Our compatriot Vladimir Likhterov, former chief technologist of the Krasny Metallist plant (1988 - 1996), now living in Israel, sent his essay about Konotop, written on the basis of Internet materials and personal memories. We present to your attention this essay.
Konotop is a city in the Sumy region of Ukraine
HISTORICAL REFERENCE
The population at the 2001 census was 91,683. It is the administrative center of the Konotop region (of which the city is not included) and the Konotop city council, which, in addition, includes the villages of Podlipnoe, Komsomolskaya Kommuna and Lobkovka. The city is located on the banks of the Ezuch River, which flows into the Seim River after 12 km. The Lipka River flows through the city, and the Kukolka River flows near the city. There are several dams on the rivers. Roads and railways, stations Konotop and Zhelezobetonny pass through the city.
Some historians believe that Konotop existed as a settlement even before the Tatar-Mongol invasion. The first legend says that during the crossing of the swamps by the Tatar cavalry, many horses and warriors died in these places, therefore the place was called a konotop - a swampy place or a ford in which horses were loaded and drowned.
Another legend explains the connection of the name with the incident with the queen, whose carriage and escort got stuck in a swamp. The queen was saved, and the treasures were drowned. The queen, having got out, said: “What kind of place is this, where horses drown?” Hence the name came - Konotop.
The third legend says that the city got its name from the Konotopka River, which flowed near the settlement. The nomads who gave it this name often traveled past the settlement. This river has dried up, instead of it now there is an artificially created watercourse - Ezuch. During the time of Kievan Rus, the lands of Konotop were part of the Putivl principality. As a result of archaeological research carried out in 1997-1998, the remains of an ancient Russian settlement (XII-XIV centuries) were found in the central part of the city. Settlement Novoselitsy was founded by Ukrainian Cossacks at the beginning of the 17th century.
The first mention of the city dates back to October 1634, when the Polish king Vladislav IV Vasa granted Nikolai Tsetisov and his descendants the land near Konotop, Gorodishche, Ezuch.
In 1642, a fortress was built here and named after the Konotopka River (later dried up). In 1648 it was given the status of a city. The first settlers of the Konotop region were free people, but gradually the Cossack elders enslaved the Cossacks, took away the land and forced them to work for themselves. Large landowners appeared. During the years of the national liberation war of 1648-1654, Konotop became a hundred town. After the Bila Tserkva Treaty of 1651, the gentry of the Kyiv, Bratslav and Chernihiv provinces received the right to return to their estates.
On April 2, 1649, the inhabitants of the city welcomed the Russian embassy headed by Grigory Unkovsky, who arrived in Ukraine for negotiations with Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
After the Bila Tserkva Treaty of 1651, the gentry were allowed to return to their estates in the Chernihiv Voivodeship, to the Kiev and Bratslav regions. As soon as the Polish gentry appeared near the walls of the fortification, the inhabitants of Konotop left the city and went to Putivl. There, the Russian administration provided land to the fugitives for settlement. In 1652, after the victory of the troops of Bogdan Khmelnitsky near Batog, an avalanche of anti-Polish uprisings swept across Ukraine. The Konotopians also rose to the fight, drove the gentry out of the city and killed the headman of Sosnovsky along with his family.
In 1659, near the city and its environs, the Battle of Konotop took place between the Tatar-Cossack army of Hetman Ivan Vygovsky and the Russian army of Alexei Trubetskoy, which ended in the defeat of the latter. Konotop of the 17th century is a small town, surrounded by an earthen rampart and a palisade, located on the left marshy bank of the Ezuch River.
During the Northern War of 1700-1721, Konotop was preparing for defense against the Swedes.
In 1781, the Konotopshchina became part of the Novgorod-Seversky governorate, and since 1791 - the Chernigov province. in 1797 he was assigned to the Little Russian province. The population of the city at that time was 4930 people. In June 1782, a plan of Konotop appeared and the coat of arms of the city was approved - a golden St. Andrew's cross is depicted on a rectangular red shield, a silver month below it, a six-pointed star above the cross. Here is how its creator P. P. von Winkler described it: “In the red field there is a golden cross, at the bottom of it there is a silver horned moon, and at the top there is a hexagonal star.” On the ancient coat of arms of the city there are symbols of Jews, Christians and Muslims. This suggests that earlier people of different faiths coexisted peacefully here. Before the revolution, the city was part of the notorious "Pale of Settlement". The city had: one soap factory, two wax mills, two distilleries, three oil mills, five churches, three synagogues, four brothels and twenty taverns.
At the end of the 18th century, the city had a stone cathedral and five churches. As well as 1,614 houses, 55 shops, 2 shelters. Each church had a parish school.
Since 1802 it was a county town of the Chernihiv province.
The lands on which the Konotop region is located have long attracted people. This is evidenced by numerous finds discovered during archaeological excavations.
There are 272 archaeological sites in the Konotop region: temporary sites of ancient times, settlements, settlements, mounds. They belong to different eras - from the Stone Age to the times of Kievan Rus. The oldest villages in the Konotop region include the villages of Melnya - the first mention dates back to 1500 and Karabutovo - 1572, as well as the village of Veliky Sambor, which has been known since the beginning of the 16th century.
A significant historical event in the Konotop region was the Battle of Konotop in 1659 between the troops of Hetman Vygovsky and the troops of Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The main events of the battle unfolded when hetman Vyhovsky approached Konotop with the Cossack-Crimean-Tatar army. The battle took place on the field between the villages of Sosnovka and Shapovalovka. On June 17, 1672, on the territory of the modern village of Kozatskoye, in the Kozatskaya oak forest at the Kozatskaya Rada, Ivan Samoylovich (1672-1677) was elected hetman of the left-bank Ukraine, who accepted and signed the Konotop Articles with the Moscow state.
Over the long history of the region, the administrative boundaries of the Konotop region have repeatedly changed. By order of Catherine II in 1732, governorships (provinces) were created in Ukraine. The Konotop region was part of Novgorod-Severskaya, and since 1802 - in the Chernigov province. At the beginning of the 20th century, districts were created instead of provinces, the Konotop district was organized, which included the Konotop region.
The date of creation of the Konotop region is considered to be 1923, when it became an independent administrative-territorial unit, which included the Konotop, Borznyansky and Krolevets povets. In 1932, with the transition to a three-level administrative-territorial system: district-region-center, five regions were created and the Konotop region for some time became part of the Kyiv region.
With the creation of the Sumy region on January 10, 1939, the Konotop and Dubovyazovsky regions were transferred to its composition. After World War II, the Konotop region changed its borders three times. In 1957, 8 villages were attached to the district, and in 1960 another 6 villages of the former Dubovyazovsky district, in 1963 the villages of Dukhanovka and Deptovka were added. The city of Konotop is a large railway junction. The Konotop section of the South-Western Railway provides freight and passenger transportation in 7 directions: Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Gomel, Kursk, Poltava, Vitebsk. Konotop is still an industrial city today.
ECONOMY, TRANSPORT
One of the old industrial enterprises of the city is the Konotop plant for the repair of diesel trains.
The Konotop diesel train repair plant was founded in 1869 as the main railway workshops.
In 1929, it was named the Konotop Locomotive and Carriage Repair Plant, since 1974 - the Konotop Carriage Repair Plant, since 2000 - the Konotop Diesel Train Repair Plant OJSC.
HISTORY OF THE PLANT.
On December 24, 1866, Tsar Alexander II approved a concession for the construction of a railway from the Kursk station of the Moscow-Kursk railway to the Kiev station of the South-Western railway with a length of 438 versts.
Founder
and concessions, Prince S. A. Dolgoruky, von Derviz and von Meck received permission from the government to bring from abroad without customs duties rails, steam locomotives, wagons, tools, working machines, cast iron, iron and other materials, as well as the right to extract construction materials free of charge. materials and use state lands free of charge.
On April 30, 1867, work began on the construction of the Kursk-Kyiv railway. Her route passed through Konotop.
On December 17, 1868, partial traffic was opened, and on February 14, 1870, through traffic was opened on the Kursk - Kyiv 1st railway.
At first, one track was built along the entire route of the Kursk-Kyiv road, and later, in 1891, the laying of the second track began. In the same year, construction began on a new railway line from Kursk station to Voronezh station. The plant repairs passenger cars, car retarders, 5-car refrigerated sections manufactured by BMZ, repairs and forms car wheelsets, manufactures spare parts, measuring tools, equipment for track facilities.
