# Zviahel

Zviahel (Ukrainian: Звягель, IPA:; Yiddish: זוויל, romanized: Zvil) is a city in Zhytomyr Oblast, northern Ukraine. The city serves as the administrative center of Zviahel Raion (district). According to a 2022 estimate, its population was approximately 55 thousand inhabitants.
The city is located on the main route that links Lviv to Kyiv (E40). It is located on the Sluch River, which forms the eastern border of Volhynia.

## Name

The city has previously been known as Vozviahel (Возвягель), Zviahol (Звяголь), Zviahal (Звягаль), Dzwihel and Novohrad-Volynskyi (Новоград-Волинський).
Originally known as Zviahel (Polish: Zwiahel), the city was renamed to Novohrad-Volynskyi in 1795 after annexation of territories of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by the Russian Empire soon after the Commonwealth's Third Partition.
Since the 1991 Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine there have been several attempts to rename the city. Public discussions on renaming the city to Zviahel began in April 2022. On 16 June 2022 the city council renamed the city again to Zviahel. The decision was supported by 22 of the 30 deputies present, while four deputies opposed and abstained. The name change was then to be approved by the deputies of the Zhytomyr Oblast Council and the final decision on renaming the city had then to be made by the Ukrainian parliament, which took place on 16 November 2022.
On 31 March 2022, the city council decided to remove the letter Z (which was a reference to the name Zviahel) from its coat of arms (it was on the bell, in both the small and full version). This was done because the letter Z was widely used by the Russian army during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and has become a propaganda tool in Russia.

## History

The city was mentioned in the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle under the year of 1256 as the town of Zviahel. The original settlement was an Old Ruthenian town of Bolokhiv Land located on the right bank of Sluch. In 1257 it was razed by Daniel of Galicia.
The next mentioning of the settlement is found in 1432 as a rebuilt one on the left bank upstream from the original site. Since 14th century it belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania owned by Zwiahelski princely family. In 1501 to 1554 the town belonged to Ostrogski princely family. In 1507 Konstanty Ostrogski built here a castle. After formation of Volhynian Voivodeship, it was located in Lutsk County. Following the 1569 Union of Lublin it was passed on to the Crown of Poland.
During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, Cossacks destroyed portion of the city's fortification and burnt down the Catholic church (kosciol). In September 1648 in the city was formed an insurgency group of local peasants led by Mykhalo Tysha. In 1650s in Zwiahel existed Zwiahel Regiment.
In 18th century the city belonged to Lubomirski princely family.
The city had an important Jewish community. In the late 19th century it was home to 9,378 Jews, more than half the population of the town. Pogroms killed approximately 1,000 Jews in 1919. After the Treaty of Riga, Novohrad-Volynskyi became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union.

### World War II

By the start of World War II only 6,840 Jews remained, (30% of the total population). Hundreds of Jews were murdered in mass executions perpetrated by an Einsatzgruppen in 1941. Many survivors were imprisoned in harsh conditions in a ghetto and murdered in November 1942, and an important part of the town was destroyed during the war.

### 21st century

In February 2013, the Novohrad-Volynskyi city council decided to dismantle the monument to Lenin, which was installed in front of the city council building, and move it to Slavy Park with extra-budgetary funds. After that, the local communists sued, but the cases were lost in the first instance and in the Court of Appeal of the Zhytomyr Oblast. A sundial installation was installed instead of the Lenin monument.
In 2015, Viktor Veselskyi was elected to the post of mayor. In connection with the Law of Ukraine on decommunization in the city, the Soviet names of streets, alleys, squares and boulevards were renamed.
On 16 June 2022, the local council decided to return the historical name Zviahel to the city, and it was also proposed to change the name of the Novohrad-Volynskyi Raion (district) to Zviahel Raion. In November, the draft law was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. By the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine dated 16 November 2022, the historical name of Zviahel was returned to the city.

