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Khotyn (Template:Lang-ua; Polish: Chocim; Romanian: Hotin; Template:Lang-ru, Khotin) is a town in the Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine. In former times the town was part of the Bessarabia region, which between the 15th and the 20th centuries passed successively to Moldavia, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Ukraine and Moldova. Due to the frequent change of control the name also changed frequently, and there are a multitude of spellings for the town's name, including but not limited to Khotyn, Chocim, Chotyn, Hotin, Choczim, or Khotin. The city is famous for its history and archaeology, and also for the Khotyn Fortress.
History
In the 10th century, Khotyn was a minor settlement of Kievan Rus. In the later part of middle ages it was the seat of a Genoese colony and then part of the Moldavian principality, which by the 17th century falled under Turkish suzeranity.
The chief events in its annals are: the two defeats of the Turks by the army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1621 by hetman Jan Chodkiewicz, and again in 1673 by king Jan Sobieski; the defeat of the Turks in 1739 by the Russians under Munnich; the defeat of the Russians by the Turks in 1768; the capture by the Russians in 1769, and by the Austrians in 1788; and the occupation by the Russians in 1806. It finally passed to Russia with Bessarabia in 1812 by the Peace of Bucharest.
Shortly after it became part of Romania in January 1919, Ukrainian Bolshevik troops dressed as civilians entered Khotyn and encouraged the ethnic Ukrainians to revolt. An insurrection took place against the Romanian rule. (see the Khotyn uprising) The Romanian Army defeated the Bolsheviks by February 1919.
The town passed to the Soviet Ukraine in June 1940 with the rest of the Chernivtsi region (formerly known by its historic name Bukovina) as an outcome of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Battles
In the 1621 battle of Khotyn, an army of 160,000 Turkish veterans were led by Sultan Osman II from Adrianople towards the Polish frontier. The Turks, after their victory at the Cecora, had high hopes of conquering Poland altogether. Their opposing military commander Jan Karol Chodkiewicz crossed the Dnieper in September 1621 and entrenched himself in the Khotyn Fortress right in the path of the Ottoman advance. Here for a whole month the Commonwealth hetman held the sultan at bay, till the first fall of autumn snow compelled Osman to withdraw his diminished forces. But the victory was dearly purchased by Poland. A few days before the siege was raised the aged grand hetman died of exhaustion in the fortress on September 24, 1621. The battle is described by Wacław Potocki in his most famous work Transakcja wojny chocimskiej and ends the period of Moldavian Magnate Wars.
In the 1673 battle of Khotyn, the Polish Hussars again fought a major battle at this location.
In the Russo-Turkish War, the fortress was taken by Russian field marshal Burkhard Christoph von Munnich on August 19 1739. This victory is remembered primarily through the Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks, composed by the young Mikhail Lomonosov. This ode produced a revolution in the Russian letters, often taken as a starting point of the modern Russian poetry.
Famous people
- The Romanian philologist Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu was bown in Khotyn in February 16, 1836.