PLANT "RED METALLIST"
The Krasny Metalist plant was founded in 1916 during the war and specialized in the production of 3-inch and 6-inch shells.
In 1921, the plant was redeveloped into an enterprise for the production of agricultural machinery. In 1928, the production of electrical equipment was mastered at the plant and the profile of the plant was finally determined - electromechanical, at the same time its name "Krasny Metallist" was approved. After the war, the question arose of the final specialization of the plant while maintaining its profile.
The director of the plant, Valentin Ivanovich Zaitsev, who was in charge of the enterprise at that time, had good family ties in the Ministry of the Coal Industry. This predetermined the further fate of the plant. As a result, the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 3913 of August 29, 1952 was issued, which determined the plant as the base enterprise for the development and development of the production of automation equipment for the coal industry.
In June 1962, on the basis of a special design bureau, research laboratories and the Krasny Metallist plant, the first in Ukraine factory research and design institute Avtomatuglerudprom was created to develop automation equipment for the coal and mining industry. As a digression , it would not be superfluous to characterize the management of the plant under Zaitsev V.I.
These were well-chosen people with high qualifications, who laid the foundation for the development of the plant as a unique enterprise in the industry.
Among them - the Chief Engineer, who received the State Prize; director of the factory research institute "Avtomatuglerudprom" - doctor of technical sciences; the chief accountant of the plant, who, without violating the law, found funds not only for the development of the plant, but also for construction, social needs, and even for the maintenance of the best football team in the region, Shakhtar; the commercial director of the plant, who knew how, in ways known only to him, in the conditions of a general shortage, to uninterruptedly provide production with materials and components (at the same time, he did not forget his personal interests, for which he was convicted); most of the heads of workshops were extraordinary people in themselves ...
The fact that the plant, after the departure of Zaitsev V.I. (he died hunting in 1970), the plant was for a long time in the forefront of technical progress, where advanced scientific achievements were introduced, new technologies and advanced equipment were mastered, the merit of the chief specialists: the chief technologist - Siryakov Semen Alexandrovich; chief metallurgist - Yudkin Samuil Arkadievich.
The plant is still a leader in the production of mining equipment. NPO Krasny Metallist is one of the leading enterprises in the development and production of equipment for the coal, chemical, oil and gas industries. Today, the enterprise is the only one in Ukraine and the CIS that provides miners with drives, pushers, automation systems for mine transport, ventilation, mine shaft signaling and communication, and so on. JSC was the first in Ukraine to master the mass production of portable and stationary methane meters, on the basis of which an automatic gas protection system was created at the coal mines of the CIS. Recently, the company's products have entered the foreign market and won international recognition. This recognition is confirmed by numerous prizes and certificates, which testify to the absolute quality and competitiveness of the plant's products.
OJSC "KONOTOPSKY REINFORCEMENT PLANT"
OJSC "Konotop Valve Plant" is an enterprise whose specialization is the production of pipeline valves related to high-pressure valves. In addition, the range of products manufactured by the plant includes wellhead and wellhead equipment, which is used in the activities of oil and gas producing enterprises of the country.
OOO MOTORDETAL
LLC "MOTORDETAL-KONOTOP" is the largest manufacturer of cylinder liners in Ukraine. The production facilities of the enterprise include a modern foundry and mechanical production, which allows to produce a wide range of products: from liners for automobile and tractor engines to large diameter bushings for ships, diesel locomotives and industrial diesel generators.
The history of the MOTORDETAL plant begins with the organization of the work of the machine and tractor workshop in 1943. Now it is the largest plant in Ukraine for the production of cylinder liners.
The production of the MOTORDETAL-KONOTOP enterprise is concentrated on the manufacture of liners of all standard sizes for internal combustion engines.
All of the above enterprises in the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union were plants of allied significance. They not only provided most of the city's residents with highly skilled labor, but also made a huge contribution to the development of the city. However, at the end of the last century, factories had to go through hard times: the loss of sales markets, a drop in production volumes, rising debts and a reduction in the workforce. So only the Krasny Metallist plant was forced to lay off more than 7.0 thousand people. The factories were almost on the verge of shutting down. After the collapse of the mighty empire, the need for their products was sharply reduced, and for quite a long time, almost ten years, the teams worked for the warehouse, the factories irreversibly lost their positions. “At the end of 2000, young professionals came to the management of the enterprises, who set the task of reviving the enterprises. From this period, you can start counting the time of the new birth of plants. Today, after a temporary recession, relying on highly qualified personnel, the intellectual potential of workers, factories are reaching a new level of development. They live and work, renew old and find new connections with partners, strengthen their positions in the international market. This inspires hope for their future destiny,” is described in today's city press.
In the 70s of the last century, on the basis of the new production buildings of the Motordetal and Armaturny plants, a new industrial zone of the city was created, where, along with the industrial one, large-scale housing construction was launched. Later this zone was connected to the city center by a separate tram line.
KONOTOPSKY TRAM
The history of tram construction in the city is unique. The tram line began to be built in 1949. so-called. method of people's construction at a time when Khizhnyak was the 1st secretary of the city party committee. 
For the construction of the tram line, crushed stone, sleepers, rails, crutches, etc. were needed. Decommissioned sleepers and rails were used. And that's when the prosecutor's office got down to business. It was necessary to urgently do something in this difficult post-war period. Zharikov, an old communist, a friend of Pospelov, Stalin's secretary, was then the head of the Konotop power plant. Zharikov, who, together with the railway engineer Shklyarenko, was the initiator of the construction of the tram, travels to Moscow to Pospelov and asks him to report to Stalin that “in Konotop, using the folk construction method, they decided to build a tram line in honor of his 70th birthday.” Stalin said: “Support!” And the 1st section from the railway station to the military registration and enlistment office was put into operation by 12/21/1949.
The first excavation work took place on April 24. More than 3,000 people showed up at once. They were workers, employees, students, high school students, housewives. Young people went to the forest, to fell and saw trees for sleepers. In the evenings, when we parted after work, songs were blaring in the city... During the summer and autumn, people turned over more than two hundred thousand cubic meters of land.
And already on July 19, city organizations could apply to Moscow with a request to help launch the tram.
And in August, the Konotop city executive committee received an extract from the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR: “To allow the Moscow City Executive Committee to transfer to the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR for the city of Konotop two motor passenger tram cars of the “F” series ... “Government support caused a general upsurge. Other cities responded as well. Kharkov, Kyiv, Dneprodzerzhinsk provided assistance with materials.
On December 21, the day of Stalin's seventieth birthday, at five o'clock in the morning, hundreds of people gathered at the tram line. Bright electric lamps illuminated two brand new carriages sent from Moscow. This is how the tram service began in the city of Konotop, a district town with a population of less than 90 thousand people. And Khizhnyak, by the way, was transferred to the regional committee as a lecturer. Many leaders of the Konotop branch of the railway, the city committee and the city executive committee got off with a slight fright and damaged nerves for initiative and arbitrariness ...
There are currently 3 routes in the city.
OJSC KONOTOMYASO
Founded in 1957 Initially, it was called the Konotop Meat Processing Plant. The basis of economic activity is the production of meat and by-products, the production of pharmaceuticals, retail trade in non-specialized stores with a predominance of the food assortment. Output products: beef, pork, horse meat, by-products, sausages, semi-finished meat products, bone meal, animal fats, medicines.
In the old days, this enterprise provided not only the city and the region with meat and sausage products, but also supplied gourmet products to closed shops in the capital cities of Moscow and Kyiv. They were intended for the top leadership of the republic and the country. So in Moscow there were shops that the people called "leftovers-cast-offs", in which there were gourmet products of the Konotop meat processing plant. These stores were supplied with goods that were not sold in closed elite stores during the day. Among these products were sausages, which for some reason were called “Konotop barbecue”.
Well, who among the elderly does not remember the real taste of the legendary Doktorskaya sausage? This is a symbol of the Soviet era - Doctor's sausage. Doctor's appeared in 1936 as a dietary product. The name means that this is the sausage that the doctor prescribed. From the beginning, they wanted to call it "Stalin", but then they decided that "Comrade Stalin" might be offended. The recipe for Doctor's sausage remained unchanged until the end of the 1950s. Then, when something was added to the feed for cows and pigs, the sausage began to smell like fish or chicken. The real experiments began in the 1970s. Due to the shortage of meat in the USSR, various additives were used, primarily soy. Next came the turn of carrageenan (aka Irish moss), from which thickeners and artificial additives are made. Finally, to make the sausage juicy, starch was added to it, which helped the minced meat absorb more moisture. Gradually, the amount of starch increased so much that Doctor's tasted like toilet paper.
