Lviv is a major city in western Ukraine.
It is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. In 2001, it had 725,000 inhabitants, of whom 88 per cent were Ukrainians, 9 per cent Russians (down from 16 percent in 1989) and 1 per cent Poles. A further 200,000 people commuted daily from suburbs.
The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as the Lviv University and the Lviv Polytechnic. It has a philharmonic orchestra and The Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the city centre in September 2006.
For many centuries it was contested, being incorporated into many different countries and empires. It was established in the early 1200s during the reign of Ruthenian King Danylo in honour of his son Lev and initially belonged to Rus'. In 1349, the region was conquered by the Poles under Kazimierz III, and subsequently was incorporated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In 1772 it became part of Austria during the First Partition of Poland and was, known in German as Lemberg, the capital of the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. In World War I, and after a brief period of Ukrainian independence, the city belonged to the Second Polish Republic. Poland was reconstituted after World War I following the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Lviv was the centre of ethnic-political controversy and tension between nationalistic Austro-Germans, Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, for a short time becoming the capital of the Western Ukrainian Republic. Eventually it was incorporated into the newly re-established Poland.
In 1939, as a result of the joint Nazi-Soviet attack on Poland, Lviv was annexed by the USSR on September 17 1939. There were several years of Nazi occupation, from June 1941 to July 1944, but it was recaptured by the Soviet Red Army on July 26 1944 and became part of the Ukraine. After World War II Poland's borders were relocated west of the area and the city and region was again left under the rule of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the U.S.S.R. it became part of the newly independent Ukraine, for which it currently serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast, and designated as its own raion (district) within that oblast. |
