Cherkasy oblast (Cherkaschyna) is an administrative-territorial unit
of Ukraine of the first level, located in the central forest-steppe part
of the country along both banks of the middle reaches of the Dnieper and
the Southern Bug.
The region in the north borders on Kyiv, in the
south on Kirovograd, in the east on Poltava and Vinnitsa regions in the
west. It stretches from southwest to northeast for 245 km, from north to
south - for 150 km.
The extreme northern point is located on the
M03 highway, not far from the village of Kononovka, Zolotonosha
district, the southern one is near the village of Kolodistoye, Uman
district, the western one is near the village of Bubelnya, Uman
district, the eastern one is on the surface of the Kremenchug reservoir
near the village of Vitovo, Cherkasy district.
According to
mathematical calculations, the geographical center of the region is a
point near the village of Zhuravka, Zvenigorod district. Also on the
territory of the region is the geographical center of Ukraine on the
northern outskirts of the village of Maryanovka near the town of Shpola.
The area of the region is 20.9 thousand km², which is 3.46% of the
territory of the state (18th place in the country). Agricultural land
makes up 14.548 thousand km2 (70% of the total area), of which 12.736
thousand km2 (88% of the agricultural land area) is arable land.
Cherkasy (about 270,000)
The oblast capital and the main
industrial, educational, and cultural city on the right bank of the
Dnieper. It grew in the late Soviet period around chemical production
(the Azot plant), machine-building, and the Bohdan bus works, and it
remains the region’s transport hub, with a river port, a railway
junction, and bridges linking the two banks. Visitors come for the long
Dnieper embankment, the Hill of Glory, Sosnivka and the 3rd
International parks, the Cherkasy Art Museum, and the regional
Shevchenko holdings. The city is also the practical base for day trips
to Kaniv and Chyhyryn.
Uman (about 81,500)
The second city of
the oblast and one of Ukraine’s best-known pilgrimage and garden towns.
Sofiyivka Arboretum, laid out in 1796-1802 for Count Potocki’s wife
Zofia, is a Romantic landscape park of grottoes, cascades, underground
streams, and classical pavilions, and it is the main reason most
travelers stop. Each Rosh Hashanah, tens of thousands of Breslov Hasidim
gather at the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, who died here in 1810
and asked to be buried in Uman. The city is also a long-standing center
of horticulture and agricultural education, with a compact old center
and a useful rail link toward Odesa and Kyiv.
Smila (about
65,700)
An industrial city on the Tiasmyn River, just south of
Cherkasy, and one of the region’s main railway junctions. Machinery,
food processing, and light industry shaped the town in the 19th and 20th
centuries. The local history museum and the Tiasmyn banks are the modest
sights. Smila works best as a stop on the way between Cherkasy and the
southern raions rather than as a destination on its own.
Zolotonosha (about 27,200)
A quiet left-bank town on the Dnieper
floodplain, opposite the Cherkasy side of the river. Its small center
keeps several Baroque and classicist churches, including the Holy
Dormition Cathedral, and the surrounding district has long lived on
grain, alcohol, and food processing. The Krasnohirsky Monastery, a short
drive out of town, is the more interesting architectural site: a
fortified monastic complex with 18th-century walls and a cave church
tradition.
Kaniv (about 23,200)
The Shevchenko city of the
middle Dnieper. Taras Shevchenko was reburied on Chernecha (Monk’s) Hill
above the river in 1861, and the reserve around the grave, with the
museum and the view over the Kaniv Reservoir, is the reason most people
come. The Kaniv Hydroelectric Plant, finished in 1972, created the wide
reservoir that now defines the landscape between Kyiv and Cherkasy. A
remnant of the old Kaniv fortress and the nature reserve on the hills
add a second half-day. Boat and road links to Cherkasy are
straightforward.
Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi (about 17,200)
A
historic town on the Ros River, renamed in Shevchenko’s honor in the
Soviet period. The Lopukhina-Demidov palace and park, begun in the late
18th century and expanded in the 19th, is the main sight: a landscaped
estate with ponds, islands, and a palace that now houses a museum. In
January-February 1944 the Korsun-Cherkasy pocket became one of the
largest encirclement battles on the Eastern Front, and local memorials
mark that fighting. The Ros valley is pleasant for a short walk even
outside the palace grounds.
Zvenyhorodka (about 16,300)
An old
district center on the Hnylyi Tikych, with a name that points back to a
fortified settlement of the Kyivan Rus era. The modern town is small and
provincial, set in rolling forest-steppe. The local history museum and
the river parks are the usual stops. The wider hromada includes
Moryntsi, the village where Shevchenko was born, which matters more to
literary travelers than the town itself.
