Novgorod-Severskii

a city and administrative center of Novgorod-Severskii Raion, Chernigov Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. It is situated on the Desna River, a tributary of the Dnieper, and is the terminus on a branch line from the Novozybkov railroad station on the Gomel’-Unecha line. Population, 13,500 (1974).

It is not known when the city was founded, but by 1096 it was the capital of the Severskii Principality. The campaign of the Novgorod-Severskii prince Igor’ Sviatoslavich against the Po-lovtsy in 1185 was extolled in The Tale of Igor’s Campaign. In 1239 the city was destroyed by Mongol Tatars, and it subsequently became part of the newly formed Briansk Principality. In the second half of the 14th and 15th centuries it belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Incorporated into the Russian state in 1503, it passed to Poland by the Deulino Truce in 1618 but was restored to Russia under the Armistice of Andrusovo in 1667. In 1782 the city became the administrative center of the Novgorod-Severskii Namestnichestvo (vicegerency); in 1797 it became a district capital in the Malorossiia Province, and in 1802, in the Chernigov Province.

Soviet power was established in the city in January 1918; from April until December of that year it was held by the kaiser’s troops. From Aug. 26, 1941, until Sept. 16, 1943, the city was occupied by fascist German troops, who caused extensive damage. During the immediate postwar years the city was reconstructed. The city’s industries include factories producing building materials and asphalt, a hemp factory, a creamery, a textile factory, and various enterprises of the light industry. The city has a Museum of History and Local Lore.

Along the riverfront are several significant architectural works: the Uspenskii Cathedral (late 17th and early 18th centuries; belfry, 1820), the wooden Church of St. Nicholas (1760), and the Spaso-Preobrazhenskii Monastery (stone walls, 1670–99). The monastery complex includes a cathedral (1791–96, G. Quarenghi), a seminary (1657–67), cells with a refectory, and the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (17th century). In the city’s center are a triumphal arch (1786–87) and a market arcade dating from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Since 1958 construction has proceeded according to a general plan drawn up by the architects N. F. Panchuk and N. A. Mak-simenko. Noteworthy recent buildings include the building of the raion party committee and raion executive committee (1967, architect V. P. Kurdiuk) and the building of the All-Union Voluntary Society for Cooperation with the Army, Air Force, and Navy (1967, architect M. M. Bondar’).