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Lviv () is a city in western Ukraine , the Capital City of the Lviv Oblast ( Province ) and one of the main Cultural Centres Of Ukraine . It has 830,000 inhabitants, with an additional 200,000 commuting daily from suburbs. The city is home to many industries, higher learning institutions ( University Of Lviv , Lviv Polytechnic ), a philharmonic orchestra, and the Lviv Opera And Ballet Theatre . The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List . The city will celebrate its 750th anniversary in May 2006 . GEOGRAPHY Location Lviv is located at Geographical Co-ordinates , on the verge of the Roztocze Upland , approximately seventy kilometres from the Polish border. Lviv's altitude averages 289 metres above sea level although there are many hills located within the confines of the city. The city's highest point is ''Vysokyy Zamok'' (the High Castle), a hill of 409 metres above the sea level. The old city, surrounded by walls, was located at the foothills of the High Castle and the banks of the river Poltva. In the 13th century the river was full of water, and used for commerce and transporation of goods. In the early 20th century, as the river became polluted, it was covered where it flows through the city. The central street of Lviv, Independendance Avenue (Prospect Svobody) is right above the river, as well as the famous Opera House. Climate L'viv's climate is moderate Continental . The average temperatures are −4 °C (27 °F) in January and +18 °C (65 °F) in June. Average annual rainfall is 660 mm (26 in), with notable water deficit in the summer months. Average of sixty-six cloudy days per year. HISTORY 's palace at St. George's Cathedral]] House]] n Cathedral]] House]] Early history Recent archaeological excavations show that the area of Lviv has been populated since at least the (during the reign of Mieszko I , ruler of the Polans ) and the Kievan Rus . Mieszko is thought to have controlled the area from 960 to 980 . According to Nestor 's chronicle, in 981 this area was conquered by Volodymyr The Great , ruler of Kievan Rus. However, the city itself was founded in the 13th Century by King Danylo of the Ruthenia n duchy of Halych-Volhynia , and named in honor of his son, Lev . Other sources mention that it was his son himself who founded the city. Thus the toponym might best be translated into English as ''Leo's lands'' or ''Leo's City'' (hence the Latin name ''Leopolis''). Lviv is first mentioned in Halych-Volhynian Chronicle from 1256 . It soon displaced the town of Halych as the capital of the duchy. In 1323 , the Romanovich Dynasty (local branch of the Rurik Dynasty ) died out. The city was inherited by the heir of the Romanovich dynasty (on his mother's side)— Boleslaus Of Masovia (also from the Piast dynasty on his father's side). He took the name of ''Yuriy'' and converted to Eastern Orthodoxy , but failed to gain the support of the local nobles and was soon poisoned. After his death in was built, around the same time a wooden church was built in the place of today's St. George's Cathedral . Also, new self-government attracted a big Armenian community that built its Armenian Cathedral in 1363 . In 1386 , this area was directly included into the Polish Crown by Jadwiga Of Poland . The city later served as the coronation site of some of the Kings Of Poland . Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth As a part of (), Sanok , town of Halych and Przemyśl (). The city was granted the ''right of transit'' and started to gain significant profit from the goods transported between the Black Sea and the Baltic . In the following centuries, the city's population grew rapidly and soon Lwów became a multi-ethnic and muli-religious city and an important centre of culture, science and trade. The city's fortifications were strengthened and Lwów became one of the most important (est. 1375 ), Greek Catholic and Armenian Catholic . The city was also home to numerous ethnic populations, including Germans , Jew s, Italians , Englishmen , Scotsmen and many others. Since the 16th Century , the religious mosaic of the city also included strong Protestant communities. By the first half of the 17th Century , the city had approximately 25-30 thousand inhabitants. About 30 craft organizations were active by that time, involving well over a hundred different specialities. Decline of the Commonwealth In 17th Century Lwów was besieged unsuccessfully several times. Constant struggles against invading armies gave it the motto '' Semper Fidelis ''. In 1649 , the city was besieged by the Cossacks under Bohdan Chmielnicki , who seized and destroyed the local castle. However, the Cossacks did not retain the city and withdrew after receiving a ransom. In 1655 the Swedish armies invaded Poland and soon took most of it. Eventually the Polish king Jan II Kazimierz solemnly pronounced his vow to consecrate