Shpola (about 16,300)
A small city near the geographic center of Ukraine, long tied to sugar
refining and the beet fields around it. Hasidic tradition links the town
with Aryeh Leib of Shpola, the “Shpoler Zeide,” an 18th-century tzaddik
whose grave still draws visitors. There is little else in the way of
formal sights. The surrounding countryside is open farmland with
occasional Cossack-era earthworks.
Bahacheve, formerly Vatutine
(about 15,800)
A 20th-century mining and sugar town in the south of
the oblast, built around brown-coal pits and a large sugar plant. It was
named for the Soviet general Nikolai Vatutin and renamed Bahacheve in
2024 under Ukraine’s derussification laws. The urban fabric is mostly
Soviet-era housing and industrial yards. It is of interest mainly as a
case of recent renaming and as a local employment center, not as a
sightseeing stop.
Horodyshche (about 13,100)
A small town on
the Olshanka River, best known as the birthplace of Semen
Hulak-Artemovsky, composer of the comic opera Zaporozhets za Dunayem. A
local history museum and a quiet provincial street grid are the extent
of the visitor offering. It sits on the road between Cherkasy and the
southern raions.
Chyhyryn (about 8,500)
Small in population,
outsized in history. In the mid-17th century it was the first capital of
the Cossack Hetmanate under Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and the remnants of the
Chyhyryn fortress on Castle Hill still overlook the Tiasmyn. Nearby
Subotiv holds the Illinska Church, the Khmelnytsky family church and
burial place, rebuilt after 17th-century destruction. The surrounding
Kholodnyi Yar forest, shared with the edge of Kirovohrad Oblast, is a
thick oak woodland with Haidamak and partisan history and is now partly
protected as a national nature park. Chyhyryn is the strongest
historical excursion from Cherkasy after Kaniv.
Kropyvnytskyi
(about 220,000), capital of neighboring Kirovohrad Oblast
Not part of
Cherkasy Oblast, but the nearest large city to the south and a natural
add-on for anyone covering the middle Dnieper steppe. Founded in 1754 as
the Fortress of St. Elizabeth (Yelysavethrad), it was renamed Kirovohrad
in the Soviet period and Kropyvnytskyi in 2016, after the playwright and
actor Marko Kropyvnytskyi. The first professional Ukrainian theater
company, the Theatre of Coryphaei, took shape here in the 1880s, and the
academic music-and-drama theater named for him is still the city’s
cultural anchor. Surviving sights include the earth ramparts of the
Elizabeth fortress (among the better-preserved 18th-century earth forts
in the region), the regional local-history museum, Shevchenko Park, and
the Inhul riverbank. Industry is weighted toward agricultural machinery
(Elvorti, Hydrosila) and food processing. The city is a road and rail
junction rather than a major tourist center, and it pairs well with a
side trip toward Kholodnyi Yar.
There are 77 monuments of history, architecture and archeology and
nine historical and cultural reserves of national importance in the
region. Including of national importance: urban planning and
architecture monuments - 56, historical monuments - 4, monuments of
monumental art - 1, archeological monuments - 16.
Among them:
Leskovsky Palace 1850;
House of Mr. Engelhard 1828-1829;
Chumak
House (ethnographic museum) 1816;
House of T. Shevchenko XIX-XX
centuries;
Private house: park, palace house of the 18th-19th
centuries;
State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Batkivshchyna T.
Shevchenko";
Transfiguration Church of the Krasnogorsk Monastery
1767-1772;
Davydov's house 19th century;
Settlement "Prince's
Mountain" XII century;
Shevchenko National Reserve (Tomb of T.
Shevchenko);
Kanev Museum of Folk Decorative Art;
State Historical
and Cultural Reserve "Trakhtemirov", p. Trakhtemirov;
State
Historical and Cultural Reserve in Korsun-Shevchenkovsky;
The
Lopukhins' estate of the 18th century;
Park and complex of buildings
of the Hunting Castle 1896-1903;
Basilian Monastery 1764-1784;
Tomb of Tzadik Nachman 1811;
Church of 1812;
National Reserve
"Chigirin";
Remains of the Doroshenko tower XVI-XVIII centuries;
Mass grave of Cossacks and civilians who died at the hands of Turkish
invaders of the 17th century;
Monument to the heroes of the battles
against the Polish-gentry and Turkish invaders of the 19th century;
Ancient burial mounds;
Motroninsky Monastery 1801;
Ilyinskaya
church-tomb of B. Khmelnitsky 1653;
Remains of the estate of B.
Khmelnitsky XVII century;
Monument of history "Three wells" XVII
century.
State Historical and Archaeological Reserve "Trypilska
Culture" in the village. Legedzino;
State Historical and Cultural
Reserve "Old Uman";
Kamensky State Historical and Cultural Reserve.
Relief
The territory of the Cherkasy region as a whole is flat and
conditionally divided into two parts - the right-bank and the left-bank.
