OblastChernivtsi Region

ORIGINS.

Chernivtsi Region consists of the northern part of the regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia with an international border adjacent to both Romania and Moldova covering three geographic zones: a forest steppe region between Prut and Dniester rivers, a foothill region between the Carpathian Mountains and Prut river, and a mountain region known as the Bukovinian part of the Carpathian Mountains.

20TH CENTURY DIASPORA.

An Oblast was was created from the Chernivtsi Region in 1940 in the wake of the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Subsequently several tens of thousands of Bukovinians were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan, This and later deportations were primarily based on social class difference, targeting intellectuals, people employed previously by the state, businessmen, clergymen, students, and railworkers. The majority of those targeted were ethnic Romanians, but there were many representatives of other ethnicities, as well. During World War II, when the Chernivtsi Region returned to the control of the Romanian administration, the Jewish community of the area was largely decimated by deportations to ghettos and Nazi concentration camps, where about 60% died.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Chernivtsi Oblast, then part of the Ukrainian SSR, became part of the newly independent Ukraine in 1991.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Since the start of the invasion, the city has been a host for refugees from the fighting in Eastern and Central Ukraine and a resting point for refugees on their way to nearby Romania.