Editing Chernihiv (section)

===Early history===
Chernihiv was first mentioned (as {{lang|cu|Черниговъ}}){{citation needed|date=March 2022}} in the [[Rus'–Byzantine Treaty (907)]], but the time of its establishment is unknown.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Олександер |first=Мишанич |title=Літопис Руський: За Іпатьским Списком Переклав Леогід Махимович |publisher=Дніпро |year=1989 |isbn=5308000522 |location=Київ |page=18 |language=uk}}</ref> Artifacts from the [[Khazars|Khazar]] [[Khagan]]ate uncovered by [[Archaeology|archaeological excavations]] at a settlement there indicate that it seems to have existed at least as early as the 9th century. Towards the end of the 10th century, the city probably had its own rulers. It was there that the [[Black Grave]], one of the largest and earliest [[tumulus|royal mounds]] in [[Eastern Europe]], was excavated in the 19th century.

The city was the second wealthiest and most important in the southern portion of the [[Kievan Rus']].<ref>[http://nasledie.russportal.ru/index.php?id=histrus.klhist07 Nasledie Svyatoy Rusi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180402225507/http://nasledie.russportal.ru/index.php?id=histrus.klhist07 |date=2018-04-02 }} URL accessed on January 12, 2006</ref> From the early 11th century on, it was the seat of the powerful [[Principality of Chernigov]], whose rulers at times vied for power with [[Kiev]]an [[Grand prince|Grand Prince]]s, and often overthrew them and took the primary seat in Kiev for themselves.

The [[Grand prince|grand principality]] was the largest in Kievan Rus and included not only the [[Severia]]n towns but even such remote regions as [[Murom]], [[Ryazan]] and [[Tmutarakan]]. The [[Golden Age|golden age]] of Chernigov, when the city population peaked at 25,000<!--or 50,000? - see [[Kievan Rus']] for a ref-->, lasted until 1239 when the city was [[Mongol invasion of Rus'|sacked by the hordes]] of [[Batu Khan]], and entered a long period of relative obscurity.

The area fell under the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] in 1353. The city was burned again by [[Crimean Khanate|Crimean khan]] [[Meñli I Giray]] in 1482 and 1497 and in the 15th to 17th centuries changed hands several times between Lithuania, [[Grand Duchy of Moscow|Muscovy]] (1408–1420 and from 1503), and the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]] (1618–1648), where it was granted [[Magdeburg rights]] in 1623 and in 1635 became a seat of [[Chernihiv Voivodeship]] in the [[Lesser Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Lesser Poland Province]].

The area's importance increased again in the middle of the 17th century during and after the [[Khmelnytsky Uprising]]. In the [[Zaporozhian Cossacks|Hetman State]], Chernihiv was the city of deployment for the Chernihiv [[Cossack Hetmanate|Cossack]] [[polkovnyk|regiment]] (both a military and territorial unit of the state at the time).