The vast majority of the right bank is located within the Dnieper Upland
with the highest point of the region, having an absolute height of 275 m
above sea level (near the Monastery), in some places hilly, indented by
rivers, ravines and gullies. In the part of the right bank adjacent to
the Dnieper, there is a swampy Irdino-Tyasma lowland. Along the valley
of the Dnieper, the Kanev-Moshnogorsk ridge stretches for 70 km.
Significant relief elevations give the territory a mountainous
character. This area is called Kanevsky mountains and Moshnogory.
The low-lying, sometimes swampy relief has a left-bank part of the
region, located within the Dnieper lowland.
Soils
The ground
cover on the right bank is dominated by chernozems; in elevated places,
gray and light gray soils. Soddy-gley, powerful meadow and
soddy-podzolic soils are common on the left bank.
Reservoirs
The water surface of the region
occupies 4% of the total area of the territory. 1037 rivers flow through
the region, belonging to the basin of the Dnieper and the Southern Bug.
The main river is the Dnieper (150 km - the length of the territory of
the region), the water surface of which has increased significantly due
to the creation of the Kremenchug (length - 130 km) and Kanev
reservoirs.
the right tributaries of the
Dnieper are Ros (101 km), Olshanka, Tyasmin (133 km), the left ones are
Ore, Orekhovka, Supii, Zolotonoshka, Irkliy, Kovray, Kovalevka, Sula.
The rivers Gorny Tikich (161 km), Rotten Tikich, Tikich, Sinyukha,
Umanka, Yatran belong to the basin of the Southern Bug.
The
largest artificial reservoirs within the region are Kanev and
Kremenchug, formed by hydroelectric dams, in addition, 37 small
reservoirs and more than 2.3 thousand lakes, ponds and reservoirs have
been built. On the territory of the region there are 2984 ponds with a
total area of 17456 hectares, with a volume of 246.6 million m3.
On the Right Bank of the Cherkasy region, flooding and swamping of some
areas are possible.
The climate of the region is temperate continental. Winters are mild, with frequent thaws. Summers are warm, hot in some years, westerly winds bring precipitation. The average air temperature is +7 - 9 °C. The average temperature of the cold month of January is -3 - 5 °C. The average July temperature is +20-22°C. Maximum +45 °C, minimum -37 °C. The period with a temperature of +10 ° C is 160-170 days. Precipitation is 450-520 mm per year.
Natural and recreational potential
Known since the XVIII-XIX
centuries. Sosnovka is a flat climatic resort of the forest-steppe zone,
located on a large array of coniferous forests on the right bank of the
Dnieper. There are numerous sanatoriums, dispensaries, boarding houses,
rest houses, health-improving and sports bases.
The Vodyaniki ski
resort operates on the territory of the region.
Natural Reserve
Fund
The natural reserve fund of the Cherkasy region has 503 natural
complexes and objects with a total area of 61,054.1 hectares, which is
2.9% of the total area of the region. Among the objects of the NRF
region: one nature reserve - Kanevsky; dendrological park "Sofiyivka";
three national natural parks - Beloozersky, Nizhnesulsky, Kholodny Yar;
one zoo - Cherkasy and other objects.
Centuries-old trees are
known: Maxim Zheleznyak's oak, Gogol's pine, T. Shevchenko's oaks in the
village. Budishche in Zvenigorod and others.
Minerals
The
region is rich in non-metallic minerals, primarily building materials.
Granites of various types are found in Gorodishchensky,
Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Smelyansky, Umansky and other regions. About 400
deposits of various clays are known. Of great importance are bentonite
and palygorskite clays occurring near Dashukovka and Khyzhinets of the
Lisyansky district. Not far from Murzinets and Nemorozha of the
Zvenigorod region, Novoselitsa of the Yekaterinopol region, high-quality
refractory clays - kaolins occur. Quartz sands are almost ubiquitous.
The fuel resources are dominated by brown coal and peat. Deposits of
brown coal - Kazatsky, Ryzhanovsky, Yurkovsky in Zvenigorodsky,
Novoselitsky, Mokrokaligorsky in Yekaterinopolsky, Tarnavsky in
Monastyrishchensky districts.
Ore minerals in the form of
sedimentary iron ores are found in the Kanevsky, Smelyansky, Shpolyansky
districts, native titanium - in the Smelyansky district.
There
are more than 100 deposits of brick and tile raw materials in the
region. There are significant reserves of building sand and stone,
expanded clay raw materials. In the western part of the region there are
deposits of petrurgical raw materials.
In the Cherkasy region
there are significant reserves of facing and building stone. The most
granite deposits are Starobabanskoye and Tanskoye, the products of which
are supplied far beyond the region.