KONOTOPSKY DAIRY FACTORY, BRANCH OF LLC "MALKA-TRANS"
Founded in 1964. Products: pasteurized milk, homogenized milk, sterilized milk, fresh cream, fresh butter, chocolate and spicy butter (with flavoring and flavored), yogurt, curdled milk, casein (milk), kefir, fermented baked milk, milk ice cream , cream and ice cream, whole milk powder, cottage cheese and curd products (glazed cheese, cheese masses), sour milk cheese. Next to the dairy there is a FOOD PRODUCTS plant. Previously, it was a wine and juice factory, which, thanks to a unique technology, produced excellent fruit wines.
At this plant, a woman worked as a technologist, passionate about her work and charged with enthusiasm ( Unfortunately, I don't know her last name.) She, on her own initiative, traveled to Georgia to purchase various aromatic herbs. A special infusion was made on these herbs, which was then used in the manufacture of apple wine. Wine made using this technology was healthy and pleasant to the taste, and was very popular not only among the residents of the city. They came for him from all over Ukraine, including from Kyiv. But according to this technology, the herbal tincture had to be aged for more than a year, which affected the planned indicators. Therefore, it was decided to reduce the exposure time to 2 months, and then to 2 weeks. Ultimately, the tincture was abandoned altogether. So the once popular and healthy wine turned into a drink, which the people called "talk". During another campaign to combat alcoholism, the production of fruit wines was prohibited. The equipment for its production was dismantled and scrapped. The plant began to specialize in the production of vinegar ...
Immediately behind the plant's fence, in the shade of the fruit trees of the former garden, on the banks of the bypass canal around the fish lakes, there is a small but cozy city beach, which has become a favorite vacation spot for the townspeople.
On the banks of the bypass canal in the direction of the village of Lobkovka, the first sections of garden associations were organized.
The first garden plots were only 300 square meters. meters. People, having missed working for their own pleasure, enthusiastically began to develop their sites. In the plots weeds were dug up and its roots were crushed, trees and shrubs were planted. Water for irrigation was carried in buckets from the bypass canal surrounding the fish lake, which was located at a distance of more than 500 m from the plots. Then the construction of garden houses began on these tiny plots. People purchased or built small booths where they could hide from the rain and where gardening tools were stored. And some, having money, began to build capital houses. These were brick 1.5-storey houses with a “sloping” roof, under which there was a room on the 2nd floor. But soon one of the obkom workers, who was traveling by rail, did not like the appearance of these "bourgeois buildings" and he ordered the superstructures exceeding a certain height to be demolished. The indication of this petty tyrant was promptly carried out by local sycophants, despite the fact that such buildings were not prohibited by the charter of gardening associations. These "connoisseurs of aesthetics" were convinced of their right to decide what the people can and cannot do, but they never took responsibility for their stupid, and often economically harmful decisions. Fruit trees, red and black currant bushes, strawberries and various vegetables were planted on the plots. These miniature garden plots were soon proudly called "dachas", and after the famous Mexican TV series - "fazendas".
Subsequently, plots of garden partnerships expanded to 6 acres began to be created on various outskirts of the city. Michurinsky Garden became another favorite vacation spot of the post-war Konotop.
The history of the Michurinsky Garden is very characteristic of the lifestyle of Konotop.
After the session of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the teachers of the Konotop secondary schools decided to radically restructure the teaching of biology. The question was raised about the creation of an experimental garden and field, where students from all seventeen secondary schools in the city could conduct practical classes.
They began to look for a suitable site in the vicinity. And now, two kilometers from the city, a vast floodplain of three rivers opened before them - Konotopka, Lipki and Ezucha. The Konotopka River has dried up long ago, but there remains a boundless floodplain stretching to the horizon. Spreading, hollow pears grew here, probably remembering the times of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and impassable thickets of bushes stretched along the banks of the Ezuch. Not far from the river, a small quadrangular artificial pond (“kopanka”, as they say in Ukraine), covered with duckweed and overgrown with sedge, hid behind bushes. Next to the kopanka was a shallow lake.
Here, on the picturesque coast, it was decided to create a garden.
The vast area became a school. The students laid out alleys, flower beds, planted many flowers, cultivated training beds with crops of rye, wheat, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, and set up a meteorological station. The site has been turned into an educational and experimental laboratory for schoolchildren.
Then, in the young Michurin garden, they created an exemplary educational and experimental apiary for secondary school students.
Residents of the city collected and presented to schoolchildren thirteen beehives with bees. The fourteenth and fifteenth students did it themselves.
By autumn, the central entrance to the garden was made. On both sides of it there are figured plantings of young trees, and in the future a large circle opens, prepared for the Michurin monument. Behind the monument it is planned to build a house with a laboratory and a library. An omshanik was built for the wintering of bees, and the brickwork of the huge greenhouse was started. The students planted many pears, plums, apple trees, long alleys of cherry-spanka, apricots, sweet Michurin mountain ash and entire avenues of magnificent standard roses. Subsequently, a boarding school of the sanatorium type N1 was located here. 
Behind the dairy, on the same Nemolot street, on a luxurious territory among fruit trees, there is a children's boarding school N2 for visually impaired children. It was on his property that the construction of the CHILDREN'S RAILWAY began in 1967. It was circular and, as everywhere on the ChRW, narrow-gauge. A small steam locomotive and three or four wagons. At that time, the city beach was in great vogue and loved by the city, and the idea of creating the ChRW was probably to turn it all - the garden, and the beach, and the ChRW itself into a wonderful recreation area. Length: 2 km. Rolling stock: steam locomotive VP1-289, at least four PAFAWAG cars. The ChRW was built in parallel with the completion of the electrification of the departmental sections of the track. The initiator of the creation is the head of NOD-5 B.S. Oleinik. At that time, there were more than 40 of them in the USSR, and among them was Konotop, whose history began in August 1967. The idea was this: to instill in schoolchildren a love for railway transport. It was built according to all the rules, and real professionals taught the train to drive the train along it. For six months, the head of the children's railway, the driver-instructor of the locomotive and others conducted classes with children in the departmental House of Culture. Children studied all kinds of railway documents, charters, books on signaling. And then, after completing the courses, they had an internship on the Kyiv Children's Highway, after which they sewed winter and summer uniforms.
The grand opening of the small highway took place at the end of the summer of 1967.
That day, despite the cloudy weather, many children gathered here. Immediately before the start of the celebration, a steam locomotive with six wagons was already ready for departure. Distinguished guests were expected. And finally, the leaders arrived, and with them the former legendary locomotive driver, the initiator of the Stakhanov movement in railway transport, the Hero of Socialist Labor, the head of the South-Western Mainline, Pyotr Fedorovich Krivonos, the head of the Konotop branch of the road, Boris Stepanovich Oleinik, and the first secretary of the city party committee, Oleg Nikolaevich Sheiko .
They promptly held a solemn ceremony, and then, having put the young passengers in the cars, they gave a signal to depart. However, the wheels of the locomotive, having driven on a slight rise at the turn, suddenly stalled, and the driver boys were confused. But at that moment Krivonos approached them. He immediately stood behind the right wing and slightly besieged the train. And then, pressing on the sandbox, he poured sand under the wheels and added steam pressure - the train set off. But, having passed a curved section, he stopped. Further, Pyotr Fedorovich handed over the reins of government to the young locomotive workers. And, patting them on the shoulder, he said: “Come on, guys, with the breeze! You need to act more boldly, and everything will be in order! In response, the cheered boys gave a locomotive whistle, and the train rolled along the rails. The children who rode in it, under the dimensional /b rattling of the wheels, enjoyed the wonderful journey, which captivated them with the uniqueness of the picturesque corners and the Kandybinsk blue lakes.
Since that time, for schoolchildren, the "small cast-iron" has become an attractive educational complex. In it, they were taught to work, and in the most attractive form, where the game merged with life. There, the children, while still schoolchildren, tried themselves as track fitters, conductors, and station chiefs.
Unfortunately, the DHW did not last long. Something didn't work. Either they didn’t organize the children’s department (and the driver’s assistant, and the conductors, and the switchmen were children), or the road itself in the city, where everyone is somehow connected with the piece of iron, didn’t captivate. It didn't work out. So quietly and imperceptibly she died. Then the rolling stock was removed, then the rails were dismantled and taken away, then the very memory of her left ...
