Kiev or [a] (Ukrainian: Київ, romanized: Kyiv; Russian: Киев, romanized: Kiyev) is the capital and most populous city of . It is in north- along the River. Its population in July 2015 was 2,887,974[1] (though higher estimated numbers have been cited in the press),[12] making Kiev the 6th-most populous city in Europe.[13] Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural center of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions, and historical landmarks. The city has an extensive system of public transport and infrastructure, including the Kiev Metro. The city's name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, one of its four legendary founders. During its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of prominence and obscurity. The city probably existed as a commercial center as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the great trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kiev was a tributary of the ,[14] until its capture by the (Vikings) in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of the Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state. Completely destroyed during the Mongol invasions in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a provincial capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first Lithuania, then Poland and Russia.[15] The city prospered again during the 's Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. In 1918, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared from Soviet Russia, Kiev became its capital. From 1921 onwards Kiev was a city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed by the , and, from 1934, Kiev was its capital. The city was almost completely ruined during World War II but quickly recovered in the postwar years, remaining the 's third-largest city. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991, Kiev remained Ukraine's capital and experienced a steady influx of ethnic Ukrainian migrants from other regions of the country.[16] During the country's transformation to a market economy and electoral democracy, Kiev has continued to be Ukraine's largest and wealthiest city. Its armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science and technology, but new sectors of the economy such as services and finance facilitated Kiev's growth in salaries and investment, as well as providing continuous funding for the development of housing and urban infrastructure. Kiev emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine; parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections.[17][18][19][20]

 Name

Fragment of the New Universal Atlas by John Cary, London, 1808. The city was situated on the borderline between the former Polish (left) and Russian (right) zones of influence, with the name being Russified to Kiev.

Kiev is the traditional and most commonly used English name for the city.[21] Kyiv is used officially by the city, and it is gaining in frequency in English-language sources. As a prominent city with a long history, its English name was subject to gradual evolution. The spelling Kiev was derived from the form Kyjevŭ (Cyrillic: Кꙑєвъ).[22] The name is associated with that of Kyi (Кий), the legendary eponymous founder of the city. Early English sources use various names, including Kiou, Kiow, Kiew, Kiovia. On one of the oldest English maps of the region, Russiae, Moscoviae et Tartariae published by Ortelius (London, 1570) the name of the city is spelled Kiou. On the 1650 map by Guillaume de Beauplan, the name of the city is Kiiow, and the region was named Kÿowia. In the book Travels, by Joseph Marshall (London, 1772), the city is called Kiovia.[23] The form Kiev corresponds to Russian orthography and pronunciation [ˈkʲijɪf], during a time when Kiev was in the Russian Empire (from 1708, being the seat of a governorate).[citation needed] In English, Kiev was used in print as early as in 1804 in John Cary's "New map of Europe, from the latest authorities" in Cary's new universal atlas published in London. Mary Holderness's travelogue New Russia: Journey from Riga to the by way of Kiev was published in 1823.[24] The Oxford English Dictionary included Kiev in a quotation by 1883, and Kyiv in 2018.[25]

