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KIEV

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 790 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KIEV , a See also:

city of See also:Russia, See also:capital of the above See also:government, on the right or See also:west See also:bank of the See also:Dnieper, in 50° 27' 12" N. and 300 30' 18" E., 628 m. by See also:rail S.W. of See also:Moscow and 406 m. by rail N.N.E. of See also:Odessa. The site of the greater See also:part of the See also:town consists of hills or bluffs separated by ravines and hollows, the See also:elevation of the central portions being about 300 ft. above the See also:ordinary level of the Dnieper. On the opposite See also:side of the See also:river the See also:country spreads out See also:low and level like a See also:sea. Having received all its important tributaries, the Dnieper is here a broad (400 to 580 yds.) and navigable stream; but as it approaches the town it divides into two arms and forms a low grassy See also:island of considerable extent called Tukhanov. During the See also:spring floods there is a rise of 16 or even 20 ft., and not only the island but the country along the See also:left bank and the See also:lower grounds on the right bank are laid under See also:water. The See also:bed of the river is sandy and shifting, and it is only by costly See also:engineering See also:works that the See also:main stream has been kept from returning to the more eastern channel, along which it formerly flowed. Opposite the See also:southern part of the town, where the currents have again See also:united, the river is crossed by a suspension See also:bridge, which at the See also:time of its erection (1848-1853) was the largest enterprise of the See also:kind in See also:Europe. It is about See also:half a mile in length and 522 ft. in breadth, and the four See also:principal spans are each 440 ft. The bridge was designed by Vignoles, and cost about £400,000. Steamers ply in summer to See also:Kremenchug, See also:Ekaterinoslav, See also:Mogilev, See also:Pinsk and See also:Chernigov. Altogether Kiev is one of the most beautiful cities in Russia, and the vicinity too is picturesque. Until 1837 the town proper consisted of the Old Town, Pechersk and Podoli; but in that See also:year three districts were added, and in 1879 the limits were extended to include Kurenevka, Lukyanovka, Shulyavka and Solomenka.

The administrative See also:

area of the town is 13,500 acres. The Old Town, or Old Kiev See also:quarter (Starokievskaya Chast), occupies the highest of the range of hills. Here the houses are most closely built, and See also:stone structures most abundant. In some of the principal streets are buildings of three to five storeys, a comparatively rare thing in Russia, indeed in the main See also:street (Kreshchatik) See also:fine structures have been erected since 1896. In the 11th See also:century the area was enclosed by earthen ramparts, with bastions and gateways; but of these the only surviving remnant is the See also:Golden See also:Gate. In the centre of the Old Town stands the See also:cathedral of St See also:Sophia, the See also:oldest cathedral in the See also:Russian See also:empire. Its See also:external walls are of a See also:pale See also:green and See also:white See also:colour, and it has ten cupolas, four spangled with stars and six surmounted each with a See also:cross. The golden See also:cupola of the four-storeyed campanile is visible for many See also:miles across the See also:steppes. The statement frequently made that the See also:church was a copy of St Sophia's in See also:Constantinople has been shown to be a See also:mistake. The See also:building See also:measures in length 177 ft., while its breadth is 118 ft. But though the See also:plan shows no See also:imitation of the See also:great See also:Byzantine church, the decorations of the interior (mosaics, frescoes, &c.) do indicate See also:direct Byzantine See also:influence. During the occupation of the church by the Uniats or United See also:Greek Church in the 17th century these were covered with whitewash, and were only discovered in 1842, after which the cathedral was internally restored; but the See also:chapel of the Three Pontiffs has been left untouched to show how carefully the old See also:style has been preserved or copied.

Among the mosaics is a See also:

colossal See also:representation of the Virgin, 15 ft. in height, which, like the so-called " indestructible See also:wall " in which it is inlaid, See also:dates from the time (1o19-1054) of See also:Prince Yaroslay. This prince founded the church in 1037 in gratitude for his victory over the See also:Petchenegs, a See also:Turkish See also:race then settled in'the Dnieper valley. His See also:sarcophagus, curiously sculptured with palms, fishes, &c., is preserved. The church of St See also:Andrew the Apostle occupies the spot where, according to Russian tradition, that apostle stood when as yet Kiev was not, and declared that the See also:hill would become the site of a great city. The See also:present building,in florid See also:rococo style, dates from 1744-1767. The church of the See also:Tithes, rebuilt in 1828-1842, was founded in the See also:close of the loth century by Prince See also:Vladimir in See also:honour of two martyrs whom he had put to See also:death; and the monastery of St See also:Michael (or of .the Golden Heads—so called from the fifteen gilded cupolas of the See also:original church) claims to have been built in 1108 by Svyatopolk II., and was restored in 1655 by the Cossack chieftain Bogdan See also:Chmielnicki. On a See also:plateau above the river, the favourite See also:promenade of the citizens, stands the Vladimir See also:monument (1853) in See also:bronze. In this quarter, some distance back from the river, is the new and richly decorated Vladimir cathedral (1862-1896), in the Byzantine style, distinguished for the beauty and richness of its paintings. Until 182o the See also:south-eastern See also:district of Pechersk was the See also:industrial and commercial quarter; but it has been greatly altered in carrying out fortifications commenced in that year' by See also:Tsar See also:Nicholas I. Most of the houses are small and old-fashioned. The monastery—the Kievo-Pecherskaya—is the See also:chief See also:establishment of its kind in Russia; it is visited every year by about 250,000 pilgrims. Of its ten or twelve conventual churches the chief is that of the See also:Assumption.

