These unique photographs were taken by Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky, a pioneer of color photography in the Russian Empire, near the town of Putyvl in 1904-1905.

Today, this town is located in Sumy Oblast in the north of Ukraine, about 100 km northwest of Sumy. Source: International research project “Legacy of S. M. Prokudin-Gorsky”.

The town of Putyvl of the Russian Empire.

Ukraine in the early 20th century

Tags: Sumy oblast

Sloboda Ukraine (Slobozhanshchyna) is a historical region located in the northeast of present Ukraine and the southwest of the Central Chernozem economic region of Russia. In the 16th-18th centuries, it was a border region, which was actively settled with the support of the Russian government to protect the state from the raids of the Crimean Tatars.

The settlers took over the guard service and military protection of the frontier, their settlements called “sloboda” enjoyed more freedoms. Today, the term “Slobozhanshchyna” is actively used as an informal collective name of the Kharkiv, Sumy regions of Ukraine and the Belgorod region of Russia.

Tags: Kharkov oblast · Sumy oblast

Hlukhiv (Glukhov) is a small city with a population of about 33,000 people located in the north of Ukraine, 139 km northwest of Sumy, just 10 km from the border with Russia.

One of the oldest cities of Ukraine, first mentioned in 1152, it is an important historical center of eastern Polesia and a cultural center of Ukraine. In total, there are more than 50 monuments of history and architecture here. Hlukhiv on Google Maps. Photos by: Andriy Bondarenko.

explore Hlukhiv

Tags: Glukhov city · Sumy oblast

Sivershchyna, a historical region named after the Siverians, an East Slavic tribe, is located in northern Ukraine, eastern Belarus and southwestern Russia.

Here is a nice presentation of the Ukrainian part of Sivershchyna that includes the Chernihiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Kharkiv regions (turn the subtitles on).

Tags: Chernigov oblast · Kharkov oblast · Poltava oblast · Sumy oblast

Lebedyn is a small town with a population of about 26 thousand people located in the Sumy region, 50 km south-west of the city of Sumy.

It was founded as a stronghold of the Belgorod fortified line on the Olshanka River in 1653 and originally was a fort with 12 wooden towers, the settlement around the fort appeared in 1654. Photos by: gatta_bianka.

Ascension Church (1849-1858).

stroll around Lebedyn

Tags: Sumy oblast

If you wake up early, while traveling on the Vorskla River around Okhtyrka in Sumy region, you can see this surprisingly colorful scenery. Photo by: Sergey Stepanenko.

quiet summer morning

Tags: landscapes · Okhtyrka city · Sumy oblast

What a beautiful landscape! Early morning on a small river of Vorskla flowing near Okhtyrka town in Sumy region. Photo by Sergey Stepanenko

Tags: landscapes · Sumy oblast