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Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Territorial Community
Cherkasy
Population:
Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Urban Territorial Community, Cherkasy Region:
Population (until February 24, 2022): 20.7 thousand people, including:
Townspeople: 17,300,
Rural population: 3,400 people, including:
Men: 10.2 thousand
Women: 10.5 thousand
Over 4,000 internally displaced persons are presently residing in the community.
The urban territorial community includes the town of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi (administrative centre) and 10 rural settlements.
History
The town of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi is located in the very heart of Ukraine, on both banks of the Ros River.
A modern and ancient town at the same time, it is actively developing while preserving its priceless architectural monuments.
Korsun is one of the oldest towns in Ukraine. It was founded in 1032 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv to protect the southern borders of Kyivan Rus.
So, in 10 years from now, in 2032, the town will celebrate its 1000th anniversary.
During the town’s history, the people of Korsun took an active part in the Cossack uprisings, and in 1625 it was in Korsun that the Cossack regiment was created, which later became one of the largest in Ukraine.
At the end of the 17th century, the town became one of the centres of the liberation struggle. The residence of the prominent Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi was located here.
The most beautiful architectural gem of Korsun is the architectural monument of the 18th century, which rises on the islands of the Ros River – the palace of the Lopukhin-Demidov family, named after the princes who built it. In the second half of the 19th century, the palace ensemble was one of the richest in Europe.
Due to its perfectly preserved wildlife, Korsun has become a place of inspiration for many artists, painters, and poets.
The world-famous poet Taras Shevchenko often visited here. They say that the poet dreamed of building a house in Korsun and even drew a design of his future home with his own hand. But he did not have time to realize his dream due to sudden death.
There are monuments to Taras Shevchenko in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, and one of the town’s central streets is named in his honour.
The present day
The town of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi is located in the Cherkasy region. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, is 145 kilometres away, and the regional centre of Cherkasy is 75 km away. The town has great tourist potential and is included in the Golden Horseshoe of Cherkasy tourist route.
The palace and park ensemble, which is part of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi State Historical and Cultural Reserve, has been preserved to this day on the territory of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi. Now it houses museums, in particular, modern expositions about the Revolution of Dignity and the current heroic struggle of the Korsun people for the independence of Ukraine.
Economy and Welfare
The industrial sector of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi urban territorial community is represented by enterprises of the extractive and processing industries (2 enterprises operating in the extractive industry and 10 in the processing sector, including 1 relocated enterprise). In addition, there are small enterprises manufacturing wood, stone, metal, and other products. Agricultural activities on the territory of the community are carried out by 2 large agricultural holding companies and farming enterprises. Forestry operations are also carried out in the community.
In Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, a lot of attention is paid to the educational sphere. There are five schools in the town, an art school, a children’s and youth sports school, a centre for children’s and youth creativity, an educational and rehabilitation centre Nadiya, a professional lyceum and a teacher’s college.
The cultural life is also intense here: the town’s culture centre houses art groups that popularize Ukrainian traditions, holidays and folk culture in general.
There is a hospital and a Centre for Primary Health Care in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi.
Community and War
People are the greatest value of the community. Currently, there are no active hostilities here, but since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 4,000 forcibly displaced people have found shelter in the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi urban community. Most of the immigrants are families with children and elderly people. An extraordinary number of immigrants arrive in the community with virtually no belongings.
The community arranged for free meals, provided IDPs with essential items, medicines, organized work with children and involved them in the educational process.
Also, points of delivery of necessary humanitarian aid to those in need were organized here.
Today, we have managed to join our efforts in the humanitarian field (to provide the necessary assistance to people who need temporary shelter in this difficult time) with other Ukrainian communities, in particular the Kamin-Kashyrskyi community in the Volyn region and the Hirske community in the Luhansk region.
However, this list is not exhaustive, as our community is open to building friendly and partnership relations with both Ukrainian and international communities, which is why we are already working on expanding the borders of international cooperation and searching for foreign partner municipalities, because the flow of people in need of shelter does not stop, and at the moment, the community desperately needs help with food, medicine, clothes, etc.
A lot of aid (food products, basic necessities) was given to the communities that suffered from hostilities and were occupied: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv regions.
The Town Council joined forces with volunteers, public and charitable organizations to support IDPs and the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
People of the Community
The people of Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi love their hometown very much and strive for its happy future.
Everyone works for Victory. Someone makes dumplings and canned food or bakes pies, someone arranges housing for displaced people or weaves camouflage nets.
– a large-scale volunteer movement in the Korsun neighbourhood – Weaving the Victory. Hundreds of people of good will united in the centres of weaving camouflage nets.
Residents of the community actively participate in the production of trench candles
The community held an environmental campaign Hand in Waste Paper = Buy a Car for the Military
The family of Serhiy and Larysa Piskovs actively help displaced people: they arrange homes for them and resettle them.
“Three families from Chasovyi Yar and one from Myrnohrad, Donetsk region, settled in our corner of Samoridnya. Another man is from Kharkiv”, – says Larysa Piskova, a resident of the village of Samoridnya
The national TV channel 1+1 shot a story about how the community welcomes immigrants
The artistic event Together to Victory, where funds were collected for the purchase of a thermal imager for one of the brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Head of the Community
Vitaly Matsyuk, while serving as the secretary of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Town Council, has been performing the duties of the town mayor since June 2021. He is 36 years old.
Before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was the initiator of many environmental programmes and improvement projects.
Thus, with his participation, the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi community received a grant from the Slovak International Cooperation Agency for the Clean Water – Children’s Health project, thanks to which a water purification station was installed in an educational institution for about 800 children.
After February 24, 2022, issues of ensuring community livelihoods, functioning of the territorial defence forces, creation of conditions to shelter internally displaced persons became priority tasks in his work. At the same time, the head of the community continues to work on the implementation of the initiatives that were started before the war.
Development strategy
The Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Community is a territory of opportunities!
Currently, the first and main strategic goal of the community is to improve opportunities for business development and attracting investment.
The community attracts investors in compliance with the principles of sustainable development. First of all, this is done to support industrial and agricultural industries, processing and sales of local products.
The community aspires to become a platform for implementing development projects aimed at spatial transformation of the territory, tourism and economic growth.
This is confirmed by the fact that two community projects were included in the Big Construction state program initiated by the President of Ukraine in six months of 2021. All this was possible thanks to well-coordinated teamwork.
These projects included the reconstruction of the palace, the gate and the wing, and the improvement of the park of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi State Historical and Cultural Reserve, as well as the preschool of our town. In general, about UAH 299.5 million would be allocated for preparing design and budget documentation and the actual reconstruction. Unfortunately, the colossal work done to bring the projects to life has not yet reached the stage of implementation: the full-scale war has made its inevitable adjustments…
Currently, projects and issues related to wartime are a priority: support for relocated businesses, environmental and joint social projects.
The community has plans to switch to alternative energy.
International partnerships have already been established in the community.
The community has sister municipalities:
Gifhorn
Chojnice
List of Sources
- Interviews with community representatives
- Official web-page of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Urban Community
- Official page of the Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi Territorial Community on Facebook
- Wikipedia