Uzhgorod

a city and administrative center of Transcarpathian Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Situated on the picturesque shores of the Uzh River in the Tisza River basin at the foot of the southwestern side of the Eastern Carpathians, Uzhgorod has a railroad station and an airport and is a junction of highways to Mukachevo, L’vov, and Chop. Population, 77,000 (1975; 30,000 in 1939, 47,000 in 1959, and 65,000 in 1970).

According to archaeological data, Uzhgorod originated in the eighth or ninth centuries. In the tenth and 11th centuries it was part of Kievan Rus’, and at the end of the 11th century it became part of the Hungarian kingdom. At the beginning of the 18th century the city came under the rule of Austria, which became Austria-Hungary in 1867. Uzhgorod developed as the industrial and commercial center of the Transcarpathian Ukraine. In 1872 the city was linked by rail to Chop. The first Social Democratic organization in Transcarpathia was formed in Uzhgorod in 1890; it was affiliated with the Social Democratic Party of Hungary. Uzhgorod became the administrative center of Podkarpatská Rus, a region in bourgeois Czechoslovakia, in 1919. The city was occupied by troops of fascist Hungary on Nov. 10,1938, and liberated by the Soviet Army on Oct. 27, 1944. As a result of a treaty concluded between the USSR and Czechoslovakia on June 29, 1945, Uzhgorod, along with the rest of the Transcarpathian Ukraine, was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. In January 1946 the city was made the administrative center of Transcarpathian Oblast.

Uzhgorod’s main industries are the manufacture of wood products and furniture (a plywood and furniture combine), instrument-making, and machine building. Its factories include the Uzhgorodpribor Plant, a plant for manufacturing equipment for the gas industry, a household chemicals plant, and a fittings plant. Other industries are food processing (meat-packing and bread-making combines and a margarine plant) and the production of building materials. Light industry is represented by a shoe factory and a clothing factory. There are vineyards in the vicinity.

Architectural monuments of Uzhgorod include a castle (known to exist in the 11th century, rebuilt in the 15th—17th centuries), a bishop’s palace (1646, now the university library), a Catholic church in the baroque style (1762–67), and a town hall (1810). During the 1930’s an architectural ensemble of administrative and residential buildings in a more or less constructivist style was erected in the center of the city. In the Soviet period, new construction has been carried out in conformity with a general plan; many residential buildings have been erected, public gardens and parks have been laid out, and a number of public buildings have been constructed.

The city’s monuments include one to V. I. Lenin (bronze and granite, 1965, sculptors M. K. Vronskii and A. P. Oleinik, architects Iu. A. Maksimov and V. A. Sikorskii) and the monument To the Valiant Soviet Warriors Who Liberated the Ukraine (bronze and granite, 1970, sculptors V. I. Znoba and I. S. Znoba, architects O. K. Stukalov and A. A. Snitsarev).

Uzhgorod has a university, a technicum of Soviet trade, an electronic instruments technicum, a music school, and a school of applied arts. Its museums include the Museum of Local Lore, the Transcarpathian Art Museum (founded 1948), and the Transcarpathian Museum of Popular Architecture and Way of Life (founded 1970). There is also a music and drama theater, an oblast philharmonic society, and two tourist centers.