Nizhyn

Nizhyn stands on the Oster, northeast of Kyiv, at a meeting of routes through the Severian lands. Known in the twelfth century as Unenezh, it was restored after medieval destruction and grew into a major town of the Cossack Hetmanate. Its fairs and Greek merchants made it one of the leading commercial centres of left-bank Ukraine.

Under Polish-Lithuanian rule Nizhyn received Magdeburg rights in 1625. From 1648 it was the seat of the Nizhyn regiment, a military and administrative unit of the Hetmanate. In 1663 a general Cossack assembly known as the Black Council met near the town and elected Ivan Briukhovetsky hetman of the Left Bank. The decision formed part of the bitter struggles dividing Cossack Ukraine. Greek merchants enjoyed privileges confirmed by Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Ivan Mazepa, established a brotherhood in 1687, and later governed their community through a separate magistrate. Nizhyn's great fair attracted traders to the town. In 1805 the Bezborodko Lyceum was founded, adding an important school to its commercial and cultural life.