Starobilsk

Starobilsk (Старобільськ) Starobelsk (Старобельск)
City
Luhansk National University building in Starobilsk
Flag Coat of arms
Starobilsk (Старобільськ) Starobilsk (Старобільськ)
Coordinates: 49°16′39″N 38°55′27″E
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Luhansk Oblast
Raion	Starobilsk Raion
First mentioned	1686
City Status	1938
Population  (2013)
• Total	18,297
Area code	(+380)
Vehicle registration	BB / 13
Climate	Dfb

Starobilsk (Ukrainian: Старобільськ, Starobelsk Russian: Старобельск) is a city near Luhansk in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Starobilsk Raion. The settlement has been known since 1686. The city status was given in 1938. Its population is 17,198 (2017 est.).

History

Starobilsk traces its heritage to the settlement of Belska Sloboda which belonged to Muscovite Voivode and Okolnichy Bogdan Belsky. Belsky arrived to banks of Siversky Donets to built a fortress at southern borders Tsare-Borisov (after Muscovite Tsar Boris Godunov) which was erected not far away in 1598-1600. In 1602 Godunov became suspicious of Belsky and order him to be arrested, stripped of any estates and exiled to Siberia. After the death of Godunov Belsky was granted amnesty in 1605 due to the fact that his sister being a wife of past away Boris Godunov, Maria Skuratova-Belskaya, became a regent. Belsky was sent as a voivode to Kazan where in 1611 was killed by mob after refusing to pledge allegiance to False Dmitriy (False Dmitry II). Sloboda gradually became abandoned, while the fortress was destroyed in 1612 in one of Tatar raids.

In 1686 the settlement was repopulated by servicemen of the Ostrohozk Sloboda Cossack Regiment who originally came from Poltava and Chernihiv regions (from a town of Bilsk in Cossack Hetmanate). Being a runaway serfs, Tsarist government allowed them to settle in military frontier with the Crimean realm to carry out border guard functions. After the place became also populated with serfs from the central regions of the today's Russia, the Tsarist government took measures to find and return those fugitives. In 1701 the Ambassadorial Prikaz decided to conduct a population census in new settlements along Aidar and Siversky Donets. Most population avoided the census. According to data of stolnik M.Pushkin who in 1703 conducted population census in 34 settlements, in Belsky was registered only 41 resident although in reality there were much more.

Trying to meet the demands of Russian landlords who repeatedly turned to the Tsar with complaints and requests to return fugitives, on 6 July 1707 Peter the Great issued an edict (ukase) about the search of "newly arrived from Rus all ranks of people". To the Don was sent a punitive detachment under command of colonel Prince Yuriy Dolgorukiy. He was charged to search for fugitives and "take them to those landowner from whom they ran away". That action led to the well known Bulavin Rebellion. Struggling with the rebellion, Tsarist troops eventually burnt the settlement to the ground.

In 1732 the settlement was repopulated again by peasants from around Ostrogozhsk (Ostrohozk) turning it into a sloboda Stara-Bila. Among the first of its new residents were again servicemen of the Ostrohozk Regiment led by sotnik I.Senelnykov. In 1782 Staro-Bila was assigned to the Derkul Horse Factory of Bilovodsk district (Voronezh Governorate). On Tsarist edict (ukase) from 1 May 1797 sloboda Staro-Bila was renamed into Starobilsk and became a county city within the Sloboda Ukraine Governorate.

During World War II, it was the site of a Soviet prison camp for Polish prisoners of war (POWs), especially officers. 48 of them died in the camp and were buried in Chmirov cemetery. A large number of the prisoners from the camp were killed during the Katyn massacre in the Kharkiv NKVD building, later buried in Pyatykhatky forest.

During the current War in Donbass many places in Luhansk Oblast were taken over by pro-Russian separatists; however Starobilsk remained under Ukrainian control.

Gallery

• 
  Starobilsk in 1911
• 
  Starobilsk dam on Aidar River
• 
  Starobilsk Monastery
• 
  Year 1910
• 
  Soviet city's emblem
• 
  Original coat of arms

International relations

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

Twin towns – Sister cities

Starobilsk is twinned with:

• Lublin, Poland

Notable residents

• Nadiya Svitlychna, attended a school in the city

External links

• Website
• Butkov, V., Voitenko, O., Semenov, V., Kholdobin, I. Starobilsk. The history of cities and villages of the Ukrainian SSR.