Poltava

Introducing Poltava

Given that they erected a prominent victory column and built a neoclassical plaza reminiscent of St Petersburg here, it is hard not to think the Russians were rubbing salt into an open Ukrainian wound in Poltava. Outside this pretty, quaint city on the Vorskla River, Peter the Great’s army defeated the Ukrainian Cossacks under Ivan Mazepa and their Swedish allies in 1709, dashing hopes of an independent Cossack state. What’s Poltava’s revenge? In the 19th century the city would become the birthplace of the modern Ukrainian language (although today the city, like most of the Russophile east, is mainly Russian speaking).

Last updated: Nov 25, 2008