Kiev City State Administration official request for the Wikimedia Foundation to switch Kiev to Kyiv Kyiv is the romanized version of the name of the city used in modern Ukrainian. After Ukraine's 1991 independence, the Ukrainian government introduced the national rules for transliteration of geographic names into the Latin alphabet for legislative and official acts in October 1995,[26] according to which the Ukrainian name Київ is romanized as Kyiv. These rules are applied for place names and addresses, as well as personal names in passports, street signs, and so on. In 2018, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine launched a worldwide online campaign called #CorrectUA promoting the use of current official Ukrainian place-name spellings.[27][28] The place name Kyiv is standardized in the authoritative database of Ukraine's toponyms maintained by Ukraine's mapping agency Derzhheokadastr. The United Nations GEGN Geographical Names Database uses Kyiv.[29] The United States Board on Geographic Names (or BGN) changed its standard transliteration in October 2006[30][31][32] and updated the conventional name of the city in June 2019,[33] in its database used by the US government and influencing other international bodies. The International Air Transport Association updated its spelling to Kyiv in October 2019.[34][35] Kyiv is also used by the European Union,[36] all English-speaking foreign diplomatic missions,[37] and several international organizations.[38] Many English-language news sources have adopted Kyiv in their style guides, including media in Ukraine,[39] the Associated Press[40][41] and Canadian Press[42] news services, and the CBC (which switched twice),[42][43] The Economist,[44] The Guardian,[45] The Wall Street Journal,[46] The Globe and Mail,[47] the BBC,[48] The Washington Post,[49] and The New York Times.[50] Alternative romanizations used in English-language sources include Kyïv (according to the ALA–LC romanization used in bibliographic cataloguing), Kyjiv (scholarly transliteration used in linguistics), and Kyyiv (the 1965 BGN/PCGN transliteration standard). History Main articles: , Timeline of Kiev, , and Kiev, one of the oldest cities of Eastern Europe, played a pivotal role in the development of the medieval East Slavic civilization as well as in the modern Ukrainian nation.[citation needed] The first known humans in the region of Kiev lived there in the late paleolithic period (Stone Age).[51] The population around Kiev during the Bronze Age formed part of so-called Tripillian culture, as witnessed by objects found in the area.[52] During the early Iron Age certain tribes settled around Kiev that practiced land cultivation, husbandry and trading with the Scythians, and with ancient states of the northern Black Sea coast.[51] Findings of Roman coins of the 2nd to the 4th centuries suggest trade relations with the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.[51] The carriers of Zarubintsy culture are considered the direct ancestors of the ancient who later established Kiev.[51] Notable archaeologists of the area around Kiev include Vikentiy Khvoyka. Scholars continue to debate about the period in which the city was founded: some date the founding to the late 9th century,[53] other historians have preferred a date of 482 AD.[54][55] In 1982, the city celebrated its 1,500th anniversary.[54] According to archaeological data, the foundation of Kiev dates to the second half of the 5th century and the first half of the 6th century.[51] There is also a claim to find reference to the city in Ptolemy's 2nd-century work as Metropolity.[56]

Legendary Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv and Lybid in the Radziwiłł Chronicle Legendary accounts tell of the origin of the city; one legend features a founding family, members of a Slavic tribe (Polans): the leader Kyi, the eldest, his brothers Shchek and Khoryv, and also their sister Lybid, who allegedly founded the city (See the Primary Chronicle).[51] According to the Chronicle the name Kyiv/Kiev means "belonging to Kyi".[51] Another legend states that Saint Andrew passed through the area (1st century), and where he erected a cross, a church was built.[by whom?] Since the Middle Ages an image of Saint Michael represented the city as well as the duchy.

Hungarians at Kiev in 830 during the times of Rus' Khaganate There is little historical evidence pertaining to the period when the city was founded. Scattered Slavic settlements existed in the area from the 6th century, but it is unclear whether any of them later developed into the city. The Primary Chronicle (a main source of information about the early history of the area) mentions Slavic Kievans telling Askold and Dir that they lived without a local ruler and paid a tribute to the Khazars in an entry attributed to the 9th century. At least during the 8th and 9th centuries Kiev functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire. A hill-fortress, called Sambat (Old Turkic for "High Place") was built to defend the area. At some point during the late 9th or early 10th century Kiev fell under the rule of Varangians (see Askold and Dir, and Oleg of Novgorod) and became the nucleus of the Rus' polity. The Primary Chronicle dates Oleg's conquest of the town in 882, but some historians, such as and Constantine Zuckerman, dispute this and maintain that Khazar rule continued as late as the 920s (documentary evidence exists to support this assertion – see the Kievian Letter and Schechter Letter). Other historians suggest that Magyar tribes ruled the city between 840 and 878, before migrating with some Khazar tribes to Hungary. According to these scholars the building of the fortress of Kiev was finished in 840 under the leadership of Keő (Keve), Csák and Geréb, the three brothers, possibly members of the Tarján tribe. The three names appear in the Kiev Chronicle as Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv – none of these names are Slavic, and Russian historians have always struggled to account for their meanings and origins. Their names were put into the Kiev Chronicle in the 12th century and they were identified as old-Russian mythological heroes.[57]

