The origin of the name Chuguiv is not known for certain. The first mentions of Chuguiv date back to the time of the Moscow Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich (1557–1598), where the Chuguiev settlement on the Don River is mentioned, without any explanation of the origin of the name. Since this area for centuries belonged to the settlement zone of Turkic-speaking tribes (Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsians, Mongols and Crimeans), the most likely version is that it originated from Turkic languages.
According to a legend that has been around since the 18th century, the city got its name from the anthroponym "chuga", which means a narrow caftan with short sleeves, that is, the territory of present-day Chuguev was called Chuga, which meant that people who wear chuga live here. The fact is that in the 18th century, Kalmyks settled in the Osynivka settlement, wearing their national clothes. At one time, this was even reflected in the coat of arms of Chuguev. But this is nothing more than a legend, considering that the name Chuguev appeared at least 100 years before the appearance of Kalmyks in these areas.
Chuhuyiv hillfort
D. Bagaliy and D. Miller believed that the area where modern Chuguiv was later founded belonged to the Pereyaslav and Chernihiv principalities until the 13th century, and that a city existed on the site of Chuguiv in ancient times.
In Moscow documents of the 16th century, the Chuguievskoye or Chuguievo hillfort is mentioned as the remains ("monument") of a city that existed since ancient but unknown times.
Archaeological research conducted at the Chuguyiv settlement in 1996, 2005-2007, 2009 established that it was created in the 8th-9th centuries by the early medieval population of the Saltiv archaeological culture, which historically represented the Khazar Khaganate. Separate finds from the Golden Horde period have been noted. Other, previously theoretically predicted cultural deposits (Scythian, Early Slavic, Old Russian) are absent from the monument.
Founding of the city
Some researchers from the 18th-19th centuries, citing currently unavailable sources, pointed to the settlement of Chuguev in 1613 and 1626. Most likely, the settlers of those times, if they tried to settle here, were unable to gain a foothold in this place.
In 1638, in the valley of the Seversky Donets River, detachments of rebellious Zaporizhian Cossacks led by Hetman Yakov Ostryanytsia appeared, who, after their defeat at Zhovnyn, sought refuge from the pursuing Polish troops and needed land to start a new life. The Moscow Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, who needed to protect his southern lands from the Poles and Crimeans, agreed to shelter the fugitives and on August 10, 1638, granted a charter for settlement and the construction of a fortress on the Chuhuiv settlement. The Chuhuiv fortress was built on the remains of medieval fortifications.
Among the first settlers were: Hetman Yakiv Ostryanytsia with his son, an osavul, a clerk, 10 centurions, 20 penitentiaries, 102 foremen, 887 Cossacks, 2 Belarusian priests, and 12 children of boyar foremen. They were also accompanied by their wives and children, but their number is unknown.
Chuguiev immediately became a multi-ethnic settlement. In a few years, another 400 riflemen and Cossacks were resettled here, and in 1696, one and a half thousand Kalmyks. Prisoners from Prussia (during the Seven Years' War) and convicts remained here. For a long time, Chuguiev residents were even called "conscripts" - people who had arrived from different places.
Near the city, the "tsar's vineyard" is divided into 5,000 dessiatinas of land and hunting grounds are organized, rich in game. Silk plantations grow - the finest silk from Chuguiv cocoons was delivered to the royal court. As well as honey from state apiaries, phaetons and carriages made by Chuguiv craftsmen.
17th-21st centuries
From the middle of the 17th century to 1765, it was a hundred-year town of the Kharkiv Regiment. From 1780, it was a city, from 1817 to 1857, it was one of the centers of military settlements. In 1819, during the Arakcheyevshchyna period, the Chuguiv Regiment uprising broke out in the city, which was brutally suppressed by the authorities. From 1857, it was a provincial town of the Zmiiv district of the Kharkiv province. At the end of the 19th century, a railway was laid through the city, which contributed to the transformation of the city into an industrial center.
The Repin family also belonged to the military settlers. The father of the future great painter who glorified his hometown, Yefim Vasilyevich Repin, served as a private in the Chuguiv Uhlan Regiment, performed his duties with dignity, had combat awards, and was part of the Chuguiv Regiment in Persia, Turkey, Moldova, the Caucasus, and the Crimea. Thus passed 27 years of military service. The housekeeper was his mother, Tatyana Stepanovna, a strong-willed, intelligent, and very kind woman. During the regiment's campaigns, in the absence of her husband, she shouldered all the cares on her shoulders, performed state duties, sewed fur coats to order, and raised four children. A monument now stands on her grave in Chuguiv, made according to sketches by Ilya Efimovich Repin.
Since the city was designated as the center of military settlements, Chuguiv began to rapidly change its appearance and layout. Vineyards, apple and cherry orchards were cut down, mud houses with thatched roofs were demolished. In their place on Dvoryanskaya Street, officers' mansions, warehouses, and a school for cantonists (children of military settlers) were built. On Soldatskaya, Nikolaevskaya, and Nikitovskaya streets, one-story stone houses of military settlers with three windows facing the street and a triangular pediment grew like mushrooms, so similar that, as I. Repin joked, even pigeons were often mistaken for a yard. The houses (each separately a defense point) were connected by brick walls, with niches at the bottom that could be used as loopholes. In one of these linear houses, where the Repins lived, the I. Repin Art and Memorial Museum was opened. The opening took place in 1969, during the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the birth of the master of painting. The museum exhibits several works by the great artist, there are memorial rarities, and the Repins' living room has been restored. The museum gives an idea of the life of the military settlers of Chuguev. In 1819, the central square of Chuguev became the site of a massacre of residents of military settlements. The servility of the new life, changes in economic life, and the final abolition of the old privileges of the Chuguev Cossacks led to an uprising. The rebels resolutely declared their unwillingness to be military settlers, demanded the return of the lands cut off from them during the organization of military settlements, refused to perform their duties, destroyed forests and hay, expelled sergeants, etc. The uprising covered the territory where more than 28 thousand people lived. Government troops suppressed the uprising, 2,003 participants in the uprising were arrested, including officers, 275 people were sentenced to death, and 12,000 were shot with spitzrutens. Arakcheev himself led the punitive actions.
Historical and cultural heritage
Even now, in Chuguiv of the 21st century, one can find features of the 19th century city. This is the only settlement in Ukraine where the planning and regular development of the center of military settlements, executed according to the projects developed by the St. Petersburg Architectural Commission of Military Settlements, as well as 30 unique houses from the regulated development of those times, among them the ensemble of the central square, have been preserved.
1984 — the gallery "I.Yu. Repin Prize Laureates" was opened«
1996 — the I. Yu. Repin Historical and Cultural Reserve was created on the basis of the memorial museum.
Since 2000, the international Repin Plein Air has been held in Chuguiv with the participation of artists working in a realistic style.