Another outstanding event took place in the city in 1960.
At that time, television broadcasting in the city was in the zone of unstable reception. The quality of retransmission of central television programs was provided by the Belopol repeater. Only a few large regional cities had their own television studios. And under these conditions, the city leadership decided to create a Konotop television studio. A 110-meter relay tower was made. It was installed in the center of the city, near the building of the city executive committee, in an original way. The tower was completely mounted on the ground, and then it was lifted and secured with the help of cables, winches and tractors. Such a technology for installing arrogant towers has not been used anywhere before. The television studio was located in one of the premises of the city executive committee building. Part of the equipment of the television studio was purchased at the expense of the enterprises of the city, part was manufactured at the Krasny Metallist plant. The television studio once a day broadcast its own programs to the Konotop region. The rest of the time, she relayed transmissions from other television studios, which improved the quality of their reception. It was the only television studio of the Union, created in a small regional town. Either for this reason, or because of the jealousy of the regional center, which at that time did not have its own television studio, the Konotop television studio existed from 1961 to 1968. Then the tower was dismantled, the equipment was transferred to Sumy.
In 1978, at the initiative of the management of the Krasny Metallist plant, the staff of the Odessa airport presented the children of Konotop with a TU-104 aircraft. The plane was delivered under its own power to the Konotop airport. To transport it around the city, the wings had to be dismantled. Then the plane was installed in the city park. In his salon, children's attractions were equipped with automatic machines. When the machines fell into disrepair, the salon was converted into a children's cinema, which was soon closed for fire safety ...
There is a unique building in Konotop. This is a water tower in the form of a hyperboloid with annular stretch marks designed by V.G. Shukhov, which stands near the central market. The water tower in Konotop is one of 200 structures built around the world by engineer V. G. Shukhov. This is one of the world's first hyperboloid structures. Only 11 Shukhov towers have survived to this day. The design of the tower in the form of a hyperboloid on openwork metal supports was developed in 1886. According to Shukhov's designs, about 200 original structures were built: water towers, sea beacons, towers on Russian and US warships.
And from the highest (148.3 m) six-tier tower, built in Moscow in 1921, for the first time in the USSR they began to broadcast radio programs, and since 1945 - TV programs. The Shukhov water tower is a historical landmark and one of the hallmarks of the city of Konotop. The hyperbolic mesh water tower designed by engineer Shukhov was built in 1929, has not been used since 1980. 
FAMOUS PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH KONOTOPO
- Bar-Yehuda Israel (1895-1965) - Israeli politician and statesman, Minister of the Interior of Israel, Minister of Transport of Israel.
- Davydov, Mikhail Ivanovich (b. 1947) - scientist, surgeon, oncologist, president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences - Dragomirov, Mikhail Ivanovich (1830-1905) - famous military and statesman, national hero of Bulgaria, adjutant general, infantry general .
Zharikov, Vladimir Pavlovich (b. 1931) - sculptor, member of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation (1967)
Lazarevsky, Alexander Matveevich (1834-1902) - historian, historiographer, archaeologist.
Ponomarev, Stepan Ivanovich (1828-1913) - famous bibliographer, literary critic
Mamiashvili, Mikhail Gerazievich (b. 1963) - 1988 Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling - Evgeny (Derevyanko) (1923-2010) - priest.
Costel, Grigory Grigoryevich (b. 1947) - director of the Konotop Folk Theater
Fish, Augusta Karlovna (b. 1882) -millionaire, director of the Konotop Folk Theater.
Malevich, Kazimir Severinovich (1879-1935) - Russian and Soviet avant-garde artist, teacher, art theorist, philosopher, founder of Suprematism - a trend in abstract art.
In his memoirs, he talked about his childhood spent in Konotop. The Malevich family lived in Konotop in 1894-1895 in the suburb of Konotop, Zagrebelie, not far from the house of the descendants of the Veligotsky (Velmigozhy) Cossacks. As Malevich wrote in his autobiography about the Konotop times: “Tubes, a palette, brushes, umbrellas, a folding chair from the very Belopolye did not give me rest. I was 16 years old, I already painted, as it seemed to me, everything, cows, horses, and people, as artists painted in magazines.
There is an assumption that two paintings by Malevich were painted and sold in Konotop in a paper shop on Nevsky Prospekt (now Lenin Street). The first canvas is “Moonlight Night”, and the canvas “Cossack with a Maid” (conditional name), 60 × 38, presumably dating from 1894, belongs to the brush of Kazimir Malevich and is his self-portrait. -Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, Grigory Fedorovich (1778-1843) - wrote the story "The Konotop Witch".
The city is proud that the life and work of many famous people of Ukraine and Russia are associated with its name.
Konotop is a city where dreams come true and a good witch, born of legends, folk customs, and literary heritage (Grigory Kvitka-Ostovyanenko, The Konotop Witch) conjures.
The brand of the Konotop witch is the image of a good witch who serves as a talisman for the city and its character. The outstanding Russian writer Nikolai Gogol vividly and colorfully depicted the life and customs of the inhabitants of Konotop in the story “The letter was lost”; the classic of Belarusian literature F.K. Bogushevich, who worked here for ten years; Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, Marko Vovchok, Ganna Barvinok, Panteleimon Kulish, Vladimir Mayakovsky and many other prominent people in their works found a place for the Konotop region, its people and customs.
Russian artist I.E. Repin visited Konotop several times to see the hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, Lieutenant General M.I. Sultan."
The fate of such famous figures as Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge, Ilya Repin, Gnat Gavrilovich Yaremenko, Alexander Hoffman are also connected with the Konotop land and the history of the city.
A less (and notorious) native of Konotop was Meshik Pavel Yakovlevich - Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the SMERSH NPO of the USSR in 1943-1945, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR (March 16, 1953 - June 30, 1953). June 30, 1953 arrested in Kyiv. On December 23, 1953, he was sentenced by the Special Judicial Presence of the Supreme Court of the USSR to VMN in the case of L.P. Beria. Shot. Partially rehabilitated: May 29, 2000. The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation reclassified the corpus delicti to “Abuse of power and abuse of office, resulting in grave consequences”, the execution was replaced by 25 years in prison without confiscation of property.
For the heroism revealed in the battles against the fascist invaders, almost 2,000 residents of the city were awarded orders and medals.
Seven Konotop residents - G.I. Thoru, V.U. Voronov, Yu.G. Tsitovsky, O.B. Panov, N.T. Volkova, I.S. Fedorko, S.F. Protsenko - was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Konotop has always been distinguished by some kind of genetic propensity for rebellion. So it happened - either from the time of the Konotop hundreds, which did not give a descent to their foremen, or from even more ancient times - dense, swampy and impassable. But the fact remains: few county towns can boast of so many revolutionaries. Yakov Kostenetsky, one of the initiators of the failed coup d'etat under Nicholas I, and the disgraced General Dragomirov, the hero of the Bulgarian-Turkish campaigns, come from here. Lenin's famous comrades-in-arms, Iskra agents, brothers Stepan and Ivan Radchenko were born here. It was in Konotop in the fall of 1991 that the "October Revolution" happened - with rallies, a tent camp and bandages with the inscription "I'm starving, I'm crying." Along with the change of city leadership, they also demanded ... the separation of Ukraine from Russia.
In Konotop, men are sure that every third woman is a witch. The Konotop witch is not at all the fruit of the violent fantasy of the writer Kvitka-Osnovyanenko. Residents of this district center are sure of this. No wonder - there are "sorceresses" for every taste: good and evil, clairvoyants and fortune-tellers, with and without a license, so Konotop residents have long been accustomed to all sorts of devilry.
Witches have long chosen the town, and therefore now the image of the witch is an integral part of this region: restaurants are named after her, museum expositions are dedicated to her, and the fame of the capabilities of the Konotop "craftswomen" has spread far beyond the borders of Ukraine. The competition among Konotop witches is fierce - after all, fortunetellers, sorceresses, clairvoyants are a dime a dozen here, some even have a license. Each has its own methods and clientele - just right to enter into the register of professions. And everyone considers each other charlatans. Evil spirits have settled in the city for a long time: in the museum, witches have a separate room, and along the street, which now bears the name of General Thor, before witches were taken to execution. Accidents often occur here: traffic accidents, serious fights, etc. Even a cafe in the city center bears her name.
Mistresses try to take men away from the family with the help of witchcraft, and wives are also not born with a bastard: they turn to other witches to return their spouse. A fight begins: whose witch is stronger, with that man remains ...
