Editing Gomel (section)

===Kievan Rus'===
{{stack|[[File:Gomel inner fortress in the 12th century.jpg|thumb|Gomel's inner fortress in the 12th century]]}}
Gomel was founded at the end of the 1st millennium AD on the lands of the [[East Slavs|Eastern Slavic]] tribal union of [[Radimichs]]. It lay on the banks of the [[Sozh|Sozh River]] and the [[Homeyuk]] stream. Sozh's high right bank, with bluffs carving through, provided a natural fortification. For some time, Gomel was the capital of the Gomel Principality, before it became part of the [[Principality of Chernigov]]. Gomel is first mentioned in the [[Hypatian Codex]] under the year 1142 as a territory of the princes of Chernigov. For some time, Gomel was ruled by the prince of Smolensk [[Rostislav Mstislavich]] before it was re-captured by [[Iziaslav III Davidovich]], after whose death it belonged to [[Sviatoslav Olgovich]] and then to Sviatoslav's son Oleg. Under Oleg, Gomel went to the [[Principality of Novgorod-Seversk]]. The next ruler was [[Igor Svyatoslavich]]—the protagonist of ''[[The Tale of Igor's Campaign]]''. During this period, the town was a fortified point and the centre of a [[volost]]. In the 12th–13th centuries, the city's area was no less than 40 ha, and it had developed various crafts and was connected by trading routes with the cities of northern and southern Rus'. Archeological data have shown that the city was badly damaged during the Mongol-Tatar invasion in the first half of the 13th century.