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L’viv or Lviv, also Lvov, capital of L'viv Oblast, Ukraine. The city is an important transportation and industrial center; manufactures include electronic equipment, motor vehicles, agricultural machinery, chemicals, textiles, and processed food. Long a leading cultural center, L'viv is the site of L’viv State University (1784, but the first high school - academy - was founded by king Jan Kazimierz in 1661) and a number of theaters and museums. It is the seat of Roman Catholic, Ukrainian Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox archbishops and has two churches dating from the 14th century.
L'viv was founded about 1256 and soon became an important commercial center. Captured by the Poles in 1340, the city remained under Polish rule for most of the period until 1772, when it passed to Austria. As part of the Austrian Empire, it was renamed Lemberg and made the capital of the province of Galicia. In 1910 population consisted of: 175 thousands Pole, 21 thousands Ukrainian, 9 thousands German (the austrian sources). During World War I (1914-18) bitter fighting took place in and around the city. In 1919 L'viv was annexed by Poland. It was seized by Soviet troops in 1939, during World War II, and later was occupied by the German army from 1941 to 1944. In 1945 L'viv was annexed by Stalin to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and became part of the Ukrainian SSR. Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991. Population (1999 estimate) 786,147.
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