POLTAVA

city and administrative centre of Poltava oblast (province), Ukraine. It lies along the Vorskla River. Archaeological evidence dates the city from the 8th to the 9th century, although the first documentary reference is from 1174, when it was variously known as Oltava or Ltava. Destroyed by the Tatars in the early 13th century, it was the centre of a Cossack regiment by the 17th century. In 1709 Peter I the Great inflicted a crushing defeat on Charles XII of Sweden outside Poltava after Charles had laid siege to the town for three months. In 1802 it became a provincial centre. The modern city of Poltava is largely new, having been reconstructed after it suffered severe damage during World War II. It is the focus of a fertile agricultural region and has a range of industries processing farm produce. Its textile and clothing industries include the largest cotton mill in Ukraine. There are also important engineering works engaged in diesel-locomotive repair and machine building. Poltava has teacher-training, medical, agricultural, and agricultural-engineering institutes, and several research establishments. Pop. (1991 est.) 320,100. oblast (province) in Ukraine. It occupies an area of 11,100 square miles (28,800 square km) along the left (east) bank of the middle Dnieper River. It is almost wholly within the forest-steppe zone, only the extreme south lying in true steppe. Except on the meadows of the Dnieper floodplain, soils are fertile. The natural grass and forest vegetation have been very largely removed by plowing, and soil erosion is serious. Surviving groves of oak or pine cover only 6 percent of the surface. About half the population is rural, reflecting the importance of agriculture in the oblast. Communities, except Poltava, the administrative centre, and Kremenchug, are small and concerned chiefly with processing farm produce. Agriculture is dominated by wheat, corn (maize), sugar beets, and sunflowers. Natural gas and petroleum are found in several areas, oil is refined at Kremenchug, and iron ore is mined at Komsomolskoye near Kremenchug. Pop. (1991 est.) 1,756,900.