Zhytomyr [key], Rus. Zhitomir, city (1989 pop. 292,000), capital of Zhytomyr region, central Ukraine, on the Teteriv River, a tributary of the Dnieper. It is a road and rail junction in an agricultural area. Industries include lumber milling, food processing, granite quarrying, metalworking, and the manufacture of musical instruments. An old city on the trade route from Scandinavia to Constantinople, Zhytomyr was known in 1240. It was part of Kievan Rus and later passed to Lithuania (1320) and Poland (1569). Awarded to Russia in the second partition of Poland (1793), it became an important provincial and trade center before the Bolshevik Revolution.
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