Zhitomir

Zhitomir: see Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

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Zhitomir

a city in central Ukraine; centre of an agricultural region. Pop.: 282 000 (2005 est.)

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Zhitomir 

a city and the center of Zhitomir Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Located on the banks of the Teterev River, a tributary of the Dnieper. It is a railway and highway junction, 165 km west of Kiev. Population in 1971, 167,000 (95,000 in 1939; 106,000 in 1959).

Zhitomir was founded in the second half of the ninth century. It was captured by the Lithuanians in 1320 and by the Polish feudal lords in 1569. Zhitomir became the main city of Kiev voevodstvo (territory under a military governor) in 1668. It was reunited with Russia in 1793. It was the center of Volyn’ Province and an important trading center. Soviet power was established on Jan. 9 (22), 1918. Zhitomir has been the center of Zhitomir Oblast since 1937. Before the October Revolution, there were only small cast-iron foundries and leather and wood-products plants in the city. Large industrial enterprises, including a mechanical repair plant and the Elektroizmeritel’ Plant, were built during the prewar five-year plans. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Zhitomir was twice occupied by the fascist German forces (from July 9, 1941, to Nov. 13, 1943, and from Nov. 20, 1943, to Dec. 31, 1943). They did great damage to the city, but Zhitomir was completely restored in the postwar period.

The basic branches of industry are machine building and metal working (automotive parts plant, machinery plant, mechanized foundry, repair plants, the Elektroizmeritel’ Plant, and the Shchitavtomatika Plant), light industry (a flax combine and hosiery, clothing, and shoe factories), food (flour mills, meat combines, cannery combines), and wood-products (furniture combine and musical instruments factory). The city is also noted for the production of building materials.

There are pedagogical and agricultural institutes in Zhitomir as well as the general technical department of the Kiev Polytechnical Institute and ten specialized secondary educational institutions (including mechanical woodworking, construction, and automobile technicums and medical, pharmaceutical, music, and cultural-educational schools). The city also has a musical drama theater, a puppet theater and a philharmonic society. There is a museum of local lore and a picture gallery. V. G. Korolenko, laroslav Dombrovskii, and S. P. Korolev were born in Zhitomir.

REFERENCE

Syniakov, H. H. Zhytomyr: Istoryko-arkhitekturnyi narys. Kiev, 1968.