CONCLUSION
The essay is written based on materials from open sources on the Internet and personal memories. Particular attention is paid to the period in the development of the city, when it turned from a swampy outback into a unique regional center of regional subordination, which it was impossible not to be proud of.
A significant role in the development of Konotop fell to the lot of professional builders. It was they who built KEMZ, Rembaza, piston and valve factories, reinforced concrete products, a meat processing plant, brick factories, a branch of KhAZ, a garment factory and a deaf-mute control room, KPVRZ, housing, built roads, asphalted. They built divisional barracks, division headquarters, canteens, boiler rooms, and a military trade. Helicopter repair shops, KRD (engine repair shop for TU-160, DKVR boiler room, which heated Rembaza, the entire air town, air regiments, all residential buildings along Voroshilov St. to Clubnaya, laid the main sewer. These are such city leaders as Khizhnyak, Lushpa (tram, Mir cinema, Telecentre, Department store, new post office, restoration of the old House of Soviets and construction of a new one, including Miron Grimovich, head of the OKS, head of the UNR, and then of the Konotoselstroy trust Miron Grimovich, railway builders Vladimir Velkin and his brother Boris, head of the SMU of the military builders Robert Agranovsky, who built only housing for about 15-17 thousand inhabitants.
And this revival and development began in the difficult post-war period of devastation and famine. And everything was done on the initiative of the then leaders of the city and enterprises, carried away by the only idea - to do something useful for the city and its inhabitants and, therefore, enthusiastically supported by the townspeople. They were well aware that such initiatives could cost them at that time the loss of positions, party tickets and even their heads (in the literal sense of the word).
Konotop has accumulated such a scientific and engineering potential that is not found in any other regional center of Ukraine, and I really want to believe that a new revival of Konotop is not far off.
Vladimir Likhterov
Heraldry
The modern emblem of the Konotop region was approved on October 25, 2000 by the session of the regional Council. It is based on the historical coat of arms of Konotop.
On a blue shield, a straight golden cross takes precedence. This is an element of the historical, Cossack (from 1782) coat of arms of the city of Konotop. Under the cross is a golden horseshoe - a symbol of a horse, from which the name of the city comes. Ripe, golden rye ears are a symbol of life and agriculture. Blue-yellow colors correspond to the colors of the national flag of Ukraine.
The coat of arms of Konotop was restored on April 5, 2001 by the decision of the XVIII session of the city council. In the red field there is a golden clawed cross, above it is a silver six-pointed star, and below it is a silver crescent with horns up. The coat of arms of the city, which was used on city seals in the first half of the 18th century, has been restored. and officially re-approved in 1782. Elements of the coat of arms emphasize the old Cossack traditions of the city.
The city flag of Konotop is a yellow panel with a coat of arms in the center.
Konotop, Konotop district
The area is located in the west of the Sumy region - in the left-bank part of the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine. It borders on the Bakhmachsky district of the Chernihiv region, Krolevetsky, Putivlsky, Burynsky, Romensky districts of the Sumy region
Settlements - 84 of them: urban-type settlements - 1; rural settlements - 83.
The total area is 1.7 thousand square meters. km
The regional center of Konotop, located on the highway, is a powerful strategic railway junction.
City of Konotop
Konotop is a city of regional subordination, the center of the district. Located on the river Yezuch, 129 km from the regional center. 
The population of the city, (in 2003), is 96 thousand people, the district - 39.4 thousand people.
The city of Konotop is a large railway junction. The Konotop section of the Southwestern Railway provides freight and passenger transportation in 7 directions: Moscow, Kiev, Kharkov, Gomel, Kursk, Poltava, Vitebsk.
Konotop today is an industrial city. The following enterprises work stably: OAO plant "Konotop "Motordetal", whose products are imported to Germany, Poland, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Italy; OAO valve plant "Konotop" - the only enterprise in Ukraine that produces high-pressure steel fittings and oil-industrial equipment; OAO NPO Krasny Metallist, which includes the Avtomatuglerudprom Research Institute, the Konotop Carriage Repair Plant, the Konotop Silhouette Sewing Factory, which actively cooperates with American and Canadian firms; JSC "Konotopmyaso"
The youth of Konotop study in 12 secondary schools. Students receive in-depth knowledge in two lyceums, which have close links with Sumy State University and Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Boys and girls receive secondary specialized education in polytechnic and industrial pedagogical technical schools, a medical school, and also in three vocational schools. 
A higher educational institution has been opened in Konotop - a branch of the Ukrainian-Finnish Institute of Management and Business, where more than 250 students study in three specialties. There is a large network of out-of-school institutions: a center for children's and youth creativity, an art school, two music schools, an art school, a children's sports school, stations for young technicians, tourists, and naturalists.
The city has a large network of social and cultural institutions. Residents of the city spend their leisure time in 3 houses of culture, a museum of local lore, and a cinema "Mir".
Therapeutic and preventive work in the city is carried out by the central district hospital and the hospital of the South-Western Railway.
Residents of the city pay considerable attention to sports education and sports. The football team of Konotop "Slovyanets" plays in the II league. The city is proud of its outstanding compatriot athletes: Mikhail Mamiashvili - Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, Irina Sukhorukova - world champion in karate, Igor Telny - winner of the Ukrainian Cup in clay shooting, Lyudmila Sudak - world record holder in 3000 meters, Tatyana Dovzhenko - champion of Ukraine in 400 meters, Nina Chala - champion of Ukraine in cross-country skiing.
The natives of Konotop made a great contribution to science, literature and art. Konotopchanin was a well-known figure of culture and enlightenment, translator, professor of Kharkov University M.Y.Parpura (1763-1828). In 1798, in St. Petersburg, he issued the "Aeneid" by I.P. Kotlyarevsky at his own expense. 
A well-known bibliographer, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences S.I. Ponomarev (1828-1913), who was the editor of the first complete collection of works by G. Nekrasov, was born in Konotop. A native of Konotop was M.I. Dragomirov (1830-1905) - a writer, publicist, military leader, hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, to whom the artist I.Yu. Repin visited several times and wrote from him Ataman Serk in the painting "The Cossacks write letters to the Turkish Sultan".
The life and work of the Ukrainian historian O.M. Lazarevsky (1834-1902), the author of about 450 works from the history of Ukraine in the second half of the 17th-18th centuries, is connected with Konotop. For ten years, the Belarusian poet-democrat F.K. Bogushevich (1840-1900) lived and worked here. Writers T.G.Shevchenko, G.V.Gogol, G.G.Kotsyubinsky, composer P.I.Tchaikovsky, artist K.S.Malevich, designer of spaceships S.P.Korolev visited Konotop.
Natives of the city - writer L.I. Smilyansky (1904-1966), theater designer S.I. Ioffe, art critic N.I. Veligotskaya, Doctor of Law S.G. Bratik, Doctors of Technical Sciences O.B. Belyaev and V. V.Tsaritsin, Doctor of Biological Sciences A.G.Utevsky, Doctor of Medical Sciences K.G.Sivash, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yu.O.Kurnosov, Academician V.G.Kremen, artist O.Yu.Smirnov, writer O.O. Sokolovsky, poet P.P. Kolomiets (1900-1930).
The first mention of the city dates back to the first half of the 17th century. In about 1635, settlers from the Right-Bank Ukraine established the Novoselytsya settlement here. Five years later, the Polish government built a fortress on this site, which was supposed to become a stronghold in the fight against the Russian state. They called the fortress Konotop because of its location on the swampy banks of the river. Ezuch. During the liberation war of the Ukrainian people in 1648-1654. Konotop becomes a hundred place. After the Bila Tserkva Treaty in 1651, the gentry of the Kyiv, Bratslav and Chernihiv provinces received the right to return to their estates. This caused the relocation of a significant part of the inhabitants. In the summer of 1652, an uprising broke out in Konotop against the elder Sosnovsky, who was killed in the castle of Konotop. During the hostilities between Russia and Poland in 1654-1656. Cossacks of hundreds of Konotop took part in the siege and capture of Gomel.
