Volyn region (the map of Ukraine shown in this article shows its location) is located in the northwestern part of Ukraine, in the Polesie zone. Its northern part borders on Belarus (Brest region), the eastern part - on the Rivne region, the southern part - on Lvov region, and the western part - on Poland.
Volyn is a historical place, here from time immemorial important deeds in the history of Russia, sometimes tragic and difficult, have been performed. Such an eventful fate of the region could not but affect its external appearance, leave a mark in the form of architectural and historical sights, of which there are more than eight hundred in Volyn.
Relief and climate
The terrain is predominantly flat. Most of the territory is located within the Polesskaya lowland, and the smaller one - the southern one - is located on the northwestern outskirts of the Volyn Upland, which breaks off to the north with a ledge of 20-60 meters. Volyn region is characterized by temperate continental climate. Winter here is mild, summer is warm. The average temperature in January is minus 4.5 degrees Celsius, in July - plus 18.6 degrees. Precipitation falls 550-600 mm per year. The Pripyat River flows in the northern part of the region. The right tributaries of this water artery (Turya, Styr and Stokhod) cross the region from south to north. Another river flows along the border with Poland - the Western Bug. In total, more than 130 rivers flow through the territory of the region, their total length is more than three thousand kilometers. All water arteries belong to the basins of the Western Bug and the Dnieper. Most of the reservoirs originate outside its territories. The map of the Volyn region (Ukraine) is replete with images of rivers and streams.
Geography
The soils of the forest-steppe part of the Volyn region are podzolized gray and dark gray, as well as chernozems. The Polissya part is characterized by sod-podzolic, as well as various bog (including peat) ones. The middle lane is sod-podzolic and humus-carbonate (the most fertile). The Volyn region is conditionally divided into three zones - forest-steppe, South Polesye and North Polesye. The first two are located in the region of the Volyn-Podolsk Upland. Severopolesskaya occupied more than 75 percent of the region's territory. The peculiarity of this zone is a flat lowland covered with swamps and forests. Volyn has large reserves of mineral raw materials - coal, carbonate rocks, peat, natural gas, sapropel, but most of them have no industrial value.
Volyn region: districts
The region is divided into sixteenadministrative districts: Vladimir-Volynsky, Gorokhovsky, Ivanichevsky, Kivertsovsky, Kovelsky, Kamen-Kashirsky, Lokachinsky, Lutsky, Lyubeshovsky, Lyubomlsky, Manevichsky, Ratnovsky, Rozhishchensky, Starovyzhevsky, Turiysky and Shatsky. In total, there are 1,087 settlements on its territory, of which 1,054 are rural, 33 are urban, including 22 urban-type settlements and 11 cities. Volyn region (Lutsk - the administrative center) has four cities of regional significance (Lutsk, Kovel, Volodymyr-Volynsky, Novovolynsk) and seven cities of regional significance (Gorokhov, Berestechko, Kamen-Kashyrsky, Lyuboml, Kivertsy, Ustilug and Rozhische).
Economy
The main sectors of the region's specialization are agriculture, transport and industry (mainly food). The leading economic sector is the agro-industrial sector, which provides half of the total product. Thus, agriculture has taken a course towards specialization in animal husbandry in the meat and dairy direction, in addition, to the production of sugar beet, potatoes, grain and vegetables. 167 enterprises are engaged in the manufacture of industrial products. The main industries are food, fuel, chemical and mechanical engineering. The enterprises of the Volyn region produce bearings, water meters, control devices, machines for fodder production and animal husbandry, plastic products, linoleum, roofing material, fabrics, bricks, furniture, canned food, pasta, sausages, confectionery and vodka products and much more. The private sector has almost four thousand small enterprises andthirty thousand individual entrepreneurs. Thanks to this, a tenth of the able-bodied population of the Volyn region is employed. Small enterprises in the region produce almost ten percent of products, provide a fifth of budget revenues at all levels.
Industry
The raw material base of Volyn is represented by the following minerals: natural gas, coal, phosphorite, copper, building chalk, building stone, helium, sapropel. In addition, here I extract brick and tile raw materials, peat, glass and building sand, cement raw materials. The food industry of the region is represented by more than fifty enterprises, the flagships of this industry are Vladimir-Volynsky, Gorokhovsky, Gvidavsky sugar factories. The machine-building complex is headed by LLC "Lutsk Bearing Plant" - the industrial center of the Volyn region. It has a monopoly on the production of needle and tapered bearings. Another unique machine-building plant is JSC "Elektrotermometriya", it produces more than eighty percent of various counters in Ukraine. Among the enterprises producing building materials, one can note the Lutsk Cardboard and Roofing Material Plant.
Agriculture
Volyn region is known for its dairy and meat animal husbandry and crop production (sugar beet, grain, flax, potatoes). Agricultural producers maintain economic ties with many countries of the CIS, Western and Eastern Europe. The following goods are produced for export: milk powder,sugar, meat products and others. As a negative, one can note the continued trend towards a reduction in the number of goats, sheep and cattle.
Population
Recently, there has been a slight increase in the population in Volyn, in contrast to other regions of Ukraine, where every year the population continues to decline. The demographic situation in the region differs from the all-Ukrainian one by a higher birth rate and a lower mortality rate. As a result, the natural decline in the population of the birth rate exceeds the natural decline in the population.
The ethnic composition in the region is homogeneous - 95 percent of Ukrainians. In the large cities of Volhynia, the share of Ukrainians against the background of the total number is somewhat reduced, and in the opposite areas, it sometimes reaches 99 percent. The share of Russians, in general for the region, accounts for four percent. Belarusians, Czechs, Poles, Germans, Slovaks and representatives of other nationalities live here.
Religions
Volyn region is characterized by the dominant religious movement - Orthodox Christianity. The confessional structure of which is represented by the predominance of communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the share of the Kyiv Patriarchate is much lower. It can be noted that there are no Old Believer communities on the territory of the region, and unitarianism has a slight distribution.
It's interesting to know
1."Volyn miracle". In the Manevichevsky district, near the village of Okonsk, there are Okonsky springs in a small lake. What are they? These are two very powerful healing springs that flow all year round; they do not freeze even in the most severe frosts. Surprisingly, this healing water is completely uncarbonated.
2. The karst lake Svityaz, located near the urban-type settlement of Shatsk (Volyn region), has a maximum depth of fifty-four meters. It is the deepest in Ukraine.
3. In the Zimnensky Svyatogorsk Orthodox Monastery, you can see a unique miraculous icon of the Mother of God. It is considered one of the strongest shrines of the Christian Church, which miraculously disappeared during the Soviet era.
4. F. Kaplan was born on the Volyn land, who in August 1918 carried out an attempt on the life of the leader of the world proletariat, V. I. Lenin. An interesting fact is that, on the recommendation of Dmitry Ulyanov (Lenin's brother), Kaplan was sent in 1917 to the Kharkov eye clinic, where she underwent a successful operation - her eyesight was restored. And a year later, she commits a terrorist attack.
5. In the fifteenth century, during the reign of King Vytautas, a congress of the greatest rulers of Europe was held here in Lutsk. They discussed the likely threat from the Ottoman Empire.
6. On the banknote of 200 hryvnia next to Lesya Ukrainka there is an image of Lubart's Castle in Lutsk.
7. In Kovel there is the largest monument to the poet Taras Grigoryevich Shevchenko. Its weight was twenty tons, and its heightmore than seven meters, it is installed on a four-meter hill.
