History
[edit]
According to the legend, Luchesk dates from the 7th century. The first known documentary reference dates were from the year 1085. In the 11th century, along with the region of Volhynia, the town was contested by the Kyivan Rus' and Poland. The town served as the capital of a separate principality from 1154, and after 1225 came under the rule of the Principality of Volhynia with the capital in Volodymyr, later part of Galicia-Volhynia. The town grew around a wooden stronghold built by a local branch of the Rurik Dynasty. At certain times the location functioned as the capital of the principality, but the town did not become an important centre of commerce or culture.[citation needed]
Grand Duchy of Lithuania[edit]
In 1240, Mongols seized and looted the nearby town but left the castle unharmed. In 1321, George, son of Lev, the last prospective heir of Halych-Volynia, died in a battle with the forces of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Lithuanian forces seized the castle. In 1349, the forces of King Casimir III of Poland captured the town, then Lithuania soon retook it, but it remained contested by Lithuania and Poland until 1382.
Lubart's Castle on a postcard from 1916
The town began to prosper during the period of Lithuanian rule. Prince Lubart (died 1384), son of Gediminas, who ruled Lutsk starting from 1340, erected Lubart's Castle as part of his fortification programme. From 1385, the city was part of the Polish-Lithuanian union, yet it remained an object of Lithuanian-Polish rivalry. Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło appointed Polish starosts, brought in Dominican monks and staffed the Catholic bishopric, intending to connect it to the Polish Archdiocese of Lwów, while Lithuanian Duke Vytautas the Great sought to diminish Polish influence and develop the city to become Lithuania's second capital after Vilnius. Vytautas the Great invited colonists (mostly Jews, Tatars, and Crimean Karaites). In 1427 he transferred the Catholic bishopric from Volodymyr to Luchesk. Vytautas the Great was the last monarch to use the title of "Duke of Volhynia" and to reside in Lubart's Castle.
The town grew rapidly, and by the end of the 15th century, there were 19 Orthodox and two Catholic churches. It was the seat of two Christian bishops, one Catholic and one Orthodox. Because of that, the town was sometimes nicknamed "the Volhynian Rome." The cross symbol of Lutsk features the highest Lithuanian Presidential award, the Order of Vytautas the Great.[citation needed]
In 1429 Lutsk was the meeting place selected for a conference of monarchs hosted by Władysław II Jagiełło, Sophia of Halshany, and Vytautas the Great to deal with the Tatar threat. Those invited to attend included Sigismund, King of Hungary and Bohemia; Grand Duke Vasili II of Russia; Eric of Pomerania, king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden; the Grand Master of the Livonian Order Zisse von Rutenberg; the Duke of Szczecin Casimir V; Dan II, the Hospodar of Wallachia; and Prince-electors of most of the countries of the Holy Roman Empire. Moreover, at the end of this 1429 congress Sigismund, King of Hungary and Bohemia, offered the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas the Great to be coronated as the King of Lithuania and this way to restore the Kingdom of Lithuania.
Kingdom of Poland[edit]
In 1432, Volhynia became a fief of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Lutsk became the seat of the governors, and later the Marshalls of the Land of Volhynia. That same year, the city was granted Magdeburg rights by King Władysław II Jagiełło. Between 1440 and 1453 the city once again served as capital of the appanage Principality of Volhynia under Svitrigaila. It was one of the minor centers of Armenians in Poland, with an Armenian church. In 1497, Alexander Jagiellon confirmed the city's old privileges. In 1569, Volhynia was fully incorporated into the Polish kingdom and the town became the capital of both the Łuck powiat and Volhynian Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province. After the Union of Lublin, the local Orthodox bishop converted to Eastern Catholicism. A Jesuit college was established in Lutsk. The Lutsk Brotherhood of the Holy Cross, founded in 1617, contributed to the foundation of an Orthodox school in 1621.
The city continued to prosper as an important economic centre of the region. By the mid-17th century, Łuck had approximately 50,000 inhabitants and was one of the largest towns in the area[citation needed]. During the Khmelnytsky uprising, the town was seized by the forces of colonel Kolodko. Up to 4,000 people were slaughtered, approximately 35,000 fled, and the city was looted and partially burnt. It never fully recovered. In 1781, the city was struck by a fire which destroyed 440 houses, both cathedrals, and several other churches. In 1788, Łuck was the 25th largest city of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city embraced the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
Russian Empire[edit]
In 1795, as a result of the Third Partition of Poland, the Russian Empire annexed Lutsk. The Voivodeship was liquidated and the town lost its significance as the capital of the province (which was moved to Zhytomyr), becoming a centre of one of the counties. After the November Uprising (1830–1831), efforts increased to remove Polish influence. Polish schools were closed in 1831 and Catholic monasteries were seized in 1840–1853. Russian became the dominant language in official circles. Though, the Ukrainian population continued to speak Ukrainian; the Polish population spoke Polish; and the Jewish population spoke Yiddish (only in private circles). The Greek Catholic Churches was turned into Orthodox Christian ones, which led to the self-liquidation of the Uniates here. In 1845, another great fire struck the city, resulting in further depopulation. By 1864 only around 5,000 inhabitants lived in Lutsk.