There are four distinct quarters in the monastery, each under a See also:

superior, subject to the See also:archimandrite: the Laura proper or New Monastery, that of the Infirmary, and those of the Nearer and the Further Caves. These caves or catacombs are the most striking characteristic of the See also:place; the name Pechersk, indeed, is connected with the Russian peshchera, " a See also:cave." The first See also:series of caves, dedicated to St See also:Anthony, contains eighty See also:saints' tombs; the second, dedicated to St See also:Theodosius, a See also:saint greatly venerated in Russia, about See also:forty-five. The bodies were formerly exposed to view; but the pilgrims who now pass through the galleries see nothing but the draperies and the See also:inscriptions. Among the more notable names are those of See also:Nestor the chronicler, and Iliya of See also:Murom, the Old Cossack of the Russian epics. The See also:foundation of the monastery is ascribed to two saints of the 1 rth century—Anthony and See also:Hilarion, the latter See also:metropolitan of Kiev. By the See also:middle of the 12th century it had become wealthy and beautiful. Completely ruined by the Mongol prince See also:Batu in 1240, it remained deserted for more than two centuries. Prince See also:Simeon Oblkovich was the first to begin the restoration. A conflagration laid the buildings See also:waste in 1716, and their present aspect is largely due to See also:Peter the Great. The cathedral of the Assumption, with seven gilded cupolas, was dedicated in 1089, destroyed by the See also:Mongols in 1240, and restored in 1729; the wall-paintings of the interior are by V. See also:Vereshchagin. The monastery contains a school of picture-makers of See also:ancient origin, whose productions are widely diffused throughout the empire, and a See also:printing See also:press, from which have issued liturgical and religious works, the oldest known examples bearing the date 1616.

It possesses a wonder-working ikon or See also:

image of the " Death of the Virgin," said to have been brought from Constantinople in 1073, and the second highest See also:bell-See also:tower in Russia. The Podol quarter lies on the low ground at the See also:foot of the bluffs. It is the industrial and trading quarter of the city, and the seat of the great See also:fair of the " Contracts," the transference of which from Dubno in 1797 largely stimulated the commercial prosperity of Kiev. The present See also:regular arrangement of its streets arose after the great See also:fire of 1811. Lipki district (from the lipki or See also:lime trees, destroyed in 1833) is of See also:recent origin, and is mainly inhabited by the well-to-do classes. It is some-times called the See also:palace quarter, from the royal palace erected between 1868 and 1870, on the site of the older structure dating from the time of Tsaritsa See also:Elizabeth. Gardens and parks abound; the palace See also:garden is exceptionally fine, and in the same neighbourhood are the public gardens with the place of amusement known as the See also:Chateau See also:des Fleurs. In the New Buildings, or the Lybed quarter, are the university and the botanical gardens. The Ploskaya Chast (See also:Flat quarter) or Obolon contains the lunatic See also:asylum; the Lukyanovka Chast, the See also:penitentiary and the See also:camp and See also:barracks; and the Bulvarnaya Chast, the military gymnasium of St Vladimir and the railway station. The educational and scientific institutions of Kiev See also:rank next to those of the two capitals. Its university, removed from See also:Vilna to Kiev in 1834, has about 2500 students, and is well provided with observatories, laboratories, See also:libraries and museums; five scientific See also:societies and two societies for aid to poor students are attached to it. There are, besides, a theological See also:academy, founded in 1615; a society of church See also:archaeology, which possesses a museum built in 1900, very See also:rich in old ikons, crosses, &c., both Russian and.

