Husiatyn was first recorded in 1559, when it was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the year it was granted self-government under the Magdeburg Law. At this time it was located in the province of Podolia. It came under Austrian rule in 1772 with other parts of Southern Podolia (the region between the Zbruch and the Seret rivers) and was attached to the Austrian crownland of Galicia and Lodomeria. The Emperor Joseph II toured this area immediately after its annexation to Austria and was very impressed by the fertility of the soil and its future prospects. It remained a county centre under Austrian rule until the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the declaration of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918. In 1919, the Ukrainian Galician Army fought the Bolsheviks there but was driven out by the Poles, who absorbed the area into the Second Polish Republic.
The 19th century rural population of Husiatyn County was predominantly Ukrainian and the town predominantly Jewish.[5] There was also a small Polish landowning stratum. In the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Southern Podolia, including Husiatyn County, witnessed large-scale out-migration of its peasant population to western Canada.
Husiatyn served as the administrative center of Husiatyn Raion, until reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions in Ternopil Oblast to three in18 July 2020m and the area of Husiatyn Raion was merged into Chortkiv Raion.[6][7]
Husiatyn, which was home to a large Jewish population prior to the Holocaust, was once the base for a significant Hasidic group of the Husiatyner dynasty and their Rebbes. Four generations of the dynasty lived in Husiatyn: Shraga Feivish Friedman, (1835–1894) 1st Rebbe of Husiatyn; Yisroel Friedman, (1858–1949) 2nd Rebbe of Husiatyn, Yaakov Friedman, (1878–1957) 3rd Rebbe of Husiatyn, and Yitzchok Friedman, (1900–1968) 4th and last Rebbe of Husiatyn. The Husiatyn Synagogue, a rare example of a Fortress synagogue, was restored as a museum.
Monuments
Colonnade in Husiatyn
Architectural monuments in the town of Husiatyn include the ruins of a 17th-century castle, a 16th-century church, a 17th-century town hall, a Renaissance-style synagogue, and a 16th-century Bernardine monastery and church.
A Neolithic grave, complete with a coffin, was discovered some time before 1928 in the village of Chornokintsi Velyki (Czarnokońce Wielkie in Polish).
Social sphere
There are educational, cultural and social institutions: Secondary schools of 1-3 grades, Husiatyn College of TSTU, music school, House of Culture, Center for Children and Youth Creativity, Taras Shevchenko Cinema, library, preschool, printing house, editorial office of the district newspaper "Visnyk Nadzbruchchia", central district hospital, clinic, water resort, sanatoriums "Zbruch" and "Medobory", local history museum (opened in 1979).
Public organizations
Branch of the "Prosvita" society: founded in 1898, liquidated by the Soviet authorities in 1939, resumed its work in 1990 (headed by Vasyl Horbovaty).
The branch of the "Union of Ukrainian Women" legally operated until 1939, resumed its work in 1994 (headed by L. Budniak).
Notes
^Alternate spellings include Gusyatin, Husyatin, and Hsiatyn
Paulus Adelsgruber, L. Cohen, B. Kuzmany, Getrennt und Doch Verbunden: Grenzstädte Zwischen Osterreich und Russland 1772 - 1918 (Böhlau, Vienna/Cologne/Weimar 2011).
Stella Hryniuk, Peasants With Promise: Ukrainians in Southeastern Galicia (Edmonton, 1991). On the endpapers of this book, there is a map showing all of the villages of the five counties of Southern Podolia, including Husiatyn County.
Przewodnik po Województwie Tarnopolskiem z mapą [Guide to the Ternopil Region with a Map] (Ternopil, 1928; reprinted circa, 1990). Contains much historical material.
Ukraine
