Sumy

Sumy Суми Сумы
Ukrainian Academy of Banking in Sumy
Flag Coat of arms
Sumy Суми Сумы Location within Ukraine
Coordinates: 50°55′N 34°45′E / 50.917°N 34.750°E / 50.917; 34.750Coordinates: 50°55′N 34°45′E / 50.917°N 34.750°E / 50.917; 34.750
Country	Ukraine
Oblast	Sumy Oblast
Raion	Sumy
Founded	1655
Government
• Mayor	Oleksandr Lysenko (Batkivshchyna)[1]
Area
• Total	145 km2 (56 sq mi)
Population (2015)
• Total	270,870[2]
• Density	1,988/km2 (5,150/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+3)
Postal code	40000-40035
Area code(s)	+380 542
Website	http://www.meria.sumy.ua

Sumy (Ukrainian: Суми [ˈsumɪ], Russian: Сумы) is a city in north-eastern Ukraine, and the capital of the Sumy Oblast (region). In 2015, the city's population was 269,000.^[3] Private planes are served by Sumy Airport.

History

Commemorative coin of Sumy's 350-year history

Downtown Sumy in 1897

Sumy was founded in 1652 at the bank of the Psel River (a left tributary of the Dnieper) as a Cossack fortress. It was intended to protect Sloboda Ukraine from the Crimean Tatar attacks. After their attacks ceased and the territory was incorporated into the Russian Empire, Sumy evolved into an important economical centre, mainly focusing on sugar industry.

During the Revolution of 1905, Sumy was one of several areas which became famous throughout Russia for in effect having established an independent peasant republic; the Sumy Republic was established by a peasant union.^[4]

During the German occupation of Ukraine during World War II (1941 – 1944), Sumy sustained heavy damage. Sumy was occupied from October 10, 1941 to September 2, 1943. After the war, the destroyed parts of the city were built anew. Sumy has been a twin town of Celle, Germany since January 17, 1990.

The city used to be divided into two urban raions (districts), Zarichny and Kovpakovsky, and 13 micro-raions. The first were dissolved in 2006.^[5]

Demographics

Demographics of Sumy

• 1897 - 70.53% Ukrainians, 24.1% Russians, 2.6% Jewish, 2.67% others
• 1926 - 80.7% Ukrainians, 11.8% Russians, 5.5% Jewish, 2% others
• 1959 - 79% Ukrainians, 20% Russians, 1% others

The majority of residents are Christians (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestant or Evangelical Christians). There is also a Jewish minority.

From the beginning of the twentieth century, Sumy was the center of Roman Catholicism in the northeastern Ukraine. The Blessed Virgin Mary Annunciation Church was established in the city in 1901 and consecrated in 1911, but closed by governmental authorities two decades later; the churchhouse was thereafter used for non-religious purposes (e.g., it was used as a gym for Oleksandrivska Gymnasia) until its restoration as a Roman Catholic parish in May 1994, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It was reconsecrated in the Spring of 1998.

Sights

• The city centre is dominated by the large cathedral of the Saviour's Transfiguration. It is a neoclassical structure of the 18th century, extensively repaired and reconstructed in 1858 and in the 1880s, when the 56 metre (180 ft) high bell tower was added. The interior features frescoes by Vladimir Makovsky and Klavdiy Lebedev.
• The Resurrection Church (1702), the oldest structure in the town, is still in fair preservation, owing to recent restoration work.
• The cathedral of the monastery of St. Pantaleon was erected in 1911 to a design by Aleksey Shchusev and is scored to resemble medieval monuments of Novgorod and Pskov.
• A lovely church of Saints Peter and Paul is in the town’s cemetery. It was built in 1851 on the donations of Sumy citizens. Beside the church there are tombs of the Kharytonenkos and Sukhanovs with artistic monuments by the famous sculptors – A. Croisy and M. Antokolski.
• The Cathedral of Holy Trinity was built in 1902-1914 on the same pattern as the Cathedral of St. Isaac in St. Petersburg. The author of the design was Sumy architect G. Sholts. It was built at the expense of Pavlo Kharitonenko, the local manufacturer and Maecenas who fulfilled his father’s last will. Icon-painting is by famous artist M. Nesterov. The work on the decorative design was not completed because of the revolutionary events of 1917.

Museums

The Sumy Regional Art Museum was opened in 1920. It was started from nationalized private collections of the town and district. Paintings of Taras Shevchenko, Vladimir Borovikovsky, I. Shyskin, Arkhip Kuindzhi and Tetyana Yablonska are on display, including a Dutch landscape by a painter of Jan van Goyen's circle. Today the museum is one of the most outstanding art centres which contains unique paintings and works of applied art. The building of the early 20th century originally belonged to the State Bank.

The Museum of Local Lore was opened in 1920. In the years of fascist occupation the most important items of its collections were lost. Today it contains unique collections covering archeology and natural history of the Sumy region. It is located in the building of the 19th century which originally was the seat of the district government. In 1905 it was given to the printing house and publishing house of the first Sumy newspapers. In different years the building was visited by A. Kuprin and V. Korolenko, the famous Russian writers.