See also:

Oriental; an imperial academy of See also:music; university courses for ladies; a See also:polytechnic, with 1300 students—the building was completed in 'goo and stands on the other side of Old Kiev, away from the river. Of the learned societies the more important are the medical (184o), the naturalists' (1869), the juridical (1876), the See also:historical of Nestor the Chronicler (1872), the horticultural • (1875), and the dramatic (1879), the archaeological See also:commission (1843), and the society of church archaeology. Kiev is the principal centre for the See also:sugar See also:industry of Russia, as well as for the See also:general See also:trade of the region. Its Stryetenskaya fair is important. More than twenty caves were discovered on the slope of a hill (Kirilov Street), and one of them, excavated in 1876, proved to have belonged to See also:neolithic See also:troglodytes. Numerous See also:graves, both from the See also:pagan and the See also:Christian periods, the latter containing more than 2000 skeletons, with a great number of small articles, were discovered in the same year in the same neighbourhood. Many colonial See also:Roman coins of the 3rd and 4th centuries, and See also:silver dirhems, stamped at See also:Samarkand, See also:Balkh, See also:Merv, &c., were also found in 1869. In 1862 the See also:population of Kiev was returned as 70,341; in 1874 the See also:total was given as 127,251; and in 1902 as 319,000. This includes 20,000 Poles and 12,000 See also:Jews. Kiev is the See also:head-quarters of the IX. See also:Army See also:Corps, and of a metropolitan of the Orthodox Greek Church. The See also:history of Kiev cannot be satisfactorily separated from that of Russia.

According to Nestor's See also:

legend it was founded in 864 by three See also:brothers, Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, and after their deaths the principality was seized by two Varangians (Scandinavians), Askold and See also:Die, followers of Rurik, also in 864. Rurik's successor See also:Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and made it the chief town of his principality. It was in the See also:waters of the Dnieper opposite the town that Prince Vladimir, the first saint of the Russian church, caused his See also:people to be baptized (988), and Kiev became the seat of the first Christian church, of the first Christian school, and of the first library in Russia. For three See also:hundred and seventy-six years it was an See also:independent Russian city; for eighty years (1240—1320) it was subject to the Mongols; for two hundred and forty-nine years (132o—1569) it be-longed to the Lithuanian principality; and for eighty-five years to See also:Poland (1569—1654). It was finally united to the Russian empire in 1686. The city was devastated by the See also:khan of the See also:Crimea in 1483. The See also:Magdeburg rights, which the city enjoyed from 1516, were abolished in 1835, and the ordinary See also:form of town government introduced; and in 184o it was made subject to the See also:common See also:civil See also:law of the empire. The Russian literature concerning Kiev is voluminous. Its bibliography will be found in the Russian See also:Geographical See also:Dictionary of P. Semenov, and in the Russian Encyclopaedic Dictionary, published by See also:Brockhaus and Efron (vol. xv., 1895). Among recent publications are: See also:Rambaud's La Russie epique (See also:Paris, 1876); See also:Avenarius, Kniga o Kievskikh Bogatuiryakh (St See also:Petersburg, 1876), dealing with the See also:early Kiev heroes; Zakrevski, Opisanie Kieva (1868) ; the materials issued by the commission for the investigation of the ancient records of the city; Taranovskiy, Gorod Kiev (Kiev, 1881); De Baye, Kiev, la See also:mere des villes russes (Paris, 1896) ; See also:Goetz, Das Kiewer Hohlenkloster als Kulturzentrum des Vormongolischen Russ-lands (See also:Passau, 1904). See also See also:Count Bobrinsky, Kurgans of Smiela (1897); and N.

Byelyashevsky, The Mints of Kiev. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.)town), See also:

cotton, silks and " See also:Paisley " shawls, and See also:calico-printing, besides quarries, See also:coal and See also:iron mines in the neighbourhood. Two miles south-west is a great See also:rock of greenstone called Clochoderrick, 12 ft. in height, 22 ft. in length, and 17 ft. in breadth. About 2 M. See also:north-west on Gryfe Water, lies Bridge of See also:Weir (pop. 2242), the See also:industries of which comprise tanning, currying, calico-printing, See also:thread-making and See also:wood-turning. It has a station on the See also:Glasgow & South-Western railway. Immediately to the south-west of Bridge of Weir are the ruins of Ranfurly See also:Castle, the ancient seat of the Knoxes. See also:Sir See also:John de Knocks (fl.

1422) is supposed to have been the great-grandfather of John See also:

Knox; and Andrew Knox (1559-1633), one of the most distinguished members of the See also:family, was successively See also:bishop of the Isles, See also:abbot of Icolmkill (See also:Iona), and bishop of Raphoe. About 4 M. N.W. of Bridge of Weir lies the See also:holiday resort of Kilmalcolm (pronounced Kilmacome; pop. 2220), with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway. It has a See also:golf-course, public See also:park and hydropathic establishment. Several charitable institutions have been built in and near the town, amongst them the well-known Quarrier's See also:Orphan Homes of See also:Scotland.

End of Article: KIEV

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