The Baptism of Kievans, a painting by Klavdiy Lebedev During the 8th and 9th centuries Kiev functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire. However, the site stood on the historical trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, and in the late 9th century or early 10th century a Varangian nobility started to rule Kiev, which became the nucleus of the Rus' polity, whose 'Golden Age' (11th to early 12th centuries) has from the 19th century become referred to as Kievan Rus'. In 968 the nomadic attacked and then besieged the city.[58] In 1000 AD the city had a population of 45,000.[59] In March 1169 Grand Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal sacked Kiev, leaving the old town and the prince's hall in ruins.[60][61] He took many pieces of religious artwork - including the Theotokos of Vladimir icon - from nearby .[62] In 1203 Prince Rostislavich and his Kipchak allies captured and burned Kiev. In the 1230s the city was besieged and ravaged by different Rus' princes several times. The town had not recovered from Bogolyubsky's sack and the subsequent destruction, when in 1240 the Mongol invasion of Rus', led by , completed the destruction of Kiev.[63] These events had a profound effect on the future of the city and on the East Slavic civilization. Before Bogolyubsky's pillaging, Kiev had had a reputation as one of the largest cities in the world, with a population exceeding 100,000 in the beginning of the 12th century.[64]

Bolesław I of Poland and Sviatopolk the Accursed at Kiev, in a legendary moment of hitting the Golden Gate with the Szczerbiec sword. Painting by Jan Matejko In the early 1320s a Lithuanian army led by Grand Duke defeated a Slavic army led by Stanislav of Kiev at the Battle on the Irpen' River and conquered the city. The Tatars, who also claimed Kiev, retaliated in 1324–1325, so while Kiev was ruled by a Lithuanian prince, it had to pay tribute to the . Finally, as a result of the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, , Grand Duke of Lithuania, incorporated Kiev and surrounding areas into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.[65] In 1482 sacked and burned much of Kiev.[66] With the 1569 (Union of Lublin), when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was established, the Lithuanian-controlled lands of the Kiev region (, , and Podlachia) were transferred from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and Kiev became the capital of Kiev .[67] The 1658 envisaged Kiev becoming the capital of the Grand Duchy of Rus' within the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth,[68] but this provision of the treaty never went into operation.[69] Occupied by the Russian troops since the 1654 (Treaty of Pereyaslav), Kiev became a part of the from 1667 on () and enjoyed a degree of autonomy. None of the Polish-Russian treaties concerning Kiev have ever been ratified.[70] In the Russian Empire Kiev was a primary Christian centre, attracting pilgrims, and the cradle of many of the empire's most important religious figures, but until the 19th century the city's commercial importance remained marginal.

Cossack entering Kiev after the against Polish domination. Painting by Mykola Ivasiuk In 1834 the Russian government established Saint Vladimir University, now called the National University of Kiev after the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861). (Shevchenko worked as a field researcher and editor for the geography department). The medical faculty of the Saint Vladimir University, separated into an independent institution in 1919–1921 during the Soviet period, became the Bogomolets National Medical University in 1995. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Russian military and ecclesiastical authorities dominated city life;[citation needed] the had involvement in a significant part of Kiev's infrastructure and commercial activity. In the late 1840s the historian, Mykola Kostomarov (Russian: Nikolay Kostomarov), founded a secret political society, the Brotherhood of Saint Cyril and Methodius, whose members put forward the idea of a of free Slavic peoples with Ukrainians as a distinct and separate group rather than a subordinate part of the Russian nation; the Russian authorities quickly suppressed the society. Following the gradual loss of Ukraine's autonomy, Kiev experienced growing in the 19th century by means of Russian migration, administrative actions and social modernization. At the beginning of the 20th century the Russian-speaking part of the population dominated the city centre, while the lower classes living on the outskirts retained Ukrainian folk culture to a significant extent.[citation needed] However, enthusiasts among ethnic Ukrainian nobles, military and merchants made recurrent attempts to preserve native culture in Kiev (by clandestine book-printing, amateur theatre, folk studies etc.)

Kiev in the late 19th century During the Russian industrial revolution in the late 19th century, Kiev became an important trade and transportation centre of the Russian Empire, specialising in sugar and grain export by railway and on the Dnieper river. By 1900 the city had also become a significant industrial centre, having a population of 250,000. Landmarks of that period include the railway infrastructure, the foundation of numerous educational and cultural facilities as well as notable architectural monuments (mostly merchant- oriented). In 1892 the first electric tram line of the Russian Empire started running in Kiev (the 3rd in the world). Kiev prospered during the late 19th century Industrial Revolution in the Russian Empire, when it became the third most important city of the Empire and the major centre of commerce of its southwest. In the turbulent period following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Kiev became the capital of several successive Ukrainian states and was caught in the middle of several conflicts: World War I, during which German soldiers occupied it from 2 March 1918 to November 1918, the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922, and the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921.