On the territory of the
region there is a unique in size, quality of raw materials and a range
of applications, the largest in Ukraine Cherkasy deposit of bentonite
and palygorskite clays, which are one of the important items of
export-import operations in the world market.
The Cherkasy region
has significant reserves of secondary kaolins, in its bowels there are
deposits of brown coal, peat, bauxites. On the border of the Cherkasy
and Kirovograd regions, the Boltysskoye oil shale deposit is located.
The left-bank part of the region has significant reserves of
mineral-therapeutic waters of the Mirgorodskaya type, the
Zvenigorodskoye deposit of radon waters has been explored and is being
exploited.
The vegetation of the region is characterized by a combination of
flora of the forest-steppe and steppe zones. Among the tree species in
the forests, oak, ash, pine, hornbeam, alder, linden, maple, birch, and
poplar predominate. Among the bushes, hazel, viburnum, wild rose,
blackthorn, bird cherry are common. The steppe vegetation is represented
by perennial grasses. Moisture-loving forbs predominate in floodplains
and wetlands.
In the Cherkasy region, on the territory of the
Kholodny Yar tract, one of the oldest oaks in Ukraine grows at the age
of about 1000 years - the oak of Maxim Zaliznyak.
Fauna
The
location of the region in the forest-steppe zone predetermines the
diverse species composition of the fauna. There are 66 species of
mammals, 280 species of birds, 9 species of reptiles, 11 species of
amphibians, 44 species of fish. In the forests of the region are found:
elk, deer, chamois, wild boar, squirrel, wolf, common fox, gray hare,
along the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds - European beaver, river
otter, sacrum, sandpipers. In the reservoirs - bream, perch, pike, pike
perch, carp, silver carp, catfish, crucian carp.
The territory of the current Cherkasy region was inhabited in the
Middle Paleolithic era about 130-100 thousand years ago. Near with.
Mezhirich in the Kanev region, a Late Paleolithic site of mamut hunters,
the Mezhiritskaya site, was discovered.
A significant place is
occupied by the materials of the Tripolye culture (4th-3rd millennium
BC), found in settlements near the villages of Maydanetskoye, Talyanki
and Dobrovody.
In the 7th-3rd centuries BC, a significant part of
the territory of the steppe regions of Ukraine, including the Cherkasy
region, was occupied by nomadic Iranian-speaking tribes of the
Scythians. At the same time, settled agricultural tribes lived on the
right bank of the Dnieper - the direct ancestors of the Eastern Slavs.
The territory of the modern region was part of the lands of the
Dnieper region, where the core of the East Slavic tribes was formed,
from which a powerful feudal state arose - Kievan Rus.
In the
XIV-XVI centuries, the territory of the modern region was captured by
Lithuanian and Polish feudal lords. In the 15th century, the first
settlements of the Cossacks appeared in the Cherkasy region, and
Cherkasy, founded at the end of the 13th century, became their powerful
fortification in the fight against the Polish gentry, the raids of the
Turks and Crimean Tatars.
Significant 18th-century uprisings of
the peasant masses in the Right-Bank Ukraine, in particular the Cherkasy
region, against the Polish-gentry oppression, are known under the names
of Koliivshchyna and Gaydamachchyna.
In 1797, when the provinces
were formed, the Right-bank Cherkasy region became part of the Kyiv
region, and the Left-bank region became part of the Little Russian
province.
The reform of 1861 gave impetus to the rapid
development of capitalism. In the second half of the 19th century, the
main industry of the Cherkasy region was sugar.
In 1905, powerful
revolutionary uprisings began in the country.
In 1917-1920. on
the territory of the Cherkasy region, on the wave of national upsurge,
the power of the UNR, the hetmanate and the Directory is established,
the first detachments of the Free Cossacks are formed. Soviet power was
established in 1920. Long after the Government of the UNR ceased its
activities, part of the Cherkasy region was part of the Kholodnoyarsk
Republic, where the Cossacks fought the longest armed resistance to the
Bolsheviks (until 1922-1924).
From mid-1941 to December 1943, the
territory of the Cherkasy region became the scene of bloody battles of
World War II.
Cherkasy region was created on January 7, 1954. It
included three cities of regional subordination (Cherkassy, Smela,
Uman) and territories of 30 districts of Kyiv, Poltava, Kirovograd and
Vinnitsa regions.
Area leaders
Coronavirus epidemic
On
March 29, 2020, out of 46 infected with coronavirus within the Cherkasy
region (43 were detected only in the last 24 hours), 23 were from the
city of Kamenka. In Kamenka, 5 health workers became infected.
The city has become one of the epicenters of the epidemic in the
Cherkasy region.
On March 29, a curfew was introduced in Kamenets
from 8 pm to 6 am. Many were infected by the driver of the minibus, who
was admitted to the hospital on March 27.