Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine. Located in the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the historic Slobozhanshchyna region. Kharkiv is the administrative centre of Kharkiv Oblast and of the surrounding Kharkiv Raion. It hosts the administration of Kharkiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The latest population is 1,433,886.
Kharkiv was founded by Russian settlers in 1654 as a Kharkov fortress to protect the southern borders of the Tsardom of Russia, and after humble beginnings as a small fortress, it grew to be a major centre of industry, trade and culture in the Russian Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century the city was predominantly Russian in population, but after the Soviet government's policy of Ukrainization the city became populated mainly by Ukrainians with a significant number of Russians. Kharkiv was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, from December 1919 to January 1934, after which the capital relocated to Kiev.