In 1850, three major forts were built around Lutsk, and the town became a small fortress called Mikhailogorod. Neglected under Russian rule, by the late 19th century, the city lost its leading economic position in Volhynia to Rivne, Kovel and Zdolbuniv. As of 1897 Lutsk had 14,800 inhabitants, 79% of them Jews. By 1912 the city's population had risen to 26,600.
First World War and Ukrainian War of Independence[edit]
Postcard from the 1910s
During the First World War, the town was seized by Austria-Hungary on 29 August 1915. The town sustained a small amount of damage. During more than a year of Austro-Hungarian occupation, Lutsk became an important military centre with the headquarters of the IV Army under Archduke Josef Ferdinand stationed there. A plague of epidemic typhus decimated the city's inhabitants.
On 4 June 1916, four Russian armies under general Aleksei Brusilov started what later became known as the Brusilov Offensive. After up to three days of heavy artillery barrage, the Battle of Lutsk began. On 7 June 1916 the Russian forces reconquered the city.
Between 1917 and 1919 Lutsk was part of the Ukrainian People's Republic and Ukrainian State. After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the city was seized by Germany on 7 February 1918. On 22 February 1918 the town was transferred by the withdrawing German army to the forces loyal to Symon Petlura.
Second Polish Republic[edit]
Office of the Wołyń Voivodeship in interwar Poland
During the Polish-Ukrainian War, on 16 May 1919, Lutsk was taken over by the forces of Poland's Blue Army after a heavy battle with the Kholm division of the Ukrainian People's Army. The city was devastated and largely depopulated. It witnessed the Soviet offensive of 1920 and was taken on 12 July 1920. It was recaptured by Poland's 45th Rifles regiment and field artillery on 15 September 1920. According to American sociologist Alexander Gella "the Polish victory [over the Red Army] had gained twenty years of independence not only for Poland but at least for an entire central part of Europe. Łuck was designated by the newly-reborn nation of Poland as the capital of the Wołyń Voivodeship.
The population of Lutsk grew from 21,200 in 1921 to 35,600 in 1931. The city was connected by railroad to Lviv (then Lwów) and Przemyśl. Several brand new factories were built both in Łuck and on its outskirts producing farming equipment, wood, and leather products among other consumer goods. New mills and breweries opened. An orphanage was built, and a big new bursary. The first high school was soon inaugurated. In 1937, an airport was established in Łuck with an area of 69 hectares (170 acres).
Jagiellońska Street in the interbellum (now Lesya Ukrainka street)
Under the Polish rule during the 1920s and 1930s Lutsk served as the main centre of the Ukrainian community in Western Volhynia. A branch of Prosvita functioned in the city between 1918 and 1932, when it was liquidated by Polish authorities, followed by the Peter Mohyla society. A private gymnasium, a theatre and several cultural and religious organizations were organized by local Ukrainians, and the city became a centre of Ukrainian publishing.
The 13th Kresowy Light Artillery Regiment was stationed in the city, together with a Łuck National Defense (Poland) Battalion. In 1938, construction of a large modern radio transmitter began in the city (see Polish Radio Łuck). As of 1 January 1939 Łuck had 39,000 inhabitants (approximately 17,500 Jews and 13,500 Poles). The powiat formed around the town had 316,970 inhabitants, including 59% Ukrainians, 19.5% Poles, 14% Jews and approximately 23,000 Czechs and Germans.
World War II[edit]
Site of the NKVD prisoner massacre of 1941
On Thursday 7 September 1939, at about 5 pm, the Polish government, which had left Warsaw the day before, arrived at Łuck. German intelligence quickly found out about it, and the city was twice bombed by the Luftwaffe, on 11 and 14 September. After panzer units of the Wehrmacht had crossed the Bug river, on 14 September the government of Poland left Łuck and headed southwards, to Kosów Huculski, which at that time was located near the Polish–Romanian border.
As a result of the invasion of Poland from both sides and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Łuck, along with the rest of western Volyn, was annexed by the Soviet Union. Most of the factories (including the almost-finished radio station) were dismantled and sent east to Russia. Approximately 10,000 of the city's Polish inhabitants (chiefly ethnic Poles, but also Polish Jews) were deported in cattle trucks to Kazakhstan and 1,550 were arrested by the NKVD. Over 50 Poles who were either born or lived and worked in Łuck, including policemen, local officials, judges, corrections officers, and the director of the local museum, were murdered by the Russians in the Katyn massacre in 1940.