After the signing of the Gadiatskaya agreement by I. Vigovsky, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in order not to lose Ukraine, sends an army under the command of O.G. Trubetskoy. On April 21, 1659, the siege of Konotop began, in which the Cossacks, led by Colonel G. Gulyanitsky, defended themselves. On June 27, 1659, I. Vigovsky came to the aid of the city with an army, and on June 28, the famous Sosnovskaya battle took place, in which the Ukrainian army defeated the Russian one. The swampy terrain put the Russian cavalry and artillery in a difficult position. Two rear strikes, one was inflicted by the Horde from an ambush in the tract Empty Torgovitsa, the second - by I. Vigovsky with the Cossacks in the area of \u200b\u200bthe current village. Shapovalivka, decided the fate of the battle. In a short time, 20 or 30 thousand Russian troops were killed, many trophies fell into the hands of the winners, including a large army flag. The defeat forced Trubetskoy to lift the siege of Konotop.
In 1663, when the army of the Polish king Jan II Casimir broke into the Left-bank Ukraine, the city was captured and destroyed. Subsequently, Konotop was revived. In 1666 there were 474 households here. The Cossacks of Konotop took part in the defeat of the Turkish-Tatar hordes near Chigirin in 1677-1678. In 1708, during the Northern War, the Cossacks of Konotop opposed Hetman Mazepa, in particular, they captured the commandant of the hetman's capital Baturin, Colonel Chechel. According to the description in 1711, Konotop included the city itself and three estates - Vovkogonovsky, Drizhchovsky and Zagrebelsky. The population of Konotop is a Cossack hut, headed by a ataman, burghers and peasants. 
In 1751, according to the universal of Hetman Rozumovsky, Konotop became the personal property of the general convoy Kochubey for 30 years. In the 80s of the XVIII century. a wave of peasant uprisings swept through the Konotop region, a detachment operated here under the wire of Semyon Garkusha.
After the elimination of the regimental-hundred division, Konotop became a regional center, in the 20th century of the XX century. - the center of the district and the region. The coat of arms of the city of Konotop was as follows: a rectangular shield of red color, in the center of which is a golden St. Andrew's cross, under it is a silver crescent, above the cross is a hexagonal star.
In 1783, the Ukrainian Cossack regiments were reorganized into regular regiments like the Russian army. During the Patriotic War in 1812, detachments of people's militias were created in the Konotop region. Already on August 20, the first detachment of the Konotop militia under the command of Staff Captain Chernish went to Novozibkov to join the Russian army. Cossack regiments were also created to fight the invaders. More than 2 thousand Cossacks and peasants of the county took part in the fight against the French. On the field near Borodino, Konotop soldiers Taras Kharchenko, Sidor Shilo, Nikita Vlasenko, Pyotr Mileshko, together with non-commissioned officers Privalov and Driga, broke into the location of the enemy battery, destroyed the gunners and turned the guns against the French. Major General V.G. Kostenetsky for the courage shown in the Battle of Borodino was awarded the Order of George III degree and a gilded sword with the inscription "For Courage". Until that time, the battle flag of the militia was preserved in the city in 1812. The glorious traditions of the defenders of the motherland were developed by the inhabitants of Konotop during the Second World War of 1941-1945. At the end of August in 1941, the Konotop partisan detachment was created, which later joined the Putivl detachment under the command of Kolpak and became part of the Sumy partisan formation.
Konotop, 2004
Sumy region
The village of Novoselytsya was founded by Ukrainian Cossacks at the beginning of the 17th century. The city was first mentioned in 1635. In 1642 a fortress was built here and named after the Konotopka River. It can be seen that farm animals were drowned in this river. Why is hard to say. Maybe the Cossacks taught them to swim...
In 1659, the combined forces of the Cossack-Polish army under the command of Ivan Vyhovsky and his ally Khan Makhmed Giray defeated the Russian troops of Prince Trubetskoy near the city.
In 1782 Konotop received the status of a city and became a county town of the Chernihiv province.
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In 1847, 521 Jews lived in Konotop,
in 1862 - 1209,
in 1897 - 4426 (23%),
in 1926 - 5763 (17%),
in 1939 - 3941 (8.6%),
in 1959 - c. 1600 (3.5%)
in 1979 - c. 1,000 Jews (1.2%).
In June 1794, Jews from former Polish lands were allowed to settle in the Chernihiv province. To the beginning 19th century in the Konotop district there were over 80 philistine Jews.
After the construction of the Moscow-Kiev-Voronezh railway in 1859, Konotop became a major railway. node; The Jewish population increased markedly. Jewish merchants actively participated in the Konotop fairs (in 1850, about 1 million poods of bread were sold, 1/3 of which was sold by Jewish merchants), they were engaged in the export of agricultural products, owned mills, oil mills, and groats.
In the 2nd floor. 19 - beg. 20th century in Konotop, most of the doctors and a significant part of the lawyers were Jews. The main occupations of the majority of the Jewish population are handicrafts (out of 283 artisans, about 180 are Jews) and petty trade.
There are not many sights in the city, but there is still something. Personally, I did not see anything like that, but during a business trip to Konotop, I was a little in no mood to search for interesting things. This is what was found on the Internet (photo by I. Bykov,):
In the 1910s The leader of the Zionist organizations was the doctor Aron Marshov. In 1913, a relief society operated in Konotop.
During the Civil War, the Jewish population of Konotop suffered from pogroms, robberies, famine and epidemics. In 1919 there was a pogrom organized by parts of the Directory; in September 1919, units of the Volunteer Army carried out a pogrom, during which 5 Jews were killed and 10 wounded.
In 1917, the local organization of the Bund published the newspaper Izvestiya in Konotop, in 1918 the Tseirey Zion organization and the Tarbut society were active.
In 1922, the teachers of the yeshiva were tried; headers were closed.
In 1923-28. illegal Zionist organizations (“Tseirey Zion”, “Ge-Haluts”) organized the departure of young people to Eretz Israel.
In the spring of 1923 the synagogue was closed.
In 1922, there were 962 workers among the Jews of Konotop (52% of the total). In the 1920s a number of Jewish cultural and educational institutions were created in the city, in 1926-27. the Jewish theatre. In 1919-22 there was a Jewish orphanage, in 1920-39. - school with teaching in Yiddish.
In 1925, in the Kherson district, natives of Konotop organized the Jewish agricultural collective "Land and Labor" (171 people), in 1926 in the Krivoy Rog district - "Freifeld" (63 people).
In 1928 there were mass arrests of Zionists.
Until the 1930s Shimon Teizlin was the rabbi of Konotop.
September 3, 1941 Konotop was occupied by German troops. In November 1941, 257 Jews were shot, on December 1, 1941 - 95 Jews from the POW camp.
After 1945 some of the Jews returned to Konotop. In 1994, the Lebn newspaper began to be published in the city. In 1999, a branch of "Hesed Esther" and a religious community were created. There is a klezmer ensemble, once a month a Jewish program is broadcast on local television.
In 2002, about 300 Jews lived in Konotop.
In 1862, 1 wooden synagogue operated in Konotop, in 1886 - 1 stone and 2 wooden synagogues.
In 1881, a pogrom took place in the city, during which one Jew was killed, while the Jews of Konotop tried to organize self-defense.
All R. 1880s the first Jewish socialist circles arose.
Since 1892, a Jewish hospital has been operating in Konotop.
In con. 19 - beg. 20th century in the city there were 3 synagogues and 4 heders, at the beginning. 20th century - Talmud Torah, women's private Jewish school. The rabbi of Konotop since 1880 was Arye-Leib Gaft.
But the most interesting thing in the city is not the architecture at all. I remember how surprised I was when a tram drove past me - not all regional centers have this type of transport! I even thought that some tram from Sumy got lost and got on the railway track to Konotop. Then I see - the second goes. Maybe they are migrating?
But local trams in some sections manage to travel along one track in both directions. The economy must be economical...
Wikipedia photo.
