baibyz. In 1569 it was under power of Poland, and in ХVІІ century it got Magdeburg right.

On 800 hectares of territory of the State historic and cultural preserve “Field of the Poltava battle”, except a museum, following places attract our attention: Samposiniyivska church, ten obelisks on place of the earthen strengthening (redoubts), common grave of the Russian warriors, monument to the Swedes from Russians, monument to the Swedes from compatriots and monument to Peter І. Unfortunately, the old problem concerning the grant of the national status to the preserve has not been solved until now, a fortress and places of location of hetman troops on its territory haven’t been included in it, detailed inventory of all objects hasn’t been carried out, and even a complex archaeological research of the protected land hasn’t been conducted. At the present time the establishment of monuments to the Cossacks is taking place – to participants of the Poltava battle, Charles ХІІ and Ivan Mazepa, chronicler Samiylo Velychko and Daniel Krman, who revealed unique evidence about the battle in the world-wide notes.

Mykola SLAVYNSKYI