Letychiv
Letychiv (, , ) is a town in the eastern part of Khmelnytskyi Oblast, western Ukraine. It is located 51 km from Khmelnytskyi and 33 km from the railway station in Derazhnia. It was administrative center since Tsarist times, formerly in Podolia Province, although now it is administratively a part of Khmelnytskyi Raion. It hosts the administration of Letychiv Settlement Hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population according to the 2001 census was 11,081 inhabitants. Current population: There are brickworks, dairy, plant of construction material in the town. The town is located between Khmelnitskyi and Vinnytsia, at the confluence of the Volk and the Southern Bug rivers. Name In addition to the Ukrainian (Letychiv), in other languages the name of the city is , , and . History Founded in 1362. First historical mention is in connection with the Tatar invasions of 1411. It is mentioned first as a palisade fortress, then as a settlement under Magdeburg law in 1429. Even with natural moats on all sides, Letychiv did not have the topographic relief that blesses other Podolia Province strongholds (such as Medzhibozh or Kamenets Podilsky). Thus, Letychiv was more easily attacked and harder to defend. Because of this, until Russian times Letychiv played a subordinate role to nearby Medzhibozh. Dominican friars brought an icon of Mary, mother of Jesus to Letychiv in the late 15th century. Letychiv suffered the Tatar invasions of Poland in 1453, 1516, 1558, and 1567. In 1546, the first Assumption church was built. In 1569, king Stephen Batory presented Letychiv with its first coat of arms. It shows a wolf, representing the river Volk. In 1598 Jan Potocki replaced the town's weaker wooden fortifications with extensive stone fortifications, known as the Letychiv Fortress. Very little of these survive today, with the exception of one tower and the adjacent walls around the Assumption Church (rebuilt by Potocki in 1605). Letychiv suffered deprivations from Bohdan Khmelnytsky's cossack uprising in 1648. During this time, Letychiv's icon was removed from the Assumption Church for safekeeping in Lviv. Weakened by the cossack uprising, Podolia was invaded and occupied by Turkey in 1672. Letychiv became part of the Turkish Ejalet of Kamieniecki. In 1682, Letychiv was recaptured by the Poles under king Jan Sobieski. However, Poland did not regain full control until 1699 because the town was frequently ravaged by ongoing struggles between the Poles and Turks. The icon was returned to Letychiv in 1723. In 1778, Pope Clement XIV ordered that a special crown from Rome be installed on the icon. Letychiv continued to be attacked by cossacks and Haidamaks in 1702, 1734, 1737, 1749, 1750, 1755, 1768, and 1777. In the 18th century, Letychiv had grown to be the second largest town in Podolia, Medzhibozh being the largest. The first Jews in Letychiv are reported in stories within Shivhei haBesht (stories about the Baal Shem Tov) that probably date from about 1750. By the 1780s there were approximately 800 Jews living in the town. Letychiv passed into Russian