## Demographics
### Ethnicity

Distribution of the population by ethnicity according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:
Ethnic groups in Zviahel
percent
Ukrainians
85.29%
Russians
8.51%
Poles
4.29%
Belarusians
0.57%
Jews
0.33%
Gypsies
0.27%
Germans
0.11%
Moldovans
0.09%
Armenians
0.08% :

### Languages

Native language composition according to the 2001 Ukrainian census:
First languages in Zviahel
percent
Ukrainian
89.4%
Russian
10.0%
Romani
0.2%
Belarusian
0.1%
Polish
0.1%
others
0.1% :

## Geography
### Climate

Climate data for Novohrad-Volynskyi (1981–2010) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −1.0 (30.2) | 0.3 (32.5) | 5.5 (41.9) | 14.0 (57.2) | 20.5 (68.9) | 23.0 (73.4) | 24.8 (76.6) | 24.3 (75.7) | 18.7 (65.7) | 12.5 (54.5) | 4.8 (40.6) | 0.1 (32.2) | 12.3 (54.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −3.3 (26.1) | −2.8 (27.0) | 1.5 (34.7) | 8.6 (47.5) | 14.6 (58.3) | 17.3 (63.1) | 19.1 (66.4) | 18.2 (64.8) | 13.2 (55.8) | 7.8 (46.0) | 2.0 (35.6) | −2.2 (28.0) | 7.8 (46.0) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −5.9 (21.4) | −5.6 (21.9) | −1.8 (28.8) | 4.0 (39.2) | 9.1 (48.4) | 12.2 (54.0) | 14.1 (57.4) | 13.1 (55.6) | 8.9 (48.0) | 4.2 (39.6) | −0.3 (31.5) | −4.4 (24.1) | 4.0 (39.2) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 37.8 (1.49) | 37.1 (1.46) | 37.4 (1.47) | 41.9 (1.65) | 52.6 (2.07) | 86.9 (3.42) | 92.4 (3.64) | 63.5 (2.50) | 56.6 (2.23) | 40.8 (1.61) | 44.3 (1.74) | 43.3 (1.70) | 634.6 (24.98) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 9.2 | 9.4 | 9.1 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 10.6 | 10.4 | 8.2 | 8.8 | 7.7 | 8.6 | 10.0 | 108.7 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 83.6 | 81.7 | 77.2 | 68.3 | 67.9 | 72.8 | 74.1 | 74.1 | 78.4 | 79.9 | 84.4 | 85.4 | 77.3 |
| Source: World Meteorological Organization ||||||||||||||

## Notable people

* Lesya Ukrainka (1871–1913), poet and writer
* Peter Krasnow (1886–1979), artist
* Sam Muchnick (1905–1998), professional wrestling promoter (National Wrestling Alliance)
* Baruch Korff (1914–1995), Jewish activist known as "Nixon's rabbi"
* Elena Yakovleva (born 1961), actress
* Oleksandr Pavliuk (born 1965), general and commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces
* Valerii Zaluzhnyi (1973), general and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
* Oleksandr Kovalchuk (1974), politician
* Oleh Mikats (born 1975), general and serving as the commander of the Operational Command East
* Dmytro Kostiuk (born 1993), Ukrainian journalist and politician
* Oleh Hychko (1996–2022), soldier

## Twin towns – sister cities

Zviahel is twinned with:
* Bełchatów, Poland
* Dolyna, Ukraine
* Halych, Ukraine
* Khashuri, Georgia
* Łomża, Poland
* Ludwigshafen, Germany
* Myrhorod, Ukraine
* Rahachow, Belarus
* Suomussalmi, Finland

## Gallery

* Mezentsev Palace
* Zviahel railway station
* Lesya Ukrainka's house
* Holocaust monument
* Dzwihel is between Teteriv and Sluch
* Zviahel Fortress
* Zviahel Fortress over Sluch River
* Lesya Ukrainka Square