Lysa Hora
Encyclopedia
Lysa Hora is a large woody hill
Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...

 in the Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 capital Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 (Kiev), near the confluence of the Dnipro and Lybid' rivers. The hill is now a nature reserve
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 included in the Kiev Fortress museum.

The mount supposedly takes its name from the fact that its top was (some slope
Slope
In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line describes its steepness, incline, or grade. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline....

s of the hill are still) not covered by trees. The mount is located in the Holosiiv Municipal District
Holosiivskyi Raion
Holosiivskyi Raion is an administrative raion of the city of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.Holosiivskyi Raion was created as part of a change in the administrative divisions of the capital of Ukraine, which was conducted in September 2001, as per the decision of the Kiev City Council on January 1,...

 of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

.

According to the legends
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....

, the Lysa Hora hill is the largest and most famous location of the mystical "bald mountain" - a traditional site of the witch gatherings. Particularly, it is asserted in the writings of Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...

.

The forts of Lysa Hora

In 1872, a small fortress (part of the Kiev Fortress
Kiev fortress
Kiev fortress , also known as the Pechersk Fortress, is a generic name for the 19th century fortification buildings situated in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, that once belonged to a system of western Russian fortresses. These structures were built in the Pechersk and neighbourhoods by the Russian army...

) was built on the hill by Russian army. However, upon completion the fortress was found to be of little military importance and was converted into the military storehouse. Due to its relatively remote location, from 1906 the fortress was used as an execution place for convicted political prisoners of the Tsarist government. Over 200 people were executed there by hanging between 1906 and 1917, one of them was Dmitry Bogrov
Dmitry Bogrov
Dmitry Grigoriyevich Bogrov was the assassin of the Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin.Born Mordekhai Gershkovich Bogrov...

, the assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 of Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin served as the leader of the 3rd DUMA—from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to repress revolutionary groups, as well as for the institution of noteworthy agrarian reforms. Stolypin hoped, through his reforms, to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of...

.

The fortress has seen fierce fighting during the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when a unit of local defence
Narodnoe Opolcheniye
Narodnoe Opolcheniye or Opolchenie was the name of irregular troops formed from the population in Russia and Soviet Union to fight alongside the regular army during several wars throughout its history....

 volunteers resisted the Nazi offensive on Kiev.

Later, the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 used the fortress as storage area till 1980. An underground complex beneath the fortress is sometimes mentioned, but in fact only old water tanks can be found, still filled with rain water. In the 1980s, a radio beacon
Non-directional beacon
A non-directional beacon is a radio transmitter at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. As the name implies, the signal transmitted does not include inherent directional information, in contrast to other navigational aids such as low frequency radio range, VHF...

 for aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

 navigation was built on the Lysa Hora.

See also

  • Lysa Hora (folklore)
    Lysa Hora (folklore)
    Lysa Hora or Bald Mountain is a concept of East Slavic, and particularly Ukrainian, folk mythology related to witchcraft. According to legends, ravens, black eagles, witches and other paranormal creatures periodically gather on the "bald mountains" for their "Sabbath"...

  • Zamkova Hora
  • Night on Bald Mountain
    Night on Bald Mountain
    Night on Bald Mountain is a composition by Modest Mussorgsky that exists in, at least, two versions—a seldom performed 1867 version or a later and very popular "fantasy for orchestra" arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, A Night on the Bare Mountain , based on the vocal score of the "Dream Vision...


External links

Site of The Kiev's Greenlands Defenders (an environmentalist group that started their activities with Lysa Hora issues; includes photos and description of Lysa Hora nature) Documentary movie on the Ukrainian National Television, UT-1
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