After the start of Operation Barbarossa the city was captured by the Wehrmacht on 25 June 1941. Thousands of Polish and Ukrainian prisoners were shot by the retreating NKVD responsible for political prisons. The inmates were offered amnesty and in the morning of June 23 ordered to exit the building en masse. They were gunned down by Soviet tanks. Some 4,000 captives including Poles, Jews and Ukrainians were massacred.
Upon Nazi occupation, most of the Jewish inhabitants of the city were forced into a new Łuck Ghetto and then murdered at the execution site on Górka Połonka hill not far from the city. In total, more than 25,000 Jews were executed there at point-blank range, men, women and children. The Łuck Ghetto was liquidated entirely through the Holocaust by bullets. In 1941–1942, the German occupiers also operated a forced labour camp for Jews in the city. During the massacres of Poles in Volhynia approximately 10,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the area. It was captured by the Red Army on 2 February 1944.
Soviet Union[edit]
Lutsk in the 1960s
After the end of the war, the remaining Polish inhabitants of the city were expelled, mostly to the areas that are sometimes referred to as the Polish Regained Territories. The city became an industrial centre in the Ukrainian SSR. The major changes in the city's demographics had the final result that by the end of the war, the city was almost entirely Ukrainian. During the Cold War, the city hosted the Lutsk air base.
Under the Soviet rule Lutsk became a centre of food production, as well as casting, mechanical, machine-building, construction and light industry. A pedagogical school (now Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University), a drama theatre, a philharmonic hall and a museum were opened in the city.
Independent Ukraine[edit]
As one of the largest cities in western Ukraine, Lutsk became the seat of the General Consulate of Poland in 2003.
On 21 July 2020, a hostage crisis took place, involving a man armed with a firearm and explosives who stormed a bus and took 16 people hostage at about 9:25 am. Police said that they had identified the hostage-taker and that he had expressed dissatisfaction with "Ukraine's system" on social media. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that shots gas had been heard and that the bus had been damaged. The incident led to police blocking off the city centre. The standoff was eventually resolved after several hours, with all of the hostages being freed and the hostage taker being arrested.
Fire at a fuel depot in Lutsk after Russian shelling on 27 March 2022
On 11 March 2022, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army fired four missiles at Lutsk military airfield killing two Ukrainian servicemen and wounding six. On 27 March, a fuel depot in Lutsk was struck by a Russian missile. The city took in refugees from Ukrainian territories affected by warfare. As of 28 March 2022, there were 15,000 refugees accommodated in Lutsk and the surrounding area. Their number increased to about 68,000 by 9 June. On 22 October, a missile strike was launched at a local energy infrastructure facility. On the night of 9 July 2025, Russian forces launched a massive drone strike, targeting Lutsk in particular.
Jewish history[edit]
The earliest reference to a Jewish presence in Lutsk dates to 1409, in 1432 the Jews of the town were granted the same rights as their counterparts in Krakow and Lithuania. The Jews of the city were affected by the expulsions of the Jews from Lithuania but both the Rabbinic and Karaite communities were reestablished in 1503. In 1552 56 of the 229 households in Lutsk were Jewish and they made their revenues by leasing the revenues of the Lutsk customs house. But during the Khmelnytsky uprising the Jews of the city were massacred and by the uprising end only 32 of the 75 households survived. By 1662 the Jews accounted for half of the population of Lutsk and the city was one of main centers of Judaism in Volhynia. Despite blood libels in 1696 and 1764 and despite oppression but the Russian Empire, the Jewish population continued to grow and by 1897 they numbered 9468 and were 60% of the cities population.
Destroyed synagogue during World War II
By the end of the eighteenth century, several Hasidic groups had established themselves in the city, and by the 1830's a small circle of maskilim had also established themselves. During the early twentieth century, a private school, a Talmud Torah for poor children, and a yeshiva were established, and during World War I, under threat threat of war or expulsions the city's Jews entrusted their relics to the ethnographer S. An-sky. From 1918 to 1920 under threat of the pogroms of Russian Civil War, Jewish self-defense groups were active in the city. In the interwar period, the town became a provincial Jewish center with active political parties, Jewish participation in government, and successfully elected a Jew to the Sejm; Jewish cultural life included newspapers, schools, a Beit Yosef yeshiva, and about 50 synagog, and from 1929 to 1939 the community was led by Rabbi Zalman Sorotskin, with Jews numbering 15,879, about 40 percent of the population, in 1937.
After the Soviet annexation in 1939, Jewish institutions were closed and leaders arrested, and following the German invasion, pogroms, mass shootings, ghettoization, and deportations to concentration camps led to the murder of more than 25,000 Jews in the city during the Holocaust, though some prisoners resisted during the liquidation of a labor camp in December 1942.
After the Soviets recaptured the city in 1944, only about 150 Jews returned, and by 1959 just 600 remained, while Jewish sites, including synagogues and cemeteries, were repurposed or destroyed. By the 1990's only 160 Jews were left in city with most of them being elderly.
