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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Kowel
Kovel (Ukrainian: Ковель, IPA: [ˈkɔʋelʲ] ; Polish: Kowel; Yiddish: קאוולע / קאוולי) is a city in Volyn Oblast, northwestern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Kovel Raion within the oblast. Population: 67,575 (2022 estimate).

Kovel gives its name to one of the oldest runic inscriptions which were lost during World War II. The Kovel spearhead, unearthed near the town in 1858, contained text in Gothic.

History

The name Kovel comes from a Slavonic word for blacksmith hence the horseshoe on the town's coat of arms. The rune-inscribed Spearhead of Kovel was found near Kovel in 1858. It dates to the early 3rd century, when Gothic tribes lived in the area.

Kovel (Kowel) was first mentioned in 1310. It received its town charter from the Polish King Sigismund I the Old in 1518. In 1547 the owner of Kowel became Bona Sforza, Polish queen. In 1564 starost of Kowel became Kurbski (d. 1584). From 1566 to 1795 it was part of the Volhynian Voivodeship. Kowel was a royal city of Poland. In 1792 the 3rd Polish Vanguard Regiment was garrisoned in Kowel, and later on also the 2nd Polish National Cavalry Brigade was stationed there.

Kowel, Second Polish Republic ca. 1918.
St. Anne's Church

After the Third Partition of Poland, in 1795, the town fell into the Russian Empire for over a hundred years. During the First World War, the city was a site of the Battle of Kowel between the Central Powers and the Russian Empire.

During the Polish–Soviet War, on September 12, 1920, it was the site of a battle between the Poles and Russians. The Poles won the battle, capturing a large amount of weapons and military equipment, including two armored trains and 26 cannons. In the interwar period, Kowel served as the capital of Kowel County in Wołyń Voivodeship of the Polish Republic. It was an important garrison of the Polish Army, here the headquarters of the 27th Volhynian Infantry Division was located. Furthermore, at the village of Czerkasy, a large depot of the Polish Army was located. In 1924, construction of the St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic church began.

In World War II, following the joint Nazi German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Kovel was occupied by the Soviet Union and had a large number of Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland. The area had a large presence of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, and thus the Red Army was generally greeted as liberators. Subsequently, in 1941 Operation Barbarossa the Germans having conquered the town on 28 June 1941 murdered 18,000 Jews in Kovel, mostly during August and September 1942. The Germans operated the Stalag 301 POW camp, a subcamp of the Stalag 360 POW camp and a Dulag transit POW camp in the town.

About 8,000 Jews were murdered in the forest near Bakhiv on 19 August 1942 during the liquidation of the Kovel ghetto, established on 25 May 1942. Jewish victims were driven by train from Kovel to Bakhiv where pits were dug close to the railroads. Actually there were two ghettos, one within the city and another in the suburbs of Pyaski. Both ghettos had 24,000 Jews, including many refugees. The Jews from both ghettos were executed at different places and at different time. The Jewish community ceased to exist.

In March and April 1944 during the Soviet Polesskoe offensive, Kovel was a site of fierce fighting between the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking and the Red Army.

During the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, the town was a shelter for ethnic Poles, escaping the massacres. In that period, Ukrainian nationalists murdered approximately 3,700 Polish inhabitants of Kovel county. In early spring 1944, the 27th Infantry Division of the Home Army operated in the area. Kovel was captured by the Red Army on 6 July 1944. In 1945, the Big Three, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, established new borders for Poland; the Polish population was forcibly resettled and Kovel was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. It has been a part of sovereign Ukraine since 1991.

Geography

Climate

Climate data for Kovel (1991–2020)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 0.2
(32.4) 		2.0
(35.6) 		7.3
(45.1) 		15.0
(59.0) 		20.8
(69.4) 		24.1
(75.4) 		26.0
(78.8) 		25.5
(77.9) 		19.6
(67.3) 		13.2
(55.8) 		6.4
(43.5) 		1.5
(34.7) 		13.5
(56.3)
Daily mean °C (°F) −2.4
(27.7) 		−1.4
(29.5) 		2.7
(36.9) 		9.1
(48.4) 		14.4
(57.9) 		17.9
(64.2) 		19.7
(67.5) 		18.8
(65.8) 		13.6
(56.5) 		8.2
(46.8) 		3.2
(37.8) 		−1.0
(30.2) 		8.6
(47.5)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −5.0
(23.0) 		−4.3
(24.3) 		−1.2
(29.8) 		4.9
(40.8) 		8.7
(47.7) 		12.3
(54.1) 		14.2
(57.6) 		13.1
(55.6) 		8.7
(47.7) 		4.2
(39.6) 		0.6
(33.1) 		−3.1
(26.4) 		4.4
(39.9)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 36
(1.4) 		35
(1.4) 		39
(1.5) 		41
(1.6) 		68
(2.7) 		80
(3.1) 		88
(3.5) 		61
(2.4) 		63
(2.5) 		44
(1.7) 		40
(1.6) 		42
(1.7) 		637
(25.1)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) 9.2 9.2 9.1 8.2 9.5 9.6 9.9 7.6 8.1 8.1 9.4 9.9 107.8
Average relative humidity (%) 85.8 83.0 76.1 68.4 69.8 71.9 73.8 73.9 80.1 82.6 87.0 87.7 78.3
Mean monthly sunshine hours 43 66 136 197 254 268 272 263 172 119 50 32 1,872
Source: NOAA

Transportation

Kovel's historic railway station
Kovel's modern railway station

Kovel is the north-western hub of the Ukrainian rail system, with six rail lines radiating outward from the city. The first of these was built in 1873, connecting the city with Brest-Litovsk and Rivne. In 1877 Kovel was linked by the Vistula River Railroad with Lublin and Warsaw.

Notable people

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Ukraine

Kovel is twinned with:

References

  1. ^ "Municipal official site in Ukrainian". Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
  2. ^ Чисельність наявного населення України на 1 січня 2022 [Number of Present Population of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022] (PDF) (in Ukrainian and English). Kyiv: State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 July 2022.
  3. ^ illustration
  4. ^ Rąkowski, Grzegorz (2005). Wołyń. Pruszków: Oficyna Wydawnicza "Rewasz". p. 85. ISBN 83-89188-32-5.
  5. ^ Gembarzewski, Bronisław (1925). Rodowody pułków polskich i oddziałów równorzędnych od r. 1717 do r. 1831 (in Polish). Warszawa: Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej. pp. 7, 11.
  6. ^ Photograph from the Boris Feldblyum Collection
  7. ^ Ryłko, Władysław (1929). Zarys historji wojennej 7-go pułku artylerii polowej (in Polish). Warszawa. pp. 22–23.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ The Shoah in Ukraine : history, testimony, memorialization. Ray Brandon, Wendy Lower, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2008. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-253-35084-8. OCLC 173248974.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ Megargee, Geoffrey P.; Overmans, Rüdiger; Vogt, Wolfgang (2022). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. pp. 96, 282, 363. ISBN 978-0-253-06089-1.
  10. ^ "Yahad - in Unum".
  11. ^ "Bakhiv (Kovel)".
  12. ^ "World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1991-2020 — Kovel". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  13. ^ "Міста партнери". kovelrada.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). Kovel. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  14. ^ "Sister City - Kovel, Ukraine". www.chambleega.com. Chamblee. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
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