Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian: Івано-Франківськ, Ivano-Frankivs'k; Станиславів, Stanyslaviv before 1962; Polish: Stanisławów; Russian: Ivano-Frankovsk; German: Stanislau (before World War I); Yiddish: סטאַניסלעװ, Stanislev) is a city in Ukraine, center of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast in the west of the country. Population 204,200 (2004).
The city was erected as a fortress to protect the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Tatar invasions and has also successfully withstood attacks by Turkish and Russian forces. Extensively rebuilt during the Renaissance, it was sometimes called Little Leopolis. The city was also an important center of Armenian culture in Poland.
After the Partitions of Poland it became a part of Austrian Empire and successively of the autonomous Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. In 1919 it was a subject of Polish–Ukrainian skirmishes and eventually became a part of the Second Polish Republic as the capital of the Stanislawow Voivodship. In 1939 it was conquered by the Soviets and annexed to the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1962 the name changed to honor the famous Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko. In the early 1990s the city was a strong center of the Ukrainian independence movement.
1931 census
Total 198,359
- Poles: 120,214 (60.6%)
- Ukrainians 49,032 (24.7%)
- Jews 26,996 (13.6%)
External links