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City, district center, Sumy region, Ukraine. Known since the first half of the 17th century. The name comes from Konotop, a swampy, swampy impassable place. Geographical names of the world: Toponymic dictionary. M: AST. Pospelov E.M. 2001. Konotop ... Geographic Encyclopedia
City in Ukraine, Sumy region. Railway junction. 97.7 thousand inhabitants (1991). Factories: electromechanical, pistons Red metalworker, etc.; enterprises of the food industry, building materials, etc. Museum of Local Lore. Known since 1638... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Konotop- KONOTOP, a, m. The general name of a distant, remote place, province, wilderness. See also: As in the best houses... Name. cities … Dictionary of Russian Argo
City, center of the Konotop district of the Sumy region of the Ukrainian SSR, on the river. Ezuch (a tributary of the Seim river). Railway junction. 71 thousand inhabitants (1972). factories: Krasny Metallist (producing automation for the coal and mining industry), ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
City in Ukraine. Railway junction 97.7 thousand inhabitants. (1991). Plants: electromechanical, pistons "Red Metallist", etc.; enterprises of food industry, building materials industry, etc. Museum of local lore. Known since 1638. * * * KONOTOP KONOTOP ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Konotop- city, district center, Sumy region, Ukraine. Known since the first half of the 17th century. The name comes from Konotop swampy, swampy impassable place ... Toponymic Dictionary
W. mountains. Chernihiv province., in the southeast. corner of the province, on pp. Konotop and Jezus. Urban land in the mountains. line 751/2 dec. Lives. 23083 (11632 male and 11451 female). 2037 wood. and 55 stones. buildings (except churches). Average income for 1870-74 6202 rubles ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
Konotop- the name of the human family of the place in Ukraine ... Spelling Dictionary of Ukrainian Movies
Konotop- KONOTOP. See Russian Polish. wars 1. The dictionary material containing the information referred to in this link has not been published... Military Encyclopedia
Konotop is a polysemantic word. Common toponym: Contents 1 Belarus 2 Poland 3 Russia 4 Ukraine ... Wikipedia
Books
- Tests on tactics for chess players of the 1st category, Konotop V. The middle of the nineteenth century is the era of romance in chess, the era when spirit triumphed over matter. Look at the games of that time, in almost every one a minor piece was sacrificed, or even ...
- Endgame Tests for Third-Class Chess Players, Konotop V.: Konotop S. This book is intended for chess players of the 3rd category, but it can also be useful for higher-skilled chess players. Consists of two parts. The first part: 25 tests, 12 each ...
It is the administrative center of the Konotop District (which does not include the city) and the Konotop City Council, which includes the villages of Podlipnoe, Kalinovka and Lobkovka.
Konotop is one of the cultural centers of the historical and geographical regions of Poseimye and Severshchina. City Day is celebrated on September 6th. On this day in 1943, the troops of Nazi Germany were expelled from Konotop.
Geographical position
Geographically, Konotop is located 200 km from Kyiv and 120 km from Sumy.
Konotop is located in the left-bank part of the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine. The surface of the area is an undulating plain, and is also dissected by wide river valleys and ravines. In the northern part of the region, the Desna plateau stands out. In the west, it is bounded by the valley of the Desna River, in the south - by the valley of the river. Seim. The climate of the Konotop region is temperate continental.
The city is located on the banks of the Ezuch River, which flows into the Seim River 12 km to the north. The river Lipka flows through the city, the river Kukolka flows near the city. There are several dams on the rivers.
Within the limits of Konotop is the Konotop arboretum, to the north of the city there is a regional landscape park "Seimsky".
Highways pass through the city R-60, R-61 and railway, stations and reinforced concrete.
| Distance from Konotop to major cities (by road) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N-W | Koryukovka ~ 153 km | Novgorod-Seversky ~ 127 km Shostka ~ 96 km |
Hlukhiv ~ 98 km | N-E |
| W | Bakhmach ~ 51 km Nizhyn ~ 120 km Chernihiv ~ 196 km |
Sumy ~ 131 km | IN | |
| SW | Pryluky ~ 154 km Kyiv ~ 259 km |
Romny ~ 71 km | Akhtyrka ~ 205 km | SE |
Name
On the territory of Ukraine there are 3 settlements with the name.
There are different versions of the origin of the name Konotop.
The first legend says that during the crossing of the swamps by the Tatar cavalry, many horses and warriors died in these places, therefore the place was called Konotop - a swampy place or a ford in which horses got muddy and drowned.
Another legend explains the connection of the name with the incident with the queen, whose carriage and escort got stuck in a swamp. The queen was saved, and the treasures were drowned. The queen, having got out, said: “What kind of place is this, where horses drown?” This is probably where the name Konotop came from.
The third legend connects the name of the city with the hydronym Konotopka - the name of the river that flowed near the settlement. This river has dried up, instead of it now there is an artificially created watercourse - Ezuch.
Story
Base
The oldest monuments of the Konotop lands are archeological monuments: temporary settlements of tribes, settlements, mounds, settlements, starting from the Neolithic era in Kievan Rus. Near the village of Shapovalovka in 1877-1878. mammoth bones and a stone knife were found, which are stored today in the local history museum of Konotop.
The exact year of the appearance of Konotop is still unknown. Konotop local historian Ivan Lysy suggested that Konotop was the capital of the annalistic Lipetsk principality in the 13th century and was called Lipovitsk. In the "Historical and Statistical Description of the Chernigov Governorate" Filaret (Gumilevsky) suggests that the city existed even before the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars. As a result of archaeological research conducted in 1997-1998, the existence of a settlement from the time of the Chernigov Principality is possible here.
After the decline of Kievan Rus', the Konotop lands were captured by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and as a result of the Union of Lublin in 1569 passed to the Kingdom of Poland. These lands became the subject of border disputes between the Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia.
Constant military disputes and conflicts between Poland and Russia over territory led to the need to agree on borders. Russia insisted that the Konotop lands belonged to the Putivl district, so the border in the Konotop region was not defined. Border disputes continued until the construction of a fortress in Konotop.
In 1635, the Polish gentry Podkova established the Novoselitsa estate. In 1637, the Commonwealth built a fortification at the confluence of two rivers - the Jezucha and. The fortress was built on the site of an old "detinets", to the north of Novoselitsa - exactly on the lands that belonged to Putivl resident Nikifor Yatsina. In 1640, the fortifications, by order of the Novgorod-Seversky headman A. Pyasochinsky, were rebuilt into a fortress. It had a quadrangular shape, shafts and walls reinforced with wood. The length of each of the walls of the fortress was approximately 100 fathoms (more than 200 m). Three gates led to the fortress: Kyiv, Putivl and Romen. The remains of the ramparts and the place where the castle was, have survived to this day.
17th century
In 1648 it was given the status of a city. During the years of the uprising of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 1648-1654. Konotop becomes a hundred city. Konotop of the middle of the 17th century is a small town, surrounded by an earthen rampart and a palisade, located on the left marshy bank of the Ezuch River. The first settlers of the Konotop region were free people, but gradually the Cossack elders enslaved the Cossacks, took away the land and forced them to work for themselves. Large landowners appeared.
Through the lands of the Konotop region in the 17th century. Russian embassies passed by, they were solemnly greeted in Konotop and nearby villages. Relations were especially livened up after Hetman B. Khmelnitsky addressed the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich with a proposal to join the struggle for the Polish throne after the death of the Polish King Vladislav IV. On April 2, 1649, the inhabitants of the city welcomed the Russian embassy headed by I. Unkovsky, who arrived for negotiations with the Cossack ataman B. Khmelnitsky. 5 miles before the city, the envoys were met by the centurion of Konotop and over 100 Cossacks with flags: "... and in the city there were people on foot on both sides with a gun, and as they entered the city, they fired from cannons in the city." After the Bila Tserkva Treaty of 1651, the gentry were allowed to return to their estates in the Chernihiv Voivodeship, to the Kiev and Bratslav regions. As soon as the Polish gentry appeared near the walls of the fortification, the inhabitants of Konotop left the city and went to Putivl. There, the Russian administration provided land to the fugitives for settlement. In 1652, after the victory of the troops of B. Khmelnitsky near Batog, an avalanche of anti-Polish uprisings swept. The residents of Konotop also rose to the fight, drove the gentry out of the city and killed the headman of Sosnovsky along with his family. The so-called "Konotop miracle", described in the Chronicle of the Seer, is connected with these events. According to legend, after the expulsion of the Polish garrison, the headman Sosnowski with his wife and five children remained in the fortress to live. The rebellious residents of Konotop accused the headman of treason and killed him along with his family, and threw the bodies into the well, where they lay for three months. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the water in the well suddenly rose 20 meters and raised the bodies of the dead, without signs of decay at all. Only after they were buried, according to Christian custom, near the well, did the water go down.
After Vygovsky signed the Gadyach Treaty, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sends an army under the command of Prince Grigory Romodanovsky, and then another army - Alexei Trubetskoy. A war begins between the Hetmanate and the Russian Tsardom.