the country to the protection of the Mother Of God and proclaimed Her the Patron and Queen of the lands in his kingdom at Lwów Latin Cathedral in 1656 ( Lwów Oath ). The Swedes laid siege to Lwów, but were forced to retreat before capturing it. The following year saw Lwów invaded by the armies of the Transylvanian Duke George I Rákóczi , but the city was not captured. In 1672 Lwów was again besieged by the Turkish army of Mehmed IV , however the Treaty Of Buczacz ended the war before the city was taken. In 1675 the city was attacked by the Ottomans and the Tatars , but King John III Sobieski defeated them on August 24 in what is called the Battle Of Lwów . In 1704 , during the Great Northern War , the city was captured and pillaged for the first time in its history by the armies of Charles XII Of Sweden . Partitions In 1772 , following the First Partition Of Poland , the city as "''Lemberg''" became the capital of the Austrian province, the so-called Kingdom Of Galicia And Lodomeria . The official language was changed to German and most of the posts in city's administration were taken by Germans and Czechs, yet the city remained an important centre of both Polish and Ukrainian cultures. Initially the Austria n rule was somewhat liberal. In 1784 , the Emperor Joseph II reopened the University . Lectures were held in Latin , German , Polish and (from 1786 ) also in Ukrainian . Wojciech Bogusławski opened the first public theatre in 1794 and Józef Maksymilian Ossolinski founded in 1817 the Ossolineum , a scientifical institute. Early in the 19th Century , the city became the new seat of the primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , the '' Archbishop of Kiev, Halych and Rus, the Metropolitan of Lviv''. However, in the beginning of the 19th Century the Austria n authorities started a campaign of Germanization . The University was closed in 1805 and re-opened in 1817 as a purely German academy, without much influence over the city's life. Most of other social and cultural organizations were banned as well. The harsh laws imposed by the Habsburg dynasty led to an Outbreak Of Public Dissent In 1848 . A petition was sent to the Emperor asking him to re-introduce local self-government, education in Polish and Ukrainian and granting Polish with a status of official language. Most of these pleas were accepted twenty years later: in 1861 a Galician parliament (''Sejm Krajowy'') was opened and in 1867 Galicia was granted vast autonomy, both cultural and economical. The University was allowed to start lectures in Polish . The province of Galicia became the only part of the former Polish state with some cultural and political freedom, and the city then served as a major Polish political and cultural centre. Similarly, the city also served as an important centre of the Ukrainian patriotic movement and culture. Other parts of Ukraine were at that time were part of Russia , and, prior to 1905 , all publications in Ukrainian were prohibited there. The city was also granted with a right to delegate MPs to the parliament in Vienna , which made many prominent cultural and political leaders move to the city, which served as a meeting place of Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish and German cultures. 20th century During the World War I the city was captured by the Russia n army in September 1914 , but was retaken the following year (in June) by Austria-Hungary . With the collapse of the Habsburg Empire at the end of World War I , the local Ukrainian population proclaimed Lviv as the capital of the Western Ukrainian Republic on the November 1st , 1918 . Polish-Ukrainian conflict See Also: Polish-Ukrainian War The withdrawing Austro-Hungarian and German armies agreed to hand over the city to Ukrainian authorities. However, the same day the Polish population of Lviv started an armed uprising and soon took control over most of the city centre; unable to break into the central areas, Ukrainian forces Besieged The City , defended by Polish irregular forces including the '' Lwów Eaglets ''. After the Inter-Allied Commission in Paris agreed to leave the city under Polish administration until its future was resolved by a post-war treaty or a Referendum , the regular Polish forces reached the city on November 19 . However, the heavy fights in the city's vicinity, with several minor cease-fire periods, did not end until July 1919 . Both Polish and Ukrainian victims of this conflict are buried at the Lychakivskiy Cemetery . Ashes of one of the unknown soldiers killed in the fighting are buried in the Unknown Soldier Monument in Warsaw . In the following months, other territories of Galicia controlled by the government of the Western Ukrainian Republic were captured, either by Polish Army advancing from the west, or by the Red Army advancing from the east. Following the agreement with Symon Petlura , the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic