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Bochechky Territorial Community
Sumy
Population:
The Bochechky Community is located in the Sumy Region in the north-eastern part of Ukraine. The total area of the Community is 328.1 square kilometres.
Since the unification (in June 2017), thirteen rural localities have become part of the Bochechky Community.
As of 01 January 2024, the population of the Community totalled 3,580 residents.
Men: 1,470 residents;
Women: 1,703 residents;
Children under the age of 18: 403 residents;
Internally displaced persons: 84 people;
History
The village of Bochechky arose in the second half of the 17th century. According to legend, the name of the village comes from the coopers – the main occupation of the locals, i.e. a type of woodworking sector associated with the production of containers.
A visiting card of the Community is a manor estate on the outskirts of the village of Bochechky with large windows, columns, and spacious rooms, which now hosts the Bochechky general secondary education institution. The land on which the school was built belonged to the Lvovys, who once ruled these lands. This family had a daughter, Hannusia, who liked travelling abroad. It was from abroad that she brought the project of the estate building. The building was built in one summer.
Economy and Welfare
The Community runs two general secondary education institutions with preschool units attended by 319 students and 87 pupils.
There are three culture centres and three village clubs, the main functions of which are the preservation, reproduction and integration of traditional customs, rites, and songs into the modern cultural space. Five libraries help them in this task.
Student forestry is one of the traditional and, at the same time, the most effective forms of involving students in nature protection. The ZUBR school forestry club functions at the Bochechky general secondary education institution.
In the territory of the Bochechky Community, medical services are provided to the population by two outpatient general practice clinics – family medicine, two paramedic-midwifery centres and one paramedic centre.
The largest budget-generating enterprises include Kozatska Company, which produces, processes, and sells livestock products, grain, oil and technical crops, and Bochechkivske Company, as well as farms that lease land in the territory of the Community and grow grain and technical crops, breed meat and dairy cattle.
Trade and household enterprises operating in the territory of the Community generate significant revenues to the budget of the Bochechky Rural Territorial Community.
A visiting card of the Bochechky Community is a deer farm. Deer live within large fenced areas in the village of Kozatske of the Bochechky Community. The farm was created in 2019 by Dmytro Rusanov, a native of the village of Bochechky, and Victor Hala, the founder of AF Kozatska Company. The farm is the first one of this kind in the Sumy Region.
About 1,000 deer and 200 doe live on the farm. The herd is replenished every year. In addition to deer, wild birds (ducks, geese, and coots) nest on the farm.
Tourists are always welcome there. Visitors can walk around the territory, look at the deer and feed them.
Community and War
The Bochechky Community was one of the first to be under temporary russian occupation (on 24 February 2022).
During the first days of the russian federation’s military aggression against Ukraine, the Bochechky Rural Territorial Community was cut off from the district and regional centres. A huge number of russian vehicles and military personnel moved through the Community.
Having entered the territory of the Community, the occupying troops immediately settled in the villages of Sakhny and Bondari of the Bochechky Community, where, having expelled the local residents from their own homes, settled there themselves.
After leaving the territory of the Community, the russian troops left destruction and broken doors, windows and piles of garbage in the buildings.
While the invaders stayed in the territory of the Bochechky Community, households in the villages of Bochechky, Sakhny and Bondari, as well as the grain hangars of the local agricultural enterprise, were destroyed.
The Bochechky Community provides shelter to internally displaced persons arriving from the occupied territories, territories where hostilities are taking place, and border zones.
A humanitarian centre functions in the territory of the Community, where the collection of things, products and medicines for displaced persons and residents who find themselves in difficult living conditions is organized.
Both the leadership of the Community and the local residents regularly help the Armed Forces of Ukraine: charity events, concerts are held, camouflage nets are woven, underwear is sewn, socks are knitted, food kits are collected and delivered to the boys and girls on the front lines.
People of the Community
Head of the Bochechky Rural Territorial Community: Viktor Boroshnev. He has been in office since 2020.
During the tenure of Viktor Boroshnev as village head, local roads have been repaired in the Community, educational institutions have been overhauled, children’s playgrounds and gazebos have been installed in each locality, the Administrative Services Centre has been organized and started to function, and the work of the local communal enterprise “Dobrodii 2018” has been activated.
Active residents live in the Community, and a brilliant example of the Community activity is Viktor Hala – a resident of the village of Kozatske, a farmer, the founder of Kozatska Company, a permanent patron, a person full of ideas and their implementation.
In his lifetime, he has made many achievements: a deer farm, a coloured fountain in the centre of the village of Kozatske, a local park-museum of retro equipment, the opening of a slaughterhouse and a butcher shop, and the opening of branded points of sale of own products in the district centre of Konotop.
Development Strategy
The Community is located 70 kilometres away from the russian border, so defence and security are a priority task there.
The key priorities of the Community development include:
– development and reconstruction of infrastructure;
– development of green tourism with conditions for healthcare and active recreation of citizens.
The Community has everything it needs to achieve this: protected sites and natural landscape areas, highly productive land that can potentially be investment sites, forest and water natural resources.
List of Sources
- Website of the Bochechky Community: bochechkivska-gromada.gov.ua
- Facebook page of the Bochechky Community: facebook.com
- Wikipedia
- Interviews with the Community representatives
- Zerno magazine issue: zerno-ua.com
- Facebook page of Agricultural Firm Kozatska LLC: facebook.com
- Facebook page of the Bochechky general secondary education institution: facebook.com
- Facebook page of the Kozatske general secondary education institution: facebook.com