On April 21, 1659, the siege of Konotop began, in which the Cossacks, led by Colonel Grigory Gulyanitsky, defended themselves. On June 27, 1659, Ivan Vyhovsky came to the aid of the city with an army, and on June 28, the Battle of Konotop (another name is the Sosnovskaya battle) took place, in which the allied army of Crimean Tatars and Vyhovsky's Cossacks defeated the Russian army. The swampy terrain put the Moscow cavalry and artillery in a difficult position. Two rear strikes, one was delivered by the Horde from an ambush in the Pustaya Torgovitsa tract, the second by Vygovsky with the Cossacks in the area of the current village of Shapovalovka, and they decided the outcome of the battle. During the battle, up to 7,000 Moscow troops died, including 2,000 Cossacks of Hetman Ivan Bespaly, the losses of the Crimean Tatars ranged from 3,000 to 6,000, the losses of Vygovsky - 4,000 Cossacks.
The main branch of agriculture of the local peasants was farming, they sowed wheat, rye, buckwheat, oats and millet. Cossack foremen, wealthy Cossacks and philistines were engaged in flour-grinding. There were two dams on the Konotopka River, where 2 water mills operated. On June 17, 1672, the Cossack Rada took place in the village of Cossack, and judge general Ivan Samoylovich was elected hetman of the Left Bank Land. It was accepted and signed contractual terms - Konotop articles. Since that time, immigrants from the Right-Bank Lands - Kandyby, Lyzoguby, Radichi, Harevichi - began to move to the lands of Konotop. When in 1674 the postal connection between the Left-Bank Land and Moscow was established, the postal route Moscow - Putivl - Kyiv passed through the Konotop region.
18th century
In 1783, the Cossack regiments were reorganized into regular regiments like the Russian army.
The city was managed by the city duma and the magistrate, where all positions were elected, but in fact belonged to the city's Cossack elite. At the end of the 18th century, the city had a stone cathedral and five churches, as well as 1614 houses, 55 shops, and 2 shelters. Each church had a parish school.
19th century
Since 1802 it was a county town of the Chernihiv province.
At the beginning of the XX century. Konotop becomes one of the important industrial centers of the Left-bank Ukraine. Difficult working conditions, cruel exploitation of workers, low social living conditions revolted the workers. Thus, in 1899, a demonstration by workers in defense of their social rights was organized at the Main Railway Workshops. More than 600 people took part in it. In 1900, the first social democratic group arose, whose representatives were engaged in propaganda work among the workers of the railway workshops. They brought leaflets, proclamations, revolutionary literature from Kyiv, Kursk, Kharkov.
20th century
In 1901, a library and a people's sobriety house began to operate. The development of industry also contributed to the growth of the city's population, which in 1904 reached 19,404 people. The number of buildings also increased (up to 2090 units), 55 of which were made of stone. At that time, the city was led by the City Council, which included the police and fire brigades, a hospital with 40 beds, 2 pharmacies, 4 paramedics, 1 veterinary unit, 5 veterinarians, a city bathhouse and a printing house. In 1905, a commercial school began its work.
During the years of the revolution (1905-1907), the railway workers of Konotop and the inhabitants of the county actively participated in the revolutionary events. After the announcement of a general strike in Moscow on December 7, 1905, the Konotop railway workers supported the protest by blocking the passage of trains through the Konotop station. After the troops were brought in, the city's railroad workers stepped up their operations.
The First World War laid a burden on the shoulders of the inhabitants of the Konotop region. Almost half of the adult male population was mobilized to the front, and in 1917-1920 the region becomes the scene of military operations of the troops of the Central Rada, the Red Army, Denikin, Austro-Hungarian and German troops. In early 1918, at the railway junction of Konotop, the first Cossack foot infantry division "grey-shouldered" from captured Ukrainians of the Russian army and the regiment named after. Doroshenko (1200 bayonets), led by the smoking Peleschuk.
During the time of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Konotop was the administrative center of the Poseimye land.
In 1921-1923, 100 small enterprises of the light, food, construction industries, a mechanical plant, a soap factory, 8 leather factories, a brewery, 2 printing houses, 2 confectionery factories, etc. operated in Konotop. During the famine of 1921-1922. Several pounds of gold and silver jewelry and church items were confiscated from the Orthodox churches of Konotop to help the starving.
In 1923, the city already becomes the center of the Konotop district, which included 15 districts with a population of up to 600 thousand people. 1923 is considered the date of formation of the Konotop region, when it became an independent administrative-territorial unit. The population of the city at that time was 29,000 people.
In 1939, 50 thousand people lived in Konotop. During the Stalinist repressions of the 1930s, dozens of Konotop residents and residents of the surrounding villages suffered. The most famous victims of them were the poets P. Kolomiets and V. Bas, the writer A. Sokolovsky and the local historian V. Reznikov, the author of many historical and local history essays and books on the history of the Left-Bank Ukraine and the Konotop region. By 1932, Konotop was part of the Kyiv region, from 1932 to 1939 - part of the Chernihiv region, and with the organization of the Sumy region in January 1939, it became part of it as a regional center of regional subordination.
The Second World War
After the start of the Great Patriotic War on September 9, 1941, Konotop was occupied by German troops. By that time, equipment from the Krasny Metallist and KVRZ industrial enterprises had been evacuated to the east. After the occupation, military administration was established in the Konotop region, which was carried out by the local commandant's office. During the German rule, more than 3800 people died, 30 thousand prisoners of war and civilians in Konotop were shot.
At the end of August 1941, the Konotop partisan detachment was created, which later joined the Putivl detachment under the command of Kovpak and became part of the Sumy partisan association.
More than 15 thousand people did not return from the front. Fourteen residents of Konotop were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. For the liberation of the Konotop lands, the 65th Guards Mortar Regiment, the 143rd and 280th Rifle Divisions were awarded the title of "Konotop". The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to the natives of the city Yu. G. Tsitovsky, S. F. Protsenko. M. L. Krasnyansky was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, squares, streets, schools were named after them. The house of culture of the Krasny Metallist plant opened in 1954. For a decade, work has been carried out to perpetuate the memory of the fallen soldiers in the Great Patriotic War. In 1955-1956, the remains of former soldiers were transferred to mass graves. In 1967, the Konotop city memorial complex of the Great Patriotic War was opened and the Konotop children's railway was launched, which, however, was dismantled and taken out of the city in the 1970s and subsequently not restored. In 1972, the plant for the production of pistons began to operate, and in 1973, the Reinforcing Plant.
Symbols
The official symbols of the city (flag and coat of arms) were approved on April 5, 2001 at the XVIII session of the Konotop City Council of the III convocation. The existence of the coat of arms has been known since July 4, 1782. The coat of arms of the city is a golden cross in a scarlet field, under it is a crescent with horns up, and on top is a hexagonal star. The shield has an olive edging. The flag of the city is a yellow canvas with the coat of arms of the city in the center.
Climate
| Climate of Konotop | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Jan. | Feb. | March | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug. | Sen. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Year | |||||||||||
| Absolute maximum, °C | 8,4 | 14,0 | 22,0 | 29,9 | 33,1 | 36,1 | 35,9 | 39,0 | 35,0 | 27,2 | 18,8 | 12,6 | 39,0 | |||||||||||
| Average maximum, °C | −2,3 | −1,6 | 4,1 | 13,4 | 20,5 | 23,5 | 25,5 | 24,7 | 18,4 | 11,4 | 3,2 | −1,3 | 11,6 | |||||||||||
| Average temperature, °C | −4,8 | −4,6 | 0,5 | 8,5 | 14,9 | 18,3 | 20,1 | 18,9 | 13,2 | 7,2 | 0,7 | −3,6 | 7,4 | |||||||||||
| Average minimum, °C | −7,3 | −7,4 | −2,8 | 4,0 | 9,5 | 13,2 | 14,9 | 13,6 | 8,7 | 3,6 | −1,6 | mm39 | 39 | 34 | 41 | 47 | 67 | 75 | 56 | 54 | 44 | 43 | 41 | 580 |
| Source: Weather and climate | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The climate of Konotop over the past 10 years (2006-2016) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Jan. | Feb. | March | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug. | Sen. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Year |
| Average maximum, °C | −3 | −1,1 | 5,7 | 14,8 | 22,4 | 25,2 | 27,1 | 26,6 | 19,8 | 11,6 | 5,0 | −0,2 | 12,8 |
| Average temperature, °C | −5 | −3,7 | 2,0 | 9,7 | 16,5 | 19,7 | 21,6 | 20,5 | 14,6 | 7,6 | 3,0 | −1,8 | 8,7 |
| Average minimum, °C | −7,1 | −6,3 | −1,8 | 4,6 | 10,6 | 14,2 | 16,1 | 14,4 | 9,4 | 3,7 | 0,9 | −3,4 | 4,6 |