decided to enter into a military alliance with Poland and recognized Poland's right to the city and agreed for a border at the Zbruch River in exchange for Polish military assistance against the Bolsheviks . Polish-Soviet War See Also: Polish-Soviet War During the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 the city was attacked by the Forces of Aleksandr Yegorov . Since mid-June 1920 the 1st Cavalry Army of Semyon Budyonny was trying to reach the city from the north and east. At the same time Lwów was preparing the defence. The inhabitants raised and fully equipped three regiments of infantry and two regiments of cavalry as well as constructed defensive lines. The city was defended by an equivalent of three Polish divisions aided by one Ukrainian infantry division. Finally after almost a month of heavy fighting on August 16 the Red Army crossed the Bug River and, reinforced by additional 8 divisions of the so called ''Red Cossacks'', Started An Assault On The City . The fighting occurred with heavy casualties on both sides, but after three days the assault was halted and the Red Army retreated. For the heroic defence the city was awarded with the Virtuti Militari medal. Interbellum Following the Peace Of Riga the city remained in Poland as the capital of the Lwów Voivodship . The city became one of the most important centres of science and culture of Poland . World War II Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1 , 1939 and the German German 1st Mountain Division reached the suburbs of Lwów on September 12 and began a siege. The city's garrison was ordered to hold out at all cost since the strategic position prevented the enemy from crossing into the Romanian Bridgehead . Also, a number of Polish troops from Central Poland were trying to reach the city and organise the defence there. Thus a 10 days long defence of the city started and later became known as yet another Battle Of Lwów . On September 19 a Polish diversionary attack under General Władysław Langner was launched and was unsuccessful. Soviet Troops (part of the forces which had invaded on September 17 under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact ) replaced the Germans around the city. On the 23rd Langner formally surrendered to Soviet troops under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko . The Soviet and Nazi forces divided Poland between themselves and a forged plebiscite absorbed the Soviet half of Poland, including Lwów, into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Initially, a large part of the Ukrainian population who lived in the Interwar Poland cheered the Soviet takeover whose stated goal was to protect the Ukrainian population in the area.1 Depolonisation combined with large scale anti-Polish actions began immediately, with huge numbers of Poles from Lviv deported eastward into the Soviet Union. Some members of the Ukrainian and Jewish communities were deported as well. When the Nazis broke the non-aggression pact and Invaded The Soviet Union on June 22 , 1941 , the NKVD spent a week executing prisoners held in the Brygidki and Zamarstynów prisons. Many thousands were killed. Since the beginning of the German occupation of the city, the situation of the city's inhabitants became tragic. After being subject to deadly pogroms, the Jewish inhabitants of the area were rushed into a newly-created Ghetto and then mostly sent to various German Concentration Camps . The Polish and smaller Ukrainian populations of the city were also subject to harsh policies, which resulted in a number of mass executions both in the city and in the Janów camp. Among the first to be murdered were The Professors Of The City's Universities and other members of Polish Inteligentsia . Initially, a great part of Ukrainian population considered the German troops as liberators after the two years of Soviet regime, as once many Jewish and Ukrainian inhabitants had welcomed the Soviets as their liberators from the rule of the nationalist Second Polish Republic . Germans were associated with old Austrian times, the happiest ones in comparison to the later Polish and Soviet periods. On June 30, 1941, the first day of the German occupation of the city, one of the wings of the Organization Of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) declared restoration of the independent Ukrainian state. In a few days, the initiators of this action, Stepan Bandera , Yaroslav Stetsko and others, were arrested by Nazis Einsatzgruppe and sent to Nazi concentration camps, where both of Bandera's brothers were executed. The policy of the occupying power turned quickly harsh towards Ukrainians as well, the Ukrainian nationalists were driven underground; from that time forward, they fought against the Nazis, but continued also to fight against Poles and Soviet forces (see Ukrainian Insurgent Army ).
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