Sokyryany

There is a legend about the origin of the town's name in Sokyryany. When Ottoman troops conquered Moldova and Bukovyna in the early 16th century, peasants fled to the forests to escape Turkish enslavement. And so the fugitives chose a place on the bank of a murmuring stream that ran down a steep ravine to the Dniester. The settlers were attracted by the dense, impenetrable forests rich in mushrooms, berries, and game that protected the settlement from uninvited guests, the extremely cold, clear, and tasty water, and the rocky caves where they could hide from animals and enemies. The legend says that people came to the forests with axes to clear a place for housing. They were called "axemen" and then the settlement itself.

The first settlers in the Sokyryanskyi region appeared at the dawn of human civilization. The Neanderthal site (located in the village of Molodove, which was moved due to the construction of the Dniester PSPP) of the Stone Age became known worldwide for flint tools, hunting weapons, and mammoth bone dwellings dating back to the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian culture.

The earliest written mention of Sokyryany dates back to 1651, when Ottoman troops invaded Moldova and Bukovyna. The peasants, fleeing from Turkish enslavement, fled to the impenetrable forests rich in mushrooms, berries, game, spring water, and stone caves. Legends say that people came with axes to clear a place for housing, and they were called "axemen," and then the settlement received the same name.

In the Middle Ages, Sokyryany was part of the Moldavian principality. The main occupation of the inhabitants was cattle breeding, farming, and handicrafts. The Ukrainian word "axe" was replaced by the Moldovan equivalent "secure," hence the appearance of another variant of the name, "Securiane," which existed until 1944.

Since 1770, the town has become a center of trade. According to data from 1859, the town of the Khotyn district of the Bessarabian province had a population of 2434 people (1212 men and 1222 women), 415 households, an Orthodox church, 4 Jewish prayer houses, 2 factories, and weekly markets.

In 1864, an elementary school was opened in Sokyryany for the children of wealthy citizens. As of 1886, the owner's town, the center of the Securyanska volost, had a population of 2043, 395 households, 2 Orthodox churches, 7 Jewish prayer houses, a school, a post office, a zemstvo station, a distillery, a brick factory, 50 shops, 10 inns, and Thursday markets. The distillery was located 18 versts away. The information about the town and its inhabitants is contained in one of the first encyclopedias of the Russian Empire, Brockhausai by I.A. Efron: "Sekuryany (Sekureny, Sikureny) is a town in the Bessarabian province, Khotyn district, 80 miles from the district town, by the Valyaturkului river. It is inhabited by Tsarans (in the Tsaran-Moldovan language, "farmers" or "peasants" are free farmers in the Bessarabian province). Ancient cave temples are located in the steep banks of former beams that fall into the Dniester. There are 3164 inhabitants; 2 Orthodox churches; 7 Jewish prayer houses, a school, a brick and a distillery; many shops."

At the beginning of 1917 Sokyryany had two zemstvo schools and a gymnasium. In January 1918, Soviet power was proclaimed in the Sokyryany region, and the confiscation of landowners' lands began. In November 1918, Bessarabia, including the Sokyrian region, was occupied by Austro-German troops, and later by Royal Romania. After the liberation of the Bukovyna region on November 12, 1940, the Sokyryany district was formed. After the Great Patriotic War, construction revived, and the industrial and social spheres developed.

In 1955, the development of a stone quarry began in a local dungeon, and the production of shell rock and limestone sand was established. Subsequently, the stone cut in the Naddnistrian subsoil was widely used in rural construction: barns, feed stores, trenches, and other production facilities were built, fences were erected, and pavements were paved.

In the 60s of the XX century, the territory of the Sokyryanskyi district was part of the Kelmenets district. In the mid-1960s, the Sokyryanskyi district was restored to its previous administrative boundaries. In 1973, the construction of the Dniester Hydroelectric Power Plant and the city of Novodnistrovsk, which was part of the Sokyryanskyi district until 2000, began on the territory of the district, between the villages of Ozheve and Lomachyntsi.

The restoration of the Galician St. Nicholas Monastery was a historic event in the life of the region's community. According to one version, the monastery was founded in the IV-VI centuries AD. This ancient monastery of male monks existed until the end of the eighteenth century, when it was ravaged by Turkish invaders. For a long time the monastery was empty and only in 1999 the former shrine began to come to life.

The flag of Sokyryany is a square blue cloth with crossed yellow axes, which reveals ancient legends about the origin of the settlement.