Korsun-Shevchenkovskii

(until 1944 Korsun’), a city, the administrative center of Korsun’-Shevchenkovskii Raion, Cherkassy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, on the Ros’ River, a tributary of the Dnieper. The city was named in honor of T. G. Shevchenko, who was born 34 km away, in the village of Morintsy. The city is the site of the Korsun’ station on the Kiev-Cherkassy railroad line. Population, 17,800 (1972).

According to the chronicles, Korsun’ was founded by laroslav the Wise in 1032. The city was destroyed by Baty in 1240. A military fortress was built in Korsun’ in 1584. The city was one of the chief centers of the War for the Liberation of the Ukrainian People of 1648-54. The troops of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii defeated an army of 20,000 men of the Polish szliachectwo (gentry) in May 1648 near Korsun’. The city was reunited with Russia in 1793. A grouping of 80,000 of the fascist German Army was surrounded and destroyed by the Soviet Army in the Korsun’ region during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, in what is known as the Korsun’-Shevchenkovskii operation of 1944. The city was liberated from the fascist German invaders on Feb. 14, 1944, and the city’s economy was restored in a very short time.

Included among the plants located in the city are machine-tool building, machinery, repair, building materials, asphalt, corn grading, and fruit-canning, as well as a creamery. There are also railroad transport enterprises, a wine-making combine, a clothing factory, and a wicker factory. Teachers and medical schools and the Museum of the History of the Battle at Korsun’-Shevchenkovskii are among the city’s educational and cultural institutions.