The Chekhov Museum, located in Chekhov street is an architectural complex representing Lintvarev’s country estate of the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1888 and 1889 a great writer and dramatist Anton Chekhov was dreaming to settle in Luka forever but his dream did not come true. “Abbacia and the Adriatic Sea are wonderful, but Luka and Psiol are better” – he wrote in his letter from Italy to his friends in Sumy in 1894. This is also a place where Anton Chekhov's brother, Nikolai Chekhov, died in 1889.

The Museum of Banking history in the Sumy oblast and the History of Ukrainian Money was founded in 2006 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Ukrainian Academy of Banking on the basis of a unique collection of Ukrainian bonds – the paper money out of circulation, which were given to the academy by the National Bank of Ukraine. The exposition of the bonds is arranged in the thematic-chronological order - from the first appearance of money to the present day. In addition to the numerous historical documents, photographs, metal money (coins, souvenir bars), and commemorative medals of the National Bank of Ukraine, there is an exhibition presenting technical appliances used in the banking industry in the late 20th century.

Sports

Yuvileiny Stadium

Sumy is home to the Ukrainian First League football team FC Sumy.

The Ukrainian Premier League football club FC Kharkiv were leasing the city's state-of-the-art Yuvileiny Stadium.

Weather and climate

Psel river in Sumy

Sumy is located in the northeastern part of Ukraine. So its weather is similar to that in Kharkov. Sumy's climate is a humid continental one: cold and snowy winters, and hot summers. The seasonal average temperatures are not too cold in winter, not too hot in summer: −6.9 °C (19.6 °F) in January, and 20.3 °C (68.5 °F) in July. The average rainfall totals 513 mm (20 in) per year, with the most in June and July.

Gallery

• 

  Trinity Cathedral

• 

  Catholic Church

• 

  Elias Church

• 

  Altanka

• 

  Sumy in spring of 2010

• 

  Shopping street in Sumy

• 

  City centre

• 

  Hotel Shafran

• 

  Old architecture in Sumy

• 

  Sumy in Winter

• 

  An exhibition centre in Sumy

• 

  Park in Sumy

• 

  "Kyiv" department store

• 

  Sumy regional administration

Famous people from Sumy

• Karl Burman (1882–1965), Estonian architect; was born in Sumy
• Lev Yefimovitch Kerbel, Soviet sculptor
• Oleh Husyev (born 1983), Ukrainian football player
• Ekaterina Tsibulskaya, polyglot, traveller, philosopher, historian
• Bogdan Titomir (born 1967), Russian musician, rapper and DJ
• Viktor Yushchenko (born 1954), President of Ukraine
• Valj Semerenko (born 1986), Ukrainian biathlete
• Vita Semerenko (born 1986), Ukrainian biathlete
• Volodymyr Holubnychy (born 1936), best Olympic race walker ever

International relations

Twin towns — sister cities

Sumy is twinned with:

References

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sumy.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sumy.

Look up sumy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• (English)(Ukrainian)(Russian) City of Sumy travel guide
• (Ukrainian) Independent regional Web-portal - news, features, entertainment & tourism info
• (Ukrainian) Sumy administration
• (English) Sumy travel guide
• Medical institute of Sumy State University
• The Sumian Historical Web-Society
• (Ukrainian) Regional Web-portal, open business-directory of the city
• Portal Sumy - news, weather, calendar, map, ad
• (English) City centre Web-cam

Administrative divisions of Sumy Oblast
Administrative center: Sumy
Raions	Bilopillia Buryn Hlukhiv Konotop Krasnopillia Krolevets Lebedyn Lypova Dolyna Nedryhailiv Okhtyrka Putyvl Romny Seredyna-Buda Sumy Trostianets Shostka Velyka Pysarivka Yampil
Cities	Regional Hlukhiv Konotop Lebedyn Okhtyrka Romny Sumy Shostka District Bilopillia Buryn Druzhba Krolevets Putyvl Seredyna-Buda Trostianets Vorozhba
Urban-type settlements Category:Sumy Oblast

Administrative divisions of Ukraine
Capital: Kiev
Oblasts	Cherkasy Chernihiv Chernivtsi Dnipropetrovsk Donetsk Ivano-Frankivsk Kharkiv Kherson Khmelnytskyi Kiev Kirovohrad Luhansk Lviv Mykolaiv Odessa Poltava Rivne Sumy Ternopil Vinnytsia Volyn Zakarpattia Zaporizhia Zhytomyr
Cities with special status	Kiev Sevastopol1
Autonomous republic	Crimea1
Administrative centers	Cherkasy Chernihiv Chernivtsi Dnipropetrovsk Donetsk Ivano-Frankivsk Kharkiv Kherson Khmelnytskyi Kiev Kropyvnytskyi Luhansk Lutsk Lviv Mykolaiv Odessa Poltava Rivne Sevastopol Simferopol Sumy Ternopil Uzhhorod Vinnytsia Zaporizhia Zhytomyr
1Claimed and controlled by Russia as the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol