Kosmach Territorial Community

Ivano-Frankivsk

Population:

The Kosmach rural territorial community is located on the territory of Kosiv district, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

The total area of the territory: 105.73 sq. km

Population: 8,521 people
Men: 2,118
Women: 2,378
Children: 2,245
People of retirement age: 3,010
Internally displaced persons: 20

The community includes three villages of Brustury, Kosmach and Prokurava and has its administrative center in the village of Kosmach.

History

The first written mention of Kosmach dates back to 1412. They say that the village got its name after the appearance of the first settler who had shaggy hair (“kosmatyi” translates into English as “shaggy haired”). Folk legends also tell that the first inhabitant of Kosmach was a man named Kosmachuk. Kosmach’s past is rich in interesting historical events. The people of Kosmach courageously fought against the Turkish horsemen, later a detachment of Oleksa Dovbush’s rebels (“opryshkos”) operated there. The legendary leader of the opryshkos died in Kosmach.

It is worth recalling that Dovbush generously donated to the building and himself participated in the construction of the church of St. Paraskevia in Kosmach, which was later burned down.

In 1994, archaeologists and historians from Lviv during excavations in the Tomchuchchyno tract conducted a study of a three-thousand-year-old salt-mining center unknown to science before.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Ozokerite mining enterprises worked in Kosmach.

The village was the first in the Hutsul area to have a reading room of “Prosvita”. In 1939, Kosmach, like the whole of Galicia, was captured by the Red Army. Since then, dark days came for the people of Kosmach. They lasted until the beginning of “perestroika”. During these decades, the ruling communist party considered Kosmach, if not the center of nationalism, then the “Bandera followers’ hide-out”. Stalin’s repressions had a bitter impact on the fate of hundreds of Kosmach residents. During the Second World War, the forces of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army firmly established themselves in Kosmach. In 1944, the Kosmach independent republic was proclaimed.

The Pozheratul state ornithological reserve is a valuable natural monument.

The Pozheratul reserve, an ornithological reserve of national importance in Ukraine. Located on the slopes of Mount Pozheratul and Lysyna Kosmatska Source

Remote from human settlements, mighty Kosmatska Lysyna, located at an altitude of 1,300 m above sea level, with a huge Pozheretul rock attracts the most with its vast open glens and dark primeval forests.

Quite a long time ago, as far ago as in the time of Austria, an observation deck was built on the pass at the entrance to the village of Kosmach which offers a wonderful panoramic view of the village of Kosmach and its numerous hamlets.

The highest mountain swing in Ukraine is located on one of the Kosmach plains, on Mount Syhlin, 857 meters above sea level. Locals graze cows right next to it, and the swing has a simply fantastic ̆ panoramic ̆ view of other Carpathian ridges.

Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul Source

Church of the Ascension of the Lord (1785), village of Brustury Source

Church of the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God (1889), village of Prokurava Source

On the territory of the community there is a museum of Carpathian butynar loggers, a component of the Butynar Eco-House, which opened in Kosmach in 2021.

There is a reproduced wooden hut of butynars at the heart of the open-air museum exposition. In this hut loggers lived while working in the mountains. Here you can see working tools and household items of loggers: saws, axes, wooden utensils, etc.

There is a museum of sheep breeding in the community. It is a whole complex that introduces visitors to the milk processing process; production of cheese, vurda and brynza cheese; non-traditional method of treatment with sheep breeding products – ovitherapy. In the sheep breeding museum, master classes are held on wool processing: from shearing to making products.

The premises of the Sheep Breeding Museum

Economy and Welfare

The economy of the Kosmach community is mainly represented by private enterprises and is focused on trading activities, small, narrow-profile production of dairy products, and the management of personal peasant farms.

170 individual entrepreneurs are active in the territory of the community.

There are 12 schools of secondary education, 2 preschools, the Kosmach School of Arts, 3 community centers and 2 libraries in the Kosmach rural territorial community.

Also, there are two volunteer fire brigades here.

There is also an extensive network of health care facilities. Medical centers are located in every village of the community. In the center of the community, there is a family medicine outpatient clinic and an emergency medical care department.

Community and War

On February 24, 2022, the Kosmach Village Council and its administrative buildings in the Starosta-headed districts immediately switched to a 24-hour working mode under martial law conditions for uninterrupted work and coordination of the territorial defense forces which consisted of the local population to later stand up for the defense of Ukraine as soldiers. Humanitarian aid collection points for the most necessary items for internally displaced persons were created at the Village Council (in the House of Culture).

From the first days of the war, local residents formed a checkpoint at the entrance to the community and kept registers of the entry and exit of motor vehicles for greater safety and security of the community’s residents.

As soon as internally displaced persons began to settle in the Kosmach community, the community administration, together with a community entrepreneur and local housewives, organized free meals and accommodation at a local school.

In total, the Kosmach community received 700 immigrants from the eastern regions of Ukraine.

In the community, volunteers and caring residents of the community weave camouflage nets for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and provide comprehensively help to the defenders of Ukraine.

Community volunteers weaving camouflage nets

People of the Community

Dmytro Mokhnachuk is the head of the Kosmach community.

Conference “Cooperation and local development of territorial communities of Prykarpattia” Source

Dmytro Mokhnachuk has been the head of the Kosmach Territorial Community since December 2020.

A council of entrepreneurs and industrialists was created in the community, which actively helps the community, especially as regards aid for the military.

The head of the Kosmach community together with volunteers delivered aid to the defenders

The head of the community created a forest commission, which constructively cooperates with the state forest farm and the National Nature Park “Hutsulshchyna” to improve the development of production, which would benefit the community and the environment.

The head of the community comprehensively promotes the cohesion of community residents and support for defenders, actively communicates with structural subdivisions and the deputy corps, directing joint efforts for the development of the community.

With the support of the community leadership, a large number of initiatives were implemented, many measures were taken to preserve and popularize folk crafts (painting, weaving, carpentry, wood carving, beadwork, embroidery, cheese plastic products, ceramics, making of unique musical instruments, leather products).

Since 2007, the community has hosted the International Ethnographic Festival “Easter in Kosmach” and a congress of pysanka (Easter egg) artists.

Kosmach musicians. “Easter in Kosmach” festival

In 2023, craftsmen held an art conference in the village of Brustury, during which they organized workshops on making cheese toys. In May 2024, “Cheese plastic products. Cheese horses” were included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of Ukraine.

Production of a cheese horse in the village of Brustury Source

Beading, which is most widespread in the village of Prokurava, has been included in the list of intangible cultural heritage of the Kosmach community.

400 folk craftsmen are engaged in pysanka painting in the Kosmach community.

Development Strategy

The community has approved a development strategy of the Kosmach community for 2024-2030.

The main directions of strategic development are: sustainable development of human capital, effective management of natural resources (the community has springs with mineral water, deposits of blue healing clay), development of folk crafts (working on creating a comprehensive community brand based on historical and cultural heritage, local traditions and folk crafts), tourism development (development of rural green tourism).

They are working on a project to create an artistic and cultural center, which involves the development of crafts in the community. The community implemented a project of marking tourist routes, which improved the development of the tourism and recreation industry.

In 2021, the community took part in the “SES” (Senior Experts Service) project. The community worked with an expert from Germany, improving its weaknesses in tourism development, involving local residents and community activists.

The Kosmach community is the cultural center of the Hutsul region. It is an ecologically clean, tourist-attractive territory that offers guests a high level of tourist and recreational services and quality ecological products. It is a community of active, talented and enterprising people, a community of cultural diversity that cares for future generations.

Amateur song and dance ensemble of the Kosmach community

List of Sources

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